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Afternoon we will call the meeting to order momentarily and SPS TV will begin broadcasting Good afternoon everyone the February 11th 2026 the regular board meeting is called to order at 4 31 p.m.

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

For the Miss Worth will you roll call please.

Vice President Briggs?

Here.

Director Lavallee?

Here.

Director Mizrahi?

Present.

Director Rankin?

Here.

Director Smith?

Here.

Director Song?

Here.

Director Yoon?

Here.

And President Top?

Here.

Wonderful.

Well, I first want to welcome Superintendent Schuldner to his first regular board meeting.

These firsts will stop at some point, I'm sure.

But in your first 10 days, you have led, I think, with vision and compassion as our community has experienced tragic loss of students and a beloved leader.

board directors have had the opportunity to join you on some of your school visits and I think the focus on academics has really been moving to many of us I also appreciate how you've handled the operational challenges with a Seahawks win in a parade today it was pretty awesome to see that in action as well so I will turn it over to you for your comments

All right, good afternoon.

Thank you so much for those really warm comments.

I want to thank the board.

I want to thank the amazing educators and staff of Seattle.

And of course, I want to thank the wonderful community of Seattle for welcoming me.

Of course, because this is our first formal board meeting, I want to just, again, express my not only condolences, but my heartbreak around losing two students.

All of our children matter.

All of our children are our children.

And the tragic events of two Fridays ago I think will live with us forever.

It will weigh heavy on us.

But I just, again, as I wrote to the community, hope that out of these tragedies we can move forward and do right by our children and our entire community.

So I really appreciate the outpouring of support for not just the Rainier Beach community, high school community, but the entire area around the school and I just want to say thank you and again a big shout out to the school students the dozens of students I was able to meet with and really hear from, so thank you for that.

You know, what can I say?

Seattle's a pretty amazing city.

I have been just so thrilled with what I've seen, the people that I've worked with, and it's day 11 on the job, and I've been able to visit over 20 schools, talk to numerous teachers, assistants and principals and parents and students and what I can really say is, you know, like the old Mark Twain quote of the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

I think the rumors of Seattle Public Schools not being amazing have been greatly exaggerated.

What I've seen is teachers who are teaching curriculum to fidelity, kids that are learning with rigor and fun.

Some of our board members were able to witness a class where kids were making their own pinball machines in younger grade, it might have been a first grade class or kindergarten class, where they were learning force.

How great is that, right?

They're learning force through hands-on learning and science.

Those are the kinds of things that we want.

And the things that I've seen in some of these schools, it's amazing.

I mean, I was at a school that has like a unicycle club.

I mean, it's amazing, right?

And so I just want to say to everybody out there, the Seattle Public Schools are great.

And we can be better.

we can be better and I think that my focus over the next however long this wonderful board would like to employ me for is going to be being part of the community, listening to the community, wanting to really interact with families and kids and staff and then always putting student learning, student safety, student support front and center and I think we've got a great a great basis to do that and just know that there are definitely places we need to work on.

Like I said in my first letter to the community, I'm always going to try to be present.

I'm always going to try to work hard.

I'm always going to try to work with everybody.

I'm going to disappoint you, because we're going to have to make some really hard decisions.

Hopefully I won't have to say this for too much longer, but there is a reality of being $87 million in the hole, $100 million in the hole, however you want to count it, because there's different ways of looking at it, is we have to really get our financial house in order.

and of course we need to make sure that we have our academic house in order but I just want to say thank you to this wonderful board you have been so present in the community with me be it in schools be it in community meetings and I want to thank really everybody here and I don't know I would do this in my old job, but I want to give a big shout out to the president of SCA.

He's in the audience.

Thank you, Gerard, for all you do.

I think there's really an important thing where, to call myself management, I guess I'm the guy in the suit, You know, the idea that we can all work together for the betterment of children is really terrific and I just also want to thank, I mean, I promise I won't do this every meeting, but I want to thank our incredible staff to my right, many of your lefts.

Every one of these people at this table have worked incredibly hard over the course of their careers, but certainly I can vouch for them for the last 11 days.

Thank you all of you for what you've done, and if there's ever a good indication that we can take care of stuff, There was a very large parade today.

Hundreds of thousands of people went to the streets of Seattle, and I visited a bunch of schools today, and it was great.

Our adults showed up, our kids showed up, and that's what we do.

Did some families take their kids to march?

Absolutely.

To go watch the wonderful Seattle Seahawks, your world champions.

I'm a Jets fan, so we'll see.

It was awesome, but you know what we always do?

We put our 50,000 kids front and center.

And our 50,000 kids, they deserve to have school.

Our families deserve to have their kids in school.

And so I'm just really proud of the work of all of our employees to be there, to show up, be there for kids, and the many, many tens of thousands of kids that came to school today.

So with that, I just want to thank everybody for their time.

I'm sure we will engage in all sorts of things, but President Topp, thank you for the opportunity to talk.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And now our student board members, and maybe by next week we'll call them student representatives or next meeting, but Director Yoon.

Thank you.

Just also adding on on what super intended children said about the school visits.

I actually had the opportunity to assist him and assist the school staff with his tour last Thursday at Ballard High School.

I just really want to appreciate his time coming into school buildings, all the school buildings.

It means a lot to teachers and students.

I actually had a lot of my friends and people I don't even know come up to me saying, wow, that was really cool.

And also teachers.

really appreciating the time, and I really just feel like it sets a positive tone for collaboration and transparency going forward, so I just really want to thank you for that.

And also, you met with students journalists, I think it was last week, a couple weeks ago, for a press conference, and the Ballard High School Talisman newspaper, which I'm a part of, was there, and I was listening during that press conference.

It was like over an hour long.

and as a student journalist that just means a lot when someone with that much authority wants to speak with students and is willing to give an hour of their day so really appreciate your time with that as well.

We also had our board retreat this past Saturday and I just want to touch on the strategic plan.

We had an update on that, so I'm really glad staff was able to give us an update on that process because we have been asking about an update for that.

And other than that, on the student board member's side, we've been working diligently to finish our quarterly letter, which will hopefully be sent out before the end of March.

We've been working with the comps team on that to make sure translation services are available because that's a big barrier for a lot of students.

and we've also continued to meet with the school meals and food education working group after the Farm to School celebration last October and we've been continuing our conversations on bringing in students into the conversation about school nutrition and how we could also give space to other students to talk about their school meals.

Thank you, Director Yoon.

Okay, we're going to move into board committee and liaison reports.

So just so board directors and everyone is tracking, tonight marks the sixth board meeting in five weeks.

So I just want to thank directors for their time and dedication to the district.

You have shown up to support schools, our community, In addition to your official duties, and I want to recognize the work that happens off the dais, we've had opportunities to join Superintendent Schuldner on his school tours.

We had a very productive board retreat on Saturday where we discussed how we want to work together in this coming year and what work is ahead.

Tonight we'll have a chance to vote on one of those shifts and how we work together through policy 1240. Directors also at the retreat volunteer to be working on establishing our board goals and the superintendent evaluation tool, which will be coming, both will be coming back for full board approval.

So with that, do our board liaisons have any reports for the board?

Director Mizrahi.

Oh, sorry, one more thing.

We have a lot to do tonight, and we have to end at 9, so we're going to speed through some things just so folks are aware.

Director Mizrahi.

Yeah, so I'm the FEP liaison, so I can give a little update on what's happening with the conversations around the FEP levy.

Just to give a primer for people, the conversations right now that we're engaged in are really around the K-12 dollars and how those are allocated in this levy that we're now at the beginning of a new six-year cycle for.

And I think that there is broad acknowledgement from the district, from everyone in decision-making authority around this, that we do want to think about how those K-12 dollars get spent in a more cohesive way for this next round of levy dollars, where you have a very simple approach to what happens with the pre-K, somewhat simple approach to what happens with the Seattle Promise, and the K-12 is a big nebulous funding Anyway, the problem is that the timeline around government, the timeline of school funding is just different, right?

So we have to figure out what happens in the immediate term and there are about a hundred or so positions that are funded through the VEP levy in our schools and There's a big question about what will happen to those for the following school year so a lot of our conversations have been around a Transition year where funding will remain the same for those positions While other conversations happen around what the long-term plan is for year two through six of that levy I think we've had really positive conversations with City Council really positive conversations with the mayor's office and deal and I think everyone is on the same page, understanding the urgency and importance of the issue.

The timeline for the decisions to be made about school budgets and the timeline for government decisions, even in the best case scenario, are not going to align.

I think we are getting to a shared understanding of what needs to happen to make sure that those positions are secure for the next year.

Director Rankin.

Yeah, just briefly, as the Council of Great City Schools rep, there's a monthly call with other board directors from urban school districts around the country where we talk about mostly things that are happening federally that impact all of us.

So, of course, again, this past week, immigration was a hot topic.

we did some sharing with each other of policies that we have in different states and also talked about there are some states where states governors or legislators have actually taken steps to officially partner with ICE and Homeland Security and so that is they're in a very different context than we are here in Washington but the ability to just connect and support each other and share policy and strategy is really great.

So that will be, I'm sure, continuing discussion and I will bring back anything that may help us here.

I'm going to be going to the policy and legislative conference as our Council of Great City Schools Rep in March.

And that is where we get legal briefings and meetings with federal officials and departments, legal briefings on federal cases that could impact us or that are ongoing.

But also, the WASDA executive director and 12 board members went as part of the WASDA Federal Relations Network, which any WASDA member can be a member of by saying, I would like to be a member of the Federal Relations Network.

They went and met with 10 of our state representatives and both Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell.

They also visited with the Department of Ed, the Department of Agriculture and the FCC.

And so before I go in March, I will ask them if there's anything that on behalf of Washington State, I can touch back with some of those offices on while I'm there because I will set up congressional meetings.

And so just, I guess, FYI, the other thing at the federal level is that the appropriations, some appropriations bills to fund fiscal year 2026 were passed that generally provide flat federal funding.

So it's not great because it's flat, but costs and expenses keep going up.

but it's not the cuts or block grants that had been proposed by the House that would significantly impact money that goes from the federal level to K-12.

So kind of not like great news, but like level funding is much, much better than a cut.

So for the rest of the fiscal year, IDEA, Title I and II, impact aid, federal school nutrition funding, E-rate, CTE, these kinds of things at the federal level will maintain.

So I guess that is good news.

Thank you, Director Rankin.

Director Song.

Yes, I have a legislative update.

We are now halfway through this session.

We have 29 days left, and we have passed two important milestones.

February 4th was the policy committee cutoff.

That was the last day to move policy bills out of committee in their house of origin.

And February 9th was the fiscal committee cutoff.

That's the last day for bills to advance out of the House fiscal committees and the Senate Ways and Means and Transportation committees.

So the strategy going forward is just to be extremely disciplined, weighing in on the small number of bills where the impact is greatest.

We've got a punch list of five items and I'll kind of run through them on where we are right now.

The first one is Substitutes Benefits Eligibility Expansion, that's HB 2160 and SB 5883. This would expand the benefit for substitutes.

The main concern is that this is an unfunded mandate, and so if you recall from last week's budget presentation, substitutes are one of the largest sources of deficit spending for our district, and that's really due to the underfunding by the state, so we don't want to make that a bigger hole.

The second item is the sales tax.

So HB 2257 passed out of the House Finance Committee with an amendment exempting K through 12 from a sales tax exemption that was adopted last session.

So now it's in rules and it needs to be pulled to the floor by February 17th to continue moving.

Otherwise, districts like ours would be paying taxes on services like IT, special education staffing, and maintenance.

And I think the estimate for our district is about $7 million.

MSOCs, material supplies operating costs, that's stalled in committee.

Transportation, Senator Wellman had sponsored a bill 5858, which is a safety net, transportation safety net bill that has also stalled but it's my understanding that could reappear later as a budget proviso.

And finally, SB 6260, HB 2676, this is called the efficiencies bill.

I think the thing to flag about it is that They want to retain a portion of funding for the high school and beyond plan for OSPI to administer, which would unfortunately essentially reverse the increase in funding in MSOC for 9 through 12 that was passed in the previous session.

So these are the five items that we are tracking.

Any questions?

Actually, yes.

Sorry, just clarification on the very last thing.

It's essentially a supplantation.

So we received an increase last year in MSOC, and they're not adding that to high school and beyond.

They're now saying that funding is now for high school and beyond.

So it goes away from MSOC.

You have to hold back.

I think it's 1.9%.

Got it.

Thanks.

Other liaison reports.

we are efficient.

So that means, because public testimony is supposed to start at 5 p.m., we will take a recess till 5 p.m.

and be back here at 5 p.m.

President, may I make one comment?

Yes.

I also want to give a shout out to 302. I didn't know that the union was here.

I think you're behind.

We haven't met yet, so I just want to say I can't wait.

So thank you very much.

But I look forward to it.

Thank you.

Alright, so now we have nine minutes.

We really will start at five with public testimony.

I said we were gonna keep it tight tonight.

We're gonna come back together here.

and we have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda.

I'm gonna read my little spiel.

Board policy 1400 provides our rules for testimony.

The board expects the same standard of civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects of itself.

As board president, I have the right to, and I will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standard of civility required by our procedure.

A speaker who refuses or fails to comply with these guidelines, or who otherwise substantially disrupts the orderly operation of this meeting, may be asked to leave the meeting.

I'm going to pass it off to staff to summarize a few additional points, but before I do, I just want to remind folks we're going to try to really keep to that two minute mark today because we have a lot to cover.

So two minutes, think about your remarks.

If you think I might be over, I might be going towards the three minutes, figure out how you can condense a little bit.

So now pass it over to staff to summarize a few additional points and read off the testimony of speakers.

Thank you, President Hopp.

The Board will take testimony from those on the testimony list and will go to the waiting list if we are missing speakers.

Please wait until called to approach the podium or unmute and only one person may speak at a time.

The Board's procedure provides that most of your time should be spent on the topic you signed up to speak to.

Speakers may cede their time to another person, but this must be done when the listed speaker is called.

Time isn't restarted and the total time remains two minutes.

The timer at the podium will indicate the time remaining for speakers here in person.

When the light is red and a beep sounds, it means that your time has been exhausted and the next speaker will be called.

For those joining by phone, the beep will be the indication that time has been exhausted.

Moving into our list now, for those joining by phone, please press star six to unmute on the conference line.

And for everyone, please do reintroduce yourself when called, as I may miss some pronunciations as we move through today's list.

The first speaker is Kara Uhl.

Hi everyone.

My name is Kara Yule and I'm the parent of a first grader at Emerson Elementary School in Rainier Beach.

My child recently qualified for highly capable services.

I'm here today to support the addition of a highly capable cohort at Rainier View Elementary School.

Under the current structure, my son's only cohort option would require a long bus ride and remove him from the community that he knows and loves.

He has told me that his primary worry in potentially switching schools is actually about leaving his after-school program at the Rainier Beach Community Center.

He loves being there with his pals who come from multiple schools.

As a family, we want to continue investing in that particular neighborhood, not be pushed further north for appropriate academic services.

An option at Rainier View would allow our son to stay rooted in his community while receiving the challenges he needs to thrive.

This matters for our family, but it also matters for equity across the district.

I've heard concerns about long commutes to Rainier View from other parts of South Seattle.

But students in the furthest parts of South Seattle already have limited nearby options and their long bus rides are often treated as inevitable.

Now more than ever, Rainier Beach deserves prioritized investment in high quality schools and programs.

The tragic gun violence two weeks ago just steps outside the door of my son's after school program.

underscores this urgency.

This decision really matters.

Safety and educational equity are deeply intertwined.

I know this matters to so many of us in the room.

Opening a highly capable cohort at Rainier View would expand access, promote belonging, and signal that SPS is committed to serving students in every part of our district.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Amelia Showalter.

Hi, my name is Amelia Showalter, and I am the parent of an almost five-year-old kid named Jude who will be starting kindergarten in September.

We live in West Seattle in the Lafayette Elementary District, and we are planning to send Jude there.

But after talking to other parents in West Seattle about their experiences, I know that if Jude tests into HICAP in a couple of years, we're going to be in a quandary.

We really don't love the idea of a long bus ride or car commute to a cohort school that's far from our home, far from Jude's friends, far from just like our neighborhood.

But it also seems clear from talking to other parents that the high cap services within the neighborhood schools aren't always meeting certain kids' needs.

and as someone who got a lot out of high cap services when I was a kid in Olympia Public Schools, it matters to me a lot that kids have good options.

So I was beyond thrilled to see that Alki Elementary might become a cohort school.

If Jude does test into high cap and Alki is an option, it won't feel like a quandary at all.

That would be a really easy switch for us geographically.

We would still feel like we were part of the local community and it would feel like West Seattle was finally getting access to services that folks in some other parts of the city already have nearby.

So I hope you will move forward with that plan.

I think having a cohort school at Alki will make a lot of West Seattle parents so much more confident about choosing Seattle Public Schools, knowing that there will be good options for their kids no matter what their kids' paths end up being.

And it sounds like South Seattle parents feel the same.

So I strongly urge you to vote in favor of both Rainier View and Alki becoming cohort schools.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Maritas Santiago.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity to share my perspective on bringing more equity to the highly capable program and how students are still being left behind.

K-12 students in Seattle test much higher than the national norms, so we should give more accelerated learning opportunities to a larger percentage of Seattle students.

Instead, we've gone backwards by removing the advanced learning tier.

We need more highly capable services for students in every neighborhood school.

We need a standardized framework and tangible resources for already overburdened teachers.

We are ready to support them for what they need, but there doesn't seem to be a specific guideline that they are all able to follow.

The complicated eligibility criteria is a significant barrier in addition, causing extra burden on teachers and parents.

and finally the screening process needs to account for wider variables such as students below the criteria by one percentile of one test score or students who were left out of the single domain eligibility announced in accordance with state law which is now amplified by confusion caused by changing the eligibility criteria to require calculating standard deviations of RIT scores.

These students must now depend on a parent to submit a complicated appeal which could then be denied.

Think about which parents are less likely to be aware, able or available to spend the significant amount of time and effort needed to write a successful appeal.

For families unable or uninterested in commuting to a cohort school, the highly capable designation is just an unfulfilled promise without effective neighborhood services.

While I realize that our school district and country are facing much larger challenges, this issue is one that I believe the people in this room have the power to solve today.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Nina Spasikova.

Thank you.

My name is Nina Spasikova and I'm a parent of a first grader at Rainier View Elementary who has been identified as eligible for highly capable services.

I'm here to respectfully ask the board to approve the interview as a highly capable cohort pathway.

According to the board materials from last month, the highly capable identification rate in southeast and southwest is below 9%, compared to 24.1 in the northwest and 14.8 district-wide.

Put simply, students in the Northwest are identified nearly three times the rate of students in the Southeast.

Differences this large are unlikely to be random.

They point to structural factors leaving Southeast and Southwest families to carry a disproportionate share of the burden.

geography influences opportunity.

Some may argue that the Rainier view sits at the southern end of the region, but being located within the actual region, even at its boundary, it's fundamentally different than being outside.

It provides equitable regional distribution.

Approving Rainier View reduces structural barriers, align services with the communities they serve, and ensures that Southeast students are not at the geographical disadvantage in accessing advanced learning opportunities.

I respectfully urge you to support this proposal.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Manuel Eslay.

Manuela, I can see you're unmuted.

Manuela, press star six to unmute.

The words are showing up on the transcript over there.

No, she's in here.

I can see she's unmuted.

Manuela, we're going to move on.

We'll come back to you.

The next speaker is Michelle Campbell.

Oh, I see.

I know what you were saying.

Hello?

One second.

We are having technical difficulties.

I don't know why it's not coming through the computer.

We will come back to you, Michelle.

The next speaker is Cinta Cordova.

So, hang on just a second.

Can we just make sure that we have someone from IT helping?

Yes, I will.

I will contact IT.

We have a speaker issue for anyone who's testifying online, and I want to make sure we are able to hear from them.

Sorry, please go ahead.

I did not mean to interrupt you.

No, it's okay.

Esteemed school board members, distinguished guests, visitors, and fellow students, good evening.

My name is Senator Cordova.

I stand before you today as a member of the Washington NAACP Youth Council and a student advocate representing the ethnically diverse student body of Seattle Public Schools.

I am here to advocate for the mandatory implementation of ethnic studies from kindergarten through 12th grade, something vital to the future of our students and our community.

The absence isn't just an oversight, it is a disservice.

There is a general feeling among students that the educational system is flawed, out of touch, indifferent, and culturally biased.

It doesn't require mending, it needs to be overhauled, shifting mindsets and attitude.

Currently, white student enrollment is around 44.4%, while students of color make up about 60% of the SPS population.

These numbers don't lie.

More than half of all SPS students come from ethnically diverse backgrounds, yet SPS staff, teachers and administration, class offerings, curriculum content, and the basic school infrastructure do not reflect the actual demographics of the student body.

SPS leadership continues to prioritize the political and sensational issues of the few.

Meanwhile, the needs of substantially larger student groups are being ignored.

Where are the specific initiatives to support students of color and where are the inclusive spaces for minority students to gather and engage?

The current reliance on affinity groups feels inadequate and is not enough to foster true inclusion.

This neglect contributes to a climate where bullying can take root.

I've witnessed firsthand how faculty and staff can enable harmful behaviors, perpetuating a cycle of ignorance.

It's alarming how students have sought my support because they felt they couldn't turn to an adult.

We're left to navigate complex issues without the necessary tools, feeling unsupported by the very institution that should be guiding us.

In the classroom, the widest gap between white students and students of color is most evident.

Imagine being left out of the discussion having no input.

The omission of non-white achievements and contributions is disheartening and insidious, negatively affecting both minority and white students.

A lack of exposure to diverse perspectives can result in minority students being misled about their cultural value, while white students develop a false sense of superiority.

The spike in bullying incidents and charges of discrimination barely causes a ripple of concern, yet student safety should be a prime directive.

District policy doesn't allow administrators to take swift, decisive actions, keeping victims at risk.

Integrating ethnic studies is a crucial step towards cultivating well-rounded, critically aware individuals.

by immersing students in diverse cultural perspectives.

We equip them with tools to dissect societal issues and foster a more profound sense of belonging in every student of our community.

The absence of ethnic studies breeds ignorance, perpetuates systemic issues, contributes to identity crisis among students of color and hinders critical thinking skills.

This leads to divisiveness and equitable outcomes and political polarization.

To rectify this, We must integrate ethnic studies as a mandatory component of our core curriculum rather than offering it as an elective.

This ensures every student benefits from this knowledge, preventing academic disadvantage due to its absence.

Expand the diversity of perspectives and materials across all subjects to reflect a broader range of experiences and viewpoints.

conduct regular comprehensive cultural sensitivity trainings for all staff and faculty, no loopholes, ensuring full participation and accountability, encouraging critical analysis and open, respectful discussions about race and ethnicity throughout the school environment, incorporate cultural and heritage education more organically into daily learning, moving beyond isolated events to foster continuous understanding and appreciation.

Therefore, it is imperative that you take decisive action to mandate ethnic studies K through 12. As leaders in our education system, it is your duty to protect and prepare our students for the complexities of a diverse world.

This mandate is not just an investment, it is a fundamental requirement for fostering informed, empathetic, and proactive citizens.

Thank you, and I'm sorry for going over my time.

We are going to pause for one minute to have our tech support take a look at the sound issue.

I want to ask her to email that to us.

Manuela, if you are listening, could you press star six on mute?

She may not be.

Can you hear me?

Yes, now we can hear you.

Great.

We're going to go ahead and do your public testimony.

Thanks, Manuela.

Thank you.

My name is Manuela Flai.

I serve as the Seattle Council PDSA Student Safety Chair.

Today you will hear from many communities about the impact of the proposed student assignment plan.

I'm here to highlight the impact on our multi-language learner students, our MLL students, and the urgent need to prioritize them for access to dual language programs.

MLL students benefit from dual language education.

Research consistently shows that dual language is one of the most effective gap-closing strategies available.

Yet currently, there is no set-aside policy and no clear pathway ensuring equitable access for multilingual learners to dual language access to Concord, Beacon Hill, and the Rome Park.

A set-aside policy must be included as part of the enrollment transition plan.

This should be a high priority to both strengthen dual language programs and properly serve MLL students.

I want to emphasize, there have been extensive conversations about this issue, but no meaningful action has been taken.

Southwest Seattle has the highest number of Spanish-speaking students in our district, yet there's only one dual-language elementary school in that region.

Spanish heritage speakers from the Denny-Feeder area should be offered seats at Concord to preserve and continue the pathway.

Unfortunately, they do not live within Concord's boundaries, even when seats are available.

To ensure equitable access, transportation must also be provided for students attending Concord Elementary in South Park.

We also need transparency in how students are moved off waitlists.

The uncertainty causes families to lose hope and seek other options.

Concord Elementary and Denny Middle School sit near the border of the Highline School District, and we continue to lose students to Highline and to private schools that offer dual language programs.

So my questions to the school board directors today are, will you discuss and implement a set-aside policy for heritage speakers in all dual language schools?

Will you prioritize newcomer students' access to dual language programs in our district?

Will you ask the hard questions before voting?

Thank you.

And Michelle Campbell, if you could press star six to unmute.

Michelle Campbell?

We can hear you.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, hi.

Michelle Campbell.

Kudos to Ms. Cordova and Ms. Sly for their testimony, and I second what they say.

I would like to cede the rest of my time to John Greenberg, please.

and I'm reading this on behalf of a parent.

It says, I don't know if this is a brainstorm or actually a statement, but I was thinking about what you said about siblings and us grown-up siblings that get along and how we are bonded and relate to each other and that being a mirror for our children and their siblings and their relationship with each other and relating that to our larger community and what does real safety come from and I feel like it's connection to the people around you and creating the community and just simply getting to know each other and then we have a network and we have the eyes and the ears and the heart and in that community presence, we keep each other safe by being connected and that's something to me that touches on mental health also in a way that if we are without community, our mental health suffers.

So thank you.

The next speaker is Christina Kipp.

Hi, thank you.

My name is Christina Kipp.

I'm the parent of two South Seattle SPS students.

I'm also a teacher.

I'm here tonight to advocate on behalf of students who should be qualifying for highly capable services and are currently being denied those services due to the changes in this year's eligibility criteria.

So there's two fundamental problems I want to address.

The first is that the criteria for qualifying for HC services has moved so much this year, it no longer passes the laugh test.

I've provided the board with a handout.

The front compares two students.

one of whom qualified two years ago and then the other one who has significantly higher test scores across the board but is now being denied those same HC services.

And these aren't hypothetical, they're not cherry-picked grades, they're my two kids.

But there's so many other kids and families I've heard from that are like my younger child that are being denied HC services that they should absolutely qualify for and that other students before them have benefited from.

The second frankly bigger problem is that the new criteria has many errors, riddled with errors, and it disregards the guidance of the test provider and how to correctly use those scores to identify HC students.

The back of the handout has a lot of detail on the various errors that we have found.

A really important point is that when you're working in the tails of a distribution, just like you are with HC students, even seemingly small errors significantly impact the population that's included or excluded.

And then when you compound all those errors, it results in a large number of students being incorrectly denied those HC services.

But this is something that can be fixed.

My one request for tonight, a really simple fix, not simple, would be to revert back to the previous year's eligibility criteria just for this year, to identify the students this year correctly, and then we can put in the time to properly update the criteria in consultation with the test makers and with independent evaluators.

Right now, just too many kids are being excluded by the current criteria, many of whom likely will not receive the advocacy they deserve and to get the HC services they need.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Yasmin Cortez.

Yasmin Cortez.

All right, we will move on, but we will come back to you at the end.

The next speaker is Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins, box 84063, Seattle 98124. On the new superintendent, I wish to welcome Mr. Sheldener to Seattle Public Schools.

on the amendment to board policy 1250 on school board student members.

Three points.

Number one, I have asked the state auditor to review the proposal.

There are way too many questions.

Please vote no.

Number two, the amended policy proposes that board appointed district paid school board student representatives lobby the elected school board directors as part of the student representatives' district paid duties.

This appears to be improper as with the district paying private contractors to lobby the board.

Number three, there are plenty of students who can skillfully represent their concerns to the board without having to compete with district paid appointed representatives.

The proposal puts a thumb on the governance scale that should not be there.

On school closures, two points.

Number one, the school district has changed how students will be assigned to schools.

in a way that will shrink enrollment at many schools.

Number two, I have included a written sampling of names and comments from parents and community members.

Please do not close schools.

I have also asked the state auditor to review three other topics.

Number one, the Student Assignment Transition Plan, or SATP.

There are three possible violations of state law.

Number two, four construction budget items on the January 21st board agenda.

Number three, the board's due diligence in hiring a new superintendent.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Fiduit Ghebremariam.

Wait.

Hello, my name is Vitalik Gubermaryam, I'm in 12th grade and I go to Franklin High School.

I'm gonna be talking about Black History Month at schools, Black Lives Matter at schools.

Black history is not a side note in American history, it is American history, so why is it treated like a short chapter we flipped through in February?

Black Lives Matter should not be confined to one month.

It should be implemented and recognized year-round in our education system because representation, justice, and awareness doesn't operate on the calendar.

Racism doesn't take a month off, inequality doesn't disappear after 28 days, so our commitment to understanding and addressing these issues shouldn't disappear either.

When schools only focus on black history during one month and limit it to the same few figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, students miss the depth, innovation, struggle, and leadership that black individuals have contributed in science, politics, literature, medicine, art, and everyday community building That narrow exposure sends students the message that black contributions are additional, not foundational.

Implementing Black Lives Matter year-round means integrating black voices, authors, scientists, and leaders into the curriculum across all subjects, not as a special topic, but as a normal part of education.

It means having honest conversations about systematic inequality, civic responsibility, and how students can create more just society.

Education shapes how young people want to see the world.

If we want a more informed, empathetic generation, we have to teach the full story consistently.

Because if black lives matter, then the truth should be reflected all year long.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Sabrina Burr.

You guys are gonna have to give me grace because I spent all afternoon cleaning up the memorial that got destroyed this morning.

So I want to welcome Superintendent Schultner and I just want to give the gratitude for having an instructional leader as our superintendent.

It makes a huge difference.

on Black Lives Matter at school, you guys did a proclamation and not a resolution.

A proclamation is not the same as a resolution.

And if you really want to show Black Lives Matter in school, you would put it in policy.

You do not even have their demands in your proclamation.

I need you to listen to the students and do what they need.

They have been coming here since 2018. This school board should have it right, and this is a disrespect to these young people and our black children.

This district, Michelle Sarju, warned us, and I'm concerned about black children under the leadership of this board.

I'm also concerned about how you guys are changing how we have committees going back to the way that it was in silos.

I watched 10 buildings get ribbon cut, and I know that those buildings got built because of school board directors doing what they needed for their community.

Please know you're a school board director for the whole community.

Lastly, I want to talk about the cameras that we started in this district.

Why didn't they start in Southeast Seattle?

We should not have two dead children right now.

I've been warning you every single school board meeting.

We need an entity agreement with Seattle Public Schools that covers all the things.

Resource officers are just one piece.

We need you to get serious about getting our kids safe.

They're being harmed on the bus.

They're being harmed on the train.

They're being robbed at gunpoint, going to and from school.

This is enough.

Our kids should not have to go through this to get an education, to go in the building where they're not honored, where their black life doesn't matter.

So I need you to really be serious.

Now you changed some assignments and I want to tell you that legislative assignment in every other district changes in June, not January.

You did us a disservice.

by giving it to Director Song in January after the session started, after Director Rankin started, right after the last legislative session happened.

That doesn't hurt her, it hurts us, it hurts our district, and it hurts the wins that we could make right now in this short legislative session.

I am against those committees that you guys are trying to do when operations got, taken away from Eden Mac, she quit the whole board and left the state.

Their silos, they do not honor our kids of color and I need you guys to get serious about black kids and let them stop dying on your watch and do something about safety.

Put it in policy.

Keep our kids safe because they should be going to school and from school safe and be in a building where they belong and they have high academic expectations and high-act endemic supports.

This is generational work.

These children and all the children that look like them matter.

We are not a majority.

We are the global majority.

Please remember that.

That's the world you're preparing them for.

The next speaker is Liz Peterson.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I stood in front of you all two months ago with my daughter and spoke her words of trauma and fear after experiencing gun violence and not feeling safe at school and asking you all to do something, anything.

I want to remind you of the word she shared.

At school I feel afraid to be on the playground and nervous there will be a shelter in place or a lockdown where you have to shut everything and you can't talk.

You have to be silent and you have to lock all the doors.

A week and a half ago, she had to do just that again when two kids were shot and killed right outside her school.

I heard the gunshots followed by the helicopters from our house.

The last time we heard gunshots and helicopters like that, we were running barefoot out of Beresheva Park after someone opened fire.

This time we were running through the school playground and trying to figure out if the gunshots We could hear were from nearby or from the gun range, while she cried out that we needed to duck down and hide or run faster.

We all hear those gunshots all the time, quite often right after school.

We have been begging for someone to pay attention to the increasing acts of violence in our community and its impact on our kids for months.

For some it's been years, decades of advocating for this community.

While I'm grateful we are finally seeing some more meaningful action, I am also so angry and heartbroken that it took the loss of life to get there.

Here's what I need you to hear.

Student safety is not only physical, it's emotional.

Our kids, especially our youngest, are trying to make sense of a world that does not feel safe.

They may not have the words, but they are carrying fear.

It shows up in sleep, anxiety, concentration, behavior, and their ability to learn.

So I'm asking you for three things clearly and urgently.

First, strengthen real gun and campus safety measures and communicate them plainly.

Kids need calm, age-appropriate reassurance that the grown-ups are taking real action, not offering platitudes.

Where are the cameras that were promised?

Where are the updated locks instead of chains and padlocks?

Second, Include elementary student voices.

Ask them what they know, what they fear, and what could help them feel safe.

They are not an afterthought.

They are the ones living this.

Lift up their voices.

Listen to them.

Third, expand trauma-informed care across every school and make sure it's not just words on paper.

Train staff to recognize trauma increase access to counseling and grief support and create consistent routine and safe spaces.

Support our teachers and staff.

They are grieving and carrying this too.

They cannot care for our kids the way they need to if they're not also cared for.

And this can't be temporary.

Trauma doesn't disappear when the news cycle moves on.

And really, how often have you heard someone say or said yourself, summer is coming.

We all know that there's an uptick in violence in our community the closer it gets to summer.

This is going to happen again.

Our kids deserve more than drills and silence.

They deserve safety they can feel in their classrooms, on their playgrounds, and in their bodies.

I'm going to end with the words of my daughter as she continues to process our community's most recent loss.

We didn't want to see, we didn't want to have this grief, didn't want to have this crack in our life, we want to experience something good.

We didn't want to go through something that was so tough, didn't want to experience something that just happened.

When people died from the guns, when they broke, they broke our hearts.

They didn't want to see the light, they wanted to see the sun.

People want to die happy in their life, they didn't want to get there tonight.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Fiona Berhane.

Fiona Berhane.

Okay, thank you.

The next speaker is Jen Jackson.

My name is Jen Jackson.

I'm a fifth grade teacher at Highland Park Elementary, a Title I school in West Seattle.

In Seattle Public Schools, 14% of our student population is designated highly capable.

Just 2% of our student body at Highland Park is designated HC.

I have heard over the past five years in this district that the process would become more equitable.

This is not happening.

It is not more accessible to families or teachers.

SPS has been calling for a neighborhood model to families that does not currently do the job necessary to address the needs of all students.

For this reason, families are navigating new criteria for highly capable, desperate to get their students in.

For many, being in means their students attending an HC cohort school.

As a mother of a student in the HC cohort at Thurgood Marshall, I can tell you that those teachers are not given any more access to high-quality instructional materials or practices than I am as a general education teacher.

Accelerating students is one model and needs to be done with strong practices and solid curriculum.

We do not need to move a cohort to Alki Elementary, one of the least diverse schools in West Seattle.

I do believe if we build it, a rigorous neighborhood model, that is, families will come.

Differentiation and universal design for learning are effective, evidence-based practices.

For them to work, schools need resources, support, and training.

We are not receiving this in a way that supports teachers or students.

We are just being encouraged to use AI.

SPS needs to invest and travel to other districts to see models that work.

I know they exist because I participated in HC professional development on my own dime at Whitworth College and there were over 100 other educators from other districts.

I was the only one from Seattle Public.

We need Science of Learning-aligned Tier 1 curriculum.

We need instructional coaches in every building to support enriching our students, not just interventionists to intervene when students are struggling.

Teachers need time for professional development that isn't done on our own time when we have to decide between PD or meeting with our team.

We need to stop talking about equity and actually be about equity.

real gifted education should be basic education for all students in Seattle Public Schools.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Keiko Valente.

Keiko Valente.

Okay, we're gonna move on to the next speaker and we will come back.

The next speaker is Catalina Noirgu.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Catalina Noirgu.

I am here to speak on ethnic studies.

We need ethnic studies in schools.

Students of color don't feel that they have the capacity to be successful in this world.

Without ethnic studies, we can't tell them that they are.

We can't show them that there have been people in history who have accomplished these things.

Me, the first time that I ever heard about a black person actually accomplishing something that was really powerful and had impact in the community was when I was in AP African-American studies, not eighth grade US history, not ninth grade US history, and certainly not 10th grade US history.

We can't learn with people who don't look like us.

We are more comfortable with people that look like us rather than a white person who doesn't know anything about our culture, anything about what we fought for, or anything about our impacts to society in the past.

Hire more BIPOC educators.

Hire more people that look like us.

We can't keep seeing them fall off the chain of education.

My name is Kelly Nwagu and I stand for this and I say that we need ethnic studies, not later, not before, we need it now.

Like it's really bad.

We have people of color falling off, literally falling off of the chain of success.

We don't see more colored doctors, engineers, lawyers, any of that.

That starts with the school educational system.

That really starts here, that starts now and you have the power to do something about it so please do something about it.

Now, remember, the youth are the now, the youth are the future, the future generations depend on our youth.

Please take this into consideration and please take me seriously because I may be a student and I may be young, but what I'm saying is very true, and you can't tell me that it's not.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Jerrel Briscoe.

Jarrell Briscoe.

Okay, we're gonna move on.

The next speaker is Janice White.

Hi, I'm Janice White, a mom of three SPS graduates.

The Student Assignment Transition Plan creates two new sites for highly capable cohort schools, something that families have advocated for for a long time, but it still does not address the fact that families whose children qualify for HCC but also require special education services that are not available in the resource model have to choose between an HCC school if they want the cohort model and getting their child the special education support they need.

Not one of the elementary HCC cohort schools, including the two you are proposing to add, offer anything other than resource services.

And this is contrary to Board Policy 2190, which states that access to curriculum and opportunities, including access to the highly capable program, shall not be determined by a student's eligibility for other services.

What will it take to fix this long-term issue?

I and others have been coming to the school board meetings and raising this issue for years.

And children are being harmed by this violation.

Children who need both access to accelerated or advanced academics as well as special education services.

I also want to talk briefly about the Gersh Academy contract that's on the consent agenda.

I've testified many times at school board meetings when an individual contract with a private special education school comes before you for approval without the context that you should have.

How many students are being served by this contract and other contracts with other schools?

How many of these schools is the district contracting with, and what's the total value of those contracts?

Can staff provide some general information about the profile of students we are sending away from our schools, away from their neighborhoods, and why our schools are not able to meet their needs?

and what are we doing to change our delivery of education to students with disabilities so that they can stay in our schools and not be sent away?

Thank you.

The next speaker is Warlena Wheeler.

Hi everyone, we're Lena Wheeler.

I am a mother of students at Rainier Beach High School Dunlap Elementary.

I would never have thought I'd be this tapped in with school.

I think it's because of safety.

So I'm going to let my daughter, my eight-year-old daughter from Dunlap say a couple of words before we get started.

I'm gonna help her out here, sorry, give us some grace, cause this is important and I think the kids should lead this conversation, what safety looks like.

Hey, I am A and I go to Dunlap and I have two kids in my class, they don't understand us and they need to know that they are safe.

Okay, so with that being said, again, I'm gonna show up the same way every time.

86, and then maybe more now, different languages are spoken in that zip code.

So my daughter has people in her class that are actually, the kids are having to translate for each other.

That's something that Dunlap is actually known for, is having a demographic that looks different, but also the staff look like the classroom.

So I think what I'm asking for, I don't have to go into detail because we had people like Jen on the ground with us as we kind of figured out how to respond and keep the kids safe and where they felt like they can come in.

We had Liza join us with being on the ground where there are certain things that I'm sure you guys know because we've seen it together.

Ben, thank you for showing up on day one?

Was it one?

And just kind of showing in because I'm a fusser when I show up because I feel like we're not being heard.

So I think I'm going to use this time right now to talk about how the students and community that don't understand how to come together and be safe, be served, as I've been in community with community, with coming together to see what that looks like.

So I guess what I'm saying is my community, the black community, is not sometimes seen and understood how we do it, but it's important for me to mention that it doesn't get hijacked, what happened on the ground.

I've been a part of a conversation since September, showing up in words, what's being said, what we need, and what's being done.

They met with Ben a few days before it happened, but I've been on the ground, so it kind of doesn't get captured, so it takes for staff members that have been showing up, board members that have been showing up, that kind of translate what you've been seeing because it's not always seen and captured.

So the community is, we are who we need to shift things and make things happen, but we need you all support to show up for the black community right now because we're the most impacted.

So with the shooters and with the victims, we're the most impact and we might be the smallest percentage in that area.

And I'm going to stand with my community every time to see how we can come together, make sure our kids are safe and our kids actually do listen.

But we need to put things in place for them so that they're able to be heard, understood, and then there'll be staff members and board members.

They understand our culture.

We have never had the opportunity to heal from the war on drugs and then I can keep going to other things.

But I'm just going to go to this is an end result to not being heard, listened to, respected, and people showing up with us to understand our culture.

So I'm asking everyone here to step in and lean in even if you're not comfortable.

We know how to make our community safe.

So I'm asking if there's ways where you guys can support us with doing that.

And I think the first step was is showing up and being with us and seeing and learning the culture.

Jen, thank you.

Liz, thank you.

Liza, thank you, excuse me, for just tapping in.

And even if you don't feel comfortable, you were there for us.

and you just just learning to understand and we welcome you with open arms and I know I'm over time, but I just wanted to bring up something that I've been fussing about are the scooters.

We had a kid this morning get hit in front of Rainier Beach High School heading down to down Henderson to there's so many schools there I'm kind of getting lost but South Shore K through 8 and at the same time we responded I'm a mother but I mean I'm locked in with the community and we know each other so we're responding down to someone with mental illness or addiction issues that had kicked over the memorial and we all teamed up together to get it back in place so that the kids wouldn't react.

So when I'm saying lean in with us, we know what it takes, where it may look different from you, but that could have potentially had something else happen into the community by the kids not understanding that this was someone with mental illness that did this, and there are mental illness, homelessness in that area that are in the area while all those kids are present, and I see it all the time, they're into the community.

So we're talking about safety, let's tap into that as well.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Kayla Epting-Gibson.

You'll need to press star six to unmute.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Kayla Epting-Gibson, community member, parent of the SPS graduate class of 2023, and aunt to current SPS students.

So now I come to you with a heavy heart.

trying to understand how we are here again with students losing their lives on our school campus.

As a lifelong resident of Seattle, I am well aware of the violence that has continued to plague our Rainier Beach corridor schools and the lack of resources and investment in this particular community.

And while this isn't just a school district issue, I am asking that our school board and district leadership start leading and unsiloing the collective work around student and building safety that needs to happen.

This work must be done collaboratively and be an ongoing work between all stakeholders long-term, not just in the weeks the week and the month following a tragedy, but a real tangible and comprehensive safety plan informed by students, parents, community law enforcement, CBOs, building leaders, and staff.

The Rainier Beach Corridor schools deserve these meaningful supports now, not later or after the next time we have students slain on the doorsteps of our schools.

This should be approached as an all-hands situation until we can restore and ensure student and staff safety, confidence and trust in those tasks with caring for our children.

This is not a negotiable.

Children deserve to be safe at school and our little black boys deserve to grow old.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Dao Kwon.

My name is Tao Kwan and I've been a student in the Seattle Public School System for over 12 years.

It is my senior year and I'll be graduating hopefully this year.

And I just want to say that for all 12 years it has been a horrible experience and I really mean that with genuinity.

School has not been fun and it really sucks and that is because there are many issues in the school system that makes it so horrible to be a student here and one of those issues is not mandating ethnic studies.

Like this curriculum that all students have to adhere to and learn under is curated for white people.

And it also comes from like colonization too.

So we need to mandate ethnic studies so that other cultures and other races can be celebrated too because focusing on one race only and just teaching and catering to this one race just leaves out every other race.

My school, Franklin High School, is over like 60% BIPOC kids.

and yet we are still only focusing on that other 40% of non-BIPOC kids.

That's just strange to me.

And also, we should also hire more BIPOC educators or counselors and other things.

Recently at Franklin, we had an opening for another counselor and instead of hiring a BIPOC counselor, which would benefit our 60% BIPOC population of students, we had another white counselor, but she's very awesome.

but still it's just representation matters a lot and it's like we are lacking in representation and that hurts our student body.

So I just want to say that school could be better if we just had all these resources, mental health resources too, but especially more representation and more diversity for our diverse student body.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Yana Parker.

Good afternoon, school board directors, superintendent and staff.

For the record, my name is Jana Parker.

I am a parent of disabled student in the district serving on the board of Seattle Special Education, PTSA.

The student assignment transition plan states that IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, does not require the full continuum of placement be available at each school specifically.

and that when required services are not available at an attendance area school, a linked school may be designated.

Technically, this may be true, but pathways appear to be regularly used as a place or classrooms in making placement decisions and enrollment decisions.

We have two different wait lists for schools as well.

One for disabled students and one for non-disabled students.

If that's not discrimination based on disability, I don't know what is.

Special education is a set of services and not a location.

Placement should follow an individualized determination of what supplementary aids and services allow a student to be educated in the school that they would attend if they were non-disabled.

When services are concentrated as pathways, in pathway sites, decisions can be shaped by program configuration and staffing patterns rather than by the student's needs.

IDEA allows the removal of students from their general education setting only when necessary when a student can't access a general education setting with the help of services and placement and it requires also placement near their home.

The highly capable section reflects a similar pathway structure.

The wording, you should really look at the wording very closely how exclusionary that is.

Twice exceptional students are often denied special education services because they perform at grade level.

I'm going to finish the sentence.

and they are also denied highly capable services because of how their disability affects their performance.

So services need to follow the student and not the other way around.

Thank you.

I'm gonna go back over, oh, I've been corrected.

Our next speaker is Michelle Sarju.

Well, this is an interesting position.

And thank God I'm here on this side of the row.

First of all, the only reason I came is to welcome Superintendent Ben Shoulder.

that is probably going to go down in my time of service as one of the best decisions, if not the only decision, if not the only best decision that we ever made.

What we know about Superintendent Scholdiner is he stayed ready, he been ready.

He's not coming to us unexperienced.

I said this in my last board comments.

The biggest threat to his success are seven chairs.

The seven chairs can choose to allow the superintendent to do his job.

For example, for the parents who came and spoke about highly capable, that's the superintendent's job.

That is exclusively the superintendent's job to solve for that X when we talk about a math problem.

Let him do his job.

let him do his job because he's ready.

He's not coming to us having done nothing.

He's actually coming to us having done a lot.

And if you let him lead, he will show this community that he can solve the problems.

He's not here to help people get elected to other offices.

He's here to serve our children.

Let him lead.

Second point.

This young woman right here is a freshman.

How many of you adults on the dais could have delivered what she delivered?

Are you in Seattle Public Schools?

If she's not sitting up there one day, we have a problem.

That's a freshman, a freshman.

Yes, yes, President Topp, I'm not gonna take three minutes, but I am gonna finish my points here.

It is time to move past the performative and get to action.

The death of those students should matter and instead y'all gonna deliver a proclamation.

That's called performative.

For the white folks in the room, enslavement is your history.

How me and my ancestors survived it is black history.

And you know what?

We're surviving it every single month of the year.

I don't celebrate Black History Month, because my history is every single month.

It doesn't happen in February, the shortest month of the year, which is by design.

Let's be real clear.

So are y'all gonna deliver a proclamation or are you gonna deliver action?

Because these students don't wanna hear your performative.

They didn't come down here to see how you perform on the dais.

They came down here to make a statement.

Do you have the will to respect them?

Your votes will tell them.

Y'all, their votes are gonna tell you whether or not they respect you, whether or not they think you're brilliant, whether or not they think you're highly capable.

I think this freshman showed us the potential.

Talk about highly capable, right here sitting in this chair.

And she didn't just come in here highly capable, she was born highly capable.

Let's be clear.

And so what is your decision?

You gonna perform?

Are you actually gonna deliver real action for these kids who are spending their homework time?

They should be home doing homework.

I'm telling y'all, you should be home doing your homework, because you're gonna be up till one o'clock in the morning, you're gonna wake up, you're gonna be school late.

We know the formula, because you were up late, because you were here, right?

So prove to these children, I know the superintendent's gonna prove it, because I know where he came from.

He came from a predominantly black district doing, working his WB magic.

If you want to know what WB is, you can ask me later.

He knows.

He worked his WB magic in Lansing.

Let him work his WB magic here.

Don't stand in his way with your performance art.

Let him do his job.

You're at the precipice.

We're at a critical time.

It's time to stop performing and get to action.

Because these kids deserve better than what has been delivered to them up to this point.

And Superintendent Scholdiner is the one to get it done.

When he said, I want to make Seattle Public Schools the greatest district in America, he already had the job.

He didn't have to say that.

He already had the job.

He had negotiated his contract.

He didn't get no more money for saying that.

But are you gonna let him do his job?

Are you gonna let him transform Seattle Public Schools into the greatest public school system in the nation?

Or are you gonna block him with performative?

That's what's gonna happen.

You're gonna prove it with your votes or you're gonna be exposed.

for what is actually really true.

We're gonna go back through the list for people we missed.

Thank you.

No problem.

Yasmine Cortez.

Okay, Keiko Valente.

and Jerrell Briscoe.

Okay, that concludes public testimony.

Thank you, and thank you everyone for being here this evening to take time out of your busy schedules to give us these important, serious, and impactful comments from safety to academics.

I appreciate you being here today.

and helping us do our work.

We are going to move straight into our consent portion of today's agenda.

Can I have a motion for the consent agenda, to approve the consent agenda?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

The agenda has been moved by Vice President Briggs and seconded by Director Mizrahi.

Do directors have any items they'd like to remove from the consent agenda?

I'd like to remove item number four, approval of Grosh Academy contract amendment for 2025-2026 school year.

Alright, Director Song has removed item 4 from the consent agenda.

Do other directors have items they'd like to remove from the consent agenda?

Okay, seeing none, may I have a revised motion for the consent agenda as amended?

I move approval of the consent agenda as amended.

Okay, approval of the consent agenda as amended has been moved by Vice President Briggs and seconded by Director Mizrahi.

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

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed?

The consent agenda has passed unanimously.

Okay, we're gonna move to items removed from the consent agenda.

The item removed from the consent agenda was item number four, approval of the Gersh Academy contract amendment for 2025-26 school year.

May I have a motion?

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to approve the contract amendment with Gersh Academy in the amount of $154,056 for a revised total contract amount of $1,129,056 for private placement for students who require therapeutic day services and programming with any minor additions, deletions, and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement this contract.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

Second.

Okay.

We have Vice President Briggs make the motion.

Director Mizrahi second and I'm going to call on Director Song first to remove the item and then we'll go to remaining directors for questions and comments.

Director Song.

And we have staff here as well.

Would you please introduce yourself?

Sorry.

My name is Devon Gurley.

I'm the Executive Director of Special Education and Inclusion.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I did submit some of the questions I had in advance, and I'll start with, in the bar it says, the district's special education behavioral team and special education leadership have been structured to provide oversight to evaluate and hold accountable providers or services for students.

Can you explain what this means in practical terms?

Sure, so we have a behavioral support team and a regional support team that's made up of program specialists and supervisors who when we're considering a non-public agency placement, which is a more restrictive environment for students, We provide support and coaching strategies and additional in-school resources before making a determination, before the IEP team makes a determination that a student may require a more restrictive environment at a non-public agency.

Through that process, we do a lot of checks that we have been establishing through our disproportionality work in the department to look for issues of bias that have come to play with either structural or individual racism towards students.

And if those things are observed to potentially be creating some of the focus for the decision, then we work with the teams to make sure that we are uncovering those, that we are working on coaching practices and strategies and restorative practices to support the student's success in the building.

I'm asking that once the student has been placed at the NPA, what kind of accountability in terms of meeting the IEP requirements and what not, and perhaps it's like site visits, can you describe that process?

Absolutely.

So OSPI has some recent rule changes around nonpublic agencies.

So every nonpublic agency that they approve has to be visited at least once a year.

And so for the nonpublic agencies that Seattle Public School students attend, we do a site visit at least once per year.

Our local ones we tend to visit at least quarterly.

We're regularly reviewing disciplinary incidents, whether or not there are incidents of isolation and restraint.

We have a case manager that is in regular contact with the non-public agency, with the families, and works on building that partnership, supporting the student's progress so that our mutual goal is that the student can return to a Seattle Public School and be successful.

I was trying to understand the financial aspects of this.

So when are NPA contracts typically renewed?

Does that happen over the summer?

And how does the safety net reimbursement work?

Sure, so we renew contracts every year for August 1st, so our contracts expire July 31st.

We make the determination about new contracts based on the students that we have returning and sometimes some anticipated growth based on historical trends.

In terms of safety net, what has to happen to qualify for safety net is that a student, that a IEP essentially, the cost to provide the services in the IEP is twice the average per pupil expenditure.

So this year it is, I believe, 38,000 is that threshold.

So that means that essentially, in order to get safety net funding, the district has approximately 19,000 that we have to cover before safety net might kick in.

And so at that point, there's not a limit on how much districts can apply for safety net, but it does go through a compliance protocol with OSPI.

and we follow those processes very closely.

We are awarded usually about 90% of what we submit and we've been able to actually quadruple the amount of safety net funding that we have received from the state in the past five years.

Last comment, I think from my perspective it's these contract and these additions to the contracts happen periodically and it's hard for us as directors kind of to be able to track them in aggregate and so I would be interested in finding ways that staff can provide an update to the board on this kind of programming in aggregate.

Sure, happy to do that.

Other comments or questions from directors?

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Thanks, Devon.

This is actually for Superintendent Schuldner.

So this is, this contract and contracts like this come on the consent agenda, somebody pulls it and we have very similar conversation each time and then we approve it and then next year the same thing happens again and again.

And so this is coming to us because it meets the, threshold requirement for a monetary amount for us to do our duty and say this was budgeted for, here's how it was spent, we affirm that it was spent.

What I want to ask you that we have struggled with previous superintendents is, so this here, and I appreciate the questions asked by Director Song, but this here is for our approval because we're overseeing the expenditure.

What I would like you to, I guess, think about or dig into is our expectation for students, is this a contract we should have?

And that's not what we're being asked to do right now.

This is a fiduciary oversight function.

But we do need to understand why this contract, why this service, is this in line with our expectations for students?

And so I'm just sort of putting that for you to think about in terms of our policies for special education students, and I'm not singling out this organization, but contracts like this, You're the superintendent and the instructional leader.

You're responsible for making sure that our policies are being followed.

This type of contract doesn't meet our expectations and requirements for students.

And obviously, I'm not asking you to answer that right now.

But I would love for us to move beyond this cadence where it's just repeating itself and actually make sure that we're getting the services for students that we want.

First of all, I really appreciate that question, because though the statutory rules around the board is voting because it hits a certain threshold, the truth is, as a board, you care about how our kids are learning.

And also the public cares very much about how our kids are learning.

And so what I would look forward to as we deal with this cadence on different matters is that the district is providing the board the rationale as to why, not just because it's over a million dollars.

The hope is that everything we do, any decision we make, there needs to be a why behind it, and so we can do that in different ways, right?

We can have once a year a presentation on special education, and then within that, it would be here are all the contracts we're doing, here's why we're doing it, and more importantly, here's how we're serving all these amazing other children in our own schools and is that being done correctly too?

So what I would say certainly to the board and to the community and whoever is watching online is that the expectation should be both.

It's a yes and.

the board has the authority to vote on these contracts that hit a certain threshold.

But the expectation should be more than that.

We should be able to explain what we're doing.

And so I look forward to, over the next couple of months, figuring out what are some big-ticket items like special education.

Maybe it's HC.

Maybe it's ethnic studies.

Whatever it is, we can start to present those kinds of things.

So I appreciate the question, and I think we'll work on that as we move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Further discussion from directors?

And I'll look to staff for the vote on the item, please.

Director Mizrahi?

Aye.

Director Rankin?

Aye.

Director Smith?

Aye.

Director Song?

Yes.

Vice President Briggs?

Aye.

Director Lavallee?

Aye.

President Topp?

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Awesome.

We're going to move right along to action items.

And so the first action item on the agenda today is the amendment to board policy number 1250 school board student members.

I have a motion.

I move that the school board amend and rename board policy number 1250 school board student members as attached to the board action report.

I further move that current junior student member Josephine Mangelson be retained as a senior student representative for 2026-2027 and the upcoming appointment for the 2026-2027 school board student representatives include the selection of one additional senior student representative for a one-year term.

The selection of two junior student representatives shall proceed as outlined in the amended policy.

Second.

All right, we have a motion from Vice President Briggs, a second from Director Mizrahi.

I have a note here that staff wants to present on this?

No, okay.

Then we will move right into discussion.

And I also want to note, I believe we have Director Mangelson online as well here now.

So start with student board directors, see if they have any comments they'd like to make.

Director Yoon.

Thank you.

Well, staff and I went over the actual amendments the previous board meeting, so I'm just going to keep that out of the conversation, but I just want to take this time to thank everyone who has been part of this journey, board directors who've been in support of its staff who have been in countless meetings with us to make this happen.

Of course, NAACP Youth Council, I think they already left, but they have been such a big as part of this process and we don't see this conversation going anywhere.

It's not gonna be forgotten.

We're gonna revisit it actually right after amending this because we want to consistently improve this role because it's representative of the students and we wanna ensure that these student representatives are representative of what SPS students actually want.

So I just want to give a thank you note to everyone who has been part of this process and that we wanna continue revisiting this conversation.

and I just want to clarify, it was Director Masoudi online as well, sorry about that.

Looking Director Masoudi, any comments or anyone to go to discussion from other board directors?

I just appreciate the amount of time and effort that has gone into this and I appreciate also the review, but let's have the vote.

Director Rankin?

Yes.

Director Smith?

Aye.

Director Song?

Yes.

Vice President Briggs?

Aye.

Director Lavallee?

Aye.

Director Mizrahi?

Aye.

President Topp?

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Amazing.

Representative Yoon, Representative Masudi, it's wonderful to have you here this evening.

Well, moving right along, we are going to move into amendment to board policy number 1240 committees.

Can I have a motion?

I move that the Board amend Board Policy Number 1240, Committees, Board Policy Number 6550, Internal Audit, and Board Procedure 6550-BP, Internal Audit as attached to this Board Action Report.

Thank you.

So we have a motion made by Vice President Briggs and a second made by Director Mizrahi.

We actually have an amendment here, Amendment 1 to the Board Action Report Title Amendment to Board Policy Number 1240 Committees.

And I'm going to actually pass it over, I think, to Director Rankin at this point.

Thank you.

Sorry, I wrote myself some notes on my laptop's not working.

I'm also failing on my part here.

Sorry, sorry.

I was not expecting for the meeting to go so quickly tonight.

So I'm a little off my game here.

Sorry about that.

So Director Rankin does have an amendment.

I think that there are a lot of great things in this amendment that I do think that this board should discuss and have the space to discuss.

a really great place to have some of that discussion so it's open, so it's public and transparent, is in the policy committee.

So it would be my suggestion and my strong suggestion that if the policy committee gets formed this evening, that one of the first things they take up is review of the committee structure and this work and to look at some of the amendments suggested by Director Rankin.

But I want to pass it over to Director Rankin on her amendment.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

So first of all, as I said when this was introduced and at the retreat, I am really excited about us firming up and getting some descriptions around some committees.

Committees are a really great way to delegate board work into a smaller group that can dig into details that then come to the full board and we know that our colleagues have asked some of the more detailed questions and it can just increase our capacity to work and so I just, there's been some confusion so I just want to again state that that I'm excited about this.

We also have continued to have at least three committees over the past few years.

So committees have never actually gone away.

One of the reasons for the amendment is that I think it's really important for transparency and full board support that committee charters are approved by the full board so that everybody has an understanding of what the work on behalf of the board is actually in charters.

And that's the main reason that I wrote the amendment was to put that in.

And that's also a totally standard practice that board committees are work of the board.

The full board should approve what work is happening there.

and then the other reason that I wrote the amendment was to clarify the purpose and again these are I think reflective of things I said at introduction and the retreat and so I really want to make sure that we as a board are in agreement about what the committees are intended to accomplish and make sure that they're an effective and efficient use of time.

So then I also just want to address that over the last, I don't know, not even 24 hours, we've got a whole burst of emails.

including a lot of misinformation in response to the amendment.

So I just want to really just make some clarifying points that the reason for committee charters being reviewed every two years is not to restart them but so that we don't repeat the past where committees just run and board directors come and go and we just do what the committee says.

I don't think that that's good oversight of our own work on our part, and it creates a circumstance where staff is actually driving what comes through the committees instead of the board, because staff is who's always there.

So it's also a standard practice, a quick every two years, Does this still work for us?

It does.

Great.

We keep going.

And it's an opportunity to expand the scope or adjust the focus if that's what the board wishes.

Another clarifying point I'd like to make from the amendment is that committee memberships I stated for one year because that's generally how we do our liaison and assignments.

It doesn't mean that people can't serve more than one year, but we assign them every year.

That's also not a departure from past practice.

The one I wanted to most clarify was that the amendment does not limit the Finance and Audit Committee's ability to monitor district finances.

There was one line in there that says monitor or review financial reports.

I actually just moved it into the first bullet because it is so important, and that was and people are reading quickly, whatever, interpreted as me suggesting that the Finance Committee not monitor finance.

So just for clarification, it was just put in the first bullet because of the priority about it.

The board already reviews instructional operations through a number of different mechanisms.

So again, the reason for adding non-instructional operations to the language of the Finance Committee actually expands the scope.

of the finance committee.

It does not limit it.

And then my big concern is about facilities and capital.

And so given the description of what's in the policy as operations committee, It was a suggestion that we maybe change the name to reflect it.

Emails were saying that guts it.

The content didn't change.

I personally thought it was a little more reflective of what the work of the committee actually was.

The language of the actual committee didn't change.

And then the amendment clarifies that the superintendent is responsible for assigning staff members.

In the past, again, board members ran staff, ran committees as though that was our staff.

That is a use of district resources that we don't have authority over and shouldn't expect that we have authority over.

So I just wanted that in there to help us all understand that when we form a committee, it's a committee of the board and we work with the superintendent to support that, but we can't expect or obligate staff time and resources.

Again, that's not a personal opinion of mine, that is a clear and effective expectation and practice.

So all of that being said, That's a lot.

I genuinely did not think this was going to be such a big deal because we had already talked about it and because for me these were fairly reasonable and minimal adjustments to support our work.

But clearly we need more time to talk over these details and I totally agree.

The policy committee is a great place to take up this conversation and consider some of these points.

And so all of that being said, I'm requesting us a little bit more thoughtfulness on all of our parts so that we can argue about a lot of things that are actually happening.

We don't need to create new things to argue about that are not what's happening.

So a little more thoughtfulness and patience and communication with folks.

And in that vein, I am rescinding the amendment so that we can get this off the ground and move this more detailed conversation into the committee with more time for folks to digest and consider and whatever else.

And I'm excited to approve the underlying item.

So thank you for that time.

Thank you, Director Rankin.

And again, I wanna say, I think that there's a lot of great things in there and I look forward to the conversation in the policy committee on this.

We're now moving back to, or we are, I guess, still in discussion in the underlying amendment to board policy number 1240 committees.

I'm going to just go to first I think to the sponsors to see if they have anything and then we'll go to the full board.

So Director Mizorahi.

Yeah, I'll follow the example of the student representatives and not go through everything, since we already had introduction at the last meeting.

I would just highlight two points.

I mean, one, to your point, Director Rankin, about just the conversation around this, I think that, well, sometimes we might disagree about what should be in what committee or whatever, and I think that there is genuine good faith on everyone's part to maybe correct the fact that or feeling like we can do our work better if we have some committees, but also wanting to honor the fear of not going back to committees that weren't working.

So it's finding that right balance between having standing committees and having ones that work, and I think that everyone who was doing work on this was trying to get to that and I appreciate that sometimes we can also disagree in a way that is agreeable and just trying to get to the right answer.

That said, there are just a few underlying changes to the original language that was based on the discussion that we had at our board retreat.

I just want to highlight those.

Everything else is as discussed at the previous meeting.

So one is that there will be a board review and and decision to revise, retain, or evoke every year.

That's the first change.

The second is that student representatives will have an advisory position on the committees.

The third is that the finance and audit committee will be provided with updates on changes to the waiting staffing standard, which is a big part of the budget.

So that's why that will be reviewed in that finance and audit committee.

And then there was just some additional clarification on the audit and corrective action plans that will go to the finance and audit committee and which of the which of the audits will go to the finance and which will go to the operations committee.

So those are the only changes and clarifications.

It's not a new amendment we have to vote on separately.

It's just part of the underlying language now.

Director Lavallee.

Yeah, thank you.

It's going to be a little bit of a repeat of what Director Topp had said as well, that some of these factors that Director Rankin proposed in the amendment I think are really good of consideration, both based on the history of how committees have worked within the district and kind of the failures of them, and also for operations of the board.

I'm really glad we can vote on them without this right now and continue this work in the policy committee to really clarify and nail down how these work in a much higher degree in that committee moving forward.

So I appreciate all the time that was spent and discussion that was spent on that item and learning about that.

So really appreciate it and appreciated all the feedback to our original amendment to board policy number 1250 within our meeting over the weekend.

Other directors?

Vice President Briggs?

Yeah, thanks.

I just was reflecting on my early governance training when I first joined the board.

And one of the things that we were cautioned about was the whirlwind.

When you get caught up in all the things happening around putting out fires that aren't actually years to put out and then nobody's doing the job of the board and that really resonated for me and I will say like I have felt very much like a firefighter for the last several months and it has come at the expense of us passing policies, as we heard tonight from a number of students, that they need and want and that we should have passed a long time ago.

So I am very supportive of the idea of committees if it allows us to better do our job, but if there is any What I'm concerned about, what I really don't want to see happen is a lack of role clarity coming out of these because we have a job to do.

Superintendent Scholdner has a job to do.

We have different jobs.

We need to start really doing our job because that's what we're here to do.

And I feel personally that we have failed to do that.

So I support this and I feel very strongly that we need to be thoughtful about making sure that we're staying in our lane.

Other board directors, Director Song.

So I actually opposed to the addition of the board review and action to retain revise and revoke the standing committees every year because I feel that that essentially makes these ad hoc committees and I feel very strongly that we do need standing committees kind of an evergreen structure.

So we have the ability to do long term planning.

I appreciated what Evan said about feels like we're putting out fires.

We need a place to be doing the regular board work.

But What I think this highlights for us is the need for a policy committee.

I think this kind of conversation that we're having could have been hammered out in a policy committee.

And so I am very much in the spirit of trying to take the immediate steps, even if it's not quite perfect, to kind of move us forward.

I also strongly support this amendment.

We all want to talk about this, because we're all so excited to get these committees in order and get to work.

I just want to just kind of counterpoint to you, Director Song, that I actually there was some confusion over whether it was a one year review or two year review but I think especially in this first year the annual review and I actually expect sooner than annually we should be updating and shifting our policy on the committees especially with our new superintendent, that I expect that as he makes changes to the district, we do need to be ready to shift things around.

Maybe that will be happening in the policy committee, but as Director Song said, we don't want to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

We need to take this step and keep improving.

Director Mizrahi.

So on this specific issue, I think I've struggled with the same question because you want the committees to be something that feel somewhat permanent.

You also want them to be something that if we are deciding how work gets allocated, that you can actually do that and know that the committee will still be around in six months or whatever.

I also think that some of the workflow on these committees might be things that you want to carry over from one year to the next.

It might be things that don't really, especially when you think about the finance and audit committee, that don't really make sense on a January to December timeline.

So I think that there's lots of reasons to think about how we set this up.

Once again, I think that's good work to have in the policy committee to think about.

I think that the reason why I'm comfortable with this language here now is I know we're going to be taking this up in the policy committee.

I think that the first year it is good to review because I think we're going to learn a lot about like, oh, this should have been here, that should have been there.

And the other thing is that, of course, like all this language, we could revoke a committee at any time, right?

We could do that.

We could next month say, yeah, never mind.

We didn't want to do any of that, right?

Because it's always within our power to take away committee.

So this language to me, it states it.

It requires us to kind of relook at things every year.

But I think that we can maybe in the policy committee figure out the right cadence, the right timeline.

It may not even be a January timeline, but whatever that looks like.

Director Rankin?

Yeah, thanks.

Director Mizrahi actually stated what I was gonna state, which is the establishment of the board is under our policy.

It's our, it belongs to us.

So at any time, any board director, I mean, Director Song has a policy coming for introduction because that's what you'd like us to consider.

Any director can do that any time, can say, hey, I think the board should consider this.

and the rest of the board can be like, we really love that committee.

No.

And then we move on.

Or, hey, great point.

Let's adjust that.

Yes.

And then we move on.

And I don't want to open a whole can of worms, but what I think is missing that perhaps you have seen over the last week, Superintendent Scholdner, is how much the board has actually been prevented from doing its job.

We're allowed to make motions from the dais.

We're allowed to be much more nimble than we have been.

We are controlled by this agenda.

And this is, again, this is, I'm not, this is nothing against any individual staff person.

The way the entrance culture and structure that exists in SPS is to protect the district from the board.

That is how it works.

And getting something as simple as one item on the agenda, we will say, hey, can I put that on the agenda?

And staff will say, sorry, no.

Well, then I'll make the motion from the dais.

Nope, you can't.

This is also the danger of lack of board training and development, is that for three years probably, I have fought with the board office, nothing against the board office, I love the board office, but I have fought with them, I have fought with our legal team, I have fought with the superintendent, because any board director can at any time bring something for the board's consideration.

and the board can say, we hate that or we love it.

It's always at any time up to the full body.

That's what our job is.

And we have been actively prevented from doing it.

So some of the things that are like, ugh, I don't know if I want that because it could just go away, is a response to how hard it has been in this district to literally just do basic governance functions.

Again, I'm comfortable with the one-year thing.

I don't think it, I think it's, I mean, I actually proposed every two years.

Just to make sure that like, hey, is this still working for us?

Also every two years, there's new board members elected.

So part of onboarding could be learning about the existing policies in December, or committees in December when you're a new board member.

And then in January, the full board has a conversation and says, hey, did that make sense to you?

Did you have any other things?

Board says, Yeah, we love it.

We want to keep going.

You approve it and just continue.

It doesn't have to be an act of Congress.

This is just how the board works as a body of seven where no one person has authority.

So I'm just saying that to say like we really need to take control of our own work and I think and hope that our superintendent will actually support us in doing that unlike who knows how many years back, previous superintendents.

But again, all of this can be hashed out more in the policy committee, but I had to get that out.

It actually shouldn't be this so pulling teeth to make a little bit of incremental change in a policy.

It should actually be able to happen pretty easily and publicly.

Other board director comments?

Director Smith.

Sorry, I have one slight question that I forgot to say earlier with how much we have to talk about now, which is just about the distinction between the policy and the charters.

In the policy as it is, the committees are fairly well defined.

Will there be a separate vote on the charters later, or will they be ready to be established immediately?

They'll be ready to be established immediately.

Yes, yes.

They'll be ready to be established immediately.

Yeah.

Are we ready for a vote?

Alright.

Then I will call on staff for the vote.

And just to clarify, because there has been a lot of discussion, this is on the action item to amend board policy number 1240 committees, board policy number 6550 internal audit, board procedure 6550 BP internal audit.

And that amendment one was not moved.

Correct.

Great.

Director Smith.

Aye.

Director Song.

Yes.

Vice President Briggs.

Aye.

Director Lavallee.

Aye.

Director Mizrahi.

Aye.

Director Rankin.

Aye.

President Top.

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you everyone and thank you for your work from introduction to retreat to over the past week or so.

I appreciate that.

Since we have passed this that means that we are going to start committees and I'd like to get started as soon as possible.

So tomorrow you will see an email from Carrie that asks what two committees you're interested in serving on.

So give your top two and the goal will be to get everyone their top two or somewhere around there.

to the best of the ability possible.

So that will come in tomorrow.

That means that it's due by Friday close of business.

So Friday close of business, get your response in.

If you don't, I will come bug you.

But with that, those are our two action items.

We'll move to introduction items, but do we want a quick break?

Or do we want to keep rolling?

All right, we're gonna take a quick break.

We're gonna take a quick, Four minutes is too short, probably, so let's do...

Where's my equity wrap?

Well, we will go to 6.50.

We'll take a break till 6.50.

A whole nine minutes, yes.

Alright, it is technically past our 6.50 break mark, so we're going to join back together here, but we're missing a few directors.

All right, so we have five directors back, so we're going to get started.

I'm going to ask the audience if you want to continue your conversation to go out into the foyer area, and we are going to get back to the meeting of our business.

We're going to move introduction items on today's agenda, and we're going to start with the So just to provide a little bit of quick clarity, these items we are not voting on today.

They are just being introduced.

We will have board discussion and then they will come back for a vote likely at our next meeting.

So first item is the approval of the student assignment transition plan.

I'm going to ask folks one more time who are talking in the audience to please cease conversations or head into the hallway.

All right, thank you.

And so the first item again is the approval of the student assignment transition plan.

We've previously had presentations on the major changes, but we will hear briefly from Chief Operating Officer Podesta before we move into conversation.

Thank you, President Topp.

I just wanted to clarify a little bit of a process issue around this bar.

I think the board has heard me say before that confession is good for the soul.

What I would like to talk about is We have taken most of the action that's in this student assignment transition plan.

There are several kind of minor updates and three substantive things that have happened.

maintained highly capable cohorts at our existing cohort schools.

That's something we talked about extensively and did for the current school year.

We talked about changing the open enrollment timeline.

We discussed that last spring and summer.

We went ahead and implemented that.

and starting tomorrow we're gonna open enrollment for two highly capable cohort sites in the south end.

None of those, I don't believe that's a policy violation.

I think that's a practice violation.

Normally we do these things and get a vote on the student assignment transition plan so that's the confession part is hey we're doing it differently than we've done in the past.

the relevant policies give the superintendent broad authority to make program relocations and adjustments.

So as former Director Sarju pointed out, I think this is an area where you're letting the superintendent do their job.

These are decisions that I mostly had a hand in, so I just wanted to make that clear, but I think folks, in talking about this, we're assuming there's some vote and approval for the steps we've taken and the step we're about to take.

These are administrative actions and I just want to make that clear, just so there was transparency in how we're doing this.

As President Taup noted, we did kind of the pseudo introduction of this at the January 21st meeting and went over the substance of the most significant change, adding highly capable cohort sites in the South, and the laundry list of other more cosmetic changes, if you will.

So I think the subject has been introduced in advance of being on this agenda, so I thought I would turn it over for questions from directors.

and let my colleagues answer the substance of questions you might have that are in more detail in the discussions we've had in the past, so thank you.

Put it up now for conversation or questions from directors.

Director Song.

I saw that there were changes to the addition is related to the newcomer program so for some of our newer directors including myself what were these changes and I think I'm trying to understand when you are a MLL student like kind of walk us through the enrollment, what school you're assigned, what your classroom experience is like and I would like to find out how students are assigned to the Seattle World School.

relatedly.

Good evening, directors, and I just wanna say I'm really happy for Fred Podesta's soul that it's feeling good right now, so that's great, after the confession.

You asked a few questions, I will speak as best as I can to them.

Our newcomer program is something that our students who are newly arrived in Seattle or in the United States, they can choose to be enrolled at a school that specifically has those newcomer services.

where they can receive more intensive instruction support.

However, many of our families prefer to go to their neighborhood school.

Oftentimes they're arriving and have a community here or a community of supportive people and so they would like to go to their neighborhood school.

So many of our newcomers actually prefer to enroll in their neighborhood school where they also will receive the kind of support that they should be receiving.

Your next question was what kind of experience do they have?

I would want to allow my colleagues including our principals and directors of schools to speak to that.

What I can say is that it is absolutely required and expected that we serve and support our students that are enrolled in our schools.

that doesn't mean there might not be variability but really the intent and our children are brilliant learners.

They actually learn quite quickly when they're in their school environments.

I can say as my most recent principalship we had wonderful bilingual support staff and wonderful gen ed support staff who were very attentive to the needs of their students and their linguistic needs in their classrooms.

There's a combination of learning to speak English and also learning the content that's in classes.

and so that's a really beautiful balance and that might vary depending on elementary, middle or high school.

So again, students can elect to go to that newcomer support but more often we find students and families preferring to go to their neighborhood school.

As far as enrollment in Seattle World School, that is something again that can be opted into by families.

Not all of our students, not all of our families want to go to Seattle World School, but those who do, it's a wonderful opportunity for them.

And they can make that choice and they can enroll, it's a continuous enrollment opportunity for them.

the point of enrollment, somebody from the district is working with these families to help them understand what the different options are.

Absolutely.

And our admissions team is reflective of all of the languages, at least our top languages and more.

so we have a really great group of staff who are able to provide that linguistic support for our families as they're looking at their options.

Oftentimes they are working with other community groups and so we've really worked hard to present as an enrollment team and admissions team.

We've actually gone out and met with various groups in our community to help talk about enrollment, talk about admissions, talk about the opportunities that there are.

We can always do better.

So we're really open to suggestions and recommendations for how we can do better to reach out.

Yeah I think the kind of I had heard feedback that while we've made some of these changes some of the educators at the neighborhood schools have felt like their school is not adequately supported to serve these multilingual students and so I think it's one thing to say that we want to honor the the wishes of the families, but we also have to make sure that once they're in those schools, the students are well supported.

And when we look at the student outcomes, we know that we have a lot of work that needs to be done to helping our multilingual students.

And, you know, I'm a dual language immersion parent.

I'm very passionate about it.

And I think I, you know, kind of what Manuela said during public testimony, absolutely being true.

Like for years, community has talked about the need to have set-asides for the newcomers, they should be able to access dual language immersion programs, so perhaps it's not this round, but I really think that this is something that needs to be picked up.

Thank you so much for that.

I agree, I think that it's something we're always wrestling with, and my good colleague Michelle Oda, who oversees our international and multilingual services, works very hard to make sure that we're trying to get our staff out and supporting, but certainly it's not always flawless, but we try to be responsive and our staff do wonderful work.

I think I just want to speak to the fact that dual language immersion is identified for us as primarily a support for our students who are primarily multilingual.

and we've done some good work with a task force that Manuel Eslay was part of to look at potential recommendations for if we were to think about expanding that, we would want to look at where our students live.

Certainly those are all things that as we think about program placement and how we're developing our services and supports, we certainly do want to look at that.

Thank you.

Yeah, to tag along to what Director Son was talking about.

Prior to COVID, Multilingual families, newcomers, local families would come to enrollment here and there would be or come to an enrollment site of some kind and there would be actually a person and there were more people staffed at the desks back there that spoke different languages that would to sit with a family and tell them what their choices were.

We also used to have more BOC, Bilingual Orientation Centers, in some of our elementary schools.

Those faded away kind of under this guise of inclusion.

I completely believe you that there are families and students that are having a good experience going to a neighborhood school.

I also know for certain that there are children in our buildings that do not speak English and are sitting in a room surrounded by people that they can't understand.

and they're not learning English, they're also not accessing instruction.

So by the time they get to middle school or high school, we have already failed them.

With World School, again, prior to COVID, it used to be, oh, you're a newcomer family, would you like to go here and have these services, or we have this program called World School.

And it used to be six through 12, now it's just high school.

Not because families didn't want it, but because our system was actually directing them away from it.

So we weren't giving families the choice to understand.

My understanding, and you can look into this and maybe I'm wrong, but my understanding is that part of the pandemic, the move from in-person enrollment to online, which is now pretty much what every enrollment is, you go online and enroll, World School, at least last year, maybe it's changed, is grouped with other option schools.

So if you are a newcomer family and you go through the menu of enroll my child, what's your address?

You actually get assigned to your neighborhood school.

You don't get the kind of drop down of would you like to go to world school?

There's a program that we have for newcomer students.

You get assigned to your neighborhood school.

and most people stop there and say, okay, that's my school.

You have to know that there's this choice that exists and go through the menu and select it as an option school and choose it during open enrollment.

That is not at all accessible or clear, that that's not just like a, would you like this fun program?

But like, here's a school that was actually intended to meet your needs if you would like it.

And so, again, not doubting that things are happening different ways for different students, but I would like the superintendent to understand that I believe that prior to COVID, we were a little more intentional about, hey, you just got here, here's what school, here's what we have to offer you, and here's this, and importantly, in the language that the family speaks, because a lot of people who are new to our country want to do the right thing and follow directions, especially under the current climate where you don't wanna stand out and step awry or do something that could put you at risk.

And I think we need to double down on our efforts to make sure that families understand what's available to them.

Yeah, so related to that actually, In terms of student assignment and enrollment, I disenrolled one of my kids and then re-enrolled him.

Personal reasons that make sense but may sound weird right now.

But he was disenrolled for about a month and re-enrolled.

In our re-enrollment, I was asked to state his country of birth.

I don't know why we need to ask that.

I'm assuming that's just like a legacy leftover data collection from something in the form, but it's a required box to fill to enroll your child in Seattle Public Schools is to say where you were born.

It's troubling for a number of reasons.

Obviously, people are not gonna want to identify themselves that way.

It's our obligation to provide education regardless of country of origin or citizenship status.

It also, we could be a military family, my kid could have been born in Germany, and we could have moved here when he was two, and that's totally irrelevant to his school experience.

So I don't know why we ask that, but I don't think we should.

Duly noted, absolutely, yeah.

The concerns that I have are not going to be for this cycle of the student assignment plan.

They go back to concerns that I've had for a really long time about program placement and services in terms of dual language, the difference between dual language and multilingual services.

We can't interchange those.

And some kids even at a dual language program may also need MLL services.

and so we can't make it so you're picking one or the other.

Same with highly capable, as a testifier said and as I have said at that table many, many times, if your child qualifies for anything more than resource, which is again an artificial container that we've created that has to do with staffing ratios, you have to either choose to, if you qualify for special education and highly capable, our system currently means that you either have to forgo highly capable services or waive your right to an IEP and I just like I don't expect that to be again day 11 I get it but these are things that we have been talking about for so many years and we have to stop just talking about the same thing year over year over year.

The same, another speaker mentioned, we do have two wait lists, if you have a disability or if you don't.

If you are highly capable and you don't have an IEP, you can go to your neighborhood school, you can go to the HC site, or you can go to an option school.

If you have a disability, you may not get to go to any of those.

if they don't have your service model.

You may say, oh, sorry, they don't have that there or it's full, but you can go to this other school that's not your neighborhood school and not a choice for you.

That, to me, is just certainly not reflective of even a good school district, much less the greatest.

And I just think these are logistical things that live they live technically in the student assignment plan.

It's hard to talk just about the student assignment plan without spilling into these other things because it is the document that says here's where students go to school.

And so I'm just kind of dumping that on you as some background and also with hope and excitement that as a strong instructional leader and someone who's committed to us for, as you say, as long as we'll have you, I do believe that you will seriously take a look at these practices and so I just want to be able to provide the context for you that yes this is just a technical document about where students attend but it really does define what our students actually have access to in ways that are I don't believe in line with our values or expectations.

And Director Rankin, I just want to thank you for that and affirm, you know, second, all of what you're saying.

I think that special education is a service and not a place.

And certainly in our vision for well-resourced schools, we did envision a potential where we would have a full range of services at every school.

but absolutely hear that and I look forward to working with the superintendent on this and working on just our overall vision of what equity and geographic equity looks like throughout our district, so thank you.

Director Lavallee.

Yeah, thank you.

Plus one to what my fellow board members have said.

Additionally, I want to point out that there was the removal from the previous meeting where you had removed the guarantee return to your neighborhood school, which had been proposed in the initial presentation of this.

I do want to say that I had talked to a number of people who got very panicked about that and changed decisions that they were making during that application process based on that information.

So proposing a change to the process mid-process and presenting to the board and then having parents kind of spin and make various decisions based on not knowing what was going to happen is damaging.

I'm concerned because the same thing is happening currently with our HC students.

where they're having to make a decision and not knowing what's going to happen and where they're going to be able to go and what services might actually be offered at those schools.

Because we have no information, or parents have no information, I mean we as a board don't either, of if those are going to have what scale of learning in them?

Are they going to be accelerated by two grade levels in math?

Or is it just going to be one?

How are those programs going to work?

So we lack a lot of clarity in that information.

There's also a lot of lack in clarity.

We finally do have a map that was delivered to us in the meeting and then has since been changed as well.

We don't really, we've just received that.

We don't necessarily have clarity on how that was planned, how the sites were selected.

I know I've gotten a few different answers to that and it's been kind of variable.

And what alternatives were considered.

So we don't really have any of the information of how these things were really decided.

were just getting submitted a document of very confusing information that parents are now reading through and trying to make decisions for their kids with emails that are like, if the board does this, then you might be able to know something.

So it's created just the timing of this, the unclarity of it has created a bunch of anxiety within the communities.

Thank you for that.

Certainly that is, we can own that, absolutely.

I will speak a little bit to the removal of the not guaranteed assignment to your neighborhood school.

You know, we are, adapting and evolving, particularly with this addition of both the highly capable sites and with the commitment to expanding access to choice.

So that's a really other significant part of this student assignment transition plan by moving the timeline up into January.

The intention was then to be able to allow access to much more choice earlier on, which we are going to be doing, and We wanted to maintain the opportunity, first of all, to make sure that our neighborhood schools can serve all of our students, but with that specific situation with Thurgood Marshall, we realized we feel like we can make that work.

The change in the map was a reflection of looking at which schools were going to be feeding into Thurgood Marshall.

We were aligning with our middle school feeder patterns, but realized that two schools in particular are pretty geographically close to Thurgood Marshall, and looking at the distance analysis, decided really it would make more sense for them to go to Thurgood Marshall, but realized that that was a last minute change.

I'll let Dr. Montgomery speak to the kinds of services that we are providing, but just wanna acknowledge the selection of sites.

We are always, whenever we look at service models and program placement, we want to look at a variety of components that make that something that's going to be effective for our students and for our community.

We're going to look at the building facility itself.

We're going to look at enrollment, projected enrollment, current enrollment.

We're going to look at the readiness of the school, the readiness of the leader, the readiness of the staff.

and we're gonna look at all of those things when we think about making those decisions, but realize that there's not always a direct and easy way to make that choice, but all of those factors together brought us to the decisions that we have right now with Rainier View and Alki.

But I will also let Dr. Montgomery speak to the service models, thank you.

I'll speak very quickly.

These two new sites are just a small part of the SATP and there's actually a lack of clarity about whether or not they need a vote.

We as the HC department are prepared if the board gives us the approval and the superintendent.

We're prepared as soon as tomorrow to send out communications to families with clarity, to clarify the maps, to allow a choice In that communication, we are clear, we are prepared, and it's expected that the math acceleration that is happening at Cascadia, Thurgood Marshall, and Decatur would happen at Rainier View and Alki.

Likewise, the language arts acceleration.

also should happen in consistency with those two sites.

These are eventually would be our five HC elementary sites with a very specific grade level acceleration model in those two subject areas.

So we are, you know, as Dr. Campbell said, the site consideration took in many factors.

We do have two school communities that are really really on standby right now.

They're excited to have these programs there.

I know families are excited about them as well.

And if we can, we'll send out this communication as soon as tomorrow with that clarity.

The other point of clarification that we're sending out is that the timeline for families to make this choice will be March 31st.

And there's been some different language floating around since January about late applications, etc.

But we feel that with all this lack of clarity, we need to be consistent and March 31st will be the timeline for our AHC families to make their final decisions.

And then circling back to this process timeline.

So the decision before us really was, because this is evolving, just as we speak and wrapping this up, do we let the perfect be the enemy of the good?

Do we want to offer sites this year?

Or do we want to sort every aspect of this out, the service area, geography, all those things?

and get it done as quickly as we can.

We knew how many students were going to be identified.

We knew we would have capacity issues at our existing sites.

We've been hearing for a long time.

People really wanted solutions in the South End.

So while this was, I think, as quickly as the team could have put it together, but that was the decision that we had to make in the winter.

Do we go and try to get this done as quickly as possible so we can offer it this fall, or do we wait a whole other school year?

And I think we're making a practical decision.

I don't think there's a question about whether this needs a vote or not.

Ultimately, I think the superintendent has his authority.

I think we've discussed it with Superintendent Schildener.

So I think we just want to make clear is clear that we're planning to go and open those sites up for enrollment and start communicating with families.

We did describe those sites at the January meeting, so while there are details, and certainly now people understand the geography, we will be as flexible as possible to make sure people can avail themselves.

They are going to be brand new, so there will be more explanations needed about the service model and how it's going to work, but I think this, You know, we've heard a lot of support.

We certainly got a round of applause at the January meeting.

I think people are happy that these are offered.

Everybody would like to know more.

I don't think folks want to wait a whole other year to learn all that.

So I think we're confident the right thing to do is make this service available to people.

Director Nizarahi.

Director Rankin.

Thanks for coming back to me.

I'm really excited, and I think a lot of people are, that we're taking some serious steps to expand access to highly capable.

I just want to make sure that we're not just complaining and worrying.

This is an important step towards providing more access to more students.

I do have concerns about the longer term facilities use and capacity and what assurances or or even not assurance, it's just clarity.

Can we provide like, and this is more programmatic, are these the sites now forever?

Or is this a temporary solution that could change?

I think people, as long as they understand, are actually flexible.

It's when we say, this is it, and we'll never have to talk about this again, and then it changes that it's very upsetting, because people set their family schedules.

They figure out getting siblings to multiple schools.

They do all these things.

At the same time, if we say, hey, it's not perfect.

This is what we're doing right now, and here's what you can expect from us next, that is extremely helpful.

Buys a lot of goodwill, and also just helps people understand that it's not one and done.

And so I do wonder as we move through a whole number of other pieces of board work, building use, facility, whatever, that we're not setting up an expectation that this is now forever unless it actually is.

So I'm just kind of, yeah, I do have, I am excited about the responsiveness and that we're moving quickly to provide something that has been asked for for a long time.

And I'm a little bit nervous that I don't see this in the context of like a longer range facilities and program plan.

I think it's a great concern to have.

I can say with confidence this is not intended to be temporary.

I don't think, I agree with you, I don't think it would serve anybody well, any parent, any student, any school, to have this be a temporary location.

If we're gonna move forward with this, we're gonna move forward with this because there's work that the schools, both school communities are going to do to make this a wonderful learning experience for everybody in that school.

That said, our capital team, which I work closely with, and our enrollment team are probably the most conservative folks you will find in terms of acting in a way that might not be sustainable.

They are very confident that both sites will be sustainable, both in terms of the facility and the future enrollment.

we have looked at the projections, we look at the facilities, so our intention would never be to do something that we would then have to reverse because that's not healthy for anybody and we recognize that and it's certainly not healthy for our students or for the educators.

Okay, and then also in terms of not being one and done, and I do not want to have a whole debate about this, but you may be a guess what I'm about to say.

Two years ahead in math and one year ahead in ELA is actually not gifted education.

It's accelerated learning.

So I hope that this isn't where we say, we've solved it, and now this is gifted education forever, because I really truly think we can do better.

So I also want to make sure that we're not saying, we did it, we provided more access, and now we're done.

There's a lot more I think we can do, and I say again, in the 80s, as an elementary student in Laurelhurst, I used to walk to the fifth grade classroom and take math.

The other question I have is actually about high school.

And it, I think, applies to option schools at the elementary level also.

It's great that we're expanding choice and filling the schools that people want.

I don't know if...

It is not my understanding that all these schools have a really firm support and grasp of expanding their staff and their programs that quickly.

So like Cleveland STEM is a highly desired school.

I know some really amazing educators there.

Their principal is really strong.

and their program works really well as it is.

And so just are we, how thoughtful are we being about like, you actually can't just be like, well, we'll just have more of it.

Their community, what they have, are we giving, and also the questions about the levy staffing, are we, in our excitement to provide more access to choice, are we giving buildings enough support and opportunity to make sure that they don't just find themselves with, oh my gosh, we have so many more kids and now we have to hire so many more staff and now this and this and this and it ends up actually creating a lot more stress.

Again, I'm not suggesting we back off on that, but I just haven't really heard that being thought about and the mobility for also teachers that this is going to create between buildings.

I wish we had time to see like some modeling out.

We're not seeing that, and I just kind of want to go on record as being like, I'm extremely nervous, and I think that's a little bit short-sighted.

I appreciate that, and I'm sure...

Sorry, I want to say we did expand access to Cleveland last year, so we have a little bit of a model for them.

What they're going to experience this year is about equivalent to what happened last year, and they handled it beautifully, and they have expanded really well.

so that really is our next phase of work is to work with schools around that very thing.

Certainly again I need to bring in my colleagues that are our executive directors of schools and curriculum instruction and partnership on this.

So critical that we all work together that we are not separating ourselves out in terms of enrollment, programming, those things all go hand in hand but I couldn't agree more.

How we do this is absolutely critical so thank you.

Other directors?

Director Smith.

Yes, are we going alphabetically?

I just want to, sort of in a similar vein, but balancing, I think you said, well, there's the urgency of now.

We don't want to miss our chance to expand access to the HCU schools or program.

but that this isn't a temporary solution and so there's the cost of delaying which we don't want to do because it means students don't get access for a whole other year but there's also the cost of like have we chosen the right locations and at the speed of board work we first saw these locations at the last regular meeting and so it seems like a very hasty choice that seems like it would also have a high cost if it turns out it wasn't the right choice and so I just have you know dissatisfaction around that.

Not that I want to stop the process, but just I don't want to state that.

I think maybe if it turns into an operations thing and this is the superintendent's job, that could be.

Superintendent Schuldner.

Yeah, thank you.

So first of all I really appreciate all the thought that the board has put into it and there's no question that this was done quickly.

One might even say hastily.

But I think that what you heard well before I became the superintendent was an overwhelming desire to create these programs.

and so I think the staff hearing that from both the board and the community was quite thoughtful in terms of the location that they chose for next year and I appreciate that the district does not want to make a decision for one year that then leads into something else but I think like many of my answers to many of these questions is we need to see how it works and then make decisions, right?

When people ask me, am I going to do X, Y, and Z, my response is everything needs to be on the table because we have to be thoughtful enough about what we do.

So I very much appreciate what's been said by staff.

I think what they heard from the community and from the board was they really want programs in the south.

There are logical reasons why these two schools were chosen and then I think we have to see how it goes.

I don't think we should make promises to anybody if we can't fulfill them and this is a new thing for this district.

It's, I think, a wonderful thing.

I think it's listening to the community, listening to the board.

So let's see, again, to use Mr. Podesta's phrase of let's not have the perfect be the enemy of the good, but where the community and the board needs to hold me accountable for is, is it working?

And if it is, we'll continue it.

And if it's not, we'll be thoughtful about it.

So I think we have to admit that this was done quickly.

perhaps even hastily, but with the best intentions of doing what the community and the board wanted.

Director Lavallee.

Yeah, I'd love to, I mean, thank you for your answer in that.

I share the concern of the location.

It serves some students really well, and I'm worried it doesn't serve other students very well at all.

I've heard from both sides everywhere, in walking around in my neighborhood, you know, texts Facebook messages from people that I've known for years, just absolutely everywhere of a difference of opinion in this.

And I'm very concerned that there are certain, there's a lot of people who are like, well, I've been so excited for this and it is just too far away.

I do appreciate the update to the map to factor some of that in, but it does leave some additional concerns where there are, you know, previously it at least followed a little bit of that middle school thing, so there are friendships that are being formed and broken and formed and broken and formed and broken, which is important for kids on a day-to-day basis and creates continuity and connectedness.

The actual questions that I have are going to, the next two questions are going to be twofold.

I know we discussed in our two-by-two meeting where I was able to ask staff some questions about this, whether there was middle school options in the middle schools that this is impacting for advanced math coursework.

And there was no clear answer in whether it was an option for students at Aki to go ahead and do that advanced coursework.

And there was a promise to get back to me on that information.

The next is that was there any sort of analysis impact done on these plans, both from the enrollment side as well as the HC part?

Because these are two parts that are These are a lot of changes in one plan that kind of hit two different ends of things.

So it's, you know, what is the impact that we expect it to be and how can we know if it met that or did not?

Thank you so much.

I will speak to that second question, and thank you, Superintendent Schuldiner.

I think we always have to be very clear about what we think success looks like.

I think that can mean different things to different people, just as different people can feel like this is a great location or not a great location.

We need to be very clear, and so a big part of accountability is knowing what are we accountable to.

We can take the action, but we need to know what will it look like if it is working, because It's going to work for some people and not for other people, but we need to be clear that that's aligning with our vision values and with the data.

So I think that that I can commit to as Paula and I work together and outgoing associate superintendent of schools who wasn't able to be here tonight, but really working on what those criteria look like that bring in both the highly capable element of it and the enrollment part of it, that how will we know if this is working?

But I will also let Paula speak to, Dr. Montgomery speak to middle school math.

Yeah, sorry, go ahead.

Sorry, I do want to clarify that.

You just told me what measurement is.

Do you have a plan on how you're measuring this?

So that's where I'm going to need to work with my colleagues on that.

Okay.

Yeah, thank you.

So this is the first time I'm hearing your question.

I was not in the two by twos with regards to middle school math.

So I will give you an answer and a commitment.

So we have five pathway HC schools.

And so all of our students, regardless of where they go to elementary school, be it one of their HC sites or a neighborhood site, will feed into those schools.

So when we're talking about Southeast, all those students will have the option to go to Washington Middle School.

Currently, we have a commitment that all of our students at our five pathway middle schools have a pathway into geometry by eighth grade.

To Director Rankin's point, that is one model of education.

It is not the only model of gifted education.

But we have a commitment because right now we have second graders taking fourth grade math at our HC sites.

So we have a commitment and a promise in the staffing and the credentialed teachers at five of our middle schools right now.

The question, and it's something that we are going to have to dig deeply into internally, I believe, is do we attempt to offer this at all middle schools?

Do we have the resources?

Do we have the teaching staff?

Will we have the class sizes to make those geometry classes work everywhere?

Or do we stick to our five pathway middle schools?

And I think that's a longer conversation.

I love that we're having this talk right now because it's February and these are conversations that we should be having over many months because they're touching on the academics in our middle school, it's touching on gifted education, and it also plays out in our student assignment transition plan as we're seeing tonight.

for next fall.

We don't have a quick answer for that.

I think more about fall 2027, where we maybe can start to have some conversations about what do we believe should be happening in middle school math for all kids.

and do we believe that the HC students and the two-year acceleration is the best model?

It is the model that we've commended to with families.

Our second graders at this point in time have fourth grade math.

They will need eighth grade math as they go on to high school.

I'm sorry, geometry in eighth grade.

I think I'm still not clear on what were the criteria that led you to choose the two locations.

What were the things that you consider?

Because there are clearly like logical reasons, but I'm fuzzy on what were the criteria that you looked at?

We looked at the capacity within the building.

We looked at what we looked at for in terms of projected enrollment.

So as we looked at enrollment moving forward, would that coalesce or work well with the existing projections?

And then we looked at leadership in the school.

We looked at sort of the readiness of the staff.

and those were primarily the things that we looked at.

Thank you.

Looking to other directors.

Thank you so much, Dr. Campbell and Dr. Montgomery.

Alright we're going to move to our final item for introduction this evening amendment to board policy number 6114 gifts grants and donations and 6220 procurement this item is being sponsored by Director Song so I will turn it over to Director Song

I'm bringing this amendment for board consideration.

It would make two basic changes.

One, it would change the threshold for contract approval by the board from one million to 500,000.

And the second change would be changing the threshold for grant approval by the board from 250,000 to 500,000.

Currently, it seems like we have more board attention on things that are kind of going.

in the door versus out the door.

And so my goal is to try to bring more parity and try to balance our attention to where I think there's greater risk or impact, which I think is expenditures.

So this is an opportunity for discussion, either questions for Director Song or if we have questions for staff on a technical issue, time for discussion.

Director Rankin.

A couple questions.

Given that we just approved a policy committee and a finance committee, I think it would be a good idea for any other implications for this to be considered in one of those committees.

Particularly that threshold, and this is maybe before, I can't remember.

We have had conversation about, you know, that threshold is required for things that come to a vote of the board.

That certainly doesn't mean the board can't receive information about other things that we just don't have to go through the board action report process.

So I would love to know in terms of staff time, preparing bars and all those things, if you or staff have recommendations about and I actually, I'm not making an argument for 1 million or 500,000 either way, but either way, well noted, the stuff going out the door, is there, or never, no, not is there, there are ways for the board to receive more regular reports that at least just provide us with what's gone out the door.

that don't necessarily require board action but still come to us in a report.

So I think that's something that's important to talk about or the pros cons of threshold for board vote, but that's not the only way for us to get information.

So that's something I would be interested in kind of knowing more about or exploring, I guess.

and then I'm actually concerned about increasing the level of gifts and grants.

I would like to know a little bit more about what that applies to receiving I think, again, we're trying to get more access to information.

If a school or we are receiving over a quarter of a million dollars, I feel like that's something that we should just know where it comes from and what it's for.

Again, even if it's not necessarily for board approval, but just to understand, you know, I mean, I could make up something ridiculous, like if there was a gift for, well, I'm not even gonna bother making up a scenario, but I would like us to really understand if money's coming into a school, where it's coming from and what it's for.

And I think the $250,000 threshold has served us pretty well.

I can't think of a time that that was like, I just think it helps with transparency.

Connected to the census the procurement policy, somebody, Ellie, would you stop me if I'm not allowed to share this?

I'm pretty sure I am, about the state auditor.

She doesn't know what we're talking about.

Annually, the state auditor does annual reviews and there's part of their intake when they're determining what should we look at.

They will have their own list of here are the things we're gonna look at this year and then they will interview a board director to say, Is there anything else we should look at?

I don't know if they asked or staff asked, but I was asked to be that person this year, and I suggested, not because I believe there's wrongdoing, I want to be very clear, but I suggested that procurement is an area that we could use a little bit more of a view into, just in terms of are we aligned with our own policies in terms of procurement?

And are our policies in line with other standard best practice?

So I'm just kind of, this was just an opportunity to share that.

I think that the intake comes to the full port at some point, but I did just participate in that.

And that was an area that I recommended we get a little more insight into the procurement contracts, that kind of thing, as noted earlier, we tend to have a lot of, want more information.

So hopefully that will be useful to us also.

Director Mizrahi and the Vice President Briggs.

Yeah.

Oh.

Vice President Briggs.

Someone.

This is actually very related to what Liza just said, but I'm just trying to understand, so I'm totally tracking with the logic of lowering the threshold for board approval.

I understand what problem that's trying to solve.

I'm not clear on what problem is being solved by raising the threshold to 500,000, so I would just like to understand a little bit more about what problem that's trying to solve.

to the change from when we went from 250 to a million, there was just parity.

I think that's just like a nice, even number that this is the number of whatever that's going in and out of the district, and we all know what that number is.

The board is going to look at it.

Approve it.

That's what we had previously.

The threshold was $250 for both.

OK.

So you just wanted them both to be the same, both at $500 for simplicity?

If somebody wants to make an amendment and change it to some other number, there's just a number that I put forward.

Director Mizrahi?

Yeah.

So one thing, I do think, I don't know that we I like that we're making it easier to give us money and harder for us to spend money.

That seems like the right balance for a district that has financial issues.

One point.

Second point, something that has bugged me is when there is a contract that is just below the threshold, and then we spend over the threshold, and then it's brought to us for approval, but at that point the money has kind of already been spent.

Does this do anything to fix that, or is that just going to be a problem, but now a problem at a different amount?

Okay, yeah, I'm just curious.

Okay, maybe that'll be a future policy.

I don't really know how you handle that though either, but okay, I don't know if you have a response to that at all.

I mean, I do think that in terms of that is something I think that needs to be addressed.

And it's something that I am hopeful the newly stood up finance committee can discuss.

But I think this gives us an opportunity to have more insight into what kinds of contracts are just below our attention right now and why we have this recurring issue of you've budgeted something and now you've gone over and now it needs to be more difficult.

Now, if we lower the threshold, we'll have a greater understanding of how often things like this happen and what is the nature of them.

And maybe we can update our That was my next question.

It would actually be helpful from staff in the time in between now and when we're voting to see, like, what are the contracts in the last year that were in this delta between what we would have seen?

Is it how many is it?

And what are the types of contracts?

And I think that will be very illuminating.

We might find out your answer right now.

OK.

We may already have it.

OK.

Kurt Bettleman, Assistant Superintendent for Finance.

Just hearing the conversation, there's approximately 50 contracts that would have fallen between $500,000 and a million last year.

Director Lavallee.

Yeah, I want to go back to kind of the beginning of the meeting with this when we were looking at the latest contract that came before us that we did not necessarily understand every detail of and pulled and discussed.

you know we need more information on some of these sometimes so this isn't necessarily a point for Director Song's proposal here but when they are coming and especially if we're taking on more of these and looking at more of them context is going to be key because if we're making staff do a bunch of work and having you know 50 more come before us and we've never heard of any of the companies and we're sitting there trying to Google and figure out what's happening and why.

I don't know that that's always an efficient use of staff's time and our time.

So I think we should do that potentially, but we also need to make sure what we're doing and why and what we need to understand about it is clear and that we have been well informed at that point of time of review.

Then to my actual question, I agree with a previous board member who said that, you know, let's not reject money.

Let's make it easier to accept more money coming in.

I would like to make sure that as we go forward and do that, that the district is doing it in an equitable way.

And that doesn't, again, that doesn't necessarily conflict with your proposal.

director's song, but trying to make sure that we are factoring equity into it so that, you know, if somebody comes in with $3 million for a specific school, that, you know, that doesn't mean that some kids get a great education and others do not.

So how are we making sure that's a little bit balanced within there?

Again, that's not contradicting the need to allow us to bring in more money in easier ways.

Vice President Briggs.

to be clear, I was in no universe suggesting that we should make it hard for people to give us money.

So I just, but I had the same concern as Director Lavalle around lack of accountability, around large sums of money being inequitably distributed.

That was like really just the root of my concern.

I'm very happy for people to give us all the money.

So what I've taken away from this is we would like all the money please for our students and our kids, other directors.

Director Smith.

I just have a very quick add-on to Director Mizrahi's question about the number of contracts.

And Dr. Buddleman, that was very impressive that you had those numbers so quickly, and I don't expect that kind of response.

But I would be interested not just to see how many contracts were in that delta, but how many contracts were over a million, how many contracts were in the zero to 500,000, and kind of what the distribution is, not just the single data point.

so maybe later if the superintendent authorizes it.

So first of all thank you for the question and not that I want to make Kurt's job even harder but I think A follow-up question, if I were a board member, you might want to ask, is not just what are they in terms of the number, but I think it might be very helpful for the board to know what kind of contracts they are.

That way you'll understand that maybe a lot of it happens to be construction.

and so we're always happy to share that this is the cement company and that's the deal, but if in fact the differential between half a million and a million start to become more pedagogical in nature, more academic in nature, that's just something to know.

So Kurt, I appreciate that you When you can present, it would be helpful to know not just the number, but what are we talking about.

Just grouping it as construction, pedagogical, I think that would help the board quite a lot.

Any further discussion?

Oh, we did it.

That is it.

It's not even 8 o'clock.

I'm very proud of us all.

We have a little bit of a break till our next special meeting, which I think is on the 4th.

So there being no further business to come before the board, the board regular meeting is now adjourned at 749. Thank you, everyone.