School Board Meeting September 18, 2019 Part 1

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Welcome to the September 18th 2019 regular Seattle Public School Board of Directors legislative meeting.

As we begin the board would like to recognize and honor the first peoples of the Puget Sound territories by acknowledging that we are on the land of the Coast Salish tribes.

I'd also like to welcome Angelina Riley who is joining us on the dais this evening from Rainier Beach High School.

And she'll have a chance to give her comments later this evening and a shout out to Ms. Riley for being the extraordinary emcee of the last forum at Rainier Beach High School with extraordinary aplomb.

You did a great job and I'm yours for life.

Roll call please.

Director Burke.

Present.

Director DeWolf.

Here.

Director Geary.

Here.

Director Mack.

Here.

Director Pinkham.

Director Harris.

Here.

If you choose please stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible

As notified the first item of business on tonight's agenda is the appointment of a school board director for the unexpired term for District 7. The executive committee discussed the process that will be used for this action during the committee's September 21st public executive committee meeting and determined that the process.

Will be.

First.

Each director will have the opportunity to speak to the one candidate they are recommending.

We will move alphabetically by last name beginning with.

Director Burke.

Once each director has stated their recommendations staff will conduct a roll call vote.

This vote will be taken in reverse alphabetical order beginning with Director Pinkham.

If one candidate receives four votes then that candidate will be appointed.

As the director for District 7 to fill out the remaining term.

That candidate would have.

Secured the required majority.

If no candidate receives four votes.

I will make a new motion to put before the board those finalists that received the most votes in the prior round of voting or in the event of the tie.

A tie.

We will revote on the full slate of candidates without a new motion.

We will continue voting in rounds until one candidate receives the required 4 vote majority.

The order in which directors will vote will reverse with each round.

I now move that the board take up for consideration and debate the candidacies of the three finalists for the unexpired term of District 7. Julie Van Arcken.

Brandon Hersey.

And Emijah Smith.

To be followed by a vote of the directors.

Second.

I now call on the directors to speak to their one recommended candidate in alphabetical order.

Director Burke the floor is yours.

Well this is a tough one to open.

And so I wanted to say that I had the privilege of meeting with each candidate individually You know I offered the three finalists the opportunity to inquire what it was like to be on the board.

Although there was no inside secrets on what the board was going to use as selection criteria but it was a chance to to to hear from each of them and ultimately what I learned is that I would love to work with any and all of our three finalist candidates.

They are all.

Absolutely amazing.

They are qualified for.

The role on the board.

They are all.

Connected.

With different elements of the constituency in.

District 7 and in the city.

And they all bring.

In some cases similar and in some cases different skill sets and this makes this.

Super hard.

So when I look at our board.

Who I've.

Grown to.

Consider to be among.

My good friends now.

Working with.

And I think about what are the different.

Attributes.

What are the different characteristics that help us.

Dig into this amazing work.

The thing that.

We've got parent perspective.

We've got great community perspective.

We've got some some really.

Great enthusiasm and strong equity focus.

What we lack.

Is.

Teacher perspective.

So.

My.

Recommendation.

My my.

Telegraphing a vote I guess whatever my my recommendation is going to be to.

Appoint Brandon Hersey.

For this role.

And to I'll let my colleagues if anybody else has a similar recommendation.

Speak to some of the other elements I think they've been.

Touched on in previous conversations and I don't want to take.

Take all the.

The good things but the the educator perspective.

The enthusiasm.

And I'll just stop there and.

See if.

See where that goes.

Director DeWolf the floor is yours sir.

Thank you President Harris.

Often.

Well not often but as schools we let out for the summer.

And many kids.

I'm sorry.

I hate to interrupt but I need him to speak louder.

I will speak louder.

Sorry Director Geary.

You know in the summers kids and students and families and parents and communities are away.

We spent our time.

Deeply entrenched in a very important process.

And.

I have been really honored and grateful to have met three wonderful candidates.

Who are.

Putting their name in the hat to serve their community.

And frankly very honored and humbled.

Just to both have folks come out.

I mean.

When we started the forum last week at Rainier Beach.

You know there was maybe like 10 people in the audience and I thought man I hope there's more people here.

And by the time that thing got rolling there was a ton of people.

And I was just so grateful that people really care.

And I think as somebody as a young person as a person without kids.

Yet.

That.

Having so many people really interested invest in their schools is deeply important to me and so I'm so cool to be a part of the school district.

One of the things that I use to really.

To figure out who I wanted to be.

A part of this board.

And who would represent District 7. Was a real understanding of.

One of the things that if you've been watching the school board over the last year is we had a really intense science adoption process.

And.

To think about having the.

Influence.

The eye the lens the perspective.

Of a teacher.

Really made me feel.

Like.

What would it look like to be thinking about science and its implementation in our schools.

From the perspective of a teacher who's got to actually do that work.

On the ground.

So for me I also am really interested in having a voice from a teacher.

Who can provide some.

Especially as somebody who's not taught.

I think we often think our teachers can do everything.

We think they should wear another four or five hats.

And we just kind of send down a charge from the board.

So to be able to have that voice and that perspective is deeply important to me.

And I will also say this.

You know.

We've had an interesting few few years.

A national administration that is hurting our communities.

And to have people engaged.

And young people that want to be involved in this work is really an honor.

And I'm so grateful for the voters that brought me up here.

And so for me.

I'm thinking about.

A teacher.

I'm thinking about a young person and I'm thinking about.

Somebody who.

Represents one of the communities that were deeply important to.

We are deeply committed to.

Centering in our strategic plan.

So I. For the time being.

I'm supporting.

Brandon.

Director Geary the floor is yours.

OK.

I'm going to keep it brief because it's.

Odd.

To.

Speak from.

Afar.

But.

My decision is made.

When I think about strategic plans and how to create a board that is going to support the tenants of actually looking to improve the outcomes from the students who are farthest from educational justice, I think it requires that the people who occupy that group, because obviously it's an identified group, have somebody who is going to be able to talk to them and understand them and that they will trust.

Somebody who has gone into the room where they are and has done the work to mentor them and invite them and correct the atmospheres and the environment to point out that those environments are not welcoming.

Even if they are comfortable to the people who are in them, they are not comfortable to the people who are not.

And there's a level of intimidation around public education that those of us who have benefited from it and who are comfortable in it do not recognize.

And we need a school board member who sees that.

and can make it obvious to all of us when we are talking about operations, when we are talking about programs, when we are talking about teachers, when we are talking about attitudes.

We need somebody who can provide us a reality check as to how that is going to be received and help us to create the system, the outreach, the process, that is going to bring in those people and make them feel welcome.

And of all of our candidates, I believe that the one who I recommend, Emijah Smith, is the person who I have known for over 10 years, who every time our paths have crossed, that is the only work she has been engaged in.

Every time I have met her, every situation, every scenario, she has just been standing there showing up.

Working.

To make education.

Available.

Accessible.

Successful.

For children.

Like her own.

And that is the voice.

We need.

We need the voice not.

Of.

The people who are comfortable.

Who.

Have succeeded but are willing to.

Help.

Share that success.

But the person.

who understands at a fundamental level.

How it needs to change and who will stand up.

Fearlessly.

Continually.

Year after year.

Day after day.

With no reward in sight.

I mean many of you don't know Emijah for the last 10 years because she is not out there for the accolades.

She is not out there for any type of reward any type of future recognition.

That is not what motivates her.

What motivates her is the education and safety and future of her own children.

And that is what we want for all of those children who are fathered from educational justice.

And that is what I want for the future of Seattle Public Schools.

So.

I work with her on the strategic plan.

She understands the strategic plan.

She's ready to hit the ground running on the strategic plan.

And that is who I vote.

Director Harris.

Thank you Director Geary.

I am up.

This is an extraordinarily.

Difficult decision because not only the three finalist candidates.

Are beyond.

But the entire panel of folks.

That applied.

And they have done.

Really hard intense work and subjected themselves.

To intense focus.

It.

It speaks to how much our communities care for our children.

And and I've.

Made some jokes about we know where you live and we hope that you continue to assist us.

And I truly do hope that everyone that applied and everyone.

That gave the board feedback.

Will.

Find a way.

To assist us.

Because goodness knows.

We need the assistance.

We need the community support.

We need to leverage all this extraordinary talent.

And vision.

And.

Do a better job on behalf of our 53000 students and our taxpayers and communities.

I too.

On my first vote will be voting for Brandon Hersey.

And.

Some of the reasons are.

Already stated by.

Directors.

Burke and DeWolf.

But I want to add to that.

A little.

Brandon has sat on the executive board of the Washington Education Association.

Our partners in delivering.

Quality.

Instruction.

And quality staff.

And.

That's a viewpoint.

That is not represented on this dais and I think we would do well.

To.

To have that knowledge base.

As well his service in the federal government in the Obama administration in Washington D.C. I think would be helpful in terms of.

This administration who has done more to damage.

Public education than any other administration I can think of.

Devil is truly in the details.

And I think when we look at the strat plan.

And we look at some of our goals and early education.

Brandon is.

A second grade teacher I believe and.

That's where.

A lot of our.

Deficits.

In the.

Programs and educational.

Pedagogy.

That we deliver.

Become.

Daylighted.

And if we have a goal about.

Third grade reading.

And we're focusing under universal.

Targeted universalism.

Then having that viewpoint.

At the table.

To give us feedback.

In real time I think is an extraordinarily valuable.

Addition.

To this board of directors.

Again.

I would be very pleased to serve with any of the three finalists and probably everyone.

Every single one.

That came to the table.

And put themselves out there and for that.

I thank you.

So very very much.

Director Mack.

Racial equity is the issue of our time and in this district in particular and it is a challenging thing to talk about in our our our various.

Director Mack could you please speak a little louder.

I can't hear you.

Yes sorry.

OK.

I know.

Starting over racial equity is in fact the issue of our time and it's it is.

The most important issue we are directly focusing on in this district.

It is a really challenging conversation.

It is steeped in bias.

Folks don't even realize in many cases where their biases lie and those conversations are really difficult.

And I sit here as a white person and I recognize The intensity of that.

The first educator.

Black educator that I had as a teacher was in.

Fourth grade.

It was.

I was in Kansas City Missouri.

I had.

Black teachers for fourth fifth and sixth grade.

Incredibly incredibly powerful.

To.

Opening my brain to.

Bias.

And.

You know it impacts how I am today.

I can't speak for.

Other people.

My job is a bull.

Our job as the school board directors is to.

Listen.

And try to incorporate those perspectives into the policies that we're making and our responsibility is to fifty four thousand students.

With a focus on those furthest away from.

Educational justice.

I too agree.

Wholeheartedly all three candidates.

Are amazing.

And if we could combine them into one person and have one person.

That would be.

An amazing solution but we can't do that we have to make a selection.

Out of the three.

I.

From my.

Experience.

With folks over the last good number of years.

Have seen.

All three candidates do amazing work around.

Social equity.

Racial equity.

Focus on our students.

I also.

Was focusing on looking at what.

What is the community bringing forward in terms of their comments and their selections and so we did get feedback from both forums.

And.

I was.

I was.

Surprised at.

At.

The strong feedback that came back from one of the candidates and I'm actually not going to.

I'm not going to go through the numbers and say what it was but I went through all of those comments and.

It was really interesting to me to see how.

People from different settings.

That I would think would.

Speak a certain way spoke a different way.

And for me continuing to listen to.

In particular people of color from their own voices is important.

And for that right for that reason.

And a number of the same reasons that other.

Directors have given I am going to be supporting Hersey.

I think that having a teacher voice on our board is going to be incredibly important.

I.

There's a lived experience there.

There may not be as.

As long standing of a community engagement in this community having moved here a few years ago.

But I don't think that that.

I think that the depth of the community engagement that has gone on in the last couple of years has been.

Substantial.

And.

I think that's incredibly important.

And.

Additionally I do think that the.

The policy work and the understanding of systems is incredibly important.

A lot of the work we do is is.

Policy work.

That's what we're doing we're we're looking at you know how do you actually.

Operationalize this.

And I got a really good sense that Mr. Hersey has the ability to.

To think through those things and support that.

It was one other thing I was going to say but it just went out of my brain.

But.

Again.

I. Have the greatest respect and appreciation for all.

Of the candidates and.

That's it for now.

Director Harris.

All the other directors here, I guess me going last.

One of the things about having the last name with P, I guess, later in the alphabet.

I echo everything they say about these three candidates.

I really think we can't go wrong with any one of them.

And as I was thinking, even coming today, driving to this meeting, which one, which one is it gonna be?

in my mind and think about one candidate, yes, there's the strengths and powers that we need, then think of the next one, and they have the strengths and powers that we need, and each and every one of them, I think, will bring things that this board needs, and what not only the board needs, but what the school district needs as well, and then as I think about what the students need, what is it that our students need?

Voices aren't being shared.

And so that's what started me think that who is going to bring that voice.

Who's going to bring the voice of often are marginalized students are marginalized populations to let the district know hey something isn't right here.

something needs to change so that we see our students being successful, not based upon their skin color, based upon their gender, based upon their socioeconomic status, other issues that we often unfortunately label students and communities with.

Who's, for me, who's going to do that the best?

Who's going to come here?

And the thing came to when I went to the last community meeting and one of our candidates actually called out what's happening here in our schools and across some of our public institutions, institutional racism.

How are we going to change that?

How are we going to make that change?

And so I feel that I think for our board here, the best person to come forward that I recommend is Ymijah Smith.

Ms. Shek roll call please.

Director Pinkham.

Director Mack.

Director Harris.

Director Geary.

Director DeWolf.

Director Burke.

There are four votes for Hersey and two votes for Smith.

Having reached the majority the newly appointed director for District 7 is Brennan Hersey.

Congratulations and welcome.

Congratulations and welcome to the Seattle School Board.

We will now briefly recess to prepare for the oath of office.

Directors please take your seats in the first row.

The superintendent and newly appointed director Hersey will come forward to the podium for the oath of office after which our new board director will have an opportunity to give a few remarks and then we'll have another brief recess so that he can sign his paperwork.

Thank you.

I it is now almost one o'clock here where I am so I am going to sign off.

Director Hersey, congratulations.

Truly, I am so happy for you.

Thank you everybody for all the energy, attention, care, thought you put into this process.

An interesting process and one I think that has brought us a extremely qualified able candidate and I look forward to watching our school board develop with Director Hersey.

But good night to everybody and have a great meeting.

Good night Director Geary.

Appreciate.

Thank you so much.

Good night.

Thank you.

Are we supposed to sit now?

Yes.

Hey, do I get one of those?

Stand in line here.

I'm hanging in.

This is not an easy call.

No kidding.

Okay, we'd like to bring this back to order out of recess so we can get the oath of office taken care of and we can keep moving.

We are now back.

So I'm Superintendent Juneau and I just also want to thank Emijah Smith and Julie Van Arcken for participating and for being great finalists and actually just thank everybody who threw their hat into the ring for this process.

When I went to the first forum there was the talent and the expertise that was available on that stage was just really phenomenal and so out of that Brandon Hersey and I just congratulate you and really look forward to seeing you working with you.

So with that we'll start the oath.

I, Brandon Hersey, I Brendan Hersey do hereby solemnly swear do hereby solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of Washington and the Constitution of the state of Washington promote the interests of education promote the interests of education and will faithfully discharge the duties of director of Seattle School District number one.

and will faithfully discharge the duties of director of the Seattle School District number one King County State of Washington King County State of Washington to the best of my ability to the best of my ability.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Yep.

We invite you to make a few brief emphasis on brief.

Remarks.

Thank you.

Words can't express how humbled I am from this entire experience.

When I first relocated to Seattle I was nervous.

I was nervous that this place would be too different from my home and that there wouldn't be enough people that looked like me.

But what I found when I moved to District 7 is that I was wrong.

And I got to tell you, no place feels more like home.

The community that I have come to know and love have captured my heart in such a way that I cannot think of a better way to repay it than by making it proud and doing my best to serve our kids, to make sure that they have a future in the city where they grew up and can make the choice to live here, to grow here, and to love here just like I do.

I am so excited to get this done for all students across our great city but especially those from District 7 and especially those furthest away from educational justice and I am excited to work with each and every one of you in that aim.

Thank you for this chance and I will not let you down.

Thank you.

OK we are going to recess for 10 minutes while he takes care of his paperwork.

And it's just the first of much much paperwork my dear.

And we'll invite you into the boardroom for logistics and we'll be back here at five on the button.

Before getting started I once again want to welcome District 7 board director Brandon Hersey to the dais and look forward to our work together on the strategic plan our initiatives and goals that we have moving forward.

I also want to thank Emijah Smith again and Julie Van Arcken for their passion and commitment.

They've shown throughout this entire process and please all of the candidates and all of the people who put their names forward I guess Please stay engaged with us.

We are better because of your participation.

We are better because of your voices And so I just encourage you to stay engaged.

We need your support At this time before going into my usual kind of comments I would like to call Chief Berge forward to have a conversation a brief enrollment and staffing update based on student enrollment.

So Chief Berge.

So up on the screen there's some bullet points.

As of today we're above our headcount by about 900 students.

We had budgeted for 52,231.

Right now we're projecting 53,151 for October 1. That will be slightly above school year 18 19. Similar to other districts around us we budgeted to be down.

Other districts around us particularly to the south just for some context stayed down.

So Highline and Renton Highline budgeted to be down 500. They're still down the 500. Renton is 300 below their projection.

So we had students come back to us.

We had been losing enrollment.

We lost a little bit of enrollment.

Our enrollment declined in 18-19, but we are slightly above that for 19-20, so that's really great news and we're happy with that.

We were within 1.7.

We were 1.7% off in our projection.

To give you context, last year we were about 1.4% off.

We're adding about that number has been updated.

We're adding about 47 FTEs across our 104 schools not including the mitigation.

We will be pulling staff back only three FTE.

There are two elementary schools and one middle school that had significantly lower enrollment than projection.

More than 50. principals are thankful that we're adding the additional FT instead of pulling.

And I would also like to say that principals have given us feedback that they'd like some flexibility.

So one of the things that we are offering them is adding staff or taking some dollars half the dollar of the value of the position instead as long as they meet their K 3 ratio and they work with their building leadership team to work through that decision.

Thank you.

Thank you Chief Berge and the entire start of school team.

There aren't many systems that are 98 percent accurate at this level and with this level of students.

We knew that we were being conservative for a variety of reasons including budget and we're happy to be in this situation rather than being under our projections.

I am thankful Director Hersey will bring a voice for District 7 community and will represent the students and families throughout this district as well.

I look forward to your support on lifting up the strategic plan initiatives.

I continue to be in awe of our partners.

We asked them to join us to support Seattle super readers and they are rallying around our students.

The Seahawk legends hosted a reading kickoff at Emerson Elementary BECU AARP and Embassy Suites joined in on the event as well.

As you can see students were very engaged in this assembly because Blitz was there.

I got introduced after Blitz which was not kind of the principle to do.

I thought.

They were very engaged in the assembly featured Suzanne Kaufman the illustrator from the New York Times bestselling book All Are Welcome.

The book was inspired by the diversity of her daughter's school which was Kimball Elementary.

So thank you to Seahawk legends Edwin Bailey Nesby Glasgow and Paul John Paul Jones.

Oh Johns and thank you Principal Rasmussen for your leadership and your laser focus on literacy.

Our schools like Leschi Elementary continue to find fun ways to make students and families feel welcome.

A shout out to Gerald Donald Donaldson and the Leschi staff for hosting a high five event to kick off the school day last Friday.

The entire student body entered school to African drumming as community members like Michelle Merriweather from Urban League cheered them on and gave high fives.

It was really a lot of fun.

Best part of the day I wish we could start out every day like that.

You can't see it very well in this picture but Leschi students were gifted an awesome buddy bench to use during recess or before school.

And that came from the Rotary and so we thank our partners from the Rotary for that donation as well.

And since the last school board meeting I also attended a start proud event at Lowell Elementary.

Office Depot provided backpacks and school supplies to students and staff at Lowell.

So thank you Office Depot for that generous generous gift and thanks to Principal Talbot for advocating that Lowell students get what they need to be successful at school.

And as you know we launched the Department of African-American male achievement.

Dr. Williams and Chris Chapman are showing their pride for this work.

Mr. Chapman launched a similar department in Oakland Unified School District a while back and we're just so thankful that he's a great agreed to mentor me and Mia in this work.

I'm super excited to learn from him so that we can better support African-American males in our system.

One of the things we discussed with Dr. Codd, Dr. Codd was at the table with staff recruitment and alternate certification pathways.

So thank you, Chris, for not only your great work in Oakland, but also for supporting us on this long overdue journey.

Right before school started several of you remember we held the ribbon cuttings for Lincoln High School in Queen Anne Elementary.

These pictures were just too cool not to put up.

They speak very clearly about the enthusiasm our students have for their new spaces and so thanks again to the Seattle voters.

And that concludes my comments.

Madam President.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We are at 5 10. It's time for board committee reports.

I would like to invite the directors not to all yell at once.

Director Pinkham Audit and Finance please.

Thank you.

Our last audit and finance meeting was on Monday, September 9th.

And actually, we were able to get done in an hour.

We got through this pretty quick.

It was just some no bars to be discussed at the last A&F meeting.

Just got some updates about some potential contracts that did exceed $250K and some resource mapping.

And what I found was interesting also are annual fixed asset report seeing that we were able to locate some lost lawnmowers and Their fixtures and we already got back over the years but Wasn't much happening for a and if I always something happened for me enough, but we're not for our meeting this past September 9th we are looking still into the fiber optics hoping to get some more information on that and how the refund or the Whatever we call it.

I guess credit that we get with the city on that and how we can handle that.

And we do have some items that were discussed at our previous meeting that are up for discussion tonight.

That includes approval of Bill Gates funding for Seattle intervention and tracking up for a vote and we don't have anything on intro items tonight.

Our next meeting will be October 7th.

Please attend if you're interested.

Thank you.

Did you already report out the quarterly audit meeting?

Did I do that?

I don't recall that you did.

Would you like to go another director and then he can round about Director Burke standing in for Chair Jill Geary.

Yeah.

Curriculum and Instruction.

Curriculum Instruction Policy Committee met September 10th.

We as always at C&I we have great discussions go through important things that are impactful for students and our educators.

One of the ones that you'll see.

trying to see you will see shortly is the approval of school board policy 2015. This is our instruction materials adoption process which has been worked on and tweaked and modified and worked on and implemented and has done some amazing things and has also made some some people grumpy some of us sometimes so.

Please everybody take a closer look at it on the board and in the public that will be posting I believe for the next board meeting for intro.

And it's been reworked to be more specific about what triggers an adoption and also the steps that are within an adoption so that we can make sure we have clear guiding principles at the outset and that we have really thoughtful guidance to our adoption committees so that they can operate and be successful.

Some of the special attention items we learned about the update on the summer staircase program which you know is an amazing way to help keep our kids climbing the staircase during summer and not not have any sort of academic losses or you know degradation during that time.

We got an advanced learning update.

Director Geary provided an update on the development of the anti-racism policy.

which will be formally coming to committee as a written document starting next meeting.

We also had an update on the Washington Middle School and potential consideration of the TAF Technology Access Foundation Academy in that school and kind of what's being done around community engagement and policy overlaps with that.

Standing agenda items, strategic plan discussions for third grade reading, and on track graduation for college and career readiness.

It was emphasized enthusiastically, maybe not enthusiastically, emphatically, emphatically emphasized.

that we need to make sure we've got a plan to focus on our our students.

Class of 2021 that are not on track for credits.

And we got to hear some of the strategies on how to do that so that we're making sure we maintain the focus on our strategic plan but we don't leave kids behind that really need us to support them during this process.

Updates on ethnic studies and since time immemorial work.

And.

That was it was a busy meeting.

We definitely went over time but had some really great discussions.

Next meeting October 8th.

Coming to that meeting will be.

An update on the instruction materials adoptions Spanish.

It looks like we might have potentially a recommendation coming forward.

Another update on advanced learning and anti-racism policy.

We will be bringing a policy 2022 which is around use of personal electronic devices.

This is also something that's been fairly hotly discussed.

What is the.

What role should be centralized what role should be building based.

So another great issue for the curriculum instruction committee and October 8th.

Hope to see you there.

Quick question for either you or the superintendent.

Lots of talk about not funding and hiring more folks for ethnic studies department or work plan.

Can can we talk about that or shed daylight on whether or not there's one two.

open positions or whether that money was subsumed back into the budget.

I can describe I guess the conversation that took place at committee was actually quite similar between the ethnic studies work and the STI work that in both cases we had a desire to put more people on it.

But because of our budget situation we were under a hiring freeze.

And so that's I guess I would defer to more operational people about what that means for those programs or others.

I mean I think the update happened and so how the program is rolling out and what kinds of things are being created.

And I mean and it just continues to be looked at.

Thank you.

Is operations ready to go.

Director Mack chair of operations.

Good evening.

We had a long meeting on September.

5th a couple weeks ago the day after the last board meeting and our next one will be October 3rd.

We just met today to talk about the agenda for that.

So to recap our September 5th meeting it did go long.

There's a lot of really good conversation around things that are going on.

There's a number of bars that are coming in front of us today around final acceptance and construction bars so you'll see those.

And.

We had a update and conversation around our emergency policy and the procedures that are attached to that what happens in emergency what do we do to prepare what are the procedures.

And it was an incredibly robust presentation from staff of here's the books that all the principals get and.

That the procedures when we were talking about what's in the policy and what's in the procedures it seems like it's really really robust.

There was a couple of places where there might need to be some procedural updates to close some loops but we agreed that it didn't seem like there needed to be any policy changes around it and that just continuing that great work that staff's doing to keep our kids safe.

We got an update on the start of schools.

It was at that time that we.

First saw that the enrollment numbers were higher than expected and we had some conversation around that.

We also heard about transportation running relatively smoothly or actually more smoothly than it had been which is good news.

And other starter schools seem to be going relatively smoothly in comparison and issues that were coming up were being dealt with.

We got the sexual harassment reports and learned that that report that we're getting in this one is only related to students and not to staff and so we still have the question back to staff as to where where we get the reporting around all of all of that.

And the process and timeline for student assignment transition plan and boundaries which is always always always an incredibly hot topic because it has to do with you know where kids go to school and.

We again also talked about the enrollment increase.

We kind of sidelined a little bit from the conversation about boundaries to the current year of wow we have more students than we expected and you know how is that going to how are we going to make those adjustments.

And as you saw in the superintendent presentation the staffing adjustments are being rolled out.

The staff did the counts and you know confirm the numbers and are pushing out the staff.

And I continue to have some questions around the impact on the master schedule in high school of whether or not students have their schedules of the first day of school especially when we're looking down the barrel of 24 credit requirements for the upcoming students in 2021 I think is the first year that they're going to have to have that and that means all six credits all year every year have to be filled.

And so there's still some questions around that but I'm excited about the adjustments and pushing out the staff and making those mitigations that staff has done and looking forward to 47 new staff members joining our district.

That's a tall lift and hopefully there's some great teachers out there that are ready and waiting and can pop into the schools now.

So.

The we were having two work sessions on the September 25th.

The first one's going to be advanced learning which will be chaired by Director Geary as chair of C&I and that's and then the second one is going to be student assignment transition plan and boundaries and.

At the same time the advanced learning task force has been doing work and so we'll learn about as I understand that kind of their work during that advanced learning presentation.

But we also talked about whether or not there were any recommended policy changes to advanced learning and the request that I made and I believe that folks agree with is that if that if there are changes to student assignment that are being recommended for that that we need to have that policy also come through and be reviewed by the committee and also the advisory committee that's getting spun up which hasn't convened yet but will soon.

capacity enrollment and facilities master planning advisory committee.

So we also got an update on where that advisory committee is in process and it's going to be announced soon.

We're still working on making sure that the application is is settled and that'll be coming out hopefully in the next few weeks and then there will be you know three to four week opening time for applications for that and looking forward to getting that moving.

And the community workforce task force is also in process and I think going to be announced soon.

Do you remember the dates on your task force.

Unfortunately I can't remember the dates of when there was that already.

OK great.

And yes it was it was a was a great meeting went long because lots of great conversation.

Next meeting we are going to have a good number of construction bars coming forward as well and we're going to take a look at and have some discussion around policy H13 which is capacity management which relates to the advisory committee that's being spun up and we're going to kind of touch base and look at the policies around the use of school facilities the community use of Memorial Stadium school and community partnerships rental lease and sale of real property those support policies in the context of how does that how do those policies impact our capacity management and our processes for planning and whether or not they need updating or you know what just having that kind of global conversation.

We will not be having another update on the 6901 and 6900 at this point because it's still kind of in process and it's going to be going through revisions based on the comments that we made and that will be coming back in November.

And I believe.

Oh another exciting thing actually the BEX BTA committee met this past week as well.

And for the first time I think As far as I can remember they actually voted on some recommendations for the board which is very exciting to get some formalized recommendations.

So they're going to be coming to the next Ops meeting and providing their semiannual report.

And I assume those recommendations can be formally coming at that time.

And I think one thing that I need to make sure gets on to the agenda because I think we're planning on having was having a green resolution update.

We had asked to do that just a brief update about what's going on around our green resolution which is related to environmental issues.

Sustainability.

Thank you.

Yes.

So I think I captured it all.

Thank you very much and see you at the work session.

Anything on legislation.

Director Mack.

I will be attending WSSDA's legislative assembly next week or the week after which is where we converge and as a state body school board directors decide on the policies and so forth.

So that'll be happening.

I believe I'm the only one going.

Director Geary was going to go but she's not going.

And I'll report back when that happens.

I don't I don't know that there's actually anything that's hot topic-y in those proceedings.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham.

Audit quarterly meeting.

Thank you again.

Sorry that we we.

I overlooked or forgot to include our last quarterly audit and finance committee and that was held on Tuesday September 3rd.

Our internal auditor Andrew Medina shared his potential plan and he said it is just a draft because he still at the time had to meet with some of those cabinet people to talk about potential changes to the internal audit.

But it's.

Looking at you and set aside some hours definitely for special audits or requests that may came up come up looking at auditing three schools this coming year so there's hours that may be needed to prepare for that and conduct those some contract audits coming up that you'll plan to do.

Stipends carry over from last year he's already started but it will continue on to this next year.

Employee owned businesses something we'll look at and things that he need to check on to give us a better update where some school payroll administration and facility usage and building rentals and to see how we're progressing with those issues.

So I appreciate definitely his input and that he is going to provide us some guidance on how we can improve our processes our plans that we have for our schools and buildings and facilities that we're using.

So again he'll come back in October with I think at our next meeting I believe with some or come December meeting with the potential changes to this internal audit for the next this coming year.

We also covered some audit response issues.

There were 51 total on the agenda noting that 16 were Closed 31 pending for still open including issues with the team or BLT and issues but things are going on with Thornton Creek And that may impact how we look at other community-based organizations our leaders and student councils parent councils at schools to make sure we're all operating in the same venue that there's no one that's going to have anything extra over the other.

Everyone is being considered fairly.

Also look at Seattle World School.

Those are all closed I believe.

Something interesting that we had from operations about the GCM versus design bid build, looking at those.

And we'll keep getting some updates from them in December on that, which would be the best process to go.

From human resources, Salinas, we're looking at how schools utilize funds generated by substitute unavailability, how schools can actually claim some funds if they can't find a substitute in time, and how we make sure we monitor those funds and they're used appropriately.

Special education issues looks like we had a lot of those closed and as of June 2019. Chief Berge shared some issues and again that thing for me that stood out was still that dots in the fiber optics and the turn of the turn of 36 K that we have credit and how we will treat that once it comes back to the district.

And that's just about wraps up for our quarterly audit and we'll have our next meeting on December 3rd with someone else besides me because that will be this was my last quarterly audit meeting with A&F.

I'm going to take chair's privilege and slot Angelina in for her comments and then I'll make comments on executive committee after our board testimony before the board so that if you need to leave for other commitments or homework you get to do that and you don't have to sit through.

You are more than welcome to sit through though because it's a learning experience.

So again like to welcome Angelina.

She's a junior at Rainier Beach High School where she's a full time IB diploma student and active member of the student body government.

She's also a member of the student advisory board a community organizer the junior class communication specialist and an activist for equitable education in the district.

The board was lucky enough to have her as we stated earlier to be the emcee of the last forum and the floor is yours.

Thank you board members and Superintendent Juneau and good evening fellow community members.

I'm a proud student of and I attend a school in the South End that years ago was on the brink of closure.

I'm a proud to attend a school that provides world class college preparatory curriculum to all junior and senior students.

I am proud to attend a school that produces some of the most NBA and NFL athletes from the Northwest.

I'm proud to attend a school that in a single grade houses students that speak almost 50 different languages and cultures and come from 50 different cultures.

I am proud to be a Rainier Beach Viking, a school where I see myself reflected in my history class.

I am proud of my school.

But I'm not proud of a decision that my school was forced to make to cut a semester of world history for sophomores.

I'm not proud of the district perpetually under projecting schools and forcing them to make decisions like cutting teacher positions positions.

But with this new appointment of school board member Brandon Hersey I hope to see change and equitable fundings in our schools.

Now I will relay a message from superintendent advisory board.

This is written by Talia Glick.

Please stand.

Hey.

And this is a letter regarding the school the climate march.

Dear Seattle school board we as members of the superintendent student advisory board a representation of student voice throughout the district urge you to excuse the absences of students participating in the climate strike this Friday.

Youth around the world have been striking for their right to a healthy future and they are calling on all of us to join them.

That is why on September 20th, 2019, I will be walking out of my school to join millions of people around the world demanding climate justice and the end of the age of fossil fuels.

This is a quote from a student, General Secretary of Amnesty International Kumi Naidoo also told school leaders around the world to let pupils join this historic climate strike on the 20th saying that the climate emergency is a defining human rights issue for this generation of children.

There are so students are prepared to accept the consequences from schools receiving unexcused absences but which is a testament to the passion and the countless students worldwide who are prioritizing the strike above their education.

However some students want to strike but fear repercussions of unexcused absences.

If the school board decides to excuse these absences, student participation could largely increase, leading the strike to have more of an impact on our city, country, and the global movement.

This is a movement that we strongly encourage you to support.

The threat of climate change is the largest threat that our generation faces.

The things we learn in school will be no use when we are fighting for our lives in clean air and water.

As Greta Thunberg said, I want you to act as if the house is on fire because it is.

We as a board feel as though this issue is of utmost importance and must be addressed.

Education is supposed to be beneficial to students.

While school is a valuable institution fighting to save our planet through this strike is an honorable act.

An honorable act.

that will ultimately make us better citizens.

Enforcing unexcused absences for the strike is essentially punishing students for trying to make a change in the world, and we urge you to reconsider and decide to excuse those absences.

New York City Public Schools, the country's largest school district, has announced that they will excuse absences for students attending the strike.

And this sent a significant precedent of, if New York City can do it, then we can too.

We hope that the Seattle Public Schools will live up to its goal of placing the interest of students above all others in every decision we make.

Attending this strike is in the interest of the students not because we enjoy skipping school but because we see how urgent the climate crisis is and we want to do something about it to ensure that our future is safe.

Signed Fran Shannon grade 12 Nathan Hale Talia Glick grade 11 Ingram Ramona Blackbird grade 11 the center school Ariana Phillips grade 12 middle college high school Jonathan Brown grade 11 Dylan Dylan Blanford grade 11 Garfield High School.

My Anne Wong grade 12 Franklin High School and Angelina Riley grade 11 Rainier Beach High School.

Thank you.

That concludes my comments.

OK we are going to skip over a number of items on the agenda and go straight to public testimony.

Could you please read the first three names and then roll the next three names if you would please.

And I would remind folks one person speaks at a time you have a two minute limit.

You can read the rules on the screen and you should know these rules are being changed as we speak so that First Amendment issues are going to be addressed and we'll talk a little more about that in the executive committee report that I'll give directly after public testimony and then we will go Back to the consent agenda.

First three names please.

Thank you.

First up for public testimony we have Adeline Petty followed by Natalina Shiga and then Meklit Tesfaye.

Good evening board members Superintendent Juneau and other community members.

I am happy to congratulate Brandon Hersey with your new position on the board.

I'm Madeline Petty a current junior at Rainier Beach High School.

I would like to second the issues with unexcused absences during the climate streak that my peer Angelina Riley presented.

We are excited about the renovation of Rainier Beach which will hopefully start in 2020. Our soaring graduation rates higher percentages of students attending college higher grade point averages and our IB diploma system.

Although we have achieved so much there still seems to be some issues.

I would like to highlight the funding issue within Seattle Public Schools that is disproportionately affecting south end schools specifically Rainier Beach High School.

I believe this funding issue begins at the under-projection of Rainier Beach.

The district has under-projected Rainier Beach every year, which leads to under-funding that makes it difficult to create and maintain a learning environment that makes students feel prepared for their futures and displaces staff members.

Some outcomes of these funding issues include but are not limited to crowded classrooms, extremely limited course selections, makeshift curriculums and many staff members to lose their positions.

I believe a change needs to be made for Rainier Beach to grow academically and as a community.

Thank you.

Natalina.

Hi, my name is Natalina Shega.

I am a junior at Roosevelt High School and I'm a part of the NAACP Youth Council.

One of our demands that I would like to speak on today is reforming discipline practices and implementing restorative justice.

Going to Roosevelt High School, a predominantly white school, has made me work the hardest I've ever had to in my life to obtain the same level of education as my white counterparts.

While other students wake up to go to school and learn I wake up preparing myself mentally and physically for the next racist incident waiting to happen.

I get to school with a ready to learn mindset but get stopped by the library assistant because I didn't sign in to go to the library while he watches as other white students walk right past me giving no thought to the sign in sheet.

Last year, I had to deal with his microaggressions every day before I was fed up and reported this problem to my principal multiple times.

When I talked to her that day, she told me with such a straight face that what he was doing was wrong and she could have him fired for it, acting as if she cared so much about my problem.

So, of course, I believed that I would see a change in the next few weeks.

The next day I go back to the library to study for my APHG assignment and I'm told that I wasn't allowed to be there but the library assistant still had held his job in the library.

So why is it that I a black student should be displaced from the library a public place available for all students to use while the librarian a white man should be able to keep his job even though the administration knows of all his unfair treatments to me and other students of color at the school.

This is just one of the many uncomfortable experiences that students of color have to go through.

So that makes me wonder about the countless students of color that suffer through these racially driven acts and would rather stay quiet than have to deal with the ignorance of our staff and administrators.

This is precisely why we must reform our disciplinary practices because to continue with the ones we have will only further to target our students of color while allowing our white students and teachers to continue living in their ignorant bliss.

Thank you.

After Meklet Tesfaye, we will have Amina Adams, followed by Zoe Sherman and Shakira Jami.

Hello.

My name is Meklet Tesfaye.

I'm a junior at Garfield High School, and I'm here to speak about the mandatory staff trainings on issues of race equity that needs to be happening for our staff.

For every racial incident I have gone through in my schools, not once have I had any of my teachers in that classroom done something to stop the situation.

as it was happening or stop it from happening again, regardless of the fact that they could see I was uncomfortable and felt unsafe every time I walked into that classroom.

From elementary school to high school, I had to be the one to stand up for myself when a student made an ignorant comment about Africa, or when my teacher made a racist comment to another teacher about me, or to hear that some of my teachers don't believe in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Sadly, I always heard the same thing from my teachers when I expressed my discomfort.

What do you want me to do about it?

If a student feels unsafe in a classroom the first person they should be able to go to is their teacher.

I should not have to worry if I have time to study for my final because I have to teach my principal how to not be racist.

An educator is the most influential person in the student's life.

Educators have the power to change the future.

Therefore to help stop the ignorant ignorance Seattle Public Schools staff share.

We need to have mandatory staff trainings on issues of race and equity as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Amina?

Hi my name is Amina Adams.

I was a graduate from Rainier Beach High School.

So first I want to thank the school board and the community for helping us push the levy for the Rainier Beach High School renovation.

So I want to thank you all for that.

And but we're not done because this year and so forth me and the rest of the NYC members we want Rainier Beach High School.

We want to be part of the process of the Rainier Beach High School renovation.

And we want Rainier Beach High School to be renovated before 2025. And we don't want no delays like we have all these years.

And that's my message today.

And I have to go because I have an exam tomorrow I have to study.

So yeah that's what I want to say today and I will be in every single school board meeting pushing this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Chief Podesta could you walk her out in terms of the process.

Thank you sir.

Zoe.

Hi.

Thank you for letting me speak.

My name is Zoe.

I'm 13 years old.

I use she her pronouns and I go to Washington Middle School.

I'm here to ask you to allow us as youth to let us stand up for our futures.

Please give us excused absences while we defend it.

As a youth who knows the reality of the climate crisis I know what it's like to feel overwhelmed by it.

The planet is in crisis and I wish that other people were handling it but they aren't.

Us youth are trying so hard to save our future to have the courage to do what the adults have not and we're put under so much pressure to be perfect.

We must get good grades you must do all of our homework even when we're doing our organizing through the stresses of being an activist the stresses of being a teen and the stresses of school all piled onto one another.

Now will you free us from the stress of the consequences of an unexcused absence or will we get one just because we demand a world where like where our planet isn't on fire.

Because our world is on fire.

It is.

We need a world shaped by love and compassion, not ruled by fascism and greed.

We need to be able to breathe.

We have the right to clean water.

We have the right to clean air.

We have the right to clean soil to grow our food in.

You have the responsibility of being on the school board.

And you took that on because you care about us, right?

You care about us being successful.

You care about our lives.

Well, we can't succeed if our resources have been destroyed by the time we graduate.

If you want us to succeed, if you truly care about us, then you should let us strike to save our futures.

Why be punished why should we be punished for doing the things that adults can't or won't.

In my experience people are listening to the youth and we need to use that power while we have it.

You have the power to help hundreds maybe thousands of kids.

Will you use that power for the better or for the worse.

Thank you.

We will have Craig Seasholes followed by Chris Jackins and Rita Green.

Shekera.

OK.

Craig's.

Good.

Thanks, I'm Craig Seasholes.

I serve as teacher librarian at Dearborn Park International School in Southeast Seattle District 7. So I welcome you, Brandon, to Southeast District, and I welcome you to visit the library at Dearborn Park any time on Tuesday afternoons, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, as we only have a halftime position.

I want to celebrate September, its Food Literacy Month, by declaration of the governor.

I've shared with each of you a copy of a wonderful book on the topic of food literacy.

It's Shabazz Larkin's newest book, The Thing About Bees, with each of you.

It's a creative, courageous blend of facts and fun, created by the father's desire to address his own fears of bees.

and getting more than a little uncomfortable to learn about the problem.

Our food supply relies on bees and pollinators whose well-being is in doubt.

I hope you enjoy reading the thing about bees like Larkin do something a little uncomfortable but fun.

He says, I wrote the book because I've got a ridiculous fear of bees.

When my sons were born I didn't want to pass this fear along to them.

Now that's perfectly targeted for Seattle super readers.

in second and third graders who are hungry for books that are current, engaging, and fun.

It's a perfect example of the sort of books that Seattle librarians want to provide for our readers when we're supported by budging and district-level budgets.

Our state legislator allocates $20 per student FTE for library materials, but I've not seen $1 come to my school for library materials.

After you've read Larkin's book, I urge you take the time to look at the budget, the demographics, and collections, and then give the book to a deserving school library and dig a little deeper.

It's bold to do something like this.

Take on a mission like the one you've got to close opportunity gaps.

Thank you.

My name is Chris Jackins, Box 84063, Seattle 98124. On the MOU summary of the collective bargaining agreement with SEA, six points.

Number one, the aim of this action is to allow the implementation of salary increases on October 1st before scheduled board action on the contract on October 16th.

Number two, are there costs or savings from early implementation versus retroactive implementation?

Number three, can payments be recovered if the board does not approve the contract?

Number four, the MOU states on page eight that there will be, quote, mandatory professional development for building administrators regarding hiring educators of color, unquote.

Number five, this sounds like a condition imposed on separate employees of the principal's bargaining unit.

Number six the board report cites a new cost for this school year of twenty seven point nine million dollars but seems to cite a revenue source for only eleven point three million dollars.

It is not clear that the board has had a chance to do its due diligence.

Please vote no.

On Loyal Heights final acceptance two points number one the playground size has been dramatically reduced.

How is this affecting school recesses?

Number two the district is required on many projects to not use schools in ways that would create or aggravate racial imbalance Please discuss this issue on final acceptance of portables the contract increased by 59% Does the board find this acceptable?

On the six athletic field projects to reduce neighborhood impacts non-school use of new field lighting should not be allowed after 7 p.m.

Thank you very much.

After Rita Green we will have Manuela Sly followed by Sabrina Burr and Alex Zimmerman.

Rita.

Buenas tardes.

I am Manuela Sly.

I'm proud president of Seattle Council PTSA.

First of all, I want to welcome Director Hersey.

Welcome to Seattle.

And I want to tell you that we are here to support you and to work with you, the council, as well as all the PTAs in our great city of Seattle.

I also wanted to talk about the collective bargaining agreement.

I want to highlight the Seattle Council PTSA letter sent to the board dated August 21st.

are requesting two most important things right now for me to highlight.

The annual anti-bias training for SCA staff and past administrators.

It's very important to us, to our families and our students.

As well as the strong and clear limitations on engagement with law enforcement as a source of disciplinary action.

So we are also talking about de-escalation and everything that educators need to look and take into consideration when they're disciplining our students.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is regarding the strategic plan.

And one of the goals of the strategic plan is the students reading at grade level by third grade.

Early reading committee group met before the end of the school year.

And it was a classroom, a room full of very talented people.

I was very impressed by every single person that was in that group.

However, I didn't see anybody that was a specialist on dyslexia.

And dyslexia is a dirty word, so dirty that it cannot be included in my son's IEP.

However, that's not okay.

Dyslexia is a very common and specific reading disability that affects about 20% of our population.

In a district over 53,000 students, we're talking about 10,000 dyslexic kids that will be not reaching such goal.

By not providing proper dyslexia intervention, you're setting 10,000 students for failure, and that's unacceptable.

This is in contradiction with the newly adopted strategic plan.

I urge you to align with OSPI and to put into action in Seattle Public Schools the legislation passed recently for mandatory dyslexia screening in kindergarten.

Early intervention is critical.

Thank you.

Shek Sabrina.

Alex Zimmerman.

After Alex Zimmerman we'll have Brian Terry followed by Claire Scott and Dalen Osby-San.

Sieg Heil, my dirty, commie Nazi fascist, a Democrat with Gestapo mentality, anti-Semite and killer.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

I'm president of Stand Up America.

I want to speak about agenda number one, about make teaching process more flexible, more honest, more American.

It's very critical because we have constitution for 250 years.

First, what is we need doing?

Clean this Dory chamber totally.

Look, this all identical, all Democrat or support Democrat, and everybody have different dress.

Why you have different dress when you all identical?

It's totally confuse me.

This number one.

The number two.

Another process, you brainwashed children for many years.

In a hair race right now, we're talking about Friday meeting.

Yeah, it's good.

When I am your age, for all my life, I go and protest about government, what is totally different, and don't give a chance to be who we are.

But you never talk to these babies.

You know what this mean?

I don't know difference.

I teach student before.

So it's not different between 18 year, 10 year, or 50 year.

It's almost same.

You never teach them.

So traffic in Seattle, double.

What does this mean?

This means people will be breathing gas.

Breathe gas.

What does this mean?

100,000 will be dead from cancer.

This is exactly what has happened.

And I live in this city more than 30 years.

I know this very well.

I expert in merit territory.

So guys, before we not stop in this crook, brainwash 50,000 people for last 25 year, nothing will be changed.

And children forced to be understand, don't talking about Trump, don't talking about Washington DC, talking about what's happened now here.

So right now I speak to everybody, stand up America, we need come back to constitution.

What is we lose?

Thank you very much.

Brian Terry.

Good evening and welcome Director Hersey.

For decades we have chosen to place mostly white highly capable classrooms in mostly black neighborhood schools.

This sends a clear message.

White students are more capable and more deserving.

This is known as white supremacy culture.

Black families have testified about the damage that this does.

Their students complain that even if they get straight A's, they're stuck in the dumb classes because they are not white.

We are crushing the academic hopes and dreams of these black students.

where and how we deliver advanced learning services can have a profound impact on black students not in the program.

But we often overlook these students.

Even today, the mission of our advanced learning task force and the resolution that led to its creation fail to mention the harm that we do to black students outside the program looking in.

Please make it clear to all parties that these black students matter to us and make a commitment to ending the systemic racism that results when we place a highly capable classroom in a neighborhood school with noticeably different demographics.

Thank you.

School Board Office Staff — Clare Scott.

After Clare we will have Dalen Osby-Sandy followed by Jeannie Bustache and Jolanta Grigsby.

Hello.

My name is Claire Scott and I am the new teacher librarian at our brand new Lincoln High School and I'm new to the district as well.

Thank you.

I'm new to the district too.

I'm coming to Lincoln and SPS after seven years at the Seattle Public Library and it's really a delight to be here.

So my colleague and I are here today to share our excitement and our joy at opening two powerful new school library programs with the students of Seattle and to invite you to join us.

Although our programs serve distinct communities with distinct wishes and needs we've got four common commitments that we've made to the students in our care and we would like to share those with you now.

Our commitments.

Number one.

In our libraries we commit to cultivating a brave and anti-racist space an anti-racist library in which all students are seen and celebrated where staff and students step up where all identities are honored and all voices are heard and all students can find themselves as the star of the story.

That's number one.

Number two, we're committing to cultivating an active library, a vibrant library, in which we give shape to research and making and hands-on learning.

I cede the rest of my time to Abigail Levin.

Hello, I'm with the brand new Magnolia Elementary School.

As in most Seattle elementary schools, my library program is only open half of the week.

back to our commitments.

Number three, we commit to cultivating a calm, choice-rich library in which students can find quiet moments in the day to explore their interests and just be without having to produce or perform.

Number four, we commit to cultivating an inspiring library in which we ignite authentic curiosity, foster creativity, bolster courage, and help students reimagine what is possible.

We invite you each to come visit our programs this year and join us in bringing these commitments to life.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dalyn Osby-Sonday.

I'm going to use language that is shocking in 2019 because this indeed shocking intentionally hurtful and upsetting language has been tolerated at John Stanford International School.

Last fall, a JSIS student called my then fifth grade daughter a nigger on the school playground in front of a third classmate.

The school's principal initially passed the response on to the new part-time vice principal, then waited three weeks before securing his apology from the perpetrator.

The JSIS parents of black students developed a proposal asking the principal for age-appropriate presentations for all JSI students, disciplinary policy clarification, and a parents-only educational event.

The principal pushed responsibility for funding and programming to the to address the issue of racism to the school's PTA.

She then did nothing when the perpetrator continued to seek my daughter out.

In December, another JSIS student directed his spelling of nigger at a different student of color.

Our family contacted the SPS abuts person and later filed a formal complaint against the JSIS principal.

This summer, her supervisor responded, misstating the facts and limiting her response to the timing of the apology.

At least one African American family has left JSIS since.

Stating quote the multiple inactions and lack of protection for black students is troubling.

I am not able to watch those who are paid to provide an equitable and quality education for all children and especially protected classes of children.

SPS failed GSI students and students of color in particular when they allow racial slurs to be ignored or explained away.

Seattle Public Schools must do better.

Thank you.

Oh I'm sorry.

My name is Jeannie Bastash and I teach at Greenwood Elementary School.

I've been a teacher in Seattle Public Schools for 20 years and I'm asking you to join me in preventing gun violence and other forms of violence and victimization before it happens in our Seattle Public School system.

Did you know that when it comes to violence, suicide, and threats, at least one other individual is often aware of the warning signs before the incident takes place?

In fact, 80 percent of school shooters told someone of their violent plans prior to the event.

Additionally, 70 percent of people who commit suicide told someone of their plans or gave some type of warning or indication.

Imagine how much tragedy could be averted if these individuals said something.

That's why I'm asking you to implement the say something anonymous reporting system in our school district.

S.S.A.R.S. is a no cost completely free and easy to implement program from Sandy Hook Promise that promises that teaches students how to look for warning signs signals and threats.

especially in social media from individuals who may want to hurt themselves or others.

And then it allows students to anonymously report these signs to school officials and law enforcement through an app a website and a 24 7 crisis telephone hotline.

I urge you to visit the link below to learn more about this anonymous reporting system and sign up to bring it to Seattle Public Schools.

Sandy Hook Promise will work hand in hand with the school district and local law enforcement to implement either in person or interactive digital trainings for students.

They will also provide ongoing support, refresher trainings and call to action weeks to remind students and the community of the program.

It's all at no cost to the school district.

Please help empower our young people to prevent violence before it takes place by implementing the say something anonymous reporting system in the school district.

Thank you.

After Jolanta Grigsby we will have Adam Ziemkowski followed by Nikita Patel and Emily Nguyen.

Hi, my name is Yolanta Grigsby and I'm a student, the parent of the student at Cascadia, highly capable cohort.

And probably by my accent, you can tell I'm not American.

I didn't grow up in the system in this country.

I don't know public school system.

And I just understand that now there is a plan to send all highly capable students from Cascadia to local schools.

So I wanted to tell you my personal experience, what it actually means.

So my son is not only highly capable, but he also has ADHD.

So he was advanced learner, but he wasn't giving advancement opportunities.

He was misbehaving, interrupting class, and I would get the behavior report on a daily basis.

And we had multiple meetings with teacher, who has 17 years of teaching experience, and the principal.

And the only answer was, we can't do anything for him.

We're not going to do anything just for him.

And unfortunately, Instead, they chose to label him as a bad kid.

They chose to punish him.

They would take his recess and make him walk around the circles in the playground that everybody would know he was misbehaved.

One time I asked him, what did you learn from the Spanish man?

And he said, I learned that I'm the worst kid in the school, and everybody knows about it.

And then he added, he said, I wish that bulldozers would level the school down.

He was only six years old, and he hated the school.

So now you want me to go back to the same school and deal with this again?

And I have to say that for me, getting an HCC program was a life-saving experience, literally, because you all know that the kids who are gifted, 20% of them don't even finish the high school because they don't fit in in the regular school.

You also know that they are at a higher risk due to suicides, anxiety, depression.

So I don't want to face this again.

So the value of HCC is undeniable.

And please don't take it away.

My name is Adam Ziemkowski I'd like to read a letter on behalf of Seattle City Council member Shama Sawant, Superintendent Juneau and Seattle School Board members.

I received Superintendent Juneau's letter in response to the unanimously passed Seattle City Council resolution and to my letter addressed to you.

In both, the school district is urged to stand with students courageously walking out Friday, September 20th as part of the global youth climate strike and grant students excused absences for the strike action.

I am incredibly proud of the young people working to build a fighting movement for climate justice.

Actions by students and workers stand in stark contrast to the inaction of public officials and corporate-dominated parties.

If you were to declare excused absences for the climate strike, it will undoubtedly have a transformative impact on the number of students able to participate.

Youth turnout on Friday will in turn have implications in the movement and the school district shares responsibility along with other city leaders.

The New York City School Board is supporting students going on strike.

The Seattle Education Association just passed a resolution supporting students.

Governor Jay Inslee now supports excusing students to participate in the climate strike.

Contrary to what Superintendent Juneau suggests in her letter to city council the school district's own rules allow for excused absences if the district was to decide it was a community activity worthy of being excused.

As Washington Middle School student Zoe Sherman said just now you have the power to help hundreds maybe thousands of school of Seattle school children.

Will you use that power for the better or for the worse.

I urge you to reconsider your position, to stand with students, and with the fight for climate justice by declaring student absences on Friday will be excused.

And if you need a guide, three sentences from the New York City School Board to excuse students.

I know that students are working tirelessly to build for this movement.

All they're asking of you is three sentences to stand with students and on the right side of history.

Please do so.

I understand there is a desire to change the existing HCC program, but for a suitable replacement to be designed, you must speak with the minority populations that are currently being well served by the program.

Most of them do not know what is on the line, how to advocate for themselves, or have the resources to get to a meeting like this.

Many minorities in the program feel like their voices are being ignored.

In the spirit of fixing equity issues, don't throw out what is working for an ill-defined alternative.

Focus on identification.

The testing is horrible.

We moved from St. Louis two years ago where the testing consisted of meeting with someone for 45 minutes.

Instead, here, I had to send my kindergartner off in tears for three or four tests on the weekend.

It was cruel.

Also, how can kids be identified when my son's kindergarten principal incorrectly stated during Jump Start that advanced learning will send out emails to inform parents on how to get tested and testing will begin in November?

Children need peers to develop socially.

When my daughter was in kindergarten, she tried advanced classes at Cascade Parent Partnership.

However, it was difficult to join a group of older kids, and she cried each time we tried it.

So we stuck with kindergarten, where she had no friends and felt bored in.

She started Cascadia in first grade and has flourished socially, emotionally, and academically with a group of similarly aged peers in a class with minorities being the majority.

She loves it and feels sad when it's weekend and she can't go to school.

I have a high-achieving kindergartner who currently hates going to his neighborhood school.

He gets bullied at the playground and is having a hard time making friends.

He's being asked to recount the ABCs when he's reading chapter books at home.

I myself grew up in Alabama, where I was identified as gifted.

I received differentiation within a classroom until I attended a separate school for gifted kids in junior high.

Looking back, I can see how isolated I was until I got to junior high, and I believe that these critical years still left me socially handicapped as an adult in many ways.

The HCC program works for kids like mine who thrive in classrooms with students of ethnic and neurodiversity.

The largest issues for me and my minority contacts surround the poor district outreach and testing process not the implementation of the program.

Thank you.

After Emily Nguyen we will have Nalandu Day followed by Artsy Garcia Oja and Michael Foster.

Hi there, my name is Emily Nguyen.

I'm here to talk in support of the HCC program.

I'm a mother of a first grader at Cascadia Elementary School.

Last year for my son Nicholas, it was a very difficult year.

He was in a kindergarten class of two teachers and 37 kids.

As a parent volunteer, at times the room was very chaotic with five and six year olds running around.

I always felt that my child was lost last year.

I had meetings with his teachers.

I felt that his teachers never knew his full capacity, his full learning capacity.

I had to email them and ask them to give him more challenging math problems or test him for a higher reading level.

They tested him and agreed to give him more challenging tasks.

In math, Nicholas was so far ahead of his peers, he was learning multiplication while the other kids were still counting buttons.

At one point every math session, the teacher would give Nicholas the iPad.

And he would have to work alone and isolated from the rest of the class.

Some kids were jealous because he was working on an iPad.

But for Nicholas, who is a very social kid, he no longer wanted to work alone in the corner and decided for himself he no longer wanted to work on the iPad and participate with the rest of the class.

And the math lessons were just way too easy for him.

He just wanted to be with the other kids.

Cascadia, in the short time we've been there, has made a huge difference in all of our lives, my husband, mine, and Nicholas.

He no longer complains that he's bored at school.

He no longer asks me to email his teacher to give him more challenges.

He loves the school.

He loves Cascadia.

And as a parent, it's one of my greatest joys to see my child thrive and be happy.

I love Cascadia and the education my child is getting there.

Thank you.

Hi Neil Day as a person of color with an introverted child currently enrolled in the Cascadia HCC program.

I have two main points I'd like to make in support of the current HCC structure.

Number one getting rid of dedicated HCC schools will amount to inefficiencies in teaching and point number two and dedicated HCC schools help the HCC cohort realize their potential more easily because the environment fits the kids needs.

So to the first point, if we get rid of dedicated HCC schools, we are essentially asking school teachers to multitask in teaching different tracks simultaneously.

We know from psychology and neurology research that multitasking, which is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, reduces productivity by 40% and increases mistakes by up to 50%.

To the second point, research from a field known as person-environment fit suggests that people flourish when they're engaged in roles and settings that are concordant with their personalities.

My daughter and many of her friends in the Cascadia cohort are introverted personality types.

However, schools are typically designed for extroverts.

Introverts need different kinds of instructions.

Introverts find it particularly challenging to handle novelty and new situations.

They often recoil from novelty due to overstimulation, such as meeting new classmates and trying new things, and this recoil can be even more intense for minorities, as I can personally attest growing up in this country myself.

The school environment can be unnatural from the perspective of such children.

Kids all kids really stop learning when they feel emotionally threatened and the power of a dedicated HCC school is that it helps this cohort to feel comfortable to embrace school and to ultimately realize their potential.

Thank you for your time.

I am here as a former mental health counselor who has worked in Seattle schools over the years and volunteers with students organizing to protect their future for their own survival.

September 20th climate strike may be the largest mass event in recent history around the world.

Today a Seattle student, high schooler, testified before Congress.

and will be joining the United Nations Youth Council next week.

Please don't read the news on PBS or Time or CNN because she shamed all of us.

for our inaction, our lack of support.

No, she didn't say that.

She actually said our betrayal.

And she tried to describe to Congress what it feels like to live, to grow up in a world of what ifs, where people are on the one hand saying, go to college, prep, pass this test, prepare for this career, and her friends are all saying, yeah, well, what if?

Maybe, maybe that future will be there.

That's why the climate strikes are happening, because a year ago, a student hit the wall and said, it doesn't make sense to get an education for a future that isn't there.

She had learned enough to understand that for 30 years, we have continued in action, talking about this, doing nothing, and we pollute now more than we ever did, 60% more than we did when we found out it was an emergency.

I'm bringing you a letter from a Montessori school that says how and why they are shutting down on Friday.

How and why their teachers are compelled to follow the students lead and do what they can to keep these kids alive.

I hope that the Seattle schools will follow their lead.

But if you don't you'll give them an excellent reason to defy you.

Thank you.

This concludes the sign up list for public testimony this evening.

I counted 19. Do we have anybody else.

Is that correct 19. Do we have anybody else in the room that wishes to testify because we have one slot remaining open.

Going once.

Come on up.

State your name for the record please.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Talia Glick.

I'm a junior at Ingram High School, and I'm also on the Student Advisory Board with Angelina.

It's nice to see you, Superintendent Juneau.

I hope you had a good summer.

I am also here today to speak in support of excusing the absences of students who are participating in the climate strike this Friday.

I can't speak more eloquently than other people already have and I can't explain better than my peers and friends already have but I can tell you that this is important to every student in the district and I can tell you that every student every teenager I know wants to have a future.

It shouldn't be a controversial statement.

It shouldn't be something that requires testimony in front of a school board.

It should be something that is given It should be a given in our education that we have the ability to protest and to stand up for our own rights.

The fact that I have to testify at all means that the board has failed me and all of my fellow students in the way that Mike just mentioned, Jamie Margolin described in front of Congress today.

I know Jamie.

I've worked with her.

And she and I believe the same thing, which is that the adults Your generation has failed us and I'm here to demand that you give us an opportunity to strike without consequences because we need that opportunity and we need students who are afraid of repercussions to be able to participate in the strike without Fear or without their parents getting in trouble.

There is a lot of things that kids are afraid of.

I had somebody tell me that they weren't striking because their parents wouldn't let them skip school and I had to say this isn't ditching class.

This is a protest for your future.

I only have 10 seconds but I just want to I just want to beg you guys please on behalf of me and all of my peers excuse our absences.

Let us strike.

OK that does conclude public testimony.

Thanks very much.

I am going to run through a very short executive committee report where we met on September 11th.

We discussed the SEA contract.

Not a big surprise there.

We discussed the district 7 appointment process.

Not a big surprise there.

You saw the results of that this evening and I want to give a shout out Well I have the mic to my colleagues and to the staff of Seattle Public Schools as well.

We thank the candidates but this is a heavy lift and our staff has been with us hand in hand and giving us the support we need.

And it is hugely appreciated and to my colleagues on the dais.

Again if we get through this term without ulcers it will be a minor miracle and we have Tums up here if you need them.

OK.

We also discussed the September 21 board retreat that's happening this Saturday.

It is a public meeting and it's my hope that all the various candidates will be joining us so they can get a head start and or a unique look into the A fascinating public policy board etc.

We will be working with the drumming group that came in.

A couple of months back for an icebreaker staff is invited as well.

And then we're going to spend the rest of the day a having reflections.

What worked what didn't.

What would you change if you had the power to change it.

And then we're talking strat plan.

So come in your jeans and you are more than welcome.

We talked about the transition for new board directors and it's our hope that that's elegant and it's our hope that new board directors will accept help and mentorship or friendship.

with retiring board directors and our staff is working hard on making sure that the training and the heavy lift will be elegant as well.

It's been said that this is like getting a drink of water out of a fire hose and absolutely true on that.

And then we talked about policy 16 20 16 20 board procedure board superintendent staff relationship.

Thoughtful rowdy conversations are continuing and we also talked about policy fourteen hundred and fourteen thirty board procedure and that has to do with the board legislative meetings public testimony etc.

You will see roll out very soon a new policy with respect to respecting First Amendment rights which will include a definition of libel and slander.

We're going to be talking about when to start these meetings because in the past we've had a big break between starting the meetings and when public testimony starts at five thirty.

We don't often take thirty five minutes to appoint vote a new board director and thought is being given.

to teeing it up all the different alternatives for the board that will take this dais in December.

I don't believe anybody on this board thinks that we should.

What's the word I want to impose our collective will on a new board.

But we do want to give them the benefit of our experiences.

The last piece on that is potentially reserving some of the public testimony slots for students and or topics that are highlighted in our strategic plan race and equity white supremacy.

Bias etc.

And these are naughty conversations that we need to have more conversation about.

But it is recognized that the way these meetings work sometimes is not to the best effect and raising student voice for instance makes a whole lot of sense to be continued.

OK now we move into board comments.

Who would like to go first.

Director DeWolf please.

Thank you, President Harris.

First, as a citizen of the Chippewa Cree Nation of Rockville, Montana, I am grateful to live and serve in a city that is the ancestral homeland of the Duwamish people, the Muckleshoot Nation, and the Suquamish Nation.

We acknowledge them as custodians of this land since time immemorial.

As guests and for many folks in this room, as settlers on this land, we extend our deepest gratitude and respect to elders past, present, and future.

I wanted to extend gratitude to the staff and our community partners for not losing momentum about our student and community workforce agreements.

Looking forward to continuing that process very soon.

We are soon going to be picking folks for the task force which will help us create the recommendations to transmit to our board for implementing our own SPS student and community workforce agreement.

And today is certainly a difficult day for me in my culture.

We often talk about the seven generations principle and particularly how protecting and and supporting our environment is a sacred purpose.

The seven generations principle says that every decision must consider how it will affect our communities both today and seven generations into the future.

And so I want to send a message to our students and our young people here and that we serve.

I see you and I support you.

After last week's news about the New York City public schools allowing students to be excused from from public schools for Friday's walkout I immediately got to work while riding in the car to Spokane to visit family.

I was chatting with folks from 350 Seattle and Washington Youth Climate Strike creating a draft resolution and planning ways to support our students and young people.

And even more so last year at Garfield High School's graduation at Memorial Stadium we had 18 valedictorians.

Those 18 valedictorians put a mirror to all of us as adults.

They demanded that we act on the climate emergency immediately because what is not a secret is we have between 8 and 11 years to aggressively and adequately address the climate crisis.

We are in an emergency.

By 2050, we need to be carbon neutral.

In fact, we should actually be negative carbon outputs.

I am 33. Our young folks, whether they're 10, 15, or 18, have a different outlook on their future.

For example, in 11 years, I'll be 44. And by 2050, I'll be 64. If you're 18, you'll be 29 by 2030 and 49 by 2050. But conversely if you're 50 now 2015 may seem far away.

You will be 81 years old.

These kids futures and our collective futures cannot wait any longer.

Now this is the most active and informed generation in history and what they are learning in our classrooms and from our culture of activism has driven them to this moment.

Many have argued that the point of our schools is learning and this doesn't fit the bill.

I would argue this absolutely is a part of learning.

Now what's the point in learning if the people like us in charge aren't doing anything about what they're learning?

Our reply to their demands has to be more than a promise to do better.

And they don't need our praise.

They don't need us to tell them how inspiring they are or how honored we are.

Inspiration won't save salmon.

Honor won't reduce greenhouse gas emissions or clean our air.

So we can't leave it up to them to clean up the mess our generation and generations before us have made.

People will say this generation gives them hope, but that's not quite right.

This generation is actually giving us a job.

This job is doing our part to address the climate crisis.

If we do our job, then we will be worthy of hope, because it means that we'll have done what we can to create the future they're fighting for.

Today and this week we've been receiving a ton of emails ton of phone calls and pink slips left in our box.

I'm not going to read the resolution here but I created a resolution that we did not get consensus on and I apologize that I couldn't have worked harder and done more for you as young people.

But keep pushing us to change the policy that prevented us from allowing you to have an excused absence both here at the school board and at the state level.

And please join us at our November operations committee to hear how our green resolution passed in 2013, 2012, has helped us do our part in addressing the climate crisis.

And I would also say, it might behoove you to advocate to your city council to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in municipal elections.

I'm also really grateful that we are finally moving forward on policy 2015 which is just one vehicle for bringing ethnic studies as a graduation requirement.

So I look forward to celebrating soon the passage of ethnic studies here within SPS.

And one thing that also came out this week amongst everything that we've been that we've been focusing on this week.

We have three thousand two hundred and sixty six students experiencing homelessness in Seattle Public Schools.

This is a moral shame.

Now we get two million dollars from the federal government through the McKinney-Vento Act.

That is six hundred and twelve dollars per families or student.

And that obviously isn't how the money goes out but it illustrates the large gap in the need and our resources.

The state by not amply funding schools and by not at the very least prioritizing these students success have helped create a pipeline of students who are far less likely to graduate or even reach their full potential.

I am I will be joining Director Burke at his community meeting on October 12th to talk about these issues.

Please join us.

And that's all I have.

Thank you Director DeWolf Director Mack next.

Good evening.

I already gave a really long report out on ops and so there's a lot of stuff there that I won't readdress.

I always appreciate the testimony and folks coming forward taking time out of their day to bring their stories and issues to us that we we may not be hearing.

We do read our email I do read every single one.

I don't always get a chance to respond but I do appreciate hearing and especially the personal stories the the reporting of the racist actions that are happening in our schools are concerning and I do hope that we.

get some increased traction on the anti-bias training and addressing these these issues.

This is this is really really important.

I also appreciate the Rainier Beach student who took the time to talk about the importance of the building and the levy and I and the projections and the impact on the reality of staffing at their school that even though I'm really grateful for how quickly staff has responded to the adjustments I think that we need to continue to focus on doing better especially when it comes to high school for next year students with 24 credit requirements not having their classes on the first day of school.

is problematic and I know that we can kind of improve some of those processes hopefully over the next year and I think some of that work might be helpful through policy H13 and the other work that we're doing.

So I'm grateful to staff for focusing on that and looking forward to making improvements over this next year.

Thank you for bringing forward the information about the Sandy Hook Program I wasn't aware of that program.

It should be interesting and like to kind of explore whether or not it would be appropriate to adopt that.

I had my community meeting last Saturday and one person showed up.

So I had a really great conversation with that person about a whole host of things but would love to have more folks pop in and share their thoughts on October 19th from 11 to noon.

And with that I think I will let someone else speak and get on with the agenda.

Director Burke you're up.

Thank you very much.

I want to start with an apology to the public and especially the folks in my district.

I had a community meeting on Saturday which I was not at.

I had on my calendar for the wrong date.

I was at work doing some things and I started getting texts and calls and so I apologize for people who attended and I wasn't there.

There was some conversation that took place without me and so I got briefed on it a little bit.

And I thank my community for their their awesomeness for that.

There are two more meetings October 12th which Director DeWolf will be joining me at which is going to be awesome.

And November 9th.

They're both on the calendar October 12th 10 a.m.

November 9th at 3 p.m.

Director DeWolf mentioned the student and community workforce agreement.

Just to put some specifics on that we're working on selecting members for this task force and so we're there's a panel that will be doing that selection that selection process will be taking place in October and then they will start doing the hard work of evaluating what is a student and community what a student mean in student and community workforce agreement and how does it impact our our processes.

I want to thank Superintendent and JoLynn Berge for the feedback on the enrollment and the whole team for the quick pivot.

I know this is a hot topic in the community on the board.

I know there's a commitment to keep looking at it and I just want to also reinforce that commitment that we're not just we should not just be trying to make our projection better for next year we should be looking specifically at our processes.

around improving our processes for predictability and continuity there.

There was a testimony comment that came up in testimony.

I love testimony because we always get to hear some cool stuff.

One of the things that came up was a concern that maybe the board did not have the chance to do due diligence around the SEA collective bargaining.

In this case the costs for this as reported on the board action resolution exceed the revenue reported on the board action resolution and I think that is a clear and insightful.

Evidence you know we're not fully funded for our costs and so we have to make choices.

And those choices are going to impact us as we move forward.

We made an intentional choice.

We were informed and know that that is something that we made that commitment to our educators they're important for our mission.

So I don't want people to think that we were not informed in that.

Also during testimony I was concerned about the racist actions that are taking place in our schools.

These are you know these are our kids and I've been told actually by somebody on SPS staff that I highly respect that you know you don't mess with people's kids.

And it's true.

That's how I feel about my kids.

That's how all parents feel about their kids and when to hear that sort of a personal impact you know with ranging from you know explicit very under outright racist actions in our schools.

I guess I'll ask staff to take a really close look at that provide some support for course and culture correction.

I want to speak a little bit on the on the climate strike because it is such a cool but complicated issue.

I have a huge appreciation for the students and the work they're doing and the activism.

The what what we're talking about is essentially a broken system.

We have we and generations before us have built a structure built and a.

Basically built a system that is systematically destroying our environment.

And that needs to be upended.

And that activism and community protest is a critical part of that.

But other critical parts of that are for example Director DeWolf mentioned our green resolution where we as leaders take action to reduce our own footprint where we as leaders put education systems in place so that our kids are learning authentic and accurate science so that they can be more engaged more informed better able to dismantle The systems that have created this the critical analysis skills that help that and the personal poise that we see here on a daily basis that allows them to speak truth to power.

So I'm really grateful for for families and students taking that action.

But I'm also super excited to see how we in our classrooms in our teaching and learning are paving the way for the future generation to do even better than we did.

I'm going to close on the advanced learning topic.

This is something we've heard from from several families I know the advanced learning task force is doing a lot of work on this and I expect there will be more discussion coming forward to the curriculum instruction committee and at our upcoming work session.

I appreciate hearing the voices and the messages that we are hearing are starting to have some.

Some some commonality around them.

I hope it's something we can turn into deliberate action.

I would like to before my days on the on the board come to a close I'd like to feel like we had.

Taken a more decisive step than just forming committees and creating reports.

And then I want to celebrate our strategic plan talks about Seattle excellence.

We talk about the intersection of our students our teaching our our excellence and so there's recently just came out about national merit scholarship finalists.

So we have four schools.

Done.

Four schools.

I will not name names individually but Ballard High School has two, Garfield High School has nine, Ingram High School has six, Roosevelt High School has three.

These students have worked their tushes off and You know my my hope is that that that has additional rewards and benefits for them in terms of their futures.

I just want to celebrate them and their work and I want us to continue to look at that as a another target that we look for racial diversity in and that we elevate our students farthest from educational justice not just to meeting standards not just to exceeding standards but to being You know our national merit scholarship semifinalists and our future leaders and all of those amazing things.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ and Táˀc kulé-wit.

Thank you.

Good evening.

First off welcome Director Hersey to now the Seattle School Board.

Congratulations on the process we went through and you know as I mentioned before I don't think we would have made a wrong choice with any of the three and glad to have you here you here with us.

A couple of topics that were brought up in public testimony first one just you know the students from Rainier Beach High School.

Yes you know we did hopefully we pushed we need to get Rainier Beach make sure it's on the levy it's on the levy now so let's make sure the renovations and the needs of that school are taken care of because the community there wants to support their school and let's make the school that the students want to go to parents want to send their children to that future we'll have national merit scholarships you know from Rainier Beach High School we can say we had 20 from Rainier Beach High School you know so let's go for it.

Also with their I do want to touch on the climate change and That need.

You know I encourage it.

We're saying we're not going to restrict students from going there if they want to participate.

But yeah we do.

What can we do when we say well unexcused absence what's going to happen to what are the repercussions.

That's what they're asking about.

I want to attend this, but I don't want to have to serve repercussions because of unexcused absence.

So I'd encourage students, go and look.

What are your rights?

Look at the student rights, student civic engagement and protest on the website and look at, just look what can be excused absence.

So sometimes use our policy and procedures to help yourself as well.

So educate yourself.

See what is out there for absence that may be excused.

They're listed below.

They give you 11 items.

You know, so, you know if my kid was going that I would probably work with the principal saying yes I want my daughter to go to this.

It's gonna be a value to her.

She's gonna learn something at this She's also gonna contribute and share her voice And that's what number 11 principal or designee and parent guardian or emancipated youth mutually agreed upon approved activity so We're currently having to follow our current policy and procedures Use those policy procedures to your benefit as well.

So you can see yes, I Can justify being at this meeting because I'd also say my mother is sick I need to go and take care of my mother, you know, she's not feeling well.

I want to make sure that she starts feeling better So empower yourself students.

Thank you for sharing your voice and keep on moving up onward and upward Sandy Hook and what resources are there that we can tap into you know yes it is hitting our youth these days you know they do think about things that are happening and it is part about this you know information age a lot of information is out there and Social media can really get to students and we need to make sure that they have some resources that we have students teachers Administrators everyone trained to view those signs and then to report them and you let people know hey I have a concern this you know Person within my family my daughters have gone through it so I appreciate Jeannie bringing that up and hopefully we can look into that I Another commented about.

Just.

Having to deal with a student that had ADHD ADHD and then for administrators to say you're not going to do anything just for one kid.

You know we've got to be able to think that way.

I am going to do this just for one kid because that one kid can make a difference.

You know empower that you know children saying hey I will help you out.

Not thinking it's distracting you from helping other students.

But keep in mind you know it takes one student at a time you know.

Help that student out.

They'll help another.

So hopefully we can get that addressed and help students to be feel more empowered.

Racism in our schools, it happens.

And we need to make sure we address those issues.

So some people may not be aware of the language that they use and how it could be hurtful to another.

Let's start having those critical dialogues with one another to share, hey, that is inappropriate.

This is why it hurts.

This is why it brings me down.

It may lift you up, but it's bringing someone else down.

So we need to make sure that we do get the racial equity training out there for All of our educators here at the school building, district level, principals, staff, everyone needs to be aware of how maybe their own unintended bias can bring another community down.

And just that feeling of us and others, we are here together.

I actually closed out a bridge program for new entering University of Washington freshmen.

It was interesting, you know, they came in they're Not really feeling confident about themselves, you know, oh gee, I'm gonna go major in engineering They were suffering from that stereotype threat.

You know that because I'm from a Underrepresented underserved community.

I'm not gonna be strong enough Educators aren't gonna expect that much from me but we were Proud that they get kind of emotionally graduated in a sense today from the program feeling more empowered knowing that what they're going to bring to whatever field they go into.

I used a quote from William Wolfe who's the president of the National Academy of Engineering from 96 to 2007. The reason for diversity says, I believe there's a far deeper reason that require a diverse workforce.

First, engineering is a creative profession.

Second, as a creative profession, what comes out of it is a function of life experiences of the people who do it.

Sans diversity, we limit the set of life experiences that are applied, and as a result, we pay an opportunity cost, a cost in products not built, in designs not considered, in constraints not understood, in processes not invented.

Excuse me.

So those students left feeling I am different but I am bringing that different perspective.

I'm going to make changes based upon what I need and I'm going to work with others and collaborate for a better future.

And I see that tying in with the climate arch and I hope students exercise what they feel is right for them to do.

I don't have any unfortunate community meetings planned.

I'll hopefully get those done now that I'm done with this SEEDS program which is Summer Early Enrichment for Engineering Dean's Scholars.

That's what it stands for.

That's the program I closed out today.

And thank you for listening and thank you all for being here and sharing your comments.

And I did appreciate actually Alex was kind of in control today.

So thank you Alex for sharing your words as well.

Director Hersey did you wish to say a few comments sir.

You have that right.

it on.

Oh wonderful.

OK.

First off thank you to the numerous community members parents families students throughout this process who have taken the time to meet with me to share their concerns to educate me as I am always seeking to be a lifelong learner on the issues that are happening within our district and coming with sense of optimism in how we can accomplish some of these things together.

So I'm excited to get that work done and one of the first things that I want to do is get as many community meetings on the calendar as possible and making sure that we are doing those at places that have accessibility for parking and potentially even some places that are close to public transit.

Making sure that You know we are extending invitations and not just you know posting it on the website and looking for those voices who traditionally have not been present at those types of meetings to come and share so that we can continue to learn and I can continue to be educated so that I can bring those experiences to the board in the interest of our community.

One thing that I really appreciated about this process in general was how often I got to speak with students and that was reflected today with as much student voices we heard about our impending climate crisis.

I'm excited to figure out what we can do as a board to continue to support those efforts going forward.

I echo so many of the other sentiments that were brought forth.

This is something that is very present and very real and however we can support student voice and elevate that in a way that feels good to them is of interest to me and I'm sure of interest to the board as well.

Racist actions that are happening at schools.

I just want to, you know, first, thank those parents who came forward with the courage to share those experiences that can be incredibly traumatic, especially sharing those types of things with a room full of strangers can, you know, especially be very trying.

And so I want to make sure that, you know, they feel heard, and it is a top of mind for me, and how we can continue to not only offer, you know, anti bias training and things of that nature, but how can we continue to change and augment and uplift culture to make sure that, you know, Our schools are equipped to have these types of conversations and not to just push them off until we can figure out what the appropriate response is.

But the appropriate response is the first response and everybody's comfortable with getting that type of response.

And so I'm excited to continue to have those types of conversations.

And last but not least you know thank you to the board for this process that you know was seventy seven days long and I'm sure everybody is feeling a little bit of relief now that it is completed.

I just want to say again thank you to all of the 13 original candidates who applied and especially to Emijah and Julie.

You know I've spent a lot of time sitting next to them having conversations with them.

And I always left every opportunity I had to speak with both of them as strong women of color, you know, standing up for their communities.

I always felt feeling uplifted and challenged in ways that, you know, I'm excited to continue to do in this space as I occupy this seat.

And you know I just again want to reiterate the fact that I am looking forward to working with all those who are really or excuse me who are ready willing and able to do this work.

And you know let's get it done in the name of you know educational justice especially for those students who are furthest away from it.

Thank you.

I'll try and keep mine short.

Been a real talky bunch this evening but I think it's absolutely appropriate given the subject matter.

Saturday meetings.

September 28th 3 to 5. Southwest library.

One out of two chance to get lasagna.

October 19th High Point library 3 to 5. If I don't get it together in September you're eating lasagna.

November 16. Three to five Delridge library.

We're back to the one in three odds.

Please come and remember that we serve food at our meetings.

They're rowdy.

They're thoughtful.

We have community members that come together and argue and we often have folks from across the city that come and staff are most welcome.

County workforce agreement.

I'm wondering both from the superintendent and chief Podesta and chief counsel Narver whether we don't need an updated BAR because I believe a report was due mid-October.

I'm disappointed we haven't made more speedy progress on this but I well appreciate bandwidth issues acknowledge those but let's Daylight to the entire board please.

What the work plan is what our measurables are.

See I can talk.

You guys have given me a whole new verbiage here.

What are deliverables and measurables and benchmarks are so that we can keep moving on that.

As you know this board very strongly pushed that and we need to keep our commitments.

Due diligence on the CBA with our teachers.

I am beyond comfortable with the information that this board.

has received and been gifted with and the approachability of all of the folks who were part of the bargaining team and our leadership.

And you're absolutely right.

We're going to be going into the hole on this.

But if we can't pay our teachers.

a wage so that they can stay living in this unaffordable community and can continue their exceptional careers teaching our children.

Then what do we have.

Not not a good situation at best.

I.

The ALTF the advanced learning task force committee I'm really looking forward to what we hear from them.

And I have been reminded by a number of senior staff and in fact the superintendent as well that some of the hysteria that we've been hearing about and I use that word advisedly hysteria and or pushback is that this will be a multi-year process I think everybody on this dais probably in this building would agree that fixes need to be made but they need to be thoughtful fixes etc.

But they won't be made tomorrow and that they will have Very deep ramifications in terms of equity and in terms of the operational issues and in terms of the professional development issues in terms of differentiation identification a whole list of issues that we've talked about a whole lot.

Climate change and the.

Friday strike big props to my colleague Director DeWolf for starting the drafting on a resolution that we could not in fact get consensus on.

And I'm sorry about that because it's a tricky issue as public servants that have sworn to take oath have sworn oaths to uphold the law.

And thanks very much Governor Inslee.

I'm sure it's easy for you to say that it's no problem for us to send our students out with excused absences and some of our city council members as well.

We absolutely have to be consistent.

We looked at it we wrestled with it.

We had some deep and thoughtful conversations but we I have to say that I'm frankly a little resentful that the same city council that has not made very much progress on homelessness is telling us what to do and there's a lack of respect there for this board and this district and I am not appreciative of that.

And it's my job as a board president to stand up and yell back as elegantly as I can.

And I'm trying very hard to be elegant.

Now should I have Should I be a high school student I can tell you very frankly that I would commit civil disobedience and I would join that strike.

I would also say very frankly because I had a good civics education I learned what the definition of civil disobedience was that I'm prepared to pay the price for it and take the unexcused absence.

I I'm torn about this.

I want to have big numbers in Seattle but I also have to uphold my oath.

Last librarians you know I love you and I would suggest to you that when you all get together figure out a way to make sure that a number of you get on the weighted staffing standard committee.

So that we aren't having the same conversation about funding and equity and whose libraries are being funded and whose staff are are being funded.

It's a it's an issue close to my heart.

Last the master schedule is our enemy.

In a big way we may be off by about 1 percent but because of the grade level issues in high school and not being able to offer some of the prerequisites for our classes.

It's it's problematic in a very big way.

And again we have got to do our responsibility and due diligence and look at those students that are going to require the 24 credits coming up.

That's that's a really big problem if we're not offering the classes they need.

and particularly the foreign language classes that they need because they're a new graduation requirement.

And again I thank the legislature for giving us more unfunded mandates.

OK.

Now we are moving into the consent agenda.

May I have a motion please for the consent agenda.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

Does anybody have any item on the consent agenda that they wish removed to an action item.

Seeing none.

I am going to ask for both ayes and abstentions plural.

Should anybody like to abstain on this issue given the fact that we have a new board director.

How's that for forecasting.

All those folks in favor of the consent agenda please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Abstentions.

There you go.

Thank you ever so much.

OK.

Action items and we will take a break after our three action items.

And if you need to assist yourself we can do a rolling rolling Rolling breaks and then we will take a break before intro.

And I will add that we have 10 intro items most of which are operations and BEX issues.

Well all righty then all are ops and here we go.

Annual approval of the schools per Washington Administrative Code 1 8 0 16 22. This came before C&I August 20th for approval.

Approval of this item.

We commonly refer to this as a CSIP dance.

Approval of this item would approve each school within the district as having a school improvement plan that is data driven promotes positive impact on school learning includes continuous improvements process pursuant to said WAC.

This was updated since introduction.

Motion please.

I move that the school board approve each school within the district as having a school improvement plan that is data driven promotes a positive impact on school learning and includes a continuous improvement process pursuant to WAC 1 8 0 dash 1 6 dash 2 2 0. I second the motion.

Comments questions concerns from my colleagues and Chief Jessee would you like to come to the podium please kind sir.

Director Burke then Director Mack.

So there's always a broken record part that comes up with CSIPs, and so I'm going to just play that track briefly about, you know, the CSIP is the common vehicle, it's mentioned in the CBA, it's in our policies, it includes Community representation on schools educator representation on schools.

It's essentially a strategic plan for the school and a vehicle for systemic improvement.

I consider myself a fan of them as a process.

I also recognize that they are a work in process.

So my feedback I do plan to support this.

I want to share gratitude with the staff because I know that this comes up every year.

and that there's always a place where we can poke holes in it because there's a lot of schools, there's a lot of words, there's a lot of data.

So I did a sort of a random sampling not completely random.

I picked a couple of schools that.

That I know have.

Potential.

Interest to me.

One of them being Lincoln High School because what does a CSIP look like for a brand new high school that doesn't have historical data.

How do they set goals.

I was really impressed by.

The things that were in that around mentorship correlation between accurate academic choices and career.

They highlighted some of the strategies they use in the in the in the school.

There was explicit mention of the decision making matrix used by the BLT.

Specific diagram and information about the MTSS structure to be used at the school.

And the goals, when I looked at them, they were aligned with gap closing and credit attainment, two things that we talk about regularly here.

So I just wanted to, you know, commend that for a scratch-built CSIP, that is a great document.

The couple of other schools that I think also include a lot of really great content content Licton Springs K-8.

One of the things that was in that you know that's a school that's going through a leadership transition.

One of the things we talked about is that the CSIP is a tool to help new leaders come in and provide continuity for their school.

One of the things that's mentioned in the Licton Springs K-8 CSIP is that the decision making matrix for the school is expected in fall 2019. That's something for staff you know executive directors of schools to be following up on.

Goal of student climate increase 10 percent over last year.

So I appreciate that the acknowledgement that there's there's you know that's something that we had heard in the school meetings and even intentionality about what was causing it.

So that has been a identified school climate goal.

And there's a note of a supplemental focused CSIP developed to help achieve that goal.

So that's appreciate that work.

Cedar Park.

I looked at that one.

That's also a school that you know is going through growth going through transition.

A couple of notes on that.

The the principal name on it should be changed to the represent the new assignment.

That would be a good update.

And then this is just I saw this on a couple of others that the you know the goals there's intentionality about stating the goal.

There's also a place where that's it has an assigned to section and Cedar Park was one of the examples I saw where it was assigned to multiple people or groups which is something that's kind of not really an accountability best practice.

So I'm sharing that as a reflection that you can also share with your schools.

If you're going to assign something to for accountability it should go to a person so that there actually is an accountability trail.

And one of the other the other one I'll speak to is Cascadia.

You know we heard from some some Cascadia families and the one of the growth goals that was identified.

under gap closing was increasing the number of families reporting positively that they have overcome cultural barriers between staff and families from 46 to 75 percent.

So acknowledgement focus for improvement.

I just want to say how powerful this is and I want to put that out in the daylight and celebrate it.

And then the structurally when you think about this moving forward under the goals there are categories that identifies a problem of student learning.

Define the problem that's good.

And it says what does success look like.

Let's talk about an outcome.

That's also really good.

Assigned to.

Who is it who's accountable for that goal and a target date.

Those are all really awesome.

What isn't in there is the how.

And we've had this feedback as well in our strategic plan that we've got great goals.

They're appropriate.

But the community keeps asking us how are you going to get there.

How are you going to get there.

We recognize that's the hardest part to build in.

That's also the place where we need to be able to pivot.

But that's something I'd like for you to talk or talk with you know in future CSIP development how much of that how how much of the actual initiatives should be built into that to help get community buy in and support for that.

That's my rant.

Thank you thank you thank you.

I do plan to support this.

Director Mack.

I appreciate the rant because I'm actually I made me realize I have a question to ask around that.

But my first thing that I wanted to ask about was that I noticed and I think I think it needs to be an amendment in here is that Van Asselt is still listed as Van Asselt and it's now Rising Star.

And the school name is where the school number is 21 20. It's on page 3. Is it possible.

Do I have to actually ask for an amendment to the.

thing in order to get that updated.

I don't think a formal amendment should be necessary to make that change.

That's really more just a clerical change in the name of the school has changed.

I think it can be substituted in.

That's in the CSIPs.

Yeah.

OK so the other.

So great.

Thank you.

So just noting that that change needs to be made and the other I just wanted for clarification.

Mr. Jesse the changes that were made since introductions it looks like the codes from Lincoln High School and Magnolia have dropped in and I'm updated with the elementary schools A-L-O what does that mean.

The whole page was missing before.

Is that what happened.

Yeah.

I see.

Yep.

OK.

So those are my kind of technical questions.

My other question is actually around the implementation of the CSIPs and the consistency across our schools.

Do we have.

Anything that we expect to see in all of the CSIPs.

Do we provide schools with a baseline of this needs to be part of your goal or is there a baseline that they start with before they go through the conversational process where they come up with OK these are issues at our school and we're going to address them.

So I'm curious to know is there a baseline of goals and specifics that are offered in the beginning of the process for CSIPC.

Good evening Wyeth Jessee chief of schools and continuous improvement.

I try to answer that question Director Mack I just want to make sure I have clarity on exactly what you're asking outside of the form.

and the basic contents that have to go in there.

That is information that has to go in there.

Are you referring to specifically the goals, or is there a certain section you're referring to?

Yeah, no, I'm wondering if there are specific goals that we are saying this needs to be a part of your CSIP.

Not not in the past because there's not been that level of clarity that we have now under this new strategic plan.

Moving forward that will be work that that we can most certainly have.

We did do a slice of that last year where we had elementaries all had to have goals around fourth grade English language arts and middle schools had a seventh grade goal around math.

So when do we learn about what those things are that are.

I'm just kind of.

To the how?

I'm kind of curious if that is reported to us during the like this retreat.

Are we going to be talking about.

OK.

And that's when is that like or is that part of our I'm just trying to understand our process part of our goal setting process.

or the strategic plan I mean the strategic plan is separate.

I'm staring at Mr. Burke because I'm I think you have a better grasp than I do on our actual processes for the district of continuous improvement and I'm confused as to where that lies and it seems to me like this connection between if the district was going to say for this year we want all schools to do X.

That conversation will live in that continuous improvement process that the board goes through.

I'll try to take a pass at it but I'll look for staff to give thumbs up or adjust.

So the.

The fact that each individual school.

should have intentionality about acknowledging what are their challenges what are their growth areas the CSIP has the categories for school based goals gap closing goals those categories are common expectations uh...

the schools build out whatever is expected underneath it but the connection from those goals to district level goals my opinion is still uh...

Sort of a I don't want to call it weak but I would say it's a verbal connection.

It's not a mandate connection or a particular architectural like this has to flow into your CSIP goals.

It's more recognize the district goals look for alignment but tailor it towards your school.

That's how I am interpreting it.

Thank you.

I just it sounds to me like that might be a process kind of gap that we could try to close at some point.

Thanks for helping me understand that.

Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues.

I'll go.

You know you weren't getting away that easy.

This is one of my favorite topics as you know.

I see the CSIPS as an accountability tool.

And we have a sordid history in the past and we've made a great deal of progress.

I can remember not voting for this.

I can remember being at that podium and giving board members spreadsheets for the missing information to where folks that had already gone home had to come back and answer questions.

A couple of things and this is not news to you because we've had some pretty thoughtful conversations about accountability and different brainstorming for for really rigorous leadership.

And sometimes it could be said that problems go downhill not uphill.

And that's problematic to me.

I think sometimes and you are in the exact right position as a new chief to take a really candid look at our directors of schools.

and how we supervise our principals and how we move away from the large and in charge and and very different educations that are offered in our hundred and four schools depending on what your zip code might be depending on the extraordinary leadership at a school because I think the research I need I can see Dr. Codd nodding.

The research says that the leaders in our schools are the single most important indicator.

Second.

After the teacher.

After the teacher.

Well there you go.

But that's the accountability piece.

And I brought up during intro that we had a really rough year at Washington last year and that the BLT and others did not feel included in the CSIP and that it wasn't effective.

So here's my question to you.

One will you take a heck of a look at the accountability piece on CSIP's.

Yes I already started that.

OK.

And can we now that we've developed our template and I well appreciate that it's been an iterative process and I really appreciate staff coming to the table to work through that.

Because that wasn't easy at all.

Can we have some benchmarks.

Did we meet our CSIP goals in 2017 18. Did we meet our CSIP goals in 2018 19. Are we going to meet our CSIP.

You know and you know me I'm a visual learner.

I like seeing those bar charts but I'm going to vote for this.

But if I am privileged enough to be here a year from now I'm going to remind you of this.

Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues if not we're going for roll call roll call please.

Director Burke aye Director DeWolf aye Director Mack aye Director Pinkham aye Director Hersey aye

Director Harris.

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

OK.

Number two approval of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding for the Seattle intervention tracking and community partner access grant.

This came before A&F August 19th for.

Consideration.

Motion please kind sir.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to accept grant funds totaling Six hundred and ninety eight thousand four hundred and six dollars over two years from the BMGF Bill and Linda Gates Foundation for the development of a community partner and school intervention tracking system with any minor additions deletions or modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to authorize the superintendent to take any necessary actions to accept the grant funds if awarded.

Comments questions concerns from my colleagues.

We've got Chief Berge up here to answer questions.

We had a rich conversation in intro comments questions concerns from my colleagues.

I'll go.

What do we say to.

district and community community members who would suggest to you that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a corporate reform organization and that to track students also sets us up for data breaches.

I would say that this is something that we're already doing.

This is a better tool.

How is it a better tool, please?

Right now, all of the schools use individual Excel spreadsheets, and everyone kind of has their own homegrown system.

It's very manual in process.

This would give all of the schools and all of the community-based organizations the ability to have one system of record, one system to report in.

So it would make both the job of inputting the data easier, understanding what the data is telling you, as well as a central way to track it.

How is that different than homeroom.

Well Wyeth will have to answer the homeroom part.

Thank you.

So on this particular issue, we're talking about CBOs.

And so this is actually a great opportunity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to actually help us bridge some different technical things.

As JoLynn was mentioning, CBOs and the exchange of information is primarily through spreadsheets, right?

And so they're exchanging that information right now because there's not a locked-in system.

There is some exchange, right?

But there's, of course, approval and but the homeroom right now is really for internal uses and so we can't give them access through homeroom because we can't figure out a way to deprivate you know for the privatization or the release of information under FERPA.

So that's just been the challenges right now of giving access to homeroom when internally we can only do that for our staff.

Director Harris.

Any other questions comments concerns Director Mack.

Yeah I mean it is around the FERPA and the privacy that right now these are all managed on Excel spreadsheets and that's shared between the CDO's and but it'll start going into a database and what controls are going to be put in place so that CBO's that are not at that school should not be or you know people that shouldn't be accessing that student information shouldn't be accessing that information.

I'm assuming and I'm hoping that they're very specific contract language that is going to require that there be firewalls or whatever to protect the student data.

Well, there is now.

I mean, the protection is the same, whether it's a manual protection and you have a piece of paper with student name versus a system with student name.

We're going to have the same language about tracking data and protecting data, what they can and can't use with the data, who they can or mostly can't.

They can't share any of the data.

So those kinds of language are already in our memorandums of understanding with those entities and with the CBOs.

So I don't feel like it's changing any of the FERPA issues.

I mean there'll be sign ons that are given and password protection and those sorts of things.

And there's written contracts about the privacy protection built into this grant correct?

There always are.

And yeah that's right.

I just want to be clear here I don't want to say or assume.

It's something that Ronald Boy looks at every time.

Thank you.

Director Burke then Director Mack.

Thank you to President Harris.

I want to follow up on the question around the overlap with homeroom understanding that this is a tool to help manage data between the district and the CBO's and because the CBO's do not have access to a homeroom which is essentially our platform for MPSS in the schools.

Does this information feed into homeroom so that our schools have access to that work of the CBO's.

Is there an inward connection for it.

None of that work has been done yet as far as what the system would look like.

So this grant really funds a project manager to start gathering, meeting with stakeholders, figuring out what the business owner's needs are, and then gathering requirements.

So this is just laying that groundwork and doing that research.

Anything else would be, that would be predetermining.

We just don't know how it's going to work yet.

We need to figure out what everybody needs and how we can build the system that meets all the security requirements, that sort of thing.

Director DeWolf.

Would you like to pass for now and come back.

There you go.

Next.

Director Mack aye Director Pinkham.

aye Director Hersey abstain Director Burke aye Director DeWolf abstain Director Harris aye.

This motion has passed with a vote of 4 to 0 to 2.

Number three motion to introduce and approve a memorandum of understanding MOU that contains a summary of the tentative agreements TAs for the 2019 2022 collective bargaining agreement CBA and the appendices numbers 1 through 6 between Seattle Public Schools SPS and Seattle Education Association SEA certificated non-supervisory employees paraprofessional employees and Seattle Association of Education Office employees as came before executive committee September 11th for approval.

Motion please.

I move that the school board approve the MOU which contains appendices numbers 1 through 6. The MOU is a summary of new provisions for the 2019 through 2022 CBA.

As attached to the school board action report the MOU authorizes implementation of the 2019 20 salary increases effective September 1 2019 to be implemented on October 1 2019 payroll.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

Comments questions concerns.

Again we have had probably 10 or 11 executive committee meetings closed meetings excuse me where we have been briefed on this.

Director Mack.

Yeah I just have one question of clarification.

And I apologize my brain starting to get tired.

It says salary increases.

Just for clarification this is that we're approving only the salary increases for this contract.

We're not approving the overarching salary increases or the potential salary increases for non.

This is just the salary increases related to this contract.

Correct.

Great.

Thank you.

So this is for intro and action.

So I had some remarks if you don't need to hear them then you just go.

You know we're making a public record here so please put those out there.

And the other would be can you please address the.

the public testimony about impacting a different union and a different bargaining unit with respect to the principles.

We heard that ourselves but we don't get to talk about what we heard.

So let's lay a good record here.

Thank you madam.

Sure.

So for the record Clover Codd chief human resource officer.

Welcome Director Hersey.

I'd actually like to start by giving a few thank yous.

I want to thank Cheryl Anderson Moore our chief negotiator.

and Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge both of them.

Put in many many long hours nights weekends in order to bring this to completion.

I also want to thank the members of both the bargaining teams.

We spent a lot of time together and I'm proud to work amongst some of very exceptional educators.

To Superintendent Juneau for your support constantly and your encouragement and to the board for your trust in our team.

So we are proud tonight to present to you the memorandum of understanding that contains a summary of the new provisions for a three-year 2019 through 2022 collective bargaining agreement with Seattle Education Association.

We began negotiations in May of 2019. We met for over 20 sessions throughout July and August and the parties reached a tentative agreement on Saturday, August 24th 2019. SCA took it to vote in front of their membership and SCA ratified the terms on August 27, 2019. The MOU summary is attached for you and it outlines the main provisions of the agreement.

We think it is important for you and the public to understand that the joint bargaining team's commitment to institutionalizing racial equity and therefore engaged in training on the use of the racial equity analysis tool, review of board policy 0030, and the equity literacy framework by Paul Gorski.

The training was jointly conducted by SCA Center for Racial Equity and our own SPS Department of Racial Equity Advancement.

As you read through the summary of the tentative agreement, you will see that it was our goal to ensure that educators have the tools they need to be successful and ensure students receive the supports necessary for realizing their full potential.

We had a shared interest in bargaining more social emotional supports for students and focused on the needs of the whole child.

Additionally, we work to offer a compensation package that would remain competitive and help us recruit and retain the very best educators to work in Seattle Public Schools.

The certificated employees will receive a salary increase of 5 percent in 19-20, 2.1 percent for 20-21, and 4 percent for 21-22.

The classified employees will receive a salary increase of 5% for 19-20, 2.1% for 20-21, and 5% for 21-22.

These increases are inclusive of the estimated legislative inflationary increases, which are estimated to be about 2%, but is subject to final legislative action.

The actual salary schedules are attached to the bar, along with stipend and extra time hourly rates.

The fiscal impact, which you can see in the bar, is approximately $27,943,734, of which approximately $11,366,229 will be funded by a combination of state inflationary increase and capital funds.

We were asked by the Executive Committee to provide a three-year forecast for the costs, and that table has been added to the bar, as you will see.

I will answer the question about the pass and so as a management team We always work with our past partners to ensure that we can get professional development that meets the needs of the district We meet with them monthly.

They have an all-day professional development session here at the John Stanford Center.

So we work with the professional development committee that's designing those days and so if we want to have professional development around a retaining educators of color, hiring educators of color, or advancing racial equity or implicit bias, we have the right to do that, but we work with our partners to do so.

We have run this bypass so that they are in sync with this proposal.

So we have past members on the negotiating team they represent their constituents and so they were in favor of this as well.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

I just caught.

I'm glad you did the presentation.

I didn't catch it when I read through the BAR.

The statement that 11 million.

is a combination of the state inflationary increase and capital funds.

And so I'm curious which capital funds these are coming from.

These are general fund activities so I'm curious how they're coming out of the capital fund and which capital fund are they coming out of?

They will come out of BTA and BEX.

And how are they?

The technology part of the dollars.

Oh you're talking about the technology dollars.

That's right that fund the staff that do the technology.

That's right.

Which is that part.

You had me afraid for a second or I was afraid for a second.

Now you're right because that's the.

OK.

Thank you.

That you're paying attention.

Director Pinkham.

Do you think it would be helpful to put in what you have here at least where it says a mandatory building administrators doing something that Note this has been agreed upon bypass because then if someone goes in and reads this and say how can they be doing this?

including mandatory training So I think you're saying it here helps out, but then if people want to pull up this document and look at it, I see that that kind of being helpful, that that's kind of a little noted highlight, hey, this is approved by PASS or this has cleared PASS's approval.

One thing I can do when we bring the actual contract language to you on October 16th is I can add to the bar that PASS is represented on the negotiations team, if that's helpful.

Just approving the MOU tonight and then at a later time when all the T's have been dotted and all the I's have been all the T's have been crossed and the I's have been dotted that we will have the actual language.

Line by line.

Line by line.

And can we make an agreement as a board that we get that via electronics so we're not killing more trees because that's a long contract is my recollection.

Is that correct.

It's quite long.

OK.

Director Burke.

Did you have something.

Looking around 1 2 3 roll call please.

Director Pinkham.

aye Dr. Burke aye Dr. Mack aye Dr. Hersey aye Dr. DeWolf aye Dr. Harris aye and a huge thanks to our staff and our SEA partners and education.

We are going to take a 15 minute break.

We need you back here at 8 47. Thank you.

Thank you.