Seattle School Board Meeting - Jan 27, 2021

Can you hear me.

Just a quick check on sound.

We can hear you.

Good afternoon.

We will be calling the board meeting to order in a moment.

Could we please hold comments while SPS-TV takes us live.

After a 5-second pause I will call us to order.

This is Director Hampson.

I am now calling the January 27th 2021 regular board meeting to order at 430 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

We would like to acknowledge that we are on ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people.

I want to quickly acknowledge and give thanks to all of you for your patience while we experienced some extreme technical difficulties today.

We chose to delay the meeting by one hour in order to ensure that we as many people as possible could participate.

We will do everything we can and show as much grace as possible in our public testimony period to make sure that those that signed up still have the opportunity to speak.

and ask you all to support us in making sure that we are texting people and helping them get connected and online so that they can testify.

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Director DeWolf.

Present.

Director Harris.

Present.

Director Hersey.

Here.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith present and Director Hampson here.

Superintendent Juneau is also joining us for today's meeting and additional staff will be briefing the board as we move through the agenda.

As we begin this meeting I would also like to welcome Clifford Raymond Jenkins II who is joining us as the student representative for Middle College High School today.

We will be hearing from Clifford later in the meeting as well as fellow Middle College student Hidayah Abdinor who will be leading off our testimony list.

This meeting is being held remotely per the governor's proclamation prohibiting meetings such as this one from being held in person.

The public is being provided remote access today by phone and through SPS-TV by broadcast and streaming on YouTube.

To facilitate this meeting I will ask all participants to ensure you are muted when you are not speaking.

Staff may be muting participants to address feedback and ensure and ensure we can hear directors directors and staff.

I will now turn it over to Superintendent Juneau for her comments and to introduce staff to present the equitable access to programs and services annual report per board policy 2200.

Thank you.

Oh I'm sorry.

Thank you President Hampson Superintendent Juneau and good afternoon directors.

Before I turn it over to Chief Jessee to provide that update I just want to give a very quick update for the start of school planning so we're out in the public.

As you know our staff's working really hard to get ready to bring back pre-K through 1 students and students being served in special education intensive and moderate service pathways as early as March 1st.

And we are working with our labor partners at Seattle Education Association to prepare for a phased-in approach for a return to in-person services.

Negotiations are ongoing and we are prioritizing our first phase to be focused on special education intensive service pathways.

Conversations continue about how to best support pre-K-1 students and staff while adhering to safety protocols and prioritizing consistency of teachers for our youngest learners.

We know that we will need to have smaller cohorts of students and that families that choose to continue remote learning will be afforded that option.

We know that there are numerous logistics to work through and I appreciate SEA's commitment and engagement in this process.

And along with our educators district staff are committed to providing high quality learning for our students no matter the circumstances.

We'll continue to listen to our staff our families and students and respond to our community's needs.

And as you all know this includes advocating for vaccines for educators and all school-based staff.

We'll continue doing that.

We know that's important.

And while the nation suffers a vaccine shortage right now I know that we are all hopeful that the national and state response gets up to speed as soon as possible.

And just a reminder that every plan that's created and every decision that's made during the pandemic has to be flexible.

the spread of the virus and our community's response and how other organizations react also affects Seattle Public Schools.

So we'll continue to keep everyone informed of the latest also knowing that things may be subject to change.

So we are continuing that work.

We'll keep updated on our labor partners and those conversations.

And in the meantime we remain committed to providing high quality instruction remotely.

And I know this will be a conversation later in the agenda as well that educators and staff are now preparing for Black Lives Matter at School Week from February 4th through 8th.

And our schools as usual will be participating in a multitude of ways.

Public education systems and educators have an important role to play in disrupting legacies of racism and declaring Black Lives Matter at school affirms our commitment to all of our students.

It's as we prepare for this important week it's also important to remember that at Seattle Public Schools the lives and lived experiences of our Black youth matter not just during Black Lives Matter School Week or Black History Month but every single day.

I'm going to now turn it over to Chief Jesse Wyeth.

Wyeth Jesse to provide the annual update for Policy 2200.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Board President Hampson board directors and Superintendent Juneau.

Yes I'll be presenting on annual report on Policy 2200 Equitable Access to Programs and Services here in Seattle Public Schools.

That report is attached to today's agenda.

The summary of the actions help detail what changes we make to existing programs or services.

The development of new programs and services.

The replication of existing programs and services or the relocation of existing programs services or any other closures of existing services.

What it does not detail is anything governed by the Student Assignment Plan or other board policies.

And additionally it does not include any applicable changes to programs and services which are represented by law or other board policies to the school board or superintendent.

So these in the report we do provide these updates on the actions over the calendar year in quarterly reports at the Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee.

And then also attached to this report we do provide the links to the linked charts which help provide a detail of districts services and programs in the schools in which they are located.

Those services are English language learners ELL advanced learning and special education services.

These are really critical also just to the admissions process as families and students look for where services are located as they come to Seattle Public Schools or they are looking for where those programs and services are located each school year.

There is a limited number of changes this year obviously due to the corona pandemic.

Highlighted in this report are some changes to special education services.

Those services were really changed at four of our secondary schools.

Robert Eagle Staff Franklin Meany and Aki Kurose.

All those schools had additional FTE one FTE for special education services except for Franklin where they lost one.

And again these are due to enrollment or students qualifying for a specific special education service placement.

Also of change was around the Skills Center.

The Skills Center is a place where we are able to help support college and career pathways for our students.

We are continuously trying to expand and being obviously financially self-reliant.

We've had an increase in interest in a number of our courses and so that also impacts whether we are able to add or decrease some of the courses that we offer through the skill center.

Those include the media arts class moved from Seattle World School to Nova High School.

The medical office assistant health services where there was an increase in the PM course.

in the AM class and then we had an auto technology was increased from one location to two with the additional West Seattle High School being for both PM classes.

So with that that's the changes that we had for this this last year regarding programs and services.

And so that will conclude my summary of the annual report for policy 2200. Thank you.

And rather in the interest of time rather than go through any directors one by one unless there are burning questions that directors have with respect to this report I would ask that questions could be submitted to Superintendent Juneau and Chief Jessee and responded to in the Friday memo so that public can see.

Board members if you do have a burning question please speak now.

Going once.

Going twice.

And we are going to move on.

Okay.

Again I would like to welcome Middle College Senior Clifford Raymond Jenkins II.

And Clifford before I turn it over to you for your comments could you help me or I should say I just want to make sure that we get the the pronunciation of your fellow Millow College student correct of her name who will be speaking during the public comments.

Sorry I cannot hear you just now.

Do you need the pronunciation of her name.

Yeah I I want to make sure if I pronounced it correct earlier.

Oh yes I believe so.

Okay.

I was and if she was on I was going to invite her to go ahead and step in and if not we'll get her when she comes to.

Hidayah Abdinor is what I had said so I just want to make sure that that's correct.

Okay so go ahead Clifford we'd love to hear from you.

Thank you for the introduction by the way.

I wanted to let the school board know in detail how significant Middle College has been in paving my path towards a successful future even within this pandemic.

And I believe that our school is a model of how our education system should be changed to fit our new learners learners.

Middle College had model teachers who all empathize with their students knowing that mistakes should not be made as an adult but made as a teen in the final stretch of our nurturing.

It's a big step in the learning process to make mistakes.

Because they understand this we view our teachers as colleagues.

People you know who want your success and create appropriate relationships with their students.

They help us give our help us gain trust between the two of us and between ourselves and our teachers.

And it's fundamental in the process of learning.

The environment Middle College provides is something that gave me a motivation that I knew my mistakes wouldn't mean the end.

It's what Middle College has emotionally offered me as well.

I was able to turn around from what I my old experiences with the education system and show the scholar I was meant to be.

I was able to go to the Ida B. Wells site.

We were on the UW campus running start.

I was on the Shoreline campus.

It gave me a college environment.

It's it's something that I feel that the needs to come into some training or even an unwritten guideline for our teachers because just teaching students without emphasizing the importance of what they're learning or making the lesson not as engaging as it could be is the equivalent of teaching zombies waiting to go back to rest.

It's a new era.

an era of questioning and an era of doubt.

And it we already see this with the increased number of commercials or advertisements challenging traditional ideas about the importance of college.

The residual message message here I want the school board to take away is that education needs to catch up and prove its importance.

Something about middle college is it preps the maturity of our students for the outside world.

What is your plan A through Z or because you know you have different choices.

This is where it starts.

Helping build a foundation of trust between teacher and student.

And this is what makes middle college not only a good fit for most if not all students coming to learn and grow but a good transition from middle school to high school and high school to beyond.

It's an overall phenomenal work environment for me. for our generate new generation of students actually.

It's the start of the practice to get teachers to help their students trust what they're learning love what they're learning and I feel like we need to be able to resonate with our teachers education structure.

Otherwise faith in the education system is in jeopardy.

That would be it.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you so very much for those thoughtful and profound words.

And I hope that you will.

We don't get taken up taken up on it much but I do encourage students to please let us know if you'd like to comment as we move through the agenda.

Your perspective is very much welcome.

We've now reached the consent portion of today's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Director Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda.

Seeing none.

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

Okay this motion has passed.

We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda.

We will be taking public testimony by teleconference today as stated on the agenda.

Pausing Ms. Wilson-Jones in case I have any update to that.

So do interrupt me if I make a mistake there.

For any speakers watching through SPS-TV please call in now to ensure you are on the phone line when your name is called.

Board Procedure 1430BP provides the rules for testimony and I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

First testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website which hopefully most of you can access at this time.

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones and only one person should speak at a time.

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called.

The total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers and time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins.

In order to maximize opportunities for others to address the board each speaker is allowed only one speaking slot per meeting.

If a speaker cedes time to a later testimony speaker on the testimony list or waiting list the person to whom time was ceded will not be called to provide testimony again later in the meeting as there is only one speaking slot per person.

Those who do not wish to have time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or wait list.

Finally the majority of the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will you read off the testimony speakers.

Thank you President Hampson.

Quick logistical note.

Speakers please remain muted until your name is called to provide testimony.

When you hear your name please be sure you have unmuted on your phone and then also press star-6 to unmute yourself on the conference call line.

Each speaker will have a 2-minute speaking time and a sound will chime when your time is exhausted and the next speaker will then be called.

We do have several speakers today who will be utilizing interpreters and so for these speakers the chime will sound at 4 minutes to allow for interpretation.

First on today's public testimony list is Hidayah Abdener.

Hi my name is Hidayah and I am a freshman at Middle College High School.

As someone who values my education has a strong drive can't afford private schooling and wanted a smaller cohort of students I didn't have many options to choose from.

It took me three months of desperate after-school searching to find Middle College High School.

Let me tell you it was a blessing.

Not only did I think I was being picky in my school choice I thought it was impossible to find one that I was content with.

I can speak on behalf of the student body at Seattle University that we love it here.

It would be awesome if the board could maintain our staff and fund a small school so we can afford another classroom building or another teacher because as you know next year we will be adding the cohort of 9th graders.

May approve of this I'll push my luck by asking for more funding so we can afford extracurricular classes.

I think that will make everyone's experience here delightful fun and unforgettable one.

Now I want to move on and talk about students and how important it is for them to have a support system.

Our parents being one of them.

There are many low-income and bilingual families.

Some parents just don't have the time energy knowledge or even the means to access the programs and resources available to them on the school page.

Example being our option school.

Lastly there's a stigma about mental health that should not exist.

I petition the school board to consider establishing a life skills course as a mandatory course for high school graduation.

This life skills course can offer a practical curriculum that enables students to practice healthy living routines and to create a healthy self-image.

Our students' health and well-being should be prioritized over academic status and our current course requirements are inadequate to meet the needs of so many students who are struggling with mental health issues.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Really appreciate your participation today.

And as well you may ask comments as as we go through the agenda.

Ms. Wilson-Jones next speaker.

Next is Christine Boyle.

Christine Boyle.

My name is Christine Boyle.

I'm a third grader and future kindergartner at Kimball Elementary.

I am also a teacher at John Stanford International School.

On Sunday I sent a video to the board highlighting the transportation issues related to moving Kimball from Mercer to Washington.

While I hope the entire board view the video I'm speaking now to reiterate the transportation problems shown in the video and to urge the board to consider this and all the other issues put forth by the Kimball community as you vote on the Southeast Middle School boundary change.

On January 23rd over 20 families met at Kimball to walk to Washington.

The entire board was also invited and we really appreciated that Director Rivera-Smith joined us.

The walk to Washington was 1.8 miles and took 40 minutes.

The entirety of the walk was on busy arterial streets with no separated bike lane.

We crossed many intersections including a 6-way intersection with legal right turns on red.

On that same day I also walked with my children down the trail that leads from Kimball to the nearest bus stop.

This trail goes through an unlit and isolated set of stairs that I as a grown woman feel uncomfortable walking alone.

The other Metro bus route students could take to Washington from Kimball involves a bus transfer in the International District.

That same Saturday my family rode bikes to Mercer.

The entire 1.2 mile ride was on residential streets and we were able to utilize the Seattle closed streets and Jefferson Park bike paths to make the most of the to make most of the ride car-free.

Traveling to both schools in one day really highlighted the drastic difference in safety distance and accessibility between the two schools.

In summary there is no safe way for an 11-year-old child living near Kimball to get to Washington Middle School on their own.

But the route to Mercer is literally a walk in the park.

To close my third my third grade daughter Veronica has a request for the board.

Please don't make me change to a school that is dangerous to get to when I want to go to the school right in my neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones please call the next speaker.

Next is Emily Cherkin.

Emily Cherkin.

This is Emily Cherkin.

I cede my time to Leah Lockwood.

Thank you Emily.

Regarding the agenda item about the interim superintendent among the issues given for passing this item it says this.

It is well understood that students benefit on average from stability and indeed that is the main concern for parents.

The loss of stability in their lives from not being in school.

As a special needs parent I'm deeply concerned about this.

We are a biracial family in District 4. We moved to this district specifically for our first grader school.

And we believe in the strength and the power of the teachers the staff and the SPS community who supported our children for the past 7 years.

My first grader has a very rare genetic condition called Tetrasomy X which primarily affects development and behavior.

And we recently started an IEP for services which is completely virtual.

And during in-person school my daughter had challenges but she did wonderfully.

She thrives on routine social interaction and requires extensive guidance and scaffolding from her teachers.

Since remote learning she's now developed severe anxiety anger outbursts obsessive behaviors sensory issues She's become depressed and we are working with a pediatric psychiatrist.

My husband and I act as her teacher assistant all day guiding her through assignments doing everything we possibly can to make this work as are her teachers and specialists and principals and staff and it's not enough.

Our family's mental health is deteriorating.

Previously I was the caregiver for my younger brother who struggled with mental illness until he passed away and to now see the same similar symptoms in my 6-year-old daughter is completely heartbreaking.

to have her work so hard every day at the end of the day to burst into tears screaming I just want to go to real school is crushing to listen to as a parent.

The silent pandemic is affecting every one of our children the longer we isolate them from the educational environment they deserve and for which they have a basic right.

So my question is how will Dr. Jones Interim Super address special needs students as we plan to return to school.

How will these students continue to be served once teachers are deployed to buildings and when will the board provide a transparent plan for returning grades 2 through 12. Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

The next speaker is Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins.

Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On Southeast Middle School boundaries and the assignment plan.

Seven points.

Number one Kimball would feed into Washington Middle School instead of Mercer.

Hawthorne and Tecroce Bagley would be a combination Montessori and temporary program.

The native speaker definition would change for set-aside seats and dual-language immersion programs.

Number two the district supposedly guarantees seats at normal attendance area schools but when seats run out the district withdraws the guarantee and instead redraws the boundaries.

Number three and Washington and Bagley are not normal schools.

Washington is run by a private company and Bagley is a combo school mixing a non-contemporary program into all all of its classes.

Number 4. The issue of dual-language set-aside seats should not be swept into a superintendent procedure to hide who gets the seats.

Number 5. When the district moved away from the previous choice system students choosing outside their neighborhoods lost transportation.

A court found that the plan aggravated racial imbalance at schools.

I helped parents go to court to contest the plan.

Number 6. Instead of today's proposals restore this transportation.

Number 7. Families can file a court appeal of today's board actions within 30 days under RCW 28A 645. I can supply names of attorneys.

Please vote no.

On the superintendent hiring process introduction and action at the same meeting is poor practice.

Please vote no.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones next speaker please.

Tiffany Acker.

Tiffany Acker.

Tiffany Acker.

This is Tiffany Acker and I cede my time to Faiza Abdi.

Hello.

My name is Faiza Abdi.

My mother was going to speak today but since she can't since she won't be able to join us I'll be sharing her concerns of her son Abdullahi Abdi a Kimball student going to Washington.

Her children are going to four different schools so morning commuting will be a hassle.

Having her children go to schools near her house is more time convenient and also she'll feel more comfortable of her child going to a school close to her and also her child going to a school where all her children graduated from.

She will also like to know why her son isn't able to go to Mercy Middle School.

Mercer Middle School is up the hill from our house.

She also her and her neighbors.

Did we lose you there.

Did we are you on mute all of a sudden accidentally.

Hello.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

The next speaker is Michelle Bradley.

Michelle Bradley.

And I'm sorry Michelle before you start if the prior speaker is able to come back around let's get her back.

Thank you.

Go ahead Michelle.

Thank you.

My name is Michelle Bradley.

And I cede to my neighbor Rayyan Ahar.

You may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Hi my name is. my other sibling go to Kimball's my other sister graduating in Kimball the upcoming school year.

I don't like thinking about the possibilities of my sister being in a separate school with no one to guide her through the way.

Transportation will also be hard because Washington Middle School and Marshall Middle School have the same start times in Washington Davis neighborhood.

This not only affects my family but the many Rainier Vista families who attend Mercer.

Some families only wait for a chance this year is walking in Rainier Vista's walking distance from Mercer.

However Washington Middle School is technically smaller in distance if compared to.

This will be a big problem if and very hard for my family if Kimball is moved to Washington.

Please delay the vote until the end of the 2021 until the end.

so the board can truly engage with the Kimball community and come to a critical solution.

Thank you.

Thank you Ms.

Wilson-Jones.

Next is Michelle Hunter.

Michelle Hunter.

Michelle Hunter.

Michelle if you're on the line you may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Moving to the next speaker.

Molly D'Alessandro.

Molly D'Alessandro.

Molly D'Alessandro.

Molly D'Alessandro you're on the line.

Moving to the next speaker.

Huyen Tran.

Huyen Tran.

And I believe we may be utilizing an interpreter for this testimony.

If you're on the line you may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Yes I am on the line.

Can I speak Vietnamese to her.

Yes please.

Do we have the translator.

Yes I'm here.

President Hampson would you like me to move down the list and I can circle back and call names or.

Well I'm sorry do we know that who the translator is.

I'm not sure why this isn't getting translated.

Nope this is our interpreter who's speaking.

They're helping us reach out to try to find the individual who signed up.

Oh I see.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay that wasn't clear.

So yes we can circle back please.

Next up.

Oh.

Is this somebody on our testimony list who has been called.

Sorry can you say your name one more time.

I don't believe we've reached your name on the testimony list.

Moving to the next speaker on today's testimony list Manuela Slye.

Manuela Slye.

Moving to the next speaker.

Kristen Su.

Kristen Su.

Kristen Su.

Moving to the next speaker.

Wing Vy Phuong.

and I believe we'll be utilizing an interpreter.

Michael I think you might be our interpreter for this one.

Yes I'm ready once she finished with speaking I will follow up with her interpretation.

Thank you.

And if you're able to help me with the Wingsy Fung if you're able to help me with the pronunciation of the name we've got it.

Okay moving to our next speaker.

Dawn — Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Sorry Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Can you go back to Manuela Slye she was trying to unmute.

Absolutely.

Manuela Slye.

Manuela if you're there you can go ahead.

Okay we'll come back to her.

Go ahead to the next person.

We're now to Gon Nhu Quang.

Gon.

Gon Nhu Quang.

Again I believe we're also Michael would be utilizing you as an interpreter.

Yes I'm also ready.

Once she finished speaking I will interpret for her.

Thank you.

Are you on the line Gan Nu Wong.

Moving to our next speaker.

Stephanie Neal.

Stephanie Neal.

Stephanie Neal.

Hey Ellie this is Director Hersey.

I'm getting messages from community that folks are trying to unmute and it's not allowing them to do so.

Let's take a real quick let me just investigate the options for this meeting.

I think they should be able to unmute but let me confirm that and if anybody's joining by phone you should be able to press star-6 to unmute when your name is called.

And just a note to listeners.

When you press star-6 it takes a moment to to actually unmute.

So be patient after you hit star-6.

Pause and then start talking.

Hello is there one of our interpreters able to help us confirm the name of our speaker.

Yes that's Kanu Wong.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Yeah.

The school district, the school district in Kimpo, sent the kids to school in Washington.

This news, the three generations of our family are very worried.

Because my daughter goes to work every day.

I don't know English and I don't know how to drive.

I have a big problem with my Chinese.

I have a big problem.

During this pandemic, I want to learn...

The school has a bus to pick me up, a yellow bus to pick me up to go to school, to drop me off, that's reasonable.

If it wasn't for this, I wouldn't be able to pick you up.

So I feel very disappointed.

But you should do it for those elderly women who have this virus and are still in the middle of it.

It's not about adding frost to the snow.

Please help us.

Please help us to think about the safety of our children.

Hello everyone.

My name is Kan Yu Wong.

I'm 68 years old.

Like many Chinese grandmother I help my daughter to pick up and drop off my grandkids to school.

Last week when I heard that the school district is going to transfer Kimball Elementary School students to Washington Middle School our family of three generation was very worried.

As you know my daughter goes to work every day and I'm the only one going to pick up my grandkids from school.

I do not speak English and I cannot drive.

I do not even know where this middle school is.

How to get there by public transportation.

So far we have not heard that there will be yellow bus to pick them up and drop them off.

This change is too unreasonable and too scary.

It is so frustrating to know that you are changing school boundaries during this outbreak.

You should be sending warmth to us in this winter and not putting salt on our wounds.

For the safety of our children and the overwhelming worriness of our grandparents please be considerate.

I hope you will provide yellow bus to reduce the pressure on my grandkids and myself.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Ms. Wilson-Jones can we loop back before we go too much further.

Yes.

Going back to Michelle Hunter.

Michelle Hunter.

Michelle Hunter.

And we do currently have all of our callers muted so you'll need to press star-6 to unmute when your name is called.

Michelle Hunter.

Moving to the next speaker.

Molly D'Alessandro.

Molly D'Alessandro.

Molly D'Alessandro.

Moving to our next speaker.

Quyen Tran.

Quyen Tran.

Quyen Tran.

The next speaker Manuela Sly.

Manuela Slye.

Manuela Slye.

Next speaker.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I'm not sure.

There's there seem to still be people who are they're pressing star-6.

They're trying to unmute and we can't hear them.

I don't know.

I'm not sure what the fix would be.

The options are set in this meeting and we have had speakers who are able to press star-6.

We don't have the ability within the meeting itself to unmute people.

Okay let's keep going through the list and we'll keep looping back around.

Kristen Su.

Kristen Su.

I see a couple of people who have joined and were unmuted are either of them people whose names I've called so far.

Moving to the next speaker.

Wingzi Feng.

Wingzi Feng.

And then moving to Stephanie Neal.

Stephanie Neal.

I'm hesitant to mute people but I do see there's a 604 number and a 639 number so if either of you are folks whose names I've read then please let me know.

Okay.

Moving into.

Oh.

No I can't get it to work at all.

We can hear you.

We can hear you.

Who is this.

Your number begins with 718. We can hear you.

Okay.

Tech issues abound today.

Let's keep cycling through.

Moving to the next speaker.

Apologies I can't remember if I recalled Stephanie Neal's name.

Stephanie Neal.

Moving to the next speaker Zainab Ahmed.

Zainab Ahmed.

Next speaker is Carissa Pomren.

Carissa Pomren.

Carissa Pomren.

And if there's anybody on the line who is trying to press star-6 and not being unmuted maybe you could hang up and try again.

Apologies that there appears to be a technical issue.

Carissa Pomren.

Moving to the next speaker Jennifer Wittenberg.

Jennifer Wittenberg.

Jennifer Wittenberg.

Hello this is Director Hersey.

Is it unreasonable to restart this meeting.

I mean I find it pretty alarming that we can't hear from any of the public that have showed up and taken the time to testify today many of which are here.

But the problem is is a tech issue on our end.

So I think we owe it to community to try every possible avenue to give folks their opportunity to speak.

I'm wondering about Nicholson Jones since we've is whether we can provide them with a link.

I'm currently able to hear looks like a number of people have called back in and we're not actively muting people right now so I need to ask everyone whose name has not been called yet to mute just on your device and we'll try not to mute you through this system if that is perhaps a fix.

Is there anybody who has had their name called.

Yes.

Hello.

So let me let me cycle back through the top because it looks like we may have several people.

And please everyone mute on your device.

We'll try not to unmute.

We'll try not to mute you through our settings because it seems like that might be the issue.

So beginning at the top Michelle Hunter.

This is Michelle Hunter.

Can you hear me.

Go ahead.

Go ahead Michelle we can hear you.

I'd like to cede my time to Lewis Escamilla.

Hello can you hear me.

Hello can you hear me.

Yes we can hear you.

Thank you.

It's it's actually Luisa Escamilla.

Hello directors.

Thank you for having me.

Again my name is Luisa Escamilla.

I'm an educator of color and a first year assistant principal here at Kimball Elementary.

I want to be able to share some of the experiences of a number of our families during this time of COVID and in the context of the discussion revolving around Kimball's potential reassignment.

I work with a number of families of Latinx backgrounds.

Many of these parents have lost hours of work or work hours and have experienced financial hardship just in general.

I've met a number of families who have multiple members of the household who have contracted COVID.

So they're being hit double both by economic uncertainty financial hardship as well as health-wise.

I've also worked with a number of Vietnamese families facing food insecurity relying on what our organization Seattle Public Schools our own school and on on what local community-based organizations are able to offer.

In many cases it still feels like it's not enough.

In December I worked with an East African mom and daughter excuse me who both contracted COVID-19 were struggling with bills technology and really who are just getting by.

Earlier this month I met a Filipina mother who told me that she hides her fear her uncertainty of the future from her children wondering if the food's going to run out or if she's going to be able to pay bills for the next month.

These are families Seattle Public Schools families and both South End families and I hope these experiences become part of the larger discussion related to the consequential discussions and decisions you'll be making tonight and in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your patience.

Next Ms.

Wilson-Jones.

Next speaker is Molly D'Alessandro and I will let everyone know who's joined by phone that we can't hear anything that you're saying in your phone right now so please do mute if your name has not been called.

Molly D'Alessandro.

Molly D'Alessandro.

Moving to the next speaker.

Gwen Tran.

Gwen Tran.

The next speaker Manuela Slye.

Manuela Slye.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Oh good.

Thank you and good afternoon or evening maybe.

My name is Manuela Slye.

I'm President of Seattle Council PTSA.

I'm here today on behalf of the Seattle Council PTSA board to express our firm support to the contract negotiation and hopefully hiring of Dr. Brent Jones as Interim Superintendent.

Seattle Council PTSA has done extensive family and community engagement work for years now.

Since the school closure our council has connected thousands of families to each other to their elected officials King County Public Health Seattle Education Association and other organizations.

We take family and community engagement seriously.

But with the time constraints we understand and trust your decision to hire an interim superintendent who will bring experience leadership and will facilitate a smooth and necessary transition so our school board can make sure authentic community engagement is front and center in the permanent position hiring process.

We want communities of color to have a say.

We want students to have a say.

That takes time effort and an intentional focus on culturally responsive action to amplify the voices of our BIPOC communities.

We hope the negotiation of Dr. Jones' contract is successful.

We would be so lucky if he accepts the position.

Ultimately it is our hope that we can come together.

Leadership staff school board educators and families together we must face forward and center our students and their needs hopes and dreams.

We owe them that and no less than that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Sorry.

Go ahead.

This is Molly D'Alessandro.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Good to hear your voice.

And go ahead.

Thank you.

I would like to cede my time to my friend Daisy Situ Chen.

Chui zhi dou Mozart ho shang, ren shou guo duo, kong yong xiao hok de ho shang, zhang wui zhou duo Hua sheng dun zhong hok, wong wong wo de gua, jia ren guo da heng sheng qi, fen lu wang mou ngoi.

Dai yut, hai di lei wei zhi shang, yei gai hua heng bu heob li, wo jia zhu zui Mozart guo fu gen, zhi sui yu bu heng si fun zhong, yu bu heng hui Hua sheng dun zhong hok, zhu sui yu gau sok fun zhong, tsok gong gao che ge, zhu sui yu si sok fun zhong, zhun sui yu zhun sheng.

Dai yut, ku lu ho hok hao gau yuk zi yun gung bun bu ping dang, Lui Yi's mother tongue is Chinese.

Song Yu High School is her ideal school.

But according to my family's address she can't choose Song Yu High School at all.

It's a pity that there is no hope for our Wai Yat Nan to go to Song Yu High School.

Third, the uniformity of public and private schools has caused dissatisfaction and hatred in the community.

For example, last week my friend was very angry when she saw me and told me that your parents in Gumbo Elementary School asked me to go to Song Yu High School at the latest.

你可以有其他途徑去讀Mercer 我我們沒有並沒有犧牲任何一個小朋友利益而達到我們的目的 教育不是一個資本市場 不需要家長們為競爭一份教育資源勾心鬥角 惡言相向甚至以身犯險 我建議的是第一重新劃分校區需要從長計議 徵集更多不同膚色家庭的意見 I'm going to interpret for this family.

This is Michael.

My name is Chun-Chu Chen.

When I enrolled my daughter into Seattle Public Schools I found out that Mercer International was overcrowded and students at Kimball Elementary would need to attend Washington Middle School.

When we first got the news my family and I felt very angry outraged and helpless.

First in terms of geographic location this plan does not make sense.

My family lives near Mercer International School and it only takes four minutes to walk over to Mercer.

If you are walking to Washington Middle School it takes 90 minutes.

If you're on a bus it takes 40 minutes and you will also need to do a transfer.

Second educational resources in public schools are not equal at all especially for families whose English is not their mother tongue.

My daughter speak Chinese at home.

School with dual language program is more suitable for her development due to our geographic location.

My daughter was not able to enter a dual language program elementary school.

Now I only hope for dual language education is totally wiped out.

Third unequal resources in public school also trigger discontent and hatred among communities.

For example last week when my friend saw me in an angry tone he said the way that Kimball family's request Are you going to make our son who is currently studying in a dual-language program also lost our chance to go to Mercer.

You have other ways to go to Mercer.

We do not want to sacrifice the interest of any child to achieve our goal.

We just want to fight for our children's right.

Education is not a capitalistic market.

We do not need parents to compete for educational resource.

Fighting among ourselves and even to a point of risking our life.

My advice.

Number one.

Redrawing school boundaries requires a long-term plan and need to solicit the views of more families of color.

Number two.

Seattle Public Schools must offer yellow bus to Kimball students if Washington Middle School is your final decision.

Number three.

Seattle Public Schools need to have more dual-language education opportunities.

Seattle is a multicultural city.

Our education culture is to assembly which is not going to satisfy with Seattle's future development at all.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next speaker.

And I believe that Gwen Tran is now on the line.

Is that correct.

Yes.

Please go ahead with your testimony and then we also.

Yes please go ahead with your testimony.

Yes.

First, based on the data of the school district, 100% of Kimball students can walk to Mercer.

I, along with many parents and Kimball students, took part in the walk last Saturday at 8.30 a.m., and I lost 45 minutes.

From Kimball to Washington, can you imagine how a 11-year-old boy and an adult can walk 1.9 miles in a cold early morning or on rainy days alone, and will have to cross many crowded streets and not be as safe?

Can you imagine what it would be like if it were your child?

Not all Kimball families live near the bus stop.

And not many parents can take their children to different schools at the same time every morning.

And there will be a lot of problems when many children go to school late because of the bus, lack of sleep, road closures, or even traffic accidents.

Second, our children have no chance to learn the language program at Kimball.

And now we are very disappointed.

He can't do it.

But I'll talk to her.

I'm not like that.

But I'm not going to do that.

But I'm not going to do that.

But I'm not going to do that.

But I'm not going to do that.

But I'm not going to do that.

But I'm not going to do that.

But I'm not going to do that.

I am presenting to you today to ask you to delay your voting on transferring our children from Kimball to Washington School.

Your hasty decision would affect 100 families who have their children attending at Kimball.

First according to district data 100 percent of Kimball students can walk to Mercer Middle School.

Last Saturday I many parents and Kimball students walked from Kimball to Washington School.

We start walking at 830 in the morning.

It took us 45 minutes to get to Washington.

Can you imagine how it would be for an 11-year-old schoolboy to walk for 1.9 miles wearing a heavy backpack especially when it is an early cold morning or when it rains heavily by himself on a on an unsafe and crowded streets.

Can you imagine what it would be if it was your child.

Not many parents leave nearby bus station or footpath and pick up their children at different school all at once.

There are many things could happen on their way to school such as late for class due to not being able to catch the bus on time not having enough sleep in order to wake up early to catch the bus.

They could be late for classes because of traffic or accident.

Therefore our children didn't have any chance to attain the dual language program at Kimball.

We were very disappointed.

We are even more disappointed when knowing that our children will lose their second chance by not being able to transfer to Mercer School.

You might have made your final decision.

However I would like you to carefully consider my only two requests.

First providing the yellow school buses to Washington School for our students who had attended Kimball School instead of providing instead of providing the awkward card.

And second is to guarantee that all Kimball students can attend Mercer School with their siblings.

I hope the school board will delay the voting until you could give us a better solution rather than this hasty decision today.

I strongly hope that you would do your best for all your students in Seattle area as you have been promised.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next speaker.

Struggling back.

Kristen Su.

Hi.

Can you hear me now.

Yes we can.

Great.

Hi my name's Kristen and I'm a Kimball alum and parent.

I implore you to vote no on moving Kimball to Washington to allow more time to thoughtfully engage in community outreach and find more equitable solutions.

Honestly we feel demoralized because the district has made us feel unheard.

The past 20 days since the January 7th vote have been exhausting.

We have busted our butts frantically trying to reach our families of color in order to inform them and get feedback because SPS has failed to do so.

In that time we had a meeting with the district slash board in which they left over 50 questions from 60 plus parents unanswered and a district chief has flat out refused to meet with us.

When it seemed clear that the board was heavily leaning toward a yes vote many of our BIPOC families expressed feeling tired and defeated by the system.

They are used to their voices not making a difference.

Institutionalized racism and systemic oppression create a sense of fear and scarcity especially within BIPOC and immigrant communities.

These sentiments we heard from the sentiments we heard from these communities was that it looks hopeless that they will change their minds and we don't want to gamble with our children.

This decision is as much about the process as it is about the outcome and the district's process has been shameful at best without regard to our most vulnerable families.

It is unconscionable for the district to make this decision on a 3-month timeline in the midst of a pandemic especially when they've done zero community engagement for the last 7 years.

While we're still strong proponents of a no-vote the district has backed us into a corner.

He said this is not a feel-good decision.

If you must vote yes today at the very least you must continue to work with us to make this difficult change more equitable for those who will be most impacted.

I want to emphasize that the proposed mitigations are just the beginning of the conversation.

It is the district's responsibility to reach out to Kimball families and determine what mitigations the most vulnerable families in our community need.

This crucial task should not be forced on parents while volunteering our time.

I hope that moving forward the district will do better to get the tools and systems in place they have they need to have true family engagement and hope for improving equity for all Southeast Seattle schools.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Wilson-Jones next speaker.

Can I ask all of our speakers who have joined by phone to please mute yourselves on your devices.

We can hear when you are speaking into your phones and we are endeavoring not to mute you on our end so that you can more easily speak.

If your phone number starts with 353 please do mute yourself on your device.

Our next speaker circling back again to Wing Zhi Feng Hello.

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

Yes.

You can hear me right.

We are using the family-based and school-based measures to show our discontent.

The school board and school board members feel the pain of changing the school line.

We all feel the pain, but our pain is not because the children have to go to another school, but because the school-to-school process is too difficult.

Your so-called community meetings only use your data to tell me why we need to change, why we need to change the line.

I'm sorry.

Our Kimball and Hawthorne schools are just the beginning.

There will be more problems with the transition of schools and the school district will continue to use these methods to deal with long-term problems.

There will only be more problems and the parents will be more dissatisfied with the school district's policies.

Our parents, after this experience, know the school district's ways of doing things, but it is obvious that the school district has never learned anything from the parents' demands.

You have monopolized the right of our children to have education at school.

We feel very helpless.

We hope that the school board will pay more attention to the importance of education and consider setting up education courses in other primary schools so that every child can have equal opportunities to participate.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Wing Sze Fung.

I am representing the Asian family of Kimball Elementary School.

I'd like to thank the school board for this opportunity for me to express my views and thank the directors from 7th District and the 2nd District for taking the time to meet with our parents and listen to our views.

Asian parents want to express strong dissatisfaction with the Seattle School District approach.

The school board told us that changing schools boundary is a painful experience.

We felt the same way.

But our pain is not because our children need to go to another school.

It is the ridiculous way the school district handled the situation.

In the community meeting you only use your data to tell us why you need to change the school boundaries.

You did not really answer our questions.

School districts said they value parents opinion but you just listen but never really adopt any of our suggestion.

You have used a superficial and short-sighted approach to solve a long-term problem.

Now you know why we are in pain.

During the outbreak, the school district just took two and a half months to deal with Mercer's overcrowded problem, which happened eight years ago.

You just want to get it over with and never want to solve the real problem.

You are just playing with us.

Kimball and Hawthorne Elementary transfer to another middle school is only a start.

School boundary problems will happen in the future and the way school district deal with these long-term issue will only produce more problems and more dissatisfaction with the school district policy.

Throughout this process many parents have come to realize how district operate but school district did not learn anything from the perspective of the parents.

You have deprived my children the right to receive dual-language education at school.

We felt very helpless.

Our hope is that the school district will pay more attention to the importance of dual-language education curriculum and consider setting up dual-language program in other middle school so that every child can have an equal opportunity to participate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Stephanie Neal.

Stephanie Neal.

Hi can you hear me.

Yes we can.

Go ahead.

Great.

My name is Stephanie Neal and I'm a parent of two Black Kimball and Mercer students.

I'm here to ask that the school board delay the official vote to move Kimball to Washington in order to fully assess other options on their possible impact.

I am beyond angry and disappointed in SPS for choosing to make such a large decision and let's give a global pandemic when many students parents and school staff are struggling just to get through the day.

Doing so demonstrates that racial equity and educational justice and what is best for students are not priorities for the school board or the district.

The district has knowingly excluded families who are unable to communicate via email or attend school board meetings from this process.

Feedback has been given time and again that many families are unable to participate in this process if in-person meetings are not present.

The board's assertion that the only families opposing this decision are White economically privileged families is as you can hear from our speakers today is false.

It was only because of our outreach efforts as a Kimball community particularly Kimball families of color that were able to engage those who don't have email or for whom English is not their first language.

There was virtually no outreach from the district to our most vulnerable families.

It is clear that there has been no assessment of the impact this will have on students' attendance and engagement including after-school activities and sports and access for parents.

I will remind the board that free access to public education starts the minute a student gets on a school bus until the school bus drops them off at home.

That includes access to extracurricular activities school sports and programs that are built into the school day such as Kingmakers.

How will busing affect the attendance of students who cannot get to school any other way.

If they miss the bus they miss school.

Students do better when their education is relationship when they are in classes with teachers who live in their communities who know them their siblings and their parents.

Many Kimball and Mercer parents are alumni of the same school as their children now attend.

This generational through-line is one of the reasons Kimball and Mercer are so successful in family engagement.

There is time-tested trust and investment from both the families and the schools.

Sending Kimball students to Washington destroys this through-line and alienates families from participating in their school community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next for public testimony is Zainab Ahmed.

Zainab Ahmed.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

Hi my name is Zainab Ahmed mother of two children and an aunt to six nieces and a nephew at Kimball.

I am also representing 30 other Somali students who live within walking distance to Mercer who are housed at Rainier Vista.

I would like the board and the district to know that we felt unheard and feel like the decision was made without the involvement of the community of the Kimball community particularly the bilingual community.

Most of us found out about the decision a couple of weeks ago.

And when you think about it it is appalling because the district takes pride in community engagement equity and accessibility specifically for Black families and students.

Those who are the furthest from educational justice This decision has a negative impact on our families who do not have voice and who cannot navigate the system but whose students are already I'm sorry or students I'm sorry but whose students already have a home at Mercer.

I want the board and district to know how hard we have worked to get in touch with families to inform them and to solicit feedback.

I want to say all of this in hopes that moving forward You will do better and get the tools and systems in place you will need to have true family engagement that does not stop at email as your only form of communication.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I remind everyone to please mute on your devices.

We can hear the background noise.

Next is Carissa Pomren.

Carissa Pomren.

Hi this is Carissa Pomren.

I cede my time to Gabriela Romero.

Gabriella if you could hear us can you unmute.

Gabriella if you're here can you unmute.

If you want to check in with Gabriella we can come back around.

Thank you so much.

Moving to the next speaker.

Moving to the next speaker Jennifer Wittenberg.

Jennifer Wittenberg.

Jennifer Wittenberg.

And if you're hearing your name and you've pressed star 6 and it's not unmuting please do hang up and call back in and we'll leave you unmuted and I'll call your name again later.

The next speaker is Emijah Smith.

Emijah Smith.

Emijah Smith.

Elka Sud.

Elka Sud.

Elka Sud.

Again if you're hearing your name and you're pressing star-6 you're and you're unable to unmute please do hang up and then call back in and see if that works.

Next is Eddie Rye.

Eddie Rye.

Eddie Rye.

Next speaker is Marquita Markita Hinojosa.

Next speaker is Joseph Brian Sawaya.

Joseph Brian Sawaya.

Hello.

Can you hear me.

We can and who is this speaking.

Oh hi.

My name is Elka Sud and you just called my name.

Go ahead Elka.

Hi.

As a person of color raising a student of color I have concerns over the mental well-being of all of our students.

Last spring I had the heart-wrenching experience of watching my high schooler barely get out of bed for days on end.

We knew this fall as a sophomore his grades would count more for his future success for possible SATs and later on college applications.

His lifeline to good mental health this fall has been basketball where he's been practicing three times a week safely outside on his school team.

But academically he complains daily of how he struggles to pay attention how bored he is and how little he believes he's learning.

He has a hard time accepting he may not return part-time this spring or even next fall.

He reads that many other districts including his cousins have publicly stated they will return part-time this spring.

And now my son stresses over the missed learning opportunities in comparison.

He asked me if there's any plan from SPS.

My concern is to balance his mental health versus COVID risk for him and all of my many teacher friends.

According to today's board action number 4 SPS are committed to leveraging research and evaluation to support decision making to develop policies.

I would like SPS to show us what sources they use for evaluation of policies.

For example we haven't had a district-wide survey since June.

The CDC says schools are safe to open as they're not shown to spread COVID.

Are SPS using that data to determine plans to negotiate contracts.

I would like to understand the ventilation update.

I would like to understand how we're going to accommodate teachers not in position to return in person.

If the proposal is to use ELL teachers to have smaller student cohorts how will we fill this gap for the ELL learners in our community.

With regards to agenda item number 5 and interim superintendent I would request that any appointment prioritize a candidate who is committed to instructing his staff to developing a safe plan to reopen based on science fact safety measures for all grades.

prioritize the mental health of all of our students and communities not just the younger grades.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I believe — Yes this is Eddie Wright.

Can you hear me now.

Yes Eddie.

Can you hear me.

Can you imagine.

Yes I can.

I tried before but the call didn't go through.

I'm calling.

I'm calling because I have the Black community has serious concerns.

about the ethnic cleansing of black male administrators of Seattle Public Schools.

And we're really concerned with the fact that an African-American male from Colorado applied to be the superintendent.

The board said that he had an organization that they didn't like.

They didn't hire him.

But they hired a person that had two department of justice complaints followed by two Native tribes in Montana.

I am saying that this is just the beginning of some trouble.

This is not going to be tolerated.

I mean five Black males in leadership positions have been exited out the door.

You start an African-American male achievement program and then interview one African-American male for the job.

So that form of discrimination has to go.

And the sooner the better.

Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Wright.

Mr. Smith.

Yes please.

Hello can you hear me.

Yes we can.

Thank you.

My name is Emijah Smith and I'm a parent of children in Seattle Public Schools.

I've been a community advocate in Seattle Public Schools for a long time like 20 years.

But in the recent years I have been on many policy tables from our strategic planning our current strategic plan from our early learning and listening I mean literacy policy tables as well as Many other efforts that make Seattle Schools the best that it can be because it's not serving our students as well particularly our Black students.

It has a lot more it has a lot more to do.

But in my time of being there I have seen Brent Jones when he was in Seattle Public Schools do a wonderful job in the leadership.

Dr. Brent Jones Not only has the expertise he has the relationships he has the familiar familiarity with what the district is trying to do.

And I think that for all the students it's in the best interest of the superintendent Juneau decided to resign that we need to have somebody who can come in here and make this process seamless for our students.

We are already dealing with cohorts and remote learning and we do not anymore transition and turn around and talk to them.

And so I want to see Dr. Brent Jones come in for the sake of all our students and particularly for our Black students because COVID-19 express and shows the huge disparities and under how our students are being underserved and we need leadership that can continue the work of Superintendent Juneau with regard to our strategic planning.

And I just also want to say I appreciate all those families that came up here to advocate for what they need for their schools particularly up with the Mercer boundaries.

But I am curious to those families who organize the Black families to come up here and speak about their important needs but not one speak about a Black superintendent that could come to this school.

I want to highlight that.

Do not use our Black families in that way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

206-478-1728.

If you're not a speaker could you mute your phone.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Just a reminder there are several people on the line whose phones are unmuted.

We can hear the conversation.

So our next speaker is Carissa Pomren.

Carissa Pomren.

Hi this is Carissa Pomren.

I cede my time to Gabriella Romero.

Hola buenas tardes.

Hi Gabriela.

Hola buenas tardes.

Mi nombre es Gabriela Romero.

Tengo tres hijos.

Uno va a la Kimball y las dos van y dos van a Mercer.

Yo estoy aquí para pedir que voten no acerca de la propuesta de cambiar la escuela de los estudiantes de Kimball de Mercer a Washington.

Uno de mis preocupaciones es el el mucho tiempo que va a pasar en el autobús y el tráfico cuando podrían caminar y andar en bicicletas a la casa.

A participar en actividades en la comunidad o recibir ayuda académica después de la escuela.

El tiempo en transporte les quitará muchas horas en que podrían usar a merce para participar en actividades para su bienestar.

La otra preocupación otro problema es con este cambio.

Un programa de idiomas muy desarrollado como el MERSE.

La falta de acceso del programa de idiomas Washington sería una pérdida para nuestros estudiantes.

Mis hijos participan en actividades deportivas en la comunidad de después de la escuela como taekwondo.

Toman clases en las organizaciones de nuestros vecindarios y pasan mucho tiempo mucho tiempo en el transporte.

No veo como los estudiantes podrían participar en estas actividades que son especiales para su salud y desarrollo.

Por ejemplo mis hijos aprenden mucho sobre las dificultades del programa de Bike Work.

una organización una organización local después de la escuela.

No podría participar en ese programa si asistieran a la escuela de Washington.

Y hay muchas familias en Kimball que utilizan los programas locales.

Tenemos una una biblioteca un centro comunitario y otros programas muy cerca de nuestra Nuestras familias perderían acceso a estos programas y serían una pérdida de nuestra comunidad.

Muchas gracias por escucharme y por escuchar a nuestra comunidad de Quimbo.

Por favor voten no.

Gracias.

Gracias.

Do we have a translator Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Yes this is Miguel Castro.

and I will try to convey the message.

So there was a lot of noise during the conversation so I will try to do my best.

Hello.

I'm mother of 3 kids.

I have 1 at Kimball and 2 at Mercer.

And the reason I'm here is because I want the board to vote no on the change from Kimball to Washington.

So my worries are that they have to take the bus or the bicycle and needs a lot of time on the bus.

And there is a lot of risks as well.

So they will waste a lot of time being on the bus so they won't be able to go to other programs that they are currently going after the school.

Another thing that they will lose is the dual language.

Washington doesn't have the dual language and that is very important for our families.

There is a lot of activities for my kids.

One of those is they do sports after the school.

Also they participate in some other programs and they go to the community centers as well.

And with this waste of time during the bus travel they won't be able to do this.

So please vote no and thanks to listen.

And thanks to listening to me.

That is it.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Jennifer Wittenberg.

Jennifer Wittenberg.

This is Jennifer.

Can you hear me.

Yes Jennifer.

Hi there.

My name's Jennifer Wittenberg and I'm a parent of two Kimball students.

One who will be in middle school next year.

I'm here today to urge you to vote no on the Mercer Middle School boundary change.

Our parent advocacy group understands there is an overcrowding issue at Mercer and we've outlined many reasons why you should vote no in our multiple letters to you.

which emphasize a vision and supports long-term thinking to help solve this problem.

I want to spend my short time to urge you to vote no today by highlighting the inequitable inequitable timeline of this decision during a pandemic and why a yes vote would be unconscionable at this time.

According to the SPS Office of Enrollment Planning the timeline for this decision is unprecedented.

When asked the Office of Enrollment Planning could not cite any meaningful outreach to community regarding the overcrowding problem between the years of 2014 and the fall of 2020. This year many of our families were either unaware that this decision was happening or taken aback by the abruptness of the process like I was.

We are in a worldwide pandemic and technology access has been a major barrier to students and families as you well know.

This process including disseminating information and asking for feedback feedback has been virtual.

Most families are spending their precious energy supporting their students in remote learning and many either do not have the access to technology or in some cases the skills to get timely information.

I understand there was a push for a boundary change in 2013 but most of us were not connected to SPSN and it has not been part of any school pathway conversation until the last three months.

We have asked for but not received a logical reason to push to push through this decision this year.

Mercer will not be at an interim site for two more years.

While there are many other ideas that could be discussed to help solve this issue the unprecedented timeline of this process itself leaves the impression pushing through this decision during a public health crisis is taking advantage of the situation we find ourselves in and harms trust in SPS decisions.

That alone is enough for a no vote.

I appeal to your empathy for families who have not been able to engage in this process.

I appeal to your consciousness of the inequities of this process and I ask for your no vote.

Thank you for listening to my testimony.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

The next speaker is Marquita Hinalova.

Marquita Hinalova.

Hello this is Marquita.

Can you hear me.

Yes we can.

Great.

Hi my name is Marquetta Nilova and I represent my family as well as many other Kimball families that are unable to attend today.

I am here today to ask the board to vote no today on a reassignment Kimball to Washington.

I emailed a detailed list of my concerns to board several times.

However since none of my concerns were addressed I decided to send my concerns directly to the board today.

My first major concern is lack of communication by planning committee and lack of community engagement.

In my opinion the issue of Mercer overcrowding and the proposed solution were not communicated clearly properly and in timely manner to affected families especially to Kimball families.

I personally consider myself well-connected with technology.

However I only heard about the issue of Mercer overcrowding in December.

via social media post.

I attended an online meeting where the situation and proposed solutions were discussed in very general terms without any detailed study.

Yet merely six weeks after the first public meeting addressing the issue of overcrowding nursing school you are here to vote on a plan that would considerably affect the lives of families within the whole community.

Today I'm still hearing that some of the families are not aware of the situation and neither are aware of the proposed plan.

My second major concern is lack of strategic planning by boards and planning committees.

Over the past weeks Inbal community learned that the overcrowding of Mercer is not a new fact and it is well known to board since 2013. In fact we learned that the reassignment of Kimball to Washington was proposed to board a few years ago but was not implemented because of the community outrage and opposition.

Yet after several years the exact same solution is proposed to board again.

This clearly points to lack of strategic planning since 2013. My next I'm very concerned about the untransparency of the decision-making process and metrics that was used in selection of the proposed solution.

In my opinion the proposed scenario of reassigning Kimball to Washington falls short in all principles.

I provided more details how each principle fails in my email to board.

To this date I have not seen any data-driven study on which the plans were ranked on which the final selected plan was proposed.

As we all agreed the proposed scenario would result in longer and more importantly unsafe transportation to all students and incredible access to the program.

I personally think that the safety of the students should be board's top priority.

I understand that the overcrowding of Mercer needs to be addressed.

However I believe the neighborhood public middle school should serve its neighborhood community.

And I have a hard time understanding the rationale to remove the elementary school that is located the closest to the middle school from its feeder.

In summary I feel the Kimball families were not represented properly.

More importantly I feel that the safety of the Kimball students was not advocated for in this decision making at all.

I urge board to reconsider the plans work with the community and come with a fair equitable solution that will be suitable and sustainable long-term without penalizing one school community.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

The next speaker is Joseph Brian Cewaia.

Joseph Brian Cewaia.

Joseph Brian Cewaia.

If you're speaking we cannot hear you.

You may need to press star-6.

It may take a couple of tries.

Moving to the next speaker.

Matthew Remley.

Matthew Remley.

Matthew Remley.

The next speaker is Ruth Sawyer.

Ruth Sawyer.

If anyone has heard their name called and is unable to unmute please hang up and then call back right away back in.

Joseph Brian Cewaia.

Matthew Remley.

Ruth Sawyer.

Moving to Brian Terry.

Brian Terry.

Brian Terry.

Director Hampson that was our entire main testimony list.

Would you like me to move now into the waitlist.

We have four more speakers remaining.

I can go through one more time.

Is that helpful.

Go to the go to the next speaker on the waitlist and then before we end we'll take one more shot through the

Did I hear one of our speakers.

Hello.

This is Matt.

Oh go ahead Matt.

You're up.

Matt Rimley.

I heard my name called but I had to hang up and call back in.

Oh great.

Okay.

We got you.

You're.

Go ahead.

All right.

Thank you.

My name's Matt Rimley and I'm calling in today in support of the resolution to transition Seattle Public Schools to 100 percent clean and renewable energy.

And I'm going to be ceding my time to Erica Guan

Hello my name is Erica and I'm a member of the MWACP.

I wanted to focus on the 100 percent clean and renewable energy resolution.

Having clean energy means that we are able to have better air quality that we can breathe in.

We're able to feel healthy and we'll also be able to improve our public health safety for students.

Increasing greenhouse gas emissions have affected our communities greatly due to the poor air quality that we as students have been exposed to.

However transitioning to a 100 percent clean and renewable energy positively impacts the healthy environment students are in.

And it also increases the improvement of academic performances.

It will also have a great impact on low-income communities and communities of color.

Seattle School Buses uses diesel engines to operate.

However, the diesel exhaust causes a negative influence on the health of students.

It is hard to imagine just how much diesel we as students have consumed in our bodies.

This energy source at school transportation exposes more harm to students which then results in potential illnesses.

I kindly end this recording by asking the school board members to take this into consideration and hopefully take action to make a change for our students' health.

and our climate for the benefit of our community.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Circling back through Joseph Brian Cwaya.

Joseph Brian Cwaya.

Hi.

Can you hear me.

We can.

Yes.

Go ahead please.

Right.

Okay.

Sorry there was some kind of a tech issue before.

I apologize.

So I'm a teacher from Ballard and I'm going to sing on behalf of the on behalf of the Clean Energy, the Clean Schools Resolution.

Here we go.

We want all clean and green schools.

Don't want no carbon in schools.

Get rid of fossil fuels for all our kids.

You know we need some climate justice.

Can't ride no dirty buses.

Our planet can't go on no more like this No more, no more greenhouse gases No more fossil fuels Please don't hide our vehicles Near our precious schools Cause it breaks school district rules You know that's decarbonization It's got to sweep our nation Let all our great young scholars take the lead Invest in conservation, sea lakes, detour stations.

Pollution around our kids, we sure don't need it.

You know that I'm the natural gas.

We short of fossil fuels.

They're trying to greenwash us and play us all for fools, but we can't have it in our schools.

by 2040 or sooner if we can.

And I know that we can.

Support the Clean Schools Resolution.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

This is Ruth Sawyer or is that Brian Terry.

Go ahead Brian.

Brian Terry calling in.

Hi thanks.

Sorry for the tech issues.

It's been a day.

In our school today a White student is six times more likely than a Black student to be identified as highly capable.

This leads to mostly White highly capable classrooms which in many cases are placed next to mostly Black neighborhood classrooms.

This racial segregation sends a clear message to all of our students.

White students are more capable.

and more deserving.

Families teachers and principals at these schools are eager to address this systemic racism but their efforts are blocked by Superintendent Procedure 2190 which effectively mandates racial segregation.

Although this policy has a dramatic impact on both the Black and White students at these schools it was written only from the perspective of the mostly White highly capable students as though our Black and Brown students don't matter.

What's worse working groups assigned the task of addressing inequities in our advanced learning program have been instructed by the district that their plans must comply with Superintendent Procedures 2190 ensuring that systemic racism will remain a foundation of our advanced learning service model for the foreseeable future.

Please remove the systemic racism from 2190 by rewriting it to consider all the needs of all of our students so that we can end this racism in our schools and show our Black and Brown students that they matter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

The final speaker on today's testimony list is Ruth Sawyer.

Hello can you hear me.

We can hear you.

Yay.

All right.

I am ceding my time to a student Ikrin Elmi.

Good evening and thank you for having me speak today.

My name is Ikrin Elmi.

I'm a Rainier Beach High School alumni and support the 100% Clean Energy Resolution.

This resolution takes on many important issues that need to be addressed.

First, transitioning to 100% clean energy in Seattle-Purpose District is essential for students' health and academic performance and the safety of our community, especially for Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

These communities are disproportionately exposed to air pollution, are more vulnerable to adverse health impacts than gas and gas-applied equipment, which will transit and drown, and many more unsafe energy excesses.

So my family immigrated to America 15 years ago.

We've lived in South Seattle where many ethnic groups live.

My siblings and I have attended schools from this area and have used transportation from the schools.

So not understanding that schools' energy sources negatively affect students' health and residence in the community would be a human tenure crisis.

Schools are supposed to have safe and clean environment and not expose students, teachers, and community members to illnesses.

I'm a South Seattle community member, NAACP member, and half of them who are currently enrolled in Seattle Public Schools.

I'm in full support of the Clean Energy Resolution.

With the support of you, the school board members, we acknowledge the harm unsafe energy sources have had on low-income and BIPOC communities, and most importantly, on our planet.

Passing this resolution is not only beneficial for low-income and BIPOC communities, but for all of us.

We already see the impact of climate change around the world and action needs to be taken now.

It is crucial schools transition to 100 percent clean renewable energy since they are one of the largest energy consumers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was our 25th speaker today.

President Hampson.

Well that is something else that we got to everyone.

I thank all of you speakers so much for your patience and persistence in coming back around to to make sure that your voice was heard.

That concludes our public testimony for the meeting.

We will we have now come to the board committee report section of the agenda.

We'll hear briefly now from the chairs of each of our board's 4 committees.

The chairs will also lead off the discussion for each of our action and introduction items later in the agenda.

So comments for those items can be made at that time and we'll return to general board comments at the end of the agenda.

At the request of Director Rivera-Smith I'm going to add a committee report for Head Start to this.

And I'm also going to make a brief statement at the beginning of this related to to provide some context on busing during a pandemic and the work before the board and the district.

In order to return in-person Seattle Public Schools on average have to provide 6 buses for every one that we currently provide.

Based on the discussions currently occurring at the state And in OSPI we anticipate about 20 percent of our costs would not be covered given COVID limitations on ridership.

OSPI and state budget writers have put forward a recommendation that schools could use their federal stimulus dollars that will be provided for quote unquote learning loss and other COVID costs to backfill funding shortfalls in enrollment and transportation due to the pandemic.

Seattle Public Schools by statute must provide transportations for student transportation for students with disabilities when it is identified as a related service and for students in transition otherwise known as McKinney-Vento or foster care.

We do not have currently an equity-based transportation model as a whole.

Of our 52,000 students approximately one half qualify for transportation based on current standards.

Previously.

under 9,000 use district transportation across 85 square miles covering 3.65 million miles and per year and 5,223 locations in Seattle.

As well 15,000 students are assigned ORCA cards for public transit.

And that's not a question right now.

But to put in context the recent discussions around option schools of the approximately 9,000 yellow bus students 63 percent are basic riders that do not fall into a statutorily guaranteed category and 2,900 of those over 30 percent attend option schools.

Of those 25 percent of students at option schools are low-income.

Another 1,500 attend opt-in highly capable programming and receive bus service for which the low-income percentage is closer to 5 percent.

During this pandemic as we plan however one receives that particular concept at this time To return to in-person it is our moral obligation to prioritize our protected service recipients English learner service recipients and those experiencing poverty in planning for transportation and maintaining social distancing.

The district has not done this redesign nor has the board voted on it.

However I believe it is a mistake to guarantee transportation to our families who are not high need when we do not know if we can do so fiscally or physically within capacity restraints.

Our staff have communicated the potential change in transportation standards in an effort to make sure families did not make choice decisions if transportation is no longer guaranteed even if no formal decision has yet been made.

However it is imperative that this board consider and vote on how we will prioritize transportation service in the coming weeks and I hope that you'll stay tuned and understand that we have our highest needs students prioritized first and that we will gladly provide services as we can confirm again with fiscal and operational and physical capacity.

And I'm now going to turn it over to Director Hersey for a update briefly on the Audit and Finance any update on Audit and Finance since our last meeting.

Hey thank you everybody.

This is Director Hersey chair of the Audit and Finance Committee.

We have not had a committee meeting since our last legislative meeting but we did have a very productive budget work session much of which we will continue to discuss.

and move forward but there are no significant updates.

Looking forward to our next legislative meeting.

We have our next meeting scheduled this coming Monday which I believe is February the 1st.

Let me double check my calendar.

Yes we are looking at February the 1st this coming Monday at bright and early at 7 a.m.

If you would like to join we will be having a robust conversation about transportation and our ability to provide that to various groups.

So I highly recommend that you attend if you are interested in learning more about that topic.

Other than that I will pass it on to the next committee chair.

Thank you.

Okay and Director DeWolf for Operations Committee.

Director DeWolf.

I'm going to give him an extra moment and go to Curriculum Instruction Director Rankin.

Hello.

Hi.

Sorry.

I well so we had we had our our last Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee meeting the day before our last board meeting.

So I gave an update there.

So just in brief I guess I will sort of just mention some general conversations around that are that are going to be coming up in the next meeting next committee meeting.

We've got more work happening on the science course sequence for middle schools that's been ongoing.

We've got some more.

We have a meeting with some parent advocates for the dyslexia bill and supports with staff this week.

And what else is going on.

Sorry I'm feeling very the testimony was was really great and a lot.

I'm yeah sort of putting my myself back together after that.

We're continuing conversations about you know broadening opportunities for students thinking about and the fall thinking about the fall and different options that we might want to pursue and and grading.

And I would actually really like to hear from from from educators from principals from parents as today is the last day of the semester how how grading went and how workload and expectations and assignments went.

I know in in my household we discovered that I have one child who did pretty well with daily assignments that were that we could check on in Schoology and some longer-term assignments we suddenly discovered were actually not not being kept up with.

And so we know that going into next next semester.

But yeah I would just I would really encourage anybody who has who has ideas that they want to see the board take on about workload grading that type of thing in remote learning.

I would love to hear it.

And that's it.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf back to you.

Yes thanks President Hampson.

I'll be very quick and brief here.

So tomorrow we are working on our agenda so things may change slightly but I can confirm that we will be speaking about the BTA V levy guiding principles document.

We will be getting an annual report from from our operations team on policy 4260 which is our annual use of school facilities.

We'll also be talking about an easement at Cleveland High School.

and then getting a capital budget preview.

Again that might change slightly tomorrow when we finalize the agenda but those are kind of the main topics.

And tonight we'll see the Clean Energy Resolution which we heard some testimony from students and an educator and with that song about the Clean Energy Resolution.

So that is part of the work that came from our last operations committee in January.

Yeah.

And that's all I got.

Thank you.

And then I will just say before I go to Director Rivera-Smith on Head Start for the as the chair of the executive committee we had a great meeting in which we discussed the calendar which we will look at today.

And the Black Lives Matter at School Week resolution your purpose which we will also discuss.

We had a great presentation from our 609 labor partner.

Really wonderful to hear from him and hear about that particular labor group in a broader engineering context.

And truly appreciate any time our union members come and spend that time with us and it was very educational and that those folks in nutrition services and our custodial workers are doing incredible work.

And so that was an excellent update.

We also had approved our the new membership for the advice I the Information Technology Advisory Committee so that they can continue their good work with new members and heard more information about Some very hard work on a new website content management system that's making good progress.

We're planning for our board retreat which will be a critical one on March 6th.

I hope folks put that in their their calendar.

And and also very critically the appointment process for District 4 all of that information has been posted on our website.

Folks that are interested in applying for that may submit at this time and the calendar of deadlines are there as well.

And and then went through our standard meeting items and the next meeting is on February 11th or is scheduled for Thursday February 11th.

And actually that may be that that may be in flux so please check the calendars either on Wednesday February 10th or Thursday February 11th due to some some schedule conflicts.

And I'll go now to Director Rivera-Smith for an update on Head Start.

Thank you.

As our board's Head Start liaison I have the pleasure of sitting down virtually now with every month with our Early Learning Department to hear the latest news out of all of its programs which include Head Start Seattle Preschool Program Seattle Preschool Plus Program Developmental Preschool Continuum Continuum of Intensive Services and Medically Fragile Preschool.

So the news this month preschool continues to serve all students remotely.

Early learning is planning along with with kindergarten and first grade for potential in-person return.

They've completed all of their follow-up phone calls and communications to families regarding the survey.

Overall all programs are doing well with enrollment that of the.

1230 seats they've filled 871 so they're at about 70 percent enrollment.

Special education preschool continues to evaluate and enroll new students and expects that this will increase enrollment throughout the rest of the year.

They continue to work with special education regarding individual IEP team decisions for in-person learning as well as for outdoor pilots.

Head Start is also planning for a federal review that should be happening sometime in the Spring.

So that is this month's report.

Thank you for letting me share that.

Thank you for that update.

And now we move to the action portion of our agenda.

Action Item Number 1. Approval of Southeast Middle School Attendance Area Boundaries for 2021-22.

This came through Operations Committee on January 6th for and was submitted for approval.

May I have a motion for this item.

Of course.

I move that the school board approve the 2021-22 attendance areas for Mercer Aki Kurose and Washington as outlined in Attachment A.1 and grandfather assignments for currently enrolled students impacted by these changes.

This action shifts the Kimball Theater area into Washington and the Hawthorne Theater area into Aki Kurose.

I further move that the board to direct the superintendent to take any appropriate action to implement this decision.

I further move to end effective for the 21-22 school year the board's June 24 2020 partial waiver of Board Policy Number 3130 Student Assignment and Enrollment that applies to new students to the district who would otherwise be assigned to Mercer Middle School as their designated attendance area school.

The waiver shall be in effect through the remainder of the 2020-21 school year.

This motion has been made by Director Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

An amendment from Director Hersey has been posted for this item.

Director Hersey might have a motion for your amendment

Absolutely.

This is a long one.

So buckle up.

If we could also potentially get the amendment posted on the screen.

There's a lot here and I want to make sure that folks are able to see it fully.

Before reading this amendment I just want to thank all of the Kimball families who have taken the time not only tonight but in many other community engagement sessions to express their concerns and deep grievances with this process thus far.

We have been working and by we I mean Dr. Pedroza and Director Davies to not only listen to these concerns but also take action in making sure that while this less than ideal transition is a perfect solution for no one and in many ways causes potential harm to many families as we've heard tonight.

I hope that we can use these accommodations as a starting point to making that transition a little easier and commit not only myself but also district resources to continuing to check in on a regular basis to make sure that we are doing everything we can to welcome the Kimball community into the Washington community should this motion pass tonight.

So with that the motion reads.

I move that the school board approve Amendment 1 to the board action report titled Approval of Southeast Middle School Attendance Area Boundaries for 2021-22 to require the following mitigations in addition to those described in the underlying board action report.

And these mitigations are as follows.

Sibling grandfathering for students currently in grades 4 and 5 who live in the Kimball and Hawthorne attendance area and have siblings currently in grades 6 and 7 at Mercer Middle School.

This would apply to the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years.

Additionally yellow bus transportation for two years to Washington for all students who live in the Kimball attendance area and that will attend Washington if the district is providing to and from transportation for students beyond what is mandated by law.

After two years.

of service this will be reassessed as part of the Transportation Service Standards.

Transportation from after-school activities at Washington for Kimball area residents contingent upon the number of interested students.

Transportation to Mercer for Kingmakers activities for eligible students contingent on the number of interested students.

Coordinate informational opportunities for students impacted by the changes to learn about Washington and Aki Kurose As well as the programs and services offered at each school including Technology Access Foundation TAF at Washington.

Coordinate dialogue between Kimball families and Washington administrators to address school discipline concerns and learn about the school culture and what changes have been made in the wake of recent transitions.

Check-ins with Kimball and Hawthorne area residents beginning in October 2021. To address transition concerns this will include transportation check-ins.

Planning with the Office of African-American Male Achievement for the advertisement of Kingmakers for African-American male students at Washington for them to access Kingmakers at Mercer.

Discussion with the City of Seattle about safer routes between Kimball attendance and area in Washington.

District staff will share their annual and 5-year enrollment reports with Southeast schools and families and engage families early around over- and under-enrollment across schools.

District staff will review the boundary decision if there are changes in programs and services such as changes to the dual-language immersion pathway.

District staff will conduct outreach to District 7 community to understand concerns from families about lack of accessibility to dual-language immersion excuse me to the dual-language immersion program particularly for those families for which these languages are their native language.

And I want to say just additionally these this is a pretty unprecedented move for us and one that I think is the bare minimum of what we should be offering to Kimball families.

If we are going to ask a community to essentially relocate in a entertain a drastic change to their educational pathway.

We need to be in the business of doing everything that we can to make that transition as seamless and as smooth as possible.

So again these these requests are coming directly from the Kimball community and I just want to thank them for their continued partnership through these really challenging decisions.

Okay so we have a motion.

Is there a second.

Second.

Okay and with that I am going to move to directors for any comments or questions on the amendment and the other underlying item before we move to the votes on each.

Let's see I guess we're still on.

Okay.

Director DeWolf.

Thanks President Hampson.

As it pertains to the amendment I just want to also offer gratitude and thanks to the community for speaking up during the time of this difficult decision.

I also want to just give appreciation to Director Hersey for working with community over the last several weeks to land on an amendment that I think does many of the concerns we heard over the last few weeks but also tonight.

And so I'm really excited to support this amendment and turn it back to the next director.

Thank you.

Director Hersey I don't know if you want to add anything or if I can just go to the next director.

Feel free to go to the next director.

Okay.

Director Harris.

This is a very very elegant solution and I'm Very pleased to see it.

Big thanks to Dr. Pedroza Ms. Davies Director Hersey.

And I would suggest that we actually have had many many very frustrating and very very painful boundary changes when we've opened new schools etc.

And this one this one is years overdue and because of workloads and unfortunately staff has not been able to address it and we kicked it down the can down the road so to speak.

I'm glad we're addressing it now even though it's extraordinarily painful for a number of communities.

But again big props and gratitude go to my fellow director and to staff for coming up with this amendment.

I emphatically support it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Rankin.

Thanks.

I always get confused when there's an amendment.

Are we commenting now on the entirety or just the amendment.

I stated both.

Okay.

I wish I had had time earlier today to read this extensive amendment but the with the website down I couldn't get to it.

I yeah I want to echo the comments of my colleagues.

Director Hersey has really gone above and beyond with connecting to his community and bringing bringing their concerns and hopes and wants to to us directly from them which I really really appreciate and I know that takes a lot of time and effort.

And and then also coming up with with this with this solution.

I I guess I'll just reiterate what I think I've said before about this.

How hard it is when there are boundary boundary decisions to be made and moves like this.

And I want to just say thank you to community members who who shared your thoughts with us and and made your community's voice heard.

And and I'm sorry that this wasn't solved sooner so that you didn't have to go through it right now.

I think ultimately once a decision is is made and we can move forward with some of these steps and commitments to the communities affected everyone I hope will breathe a little easier.

and and just have have some things to look forward to and and continue working on together.

So I don't think.

Oh actually one question I do have is in terms of the amendment pieces how I guess what's where does the where's the accountability for these different check-ins and and reports.

Is that if approved that gets determined what kind of follow-ups we might have as a board about these items.

Or I guess how will we know if these things have taken place.

Who was that question directed at Director Rankin.

I'm actually not sure because I'm not sure who would be I guess it would be well either for Director Hersey if he knows or for for staff who.

Yeah I can I can answer that.

Obviously this amendment is pretty cross-cutting.

So what this is going to take after we actually get support from y'all should we receive the support that we need for this to move forward.

There are so many various actors in our departments within our district that we are going to have to pull in to support Kimball.

So so it's really difficult to say like who is going to be responsive to this.

I know that Dr. Pedroza and I have been working very closely.

But as you can see we've got parts of this amendment that touch transportation dual-language school staff individually.

So there's there's just going to be so much cross-cutting that it's going to be hard to you know have one person be the owner of this work so to speak.

But I'm sure that Dr. Pedroza and I will be working hand in hand to make sure that these move forward.

And as we develop the plan we will also simultaneously develop a strategy for communication.

Obviously there are regular check-ins in here.

But before we do any of that the amendment's got to pass and then they will be able to put together a more robust plan to communicate that out not only to you know my colleagues here but also the community.

Okay.

Thank you.

And I'll just say whatever support I can lend as a through curriculum and instruction especially if you know families want to know more about TAF we're going to have some regular updates coming through committee from TAF so just let me know.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Yes I want to also I will start by echoing the enormous thank you to the community members who were able to share with us tonight for their community who who were receiving their times and to the ones who spoke.

It's it's.

invaluable to hear from the communities impacted by our decisions.

So thank you for that opportunity and thank you for the opportunity to walk with you last Saturday from Kimball to Washington Middle School.

It was it was great to meet a lot of you and to experience that with you.

You know for it was a haul.

It was a haul.

It was a walk but it was enjoyable to be with everybody.

And I but I see I see your concerns with that.

And it's you know and it's shared by many communities who have to do walks like that.

So I know we appreciate that it is asking you to change a lot of your scheduling and plans.

I'm really impressed and thankful to Director Hersey for the amendment that addresses practically all the concerns I did hear this weekend about the programs that were available about Kingmakers not being at Washington.

About the cultural culture changes that are going to be different at different schools.

and about the bus service.

So I'm I'm just really thankful that that was put together.

And so I definitely support it.

I I think overall this is an issue.

This is all this is going to be it has the process and the future of this is all about communication.

And we've seen where that fell short and I hate to lean on pandemic.

I hate to say oh we're in a pandemic and that's why we didn't do better because We need to make up for the fact that we were independent.

We needed to do everything we could and it was hard.

I appreciate Ashley Davies' work over these past several months to to do that to do the best that she could getting to communities.

There's always more people to talk to.

There's always gonna be people who who we could have and should have got in touch with.

So I apologize for the shortcomings that were there but I know that our our department does its best and with the resources we have and the time everything that's been going on.

I still want to thank them for that and know that we are always looking for ways to improve.

So your feedback is is valuable for our learning because this is going to happen again.

We're going to have more boundary changes and we don't want it to be like you know we don't ever want to divide communities and to pit schools against schools for who gets to have the school of their preference.

Because I'm hoping that there are people at Kimball who are excited about going to Washington and if they're not excited yet I hope we can make them excited because part of that amendment does include that education and those opportunities.

And I think that is where we're going to bank on you know giving you the schooling experience that you and your students have wanted and will be receiving.

So again enormous thanks to Director Hersey and staff for putting that together.

I do have one question regarding And this might be I don't know if this is the right time to ask it.

I think it's actually a Student Assignments Plan question but but it overlaps so I'm not sure who would address this other staff but.

Go ahead.

If it can be if it can be delayed until that item then I would say delay it until that item.

Well it's about who goes to Mercer.

So.

It's kind of I'm just a question basically and you can answer it later whoever thinks they can answer it.

My question is in June 20 in June 24th 2020 like six months ago whatever we did that partial waiver board policy that no new students would go to Mercer so theoretically a student who lived next door to Mercer won't be going into didn't go to Mercer.

I'm wondering what happens to those students going forward.

So I guess that might be an assignment plan.

I'm wondering are they going to stick going to where they've going far off to even though they're It's just something I want staff to look at because I don't want to lose sight of those students who came in after June who didn't get into Mercer even though they could be theoretically right next to it and in the zones in which we're leaving there.

So that's just a flag and I can somebody can follow up with me later about that.

Otherwise yeah no other questions or comments.

Again thank you to all the community who reached out and I hope we can make everybody whole with this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And from my part I want to say thank you to the families that came and spoke.

Thank you to the translators.

Thank you for those excellent speeches and presentations and sharing of emotions and thoughts that you gave.

And I will leave it at that.

And I really appreciate the amendment in particular The piece about dual language and I heard a lot of that from from our families and I want to dump to state again as I have on many other occasions my my huge commitment to creating those opportunities particularly for those families that are are are being moved that they would have not just those same opportunities for dual language at Washington But also that we are able to significantly improve our English learner supports at Washington because we do have have work to do there and I will continue on my path to make us as much of a world-class dual-language district as we should be.

So great.

I'll leave it at that and say again I'm very much in support of this amendment and appreciate it.

It's critical that we're able to find mitigations when we make these kinds of very difficult changes.

And with that I'm going to ask Ms. Wilson-Jones unless Ms. Director Hersey do you have anything else to add before I go ahead and call for the vote on the amendment.

No.

We can move forward.

Okay.

So Ms. Wilson-Jones can you call for the vote on the amendment number 1.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Oh just to point just to confirm because that was a very long statement of the sorry apologies for the interruption that was a very long statement of the amendment motion.

Did we got a second.

It was motioned by Director Hersey it was seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

Correct.

That's correct.

Director Hampson.

Okay.

I just want to make sure that we didn't somehow miss that.

Okay.

Go ahead Ms. Wilson-Jones apologies.

Calling the roll on the amendment.

Director DeWolf yes Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Rankin aye and Director Hampson This motion has passed unanimously.

Okay.

And so now we will move to the roll call for the motion the original motion.

Director Hampson I think at this point you would invite a motion to move the underlying item as amended by Amendment 1.

Yes sorry.

So if I could please get a motion for Action Item Number 1 as amended.

Absolutely.

I move approval of the underlying board action report titled Approval of Southeast Middle School Attendance Area Boundaries for 2021-22 as amended by Amendment 1. Second.

The item as amended has been moved by Director Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones for that catch.

And if you could please call for the vote.

Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director DeWolf Director DeWolf

Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye and Director Hampson aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

We now move to Action Item Number 2. Approval of the Student Assignment Transition Plan for 2021-22.

This came through operations on January 6 with a recommendation for approval.

May I have a motion for this item.

Absolutely.

I move that the school board approve the student assignment transition plan for 2021-22 as attached to the board action report with any updates necessary to implement changes to the attendance areas for Mercer Aki Kurose and Washington Middle School as approved by the board through a separate board action report.

Second.

This item has been moved by Director Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

This item has been updated since introduction.

Chief of Student Support Services Dr. Concie Pedroza I believe you will be briefing us on the update.

Yes thank you so much.

I have the BAR in front of you and the Board Action Report has been updated.

As you know we have the changes to the Montessori at Begley We did not put in the updates of a definition of Native speaker for assignments at John Stanford and McDonald International School.

That was removed.

And then and that those were the main changes in the update.

We also also cleared up the link the component the question that was asked about EL versus ELL and we have corrected that in this this BAR.

Are there any questions.

Okay we'll go first to Director Hersey for questions.

No questions for me at this time.

Director Harris.

No questions for me.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Yes.

And so thank you Dr. Pedroza for catching the I'm sorry the EL changes in that that's what I asked I think I said that last time.

So thank you for all that.

Was there any changes to the Bagley piece.

Like I didn't really understand that.

Yes.

No there was no changes to the Bagley piece.

I just re-read that statement but there was no changes.

Okay gotcha gotcha.

Okay I wasn't sure if I misheard that so.

No.

No.

The definition for the internationals for their ICE the McDonald and John Stanford definition that was that was removed why.

That was in there in place from the last session but we we are actually removing the heritage language information to the it's in the it's in the procedures.

Yeah I understand.

And so okay and I know I emailed about this so and was it originally going to be in the assignment plan and now it's going to be in procedures or was it always just going to be in procedure.

I'm going to defer to Ashley Davies.

She's online.

Ashley.

Hi this is Ashley Davies Director of Enrollment Planning.

So it was never included in the student assignment transition plan.

It's always been in the procedures.

We included it as a line item in the BAR so that there was transparency around the fact that we have been doing that work and then we were making an update because the procedures don't go to the board for approval.

All right.

So my question then for is just when is that going to be in the proc — is that a process that's done in your office and will you be bringing that to a committee.

Yes.

So that goes to the operations committee.

So once the student assignment transition plan is approved there are typically items within the plan that need to get updated in the procedures.

And so we after the.

plan gets approved we then update the procedures.

So then the procedures would be updated with this along with the other changes such as Daniel Baddeley Montessori and some of the other items like the EL changes as well.

All right.

And is there a communications plan to share that.

I know with some obviously those are my schools in my district and I'm very curious to find out what the status of that definition is.

So is that going to be shared out where and how and when.

Yeah so we have already been in communication with those communities about some of these updates because they were involved in the discussion about the definition as well as the criteria for the assessment.

So after tonight's meeting We will be updating not only those communities but the other communities impacted by changes from the Student Assignment Transition Plan about those changes.

So we'll work directly with the school leaders to send a communication out to families at the school as well as update information on the school website as well as other information related to school choice so that families who are currently at the school as well as interested in the school have that information to be as they go into those potential decisions.

All right.

So that'll be the plan for right for this spring as people are I guess applying registering for those schools that they're going to be we're going to be using this new definition effective I guess this year current.

Correct.

Yeah.

So essentially I mean basically tomorrow we'll start Managing communications around all these changes.

Wonderful.

And then I guess can my question regarding the previous change that we removed about students going into Mercer no matter where they lived people who would have gone to it did not get into it after last June.

Will that be are we going to be addressing that re-evaluating those students moving them back in if they're if they are now in a boundary that stays at Mercer are they going to stay outside of Mercer.

I don't even know how many people it ended up being.

It might have only been you know one or two or three or none.

But is that something that's going to be looked at or readdressed or are they are they going to stay where they are.

The current plan is to they're going to stay where they are.

Most that's the current plan.

We've communicated that but that is currently the plan at this time.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

No other questions.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

And I inadvertently left apologies Director DeWolf for not letting you go first as the committee chair.

So let me return to you so that you can properly make your statement ahead of the last couple directors.

I appreciate that President Hampson.

Actually Director Rivera-Smith elevated my one one thing about the update so I'm all good.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

Director Rankin.

Thanks.

Sorry I was reading something in the BAR and got distracted.

I am a little bit confused about the Native speaker definition change.

It.

How am I reading this.

I'm like reading.

Oh okay.

I was reading it as prioritizing students.

It almost sounds like we're not prioritizing students who's who are learning English.

Am I reading that wrong.

The goal is to prioritize like when we went through the heritage language definition and conversation.

The goal is to prioritize our EL students and heritage speakers and be really thoughtful about that process.

So I have I don't I'm I have to go look at the what the language you're referring to.

Oh I see.

Okay.

Okay.

The sentence that's confusing to me is in the is on the top of the page it says John Stanford International School and McDonald International School staff and families have advocated advocated to change the definition from Native heritage speakers with a proficiency assessment to Native speakers with an interview about language at home in instead.

Oh I'm I see what I did.

I was I was adding an of.

So I was reading that as instead of priority prioritizing students for whom Spanish or Japanese is one of their first languages and I did not understand why we would do that.

But that is a that is a what's a visual version of a typo.

So never mind.

I'm really sorry.

That's fine.

Thank you.

But I yeah I was reading it instead of and I was like why would we do that instead of prioritizing those students.

So I'm sorry.

I'm good.

Thank you.

Okay.

And I have no questions that haven't been asked by other directors.

So with that I think we can move forward for a roll call on the vote.

Director DeWolf aye Director Harris aye

Director Hersey aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Okay we will now move to Action Item Number 3. Adopting Resolution Number 2020-2117 to declare that the lives of Black students matter and that we encourage participation district-wide in the National Black Lives Matter at School Week from February 1st to 5th 2020-21 and the Year of Purpose 2020-21.

This came through executive committee on January 20th for consideration.

May I have a motion for this item.

It will be my distinct honor.

We move that the board approve Resolution Number 2020-21-17 a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Seattle School District Number 1 King County Seattle Washington to declare that the lives of Black students matter as well as the lives of all of our underserved students.

that we affirm the demands of the Black Lives Matter at School movement and that we encourage participation district-wide in the National Black Lives Matter at School Week from February 1 through February 5th 2021. As attached to this board action report immediate option excuse me immediate adoption is in the best interest of the district.

This motion was made by Director Hersey has been made by Director Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

And I'm going to defer to as Chair of the Executive Committee I'm going to defer to Director Hersey to do the initial introduction on this item.

Thank you.

I appreciate it President Hampson.

One of the most lasting moments that I took away from when we passed this similar resolution last year was the feedback that many youth from various organizations but most namely the NAACP Youth Council had given us saying that we continually pass a resolution without action.

And they were exactly right.

You know we we have been in forms of leadership at least really dragging our feet in terms of taking direct action to the demands of community and our youth.

And I want to just start by celebrating all the work over the past year that senior staff in relationship with the board has been able to accomplish.

I believe great things are possible when there's alignment in the interest of children.

By no means are we even anywhere close to saying with full fidelity that our district proudly exclaims Black Lives Matter.

And I think that we would all agree that in a district where we have administrators putting young Black children in cages and slamming them against the walls that while we can pass this resolution tonight and we can remind ourselves of some of the things that we have accomplished There are many many things that are still left for us to do to truly be able to pass this amendment with with the knowledge that our district as a whole can proudly say Black Lives Matter because we are just not there.

And I and I don't want there to be any confusion about where we are tonight.

Some things that we can celebrate though are that over the past year we have done a number of things that have been directly representative not only to the demands of our youth and our families but specifically uplifting and upholding our commitment to our Black communities.

Some of the things that come to mind are lifting up a robust participatory budgeting process that ultimately will lead to the formation and the funding of a district position that will be solely focused on implementing restorative justice within our system.

We have arrived at a place to where we are not only in pursuit of moving forward with ethnic studies and since time immemorial but also developing a Black Studies program focused around curricula and the expertise of not only Dr. Scarlett and her team but the works of Brother Delbert Richardson Jesse Hagopian and many others directly from our community through the Africana Institute.

We are moving forward with banning isolation excuse me not banning but looking for alternatives to isolation and restraints because we believe strongly that we can be a zero-violence district and we believe that it is wildly unacceptable that we that we live and go to school in a place to where our procedures and policies have made it permissible to treat Black children in this way.

We have.

Not only done all of those things but also earlier during this pandemic passed a robust and sweeping resolution recommitting ourselves to our Black students and our families.

Ending our relationship with Seattle Public Schools.

Removing SEOs Student Emphasis Officers and Student Resource Officers from our districts.

And I would be remissed if I didn't also shout out of East Seattle Black and Brown Lives Matter as well as the organizers over at Wablock who pushed us who frankly pushed us with their petition with over 20,000 signatures saying that a one-year ban was not enough and we needed to make an indefinite move because we need to be listening to the the children and the the young activists and the students of our district who said very clearly that we need to be funding counselors and not cops and that the over-policing of Black students is a grave tragedy that that pushes students unnecessarily so through the school-to-prison pipeline.

I would also say that as we move forward with you know the potential negotiations with excuse me with Candidate Brent Jones that many of our Black community members have expressed for the first time in a long time they feel authentically seen.

Right.

As we can continue to build on the work of Superintendent Juneau with our strategic plan in this potential moment for us to consider an individual who not only lives by these values but also has firsthand experiences as a Black man.

When you look at all of these moves that we again in partnership with senior staff our educators and our principals while we still have a very long way to go I do believe that we have taken small but significant steps in the right direction.

What I will say to my colleagues and everyone else who is listening on this call is that if it is one thing I have learned during my short time on this board it is when we hand over our power to the youth especially Black youth who have for decades centuries been marginalized especially in our school systems.

It is amazing what we are able to accomplish and what we are able to do.

Because all of the things that I have mentioned previously have been the direct result of advocacy and organizing not only from our students but also from the adults that support them.

And I will make it clear that moving forward we need to participate in a model.

And oh I almost forgot.

We are also working directly with the NAACP Youth Council director to under Director DeWolf's leadership to add a student representative to the board.

We we are making significant steps forward in the name of not only racial equity but also in the real commitment to our Black students.

And so I say all that to say this.

I hope that moving forward we continue this practice and we do not lose sight submitting ourselves to equity detours but rather not only sharing power but also turning power over to community and more specifically our youth and most importantly in my opinion to our Black youth.

If the events of this summer have taught us nothing it is I hope that we can all agree that when we step out of the way and let youth lead The potential for growth change and healing is immeasurable.

And I just again want to thank very wholeheartedly and very sincerely all of the wonderfully amazing students I have had the opportunity to work with over the past year.

This is only the beginning.

And if we have anything to celebrate it is your hard work and dedication to our district in spite of our many flaws.

And I know that I don't just speak for myself but I speak for many of my colleagues that we truly feel that this is just the beginning and we will continue to work with you to make this a system that you can be proud of and feel safe attending.

Thank you Director Hersey so much.

And this item is on the agenda for both introduction and action today and it was sponsored by Directors Hersey DeWolf and myself.

Though I am quite confident that my colleagues are here along with us as well.

And for that reason I'm going to go ahead and go to Director DeWolf next for comments.

Thank you President Hampson.

You know I think Director Hersey really gave a thorough background and also just named I think the we're in.

I don't think we're where we want to be.

I think that this is long-term work that I know I know we are committed to and I appreciated Vice President Hersey elevating some of the work that we've done.

I think that it is more important to listen to see what people do and not so much what they say because it's in what we do that really illustrates.

And I think over the course of the last year I know this board's been really committed to our values and principles on racial equity and anti-racism and racial justice in our district.

And so I think I'll just highlight one thing that Director Hersey mentioned which is that I know I have been so humbled and grateful to work with the youth from NAACP Youth Council.

Likely on speed dial I work with him on many projects.

The one that he's describing about bringing a student representative student representatives to the board.

They were vital to the climate resolution that you will see later today.

The guiding principles that we developed they were vital there.

So I think if anything I hope our young people see that they are present that they are represented and that their voice is here in the work that we do.

And I have been really grateful and honored to be a part of that and so I look forward to supporting this for its fourth year.

Thank you.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

And I will go now to other directors for comments.

Director Harris.

Your confidence in your colleagues is well placed.

I would have been happy to sign on if I'd known about it.

And — The comments about the rock stars that we have in our district are well-founded and I'm glad to see that.

I think though putting our money and our time and getting ahead of Ethnic Studies and Black Studies is what we need to do next as opposed to passing resolutions.

Thank you.

I'll pass to the next director.

Okay Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Yes thank you Directors Hersey Hampson and DeWolf for bringing this forward.

It is it is it's kind of like on schedule I know we've done this last few years and but I appreciate that.

that you have worked to you've worked to make it current to what we're doing now and what we hope to accomplish in this next year.

Excuse me so much.

I would like I'm wondering as far as getting because I know there is the Black Lives Matter school curriculum.

I'm wondering what is the what is the status of getting that into our schools.

Do we have do we know who is going to be leading that.

So I'm sure there's a staff person who could respond more directly to that.

My understanding historically is are these things these are we are encouraging our schools to access that curriculum and utilize it in doing so.

Not making it a one-size-fits-all.

I don't know if any staff want to add to that.

That's okay.

We'll save that question for another day.

That's okay.

Yeah.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Again so like yeah I was just I wanted to I want to make sure that there is some mechanisms being in place for for sharing that with our with our schools because it is like we're saying here it's in our actions right it's in what we're actually doing.

And this is this this is what this is what motivates us to do that.

We're here getting these resolutions passed and super important and I look forward to getting that into our schools and seeing how we can live this resolution out throughout the year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

Thanks.

Yeah whole wholeheartedly support.

And as colleagues have mentioned gladly would add add my name to the document but for people listening who might be wondering why our names wouldn't be added if if more than three of us were to bring it forward it would violate Open Public Meeting Act.

which means that you know a voting a voting number of us can't bring forward a resolution together.

But I'm very very grateful that my colleagues have done so.

And I I would echo a little bit of what Director Hersey was talking about that you know a resolution is is one thing and an action attached to it is is quite another thing.

And it's it's our actions and how we how we address various policy making decision making how we engage families and the voice of our of our youth.

And and and that's what will show show our commitment to the statement that that Black Lives Matter that Black Lives Matter at school and that that we're centering their needs and their voices and in every decision and thinking about their future success and and that that increases success of all of us.

And so thank you.

Okay.

And and what I would like to add in terms of what this means with respect to it being a reflection of a Something that started very locally and became national and then came all the way back to local.

And the nature of it being an annual process at some level it's I appreciate the fact that it's a pass-through isn't exactly the right word but that we are acting as a vessel for demands that have been determined that that we're not we're not questioning that we're taking in whole cloth and we're saying When these students speak and demand that these are the things that matter to them that they matter and these are the things that matter to them then we owe it to them to listen and to do our best to implement those things.

Without trying to qualify or question or say are you sure or is this really what you need.

And I appreciate the opportunity that this provides not just to encourage our school communities and in this case with great appreciation that it's a week but then it's also the year of purpose and it kind of continues to expand and it has you know life and breath so that that there is curriculum that's accessible.

There are additional materials and resources and that we can as an institution can come back and see where we are with those things in terms of our success in making them actionable.

And and ultimately the reflection is going to be how do our students reflect back to us the extent to which they are they they feel these things in their school experience.

And and those will be the times that we'll be able to to to say okay maybe we've made some some true progress.

I think we're very much at the front end of this.

And I'm grateful to colleagues and all the different pieces that have come together really for for years.

I mean the Black community has been pushing in this district for decades on so many of these things and much of that has built up to where we are now.

And so we're on the this is all standing on the shoulders of of the children that are advocates and of their elders that came before them and did this work.

And and I'm grateful to just again kind of be part of that that vessel.

experience and then that accountability of making sure that this work continues.

And so hands up as the Salish people say to the the the youth and their guides in making sure that this this work continues.

And with that I would like to turn it over to Ms. Wilson-Jones to call for the vote.

Director DeWolf.

Director DeWolf apologies I spoke over you.

Thank you.

Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you.

We will now move and also thank you to Ellie for for helping us ensure that that that last item got on the agenda.

I appreciate your support in that.

We will now move to Action Item Number 4. Approval of the 2020-21 District Educational Research and Program Evaluation Plan.

May I have a motion for this item.

Of course I move that the board approve the 2020-21 District Educational Research Program Evaluation Plan as attached to the Board Action Report.

This item has been moved by Director Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

This item has been updated since introduction.

Chief Academic Officer Dr. Keisha Scarlett I believe you will be briefing us on the update.

Yes good evening everyone.

Dr. Keisha Scarlett Chief Academic Officer.

This board action report introduces the 2020-2021 District Educational Research and Program Evaluation Plan for approval by the school board.

As was communicated by Dr. Diane DeBacker former CAO she first introduced this back in December.

The 2020-21 plan identifies the initiatives and programs to be studied by the Research and Evaluation Department in partnership with district staff.

This year's efforts will continue to focus on our strategic plan goals with continuing in-depth data collection and analysis related to our 3rd grade reading 9th grade on-track and culturally responsive workforce workforce goals amongst other efforts.

Our research and evaluation will also continue to continue its multi-year evaluations of our curriculum adoptions in ELA mathematics and science and is partnering closely with Dr. Mia Williams in the African-American Male Achievement Office to develop a multi-year data collection and evaluation plan to support their critical and transformative work.

Before pausing to answer any questions you have I want to reflect briefly on the comments the board made when this BAR was first introduced.

They were super helpful.

So Dr. Anderson and I carefully reviewed all of your comments.

We feel the board's shared belief that the Research and Evaluation Department is a critical asset to the school district but that the department's work needs to be more publicly transparent and more clearly articulated in terms of who's using the research and to what end.

We also recognize that the school board needs critical data and evidence from research to help guide decision-making both in terms of evaluating the effectiveness of current initiatives but also using research more proactively to help plan for the future.

Dr. Anderson and I are deeply committed to working more closely with the board through the committee process to develop our annual research plan earlier in the year.

We also look forward to working with you to further consider how research and evaluation can serve in a more flexible adaptive and proactive way to support evidence-based decision making for both district staff and the school board.

With that introduction I will pause to answer any questions you have.

I also want to remind you that Dr. Anderson is also on the call today and will be available to help answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Scarlett and Dr. Anderson for your presence here.

And I will now turn it over to our Chair of Curriculum Instruction Eliza Rankin.

Thank you.

Yeah I don't have a whole lot to add just Thank you Dr. Scarlett for context and.

Director Rankin you have cut out.

Are you there.

Okay with that technical difficulty I'm going to go come back to Director Rankin and I'm Well I would I will just say that I really appreciate the extent to which Drs.

Anderson and Scarlett heard the concerns that were that were brought up by all board members.

Director Mack had some pretty extensive questions and concerns and and I I think you couldn't have stated it more eloquently Chief Scarlett and Yeah I don't have anything to add because that's such a good explanation of where I think we would like to go with this.

We are really fortunate to have this department and it's an incredible asset.

Not many districts do have this.

And I think particularly as we head into this next year and given the level of demand for surveying quote unquote that we're getting from our constituents that we want to be really thoughtful and careful and from your board right and other departments that we want to be really thoughtful about how we do those things so that we're doing it to the best maximizing the the work to support the end result of getting better services to children.

So my appreciation for for contextualizing all of that for us and then here again tonight.

And then Director DeWolf questions.

No I concur.

I think Chief Scarlett really answered everything.

I greatly appreciate that.

So no questions here.

Okay.

And then Director Hersey.

No questions here.

As always thank you Dr. Scarlett for your work.

Director Harris.

I'm good.

Thanks.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Yeah thank you.

No questions but definitely gratitude for this.

I love that this piece to me is like embodies embodies the district like where we where we were and where we're going.

I think if we need to explain sort of our path or our priorities to anybody we can just hand them this document and say like this is what we this is where we have what we've done and evaluated and how we are helping to to build our paths in all these categories.

So thank you for that.

Thank you for the work.

No questions.

Okay.

And then back to Director Rankin.

Are you audible now.

Am I audible.

Yes you are.

Okay.

I could actually hear hear you when you picked up from where I cut out and I'm good.

You summarized pretty much what I was thinking so nothing more.

Thank you.

And just thanks again for the work the collaborative work with Dr. Scarlett and Dr. Anderson too.

Really appreciate it.

Okay.

Ms. Wilson-Jones can you call for the vote.

Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye

Director DeWolf Director DeWolf could you say that one more time.

Thank you.

And Director Hampson.

This motion has passed unanimously.

We will now move to Action Item Number 5. Authorization to Negotiate a Contract for Interim Superintendent.

May I have a motion for this item.

It would be my pleasure.

I move that the school board authorize the board president to negotiate with the assistance of council an employment contract with Dr. Brent Jones to serve as interim superintendent through June 30th 2022 with a starting date no later than July 1st 2021. The contract if one is successfully negotiated will be presented to the board for approval.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

This motion was made by Director Hersey and seconded by Rivera-Smith.

As the sponsor of this item which did not go through committee and which is on the agenda for introduction and action today I will be introducing this board action report.

I first met Dr. Brent Jones while a community advocate.

I can't specifically recall the first time as our paths crossed fairly regularly at school board and other community meetings.

That in and of itself is telling.

The most important time however was after I had testified before the school board as to the inequity in district programming that continued to drain our small school while highly segregated specialty programs continued to grow.

What I was really there to express was my deep concern that Seattle Public Schools was focused on the myriad details of program benefits to our students of greatest privilege while it failed to even acknowledge the humanity of my fellow elementary school parent Charlena who had been killed by police some weeks before while most of her children watched.

I testified that while our family support staff and teachers had supported her our administration had criminalized her had called the police on her showed up uninvited at her home and generally treated her with fear judgment and racist dehumanization.

When I testified to these charged accusations attempting to contextualize the board's considerations I lost my emotional center and had to excuse myself.

Two people rushed outside to talk to me.

One of them was Carrie Campbell the other was Dr. Brent Jones.

They didn't just come to lend a hanky or acknowledge the trauma in my community but that yes the district had the basic moral obligation to stop criminalizing our students and families.

that the district has the moral obligation to see them their humanity their brilliance.

He followed up with meetings strategizing and support for my advocacy making connections helping build relationships helping me help families in my community.

While that was my experience I've watched Dr. Jones do this over and over again with families elders community members and students.

There was always a follow-up a commitment to next steps in time energy and access.

Everything he learned whether at Muckleshoot Casa Latina Seattle Mennonite Church or in his own community I've watched him take in incorporate and adjust his forward path.

Dr. Brent Jones in his professional capacity has a commitment to stronger more effective more equitable operations.

He's one of the few people I've found that is willing to geek out at length on organizational best practices and especially the operationalization of racial equity.

It is it therefore wasn't a surprise after being elected to the board that I found his name scattered throughout important pieces of work he'd left the left of the district from a racial equity tool for internal audit to support for integrated risk management system inclusive of racial equity to opening new pathways to increase hiring of staff of color back in 2015. One of the most promising things I learned early on about Dr. Jones however is his commitment to professional growth coaching and organizational evolution.

He's remarkably frank about his own knowledge and skill gaps but not afraid to learn.

He treats relationships like living things and cares for them as such.

He disagrees with you but he does so compassionately.

He is a bridge builder.

He is steadfast in his honoring of community.

He has vision.

He's offered to be considered to return to the district he loves to serve at a time of great need during not just this global health crisis but this crisis of country conscience and reckoning regarding our racist and colonial past.

He's offered to help smooth our sails deliver us to our next permanent superintendent and them to us and I'm grateful to be presenting his candidacy here today.

Dr. Jones are you with us to to provide a few words.

I am.

Thank you Board President Hampson board members and Superintendent Juneau.

I appreciate this opportunity for you all inviting me to potentially be the interim superintendent of Seattle Public Schools.

In this process I've moved from reluctance to excitement to serving serving in this transitionary path.

As you look for a more permanent long-term superintendent I stand ready to serve.

It is really important that you understand that I'm a leader with diverse experience managing helping to manage through complex educational systems.

My roots are in Seattle.

I'm grounded in SPS.

My mother was a teacher and I'm a parent in the district.

And I'm proud to be a product of Seattle Public Schools.

Part of the reason I'm being asked to serve are my connections to community.

From the barbershop to the boardroom I have many relationships.

And through those relationships I and we will build bridges and create opportunity for equity inclusion and belonging.

These are very much needed at this time and it's a time of tumult and chaos but we will Stay focused on equity inclusion and belonging.

While I have the experience to serve effectively at the same time I am still a learner.

I know my strengths.

I know my weaknesses.

I am not perfect.

I make mistakes and I fail.

So I will need grace which I will give back.

With all that said I'm a champion for collaboration and I strongly believe together we can provide this community what it expects and what it deserves.

Together we can achieve the outcomes that we've been striving for.

With you I plan to fix sustain and innovate.

Fix the structure that are not serving each and every student well.

Sustain what is working and direct those resources to those successful practices.

Innovate where we're going to leverage this moment of change to do things differently to serve students furthest from educational justice.

So how are we going to do this.

What I've learned since I've been away is there are better ways to invest resources upstream and identify where needs are greatest.

Essentially we will find where the source issues are.

Start there.

Not treating the symptom but going after the root cause.

So what will be new.

Systemic racism will be replaced with institutionalizing equity.

What will be new.

I will be sharing power.

with internal and external community.

We will disrupt doing business as usual and most importantly replace it with something better.

We will be led by community both internally and externally.

And students will have an absolute voice at our table.

What will be new is that we will actively seek principal's guidance to see what their needs are to have those positive impacts inside our schools.

And educators will be consulted early and often because we know that the magic is in the classroom.

So this power sharing is what's going to be different.

Now what will be the same.

We will continue to build on the success and the momentum of prior superintendents.

The revered Superintendent John Stanford showed us how to empower principals.

Superintendent Goodloe Johnson led us to excellence for all.

Superintendent Susan Enfield guided us with data and rigor.

Superintendent Jose Banda led us through academic standards.

Larry Nyland Superintendent elevated eliminating opportunity gaps to be the issue of our time.

And more recently Superintendent Denise Juneau has elevated this last strategic plan to focus on students of color furthest from educational justice.

I aim to build on these leaders' really good work and be accountable to that momentum and that progress that has been made before.

By all objective measures we are one of the best districts in the state and in the nation.

Let's keep that designation.

We will lead with purpose and be driven to meet our goals and celebrate our successes and we will have fun doing it.

So my primary goal with you will be to create the conditions for students to thrive.

Our strategic focus will be in 10 areas and I'll list those 10. 1. We want to center mental health services and social-emotional learning for both students and employees.

2. We want to eliminate institutional racism and replace it with racial equity.

3. Move key policies that the board identifies through adoption and implementation without hesitancy.

Number 4. We want to develop a legislative agenda that centers around students.

5. We must secure our budget to fund our key priorities.

6. Plan for securing the health of our students and staff as we return to schools.

using the guidance of public health experts.

Number 7. Support our special education program to be responsive and meet said needs.

Number 8. Ensure continuity of broadband digital access where needed.

9. Continue food security and distribution efforts.

And lastly 10 is number 10. Meet the goals that are embedded in our strategic plan Seattle Excellence and report on our progress.

Now the beauty of our strategic plan Seattle Excellence is in its simplicity and its clarity of purpose.

High quality instruction and learning experiences.

Culturally responsive workforce.

Predictive and consistent operational systems.

Inclusive and authentic engagement.

And when we encounter problems in achieving these goals we won't admire them We will go right in and address them efficiently and thoroughly.

So those problems that impact students students learning safety and well-being will be prioritized first.

Now at the same time when we have great initiatives promising practices we will do our best to elevate those sustain them and spread them broadly across our district.

Very important piece here is we will support this school board and resource you in a way that you can govern efficiently.

And the staff that I serve will also have what they need in order to lead our district with impact.

I personally will take responsibility for creating space for dialogue when we have disagreement and misalignment.

In closing we know it will be a challenging year particularly right now.

And this job is one of the toughest in the city but we together will embrace the The feedback and the critique can be responsive.

My claim is that we can come together around centering students and we can create the conditions for students to thrive.

It has been an honor to be called to serve and although this will only be for a season you can guarantee that I will give 100 percent and lean into this moment.

I am hopeful that we can proceed to the next step in this process and I want to thank you for this opportunity.

Back to you.

Thank you Dr. Jones.

And with that I will take it to the first board director on our list to provide questions and comments.

Director Hersey.

Yeah thank you for the opportunity and I think that again as I've said many times before what our communities are looking for most in this moment of chaos is stability.

And moving forward with a candidate not only as qualified but as ready as Dr. Jones is to step into this role and continue to lead to pick up where Superintendent Juneau left off to carry us even further to finding our next permanent leader.

I think that there is no better option in this moment in time than an individual that has not only been with this district before who understands the complexities of our district but who also has a lived experience that is directly aligned with our strategic plan.

As a Black man and as an educator myself Brent Jones when I first moved to Seattle was someone who I looked up to without even knowing.

And in this moment I could not feel more proud to put an individual of his caliber forth with not only the support from me but from many members of the African-American community.

I think that this is a really pivotal moment that we are faced with as a board in how are we going to not only represent the interests of our community members but also move forward in providing stability and a trajectory that is going to hopefully put us in a better position to exit this pandemic in a meaningful way while not going back to business as usual in so many of our buildings.

What I will say is that I am very excited to support moving forward in this area.

I think we're very lucky that Dr. Jones has expressed interest in coming back and working with us.

And I can think of no better person to succeed Superintendent Juneau and continue to work on the incredibly important issues that she has elevated in her tenure.

I really have nothing but glowing and high praise for the individual that is seeking this assignment and we are I words just can't express how excited I am to potentially move forward.

I think our community has been clamoring for this for a long time looking for real representation at the top end of our system.

And this is really potentially going to be a move that helps us not only be more representative of community but also digging deeper into our strategic plan and ensuring that we are not only providing web service to our district but continuing to actually deliver on the aims that we have set for ourselves.

So this is an opportunity for us to move forward and I'm very excited about it and I'll pass on to the next director.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

First let me say I have nothing but respect for Dr. Brent Jones.

I consider him a friend.

I consider him a colleague.

I consider him an ally.

I did discuss with Dr. Jones some time ago that I was having trouble with having an appointment on an interim basis without community engagement and I have shared with my colleagues as well.

Not only have we not had community engagement this is an intro and action item and I don't know with no disrespect to Dr. Jones whether or not he is the best gentleman for the job.

And if we are talking about engagement in every other area of our extremely important and hard work I'm not quite sure why we are skipping that step now.

We have known for some time for a very long time that the contract renewal for current Superintendent Juneau was being discussed and that would end at the end of the year.

We found out in the newspaper that Superintendent Juneau did not have the vote which frankly was a shock and a big surprise to see it in the newspaper.

I am uncomfortable with this process.

And again I will be voting no.

And should Dr. Jones become our interim superintendent he's got my heartfelt promise that I'll help him in any way that I can.

Thank you.

Okay.

And that brings us to Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Yeah I so I was able to have a phone call with Dr. Jones recently and that was really good to get to meet him and learn more about him and his what he could bring to our district.

I also I shared with him too my my really big hesitation here the biggest one is just the lack of community engagement because I hate to be too repetitive over what Director Harris just said but same thing that we value it to such an extent that I feel uncomfortable also shortening that.

And I think that because I clearly Dr. Jones is a is a more than viable candidate and is somebody who I think a lot of our community would benefit from getting to know and getting to learn more about.

We have not given them a chance to do that and I feel really strange about that.

I look at it.

I know what it's like to be I mean right now he's our only candidate.

We don't we haven't even really I don't know that we've heard from anybody else interested in the position.

I don't know that we've reached out to anybody else.

It's been a very quick turnaround and I know what it's like to be an only candidate.

I was the only candidate for my job when I when I did this too and I was the only one.

But I still spent those how from what was it May to November out in community doing forums meeting with groups just so people could get to know me and feel good about me and in the end vote or not vote for me.

I very well could have not won still if people didn't want me here.

That wouldn't have been the case.

So I wish that we had I wish that we were giving ourselves opportunity to do that with with you Dr. Because a lot of people know you and that's awesome but a lot of people don't and that's that's too bad because it would be good for them to do that.

And I'd feel a lot better if they did know that and we had the opportunities to do that because that's that's what our community calls us to do.

And I I I really respect that process.

So again that's where I'm at.

I do appreciate you stepping forward.

I think that's awesome and amazing.

We're we're lucky to have.

somebody who has the experience or just to come in right now and and hopefully you know work with Superintendent Juneau over the next few months to to pick up you know where she will be leaving off.

And that's that's a process ahead of us.

But anyhow thank you for being here tonight for sharing so much of yourself and I'll pass on to the next director.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I I just want to maybe note and remind people who might be listening that that we are the vote that we're this BAR is to negotiate a contract and there will still be a vote whether or not to accept that contract.

So I just kind of wanted to let just remind folks that you know This isn't a once and done kind of deal and there's still you know if people want to want to know more or you know let us know what they're thinking.

Today is not the beginning and the end.

That that said I you know when we were thinking when when our Superintendent Juneau When it was when the announcement was made that her she would not be seeking contract extension the idea of an interim to me was was appealing because I know how much how much community engagement is important to this board and to the Seattle Public Schools community and how much we needed to be able to do that for a long-term hire.

And so having a super super interim interim superintendent that could take up take up the leadership while that search was happening was really appealing.

The you know my first thought was who would want to do that.

I honestly was thinking who who who even wants this who even wants this job at all at all right now much less who wants to take it for you know a short term and then through a through a really really challenging really really challenging time.

And so I am.

grateful and relieved that we have a candidate who knows Seattle who knows Seattle Public Schools who is from Seattle Public Schools in in every every as a student as an administrator.

And at a time like now when there is so I mean there are hard decisions to be made every day.

Lots of uncertainty.

Lots and lots of change.

I.

feel really strongly about the importance of having someone like Dr. Jones who already you know we don't have we don't have time to kind of you know introduce some you know introduce a new a new person around to everybody and kind of you know I would say show them where the copy machine is and stuff but we're not in person so.

But you know meet everybody and kind of learn the structure and learn all things like we there we will have I think it would be a great move towards just kind of dependability and consistency for our staff for our families to have someone like Dr. Jones who who can can hit the ground running be ready to to get to work tackle tackle the issues that he's probably well aware of and familiar with and jump in on the things that we're we're all facing that that are new.

I I first met Dr. Jones when I used to when I first started coming to school board meetings 6 years ago 5 or 6 years ago.

And my strategy for getting to understand the district more and kind of learn who was who and what they did was to bring cookies.

And Brent is one of the the people who was probably the the friendliest and most welcoming to a new face who became that became a regular face.

And so I I didn't really expect to feel emotional when people were talking but I am feeling a little bit emotional.

Just it's there's a lot of stuff that's really hard really really hard for everybody right now.

And all the transitions that are coming ahead of us a new District 4 Board Director Superintendent all of the COVID things.

I am grateful and relieved that we have Dr. Jones.

willing to do this with us it it really sets my mind at ease and makes me feel like we can face we can face more of these big decisions having a person who we already know is in our corner.

I have one question kind of a technical question which is the The the contract to be negotiated has an end date of June 30th 2022. Is it no later than or is it up until.

I mean say say say some really great process goes through with firing finding a permanent superintendent and they're ready to start in you know April of 2022. Do we is that of concern what the date is the end date.

So I can have Director I mean I can have Chief Narver speak to this.

The language was intended to provide the scope of time that we needed to to search for a new superintendent.

And my assumption and Chief Narver correct me if I'm wrong is that the specific detail as to how the exit ramps and on-ramps therein would be negotiated through the contract.

That's correct.

Good evening.

It's this is Greg Narver Chief Legal Counsel.

The specific dates would be part of the negotiations of a contract.

My understanding of the date proposed in this BAR is that it corresponds to what is the usual time cycle for developing a search process for a permanent superintendent for Windows of the openings of potential candidates becoming available.

Time to negotiate a contract with a possible permanent superintendent and board approval of that.

And by the time you get through all that and it's just been I believe as I understand the usual cycle that a contract term ends around the end of the school year and that's my understanding of that anticipated end date.

However it's it would all be subject to negotiations and then the board of course needs to approve any any contracts so there will be another opportunity for the board to review the the dates of service of an interim superintendent.

Okay great.

Thank you.

I just wanted to just double check that that wasn't going to be restrictive.

I guess just one more thing I'll say is is one of my other concerns when when We were talking about interim or permanent was that we wouldn't have we wouldn't have someone in the position and we'd find ourselves with no superintendent in June.

And so I'm just I'm just going to sum up and say I'm relieved and happy that that this is a possibility for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

Thank you Dr. Jones for I'm excited to see this come come before the board.

I think one thing that's really important is that we should just be transparent that You're coming in at a very important and critical time in our district's history.

And so I just encourage you to work with collaborate and communicate with our board center students and racial justice and be a partner in improving this district for our city and our communities.

I look forward to our relationship.

I hope you continue to work with us along the way.

I thank you so much for stepping up to this challenge.

I trust I trust that you'll be a critical partner for us over the course of the next year and address I think one thing that I keep hearing about community engagement You know back when we had to find the last superintendent and I certainly you know won't make any judgments on the last process but the last process started in about February of my first three months on the board and we had to decide by April or May-ish.

So we met about three to four months to reorient all of our plans 8 o'clock include more community engagement opportunities more feedback with the community bring more community into it.

And it was I think we did as well as we could have done in the 3 to 4 months we had.

So I do greatly appreciate that directors are so committed to community engagement now.

I hope you are as committed to community engagement in other situations because I think part of this is not seeing the forest for the trees.

Doing an interim for this period for this time will help us to really and centering our students their families our educators and our community in the over a longer period of time for our district.

So I our interim year I'm excited to be working with you again Dr. Jones but I'm also really excited to bring community in for the process to find And that's all I have to say.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

And just in sort of final summary in response to the concept of appointing an interim doing it quickly we do have we have a contract that's ending.

We want to be prepared to be able to make the transition when Superintendent Juneau leaves if she finds other opportunities.

prior to that time that we're not stuck without.

And the commitment to a much longer engagement period for a superintendent in which we can figure out who we can grow together with in relationship with community.

Try to stay local.

There are some really key things that we have been demanded of us in terms of doing this next step that that folks throughout have been have pointed out in terms of how do we do this right.

And and yet somehow there's still this expectation that we would go through sort of the same national search process.

And I think this this allows us the opportunity to do that differently and to really truly do it with community to establish what even the process looks like with community.

I don't know that the prior process has served us particularly well.

And and in terms of you know the concept of community engagement and oh we didn't we didn't do community engagement.

A couple of really major things that we've we've talked about already that are mentioned in the board action report and in the racial equity analysis which is that we like to talk a lot about community engagement as if in fact every time we do it we're in fact honoring the nature of what that engagement is and that and that we that we close the loops and that we come back around and we include people in the in sort of the final decision making.

And the reality is that that's not how we operate as a district.

We might have the sort of you know statement of doing community engagement but the reality that in terms of how our communities experience it is quite different.

And we have in front of us a it has been a very hard meeting.

Dr. Jones welcome to the difficulties that we are currently dealing with in the midst of COVID and the reworking of our school system and the our staff are exhausted were exhausted and we are pushing through all of this reformation at the same time that we're dealing with age-old issues with you know 400 litigations and with boundary issues that that have to be solved because we're we're busting at the seam.

We can't go back to school at a you know to an exploding middle school like Mercer without creating some relief.

These are really really hard things to all be handling at the same time.

And I know that folks are feeling pretty pretty beat down.

I appreciate from my standpoint that you're somebody that is interested in bringing healing into those situations and I think we're going to need a lot of that.

But I also don't believe that in going through this process that we need to pretend that we're going to do community engagement every time when the reality of our of the results of that engagement are actually quite different.

And and I would like for us to really challenge ourselves when we talk about community engagement that when we say it we we mean it.

That we dig deep.

That we engage and we form relationships.

And and that those are longstanding relationships.

You're such a great model for that.

And we have many others in our district that are as well.

There are so many people in community that have done that who have committed so much to this district.

that are waiting to see us in some situations act in the ways that we have committed to and not go back out and waste everybody's time pretending like we're engaging them.

So we have work to do.

And I'm excited about doing that work with you.

And and in terms of you know I don't appreciate having misstatements made about you know what what was in the you know what somebody how somebody some reporter might have interpreted something I won't address it directly but let's just say that there's clearly a strong difference between whether or not somebody supports somebody and whether or not they they vote.

And and I think that that's been stated many times before where you know support or and and vote you know no or or or lack of support and vote yes.

Votes and support are not one in the same and that's that's part of the legislative process.

You know we can talk about whether or not we support something but that doesn't mean that all things at the end of the day are going to move us forward legislatively.

So again I want to emphasize how undesirable this role is because it is so difficult.

And how grateful I am that you're willing to put your own health at risk at this time and and come to to to be in our fold.

And with that I'm going to move to call for the vote.

Director Hersey aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith abstain Director DeWolf proudly yes Director Harris

No.

Director Hampson aye.

This motion has passed with a vote of 4 yes to 1 no with 1 abstention.

Thank you and congratulations for now.

Thank thank you.

I'm grateful for the opportunity and I understand where we're going together.

It will be a journey.

And we'll we'll make it happen.

High appreciation.

So excited.

We will talk very soon.

Okay.

And with that our action items are complete and we move to introduction items.

We will move to Introduction Item Number 1. Approval of the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school year calendars.

This came through Executive Committee on January 20th for consideration.

Chief Human Resource Officer Dr. Clover Codd I believe you will be briefing us.

Good evening directors.

I'm Chief of Staff Sherri Kokx and I'll actually be presenting the district school year calendars for two consecutive school years the 2021-22 and the 22-23 for Dr. Codd tonight.

Both school year calendars the 2021 and the 2022 and the 2022-2023 which is being brought to the school board for approval encompasses the key dates agreed upon in the SEA and SPS Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement specifies that the normal student calendar shall be developed using formulas specified in the Collective Bargaining Agreement for key dates.

If calendar anomalies occur In any given years the parties will discuss alternatives.

The calendar has been created using the agreed-upon formula and reviewed and shared with all the district's bargaining partners including SEA PASS 609 and all of the other bargaining units.

No concerns were raised.

I will point out that the first day of school according to the collective bargaining agreement key dates formula which has been approved by the board when the CBA was ratified states that the first day of school shall be the first Wednesday in September.

For the 2021-2022 school year the first Wednesday in September will be September 1st 2021 which is before Labor Day.

The key dates formula also specifies that we will celebrate Labor Day when school begins before this day in September.

There may be some concern raised.

that schools has in the past years started after Labor Day.

The key dates formula was originally bargained in the 2015-2018 collective bargaining agreement as a tool for staff and families so there were guidelines about what to expect for the calendar and so the dates weren't arbitrarily made.

For the 2022-23 school year the first Wednesday in September is September 7th.

2022 which is after Labor Day.

Additionally during the 2019 bargaining period multiple joint work groups between SPS and SEA were established with one specifically organized to address to address inclusive considerations related to religious and cultural observations and practices.

This workgroup developed supplemental materials and guidance to go along with the traditional school year calendar and saw the benefits to having this guidance during its first roll during the 2020-21 school year.

As a result this guidance has been included as supplemental materials to go along with the 2021-22 and the 2022-23 school year calendars.