School Board Meeting April 5th, 2017 Pt. 1

to the April 5, 2017 regular school board meeting.

I would also like to welcome our student representative, hopefully we will soon be joined by Isis Brown.

All right Ms. Ritchie the roll call please.

Director Blanford.

Here.

Director Burke.

Here.

Director Geary.

Here.

Director Harris.

Here.

Director Patu.

Here.

Director Peters.

Here.

And Director Pinkham.

Present.

Everyone would please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I will now turn it over to Dr. Nyland for tonight's recognition.

Nyland All right.

Thank you.

Lots of good recognitions tonight.

First one Washington Education Association has named one of our very own as support professional ESP of the year.

Gwendolyn Jimerson has been so awarded and we're delighted to recognize her good work.

She works as a Head Start family services provider at MLK elementary and provides support to families in so many many many many different ways.

So I'd like to invite Michael Melanson professional paraprofessional president for Seattle Education Association to come share some remarks.

Good afternoon distinguished school board and all in attendance.

I count it as an honor and a privilege to share this not only because of Gwendolyn's great work but also as a friend and a colleague who I have a great deal of respect and trust for and as the vice president that works alongside of me.

I'd like to just share some things about Gwendolyn and that begins with Gwendolyn is a proud product of Seattle Public Schools graduating from Franklin high school in which she served as junior and senior class president.

Prior to SPS she served Seattle Public Schools, she served 17 years with the Seattle Police Department.

She started with Seattle Public Schools in 2004 as a family support worker through the year 2008 after which she became the Head Start family service provider which is her current role and she serves on the program leadership team with Head Start.

As a parent of a graduate of Seattle Public Schools she served on the PTA for over 13 years and most recently two years as the PTA vice president of Rainier Beach high school.

And she currently serves on the PTO of Martin Luther King elementary school.

And I'll say that she has a daughter that recently graduated last year from Rainier Beach who also followed in a lot of her footsteps as black student union president, the all student body vice president and the PTA SA student as a student member.

Within the Seattle education Association I'd like to recognize Gwendolyn as a again the vice president of paraprofessionals.

She also is a SEA board member and she also served on a committee of membership matters.

With Washington education Association Gwendolyn serves on the Washington education board.

She serves as a Washington education change innovation and achievements committee.

She serves on the WEA McCleary committee.

She also works with OSPI on the ESSA committee in addition to the act committee which is comprised of educational support professionals throughout Washington state.

She does that work and a host of many other activities and again I'd like to just say she has been a wonderful colleague to work with for these many years.

She came on and shadowed under me as a family support worker lead and again it's been a pleasure and an honor and a real blessing to know her because she's also kind of family to me so without do I'd like to bring up Gwendolyn Jemerson.

Thank you Michael.

Thank you.

To the board and to Dr. Nyland thank you for this honor it's a privilege to stand here before you and take acknowledgement for the work that I do.

I don't really call it work because it's something that I enjoy and as you can see I have my hands in a little bit of everything because I think that a busy hand takes away a lot of that complaining so I'm not the person who complains I'm the person who goes after to get the job done.

Dr. Nyland I met you on a couple occasions I think at our recent march in Olympia I invited you to come and take a picture with us and I thought he probably doesn't remember who I am but I'm the one who kind of brought you over to the group and said stand in front of Seattle Public Schools and represent along with us.

So again I'm not going to continue to tell you more of the things that I probably already do in addition to just my schoolwork.

I have lots of activities within a community serving in my sorority and also as a trustee at my church.

So I like to be busy.

And so one day I may be sitting up there serving because I need to get the work done.

Thank you so much for this opportunity.

Thank you.

I just want to also acknowledge the people from SEA who are here to support Gwendolyn and other colleagues that she has.

So could you please stand up those who are here to support.

We have paraprofessional board members and SEA board members and SEA staff.

So I'd like to invite Michael and Gwendolyn and all of the SEA representatives come up front and let the board congratulate you and take a picture together.

Also one of my parents I want you to come up front too.

All right.

we have to run to a parent center meeting and she says I'm going to come early and I'm going to come and support you.

th th

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Wow it's easy to see why Gwendolyn won that recognition.

Awesome work.

Our second honoree recognized group tonight is Seattle University for their youth initiative work.

We've been recognizing premier partners and we don't really have a good definition for that except that when we see one we know one.

Seattle University started their inquiry a number of years ago by actually, what is it?

Some famous person says don't just do something, stand there.

So they did that.

They came to us a number of years ago and they said we want to help but before we do we want to know what you need.

And so I think there was a number of months or maybe even years.

of careful thought together how we could do good work.

And in the end they put together the kind of partnership that we would really like to see expanding to other areas throughout the district.

So they partner with many other community-based organizations and they partner with Seattle housing Authority all in support of Bailey Gatzert primarily as well as Washington middle school and Garfield high school.

And they will tell us the numbers are staggering in terms of the number of SU students who are on campus every day.

providing mentoring and tutoring for our students and trying to figure out together what else do we need and oftentimes they are able to fulfill those requests.

And middle college.

I would like to invite James Bush to come and add to the details that I didn't have right at the tip of my tongue.

So Seattle University has just been a great partner for Bailey Gatzert and for the district.

Thank you superintendent Nyland and board members for this opportunity to recognize another one of our critical partners.

In 2011 Seattle University launched the Seattle University youth initiative to connect the university to the wider Seattle community to develop successful youth, a thriving community and an engaged neighborhood.

Through the youth initiative the university is partnering with neighbor leaders, parents, the city, Seattle Housing Authority and over 30 nonprofit organizations to improve the academic achievement of 1000 low-income students in a 100 square block area just south of SU's campus.

A central component of the youth initiative is strong partnerships with Seattle Public Schools including Bailey Gatzert, Washington middle school, Garfield high school, and the middle college high school at Seattle U. The youth initiative also enhances the education of Seattle U students as hundreds of students serve, learn, and lead by engaging schools and dozens of local nonprofit organizations.

Upon graduation many of these Seattle U students go on to serve Seattle including Seattle Public Schools as teachers, paraprofessionals and other roles which we are very honored to have them join our ranks.

Tonight we are joined by staff and students from Seattle U including Kent Coath and I'm going to invite Kent Coath to come up and share a few words and have a brief video that they're going to share with the board and the audience.

And we have a student and a mentor here also to share the story.

Good evening.

One of the things I was going to mention is Gwendolyn I think has left now.

She came up and introduced herself to me beforehand because she's also a Seattle U grad so I was sort of honored.

Amidst her other accolades there seems to be a theme this evening at least.

I just want to first of all thank you for the recognition but I wanted to mostly say thank you on behalf of our students, our faculty and our staff.

As a university we are oriented around wanting to provide our students with learning experiences in the community and the opportunity to engage and learn from the professionals in the schools is a tremendous opportunity for our students.

I am joined tonight by some of our staff and our students from our partnerships and in a moment I've invited one of our middle school students and one of our college students.

Unique Jordan is a seventh grader at Washington middle school.

And Jesse Gunn-Kelvis is a sophomore math student from Portland, Oregon.

So they're going to share very briefly.

But I have initially just a short video that offers a snapshot of some of the different people involved in the youth initiative, kids, children.

Our university president couldn't be here, but he makes a cameo in the video.

So thanks so much.

The youth initiative is the reason I first came to Seattle U and it's been giving meaning to my life ever since.

As a faculty member, the youth initiative has allowed my students and I to really get engaged in the community while also preparing professionally for careers in the student development administration field.

SUYI is a way for Seattle University students from all over the country to make meaningful connections in our neighborhood.

The Youth Initiative is a call to action and it's a place and a space where campus and community can come together to change the odds for youth and families that live in our neighborhood.

Youth Initiative is great for the neighborhood, it's great for the students of Seattle University, and it's great for the future.

I'm really proud of it.

SUYI is convergence.

Seattle University Youth Initiative is inspiring.

It is something that we hold dear, and all our youth should be a part of it, because it helps them be what they aspire to be.

The Youth Initiative is an amazing partnership between the community and the university.

It is a true partner for the community.

It is caring.

It is funny.

It is amazing.

SUYI is the heart of Seattle University, connected to the heart of the city.

SUI is for you.

SUI is home.

The Seattle University Youth Initiative is opportunity, hope, and change.

SUI is good for children that want to learn more.

SUI is a wonderful asset to the Gadsar community.

SUI initiative program is amazing.

I love it.

It's like a gift from the Santa for our community.

Thank you so much.

So it's about our neighborhood.

It is about community engagement.

And it's about kids.

SUI is a bridge that connects our students here at middle school with their future that they can see in the eyes of the college students.

SUI is a transformative experience for the youth in the community.

SUI is love, community, and friends.

SUI is a place where every student has the opportunity to learn and grow.

SUI is Mr. Garth helping me with my math homework.

SUI is getting to hang out with AJ.

What I think about it is it's like fun and it's creative and it's for critical thinkers like me.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Jesse Goncalves I'm a second-year student at Seattle U and I have been involved in the youth initiative for two years now so since the beginning of my freshman year.

I have worked at Washington middle school as a sum core leader SU math core lead and I study math so I love it and I love working with kids on math.

I have worked in math classrooms, I have mentored students one-on-one and I've worked in after-school programs.

And I've just learned so much and made a connection to the community that I really wouldn't have made had I not been involved in this program.

Especially coming from another state.

and not really having any connection to that community without this program.

So I'm just really really thankful that I've been a part of it and that I've made so many connections to so many awesome students such as Unique.

Unique Jordan I'm a second year student at Washington Middle School.

I'm in the RAMP program after school with Rachel Ann Williams.

She is a great teacher.

I did a forensic science camp the week before the last week of summer.

I was in a PALS program at Washington Middle School for nearly the whole summer.

year and the year before.

And I enjoyed it.

And I have a mentor at Washington Middle School.

Her name is Maisha and she helps me with my homework and my schoolwork and stuff.

And I enjoy being in the mentor center once a week.

Sometimes more.

And I would invite Seattle U to come up and greet the board and the board to congratulate Seattle U and those that came tonight on their behalf.

th th

One, two, three, a couple more.

Again thank you to Seattle U for being a great partner.

Two other items under recognition this is school librarian day, week, month and paraprofessional appreciation day was on Monday.

I should have worked that into the recognition that we just did for Gwendolyn.

So I'll start with paraprofessionals.

Wow I should have the number that we have but I mean we have literally hundreds of paraprofessionals that do all kinds of support work for our teachers and participate in our drug and alcohol intervention and provide all kinds of wraparound services for our students.

They truly are educators and work side-by-side with us to make great things happen for our students.

And it's national, yesterday was national school librarian appreciation day and April is school library month and we had the opportunity recently to recognize several of our librarians from North Beach and North Gate for the extra work that they did above and beyond and gosh I guess I missed it.

I wanted to know from Madison they do a final four competition for the kids every year to find out what their best books are.

I always enjoy reading those so thank you to our librarians as we've heard before.

Yeah probably underappreciated in the sense of funding and much still much appreciated for the work that they do in terms of finding resources.

And as I go into libraries I have the opportunity to see great examples of the way that librarians are helping us with our eliminating opportunity gaps by having books on display for students of color as well as for other students that can benefit by learning more about different communities of color.

So again many many thanks to our librarians.

Thank you Dr. Nyland.

So tonight we also have the pleasure of performance from the John Muir elementary school music program.

This is one of our central pathway schools taking part in the creative advantage initiative which provides music to kids where it had not been provided before.

Miko Aoki is a professional recording artist who has collaborated through this initiative to work with John Muir students in a weekly recorder club.

At this time I would like to invite my colleagues to the front row to enjoy the music while Ms. Aoki and John Muir recorder club get in position.

Thank you.

Hello everyone my name is Shelby Leyland I teach K5 music at John Muir Elementary School and as you know we are a creative advantage school so that means that we have a lot of things to say to you for making all of this possible.

Without you we would not have a music program we would not be here today And we know that you hold arts and our children in a very special place in your heart and we have to thank you for that.

So I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and from these kids and from the teachers at John Muir Elementary.

Thank you for holding arts as a high priority in Seattle.

And I'd like to introduce you to the real leader of this ensemble Miss Miyo Aoki.

Thank you.

So I wanted to thank you all for having us here.

We have been working all year long so far and we're going till the end of the school year.

We we meet about three times a month once a week after school and we usually miss one week every month.

And we've been working very hard, we've been working on a lot of skills to help us make beautiful music on the recorder, sort of using the recorder as a tool to make music.

We've been working on using warm air to get a nice tone, we've been working on standing up very straight to make sure that warm air can come out.

We've been working on having good hand position and finger position so that we have good finger dexterity and can cover the holes completely.

We've been working on using our tongue to articulate every note so it's a lot of different things that go into actually playing the recorder.

We've mastered five notes so far and we'll show you some of those notes.

We're going to be playing two songs for you today.

I also wanted to thank the early music guild of Seattle which has very kindly basically sponsored me to help do this.

They've been extremely generous and I'm very appreciative to them.

The early music Guild is a fantastic organization if you don't know them they are strongly committed to providing quality music experiences for kids and they are very invested in supporting the great work that teachers are doing in the public schools.

So thank you very much the early music guild.

I also wanted to thank the American recorder society which also helped us to be able to do this.

They provided a grant so that we could get this up and running at the very beginning of the school year and the Seattle recorder society which is a chapter of the American recorder society.

They've been also fantastic very supportive and their members have donated money to help us fund these wonderful shirts which we just got today with a design designed by one of our own members Sophia.

So we are very grateful to the SRS for that and their members have also donated some recorders so we actually have some alto recorders, these are soprano recorders that we are playing, alto recorders are a little bit bigger but we actually now have some alto recorders so we might be able to start some students on alto recorders later this year.

And I think with that we will play our first song for you, it's a song called Offentanz which means monkey dance in German.

you

Our last piece is called Anfang und Ende, which means beginning and end.

We will play it all together first, then play it in a round, which means that we'll all play the same melody, but we'll begin and end different places in joy.

you.

Well thank you all very much that was delightful.

So I'm going to pass the microphone to everybody if you could just tell me your first name and what grade you're in and then pass the microphone on to your next person.

My name is Doug and I'm in third grade.

My name is Saron and I'm in third grade.

My name is Mally and I'm in fourth grade.

My name is Aldana and I'm also in third grade.

Hi my name is Hamdi and I'm also in third grade.

My name is Sophia and I'm also in third grade.

My name is Tegan and I'm also in third grade.

My name is Micah I'm in second grade.