Seattle School Board Meeting - Jan 13, 2021

the board meeting to order in a moment.

Could we please hold comments while SPS takes us live.

After a five second pause I will call us to order.

This is Director Hampson.

I am now calling the January 13th 2021 regular board meeting to order at 330 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.

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Director DeWolf.

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 Isabella Crone-Barron who is joining us as the student representative from Ballard High School today.

We will be hearing from Isabella later in the meeting as well as fellow Ballard senior Anna Fina 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 we can hear directors and staff.

Her Board Policy Number 1114. The board is publicly acknowledging and announcing the resignation of District 4 School Board Director Eden Mack.

Ms. Mack resigned from the board effective January 7th 2021. On behalf of my fellow directors I wish to wholeheartedly thank Ms. Mack for her service to the district and its students.

I know my fellow directors may wish to share a few words of thanks and we can come back to that at the end of the meeting during director comments.

The district will be launching the process to fill the district floor seat this Friday with more information to come at that time.

I will now turn it over to Superintendent Juneau for her comments and to introduce staff to present the Annual Financial Report per Board Policy 6030.

Thank you President Hampson and good afternoon directors and Welcome Isabella.

I'm glad to virtually see you and have you give comments tonight.

So she is a member of the Student Advisory Board so always good to see that happen.

I want to share an update on our in-person reopening work before inviting JoLynn Berge.

And also just so I know that we all became aware this afternoon of a letter from the Department of Ed And I just want to share that since the beginning of the pandemic we have and will continue to follow the guidance of OSPI.

Since March every time state guidance has changed the district has adjusted.

Seattle Public Schools is aware of the investigation.

We will fully cooperate with the U.S.

Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.

We want to emphasize the same thing that the OCR letter states that in no way does an investigation indicate that a violation exists.

I would also just like to give a really brief update on in-person reopening of schools planning.

First and foremost Seattle Public Schools is committed to the health and safety of our students and staff.

Last week I sent a letter to Governor Jay Inslee Dr. Umar Shah Washington Secretary of Health and Dr. Jeffrey Duchin Health Officer for Public Health Seattle and King County.

to advocate for January vaccination of educators and all school-based staff that will be supporting the increase of in-person learning.

I expressed to Governor Inslee that our top priority must be to keep our staff students and communities physically safe as well as mentally and academically healthy.

Prioritizing vaccinations for public educators and critical support staff will send a strong message of our state's commitment to public education and care for our public educators in a time when so much is uncertain.

We'll continue to advocate on behalf of our staff as we begin planning for a return to school buildings on March 1st for pre-K kindergarten and first grade students and students being served in special education intensive service pathways.

Last week families of these selected students were asked to complete a survey to let us know if their student would return to in-person or if they desire to stay remote.

And I know we all know that this is an incredibly difficult decision especially as the context and information around COVID-19 is constantly changing.

Many families reached out to let us know that they needed more time to make the decision and we heard them.

The deadline was extended to today.

And also to let you know that families needed a process to request adjustments as circumstances change.

And so we listened to that as well and we'll put an appeal process in place.

Some of our families also expressed frustration that we can't share more details around what a return to school buildings will look like.

So I hope that some of those questions are being answered and will shed some light on the planning process.

They should check out our frequently asked questions page that is continually update updated and I just want everyone to know that we will continue to follow the guidance of public health to listen to our community to make necessary changes to meet the needs of our students families and staff throughout our planning.

There may be questions that we can't answer yet but we are doing Facebook Lives.

We're continuing to communicate and we'll continue to be as transparent as possible about all those moving pieces.

In order to finalize many of our plans we needed to know each family's decision as soon as possible.

So parallel to the family survey our human resources team is also running the survey for staff.

That information will allow us to match staff and students.

Make sure we have a 1 to 15 1 teacher to 15 student or less ratio.

Create new school level master schedules.

Lift up new bus routes.

Create in-person lunch services and so much more.

all while continuing to maintain regular operations for remote learning special education childcare and serving 30,000 meals a day.

None of these in-person plans can be finalized until we know how many students intend to return to school buildings.

That's why that survey was so important to our planning.

Until we know the number of students we need to prepare for in our buildings our plan is just a plan.

Once we know those number of students choosing to return to our buildings we can put that plan into motion And it's also important to continue to reiterate that this planning's never stopped.

We've been planning this return since last spring.

Staff's been working hard to put a plan in place responsive to feedback from our June engagement teams that included educators students school leaders parents staff and the board.

Together with our labor partner the Seattle Education Association through the already negotiated SEA SPS Health and Safety Team we've created strong protocols and most recently in collaboration with health and safety experts we have redesigned and made improvements to our learning spaces.

We have worked with 5 architectural firms to create cohort zones across our schools with separate entrances exits and bathrooms to increase safety.

Plexiglas partitions have been placed in the front office and in specialized classrooms.

Our facilities and operations team worked with the Washington Economic Recovery Coalition to implement an extensive COVID-19 heating ventilation and air conditioning risk assessment based on best practices identified by public health and HVAC experts.

We are providing staff and students safe learning environments by increasing natural ventilation and optimize optimizing filtration.

Individual classrooms have also been redesigned ensuring 6 feet between students and a minimum of 10 feet in the front of the class for the teacher.

And all of this is just a reminder that we are committed to the health and safety of our students and staff.

And I am personally committed to advocating on their behalf.

Please continue to access our website to get the most up-to-date information on our planning.

Continue to look forward to working on this return to school with the board and with that I would just like to introduce Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge to present the annual financial report per board policy number 6030. Thank you.

Thank you Superintendent.

Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge will will be sharing some information about our annual financial report.

Next slide please.

So overall this PowerPoint presentation was updated slightly from the September 7th preview presentation to the Autumn Finance Committee.

We clarified that the school year so per director's request from that meeting we clarified that the fiscal year runs September 1 through August 31st.

We've added some additional slides to provide more information on what our assigned fund balance is.

And we have included a couple more slides about the sub-fund section which is new for 19-20 there are new state requirements where we have to now separate out what we're noting as an operating enrichment levy expenditure and what is an expenditure from state-funded or basic education allocation.

So if we can go to the next slide.

I now see that I'm navigating.

Sorry about that.

So I'm navigating myself.

Okay.

So oh not now I'm not.

There we go.

So we've gone over that so the next slide please.

One more slide.

Slide 5. So on slide 5 this slide shows high-level totals for each of the categories where we show our beginning fund balance our revenues other financing sources which are generally transfers from the capital fund for eligible expenditures.

And then we show our expenditures and our ending fund balance.

And so for example we had expenditures that we budgeted for just over one billion dollars.

And our actual expenditures were $966,875,780.

So that would be the way to read that slide.

Next slide please.

Because of new state requirements we do have a new definition of state or basic education revenue.

So some of these revenue categories are a little bit different than you've seen in the prior year and you see some differences in the percentage totals from the prior year.

I'll just note a couple of them.

So for instance the local levy we show a decrease in local levy and a significant increase in state apportionment.

That is because we were continuing to implement the new funding structure where they lowered the local levy and raised state state revenues.

And also you'll notice that the local non-tax is significantly different.

Again that's because the state has required us to record the City of Seattle levy funds which are which had been recorded under other were now required to be moved to the local non-tax.

So just some examples of some changes in in state requirements that mean that our numbers and our percentages may look a little different than the prior year.

Next slide please is a chart showing our overarching general fund revenues.

This is a depiction of the slide that will follow.

or that we previously had seen.

And you can see that our state dollars are the most significant amount at just over 50 percent and that local tax is third now at 15 percent.

So before our local tax amount was probably around close to 25 percent and that shift between the new state policy to lower the local levy collection amounts that are allowed and increased state funding.

Next slide please.

So the next slide summarizes our expenditures and compares expenditures from the 19-20 school year compared to the year before in 18-19.

So while the amounts have increased over that time mostly because of increases in contractual salaries You can see that our percentages of spending by category remain very consistent from year to year.

Next slide please.

And that just shows that the majority of our salaries are our expenditures are certificated salaries and benefits with the next category being classified salaries followed by followed by payroll taxes and benefits.

Next slide please.

So this slide shows our ending fund balance in 19-20 compared to the prior year.

And you can see as we've talked in our budget work sessions our fund balance is starting to tick down as we start to spend down some of those reserves as as we had planned to.

So you can see that the major categories for our fund balance are our non-spendable inventory which are our food commodities from the U.S.

Department of Agriculture.

Our grant funds so we do get grant funds and those have to be accounted and restricted separately.

Our economic stabilization or rainy day fund which we have been talking about spending about half of to balance the budget for 21-22.

An assigned fund balance which we'll talk about in a moment.

And then our unassigned fund balance which again is a key component to using those dollars to buy down the deficit that we're seeing in the 21-22 projected budget.

Next slide please.

So the question was raised at Audit and Finance.

What does assigned fund balance mean.

Well assigned fund balance means is that we let somebody keep that specifically in their books as they're set aside for a certain purpose.

And we have added descriptions for that as requested.

So one of the things that you'll see is some significant savings.

We've been carrying forward savings.

under a plan that we had generated previously.

So that's in there.

And then we have like school carry forward and central carry forward and those examples are shown below but it's really the self-help accounts small local grants or discretionary dollars that schools are allowed to carry over.

Next slide please.

Next slide.

So the sub-fund reporting requirements again we had some new legislation that had passed in 2018 and 2017 where school districts have to separate out their expenditures.

So you have to identify how many revenues you had from your local levy and you have to identify expenditures to bid to put against those revenues.

And the same with your state or basic education dollars.

So the state does tell us which of those categories of expenditures and revenues have to fall into.

So they do provide.

guidance to us about that.

Next slide please.

So this is the general fund and the sub-fund.

So this takes those expenditures and some of the earlier slides and it really separates them out.

So it shows that we have a beginning fund balance for both our basic education i.e. state allocation and our local levy.

It shows the revenues that we received in each of those categories.

About $200 million in our local Enrichment Levy $736 million in our basic education or state-funded levy.

And then associated expenditures which we'll go into more detail in a moment as well.

Next slide please.

So on this slide I'll point to two to two specific areas.

So this is the revenue portion of which kind of revenue goes into which bucket.

And it is showing that local revenue is fairly small in the state in the state allocation.

That's really the collection of child nutrition fees for a school lunch.

And then the local revenue under the local category is the revenue from local levy.

As we go down one other item that I'll note under federal you have some local component of 4.9 million.

That is how the state is advising us to categorize our Head Start grant.

So that would be the majority of those dollars.

Next slide please.

So this just provides additional information for you about revenues.

Next slide please.

And this this so this divides up our expenditures between that state bucket and the local levy.

And I'll just point out two areas that the majority of our local revenue for local levy dollars are going and that's special education.

So the state we're spending about 107 million of state funding.

And then on top of that we're spending another 78 million dollars on special education out of our local levy.

The next area that I would point out is the compensatory program area.

That includes the additional money for the bilingual slash ELL program.

And that's probably the next area where we have about close to $20 million for the ELL program in spending above what the state provides.

Next slide please.

Again this just provide some additional detail for you to review and provide that additional explanation.

Next slide please.

Then in addition to the general fund we do have four other funds that we're going to report out on.

Capital Projects Fund is where our capital levy dollars are kept separate and are accounted for.

We have a Debt Service Fund that accounts for the repayment of the John Stanford Center bonds.

The one piece of debt that the district has.

And then last we'll report out on the ASB fund or that's the Associated Student Body Fund.

And those are student-directed revenues and expenditures.

So we begin with the Capital Projects Fund.

The Capital Projects Fund you can see that the revenues were slightly under what they had anticipated by about 15 million dollars.

But expenditures were as well.

Oftentimes we plan.

And then maybe certain things happen.

We don't have a project that will move as quickly as we anticipated.

So we will plan for the expenditure.

Sometimes they do or don't happen within that time frame of that year.

And you can see that while we had planned for about $348 million of expenditure we actually ended up spending about $171.

Next slide please.

So the Debt Service Fund.

This is very limited.

This is really limited to our bond payment our annual bond payment that we make every year for the for the one bond that we have outstanding for our district.

You can see that our total expenditures were planned to be about 2.8 million dollars and actually they were about 2.7 million dollars.

So pretty closely aligned.

Next slide please.

One more.

So for this last slide this is the Associated Student Body Fund and you can see that we really had on the revenue line we had budgeted for about 6.2 million in expenditures in revenue.

I'm sorry.

And then we had about 3.2 million in revenue and that is mirrored with our expenditures where we planned for about 6.4 million dollars in expenditures only had about 3.2.

The this was impacted significantly because of the pandemic.

A lot of those spring activities field trips prom senior activities did not happen.

So a lot of those are planned for the spring and they just did not happen.

Next slide please.

So with that I would conclude my remarks.

Director Hampson President Hampson did you want me to take questions or are we moving on.

There's a pretty major echo so if you're not to Berge or myself please mute.

Any questions on this from board directors at this time.

Just briefly Director DeWolf.

Director Harris.

No questions.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

Director Rankin.

No we had a pretty good opportunity in the budget work session last week.

So thanks.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Likewise yeah we it's just like a deja vu.

We've seen this all.

Thank you again for the presentation.

Thank you everyone.

None from me.

Thank you so much.

Excellent presentation.

Appreciate that information.

and more budget work to come for for this next year.

So thanks again Chief Berge.

And now I would again like to welcome Ballard High School Senior Isabella Crone-Barone.

She's a member of Ballard's ASB Associated Student Body as well as the President of the Students and Teachers Against Racism Club and founder of the Feminist Club.

She has also been serving as a member of the students suit I'm sorry the Superintendent Student Advisory Board since it started in 2018. And I will turn it over to you.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

And I'm so excited to be here representing Ballard.

This time is so difficult for all of us.

But before addressing that I wanted to first highlight a few things that have been positive happening in the district.

and in my school specifically.

I saw that recently a new district attendance procedure was passed allowing students two excused days a year for civic engagement which is so important as it is showing district support for students using their voices to speak up and out against injustice.

Our generation is really learning from the past and taking action to change systems and create new opportunities and it is so vital.

that our school systems encouraged us.

So I was really happy with this policy.

Thank you all for that.

And continuing on that note at Ballard this year we have been following the Black Lives Matter at School Year of Purpose and have been organizing Days of Action.

For example a restorative justice workshop we hosted on George Floyd's birthday as well as a trans-affirming and international Peoples with Disabilities Day.

It is really great to see how students are showing up to participate and educate themselves once given the opportunity.

This is something we could and should take to the next level and make it a district-wide encouragement as well so that all schools could offer opportunities and workshops like these.

It's really great to see community and collaboration during these tough times.

But there is also so many stressors on students that I feel are sometimes not adequately addressed by the district.

And so before I came here ASB actually reached out to some students to see what they would have liked to brought up at the board meeting and nearly every single one said the exact same thing which was too much work which I feel is such a valid concern.

All of us have been isolated for a long time now and that is taking such a toll on everyone.

We are in the middle of a raging pandemic not to mention we are in a such a stressful political environment.

What is going on in our country right now is horrifying and that is not something that many of us students just ignore.

We feel it just as much if not more than adults.

And on top of this there are so many barriers associated with remote learning which I could list but I'm sure we all understand.

Yet still so many teachers are trying to treat this time as normal.

Trying to get up caught up in AP classes so we're on track for the test which I totally appreciate.

But this year I think we all just have to say you know our education is not going to be perfect and cramming more and more work on us is just going to make for more stressed students more stressed parents and more stressed teachers because they have to create it all.

So particularly so close to the end of the semester I believe the district should be encouraging teachers to just take a step back and allow students who are falling behind which is a lot of students time to catch up and just focus on their mental health which is not the best right now for a lot of us.

Additionally at Ballard we have a policy that says that teachers must accept late work with no penalty.

None of us have control over when computers die.

We have to spend more time than we thought helping a sibling or we just simply feel really unmotivated and sad that day and need a break.

So it would be great if the district could adopt a policy like that as well to make sure that all schools are appreciating that and taking care of their students.

As I finish up I would also just like to touch on the importance of student voice in the district.

I know there has been and there is going to be a lot of change in district leadership.

And I wanted to emphasize how important it is that student voice be present along the way while we're electing new leadership because it affects us and also continuing throughout the district.

I feel like the school board and the district are often really alienated from students and I've really appreciated the way Superintendent Juneau has as I personally have felt really branched that divide by taking more time to hear student concerns.

whether through the Student Advisory Board or elsewhere.

So I hope that is all continued as well as made stronger as the district continues on.

Thank you all for your time and I hope you are all staying safe and healthy.

Thank you.

And we really appreciate you taking the time.

And if you are welcome to stay for the remainder of the meeting and if you would like to comment on any of the items that we have under consideration please feel free to get my attention and I will be happy to call on you.

You can do that by chatting directly with me or getting Ellie Wilson-Jones attention.

So thank you again.

Okay.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

Sorry I move for the approval or excuse me I move for the consent agenda.

Sorry my talking points have disappeared on me.

Give me one moment.

I think you're probably fine with that.

Yeah I'm good.

And then is there a second.

Second.

Okay.

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.

I have an item I would like to move.

I would like to remove the minutes from the December 17th special board meeting.

Okay.

Anything else.

Okay may I have a revised motion for the consent agenda as amended.

Director Hersey if you could re if you could move for.

Yeah sorry I'm moving.

Sorry too many windows open trying to get to the correct one.

I move forward the approval of the consent agenda as amended.

Second.

Okay.

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

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

Those opposed.

The consent agenda has passed unanimously.

Okay.

So the agenda item is there a motion to approve the agenda item that has been removed from the consent agenda.

Yes.

I move for the approval of the meeting minutes from October 28th 2020 Oversight Work Session and work session November 9 2020 work session December 9 2020 work session.

Hold on.

Director Director Hersey we're just moving approval of the one item that was.

Oh okay.

Sorry.

Okay.

I move for.

December what Director Rivera-Smith would you like to make the motion.

Yeah.

Sure.

I move for the approval of the minutes from the December 17th special board meeting.

Can I get a second.

Second.

Okay.

Director Rivera-Smith has moved for approval of the December 17th special board meeting.

December 17th 2020 special board meeting and Director Hersey has seconded.

Director Rivera-Smith would you what are your comments and questions.

Would you like to present those now.

Yes.

So on page 2 of those meeting minutes there's a It's missing how Director Hersey voted on my amendment to the overall motion.

And there it has that Director Harris Mack and Rivera-Smith voted yes.

Director Rankin and Hampson voted no.

And it only has that Director DeWolf abstained but Director Hersey also abstained.

So that's missing from the minutes.

Okay.

Is that your only amendment.

Yes it is.

Okay.

Would you like to move the for that motion.

Oh I'm sorry.

Let me just do I have to Chief Legal Counsel Greg Narver do we have to move on the amendment and then the as a separate motion or can can Director Rivera-Smith amend her motion.

I think she can simply bring a motion to approve the minutes with the amendment and she should read the exact language that So I assume it will simply change the 3 to 2 to 1 to 3 to 2 to 2 and adding that Director Hersey also abstained.

If she offers that as the motion.

Please mute except for Director Rivera-Smith.

Are you prepared to make that amended motion.

I'll give it a shot.

I got a move for the approval of the December 17th special board meeting minutes with the following amendments on page 2 to add that Director Hersey abstain from the amendment from Director Lisa Rivera-Smith.

So if you could restate it as you would like it to appear is what Director Rivera-Smith asked for.

I would like the final sentence on the first paragraph of page 2 to read Director Mack seconded sorry I guess the last sentence is actually the motion passed with a vote of 3 to 2 to 2. Directors Harris Mack and Rivera-Smith voted yes.

Director Rankin and Hampson voted no.

Directors Hersey and DeWolf abstained.

And is there a second to that motion.

Okay so the motion was moved.

The amended motion was made by Director Rivera-Smith and seconded by Director Hersey.

And Ms. Wilson-Jones can we please vote on the item.

It will be a roll call.

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

This motion has passed unanimously.

Okay thank you for keeping us accurate Director Rivera-Smith.

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.

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 Board Procedure 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 calling from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website.

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

Speakers from this 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.

The speaker cedes time to a later 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 waitlist.

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 read off the testimony speakers and we'll hand it over to you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Director Rankin can I interject with a quick question.

We just got an email to the board email address from somebody who is on the list and because we started at you know after 345 she has to go to a work meeting so I'm wondering if it's allowable for me or someone else to read her testimony on her behalf when her name comes up.

That would be for Director or Chief Narver to answer I believe.

Well the we have the waiting list.

I mean people can submit public testimony in writing and that that's submitted as well.

By by not reading it that opens up a spot for somebody on the waiting list.

read her testimony on her.

So if she can't.

That's yeah I think that that would at this point be giving some some deferential treatment to others that have work obligations and that's a rabbit hole I don't think we can afford to go down and having this discussion is now making it more difficult for others that may have obligations.

I think we should move forward as is.

And I know we've all received that that testimony.

So we'll just encourage board members to read it.

Okay.

Turning it back over to you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Thank you President Hampson.

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

When your name is called please be sure you have unmuted both on your phone and then also by pressing star-6 to unmute from the conference call line.

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

We do have some speakers today who will be utilizing interpreters.

And so for these speakers the chime will sound at 4 minutes to allow for interpretation.

And please just remind us when you begin speaking that you will be utilizing an interpreter and we'll make sure to get that set up.

Moving to the first speaker on today's list Anna Fina.

Hi I'm Ana Fina.

I'm a senior at Ballard High School.

I'm the student body treasurer and I'm a 4-year representative on ASB.

I'm here to speak on the virtual learning experience students have had throughout the pandemic.

For a majority of students in the district since kindergarten many of us have been subject to a collaborative learning environment that heavily emphasizes teamwork and community building in the classroom.

Because of this the transition to online learning has been extremely challenging and discouraging for many as it is a major shift in the way that we have been taught for most of our lives.

Events at schools such as dances graduations and sports games that previously had incentivized participation in school are now gone.

With this loss of school community motivation has plummeted causing many students to have challenges with mental health over the past 10 months.

Although the current circumstances of our county and state do not allow for in-person events at this time I hope that such events can become one of the district's key priorities when looking towards the future.

Allowing for safe socially distanced events such as an outdoor graduation or student teacher meet and greets not only can improve mental health among students but can provide a more effective classroom environment where students feel comfortable to participate with their peers and teachers and can be actively engaged in learning in the classroom.

Right now what many students are in need of is a promise.

A promise from the district to do everything they can to create a safe learning environment not only physically but mentally as well.

And for seniors simply an acknowledgement that this has been a sad and disheartening time yet our completion of school will not go unrecognized nor uncelebrated.

I'd like to thank the district for all they have done in creating a virtual learning space for all students and urge you to take into account the importance of socialization on the well-being of students when making plans for the future.

Thank you.

Next on the testimony list is Chris Jackins.

Hello my name is Chris Jackins Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the resignation of school board director Eden Mack I wish to thank Director Mack for her good work for the district.

On final acceptance of the Queen Anne Elementary project to fix a last-minute sewer connection the district removed a large tree from the city landmarked boulevard.

Please vote no.

On keeping track of how students are doing.

9 points.

Number 1. Some years ago the district closed schools.

Number 2. The district made a promise to track the displaced students to see how they were doing.

Number 3. I helped people go to court to fight school closures.

One appellate in the lawsuit was an African-American great-grandmother who had custody of her great-grandson who was a student at Rainier View.

Number 4. Her great-grandson was special.

Number 5. But the district said it knew better and closed the school.

And the district's great-grandmother has now passed away.

Number 6. A couple of years ago I was talking to a middle school teacher who was telling me about an African-American student who seemed special but who was having an unpleasant time in school.

Number 7. The teacher did not mention the student's name but I looked at the teacher and I said the student's name and the teacher was startled.

I said that I had been to court with the student.

Number 8. The district made a promise to that student.

Please check up on him and give him whatever he needs.

Number 9. And while you're at it please reopen the African-American Academy and Indian Heritage High School.

Thank you.

Next for public testimony is Sabrina Burr.

Good afternoon.

Couple points on reopening schools and in-person instruction.

The questions that we have are not culturally relevant and not asking questions that families need to make this important decision.

And also you know we're opening up pre-K and first.

How are we providing families with language to talk to those siblings who are left at home.

who feel left out because they're not going back to school.

I know there are some practices that we can talk to them about.

In addition some of those parents are not going to feel good with buses.

How are we helping to accommodate them who are have online learners and are also taking those in.

For the enhanced cleaning I know this is about the companies that we contract with.

How are we explaining.

are cleaning protocols to families because that is a lot of their concern and I think being transparent about what those are are very important for them.

On the adoption of the board goals I think something that's missing is around healing centered engagement.

And then when you look at your policies resolutions and procedures they're all over the place and if you're looking to help to Look at policies and procedures.

Some kind of standard rhyme or reason so that we're cleaning those up would make a whole lot more sense.

And then on the engagement for the Southeast Middle School intended area boundaries it breaks my heart to see the 10 engagements if you really think that's actual family engagement.

Those furthest from educational justice are not being addressed.

You guys picked the low-hanging fruit.

People like Somali Parents Night Out other ELL families and even Black families who have lost trust with you only pay attention to things for their students.

So I ask you to reconsider and do more engagement before you approve that.

Thank you.

Go ahead Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Great.

Next on the testimony list is Emily Cherkin.

My name is Emily Cherkin and I'm an SPS parent and screen time expert.

Today's BAR includes an ask for $2.8 million for enhanced cleaning code for COVID-19 at K — elementary and K-8 schools.

While I appreciate some effort is being made to get kids physically back in school after 10 months of remote learning I would like clarity about why this request for proposal is dated August 6th 2020. Six months ago we know we did not know that this was primarily an airborne disease.

The RFP describes cleaning high touch surfaces and bathroom disinfection but does not mention airborne anywhere in the document.

A recent NPR story quotes Dr. Dr. Kevin Fennelly a respiration infection specialist with the National Institute of Health who states there is no scientific data to justify our overkill approach to sanitization.

He asks Why we aren't doing more to figure out ways to ventilate indoor areas.

It would be better to use ultraviolet germicidal irradiation which we know can kill these viruses in the air.

HVAC systems in SPS buildings vary.

Could some of this 2.8 million go towards in-room HEPA air purifiers that reduce viral spread.

I previously testified about the reopening update work session from September 30th.

On page 8 a sample document from Jane Addams Middle School states that everything you do or say on Tech School Leachy or Teams is public record with your name associated with it.

Even before COVID the average U.S. school was using 400 to 1,000 different online tools according to the Student Data Privacy Consortium.

For a kid's remote learning experience as public record that is a potential FERPA violation.

Please address this.

Finally I wish to thank Eden Mack for her service.

She was truly an advocate for all children in the district.

I hope this board sees her departure as an opportunity to examine the toxic tone that is obvious to those of us who regularly observe these public meetings.

If our leaders fail to treat one another with respect how can we expect children to do any better.

Thank you Eden and I wish you the best.

Thanks.

Next for testimony is Tiffany Acker.

Tiffany Acker.

Hello this is Tiffany Acker and I would like to cede my time to my friends Othello Kimball and Mercer Parent Yusor Jama.

Yousir are you on the line.

Yes.

Hello.

Yes.

Hi Yousir.

Hi.

My name is Yousir Jama.

Hello everybody.

I'm calling behalf my family Somali community.

I have five kids.

Three of them they go in Kimball and two of them they go Marsha one of them she's going next year Marsha.

It's hard for me and for my my community Somali to go in Washington.

They all elementary and middle school they're going the same time the same time they're going the same time.

It's hard for for to three school different to the school that all of the kids.

The some of my family they don't have cars.

Some of the Somali community some they don't have cars.

They walk for the marches.

It's going to take long to go our Washington.

And my experience Washington they now welcome the family of color.

That's why we need to go my kids and my family kids and some of my kids they go in Marshall.

Yeah it's better it's it's the better choice.

That's what I say today.

Next for public testimony.

Oh sorry.

Next for public testimony is Kristen Su.

Kristen Su.

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

Go ahead.

Can you hear me now.

Yes.

Hello Seattle School Board Directors.

My name is Kristen Thu and I'm a Kimball alum and parent to a Kimball first grader.

I implore the board to delay the official vote to move Kimball to Washington to allow more time to thoughtfully engage in community outreach in order to come up with more equitable solutions.

I'm the founder for Kimball Families of Color a group that's committed to elevating our BIPOC families needs explicitly centering Black families.

The rushed timeline of the Mercer boundary decision is a prime example of white supremacist the white supremacist characteristic of urgency.

Urgency makes it difficult to be inclusive.

Difficult to encourage thoughtful decision making and difficult to consider long-term consequences.

According to SPS data over 80 percent of Kimball kids are students of color.

While the neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying nearly half of Kimball students qualify for free or reduced lunch and many families live in affordable housing.

Please do not have any misconceptions that decisions about Kimball primarily assist privileged families.

Mercer overcrowding has been an almost decades long problem.

We are deeply disappointed that the board is now rushing this crucial decision in the midst of a pandemic.

Outreach to families that would have started in person in the spring began at the end of October with an email.

While I truly do appreciate the time and hard work of Ashley Davies the truth is the district's outreach to our school has been insufficient and rushed.

One Kimball parent of color saw the implications This proposed change had on our BIPOC families.

They scrambled to coordinate one translated info session for our EL families before the initial December vote.

Let me be crystal clear.

There has been no personal outreach initiated by the district.

I'm going to say it one more time.

SPS has not personally reached out to anyone in our Kimball community about this.

The parents who have heard the least about this proposal are of course among the most marginalized.

Those for whom English is not their first language and those who lack regular access to technology.

As you can imagine this encompasses large portions of our Black and Brown families those furthest away from educational justice whom SPS says it's committing committed to centering.

We are not saying the district should put this issue off indefinitely but we ask the board to not make this colossal decision so urgently without due diligence of genuine community engagement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Michelle Hunter.

Michelle Hunter.

Go ahead Michelle we can hear you.

I'm Michelle Hunter ceding my time to Kimball student LaDawn Zaheer.

Hello everybody.

My name is LaDawn Zaheer daughter of Yusuf Jama and sister of Ahsan Zaheer attending Kimball.

I want to say that the community here is very welcoming to everyone no matter race or background.

However this is not the case for Washington Middle School where they selectively favor White students over people of color.

To add on most Kimball Samoan families live in the Rainier Vista area which is walking distance from Mercer.

Some Kimball families have no other way to get to school except for walking.

So if Kimball students get transferred to Washington Middle School it will make it harder and take longer for students to go to school.

There are also many after-school and OST program student students walk home from.

If the case is those students have to go to Washington they will need to walk up to 15 minutes back and forth just to reach the school.

My sister Hassan will be going to middle school next year.

She often gets scared or has anxiety thinking about being separated from her sisters and not having anyone to look out for her in a new environment.

This also adds stress to my parents since they will need to drop us off to three different schools.

Kimball Washington and Mercer with Washington and Mercer having the same starting times.

Overall the decision for taking Kimball families to Washington Middle School is very inconvenient for many families for all sorts of different reasons.

Hi my name is Ahsan.

I'm my name is Ahsan Dahid.

I'm a 4th grader at Kimball Elementary and I am thinking about what to do what I will do when I go to middle school and which middle school I will enter.

My sister's birth both go to Michigan.

If I end up having to go to Washington Middle School I will have no one in my middle school in my middle school experiment experience to look after me or help me.

Next for public testimony.

Sorry.

Oh and next for public testimony is Noah Purcell.

Noah Purcell.

Hello members of the school board.

Thank you for your time and for your service.

My name is Noah Purcell and like Kristen who you heard from earlier I went to Kimball myself and now my kids attend Kimball.

I'm testifying today on behalf of many Kimball parents and families opposed to the proposal before you to move Kimball to Washington.

And I want to focus on a letter you received today signed by over 150 Kimball families opposing this proposal.

It's a long letter.

I won't cover every detail but I would please urge you to please read it.

And I'd like to reiterate just some key points some of which you've already heard from other parents and students.

First is that Kimball is an incredibly diverse place.

Over 80 percent families of color 25 percent African-American 30 percent English language learners and half receiving free or reduced price lunch.

So so this decision will affect many of the kids we all care about most.

Second it's profoundly unfair to make this decision on a rushed timeline in the midst of a pandemic when many families have been unable to participate especially the families who ordinarily would have been able to hear about this sort of thing in class and dropping off their kids and picking up their kids.

And instead really the only parents who've been able to participate at all are those who are tech savvy and have been able to follow the emails and all of that.

Third this decision will unquestionably disproportionately affect families of color 80 percent of Kimball families.

Hundreds of students who can currently walk or bike to school at Mercer will be unable to do so at Washington.

And the students who will be most affected are those like you just heard from whose families don't have a car whose parents don't have flexible work schedules that will allow them to drop off or pick up their kids.

Fourth this proposal really ignores the district's stated criteria of walkability.

100 percent of Kimball students can walk to Mercer.

Virtually none can walk to Washington.

This is an issue of student safety student achievement and family's ability to participate.

So we would ask you to reject this proposal and consider other options not just the two originally presented to you.

Mercer has had well over 1100 students for at least the last decade.

And while that is a serious problem that does need to be addressed there is no reason the board needs to make a long-term change like this one in the middle of a pandemic.

We'd ask you to study.

all the options further.

Make a decision next year.

Don't postpone it indefinitely.

And don't make a decision that will affect so many families so profoundly right now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker please Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Christine Boyle.

Christine Boyle.

Hello.

Hello.

Hi.

Good evening.

Great.

Thank you.

My name is Christine Boyle and I cede my time to Logan Neal.

Logan if you're there please begin speaking.

The time is running.

Hello.

Hello my name is Logan Neal and I am a Black student at Mercer Middle School and I went to Kimball Elementary School.

The reason that I think students from Kimball should go to Mercer instead of Washington is because of the fact that Kimball and Mercer are very similar communities and cultures.

Washington doesn't really have the same community.

For instance my dad is a teacher at Mercer and the leader of the Kingmakers program there.

This program helps African-American students to become leaders and excellent students.

Washington does not have this program.

Another reason Mercer is so important is that it brings together students who are a part of each other's communities but may not have gone to the same elementary school together.

For instance my best friend and I met met playing baseball but went to different schools.

We now get to go to Mercer together.

In addition at Mercer we are inclusive of all races genders ethnicities and they have a multi-language program whereas Washington I believe they do not have a multi-language program.

They're not as immersed in helping non-White students as Mercer.

I want my sister and other Kimball students to have the same positive and inclusive experience at Mercer that I have.

Thank you and I cede the rest of my time to my sister Layla Neal.

Hello my name is Layla Neal and I'm a 4th grade student at Kimball Elementary School.

The reason that I think Kimball kids should go to Mercer is because Mercer is like Kimball in a lot of ways.

They have the same sort of diverse cultures.

For instance the celebration of Lunar New Year We do it every year and there's always Lion Dance which is taught by former Kimball students who also went to Mercer.

If they didn't go to Mercer they probably wouldn't have come back to teach.

They are no longer part of the community.

I want to go I want to go to Mercer because my dad teaches there and because my brother goes there.

Just like other Kimball students who have siblings at Mercer We want the opportunity to be with our siblings and have their support and friendship.

Thank you.

That concludes my time.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Jennifer Wittenberg.

Jennifer Wittenberg.

Jennifer if you're there you may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Calling one more time for Jennifer Wittenberg.

Moving to the next speaker on the list.

Ki Kwon Ma Wong.

And I believe Ki will be utilizing an interpreter.

That is correct.

My name is Miguel Castro.

So and I'm the interpreter for Ms. Ki Kwon Ma Wong.

And I start.

Dear board members my name is Ki-Kun Ma-Wong.

I am the mother of three children.

The oldest is at Mercer and the other two attend Kimball Elementary.

Seattle Public Schools proposal to move Kimball Elementary School to Washington Middle School will have a negative impact on our children since they will have to spend instead of the 10 minutes walk more than 45 minutes a day on buses to attend Washington Middle Putting our kids at risk at risk physically and emotionally and a mental exhaustion before starting daily classes and this will create a low academic performance for our pre-adolescents.

They will have they will be taking public transportation during peak hours.

This assignment also ends the opportunity to receive bilingual classes for our children that so many parents yearn for.

Because neither Washington Washington nor Kimball have this program.

We strongly believe in Seattle Public Schools mission which is Seattle Public Schools is committed to ensuring equitable access closing opportunity gaps and an excellence for in education for all.

As a parent advocate at Kimball I fight for our children to have the same right to receive a dignified and fair education and with the same opportunities as the other schools not affected by this proposal.

But this seriously affect us.

We ask you to consider our request to allow Mercer Middle School to remain our middle school.

Reminding you that we have the pandemic with us and with Seattle's population constantly growing we ask you to take sufficient time for an optimal long-term solution for the well-being of our Kimball children and families.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next on the testimony list is Connie Wing-Fung.

And Connie I believe is also utilizing an interpreter.

Can I say now.

And then I believe I believe Michael is also on the line to as the interpreter.

Okay I'm so.

I'm going to say now okay.

The school district's proposal made us lose our only hope.

We felt very helpless and disappointed.

The school district has always said that it wants to provide every student with an equal education opportunity, especially low-income and well-off people.

We hope that our education will have equal treatment.

But your proposal is very obvious, and your intention is contrary to what you said.

The population shortage is a problem of unequal distribution of resources and poor school quality.

This proposal will allow more parents to use different methods to enroll in other primary schools where they can enroll in MAUSER in the future, and will increase the enrollment rate of surrounding schools.

And Kimball's enrollment rate is decreasing year by year.

Is this what you want to see?

The population of the KU region is increasing every year.

You use a short-term method to solve the long-term problem.

This problem will reappear in a few years.

Which school do you plan to sacrifice for the students?

I have two children who are studying at Kimball.

For me, transportation is one of the problems.

But the main problem is that my kids can't go to the same primary school as other students.

How do I explain this to them?

Should I tell them, because the school district doesn't value our school, it's not a big deal to sacrifice us.

This is our fate.

I'm sorry, we can't change it.

Lastly, as a representative of the Ayer family, I urge the board to reconsider.

Hello everyone.

My name is Wing Sze Fung.

I'm representing current and future Asian families of Kimball Elementary.

We want to express our opinion about the proposal that Kimball Elementary will fit into Washington Middle School.

Many of the Asian parents think this proposal is really a bandage solution.

You are treating the symptoms but not the root problem.

Most of the bilingual families want their children to get bilingual education at school.

At Mercer International Middle School is our only hope.

However this proposal has left us without any hope.

We are truly helpless and disappointed.

Throughout this process School District has been communicated to us that they will provide equal education opportunities to every student especially to low income and people of color.

Hoping that we can get equal treatment in education.

But in this case your proposal is directly against to what you claim you will do.

MRSA's overcrowding issue is a problem of uneven allocation of resources and school quality.

This proposal will only lead to more families using other methods to get into Mercer Middle School and therefore increasing the enrollment rate of other surrounding elementary schools.

As a result Kimball Elementary Schools enrollment will decrease year after year.

Is this what you would like to happen.

Every year the population in the Beacon Hill area continue to increase.

You are using a temporary solution to solve a long-term problem.

In a few years this same problem will reappear.

At the time which school are you going to sacrifice again.

Currently I have two children attending Kimball Elementary School.

For me transportation is one issue but my major concern is that my children will not have the opportunities to attend the same middle school with their friends who attends other neighborhood schools.

How am I going to explain this to my children.

Should I tell them that the school district does not value our school.

Maybe sacrificing our school is no big deal.

This is our destiny.

Sorry there is nothing your mom can do for you.

Finally on behalf of other Asian families I implore all the school board directors to take a long term look at this issue and hope that you will make a decision that will minimize the impact on many Asian families and students.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Zainab Ahmed.

Zainab Ahmed.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Okay.

My name is Zainab Ahmed.

I'm a parent to a 3rd and 1st grade at Kimball and SPS alum.

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

I urge the board to delay the vote and moving Kimball to Washington and consider more equitable options for our Black and Somali families.

Many of us Somali parents are just finding out about this decision this week which is appalling because the district takes pride in community engagement equity and accessibility especially for Black students and families.

Sending a few emails in educational jargon is not enough to meaningfully reach my community.

It is also appalling to not consider the socioeconomic injustices that our families are facing day in and day out.

In your own boundary principles approved in 2013 you say your job is and I quote create boundaries that reflect equitable access and services and programs.

Somali families at Kimball depend on access to the services at their community at their that is available in their own community.

Refugee Women's Alliance Neighborhood House Boys and Girls Club Beacon Hill Library and Jefferson Community Center to name a few.

Most of our families don't have a vehicle and have inflexible work schedules that will not allow them to drop off and pick up their children participate in after-school programs or volunteer if they are at Washington Middle School.

In contrast their kids can currently walk to all of these services.

services and programs from Mercer.

Please stand by your commitment to Seattle excellence and center the well-being of our Black students who are the furthest from educational educational justice in Seattle Public Schools.

This decision has a negative impact on our families who do not have voice and who cannot navigate the system but whose students already have a home at Mercer.

We implore you to please delay your vote on moving Kimball and consider other better options for our Black families.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Calista Vera-Chen.

Calista Vera-Chen.

Hello.

My name is Calista Chen and I am the president of the Parent Teacher Association at Beacon Hill International School.

Thank you for hearing this.

I am testifying to support the current proposal to change the middle school boundaries which maintains the dual-language immersion pathways in Southeast Seattle.

Our school is 82 percent non-White 53 percent low-income and 35 percent of our students are English language learners.

BHIS is proud to be an international school where two-thirds of the students are enrolled in dual-language immersion programs.

SPS made a commitment to international education and to dual-language programs and allowing both Beacon Hill and Dearborn Park students to continue their education at Mercer International Middle School helps to maintain those pathways.

Dual-language education helps to close equity gaps.

And last year before the COVID pandemic took hold test scores at our school indicated that it was working.

Beacon Hill International's Latino students have made massive gains especially measured by growth in math performance.

During this pandemic our school provided emergency funds to 105 families.

103 of them were immigrant and refugee families.

Mostly Native Spanish and Chinese-speaking families.

What does this have to do with our international schools.

Our schools international schools do more than help close critical equity gaps in academic achievement.

Our dual-language programs in international schools create one of the few places in our white-dominant society where immigrants and refugees can truly feel at home.

Our language programs help make sure that our staff is diverse and have the language capacity to support families especially during crises.

When our families matriculate to middle school we want to ensure they have a warm handoff and see success in their academic and whole identities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Jennifer Soriano.

Jennifer Soriano.

Jennifer Soriano.

You may need to press star-6 if you are speaking to unmute.

Jennifer Soriano.

One more try.

Star-6.

Moving to the next speaker on the list.

M Angela Castaneda.

M Angela Castaneda.

M Angela Castaneda.

You may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Moving to the next speaker on the list.

Alexandra Olins.

Alexandra Olins.

You may need to press star-6

Can you hear me now.

Yes.

Is this Alexandra.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Thank you for allowing me to testify.

I'm the parent of Natasha a 6th grader at Madison Middle School a place where he has never been.

I'm one of the founders of a Facebook group for parents and teachers who want all families to have the choice to send kids back to in-person learning this year.

We have over 1,200 members.

I have spent hours and hours over the past few months trying to figure out how we can get out of this mess of remote-only school.

I have been told that no other urban districts are offering in-person learning.

Not true.

Schools in Miami-Dade have been fully open since September.

New York City is open for K-5.

There have been disruptions but that is okay and to be expected.

Providence Rhode Island reopened this week for K-5 just to name a few.

Closer to home.

Seattle is surrounded by other districts that are ahead of us in terms of their reopening plans.

To the east by February 1st Bellevue will be open for K-2.

To our north by February 25th Lake Washington will be open for K-5 with middle and high school students returning in March.

Highline is working on a plan to bring K-5 back for partial day small group instruction in February.

This from Tacoma.

In early 2021 we expect to announce plans to bring back 1st and 2nd graders 4 days a week expand preschool programming and phase in grades 3 through 5. The district has started exploring ways to bring back middle school and high school students living homeless and others furthest from educational justice and small groups of up to 15 students as recommended by new state guidance.

We are literally surrounded by public school districts that are figuring this out faster and better than SPS.

Why are we such an outlier.

These districts have unions.

They have old buildings.

They have HVAC systems.

They have the same version of COVID-19 as far as I know.

The difference is they are not making excuses.

They are not saying no.

They are not blaming and deflecting and frankly they're not gaslighting.

While many local districts are not open today like SPS the vast majority have concrete plans to bring all elementary kids back to some form of in-person school before spring.

SPS has raised no plan.

I'm not saying this is easy.

I am saying it can and must be done.

Thank you very much.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Janice White.

Janice White.

Thank you.

Since last spring we've been hearing that students who receive special education services and are unable to access remote learning would be prioritized for in-person learning.

How has that worked out.

It has been an individual IEP team decision requiring review of data before qualifying a student for in-person.

In the fall many families were told that the district would need to collect data for weeks before making a decision.

After the IEP team qualified a student additional extensive health screening was required.

On October 29th the Seattle Times reported that only one student was receiving services in-person.

Two and a half months later According to a report yesterday to the Student Support Curriculum and Instruction Committee about 85 to 90 students are now receiving services.

Although it's not clear whether that number includes students who receive their services at outside placements and not at a Seattle school.

And about another 100 students are in the pipeline meaning they are going through the extensive screening process.

The March 1 plan on the other hand is to welcome back students in grades pre-K through 1 and students in the intensive service pathways in grades 2 through 12 apparently without the need for individual qualification that each student requires being in-person to make progress and apparently without the need for the extensive health screening that has been required up to now.

While it's a welcome change for families whose children cannot learn online due to disability we have to ask why wasn't this possible sooner.

Why did Seattle adopt a highly restrictive plan for the students it claimed to be prioritizing while other neighboring King County districts have been serving hundreds of students with disabilities in-person since September.

As you move forward with the March 1 plan and any reopening plans after that please keep in mind that students with disabilities have not in fact been prioritized and are being left even further behind than they were before.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Katie Bell Sada.

Katie Bell-Sana.

Hi.

You're listening to my comments today.

I am calling in to talk about a very specific issue which is to reopen the school grounds for kids outdoor recreation.

Over the last several months I've been in contact with Adrienne the district's R.N.

to discuss the matter to no avail.

So I am speaking to you today.

The reason that I'm so passionate about this is because kids desperately need places to recreate outdoors for their physical and mental health and parks have been overrun with users to the extent that it can be difficult to maintain a safe social distance while using those spaces.

It's also inconceivable to me that facilities that are made for outdoor recreation are closed while we're trying to find new innovative solutions to fill the vast need that we have such as the Seattle's Stay Healthy Streets Program.

which encourages kids to play in the streets while vehicles are driving on those streets because people are so desperate to find additional space.

Also schools are public facilities and should not be closed to the public and especially not at this time.

Also Seattle Parks has reopened their playgrounds.

They don't have any additional handwashing stations no supervision no additional protocols no screening and there have not been a spike in incidence of COVID-19 as a result of those.

Also many students particularly low-income students and students of color lack convenient access to parks open space and private yards.

So this is really an equity issue.

And lastly schools offer convenient accessibility.

There's been a lot of different infrastructure enhancements and investments that have been made to allow kids and families to access schools easily and safely.

And so these are ideal public spaces for outdoor recreation at this time.

You know listening in on this phone call I think one thing is apparent.

You all have a lot of very very big challenging issues going on right now and I feel like this is really kind of a no-brainer.

It's a very easy win.

Reopening the grounds for recreation.

Asking that people maintain social distance wear masks and use hand sanitizer or any other additional recommendations posted on site.

Thank you very much.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next on the testimony list is Crystal DeLoach Thornton.

Crystal DeLoach Thornton.

Hello.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Hello.

Okay.

Hi I'm Dr. Crystal DeLoach Thornton.

I'm a clinical psychologist.

The mother of two Seattle Public School students and the wife of a public school teacher.

I'm here today to implore you to please plan to reopen all K-12 schools in-person this spring.

All youth need in-person school.

Numerous studies have shown us that schools are not super spreaders.

We know how to open schools safely and you must plan for this.

The loss of in-person school has created a true mental health crisis for our youth parents and teachers.

The rates of depression anxiety hopelessness eating disorders child abuse domestic violence suicidal ideation and suicide attempts have skyrocketed during the in-person school shutdown.

Mental health resources in the community are overwhelmed with the needs of parents and youth who are isolated and suffering as a result of not being able to go to school.

Kids in distress struggle to learn.

The primary developmental task of adolescents are identity formation and separation from family of origin.

Adolescents are in a mental health crisis as a result of this interruption of their developmental needs which may also lead to future mental health and relationship problems.

Crisis intervention services and mandatory reporting are terribly diminished without in-person school and I am very worried about abused and neglected youth.

High-risk youth are suffering the most.

The psychological and neurological damage from social isolation prolonged despair and hopelessness are literally life-threatening.

All children need to learn from and form in-person relationships with their teachers and their peers.

Moving back to in-person school will interrupt the virtual routines folks have worked so hard to establish.

But it will be worth it for the emotional and psychological health of our youth.

The mental health of our youth cannot wait until fall.

We must get in-person school open as soon as possible.

The government must prioritize vaccines and funds.

And you you must plan for safe reopening now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

A few names that we missed the first time around.

Jennifer Wittenberg.

Are you on the line now.

Jennifer Wittenberg.

Moving to the next name.

Jennifer Soriano.

Jennifer Soriano.

And then moving to the third name L M Angela Castaneda.

Okay moving down to the waitlist now.

Lucy Campbell.

Lucy Campbell.

Yes go ahead.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me.

Yes we can hear you.

Good afternoon directors.

My name is Lucy Campbell.

I am a parent of two teenagers in Seattle Public Schools.

My testimony today concerns the urgent need for planning to reopen in-person instruction for middle and high school students.

In Seattle we have 13 high schools and 11 middle schools serving 25,000 students.

25 percent of the school buildings at yet 50 percent of the students in Seattle Public Schools.

This is a large group of students and we have heard almost nothing in terms of planning for how these students will get back to the classroom.

I stress planning because that is something the district can control and can communicate like they are now doing for the pre-K and first grade groups.

I want to assume that administrators are planning but there is no public information being shared.

Please start your survey for high school and middle school families just like you're doing for the younger grades.

Start it now.

Why am I speaking today.

Because our students are struggling.

You've heard it several times tonight.

I hope that you are talking to families in your districts the middle school and high school especially.

Academically are you aware that 8 out of 11 high schools in Seattle the students are receiving 11 hours per week of teacher instruction versus the typical 23 hours per week pre-pandemic.

That's less than half.

But social and mental health concerns are really why I'm here to speak.

Our students are experiencing anxiety lack have extreme motivation issues.

They have stress depression and even suicide.

Our 12 to 18-year-olds are in crisis or know of peers in crisis.

The next three months are critical for our 25,000 high school and middle school students.

They are seeing their last hope for normalcy this year evaporate.

We ask that you as a school board push demand and accept current and current administrators.

We have to get back in school.

Please conclude your remarks.

Before the end of school year.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Gabby Campbell.

Gabby Campbell.

Gabby Campbell.

You may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Gabby Campbell.

Moving to the next speaker.

Todd Sawicki.

Todd Sawicki.

Hello.

My name is Todd Sawicki.

I'm the parent of an 8th grade student in Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and also a member of the group previously mentioned reopen Seattle Public Schools which as mentioned has over 1,200 families interested in reopening Seattle Public Schools.

My brother and sister-in-law are also public school teachers who are teaching in-person in states who have returned to school already and absolutely advocate for all states and all districts to reopen immediately.

My family is advocating for an immediate return to in-person instruction for all grades especially K-8 in line with Governor Inslee's schools reopening guideline.

We are extremely disappointed at the Seattle Public School Board administration of the lack of focus and effort at returning to in-person school.

As a parent my expectation was that the school and board would be solely focused on developing an effective and speedy return to school as 43 states already somehow have done and many districts in Washington are now doing so now.

Listening to the board meetings this year the lack of focus on returning to public school and presentations and testimony is appalling.

There have essentially been no discussions in the administration's reopening guidelines.

How can this be the case.

There's been no discussion in the presentation of policy papers research information for government resources like the CDC or public health and education experts like Professor Emily Oster former Vaughan administration policy advisor and Brown professor.

As a parent I've taken upon myself to research this topic of returning an in-person school and the research shows there is no additional risk to students and teachers to returning to school.

There's very little evidence to student to student transmission.

Very little evidence of student to teacher transmission.

And in fact a few examples are teacher to teacher transmission from outside the classroom.

In fact there's significant harm to students in public schools if they remain closed.

At-risk populations homeless students English learners and students with disabilities can't easily adapt to remote learning like my son.

One additional point of emphasis is lack of discussions with students like my own who have a 504 plan.

Less than an IEP but still a disability.

What is our plan for 504 students.

There's no discussion of how we can support these students especially those with 504 plans best addressed with in-person school.

Research and reports from other districts show considerable impact on assessments.

The lack of testing means SPS board administration have no idea how remote learning is impacting students.

The lack of regular family surveys means SPS has no idea how families feel about returning to in-school and the impact remote learning on their families.

Please survey now and regularly.

If SPS had bothered to ask this family I would have let SPS know my family's own experience and remote learning has been an utter failure.

We advocate remote learning to end out an in-person school immediately.

Thank you.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

The final speaker on today's testimony list is Peter Douglas-Aaronkranz.

Peter Douglas-Aaronkranz.

Peter you may need to press star-6.

Peter Douglas-Aaronkranz.

And then checking back one more time for Gabby Campbell.

Has Gabby joined us.

President Hampson that concludes today's testimony list.

I'm sorry I this is Jennifer Wittenberg.

I'm sorry is there time for one more testimony.

Is Ms. Wilson-Jones is she on the somebody that we skipped early on.

Yes I was having some technical issues.

Yes go ahead.

This is Jennifer Wittenberg.

I'm on the list.

I'd like to cede my time to a fellow Kimball parent Leonarda who will require Spanish interpretation.

Okay go ahead.

Leonardo are you on the line.

And Miguel you're on the line correct too to provide interpretation.

Okay.

Yes I am.

You can go ahead.

Good afternoon directors.

I am here to ask you

to maintain Mercer Middle School as our middle school.

This is why I'm a single mother with two kids.

One is in 5th grade and the other one is in 4th grade.

I'm a single mother with not a transportation.

Continúe señora.

And if there is an emergency at the school I don't know what to do because I don't have the transportation.

I don't know how to get to the to the school immediately because I have to work.

Continue.

And I don't know it is difficult for my kids to participate in Centro de la Raza.

Because from Mercer we can walk.

Continue.

And just like me there are many families at Kimball that have no transportation and that's why it's important to leave Mercer to Kimball.

Algo mas.

And this is a creating a frustration for me because I can see that my son won't be able to attend Central La Raza for his classes.

Algo mas.

That is all.

Thank you.

Gracias.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

That concludes our public testimony.

And 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 boards for committees.

For those of us that have had committee meetings since our last meeting we have not for executive but we do have one coming up on the 20th.

at 8 a.m.

so I would encourage folks to listen in to that meeting.

And so from other board directors that have had committee meetings that haven't met since then please just note your time that you'll be meeting coming forward.

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.

We'll also return to general board comments at the end of the agenda.

So let's start with Audit and Finance Committee Director Hersey.

I am here yes.

Let me just get my journal open up to my notes.

We had a wonderful first meeting with me serving as chair of the Audit and Finance Committee.

I just want to thank really quickly Director Hampson for her leadership and continued mentorship as I take over this very exciting role.

Some of the things that we discussed were reviewing the current HIP policy BAR that we have as long as as well as the superintendent's procedure.

We are also we also got a similar update on the governor's budget.

While it is not exactly what we hoped for it should not impact our district greatly.

We are also in the process we had a good meeting this morning.

This isn't necessarily the work of Audit and Finance but with our internal audit review team about some additional work that is being done as well as a review reviewed an internal audit plan for nutrition services to improve some of the efficiencies that we are experiencing with that department specifically.

I am actually not sure of the date of our next meeting but I will double-check that and make sure that we invite all of those who would be willing to attend with us at 7 a.m.

We would be more than happy to have you.

That is about it for now and I will pass it on to the next director.

Thank you.

Okay and we will go to the Operations Committee Chair Director DeWolf.

Hello.

Thank you so much Director excuse me President Hampson and thank you for your update Director Hersey.

We are are hosting our first operations committee of the of 2021 tomorrow night actually on January 14th.

And so I just wanted to kind of give a preview of the things we'll be talking about.

One is we will be receiving a presentation on the and it's called the McClendon Report and it actually relates to one of the items on our list our action items which is Director Rivera-Smith and my resolution transitioning Seattle Public Schools to 100 percent clean and renewable energy.

We have a couple of BAR's coming forward for technology as well as some play fields and a couple of final acceptances which are basically closing out projects.

And so we will have much more tomorrow and I'm sure we'll be able to update you at our next regular board meeting.

But hopefully many of these action items will be moved to the full board so you'll see these items then.

And I just wanted to reiterate the great news that we had shared by our student Ms. Crone which was just basically an update about Superintendent Procedure 3121 being revised.

And I just wanted to highlight about that procedure update after the youth climate strike in 2019. I attempted to put forward a resolution to allow students an excused absence for participating in the Youth Climate Strike but we're not able to do it in time for the Youth Climate Strike but we were able to do some research find some examples across the country of places that have adjusted their excused absence policy in service of allowing students one excused absence per semester for participating in civic engagement activity and just want to highlight that and thank that student for mentioning that.

And yeah and like I said our operations committee meeting is tomorrow.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And just a note Director Her the next Audit and Finance Committee meeting is February 1st.

And as I said our next Executive Committee meeting is on the 20th and we will be finalizing some of the pieces necessary to move forward on the replacement for the Sorry it won't use the term replacement but the appointment of a new person for the District 4 position that was vacated by Director Mack.

And that takes us to Director Rankin who is the Chair of Student Supports Curriculum and Instruction.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Yes we had our first committee meeting last night.

First committee meeting of 2021. I am the continuing chair from last year but I have two two new members of the committee Director DeWolf and Director Harris.

And we have a new Chief Academic Officer in Dr. Keisha Scarlett.

So so exciting changes and exciting continuation of a lot of good work that's been happening I'll just touch on a couple of highlights from last night's meeting.

We've got a couple of BAR's that we'll be hearing about during during the meeting.

So special attention items were the Board Policy 3246 Restraint Isolation and Other Uses of Physical Intervention.

This is ongoing work.

that has come out of oh years and years of issues but came to the forefront with some community advocacy and news news items last year.

And Director Hersey and I have been working with staff and community members and I know other directors have engaged on this topic as well.

to to bring about some changes.

So we had a good update about timeline and an upcoming date to be determined but soon community engagement process around the changes.

And Dr. Pedroza also shared that there will be a landing page on the website to provide an overview and be updated with where we are in the process and what's going on with that.

Folks who are interested in that issue can always tune in to the committee meetings to hear the update but also will be able to find information on on the SPS website.

As Director DeWolf and our student guest mentioned there were changes to the attendance policy and in addition to our procedure excuse me in addition to the very exciting change allowing students to have excused absences for civic engagement.

There is also two changes reflecting excused absences due to weather when it impacts you know one school or one neighborhood but but we don't necessarily call us no day for the whole district.

That will now be an excused absence if you can't get to school.

tardiness or absence due to district-provided transportation.

So if your child's school bus doesn't show up or is two hours late if it's if it's due to the district-provided transportation that is now excused which is great because that's something that you know students and families don't don't have a ton of control over.

So really appreciate the work that has gone into that.

I'm happy to share those updates.

That is sort of the biggest highlight probably.

Other than that we had some standing agenda items.

Information about a special education.

We had some questions from the community in the past week or so about assistive tech and received some updates about that and why it's not included specifically in the technology plan.

And it's because it's a it's really an educational service and our DOTS team of course supports on the technological side but it's part of special education as opposed to part of DOTS officially.

Also great to hear that we have increased our in-person services of special education students to about 85 to 90 and that is in our buildings and will continue to to go up which is great.

So we heard about that yesterday.

In terms of the committee work plan I have asked the two other members of of the committee to provide any priorities or things they'd like to see on the work plan that are not there currently to in our next meeting so we can talk about you know what we want to focus on where we want to go.

Things that are not already there and there's a lot that's already there.

So excited to hear about that in February.

I think that's it.

Our next committee meeting will feel very soon since we just had last night's was the 12th.

Our next one is on the 2nd of February.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

And that takes us to the action items on today's agenda.

So we will now move to Action Item Number 1 Adoption of 20 21 Board Goals and Objectives.

May I have a motion for this item.

Yes.

Give me one moment.

Okay.

I move that the school board adopt the 2021 Board Goals and Objective as attached to the Board Action Report.

Second.

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

We will now go to directors for any comments or questions before we move to the vote.

Starting with myself as Chair of the Executive Committee.

This has been discussed initially in our December 5th retreat where we had excellent discussion and good a great consensus on on the goals and have had subsequent discussions during the introduction and I don't have anything to add and so I will therefore turn it over to first to Director DeWolf to see if you have any comments questions or concerns.

Thank you President Hampson.

I don't have any questions or questions.

I think the only comment I wanted to make is we had a very ambitious year last year so I'm excited to see a more pared-down achievable set of goals and I thank you for the work on this.

It is it is hard work if people don't know to coordinate and corral these types of documents between board members so I appreciate the work gone into that.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

No questions or comments.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

No questions or comments from me.

Just would like to touch base with our board directors on a regular basis individually just to make sure that we are all staying aligned and moving forward on these goals as we set out.

Thanks.

Director Rankin.

Director Rankin.

Sorry sorry I couldn't find my my unmute.

I don't have any questions.

Thanks.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

Yes I definitely support the board goals we've laid out and we've been talking about them for it feels like months now.

You know I guess it's been about one maybe more.

But I think when asked a question I'm pretty sure I've asked before and if you ask forgive me there was already an answer given but I don't recall how thorough the answer was.

I was regarding the equity analysis I see that one was not completed for these for the board goal process and I'm just wondering again why because I feel like it's something we you know is important to do for all of our efforts and programs and I I feel remiss that we didn't have that done.

That was my question.

I mean I don't know that I have.

This is Director Hampson.

If you're asking the question of me or just of the Executive Committee of which you are a part.

In general I don't know how valuable the specific questions would be as long.

I mean I think the consensus being that we are in support equity the racial equity work in particular in which the the district is engaged in staying consistent with that and using best practices in particular to move towards those goals.

Those are the types of things I suppose we could talk about that.

Our racial equity analysis is can be a little bit clunky if you've worked through it before as we did last year when we did the board goals we worked through the racial equity analysis and got good feedback from equity from the the staff in equity partnerships and engagement about other tools that we might consider using which we didn't get to on this particular one.

But I think that's something that we might want to do on future efforts.

In other words and Director Hampson DeWolf could probably speak to this too because we worked through it together and I think Director Harris was there as well on our board goals and it was in fact very clunky and and so staff as I said had some good feedback for that we there might be some other ways that we could we could go about it rather than using that which kind of is for a different purpose.

So and that that was in fact one of the things that we had hoped to you know work on last year and didn't quite get to because of our ambitious set of goals that we had of which we were able to accomplish quite a few.

But that was one that we we didn't get to.

So I think there's probably an analysis to be done there.

I don't know that our current tool is appropriate for this particular board action.

But that's my best answer.

I don't know Director DeWolf do you want to add anything.

No I think I think you I think you took care of it.

Thank you.

Yeah no really President Hampson I really appreciate that thoughtful response.

And yeah I know we haven't had our first we haven't well we have had our first we've had a couple meetings of our new executive team and I know that we always look over the work plan at every meeting so.

Perhaps this is something we can get on the work plan to to do the work to to build out the racial equity tool for the different types of things we come across.

Like I know you've said before even for like contracts in that come through operations the equity tool isn't quite the right time.

So with our new chair James Bush of our chief chief James Bush of our Equity Partnerships and Engagement I'm sure that I hope that we can all get together and build that out.

Put it on the work plan.

So I understand.

Thank you for the response.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And I would just add that just my gratitude to my fellow board members in coming to consistence around this because personally just in these early weeks I've found it an actual I've really found it to be a helpful set of objectives for the year that that we I can kind of go back to as we're trying to move forward with decisions in small ways as well as in big ways and even just how we do things that we are focusing on those things you know for this year and I've appreciated having that that backdrop.

So with that I will now ask Ms. Wilson-Jones to call for the vote.

Director Rankin.

Director Rankin.

Sorry I tried to use a shortcut and it didn't work.

Director Rivera-Smith aye Director DeWolf aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Hampson aye has passed unanimously.

Thank you.

We will now move to Action Item Number 2. Approval of Courses with New Content for the Secondary Course Catalog.

Student Supports Curriculum Instruction.

December 8th for approval is when this was brought forward originally.

And may I have a motion for this item.

Yes I move that the school board approve the new course additions for school year 2021-22 as attached to the board action report.

Second.

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

Now to directors for any comments or questions before we move to the vote.

Starting with Chair of Student Supports Curriculum and Instruction Director Rankin.

Do we have a staff staff comment at all about this.

Or I think it's we're in action so if unless something has changed since intro.

Oh sorry.

Go ahead.

This is Caleb Perkins.

I'm available to take questions.

I believe Dr. Scarlett is also on the line and can make some introductory comments but we're available to take questions.

I don't have any questions and I don't think there have been any changes so I'm happy to pass to the next director.

Okay.

Any additional backgrounds that we should know about this or.

Well that's sorry.

That's what I thought would be.

No this was.

I'm just trying to.

Sorry because this was from over a month ago.

I'm trying to bring up my my.

That's okay.

I'll just move on to Director DeWolf for any questions.

Thank you Director President Hampson.

I just wanted to just as an update from last month Wanted to make sure I called out both our students from Meany Middle School and our students and educators at Nova High School both for advocating for LGBTQ history and studies courses in our schools and for our Nova community for helping to pilot and build out the LGBTQ courses.

And just as a just as clarification this board passed a resolution unanimously in June called the affirming inclusion of our LGBTQIA plus student staff and community.

And in that one of the directives was for the superintendent to basically start and pilot an LGBTQ studies course.

And so just particularly and personally and selfishly I'm so so grateful and honored to see that we are moving forward with that and I hope our community is listening and is appreciative as well.

And that's all I got.

Thanks.

Thank you Director Harris.

Director Hampson.

This is Dr. Scarlett.

I'm sorry I was having microphone issues it literally wouldn't unclick so I just did want you to know that I am here in order to.

I apologize.

Director Harris.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf not selfishly I believe that all of your colleagues stand firmly and squarely with you on that.

And thank you for your push on that.

I am pleased to see these new course descriptors showing up.

I am curious as far as anti-racism and civic engagement that was requested by a Ballard High School teacher are we going to be doing this one online like Black Studies so that any high schooler in the city can participate.

And then my second question is Where are we on ethnic studies.

Thank you.

I this is Caleb Perkins Executive Director of College of Career Readiness.

I can answer the first question.

Unlike Black Studies which is being offered right from the start as a district-wide offering this one is currently the the anti-racism and civic action is being offered.

Like any other course where any of our high schools can put that in their course catalog.

And as you said it was initiated by a Ballard teacher so we assume that Ballard will include it.

So as of this time it is not the plan is not to make that a district-wide offering yet.

But appreciate the question.

Was that discussed because this is one of those things that's been on a high priority and it's distressing to see it only offered in one school.

It will be open to all schools but your point's taken.

I guess then my next question is do we wait another year before that happens.

Again I appreciate the suggestion.

I think in terms of how we could make other courses open to other schools beyond the initial teacher who is requesting them or offering them is one we should explore.

And again we're going to start that with Black Studies and and learn from that experience and see if we could do that with with other offerings.

Do we have an ETA on a potential decision on that sir.

I do not at this point.

Thank you.

And then my second question where we are on Ethnic Studies please.

Yeah I can respond to that.

This is Dr. Keisha Scarlett Chief Academic Officer.

So Director Harris just yesterday we held interviews with a really diverse interview panel for candidates for the Ethnic Studies Program Manager position.

And so that process will be finalized this week.

They're holding another set of interviews I believe on Thursday for a second round of interviews for that position as well.

And so Ethnic Studies continues to be taught.

Maybe not systemically all the way from K-12 but there are classrooms and educators who are teaching Ethnic Studies.

The movement has not stopped.

So we continue to have Ethnic Studies taught in here.

But of course we need the excuse me in SPS but of course having a program manager in place and also the curriculum specialist staff will help us to really build it across scale.

Have the curriculum specialists been hired already.

I believe 2 or 3.

No the 2 curriculum specialists have not been hired yet.

But the positions are being posted very soon.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

I do not have any questions at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I don't have I don't have questions.

And I don't know.

What.

I accidentally came back to you.

If you'd like to say anything else please do.

Oh you can come back to me at the end if you want.

Or I can talk now either way.

Oh well you talked at the beginning so technically.

Well I didn't.

Did you have anything to add.

Yeah I just wanted wanted to remind my colleagues that we do have a work session scheduled for Ethnic Studies Black Studies social studies and since time immemorial and how those things intersect and where we are on different timelines.

So that should that's not directly related to this item but that will all be we'll have the opportunity to have a broader conversation about those things as a board with staff.

And and also that we when this came up for introduction we did have the discussion that Black Studies was going to be made accessible remotely And that the exciting possibilities about that in terms of well first of all access just for students to that to that material but also as a sort of trial to see how you know how we can expand specific offerings across more schools using remote remote access even when we're no longer in a remote instructional model.

So just as a just that was sort of previous previous conversation just want to remind people who are listening.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

I think I'll go over again a question I know I asked in committee for Dr. Perkins because I really appreciated how under the one course for the Black Studies and Black Studies Youth History it specified in the listing that will be taught through an intersectional lens and through resources created by Black educators theorists readers authors organizers historians researchers scholars building upon students critical analysis.

I was so my question at the time was how is that what kind of who is that same approach being taken in the other courses.

I think specifically is asking about the LGBTQ courses.

And if you can maybe go for how those were those have found the same.

approach or what we can expect for those.

So the question is how we're applying the lens of intersectionality to the development of other courses.

Is that correct.

The Black Studies was more specific regarding who's creating the resources for this course.

And I know it's teachers who propose these but I think at the time you said there were some specific schools or students who were working on the LGBTQ courses.

Yes.

The the for LGBTQIA we are taking this spring semester to engage a number of schools starting off with NOVA Interagency Franklin.

More recently Middle College has reached out as has Ingram and others.

And we're going to develop that in a collaborative way.

For the Black Studies course because we want to launch that so quickly we Manila Alansi on the DREA team is leading the efforts to put that together.

And she as you can see in the course description is going to is consulting with a number of folks to develop those materials.

And for what it's worth we're doing that in consultation with Ronald Boyd to make sure it's connected to 2015 and how we need to develop materials there.

So Manal Al-Ansi is leading that effort but it's obviously going to be many people including SPS educators weighing in on that development.

I hope that helps.

No thank you.

Yes I and I do just want to highlight the different entities and stakeholders we have together for these courses.

I really appreciate it.

And also I will take the time to voice kind of support for what Director Harris mentioned about if we can find ways to offer these across the district now that we have discovered and worked and tried to you know polish off our remote learning tools perhaps even going forward after we are all back in there's ways we can expand these offerings because these are such amazing courses that you know it is kind of a shame when not all of our students will have a chance to partake because it's not at their school.

So and it sounds like you guys are thinking that.

So thank you for your information.

And Director Rivera-Smith I do want to.

This is Dr. Scarlett again.

I just want to also let you know that we have posted a position for our Black Education Curriculum Specialist.

So that is posted for hiring for that position.

Thank you.

Okay.

I don't have any additional questions.

So Ms. Wilson-Jones could you please call for the vote.

Director Hampson I I apologize.

This is very unexpected but I'm realizing that to be extra careful we are actually trying to offer the Black Studies course this year for the 2021 school year and I'm noticing that the motion says the 21-22 school year and I would hate for this to not enable us to start this course.

So just in an abundance of caution in abundance of caution I would request that we make sure the motion enables us to do that.

And I apologize for chiming in and interrupting.

No I'm glad you did that now.

Let's see.

Chief Narver is may I ask Director Hersey to amend his motion.

Yes we can offer a new motion and have it seconded.

I think Dr. Perkins should probably offer the language that we're looking for to make sure the motion language is precise about the the spring the spring offering here.

And if a director can offer that offer that revised motion and seconded it that'll be the one before the board for action.

If we could get that typed in the comments or the up on the screen that feasible Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I can put something on the screen if there's language.

If it's short if it's short Dr. Perkins can simply read it out.

It obviously has to be offered by a by a director though to be.

I mean essentially it would just be changing.

Just make the full statement and so she can type it and then Director Hersey can make the motion.

Okay.

Make the statement with the change so she can type it and then he'll make it as a motion.

Should I do that or who were you suggesting.

Mr. Perkins is going to make the statement so we're clear and then you're going to read it as a motion.

The simplest way would be since it's just the 7 courses I move that the school board approve the new course additions for for school year 2021 and I'm putting that in the chat and 21-22 as attached to the board action report.

and probably should make.

As soon as you can see that Director Hersey can you go ahead and make that motion.

Yeah absolutely.

I move that the school board approve the new course additions for school year 2020-21 and 2021-22 as attached to the Board Action Report.

Second.

This motion has been moved by Director this amended motion has been moved by Director Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

Can we now call for the roll.

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

This motion has passed unanimously.

Okay.

Thank you for that catch.

Director Perkins.

We will now move to Action Item Number 3 Enhanced Cleaning for COVID-19 In-Person Instruction at Elementary and K-8 Schools.

This came through Ops.

the Operations Committee on December 3rd for consideration.

May I have a motion to approve.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute two contracts for enhanced cleaning services for an amount not to exceed $2,848,075 in the form of the agreement attached to the school board action report.

with any minor additions deletions or modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent.

Second.

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

Now to directors for any comments or questions before we move to the vote.

Starting with Chair of the Operations Committee Director DeWolf.

Director DeWolf you are muted if you are speaking.

Director DeWolf.

Yep sorry just working on the mute button.

There we are.

This came through our committee in December and I was not the chair so I'm just going to turn it over to to the discussion.

Okay I assume nothing's changed.

Chief Podesta since this came forward.

No we continue to size this work.

I I will note just for directors that when this request for proposals and work wasn't originally anticipated we did not we hadn't made commitments about which grade bands would be in school or the length that this was originally scoped to be January through the end of the school year and perhaps using every single classroom in elementary schools and K-8 schools.

So I I just would like to state that the the maximum that these contracts have been solicited for is probably a considerably larger number than this work will end up being.

But other other than that as as we refine what the scope of work is this is probably a bit smaller.

But the work itself we are still continuing to finalize as we finalize our plans for opening buildings on March 1st.

Okay then let's go to Director Harris.

Chief Podesta if you could just reiterate for the record that we worked with our colleagues and valued members of Local 609 and they have no problem with this please.

We've had several discussions with leadership in 609 and are working now on a memorandum of understanding to finalize that verbal agreement.

Thank you sir.

I pass to the next director.

Thank you.

Director Hersey Director Hersey.

Yeah I just want to reiterate my concern that we did not do a good enough job in reaching out to black-owned and POC-owned businesses especially for projects like these.

So moving forward again for my colleagues I am going to be very interested in doing some serious refines to our RFP process to make sure that we are reaching out directly to black and POC-owned businesses for contracts first.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Hersey.

Director Rankin.

Thanks.

I just wanted to make notes since it came up again in testimony that this item is is for a cost not to exceed which doesn't doesn't necessarily mean that that will all be spent and we discussed at introduction and in committee that the the approach and the understanding of the virus and what types of cleaning might be needed have changed since the RFP was put out.

And that's just I personally feel comfortable with the discussion that we had at introduction that that's that's understood and being responded to in this item as it is written.

And so I guess maybe I'll just ask Mr. Podesta for the confirmation that the that we have discussed previously that the surface cleaning isn't necessarily as as appropriate at this point knowing what we know but that this this item is still can can respond to that that new that information that has changed since this RFP was put out.

Yes that's correct.

This is really focusing on.

Since we're trying to manage schools and cohorts that you know surfaces that are touched by a lot of people you know handrails door entrances.

This is not clean every disinfect every surface in the school.

This is just where there's a lot of common contact with spaces.

And then since our provisions of meals will be different that creates some new duties that we may not normally cover.

So really the intent here is to have a bench is as we get into operations make sure that we have some augmented resources if they're necessary.

Great.

Thank you.

That's it for me.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

I guess I only had the same kind of just question of how Chief Podesta would respond to the the opinion that this cleaning we should not be focusing so much money and effort on the surface cleaning.

I don't know that I agree with that.

I'm just I'm just asking that my again I was wondering about the response to that and kind of got covered there with Director Rankin's question.

So unless there was anything else Chief Podesta didn't think she could add to it that would be all for me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I think my only question would be do you foresee circumstances associated with the items mentioned by Director Rankin in particular.

Do you foresee a time when when circumstances would have changed to such a point that we might need to redo the RFP which is from August or that we might need to you know using the same RFP go back out for for contractors because it's there's too much that's sort of dated.

Or do you feel like there's enough flexibility built into the contracts that we have with our current bench as you as you stated in order to to make those amendments.

Yeah no I think it's fairly flexible.

It you know and again we focused on things that we don't typically cover with our own staff although we could and some things like that but it's it's basic custodial services.

It's just doing more of it during the course of a day.

We were also when this originally was done we were envisioning perhaps hybrid models where different sets of students or adults might be occupying the same space in a short period of time and would that require more than daily cleaning.

We started this pretty early on.

We weren't sure what the picture would be.

So it's very general in nature.

It is also very short.

It's really through the end of this school year.

So depending on what things look like in the summer or in the 21-22 school year you know you may need to either amend or go back out for services.

Okay.

Thank you.

And I and I think I would just wrap up by saying my request would be that we wrapped Director Hersey's request into that as we need to when we do need to redo the RFP and and potentially go back out for for those services.

So that's all from in terms of questions and comments.

With that we can move to the vote.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

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

This motion has passed unanimously.

We will now move to Introduction Item Number 1. Approval of Southeast Middle School Attendance Area Boundaries for 2021-22.

This came through Operations Committee on January 6th.

And actually we it came through an Operations Committee of the Whole or more accurately on January 6th.

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

Yes hi.

Thank you.

I want to first thank the school board directors for your attendance at the additional Operations Committee of the Whole last week regarding both the Southeast Boundaries and the Student Assignment Plan.

The Division of Student Support Services and Enrollment Planning recognize how challenging and complex these discussions are and we appreciate your thoughtful questions at that session.

As a longtime community member of Seattle Public Schools I've had firsthand experience with boundaries and these are always emotional.

And I'm here to introduce this board action report which outlines middle school attendance area boundary changes to Acer Mercer International Middle School Aki Kurose Middle School and Washington Middle School beginning in the 2021-22 school year due to enrollment over capacity at Mercer.

We've been having these conversations for actually a while.

And before we start I want to actually address just a few comments from the community and just to make sure that I clarify a few points.

There was an email that was sent regarding some concerns about TAF Middle School at Washington and TAF at Washington Middle School and I just wanted to remind the school board that TAF at Washington has new leadership.

And I want to support put my support behind Principal Hunt and her team.

She's an African-American leader within our system who has provided an engagement opportunity for Southeast families to learn about the integrated instructional model at Washington Middle School.

She's 100 percent committed committed to students furthest from educational justice and building robust learning programs for all learners including bilingual students.

And she is leading the way to address segregated practices within our system in middle school.

And and I know for a fact that many families are happy with TAFT at Washington under her leadership.

I just want to address also some comments that came up last time regarding some specific communications for Black families.

And I just want to be you know completely transparent.

Black families mostly have communicated through the various channels that their family choice preference aligns to many of our families.

which is and also common in boundaries discussions where most families want to not don't want to have any experience or change or disruption to their lives.

Those are very common responses.

We have had specific engagement with a group of Black families that have provided specific input to our district specifically for African-American families in regards to enrollment admissions and actually access to pathways outside of boundaries.

And we are discussing that and next steps.

And then the last thing I want to comment is regards to bilingual ELL the specific forms.

We did have specific bilingual ELL forms within some of all of the schools that we engage with.

We also worked with comms to deliver most of the materials in the top languages that we serve.

We provided translations through communications translated videos and other various engagement sessions.

And we do recognize that.

This is always has to be a top priority not just for our enrollment planning department but our district as a whole.

It is something that we have to keep working on and improving those efforts and it is very vital to this to this process.

And then with that I'm going to pass this to our Director of Enrollment Planning Ashley Davis.

Hi this is Ashley Davies Director of Enrollment Planning.

And so I just wanted to walk through some more specifics in regards to the board action report as it relates to the proposal to reduce overcrowding at a Somerset Middle School.

So in front of you I will be clear is a recommendation for the board to move forward with a change of the Kimball feeder into Washington and the Hawthorne feeder into Aki Kurose Middle School.

And it includes grandfathering for current students.

And so to clarify grandfathering applies to students currently out of school.

So under this proposal The grandfathering recommendation would apply to students currently in 6th and 7th grade who are attending Mercer Middle School and who live in the Kimball and Hawthorne attendance areas.

In addition the motion also includes an end to the partial waiver of board policy number 3130 which was put into place last June well June of 2019 in order to serve as a short-term mechanism to reduce the overcrowding at Mercer Middle School.

Given the extreme overcrowding and the continued pressures on the school from over-enrollment that policy waiver meant that students who are new to the district would be assigned to Washington or Aki if they lived in the Mercer attendance area.

So with this recommended change to the feeders long-term it would also end that temporary capacity relief mechanism that we put into place in 2019. So with that I'm just going to highlight a little bit of the background as it is related to this proposal as well as some of the comments that were raised.

So again Mercer is at about 1,200 students in a building that has a capacity for about 800 students.

There are 25 portables on campus and a new building is being built that will open up in the fall of 2025. In the meantime Mercer will move into a temporary location which has a capacity for slightly less than 1,000 seats and there is no flexibility in the 1,000 seats that is available in the temporary location.

So as we think about this recommendation and a solution to the old crowding at Mercer need to keep in mind those additional timelines that I just mentioned.

In 2023 Mercer will temporarily be located at original Van Asselt.

And again just want to highlight if if we don't have a solution to the overcrowding to allow Mercer an enrollment of a thousand students or less we will have to think of some other short-term capacity relief options during that time when Mercer is temporarily located.

In this particular recommendation that the board is considering for introduction tonight as I mentioned it would move Kimball to Washington beginning with students who are in 5th grade this year who would be moving into 6th grade next year.

And then concurrently students in 5th grade currently in 5th grade Hawthorne moving into 6th grade Hawthorne.

And that represents a total based off of historical enrollment of around 120 to 130 students from that change for the one year.

Some things that also came up that I do want to mention within the comments was around siblings.

And so given the fact that middle school is 3 years any student that had a sibling there would be potentially that 2 years of overlap.

And so we did look at the data on that and there are a total of 38 identified siblings across Kimball and Hawthorne that are currently in grades 4 and 5 who would have potential overlap with students who are currently at Mercer.

So broken out that is 24 students at Kimball and 14 students at Hawthorne.

I will just say that typically the board's recommendation for grandfathering has not included siblings.

It just applies to students who are currently in the school.

And so any consideration of siblings would have to come with some additional language around that that is outside of the district standard grandfathering.

So from there I also want to highlight a little bit of the engagement that took place as well as talk about some of the equity considerations that we've looked at as well as ones that have come up from the community thus far.

And so we as we highlighted at the meeting on the 6th we've had 10 different engagements.

Ones that we've helped to facilitate as as well as engagements where we've attended and come into other community spaces to be able to share information get information out.

You know I will say by no means is the engagement that we were able to do you know the totality of the engagement you know that would be ideal.

But given you know given our our our timeline again recognizing that ideally we would have loved to have in-person engagements that would have started back in the spring.

And then recognizing that we were going to be continuing remote for at least the school year.

And you know even some portion of grades may continue to be remote as we move into future school years.

You know recognize that we needed to continue to move forward with this work in order to provide an equitable environment for all students including those currently at Mercer.

You know we're thinking about not only students who are impacted by this change but also thinking about students who will remain at Mercer and ensuring that they can have an equitable experience in between students across all schools.

One of the things that has come up as we've talked about the right size for a middle school and that thousand seats.

You know we've had families ask why can't we make are schools bigger than that.

And so you know currently looking at the fact that Mercer is 1,200 students and then Aki and Washington are at between 6 and 7 you know that doesn't provide an equitable experience in that you know Mercer because it has a larger enrollment is able to offer additional programs and services that comes from enrollment that could also be offered at Washington and Aki with additional enrollment.

So you know there is in part of thinking about that right-sizing also thinking about the equity between schools in their enrollment.

And so at at those meetings you know I would say in summary when we talked about this at the last meeting three big things we heard.

was about prioritizing walkability.

Prioritizing minimizing impact students furthest from educational justice.

And also thinking about the continuity of programming.

Specifically thinking about what access to services and language support for ELL students as well as an international school experience for students.

So the last piece that I will just highlight again talks a little bit about the equity analysis in here.

And as you heard from many of the comments tonight as well as comments you may have received as well as comments that we heard from all families involved in this discussion you know our Southeast is extremely diverse and so As we looked at the schools that could potentially be impacted by a change you know we are talking for the most part most of the elementaries have a large portion of students of color.

Right.

And so we looked at the percentage of students of color.

We looked at percentage of ELL students.

We looked at information as it relates to their equity tier.

And that includes demographic information as well as student performance information.

And so in evaluating many different metrics as it relates to demographic as well as student performance as well as some of the qualitative and quantitative data related to each school.

You know as we came to the solution there were two schools that we had taken off the table.

One that was Rising Star given its high equity tiering.

And then additionally Maple because it doesn't border Aki or Washington.

And then that left our discussion with four additional elementary schools.

And then we had talked both about again the difference in the demographics between the schools And amongst some there was very little difference.

Again given the diversity of the schools that are feed into Mercer.

And then we also looked at information as it relates to ELL percentage at schools access to the programs that are currently there.

And we'll recognize that.

It was it was a hard discussion and analysis as we think about having to move move to schools.

And I will reiterate that we are looking at two schools in order to give Mercer the long-term relief that it needs.

And so one of the things is again we think about the students who are served in all the schools that feed into Mercer.

As we move forward with a change to approve we would want to really think about ensuring that those students have as smooth of a transition as possible.

And so continuing to engage with particular communities around what exactly those things are and making sure that families are able to navigate the change have information about the change.

Other things that have come into play are specific transportation needs that may help to ease some of the burden of the changes in any situation.

And so with that I will just highlight that with these with this particular change under consideration It would result in additional buses to bus students from Kimball to Washington and those would be students eligible for busing.

So currently 100 percent of the students who live in the Kimball attendance area can fall within the walk zone to Mercer.

And with this change there would be about a hundred And I think 180 students who would fall within the category of being eligible for transportation.

And then I apologize it would be about 150 and then there would be an additional number who would be eligible for ORCA cards.

So one of the things that you've heard tonight is thinking about how else we may be able to support students who would have a difficult time getting to school with an ORCA card or with the route that would be a result of the change.

And then similarly for Hawthorne it would be another two buses as a result of that change of Hawthorne to Aki.

And so with that.

Oh sorry go ahead.

No I think that pretty much highlights the things that I wanted the board to be aware of as I as we consider these.

I will also just say within the packet there is the map that shows the breakout of the change areas.

So in on the Scenario 1 map you can see the students who are within Kimball.

And this data to be clear is students who are in grades 6 through 8 not elementary students.

So there have been some questions as we've been presenting data about the data not being reflective of certain schools.

And so just reiterating that this data that's provided here is data for students who are within grades 6-8.

We also have a larger data sheet that shows information around some more detailed information and demographic information around the schools here and then a comprehensive list that we've gotten through the process and then added an attachment that highlights the school-by-school and the demographic some of the demographic information around students who have provided responses through Let's Talk which was a way that we did receive over 200 different responses from families.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Director Davies and so I think now I will turn it over to the Chair of the Ops Committee who led us through the Committee of the Whole where we reviewed this item Director DeWolf.

And whose district was also in touch.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you so much President Hampson and thank you Director Davies.

Always always so grateful for your work.

I wanted to at least make sure I shared my gratitude for our folks from the community who who joined us by public comment or wrote in.

Thank you for for speaking up and sharing your opinions and your feelings and your perspectives.

All very very helpful in our discernment.

I wanted to just add a little bit of context too.

I think these are these are a lot These are long-term issues where I think decisions made in the distant past were made with some short-term thinking.

And I really think what this whole experience with with this discussion around the middle school attendance area boundaries just reiterates or at least reaffirms that we really need to make decisions with you know the very much a seven generations long-term thinking in mind because I think making the right decisions before they came to this point.

We wouldn't have to make a decision where it feels like we're having to choose something that that is the least the least bad.

You know families from from all these communities are speaking up and I think you know Director Hersey has mentioned it very well that it just feels like we have to pit community against each other and it just feels like a really bad place to be.

I just wanted to clarify Director Davies there.

Can you just explain a little bit about we had a public comment about grandfathering and trying to just get some clarity around.

Just can you reiterate that again.

Sure.

Yeah.

So the the board action report includes grandfathering for students under this proposal.

So as it's included in the BAR That would mean that students who are currently at Mercer in grades 6 and 7 would get to continue until they reach the highest grade there.

Some of the comments that were raised tonight I think also talked about siblings.

And so anything as it relates to siblings is not included in the BAR.

I highlighted some of that data.

There are currently 38 total siblings that we were able to identify between Hawthorne and Kimball who have a older sibling at Mercer.

So if it currently with the way the BAR is outlined if approved as is students who are at Mercer who are living in the Kimball or Hawthorne attendance areas will get to stay at Mercer.

But then that other piece is that there are 38 additional students at Kimball and Hawthorne currently who would not have any overlap with that older sibling who is in middle school.

If there was no change those 38 siblings who are currently in elementary would be at Mercer with their older sibling at the same time.

But with the change that means that there are 38 students who would be in two different schools.

Thank you for that information.

The only other thing I want to add before we move on is just that you know I know Director Harris can attest we've been advocating for adjusting boundaries to improve attendance and increase attendance at Washington Middle School because we saw those numbers going down and I think that was just based on how the lines were drawn before and I'm really grateful that we're making an adjustment.

Certainly is not one of those feel-good decisions.

But we certainly have to we do have to make a hard decision.

And just to reiterate we did have a very rich discussion at our January 6th I believe Committee of the Whole where we discussed this.

And so if folks want to listen in on that meeting I know that they can probably look back at that.

So I'll turn it back over to you Director President Hampson.

Okay.

Thank you.

Let's go down to Director Harris.

I echo the painful nature of boundary adjustments and disruption.

And I echo the fact that this is a continuing problem in this school district and it happens every year because we don't have enough schools.

We are charged with where the schools are and where the communities are and we don't have a whole lot of power over things like redlining historically etc.

Good things that are going on however are the long-range capacity and planning standing task force that has been up I think about 6-7 months now where we are using the combined brilliant brains of a great many community members and professionals.

This Mercer boundary adjustment was kicked the can for several years because we had emergency issues and we didn't get started earlier enough early enough.

It's painful.

There's no question about it.

But this is the least of the worst choices.

And to the extent that we can help ameliorate some of those choices with grandfathering etc.

I'm pleased about that.

In the past quite frankly we've had to fight tooth and nail for grandfathering.

And and I think we've come a fair way down the path of being more sensitive.

Is our community engagement perfect.

No absolutely it is not.

But you know the whole thing about going back to neighborhood schools was to make each and every neighborhood school terrific.

We're not there yet.

I will be voting in favor of this but but I have continuing concerns about how we plan for the future 7 generations next year and the next 50 years.

Thank you.

Okay and now I'm turning over to Director Hersey.

Thank you very much.

I.

As the director for District 7 this this is not a new story for anyone in my community specifically and quite frankly our community as a board and as a district.

Again I just want to reiterate the fact that over my short term on this board we have gone through two major boundary changes.

Two major boundary changes.

And these boundary changes have implications upon one another that I don't think that we as a system have fully been able to parse through quite yet.

I just want to reiterate that the fact when we don't get these decisions right or when we are trying to clean up decisions that were made by from however long ago this puts us in We are pitting communities of color against each other and we are reading the e-mails from various schools just basically saying that their school is more disadvantaged.

And we

Okay and what we also need to be asking ourselves about middle schools in our area what we can do to figure out opportunities that are equitable across the city.

I as a

Director Hersey can you switch to.

Can you hear me.

Hello.

Hello.

I'm sorry.

You're Director Hersey.

Yeah.

You're breaking up so I'm going to.

Can you hear me now.

Me now.

Yeah I can hear you now.

Yes I can hear you.

You were breaking up and my my device was frozen so I couldn't stop you so I missed a huge section of what you stated which I'm really sorry for because I think you were saying some really great things.

So I don't know if you want to kind of restate your if you want to summarize real quick what you stated thus far it might be good for the for the good of the order so everyone actually gets the benefit of what you had to say.

Can you hear me clearly now.

Yeah for now we can and I will say that I heard you through the statement that this is the second major boundary change and then that's when you started to cut out.

Okay.

And I don't know now.

Boundary change that in my that my community Still not working.

Yeah you're still cutting out now.

Nope.

Let me I'll tell you what.

Let me see what you can work on and then I'll try to come back to you.

Does that help.

So I'm going to go to Director Rankin while you work with on your connection and maybe just the time will get us there and and then we'll come back.

Director Rankin.

Just logged in.

Can you hear me better now.

Hello.

We can give it a shot.

Yep.

Can you hear me.

It's all.

Just move.

No.

Call the next director and I'll try to figure this out.

Okay.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I you know.

Boundary boundary decisions are tough.

I've as a community member and an advocate before being on the board have been through these types of discussions a few times.

And as Director Hersey was saying it's it's really tough to to see especially communities of color kind of compete for which which school is is more disenfranchised to have you know priority in the decision making it's it's just it's really it's hard.

And and unfortunately when we have capacity I mean 25 portables like when there's capacity issues like this it's just untenable to continue.

And as we discussed in the committee committee as a whole this decision was was made available.

This projection was seen by the district about 7 years ago and community feedback was that nobody wanted to move and so they put off making making the decision.

And and now here we are over capacity and a decision has to be made.

Somebody has to move.

And it's it's just tough.

And I know how important it is to families to have access not only to various programs and pathways but also you know the sense of community that you have of of being able to go to a different school walk to a different school attend school with with neighbors.

You know I happen to live at the very northern end of an elementary boundary so we kind of have this funny like you know I can see one middle school from my house and it's not the one that my kids go to and at first I thought that was just didn't make any sense.

But you know it numbers are numbers and in the building can only fit so many kids and so decisions have to be have to be made to to make it work.

One other thing that I remember hearing about At the I think when this was first coming up maybe last year was the the rebuild schedule for Kimball and for Mercer meaning that for a certain grade bands of Kimball students they would be in temporary buildings for part of their elementary and then their introduction into middle school if they were to stay at stay going to Mercer.

So I don't know if that helps or hurts anyone but you know when we try to look at these decisions I think the the lens that has been used in the past is to minimize disruption.

Minimize disruption minimize disruption.

And that has usually meant keep comfortable people comfortable.

And that's you know more in schools on the north end where there are fewer students of color where the the attention on minimizing disruption was was not an equitable way to look at things.

And so I do appreciate the movement from you know minimizing disruption to that change in mindset to to really talking about understanding impact on different schools rather than you know keep disruption down because this is all disruptive.

It is.

I mean COVID is disruptive.

Change a change of any kind is disruptive to somebody.

And so I guess I don't know.

I just wanted to say you know for all the families that have taken the time to speak up we hear you and it's hard.

And but it's also not just a decision has to be has to be made for the sake of all the kids in the area because going to an overcrowded middle school isn't isn't equitable either.

Yeah I guess that's all that I have to say about about that.

Oh and I actually I want to echo what Dr. Pedroza said about the changes that are happening at Washington Middle School.

It's hard to hear that so many families have the impression of one of our schools that they want to avoid going there completely.

That shouldn't be the case.

It just shouldn't be the case.

And I'm I'm really sorry that people are feeling that way and I hope that for students who are currently at Washington and for all future students of Washington that we can come together around elevating the change the positive changes that are happening and support that school and all of the students that that end up attending it.

That's it for me.

Okay.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Director Hersey are you have a clear connection or should I go on to Director Rivera-Smith.

I am not sure.

Can you hear me now.

Oh you sound great.

Oh thank goodness.

Oh my gosh.

Well I mean most of what I was going to say was just reiterated by Director Rankin but what I will say while I have a clear connection and if it cuts out please just text me or help me figure it out.

But I. I am sitting here from this perspective incredibly frustrated because again most of this has already been said but the real issue that we need to be talking about here is why are 2 of our south end middle schools really 1 being in the central district but why are 2 of our middle schools not exciting our families about their attendance.

What do we need to do to support these schools.

How do we expand dual-language pathways to actually be representative of where our families live and the languages that are spoken at home.

Why are we not offering more Languages that represent our Black communities and our East African communities and our Somali communities.

Where are the opportunities there.

Right.

So for me as the Southeast Board Director it is our responsibility as a district not just the board not just senior staff but our entire system in partnership with community to not put families in these positions because by and everyone has seen these emails.

When we are looking through these emails and I see schools elementary schools in my district talking about one another basically trying to appeal to us that their school is the one that needs to be kept in their current situation because of their equity tiering that perverts the word equity and the purpose of this scaling system.

So what we need to do as a district is we need to be prepared to make the changes necessary at all of our schools not just when we're talking about boundaries but also if we are asking a community to uproot if we are asking them to move we need to enter into reconciliation talks about how do we make that transition as smooth and as amenable as possible.

And it cannot just stop at transportation.

We need to have some serious conversations about what we are prepared to commit to making sure that all of our middle schools are places that families can be excited about sending their children.

That every school in our district has opportunities where students' heritages and languages can be celebrated and learned regardless of where they happen to live in the city.

These are unacceptable outcomes that put families neighbors and quite frankly very close friends against one another when we are trying to clean up decisions made by previous boards.

This is unacceptable.

We have to do better.

And I hope that all can hear me.

That all got through.

So applause.

Thank you.

And I will then move to Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

I don't know that I can follow.

That was great.

So well-spoken Director Hersey.

And I don't know that any of us can argue with what you stated.

That was that that is something that we need to really look inside and see how we can support these schools that we set up for failure sometimes when we're not doing that and in advance of changes in program placement.

And I like every other director almost you know we hear we hear you we hear we get the emails and we hear the testimony and it is definitely it's heartbreaking.

It's so hard to make these decisions because somebody is going to be moving.

Somebody is going to be unhappy and.

And somebody has good reason to be unhappy.

Very good reasons and and the lack of options viable options we have puts us in these positions to make hard hard choices.

I would say that the North End has had its share too.

I'm just just you know just to know it's a whole district.

We had in the last what was it five six years ago we had two back-to-back middle school openings that caused boundary changes in the exact same situations of communities against communities trying to argue why they are the ones who shouldn't move and they need to stay where they are.

When we had Jane Addams open I believe 2014 and Robert Eagle Staff.

Feels like the next year but might have been 16-17.

Can't recall anymore but this this is district-wide.

This happens so much and it's hard on communities all around.

But when we are prioritizing our for some educational justice families it definitely makes us feel Like there's more we wish there's more we could do.

And and I and I I think I mentioned this once and I and Director Hersey hinted on about our our dual-language program placement.

Where we do that how we do that.

You know it because because it's true.

You know Deeble Park could practically walk to Aki and right now Kimball can practically walk or does walk to Mercer and we wish that those things were better aligned with the placement of our programs.

I don't know how if we can get dual language into Aki in some degree or how to but I know that takes away from Mercer's robust program or what is going to be and I know we want to play you know kind of you know chess with this and how do we move things the most strategically possible and it's so hard to do and I'm really sorry that that it's going to cause such hardships.

Thank you Ashley and your team for all your work and your engagement.

I did have a question regarding our CAP Capacity Enrollment and Facilities Master Planning Advisory Committee.

I'm wondering if you can talk about how how they were engaged in this process.

This is Ashley again.

So I will talk a little bit.

about that committee and some of the things that have come up.

And then maybe if Director Rankin also wants to share a little bit as she was on that committee as well.

But essentially so we had formed this committee had been meeting for the past several months talking about many different topics and had set time to discuss particularly this topic.

Before we got to this conversation though we recognized that our committee didn't really reflect the diversity that we felt like it needed to.

And so we had some conversation about how we how we get our committee to a place where it represents the diversity of our district.

And as said until we get to that point that committee really shouldn't be evaluating any type of district decisions.

So the way in which this information was presented to that committee it did bring this information forward.

Shared a little bit about the data.

We talked about some of the different considerations.

We talked about the intersection of the different priorities and how that played out.

And you know people ask questions.

They ask about other different data points that might be helpful.

But the committee did recognize you know that this was a conversation that was rooted within the Southeast and so didn't want the voices that were part of the committee to take us take a role that would in any way Act as if it represented our Southeast community.

Director Rankin did you want to.

Yeah I can chime in on that for a minute just to sort of re-emphasize that that yeah the this the capacity enrollments I can't even remember the whole acronym SEUMF was is a new committee that was formed I think in 2019 or I can't remember yeah 2019 and then that that is when it began and was constituted and the in in developing what the goals were for that advisory committee we determined as a body that the though we had geographic representation the racial representation and other other factors were not at all representative of the district as a whole.

And so I know that the Southeast members of that committee were included in some discussion specific around around this but mostly as Ashley said it the the determination of recommendations was left to the available data and engagement done by the district.

All right no and you know that makes that makes sense.

I'm a bit troubled that we not not mean we as a board but we as a district formed a committee that couldn't stand up to the litmus test of being you know representative which we want we definitely want to be I'm not saying it shouldn't or it should be allowed not to.

I just hope that we can our the district we can you know work I guess harder to make sure that those we don't set up these committees to not be effective and to not be what we need them to be.

That's a different subject.

Totally different time for that I'm sure.

But thank you for the information there.

I I will pass on now.

Thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

I did want to go back to Director Hersey just briefly.

I think you had some direction you wanted to give to staff at least on what you would like them to consider.

Yeah so in in a collaborative way I would really like us to consider what possibility and what language would be appropriate to include siblings grandfathering in this plan.

I think that if we are going to displace quite frankly these so many families in this school system especially Black families.

I'd really like to explore all of our options to reconcile and make this transition as smooth as possible.

So would love to meet with Concie or excuse me I'm sorry Dr. Pedroza and Director Davies at some point over the course of the next week before action to explore that possibility.

Okay so I'll leave that to staff.

I assume you heard that and we'll follow up on that.

couple of questions myself.

One I think is related to I'm also interested it's related to the thing that that other directors have brought up around siblings and that you brought up.

Thank you Director Davis for bringing up that that we haven't previously grandfathered siblings.

Given that you've looked at the numbers I'd like for us to look into that a little deeper about whether that's not a possibility as well.

So I support that.

And the other question that I had is about the The specific boundaries I couldn't find anything in the in the BAR and didn't wasn't able to overlay different maps that that indicated whether we had any specific low-income or supportive housing that is in that is being impacted by this.

This is Ashley Davies.

So I I don't have that particularly offhand but I can definitely get that to you before the end of the week so we can talk about that specifically and and have that for the next time we discuss.

OK.

I just don't want to get into a situation where we've got like a block.

Right.

Yeah.

Of course.

That we're dealing with.

and adversely impacting that you know that our students true you know even further from quote unquote educational justice.

So if we could take a look at that I would I would appreciate that.

And then really appreciate all of the other comments from from fellow directors and just want to note that in looking at these different schools and their ability to support in particular English learners as they're identified in our standardized testing for example which is not you know my favorite metric or identifier by any stretch of the imagination.

But I do notice you know the thing that we're hearing a lot of comment about which is that English learners are not as supported in terms of their outcomes at Washington Middle School and as Director Hersey said that shouldn't be the case.

Right.

families you know Mandarin-speaking families fighting over who gets to go to Mercer and who has to go to Washington.

And still not and yet you know we should be supporting all those families regardless of where they go with respect to those languages and we should be supporting them.

And again as Director Hersey said in their home languages and I know we have staff that are committed to doing that.

I want to thank you Director Davies and Dr. Pedroza because.

I know you to be for many many years very much deeply engaged with hearing those personal stories those personal stories from individual families doing the focus groups of the forms that you did in spite of all of this.

I know you got some really good information and we heard more tonight and and we appreciate really really appreciate and hear those stories as well.

And so we know that this is an incredibly difficult decision.

And and somebody's got to go to Washington because we can't just not quote unquote right-size.

It's a horrible term.

Sounds corporate.

I think we probably need to come up with a different term because as you said it's really not equitable to have this massive middle school.

To have 1,200 students at one middle school doesn't isn't good for it for anybody.

So we do have to make these these hard choices but I want to make sure that we are also and I know you both to be very supportive of paying attention to these these detailed stories to make sure that we avoid as many unintended consequences as possible.

So I really appreciate the presentations and the additional comments and response.

And again I would support a little more I would support consideration of a grandfathering for for siblings.

And as you talk to Director Hersey about that I think it's appropriate that he's heavily engaged that this is mostly his his district constituents that are that are impacted.

And we'll look forward to seeing how it comes through in the in the action.

I don't know if you have any responses to any of that Director Davies or Quansi Pedroza to anything I've said or others have said.

If you want to close it out before we move on.

Yeah.

Yeah I'll just finish up with a comment.

Yeah we will definitely set up that meeting and discuss that as a as a possible item moving forward.

And then I'm going to follow up I actually also reached out to Director Hersey and especially hearing from some of the bilingual families and families of color specifically regarding some of these concerns.

One of the things I am going to suggest is and Ashley Davis and I are committed to is thinking about how to just meet with the Hawthorne families and the Kimball families if this passes to think about how to support them through that transition planning and supporting them as they transition and hearing from them directly what they would like to see in that.

But yes I I. Just want to let you know that those are things that we've already started communicating about next steps.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay so I am going to move us along then.

And the next introduction item is the right Sorry.

Approval of the Student Assignment Transition Plan for 2021-22.

This came through Ops on January 6th.

Again for approval this was a committee of the whole.

Dr. Pedroza back to you again.

Hi.

Yes I am just going to go back to my notes.

I am requesting that we move that we approve moving through from introduction out of the introduction into the action phase the board action report as outlined before.

And I move that I move that the school board approve the 21-22 attendance areas of Mercer Aki and Washington Middle School as outlined in Attachment A-1 and the grandfather assignments for currently enrolled students impacted by these changes.

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

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

And then continuing I further move to end that effective for the 2021-22 school year the board June 24th 2020 partial waiver of the board policy number 3130 Student Assignment and Enrollment that applies to new students in 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 2021 school year.

Okay.

Director DeWolf do you want to add anything to that formality of that second part of this.

I think the only thing I wanted to just ask Dr. Pedroza or even Director Davies If you could just share there are a couple of minor adjustments in this around Montessori and IB and can you just clarify some of those other additions too.

Yeah certainly.

So within the student assignment plan.

Can everybody that's not talking go on mute please.

Got a lot of background noise going on.

Thank you.

So I will just summarize the big the the changes that are included within the student assignment transition plan for the 21-22 school year.

And so the first of which is removal of the separate Montessori choice and contemporary programs at Daniel Bagley and replacing them with a single program for all Daniel Bagley students.

Again Daniel Bagley is our last Montessori school within the district.

Traditionally in the sense that we have a enrollment process where students if they are interested in Montessori would apply through our school choice process for a Montessori seat at Daniel Bagley.

And then at the school level there are separate classrooms for students in contemporary versus students in the Montessori classes.

And with this change we would be removing that enrollment process that would allow for students to apply separately for a Montessori seat.

And if families are interested in Daniel Bagley they would just apply to the school.

Again this came at work at the school level As the school had identified that this was creating segregated classrooms as well as different perceptions of students within those classrooms.

The school is continuing to work to identify their instructional model that will result.

They have a committee of staff and families as well as others who have been coming together to help to manage what the program planning will look like.

Help communicate this out to families.

And then also to work on student focus groups so that they could make sure that they're getting specific perspectives that they could incorporate for particularly their ELL students students of color and students first from educational justice.

The next piece is clarifying language about the International Baccalaureate Program.

And so I will just be really clear that there is no change at all to the program in our current student assignment transition plan.

We use the term IBX and we had got word from them that we are not able to use that term.

We've updated the language to say IB and include clarification that IB is at Ingram Chief Sealth and Rainier Beach.

The current transition plan had only listed that it was at Ingram but it is offered at those two additional schools.

Again no change at all in program offerings.

Just some clarifying and cleaning up of the language.

With a document of that size we look through it every year and do recognize that there are a few things that need to be cleaned up.

And then the last piece was updating the name change for South Lake High School to Alcea Yama High School.

And so in the appendix there is outline of our schools and listing of the names.

And so because there was that name change we do need to update that.

I'm going to throw it back really quickly to Chief Pedroza because she I thought I was missing a page but apparently she was just looking at the wrong document when she was introducing that.

So I'm going to let her do a quick introduction again.

Sorry I'm just laughing because I have to apologize so deeply.

That was my house that interrupted in chaos.

with my children coming out at the same time.

So I think all the parents online can commiserate and understand.

But yes and this I thank you Ashley for giving a very great detailed explanation.

And I just to remind everyone too these are things that we talked about at the student at the operations committee of the whole.

And so Ashley did talk about that the Montessori Daniel Bagley updates the definition of Native speaker for assignments at John Stanford.

and International School and Clarifies Language around the IB program.

And then that we are moving this as an introduction item to be considered moving to action at a later board meeting.

So I will pass it back to Ashley Davis and thank you for all of your understanding.

Thank you Chief Pedroza.

And Director Davies are you good with that response to Director DeWolf.

Can I throw it back to him and we can move on to other directors.

You can move on.

I'm good.

That was my only question.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

So then let me move on to Director Harris.

No questions comments at this time.

And Dr. Pedroza we have all been there and my dog is louder than all your kids.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

No questions or comments from me at this time.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

No I feel like we covered it pretty well in committee.

And also the only reason you don't hear my kids is because I'm hiding in my cold basement under a bunch of jackets to be on the meeting away from them.

So no worries Concie.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

I have a couple of questions.

I'm trying to decide which ones to start with the easy ones or the longer ones.

So the first one I guess is just clarification on because I know last year when we approved the name change for South Lake High School you know the BAR we're changing it to Allen T. Sugiyama High School at South Lake.

And this BAR is just calls it Sugiyama High School.

I'm wondering is that just informal or is the name actual name still the.

Allen T. Sugiyama High School at Southlake or has he at Southlake been dropped.

I I understood that that was important to be keeping in the name to the to the community to as I said respect the historical past.

Yeah.

So great question to clarify.

So the full name is still as is.

Our student assignment transition plan does not list full names.

So in line with the way names have been listed In that document we just included the language that I included there.

So if you look at all the schools that are in that appendix and I will reference again it's just an appendix that is a reference.

It's not a document that includes full names of any school.

In most cases it has the short version of the school name.

So we again just kept it in line and that's why we use that that term.

Okay no that's that's good to know.

I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't some dropping that shouldn't be dropping.

Second question is regarding so for Daniel Baglia I'm really I'm really excited about this change at the school has been growing at the school there and they're working on.

I I've I've met with the principal a few months back about this and she you know said how much the school is really supportive and looking forward to this change.

My only concern was how we saw at Leschi when they divided when they combined sorry combined They got rid of the Montessori separate program combined.

There was a lot of concern over the not being able to use the Montessori math curriculum.

I know this might not fall under your purview but I'm wondering I just want to make sure that the discussions are going on with their school to make sure that they don't fall they don't end up in the same sort of predicament because I know that when I talked to the principal she was very very much wanting to keep the math curriculum.

Anyway that's just a heads up.

I want to make sure that as a district we're engaging those conversations with them on what that could mean for their curriculum use.

So that's more of a comment not a question.

I also noticed that throughout this document we use ELL still and I understand we are now using just EL for English learners.

I'm wondering if those references should be updated.

Yeah officially the state actually uses EL terminology.

I believe we actually still continue to use ELL at Seattle Public Schools.

So why don't we I'll have Ashley and I will verify that with Director Michelle Oda just to make sure that we're in alignment and make sure that we're following our district language.

Okay yeah I thought our district was I guess I had that background thought we were using it maybe state was still ELL but okay yeah whatever is consistent I just wanted to ask that question and point that out.

And my last question is regarding I know that last year in Operations Committee when the 2020-21 Student Assignment Transition Plan was being approved there was seemingly supportive desire to explore raising the heritage set-aside to 30 percent at all the DLI schools.

So I'm wondering where that is.

If that's still being discussed because this is where it would be done I understand.

It'd hate to miss this opportunity to follow up on those those desires that were expressed a year ago.

Yeah I think one of the things that we're talking about we're talking about do first the first thing we decided to tackle in this student assignment plan the the the raising of the the percentage was done at the last year and then this year we're really focusing on the heritage language definition.

But I do believe we are going to be having a longer discussion about dual language in general.

In fact we just had a meeting today to talk about some of those things extra funding grants that we need.

And we're actually looking at a lot of dual-language implications throughout the whole district and thinking about long-term planning not just in terms of logistics pathways set-asides but additionally also instructional programming.

And so it's a longer discussion.

We've had it many times it's come up and I think we want to make sure that we do that really right.

So we are going to include that in all of those conversations about our recommendations for dual-language moving forward.

So I can address that because we've already been talking about it.

But I do believe that set-asides will have to come up again eventually and we have to continue that conversation.

But it hasn't been infused into this for this planning for the student assignment plan for this year.

Okay so so no I mean that's great to hear that the conversations are happening and I don't doubt that there's a lot of hard work going on there.

I know that it is a lot more than just the set-asides to discuss and to to refine in the program.

So thank you for that.

So just to clarify though that means that there will not be like will there or will there not likely to be an increase in the set-aside for the 21-22 school year.

And it will be the same as last year.

Okay.

So there won't so there will not be an increase okay for next year.

Yeah I just wanted to just get that as clear as we could just for everybody to be on the same page.

So thank you.

No further questions.

Okay.

And no questions for me Director Hampson.

So we have now come.

Thank you staff for supporting us in those very lengthy discussions about some critical items.

We now have come to the board comments section of the agenda.

And so I will start with Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

I just wanted to once again thank everybody for showing up tonight and being here for public comment.

I'll just reserve my comments for a few pieces of work that I'm working on with our students.

One of those is our climate resolution which we're introducing tomorrow at committee and so if folks would like to listen in and learn more about our 100 percent clean energy climate resolution which is a collaboration between myself and Directors Rivera-Smith please tune into the operations committee tomorrow.

And let us know your thoughts about it.

We're really excited about moving the district forward particularly as we are all battling many certain many many big crises and one of the biggest existential crises is our is our climate emergency.

The other one I'm really excited to be working on with Director Hersey is bringing a student representative student representatives on the board in an advisory advisory role but we'll be bringing that forward in a couple of weeks as well.

And so please just if you have any questions you want to get involved please be in touch with Director Director Rivera-Smith or myself we'd be happy to get you plugged in and we're really excited to bring those forward.

Other than that great to be back.

And please make sure to wear your masks.

Wash your hands.

Stay socially distanced.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

Director Harris.

Yeah pretty quickly I've got three topics that I wanted to touch upon.

One I am gutted that we lost Director Mack on the board.

We will miss her.

We will miss her intellect.

We will miss her work ethic.

And with respect to her successor because I don't believe people can be replaced I'm hoping that folks think long and hard about how to find candidates that understand the significant time and frankly stress that service on the Seattle School Board takes.

Personally I think it's worth it but there are days I wonder.

And we'll be getting back out to folks as far as that process goes for the appointment.

And second issue is As is well known the superintendent did not extend her contract and her last day is June 30th 2021 less than six months away.

And the concept of finding and hiring a new superintendent is a very very heavy lift and a deep dive.

And I frankly believe that we need more staff for the board to assist us.

And I know that we have been talking and listening to a number of community folks about whether an interim superintendent makes sense because the hiring season if you will for the national superintendent searches has already passed us by.

And frankly we need to hear the community comments about that.

Do we.

Do we go for an interim superintendent.

Do we go for a placeholder.

Do we go for someone that will not ask to be a permanent superintendent.

Do we ask for someone that has experience within the staff of the John Stanford Center or do we go to you know somebody like a Ron Sims or Constance Rice.

or any number of folks who might be able to assist us in that year's transition or that 18-month transition.

But these are really big issues and I certainly would love to hear from community to be able to understand what the community is thinking.

Third issue is I intend to bring a a resolution soon and I'm putting the final touches on it and we'll circulate that to my colleagues for the insistence on school communities being consulted with on principal appointments.

I appreciate this is a controversial issue.

I appreciate that there are pros and cons with it.

But what we've been doing for the last at least 15 years that I'm aware of some communities get input.

Other communities get principals assigned to them with zero input whatsoever.

And I would remind folks that at Rainier Beach High School when Dwayne Chappelle was appointed the principal The communities are he was not the first choice.

The community fought like heck to get him appointed.

And and that's what good community engagement can do for you.

And as we all know he is serving with distinction as the Director of the Department of Early Learning and Education for the City of Seattle.

And it shouldn't matter what school you have as to whether or not you have a voice in the appointment of principals.

And this is not just a Denise Juneau issue.

This goes back many many superintendents.

It's inconsistent in its application.

And while we're talking about community engagement let's put our mouth let's let's put our policies where our mouths are.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you Director Hersey.

You're up.

Thank you.

I really just want to say thank you to all of the various community members that I have been chatting with especially around this boundary issue for the past several for the past several weeks.

And what I will say is that I am I am gravely concerned that the notion of The quality of many of our schools is founded in some extreme tenets of anti-Blackness.

The fact that Washington Middle School for for all that has happened at that school is led by a Black woman.

The fact that our middle school in Aki Kurose also high populations of African-American students teachers and administrators.

I worry very severely that if we do not again as I have stated do all that we can to support all of these schools in being places where all of our community is excited to go that we diminish the work of so many of our teachers and our administrators who identify and are in the same communities that we are trying to uplift per our strategic plan.

And I just want to highlight that for all of the administrators on this call because this goes in direct conflict with our strategic plan if we are fostering and creating situations to where our communities are inadvertently put against one another in in those outcomes yield anti-Black rhetoric that does not serve our students or our staff well at all.

And we just need to call it plain on its face for what it is.

And it is a a history and a legacy that supersedes all of us.

But we are the ones in these seats right now and we need to take accountability for making sure that we are doing all that we can to dismantle not only the system but the rhetoric that has become so common around the decisions that we make.

And that is all that I will say about that piece.

I am interested as I mentioned in bringing forth an amendment to this policy that that entertains the idea of incorporating siblings and making sure that we are doing all that we can to keep families together.

I will also just highlight that I am incredibly excited to start up our bi-weekly now District 7 meetings for the last feels like almost 4 months ever since before school started District 7 PTAs and families and community members have been meeting together on a weekly basis to discuss and do real-time problem solving.

We are now moving those meetings to twice a month.

So if you are active in one of your PTAs in the South End please do not hesitate to reach out to me or O'Hara Menez and let's get you plugged in so that we can continue to build that community around you and your children.

What I will also just want to bring us back to is as we have so many pressing decisions on our plates as we need to find a successor for our colleague Director Mack as we are beginning you know what could likely be a search for an interim superintendent or a permanent superintendent whatever the case may be.

As we continue to try to get to a decision of what the rest of the school year is going to look like and not only that but what is next year going to look like we need to make sure that we are centering children and we need to continue to make sure that we are putting the desires and expectations of not only our children but our Black children at the forefront of our minds in these decision-making opportunities.

Because if we don't then we are we are literally spitting in the face of our strategic plan.

And we this is our moment.

This is our time to as all of these changes are happening as new leadership comes in not only from the top end of our system but through all parts of our system.

I just really want to encourage my colleagues and again I'm not speaking solely to the board I'm speaking to all of the leadership on this call.

Let's let's take this as an opportunity to to recommit ourselves to this idea of targeted universalism and how we approach every one of our decisions and who are we trying to center in ensuring that we are not making decisions based on whatever situation might be but rather we are actually doing everything in our power to center and focus on the communities who we've identified in our strategic plan.

Because if we don't then then it's just lip service and in our community we'll have nothing nothing to to put toward our relationship in terms of trust.

So I'll leave it at that as always.

If you need me you know where to find me.

And I look forward to continuing to engage with the District 7 community next Tuesday January the 19th.

Thanks.

I want to respond to some of the

comments that we heard particularly our student guests.

Thank you so much.

I'm always so impressed with our students when they come and think back to myself when I was 17 and think like my gosh there's no way I would have sat there and said with the wisdom and eloquence of our students.

And I don't now the way that our student guests do from the dais.

So thank you so much for for your words.

I also wanted to respond specifically to the the no penalty for late work at Ballard High School and to say that that to my understanding that is the direction that has been given in the current grading for the year is that there should not be penalty for late work across the district.

In terms of the stress that students are feeling and and falling behind and you know what to do about students who are not not engaged and not connected.

It is my great hope that should we be able to return the groups of students that we are planning for for March 1st that the the next planning and I just I say this as this is this is what my personal hope is is that our next conversation can be about small small cohorts or study groups for older students secondary students in particular who are having the most challenges engaging and completing work I would really like to see us be able to provide not necessarily a shift to in-person instruction but provide some in-person support for students as they engage in distance learning.

But to provide some more support around around those students at our schools to.

make it less challenging for them to connect and engage in whatever challenges they're having.

To to that I wanted to just kind of make some general comments about emails that we're getting and and the sense that people are having and it relates a little bit to what Director Hersey was saying about equality versus equity.

I so there is struggle and challenge and trauma of various levels for everybody right now.

This is it's literally a global pandemic.

And it's also a you know we're in the midst of also a historic reckoning reckoning with racism and the impacts of that on on our students and families and society.

And then we've got also a governmental crisis.

at the federal level.

And I I've struggled with how to respond trying to find the balance between compassion and really direct direct straight talk and I'm going to try not to swear.

But I one of the analogies that I would just ask people to kind of keep in mind is that You know I've heard people say oh well everyone's in the same boat.

And it's not true.

We're not all in the same boat.

We're in the same storm.

We're all in different boats.

And I and I would like it if we could all move forward with the acknowledgement that although it may feel stormy you may be in a pretty comfortable boat.

And if you are in a pretty comfortable boat that may be That may be the best that can that can be at this point because we do not have there's no way for a school district or a teacher or an administrator to mitigate the impact of a global pandemic on an individual student or family.

And I don't say that to say that it's not our obligation to to try and that we don't have compassion for it.

But I just kind of want to put out that reminder that this is a unprecedented unprecedented circumstance and situation that we're in and that as a board we're in it as well.

You know we I think about half of us have children school-aged children in Seattle Public Schools right now.

We have a teacher.

We have you know people trying to hold down full-time jobs.

And it's it's we're not immune from it either.

It's it's going to impact everybody and and and it stinks.

And I guess it's I'm starting to think of this all as triage triage in wartime that everybody's everybody's affected but the only thing really that we can do is make the next best decision with the information that we have.

And so I say that because we're getting Messaging you know pretty much in equal measures of demanding that students return in person and demanding that we close schools and everybody stay remote.

There are not easy good choices.

There's lots of different options that are you know okay to too terrible.

And so the best that we're going to do is secure the boats and make it through the storm.

as a whole district and that that is going to mean that for a lot of we we will not get close to an experience of what we would be having if there wasn't a pandemic because there is a pandemic.

I'm totally rambling.

I'm super exhausted.

I don't know about you guys but I can't sleep.

I just like don't sleep anymore.

So I'll just I'll just end it to say I hear your frustrations families out there.

Share them.

And I know that there's so much fear and uncertainty and trying to find that balance between having compassion and literally drowning in that and also being tasked with having to make really tough decisions.

So hang in there and wear your mask and wash your hands.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Yeah.

Good evening.

I will just start off with the basics.

I have a community meeting coming up this Sunday.

It's online of course.

It is Sunday January 17th from 1 to 230 on Zoom.

You register.

It'll be up on our I hope it'll be up on our school website and calendar soon but right now I think it might only be posted on my director Facebook page.

So I'm sorry that that wasn't announced earlier.

It's been busy but hopefully if anybody wants to come out on next Sunday to talk and ask questions and share things with me I would love for you to join.

As Director DeWolf mentioned we're very excited about our Clean Energy Resolution that has been about a year long labor of love for us and It's coming to operations committee tomorrow so excited to see this move forward and we will start to start the process and hopefully move forward.

It's been it's been very community driven and we're very proud of the work that many stakeholders have taken in it so that we'll hear more on that soon.

I just want to take a few minutes here to just share some thoughts on Director Eden Mack's resignation because when she resigned last week Reports were that Seattle Public Schools has lost a long-standing advocate for public education and the students of Seattle and community community members have lamented how sad they are to lose this champion for students and lose someone who quote has encyclopedic knowledge and a compassionate ability to analyze and develop solutions for our schools.

But they are they're wrong.

The reports of our loss have been greatly exaggerated because Director Mack is not going gently into that good night.

It's true that when she ran for school board she you know winning by one of the widest margins in recent memory.

She she did so because she believed that that school board was the best vehicle by which she could improve a district that was suffering as it always seems to be from underfunding racial inequities overcrowded schools and classrooms and systemic failings that have kept us from really ensuring the safety of our students and our staff.

And she was uniquely qualified to make those differences that she sought to make.

She had a vast she has a master's in public administration.

She's served as a legislative chair for the Seattle Council PTSA and she came in and hit the ground running.

She was relentless in improving enrollment projections and the resulting budgeted budget variability on our schools.

She was she was chair of the operations committee each of her three years on the board and she was assigned there because she understood the importance of high quality operations whether in transportation student assignment nutrition or safety and security.

She held our district to high standards of operational excellence and in exchange one of Eden's greatest impacts was in her thoughtful preparation and community outreach that led to the ultimate passing of the BEX V levy.

And she also worked as a bridge between SPS and the state by serving on the Washington State School Directors Associations Legislative Committee representing South Public Schools in important conversations.

And in that role no one could see better than her how being a school board director is not the vehicle by which many necessary changes could be made.

So much of what ties our hands is decided at the state level and a seat on the school board dais was not where she could do the most good that she is still determined to do.

So yes while we've lost Eden as a board member we have not lost Eden as an advocate or a champion or a changemaker and I'm feeling we'll be hearing a lot more about her and the good work that she has yet to do.

Because many of the people and reports have come out are right about a lot of things.

That she is honorable.

She is brilliant.

She's beautiful with her words.

She is a shining knight.

These are all quotes.

And in the famous words of the stranger she is the wonkiest education walk wonk that ever wonked.

So just wanted to share those thoughts with everybody.

Thank you for the time and everybody have a good night.

Okay thank you.

I'm going to close this out with just a couple of comments.

I wanted to make a clear statement for our families at Catherine Blaine that I am thinking about you and I send you my deepest and most heartfelt apologies for what you're experiencing right now and hope that we'll learn more and be able to talk more publicly about that because it's it's It's something that we're going to have to address and we need to talk about.

In-person learning.

I do want to you know I think my message right now would be to to families that that are really having a hard time questioning.

I mean they're they're questioning where we are and that you know we're not currently in buildings.

You know the thousand person strong Facebook group.

I would really ask you to have some heartfelt conversations with.

staff with teaching staff with your principals and try to get a better understanding of the sense of insecurity and just fear that comes with the prospect of returning to in-buildings.

And you know we have a vaccine that is that is on the horizon but doesn't seem to be being prioritized for teachers.

There's been a lot of communication that's come out from the Washington Education Association.

A lot of messaging from the governor that's not necessarily supported with with the kind of fiscal support that we need.

And I think it's really important even as we may believe that that we desperately need to get our especially you know our younger kids back into school that there are human beings that are that are responsible for providing that education to them.

that are also having an experience that that is really relevant to all of this.

And we need to be looking at this collectively and not as two divided entities.

And so to the extent that that we are pushing towards this you know families versus teachers is a space that I really encourage families to to push against and to talk to teaching staff.

I had a great conversation with three teachers this week not about bargaining but about the the Governor's proclamation about where we are as a district.

You know we have some we have some issues historically with trust amongst our our teaching unions and our and our district senior or senior district staff central office staff.

the board amongst all of those entities.

And we came into this pandemic with a lot of that that baggage.

And I do believe I'm really grateful to the folks at SEA and at PASS and other labor unions that have been working so hard and shown willingness to collaborate.

But we're we're not you know we're not there yet.

And and so I'm hopeful with whatever comes out of those discussions.

that it'll be something that we can come together around.

Things are it's a very fluid situation.

We are things are changing by the minute by the week.

And I want to make sure that we we we take those changes you know kind of hand-in-hand as a community and that as other directors have said that we really do maintain our racial equity focus as we're doing that.

Because we're not hearing the same messaging from teachers of color as we hear from White teachers.

We're not hearing the same things from families of color as we hear from from White families.

And we have to take all of that into consideration as as board directors as policymakers who have the the the job of setting the direction for how we move forward.

And so so that's kind of my message around that.

I do support the concept of an interim superintendent so that we can move very deeply into community engagement over a longer period of time with respect to hiring a superintendent replacement.

And so that that's my my perspective on that and I and I hope that we'll be able to get some more information about that process to folks soon.

And and that in the next day or so we're going to have some information to you about the process by which we'll be looking to do the appointment process for the for District 4 for the for Director Mack's the the position that she vacated.

And then we also have some pretty big budget decisions coming down down the pike and some major need for advocacy.

I know I hope that we'll from our legislative chair and team at SPS have some some language that we can send out to communities.

about how we need you to advocate at the governor level and with our legislative session coming up.

We've got some really tenuous fiscal issues that we're going to be dealing with and we need some serious understanding about what we're going to need financially if we're going to be able to work this summer with our families and if we're going to be able to be effective in the fall in whatever model we're going to come back into.

And I'm available as always.

My phone number is my personal number.

It's available on the on the school board website and I'm available to talk anytime.

And as there is no further business on the agenda the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 731 p.m.

Thank you so much to staff for your support in putting this meeting on and for all your presentations.

Take care everyone.

Wear your mask.