School Board Meeting Jan. 23, 2019 part 2

Let's come back to order so we can hear from our constituents please.

As we have now reached 530 p.m.

we'll go next to public testimony.

The rules for public testimony are going to be on the screen shortly.

There they are.

And I would ask the speakers be respectful of these rules.

We note that the board does not take public comments on items related to personnel or individually named staff.

The majority of the speaker's time must be spent on the topic he or she has indicated they wish to speak about.

Also want to note that each speaker has two minutes speaking time and when those two minutes have ended you need to conclude your remarks.

You will have a yellow 30 second warning on the podium there.

And while we're talking about the podium I want you all to notice.

This extraordinarily beautiful new podium that was made by our staff Tino Feleu I hope is a correct pronunciation.

The painter was Terry Dickerson.

Feuille Feuille I apologize for what I might be doing to your name and our own Bruce Skowra coordinated the work.

If you have ever had the opportunity to take a tour of this building.

And the wood shop out back the place is filled with artists people that care about your children people that save money people that recycle and you can take a white glove to the place because they do such a good job maintaining it and they build a great deal of casework for our hundred and five schools and we thank them and it's beautiful and enjoy it this evening.

Ms Shek please read off the testimony speakers three at a time and if you hear your name two or three get ready to roll.

Thank you so much.

We very very much appreciate you coming down and we're listening.

First up for public testimony we have Marcus Lindenberg followed by Lillian King and then Chris Jackins.

Good evening my name is Marcus Lindenburg and I first want to thank you for giving me your time to speak about the center school.

I have been at the center school since my freshman year and I'm now a senior.

Throughout my time there I've seen many changes in the classes that we have and the funding that we have.

As I'm sure you know our school is a very small one.

with about 240 students this year.

Because of this filling our quota for classes is much more difficult.

Although larger schools might need only 2 percent of their student body to sign up for classes such as AP classes in order to fill that quota we need a full 12 percent.

This funding model makes it difficult to keep these classes afloat which can mean the world to many students.

The center school has made great progress as far as what classes we have including a music class this year and our theater program.

Those are in addition to our ethnic studies class which is in senior year.

All of these classes are well loved but struggle with minimal funding and I worry how long these classes can stay afloat because of this.

I understand the stress that is put on the general fund but I truly believe that funding these programs can be an investment by showing the talent of SPS students.

However these SPS students cannot show their potential if they are not getting the physical and mental health support that is needed.

At the center school we have a school nurse one to one and a half days per week which is far less frequently than other schools.

This is not something that can continue.

This is a very serious problem that can't just be brushed aside.

As for the other side of health I know many students who struggle with depression anxiety or otherwise.

We're lucky to have Southwest Youth and Family Services come but we need a district provided mental health counselor with the right care support and funding center school students can flourish and go on to do great things.

And when they do the name of Seattle Public Schools can follow them as a great ally in their endeavors or it can be an adversity that they had to fight against.

Thank you for your time.

Hello my name is Lillian King.

I go to Rainier Beach High School and I went to Graham Hill Elementary for my entire elementary career.

I'm here to talk about desegregating the Graham Hill elementary school and its dual programs.

I went through the Montessori program my entire years at Graham Hill and I was in a classroom of white privileged kids with white teachers that taught us things from the perspective of white privileged people.

And I have come to realize after going to Aki Kurose and Rainier Beach that that was definitely a very segregated environment and the only way to fix that segregation would be to.

to take away the Montessori program and make Graham Hill one school and sorry.

And so when I was in fifth grade I went to the contemporary program to take math classes because I needed extra support.

And when I got to the contemporary program it was this huge shock because I didn't know any of these kids.

Like at all really.

And as I made friends with kids in the class and as I got to know them I realized that some of these kids and a decent number had gone there their entire elementary school too.

And yet I had never seen them before and never known them in any way other than just in passing or heard about them from maybe other kids that played with them at recess or whatever.

It's this really big shock as a kid to realize that you don't even know like half of your school.

And it also just makes you culturally unaware of the privilege you have and it makes it much harder for you to learn from people of color's experiences later on because you haven't had that background of always doing that.

Thank you.

After Chris Jackins, we will have Paul Tibbles Riley, followed by Arlene Williams, and then Rebecca Wynkoop.

My name is Chris Jackins box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4 on the Franklin window and door replacement project.

Two points.

Number one introducing an item before full information is available reduces the time for proper review.

Number two I would welcome the new superintendent's attention to this issue.

On the 2019 2020 school year calendar the report states that an accessible version of the document may not be available.

The district had agreed to provide accessible website documents under a court settlement.

The calendar would seem an important item to make accessible.

On the waiver from the 180 day school year three points.

Number one the waiver is being requested for three years.

Is the current SEA contract a one year contract or a three year contract.

Number two it seems that there are other grounds for waivers such as snow days.

Number three can the district request a waiver due to budget issues.

A waiver of 10 days might help address budget issues.

On the transportation service standards two points.

Number one yellow bus transportation is much cheaper than Metro if one takes into account Metro subsidies.

Number two perhaps the district could remind the state of these facts switch to more yellow buses and get a cut of the money saved by the state.

On the student assignment transition plan two points.

Number one in a previous court appeal the court noted that because of a loss of school choice the plan would create and aggravate racial imbalance at a number of schools.

Number two please look at providing more school choice with transportation.

Please vote no.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Paul Tibbles Riley.

I'm a kindergarten teacher at Graham Hill.

I was here in December.

I've met many of you once again speaking about segregation at Graham Hill.

There was a parent who'd been at Graham Hill for a long time that was hoping to come tonight and various reasons were not able to.

He just wanted to remind you about the importance of this vote and for you guys to join us in desegregating our school.

And much like Lily had said that so many of our students miss out on the rich diversity that exists in our school.

We want that for all of our students.

And so we ask you to once again vote yes to allow our school to become integrated.

Thank you.

Hello my name's Arlene Williams.

I'm a parent at Graham Hill and on the PTA executive board.

I wanted to compliment Director Gearing of the strategic plan that you've been working on.

I got to see a draft of it last week at the CSEC meeting and I'm really really really excited about it and Graham Hill is aligning with that.

So this is a board I want to encourage you to approve Graham Hill's student assignment to being one program tonight.

But then also I really like it at the allocating of resources is under the theory of action.

The Alaconia resources strategically their racial equity framework and I just really as a board I'm excited where you guys are going and I think this is a good framework for it and I'm really excited where Graham Hill fits into that.

And as we all go forward let's do this together.

Thank you.

After Rebecca Wynkoop we will have Alex Zimmerman followed by Kevin McNew and then Jeff Tristman.

Thanks.

My name is Rebecca Wynkoop and I'm the librarian at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School.

I'm here today to ask you to please make our SPS librarians a top priority on a restoration plan.

Pardon me to accompany the current cuts that are being proposed by the weighted staffing standards committee.

I can give you statistics.

I can tell you that the cuts would put full time librarians in the schools of 11 percent of our students and yet 34 percent of our students receive free introduced lunch.

The proposed cuts will leave only 8 of 102 schools funded full time in libraries through weighted staffing standards and at my school under the proposed cuts students will check out 17000 fewer books.

I will teach 400 fewer classes each year and they won't be in our library.

I'd rather tell you about my students though.

Tyler names of course change to protect their privacy.

The other day came to our library asking for a book with a native protagonist that wasn't about being native.

I felt the relationship with Tyler whose gender nonconforming and found solace in our library.

Jordan who comes in every morning to talk about what they read last night.

Jordan has become a self-proclaimed reader or was a self-proclaimed non-reader but fell in love with the miscalculations of Lightning Girl.

and fell in love with reading again.

Lucinda who needed an alternate place to be during class for a couple of weeks.

She asked to come to the library.

We decided on a project she planned and implemented and completed her very first pillow using a sewing machine.

I taught her how to use a rotary cutter and a needle and thread.

Adam and Sam who came in each of the four days this summer we offered library hours and stayed for the full two hours working on puzzles talking about music our LGBTQ collection and the fact that I've known them both since they were in second grade.

Mariah who checks out new books every day related to our race relations in our world.

She's the leader of our BSU.

And we talk daily about conversations about race using her voice and being an activist.

And Kyle a student suffering from depression who was struggling to keep his emotions at bay while at school.

The library was a place he chose to come during class when he needed a break needed to cry simply needed to catch his breath.

Please make librarians a priority on a restoration plan accompanying the weighted status standard recommendations.

Thank you.

Like Alex Zimmerman is next and then Kevin McNew.

Is it OK if we switch.

It's not OK.

Hi.

My name Alex Zimmerman and I'm president of Stand Up America.

Guys, I start come to you because what has happened right now is a critical situation.

We have a fascism, and this fascism right now come to very bad condition, like all fascism that is, I know, in exactly 20th century.

You guys, teacher in your union, you are one from biggest division what is fascism support.

Support fascism.

You are fascist division.

This is exactly what is I start come here.

Because what is you doing this terrible value more than 30 year here.

You brainwashed children for many, many years.

And right now, these children come and start acting like you because you're successful.

You know what I mean?

You're here.

Council here.

Boss is here.

Democrat here.

You understand what I'm talking?

So children see this and what's happened right now.

This like Darwin, you know, natural selection.

So we have a pure fascism, 100% fascism.

Believe me, I'm expert in this.

Probably one expert in SEAT, I think.

Guys, what is you doing right now is critical, not because you brainwash people, because everything what is fascism before did this is come to life what is bad for people.

Look right now.

700,000 people in Seattle, I never see one happy face right now for last couple years.

No one.

It's exactly what you did.

Fascism always cannot be for so long.

This will be collapse in New York.

What is I call Nazi social democratic mafia with Gestapo principles.

It's exactly who you are guys and you all identical.

I go everywhere.

I go in Puget Sound Regional Council I go to Council King Country from Tacoma to Verrett I see different Seattle King Country different stand up America.

And God love this country and freedom of speech.

Next up please.

Hi my name's Jeff Creaseman I'm the school librarian at Denny International Middle School.

I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to express these thoughts in our district wide social equity work.

One of the norms we use has to do with intent the intent versus impact binary.

Now I've spoken to the before this body before and I've some of you privately and I have no doubt there's no doubt in my mind that your intent is good.

But when it comes to impact I have to wonder whose side are you on like libraries.

have a positive impact on student performance.

We have hundreds of studies to prove this and few to disprove it.

Something that cannot be said about standardized testing.

It's not just in the individual school where librarians have impact.

Librarians have impact district wide as each of us come up with solutions to problems in our schools.

We share the solutions through collaboration and guess what.

We willingly and gratefully steal ideas from each other as needed.

The more of us the more solutions and boy do we have problems.

Libraries store the wisdom of the ages.

Having librarians in the school is having access to the elders.

There are resident elders.

In the schools even the young librarians.

Why knowing all of this would you cut instead of increase the number of librarians.

The knee jerk response of course is fiscal responsibility.

But I have to ask responsible to whom.

The scarcity narrative is for the benefit of the rich.

It needs to be challenged and you are the ones that need to challenge it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

After Kevin McNew we will have Katie Ellingson followed by Craig Seasholes and Kathleen Eads.

Hi my name is Kevin McNew and I would like to speak to the issue of the cuts that are proposed for the K-8 middle school and high school librarians.

So I'm currently a point five librarian at Leschi Elementary School.

I'm also the point five technology teacher.

I've worked for Seattle School District for over 18 years 15 years in the classroom and I love Seattle and I love Seattle Public Schools.

And with that I want us to all consider what really makes Seattle so amazing and what is the spirit of Seattle.

What's the soul of our city and our economy and our landscape and everything is changing very quickly right now.

There's so many things happening so fast but that doesn't mean that we should be giving up what makes this special part of the country so wonderful.

And schools and school librarians I think are foundational to a thoughtful and an informed and happy citizenship as well as a foundation to democracy.

So this is what our future should be built on.

It's the nature of librarians and often libraries themselves to strengthen and support but not to be loud.

And however at this time with these proposed cuts choices are being made and I feel like diminishing the powers of libraries and what they have to offer.

is not really going to do anything except cause negative effects for us.

They're going to be felt by everyone.

So thinking about what you love in this city, we have to decide if access to this is somehow dependent upon technology or books or information.

If these things should be considered when cutting costs to libraries or if we should be looking for ways to get more access to libraries.

We need readers and thinkers to keep the spirit of Seattle alive not test takers and tests that make huge financial and emotional burdens upon the children and the population.

Seattle is the most educated progressive and equity focused city in the United States and we need to prove that.

So if we love Seattle we need to love libraries.

Katie.

Hi Katie Ellingson had to take a child to the hospital and so I'm Craig Seasholes but then a Seattle school substitute teacher who was in our library today would like to speak in Katie's place.

I'm Craig Seasholes I'm an elementary librarian and like Kevin 0.5 library and 0.5 technology teacher I'm also past president of the Washington Library Association.

As we all work for the passage of the two important levies it's very painful to be talking about cuts.

for a two million dollar savings for cutting librarians.

Is it worth putting significant district print and digital resources at risk.

Librarians in every building care for a two three hundred thousand dollar print collection.

How many hundred thousand dollar digital collection carts and electronic resources.

And if that's a halftime high school are those used or are those resources unused or unmanaged and unstewarded.

A cut to libraries is going to put a real vulnerability onto fixed assets which will be even harder to restore.

Two is it worth depriving students of the essential library and information technology instruction in your board meeting the other day it said teacher school librarians are not teaching staff and it pained me to see that slide because I spent all day teaching at Dearborn Park.

Our students created the MLK assembly in PowerPoint with embedded video shared those documents.

Two people working on two computers shared it with the teacher and presented a school assembly that was entirely student driven about all the other people besides Martin Luther King who spoke up for justice equity and jobs.

That's student work at the third and fourth grade level in a school with a full time librarian.

Third point we're driving families and staff away from our district.

33 Puget Sound school districts have full time librarians.

Seattle and Federal Way are the two largest who do not.

And I know many districts are challenged but many districts 33 of our neighbors are finding a way.

And so I urge everyone to keep working together to find that way.

Hello thank you for allowing me to speak.

I'm not a librarian but I am here advocating for them.

I was a former social studies teacher in the Twin Cities and here's what I know to be true.

And I also just want to give you an example of the unintended consequences because we tried this in the Twin Cities.

It's really easy to cut and look at the ratio 720 to 1. It's not that big of a deal it's not going to have that much impact but we experienced a terrible impact.

I came here first last spring and met with Dr. Kinoshita.

I was the co-chair of the integration task force in St. Paul public schools and he was the co-chair of the ethnic studies.

So we met we talked.

I was super excited.

We compared notes.

He was excited to learn from each other.

So the first piece I want to tell you is that incredibly innovative decision will backfire because you won't have social studies teachers who will know the resources that are required and they won't have collaborative instructional partners in the library to help them find the resources to work to do honor to those amazing courses.

The second consequence is going to be another equity one.

And I mean I hate to say this but this I saw happen in my own neighborhood.

The parts of the city where there is enough economic resource and where the parents understand the value of libraries.

We had parents that came together and privately funded.

so that their public school would have a full time librarian.

Those were not the schools that had the opportunity gaps.

And so they had the.

litigation know how to know how to make it legal and they just made it happen because they didn't want their own children to experience that deficit.

So that sends such a crazy message to our kids.

Libraries are places of wonder and curiosity but we're not going to use our library which leads me to the other inevitable consequence that we experienced that happened.

There is this idea that it's going to be business as usual but secondary kids.

Gosh I went to the public library in Leschi to find out more about Washington and the first person I talked to was a librarian.

Kids as good as they are need librarians to help them.

If they have innovative projects and they're trying to research things and they can't find a librarian they're going to get frustrated.

Teachers are going to get frustrated and then there also becomes these safety concerns.

So then they become these spaces with lots of books but nobody can go to because there isn't a qualified adult to help individualize the learning.

Thank you very much.

I hope you can resolve this.

My last speaker this evening is Elaine Harger.

Hi my name is Kate Eades and I am the teacher librarian at Northgate Elementary and I'm also a parent of a first grader and a soon to be kindergarten at kindergarten or at my neighborhood school John Rogers and I'm a Seattle schools graduate.

I want to bring the board and public's attention to priority one of the proposed strategic plan high quality instruction and learning experiences.

It is precisely what Seattle teacher librarians have been advocating for since we began tracking our funding data in 2015. We have been bringing attention to the inequitable funding of our library resources that provides a great advantage to our white and wealthy communities leaving our children of color behind the library funding gap between the haves and the have nots has only grown since we started pleading for your action several years ago.

We now have a school where each student is allocated only 14 cents for library materials for the year.

Meanwhile PTAs and foundations continue to pick up the slack in other schools providing nearly a quarter million dollars in library materials and approximately a quarter million dollars in additional FTE in a handful of schools for library services.

The strategic plan can pave the way for library equity.

Until then our PTAs and foundations will continue to save our library programs in some schools.

Our libraries serve the same purpose as our nurses rooms and counseling offices.

We are on the front lines of caring for our students social emotional health.

We maintain the heartbeat of our buildings as teachers librarians and caretakers both ensuring our children are on a path to intellectual freedom through the joy of learning and by providing an essential safe space in each of our buildings.

Our libraries need the strategic plan we need our levies and we need our district leaders to have our backs.

We have been and will always be the litmus test of school health.

Please do not cut us out of the equation.

Thank you.

Elaine Harger library teacher from Washington Middle School.

Yesterday Los Angeles teachers won several strike demands including librarians at every secondary school in Seattle.

The proposal is to cut librarians to half time.

If I had more time I'd share with you stories of helping a struggling reader find a novel that intrigued him of saving seeds in the library with science students of teaching publisher to students so that they could make zines of silk screening dozens of Black Lives Matter T-shirts.

But instead I want to share a story of solidarity.

In the early 1990s I was a librarian with the State University of New York.

The state was in a fiscal crisis.

Jobs were going to be cut and eliminated.

Instead our union negotiated across the board cuts with the promise of restoration when the crisis was over.

That promise was kept.

I don't know the district budget well enough to give you exact figures but I do know that when everyone takes a 1 percent cut the shared impact is less to each individual than that faced by a few dozen people when positions are cut by 50 percent or eliminated altogether.

But more importantly the work of all educators continues programs continue and full support of students and learning continues.

Alternatives exist.

This is the chance to be bold to be brave to think outside the box.

Our children need us to model different ways of solving economic problems.

We've already failed them when it comes to the climate crisis.

Let's make survival of the fittest a mindset of the past.

Let's show our children that society can weather economic difficulties with love compassion and collective responsibility.

Thank you.

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

OK we are back to director reports Director Mack.

Good evening and thank you very much for coming out tonight on the issues that concern you.

I know I as a board director and all of us really appreciate hearing from you hearing your perspective and then your passion also informs us and also motivates us to do this work.

I was really really moved.

Superintendent Juneau by your address to us.

And I want to also thank my colleagues and honor school board recognition month.

I appreciate how you.

Did a great job of calling out each of our strengths that we kind of all bring something to the table and I feel really grateful that we work well together as a board.

And so thank you all of you.

Center school students talked about the fact that they don't have enough classes because there's not enough teachers we're looking at.

Substantial cuts to schools next year 12 million to the WSS which means cuts to schools which means halftime librarians which means reduced assistant principals staff in the buildings and we have this inequity across the district where sometimes some schools can backfill and others can't.

It is deeply deeply distressing to me And when we had our session around the budget I could not agree to the cuts.

So I we had consensus around the cuts.

I personally said I can't.

I think the cuts to high school going from 29 kids in a class which is already high to 30. is going to reduce our course offerings make it more difficult for students to get the 24 credits.

I think that's dangerous.

I think cutting our librarians for all the reasons that you've brought out today is also really dangerous and we are in a situation where we we have to balance a budget and the state has not funded us.

And not only did not only that they have capped our levy.

We have more levy authority.

And we can't take it because they said we're going to reduce your levy.

So there we are in this impossible rock and a hard place situation on the budget.

I am going to continue to advocate for potential changes to what's cut being cut at the WSS.

And what was brought up about the restoration plan we do need to have that clarified as to what comes back.

I do think librarians are top of mind personally counselors nurses et cetera.

We need to fully fund our schools and in the meantime I want to urge you each to write your legislator your legislator here in Seattle and tell them we need levy authority increased now in Seattle.

We need action on that.

quickly because that's why these cuts are happening.

And so I urge you to contact your legislator and advocate as as we are.

I want to say a grateful thank you to staff who've been going down to Olympia and we continue to work on this issue but we don't have the money their cuts and it's damaging.

So thank you for all of you who come out and talk with us and show us.

I also need you to talk to your legislators.

We appreciate the work they've done.

It's not enough.

So there's my rant.

I I had a community meeting a couple of weeks ago and nobody showed up.

It was a beautiful Saturday.

I sat there and I was like OK so maybe people aren't feeling like there's tragedy going on so that's nice.

But I would have liked to have had some company and please know you can email and I do my best to respond.

I also attempted to join Director DeWolf's community meeting on last Saturday and it ended up canceled because the library lost power because a transformer went out so.

That's two down hopefully the next one the third one which I don't have scheduled yet.

We'll we'll be fine.

We'll we'll work out OK.

I wanted to thank staff and you probably all have seen this for their diligent work on information going out about our levies.

Ballots are due February 12th.

This is a beautiful document that gives lots of good information about those levies.

So when that should come in your mailbox there's also a lot of information on the website.

So thank you for your comments and I'll pass off to the next director.

Would that be Director Patu.

Terrific.

Thank you.

It is always great to be here and share opportunities to hopefully to see something positive or say something positive that's happening in our schools.

I'm kind of out of it mainly for the fact that I've been out of state for a couple of weeks.

And when you do that you come back and you feel like You're in a different place.

So I am really happy to be back here today and hopefully that as the week goes by looking for better ways of how to be able to find possible fundings in terms of what we're going through right now.

This is a hard times and we know that every program we have in the schools are programs that are necessary and needed.

But sometime we have to choose and pick in terms of what is it that we are going to lose.

So hopefully as we continue on to think about ways to continue on successful programs that are in existence within our school district that we are able to be able to accommodate and hopefully find funding to continue a lot of our programs.

It's really been mind boggling as I was on my trip.

I actually it came to mind when I was thinking about our budget what's going to happen.

And usually I don't think about those things when I'm on a trip but it just happened to.

It just happened to come to mind I'm thinking to myself gee I wonder what are we going to cut in order for us to balance our budget.

And that is as a board director that's a really hard decision to make because I believe that every program that we have in our schools are very necessary and they are doing great jobs of actually providing education to our students.

So as a board director it's really hard to pick and choose what do we want to take out.

What is it that we need and don't need because I believe that every program we have right now in the district is needed in order for us to provide the best education to our students.

So hopefully that we can be able to look at everything that we have and how do we balance our budget.

And that is the questions that I'm going to actually leave and say that it's always a privilege to be here and to be part of this board because I believe that we have a lot to offer.

We may not always solve problems that are oncoming but we believe with all our hearts that we can make a difference for all our students.

So hopefully that things will change and that we will see a better ending than what we're going through right now.

Thank you for coming and have a wonderful evening.

Thank you.

Director Geary.

Thank you to Adam and Marcus from the center school.

Every year we have students from the center school come and tell us about how they struggle to keep enrollment high enough to allow them to have a variety of instructors.

This year I was happy to hear that we haven't so far cut their art teacher as we have in the past.

It seems like so many years we are faced with impossible impossible decisions that impact our schools.

We are a unique district in that we provide such a wide variety.

of educational offerings and that's in large part because we have such a wide variety of students and each one of them brings a certain set of needs that we are trying to make sure that we're creating an environment that they stay engaged because each and every student is that important to us.

But it is expensive to do and we are feeling constantly pressured to.

get to some common denominator and we fight against that because the lowest common denominator doesn't work for all of our kids.

They need different kinds of settings in order to thrive and to make sure that we aren't creating an equation where some kids educational environment has just been deemed too expensive.

So that's the reality of sitting up here and making the decisions.

And I think everybody up here can think of a student that has a very specialized educational environment that takes way more than its fair share according to the state under the WSS.

So where do we go.

Where do we go to find the funds.

We fight.

We talk to people.

And we go out and we say basic education isn't a workable education and it's certainly not the education that Seattle wants for its kids.

And so we have to continue to remind Olympia that basic isn't even functioning for us and we need more.

So restoration is coming.

We will start planning that.

And we will consider we will take everybody's input into account and we will do our best to make a plan if we can shake more.

Shake more out of Olympia we will make the plan to restore the services that we know our community wants and deserves and needs for the kind of education that they want for their kids.

I agree with the person who says that it is becoming harder and harder for families in this city.

It is a message that I take continually to anybody who will listen to the people we pay.

to make decisions unlike my fellow honored board members.

So we hear you.

Thank you for coming.

We want to do our best by all of you.

So my meetings are Tuesday mornings every Tuesday morning generally at Zoka from 8 to 9 30. That's the Zoka right north of the university village in northeast Seattle my district.

You're welcome to come.

We usually have a group of people who are really interested in education just hanging out and talking about what they do a lot of them very active volunteers within our district.

So it's always a pleasure.

I hope you can come check Facebook my Facebook page if for some reason I can't make it.

Kids appointments those kinds of things pop up.

I will post that I won't be there but most Tuesday mornings I am.

So thank you again everybody for coming out.

I wish we had something to offer you right now but we'll keep your messages in mind.

Director DeWolf you wanted to respond to comments.

Yes thank you President Harris.

First just want to again really share gratitude for our students from center school for coming out and speaking about their experience at center school.

And I also just want to offer.

You know when I was in the Peace Corps I opened up a library at St. Peter's Anglican School in Belize so have a really special place in my heart for libraries and librarians.

And I think what is really something I will commit to is we'll work with the board to encourage Superintendent Juneau to identify and maybe develop a restoration plan to make sure that if there is a path forward out of this budget mess this budget gimmick that we can Make sure we're restoring in good faith the work that you do in our schools.

But I also want to be very clear about something.

Your Washington state legislature did not at all not only in its definition of basic education but in its priorities and how it is funding our schools prioritize you as librarians.

So while it is hard for us to make these decisions it is absolutely important to elevate the fact that the state of Washington defines basic education and their formulas providing us nine school nurses for one hundred and four schools.

We foot the bill for the other other 50 or so school nurses for example and I want you to know that that is our commitment to making sure that we're providing all of those resources at all of our schools and we still fall short.

So I did this last year and I'm going to keep telling you every time.

Please continue to email us.

But if if your state legislators are not cc'd on those emails it's going to be hard for them to know what it feels like to have your your positions and the services you provide cut because you are critical to our schools and everything you said is true.

I appreciate you speaking truth to our system but your Washington state legislator did not prioritize you and the work that you do in our schools because they did not provide funding or create a library.

line in the definition of basic education.

So please reach out.

Senator Saldana representative Pettigrew representative Tomiko Santos representative Macri Senator Peterson Speaker Frank Chopp representative Paulette representative.

Fitzgibbon Representative Cody State Senator Nguyen but also there are actually now a lot more state senators and representatives who come from the schools.

So these are the types of voices that we need and they need your concerns and issues raised to them too.

So please continue elevating the needs to us.

But please CC your state legislators because at the end of the day.

They define what basic education is and they did not prioritize you.

So I'm I'm sorry and I and I know that we have to make a lot of tough decisions and I really at the end of the day I'm so grateful for the services you provide not only for the school community but for our students and even more so for the families.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham comments.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ I too want to just thank the support we're seeing here for the librarians and you know it is tough when we have to make cuts and where do we make those cuts.

And as we're working on this budget and provide us that feedback so that.

We can see definitely the values of this community and where we we as a board hope we can get there and provide the best resources for our students because again that's who we're here to serve.

Make sure our students are well educated and get the services that they need and.

The equity issue definitely yes I know that's when we one school can afford to pick up that gap and then the other schools can't.

How do we close those gaps.

How do we make sure that all of our students are going to get the all the resources they need.

So continue advocating for yourself continue advocating for your students for our community and we'll all make this a better place.

So I just want to get just want to thank you for coming here and sharing your thoughts and perspectives and keep us on our toes and keep your elected other elected officials on theirs as well so we can move forward in a positive manner.

Again Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ for being here and sharing your viewpoints.

OK.

Last hopefully not least.

A thank you guys for being here.

Thank you for your emails.

Even though they are painful to read.

My 97 year old aunt was a career high school librarian and I don't want to tell her that I have to take this vote.

Absolutely do not want to tell her because she's my hero and libraries provided the safe spaces for me as a youngster and made a huge difference in my life.

But our hands are tied here.

We don't have any more nickels in the couch cushions and frankly we're pretty mad as hell up here right along with you and we have a Democratic state majority in Olympia and now it's kind of time for folks to put up and tell us what they really believe in terms of funding and whether nine nurses for one hundred and four schools is acceptable.

whether the negligent funding of special education services is acceptable or defensible and and we need to be in Olympia and we loud and we need to be proud and we need to be talking about what this means to every one of our 53000 kids and what it means.

our staff when we lose resources and more importantly loyal committed brilliant talented passionate people.

It's unacceptable.

It's beyond unacceptable.

But we're left with Hobson's choices truly and.

And we need to find the money.

And if we live in one of the richest cities in the country then we need to fund those priorities.

And I for one will yell bloody murder back if we cut librarians and then we turn around and pay for librarians from PTSA funding because that is not equitable and that is hypocritical on wheels.

It's not OK.

We need to knock it the hell off.

We need to live our values.

McCleary is fake news.

It was fake news.

It is fake news.

It needs to be called what it is fake news and we need to fight back on places like the Seattle Times that are suggesting we're breaking the law by asking for levy funds and then don't have the class to print our response.

If we are a one newspaper town.

How is that acceptable.

How is that democracy.

That is not acceptable.

Mad as heck at best.

My next community meeting is February 16th 3 to 5 at the Delridge library and for those of you all keeping track it's lasagna day and it's good and it's worthy.

The next meeting after that is March 16th 3 to 5 at the High Point library.

That's another one in a three chance of getting lasagna.

We had a community meeting on Saturday and we had staff from Seattle Public Schools from Madison and Denny working with us on alcohol and drug abuse issues.

And we have commitments from staff at Madison and Denny to help us put together a District 6 volunteer no money required symposia in West Seattle and it was rich.

It was robust and it was terrific and it was extraordinarily uncomfortable.

I have to admit that we don't have any solutions to our bus issues.

It was extraordinarily uncomfortable to have to admit that we got rid of most of our alcohol counselors years and years ago and we have never backfilled.

Yet we are losing children by the week and a huge thanks and a huge sadness goes out to the Chief Sealth International High School community who recent graduate with siblings at the school we lost to suicide last week and that school has banded together to support which is what our staff does just about every week and it breaks my heart and we we we're not doing our job folks and it takes money and money talks.

Several other things.

Saturday 10 to noon 35th West Seattle Bridge.

We're going to have levy signs for you.

We're going to be waving those signs and come on down and we'll have a party.

My personal email is Harris L S H at Comcast dot net.

I got 100 signs in my backyard.

I'll bring them to you.

Let me know where you live and how many signs you want Eden.

Tomorrow you're going to the Seattle families education preschool partnership work sessions.

It is my sincere hope that you will talk about whether or not any charter school funds will be used for FEPP and ask why that is not a political decision as opposed to a legal decision.

And if we've been reading the newspapers in the last two weeks with respect to the Los Angeles Unified School District and the charter school overlay and their recent strike I would suggest to you it's very timely.

Second I hope that you will push back with respect to the hold back of the funds until we meet metrics for testing of preschoolers.

Thank you to staff for the alternative fair on Saturday at Asa Mercer.

It was rocking.

It was wonderful.

It was nice to be proud of our district for offering a continuum of different educational experiences and real darn uncomfortable being keyholed by people like librarians and assistant principals who expect to be laid off but.

More than happy to wander around to meet with folks to meet young people to talk with parents.

It makes what we do amazingly gratifying awesome sauce work.

You can reach out and touch it.

You can feel the passion.

We're trying hard.

We need your help and.

We appreciate you here and it is an honor and a privilege to serve with the folks here.

Thank you.

We are moving in to see action items 1 approval of the 2019 2020 school year calendar came before executive committee January 17th for approval.

I move that the school board approve the 2019 2020 school year calendar as attached to the board action report.

Immediate approval is in the best interest of the district.

I second the motion.

Dr. Clover Codd.

Chair.

Thank you.

Good evening.

T.S.

up please.

Yes.

Chief Human Resources Officer.

Thank you very much.

So as you're aware the district is obligated under its collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Education Association to bargain the school year calendar.

A general framework for when we begin school or have designated breaks is outlined in our current agreement.

However each year we must still come before the board to receive final approval of the dates for the next calendar year.

The attached calendar provides for the first last days of school state and service or waiver days winter midwinter or spring breaks other holidays that are non non work days for staff snow make up days try days and parent teacher conferences.

The calendar also incorporates a 75 minute early release time that is dedicated to teacher collaboration and time to address elimination of opportunity gaps.

Additionally staff looked at where significant religious holidays are observed in major religions and considered these in relation to important dates in the school calendar.

Our goal is to have a more inclusive calendar for all of our students and families.

We reviewed the University of Washington's calendar of religious holidays as well as OSPI's and both of those calendars include notes on when a holiday is a non-work day for those that practice.

We will continue to work with our community and our labor partners to be mindful of our students and families religious observances and work towards inclusivity and being more culturally responsive as we design and negotiate calendars in the future.

And with that comments questions concerns from my colleagues Director DeWolf Director Mack.

Yes thanks President Harris and thank you.

Chief Clover Codd for the incredible work on this.

I know that we had some really important conversations over the course of the year to make sure that we were really thoughtful and engaging with the right folks around which holidays would coincide with any of our important dates.

So I really thank you for taking the time to do that.

I've heard a lot from the community particularly from the Jewish community and I know that they're super grateful that we were thoughtful and considering all holidays and we're inclusive of that.

So thank you for the work on that and thanks for attention to detail.

I want to thank staff.

There are multiple people that were working on that from various departments especially the early learning department and legal as well.

So I just want to make sure staff gets credit for that.

Thank you.

Director DeMack.

Director Mack.

I like DeMack.

I might I might adopt that.

Excuse me.

That was actually my question because I didn't see it in the BAR.

So stating it publicly here and Director DeWolf calling out that he's actually heard around about the work that has been done to cross reference the dates and check in with the communities because we had so many issues last year with a number of things that were.

challenging.

So I appreciate that that work has been done.

That was my question.

So thank you for answering it before I asked it.

My other question was about the testing schedule and I didn't see it in there.

My understanding was that had the schedule of standardized tests also had to be approved with SEA and I'm wondering why that doesn't show up in this bar or does that show up later.

Are those dates picked.

So those those dates do not show up on the official school calendar for the next calendar year.

There is an SEA committee joint committee where we work to look at the assessment calendar and make sure that it's balanced and there's a different approval process for that is not part of the official school year calendar that we bargain with with our labor partners though.

You have a do you recall the timing of when that comes through.

I don't because that comes out of the teaching and learning department that isn't something that we're negotiating or it's not really an H.R.

labor function but I'm sure we can talk with our colleagues and find out and get back to you when does that when that happens.

Well and I recall that last year some of the issues with the testing schedules were that they fell on some religious holiday times as well so.

I applaud you for the work that you've done and just encourage that during that process we make sure we do that cross referencing as well.

Chief Jessee please come to the podium.

Yeah.

Hi Chief Wyeth Jessee student support services.

I just want to quickly just give you a little timeline.

It is joint so we do go back and forth.

It's usually happens really quite late in the school year and as late as.

is June is when we sometimes get that assessment calendar out.

So we try for May but but when we hammer on down some of the details it doesn't happen until then.

So it's right towards again the school year end of the school year.

And we see Dr. Kinoshita coming to the.

This is like choreography.

I like it.

Thank you.

Please.

Kyle Kinoshita executive director curriculum assessment instruction just to let you know that we've been in conversation with OSPI which is going to promises anyway to provide some guidance in terms of accommodating things like religious events.

So we're awaiting that because the issue around this time of year direct.

thing booklet called directions for administration that provides guidance on this.

We're also researching in a variety of districts what they have done to help accommodate you know different kinds of religious events during that testing window and we are going to survey our principals to see what they have observed in their school in that regard and we hope to provide.

Putting that all together to provide some guidance especially during the SBAC window.

Thank you very much.

Other comments questions concerns Director Pinkham.

Just as far as again public comment noted about the accessibility and reading the document it says that when we can't do it in these limited circumstances the district will provide equally effective alternate access.

Can you provide examples.

Yes so what I think typically happens is we provide the name of a person who can be called I think in this instance the cover sheet says Dan Damas our director of labor relations and in any instance it could be myself and we often will walk somebody through the contents of whatever is on that document verbally.

There may be other ways that we could provide alternate access but we want to make sure that people have the information that's on the page.

So the calendar is graphically displayed here which is which is really difficult to provide a graphic display in an ADA accessible manner.

So we usually walk people through verbally of the important dates and the timelines.

So then could we possibly for this case and make sure we add hours of the day because if someone calls after hours or tries to contact you after hours and stands there someone else there that they know when they can get such access.

OK I think that's a basic template that we put for all of our all of our bars and all of our materials that are posted so I'll have to check with our with our board office.

But certainly I can make sure that their email contacts and phone numbers so that if in this instance somebody wants access to the calendar we can provide that.

OK.

Seeing no further comments questions concerns roll call please.

Director DeWolf aye.

Director Geary aye Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Harris aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you.

Number two resolution 2018 19 dash 15 requesting a waiver from the 180 day school year requirement for parent guardian teacher conferences came before executive committee January 17th for approval.

I move that the school board approve resolution 2 0 1 8 slash 19 dash 15 as attached to this board action report.

Immediate approval is in the best interest of the district as this resolution and the related waiver are tied to the approval of the 2019 2020 school year calendar.

I second the motion.

Diane DeBacker Chief Academic Officer.

I'm here today to request on behalf of staff that the board approve the waiver from the 180 day requirement as presented to you in your board packet.

I have with me today the person who knows much more about this than I do and that's Mr. Ronald Boy.

So with that we will entertain any questions.

Want to tee us up please Mr. Boyd.

You know this resolution is part of the process that's required by law in order to.

Thank you.

In order to apply for the waiver from the State Board of Education.

The resolution states the board support of us taking three days for parent teacher conferences.

Historically the district has found that this is the best way to minimize disruptions to classes and families as opposed to the alternative which is to take a number seven days or more of early releases from school.

Comments questions concerns from my colleagues we had a fairly rich discussion of this in intro.

Director Mack.

I'm sorry this I wasn't at the executive committee and I think this is intro and action so I'm actually I'm just really yeah I'm just a little confused.

What is the state requirement for the parent teacher conferences five days.

We can take up to five days.

We are asking for three days for elementary and one day for middle and high.

Also K-8 as well would be the three days.

So they require five days but we're trying to get a waiver so we only do three.

No they allow up to five days.

We are only asking for three so that we can maintain our instructional hours which is always required.

We always have to have the appropriate number of instructional hours and the state says 180 days.

However we can apply for a waiver.

of that 180 days.

So if so long as we're using them to do the parent teacher conferences which we're doing here.

Does that make sense.

And we've been doing this in the past.

Yes.

This is practice we've been doing for quite a while.

It's been going on for about a decade.

OK.

Thank you.

Other questions comments concerns from my colleagues.

Seeing none roll call please.

Director Geary aye Director DeWolf aye Director Mack aye Director Pinkham aye Director Patu aye Director Harris aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you.

OK.

This is one number three.

It has an amendment teed up as well.

Approval of the 2019 20 transportation service standards came before Ops December 6th for.

Consideration.

Motion please.

I move that the school board approve the recommended transportation service standards attached to the board action report for the 2019 2020 school year and authorize the superintendent to implement the standards with minor modifications as necessary.

I second the motion.

OK questions comments concerns and then we will move to the amendment.

Yes.

Director Mack.

So I had a couple of questions around.

Number one Bagley Elementary will be moving to a temporary site this year and.

Many of the schools that do that when they move over to the temporary site change their bell schedule.

I understand that there's been a request to check into the consideration of doing that but the analysis hasn't quite been done yet.

So I'm wondering if that is appropriate for that school.

If we approve this tonight what's the remedy for making that change.

Stephen Nielsen deputy superintendent.

Good evening.

The question has to do with Bagley moving into a temporary location because of construction.

They are currently on the same bell schedule at their as they have now next year.

We received a request from the principal very recently I saw it yesterday.

And the question was whether or not they could change their bell schedule to a different time that would require a couple of things to happen.

It was a question from the principal.

I do not know if they have done any community engagement or whether or not this body as a whole the parents etc. are interested in that.

So that would have to take place.

So clearly in order to make that happen we couldn't act on that tonight.

There's also another piece of that puzzle which is if you change the bell schedule of one school it usually has a ripple effect over two runs and services in other schools.

We don't know what that would be either so we'd have to do an analysis on that.

So the answer is in order to introduce that change today would be too early.

Most likely because of added costs but we don't know that for sure.

Possibly.

and it would require some engagement.

So the alternative and I provided this answer to the principal this afternoon would be to a find out how serious the question is and then if so whether or not we would find out what the cost would be if we were to make a change and then you would be able to amend the service standards at a later date.

There's only one other risk involved with that and that is we have to plan for.

a lot of other things with the service standards and whether that would affect attendance boundaries and all.

You just simply do not know.

So it's unfortunate that the question wasn't brought out a month ago and nevertheless we are where we are.

Director Mack follow up.

The I just wanted to note that in the BAR the Appendix A was actually posted twice and one had a red line and one didn't so just it's the same information.

And I also is looking over this as it ties to our student assignment plan and the costs and the complexities of our operations.

I know that since we've moved from the new student or moved to the new student assignment plan in 2009 and we've been transitioning.

In the beginning we had a lot of grandfathering because that old plan had busing all over the city and you know people were not going to their closest school and we had a lot of grandfathering for students to be at their schools and so over time we've actually had some reduction in bus service in the transition.

But we've also changed the three tiers and all of that.

And so.

I know that there is a task force spinning up to look at transportation efficiencies and so forth and I'm curious to know whether or not that task force is going to focus on doing a little bit of study of what really has been more efficient and the impacts of our student assignment plan.

So have we reduced the number of routes in terms of our student assignment plan or have we added.

And you know how do those things intersect.

And I'm hoping that that's a question that would be raised with the the the task force and the work that's going to go forward.

Well it's certainly a good question.

I don't I don't know the answer to it.

I think the bigger question is how do we deal with transportation in the future.

It's clearly not working for us now.

We're not able to fulfill all of our routes and that is a worry.

And I don't believe it's going to get better anytime soon just based on traffic and the Seattle.

density that we have and adding difficulties of transporting students across the city.

So I cannot speak for the task force on their work agenda.

I will certainly ask that that would be added and looking at alternative ways.

I also know that Superintendent Juneau has some very creative ideas on breaking through the transportation barriers.

We are as I will try to quote you as best I can.

We are trying to solve rural transportation problems with yellow buses in a city that simply doesn't allow us to do that any longer.

So we'll add that to the work.

It's a good idea.

Other questions comments concerns or are we ready for an amendment.

Have at it.

I move that the BAR for 2019 2020 transportation service standards shall be amended to add the following language in appendix A as item number four under other exceptions quote Catherine Blaine K through 8 and Lawton Elementary students that are enrolled during the 2019 2020 school year.

Through grant grandfathering assignments that reside in the Magnolia Elementary attendance area and outside of the respective walk zones will receive district provided transportation until the 2022 2023 school year and item number nine under transportation outside of basic eligibility quote Catherine Blaine students in grades K excuse me in grades 6 through 8 that reside in the Magnolia Elementary or Lawton Elementary attendance areas will be provided ORCA cards if they reside more than one mile from the school as an exception to normal attendance area elementary slash attendance area K through 8 schools end quote.

Do we have a second.

I'll second the motion.

Please tee it up.

Let's give a little background.

Let's give a little about the changes.

Let's give about the collaboration of staff yourself and others.

And and what what caused you to do this crazy.

What caused me to spend the last couple of days working on.

building this out.

So director I just want to point out that Director Burke has has co-sponsored this amendment with me even though he's overseas but he's he was been he's been in touch and he was looking at the languages that changed and as the work went forward I'm bringing this amendment forward because getting students to school.

is critically important and it's critically important for our most disadvantaged.

There is a misconception that the Magnolia neighborhood is all wealthy.

It's not true.

And in the boundary changes Catherine Blaine is from a percentage perspective going to become more white than the other schools and.

At the same time we are increasing the middle school seats there and we want students from the neighborhood to go to their closest middle school.

It assists with the capacity relief that capacity balancing at the other two middle schools that students attend from the Catherine Blaine area Hamilton and McClure.

The the two things that this amendment is doing and they're broken out in the BAR but to short to try to say it as concisely as possible.

The first is that in the decision to grandfather the siblings of the students that are staying at Catherine Blaine and at Lawton.

Those students would lose their transportation if we didn't continue to provide it.

Their older siblings in the school would get a bus to school but then the younger siblings would not.

And for the last couple of years and during the original transition grandfathering of transportation for students when they get a change and due to a boundary change has been something that is provided somewhat equitably at least for the last couple of years.

And the students that need the transportation most of the ones that are the furthest away and most in our neighborhood it's the neighborhoods that are it's the most demographically diverse areas.

So continuing to provide those provide those transportation services the students I think is important to get students to school in keeping with what we've done on other grandfathering practices and bounty changes.

The second thing is that as we have intentionally increased the size of the middle school seats the 6 8 portion of Catherine Blaine but not provided a increased boundary for that it's going to rely on students selecting it.

They're going to have to option into it and students would be less likely to option into the school that they can't get transportation to.

than the one that they can.

They can if they stay with the other schools they actually get bused all the way across the city.

But if they stay closer to home and they get an ORCA card to take a Metro bus and get to school in the closer neighborhood.

So those are the two pieces and why I'm putting this forward.

It's an equity question it's a capacity balancing question we've intentionally created those seats at Blaine to assist with the overcrowding in our buildings and there's a lot of other information in the BAR but that's the general thing.

Questions comments concerns from our colleagues seeing none move up excuse me Director DeWolf go ahead please.

I was just going to ask particularly about the fiscal note.

How did we come to that.

Can you just talk a little bit about the background on that.

Yeah I really appreciate staff working on that the fiscal note and the pulling that information together.

So it's a complicated system with transportation and with the changes of who's going to be leaving Blaine.

So we have a substantial number of students that are going to be going to Magnolia therefore there's a number of students and a number of unknown students that are no longer going to be on the two bus routes that are there.

And then there's the grandfathered students.

So the estimation that staff has provided is that there may not need to be another bus but there may need to be.

And in the event that it would need to be another bus I think it's 68000 am I right for an additional bus.

So that's for the grandfathered students.

So it's a worst case scenario of 68000. And then on the ORCA cards the the estimation of the cost of that is.

Just directly estimating that the number of option seats that are going to be available 70 maybe half of those are going to qualify for the cards and there's your number.

So it's a so we already in our transportation standards provide ORCA cards we may provide ORCA cards to students that are two miles away.

This actually just provide that closes the gap between the one and the two.

miles which is geographically appropriate for the Magnolia neighborhood.

And I also wanted to point out something that folks might not know about the transportation standards and what we do is that if there is a route and there's space available on that route you can apply to get on that route so that it would be another you know potential opportunity for students in the future.

However that's if there's a route and it's after the fact and that's already in place.

So does that help answer.

Yes.

I just had another follow up if that's OK too.

I think my particularly where I'm thinking about for this amendment is.

I generally would want usually more time to think about this also to consider the costs and I think given that we're doing some boundary changes in that area and there is a sunset on that date with the 22 2023 school year I'm a little more comfortable with it and just grappling with I guess the tension of continuing to prioritize certain areas of our district with dollars in this regard and knowing that there are obviously other schools that are.

grappling with their own funding issues so that's I'm just letting you know what I sit with.

I see the logic that you've laid out just that that's the thing that I continue to grapple with is we're able to find resources for certain parts of our district and while other parts of our district that often are continue to be underserved are still underserved.

So just where my brain is but.

And I and I actually really appreciate that.

And so when I was crafting this I took a look at the exceptions that exist in our transportation service standards and there's a number of them that are set up in order to provide equity and I'm happy that those decisions have been made before we sat here.

But for for point of reference it's not just this neighborhood I mean for point of reference the boundary changes and grandfathering has been done on the last few boundary changes four or five of them.

That's one thing that's consistent and then additionally Jane Adams has additional transportation service to the middle schools.

Aki Kurose has additional service Orca Cards.

There's a list of eight all middle school students actually get.

So not even the six to eight students that these are about don't get this because of the way it's worded but all middle school students would get an ORCA card at one point five months.

So there is actually already a bunch of exceptions in here that are appropriately focused on equity and we can do more.

But I feel really comfortable that these actually are aligned with both precedent and our focus on equity.

We changed from the original concept of providing the yellow bus to the students in the 6A portion because of the potential even greater costs and said you know let's go with the standard that is more consistent across the district of the ORCA card provision.

So.

So I just I appreciate that.

Thank you.

No and I guess I'm just and this is also for folks in the community folks are listening folks particular librarians I mean these are the types of things that just to sit to grapple with as we have folks in our audience who are describing the frustrations of having any parts of their already small budgets cut that that is the.

the hard stuff to sit with.

And so it's not necessary I don't have an answer but just to share with the community that this is that kind of sweet spot of tension around making some of these really difficult choices.

So.

Superintendent Juneau.

Yes I just want to point out like as this amendment was getting drafted and I look back and forth in the e-mails that were happening in order to get this to the point.

Deputy Superintendent Nielsen's really taking the lead on making sure that we're addressing all of these types of issues and so I just want to give him a few minutes to talk a little bit about the process we've been through some of the challenges we face and some of the concerns that we have around this amendment.

Thank you.

So as usual there isn't an easy solution to a lot of things that you work with.

One of the quotes from one of your predecessors is you don't get to make decisions you make choices as staff.

It's our job to look at a number of factors that go into all of these decisions related to this particular amendment.

And there are three.

So I will reiterate them.

First is as director Mack pointed out you will not know what the cost of the ridership is for the added bus until we know exactly how many students are enrolled.

What we do.

Can I interrupt you and ask you a question on that.

Yes.

Historically have we known the cost when we've made these changes.

No.

OK and I and I well appreciate that we're trying to be more disciplined about adding fiscal notes to our bars and I really appreciate that and I appreciate staffs backing up breaking it out answering our many many questions.

It's our job.

But but in the past we have not.

broken it out.

We have not attached fiscal notes is that right.

That is correct on many things and it almost always has a negative effect and our budget is made up of a million different line items.

That's an exaggeration but many thousands and they all add up to a big number.

And as we've noted earlier this evening when we expand at little places and they add up to big numbers then we have to make cuts later.

So specific to this item it is likely that we will as Director Mack pointed out have to add one more bus.

It's a small bus that will cost sixty eight thousand dollars that will come from levy funds.

We will not be able to get reimbursement for the state.

This last year we spent two point one million of levy funds to supplant our state funding for transportation.

So you will be spending levy money to do this.

Therefore staff does not support this amendment.

The second piece of it is we're not able to meet all of our bus runs now.

We're still short of drivers.

We're still having a problem with late buses and we would be adding to that challenge and staff does not think that makes sense.

We're worried that you would be making a promise to people that we cannot keep.

The third piece is equity.

There is equity as director Mack pointed out however In the second piece of the amendment excuse me my computer just went to sleep.

It notes that the.

Orca cards would be provided and that would be consistent if we were having an equity provision for those Orca cards.

This particular amendment as Director Mack pointed out would change the Orca card provision from may to will.

That is in all of our other standards for Orca cards and it would change the mileage from two miles to one mile.

We recognize that some neighborhoods have challenges with valleys and certainly Magnolia and Lawton does.

That's true.

Nevertheless it's not equitable with other provisions that we have in our transportation standards across the city.

So for those three reasons we cannot support this as staff.

Other questions comments concerns from my colleagues and Director Mack did you wish to respond.

I appreciate the the.

Additional attention and focus on the work and I have full respect for the points you've made.

However I'm I disagree from the perspective of.

the overall system of transportation whether or not we're actually going to be adding a bus knowing how that's shifting over there and the equitable access and importance of students getting to school.

Sometimes when we are trying to save little bits of money we impact the larger vision in a way that's not helpful.

I think this amendment.

and providing transportation to students especially those that need it is is the right thing to do for kids.

And I have respect for the analysis that was put forth but I'm not sure I agree on the final fiscal note and I don't think the impact is going to be as great as is being stated so.

Thank you.

Director Geary please.

For my clarity are we would these students have been provided transportation to get to school in 6th through 8th grade if we hadn't made a boundary change.

They would have been provided transportation.

And so now they will not be provided transportation if we don't pass this amendment.

Is that correct.

Yes the difference would be the the equity on the ORCA cards in the distance.

Right.

But this is only it's my understanding that this is being proposed only for the period to fulfill what they expected in terms of enrollment to sunset.

That's the grandfathering piece.

The grandfathering piece.

Yes.

And so does the ORCA exception extend beyond the grandfathering piece.

Yes.

There's the there's the grandfathering piece which is the students that would have gotten sorry the students that that have been grandfathered like all the other cases that we've gone through but the students What's happened with the 6 8 portion is that the number of seats are increasing but the boundary is getting smaller.

So in order for students to select that school they have to option in and when they option in they don't get transportation but they're in the neighborhood.

And if the actual they blame the tenants area would have captured these kids in the first place but they're not now because of the change in the boundaries.

And do well my my concern is that.

We treat similarly situated neighborhoods the same and I'm hearing that we're giving something to this community that we don't give to all of our communities.

Is that correct.

Yes.

And that therefore the fiscal note for me then becomes what is the fiscal note around parity and what is the fiscal note around equity.

Because I believe it's my understanding going back we did some one mile.

Radius allotments but that was really based around portions of the city with dangerous road crossings and high FRL counts.

And and so that if we were to find similarly situated neighborhoods to Magnolia and offer them this same benefit.

What is the cost of that.

Because I do not want to create pockets of disparate treatment and I misunderstood that I thought this was all sun setting around.

The grandfathered — 12 grandfathered students.

Correct.

So to me that is a much it's an important question to have answered and it could be far more expensive than that which is being proposed here.

In response to that question that that is actually the reason for this amendment which you talked about is the dangerous roads and where the students live.

The perception that Magnolia as a neighborhood is fine.

Oh sorry.

The perception that the Magnolia neighborhood is all incredibly wealthy is actually one of the challenging perceptions around the neighborhood we have.

low income housing and multifamily housing and diversity especially on the areas that are further away.

And those are the students that will not have access to the transportation.

I don't doubt it but we haven't done that analysis throughout our city because we may have other neighborhoods that have very similar situations that we aren't treating with parity.

And so that would be.

That would be the true cost of it.

And that analysis from what I'm hearing has not been done.

And I it is a different question than grandfathering for me.

Director DeWolf.

I guess my question is if we took more time to think about this more deeply does this need to be decided today.

This type of amendment in this particularly connected to our transportation service standards or is this something with.

Part of it for me is I think getting to a little bit of Director Geary's thing is like I just need to hear more and particularly given what we're just discovering as we're sitting up here on the dais.

that is there a sense of urgency that this needs to happen today or can we move forward with approval of the 2019 2020 transportation service standards and come back to this in a few months.

You know I mean I just I don't have it.

I don't think I can move forward with supporting it without even just sitting with the unintended consequences and some of the other issues that are coming up on the dais.

I will give you a partial answer.

Twice tonight.

I apologize.

Director Mack did you wish to respond to that.

It's your amendment.

The demographic data that we pulled that was done in the boundaries shows that the attendance area for the Blaine is less diverse than the others.

In talking with staff the.

The request was made to actually pull the data to compare the attendance area there for the students that would get busing versus the ones that would not.

And we didn't end up getting that full data back.

But from my understanding and that comparison of the data that was already provided we already can show that there is a difference and that it is more students of color that we would be impacting without doing this.

Yeah and I hear that and I think back to Director Geary's point is it makes sense to be able to acutely focus on it here and without having done a district wide analysis around where those issues are also popping up elsewhere.

It feels like it's in a silo and I can't think about it in context to how every other boundary or school within their boundaries is also dealing with this so.

Yeah just excuse me.

I was asked a question about the timing and whether this could be delayed whether the amendment should be delayed or not compared to the service standards.

Unfortunately I have limited knowledge about timing on this so I'll tell you what I know.

The student assignment plan and the transportation service standards go hand in hand and they are necessary for planning for enrollment and they are necessary for open enrollment and placement of students.

Ms. Davies may be able to help me with that.

What I do not know is how much time do we have before we impact enrollment in an inappropriate or difficult way for families.

And I'm looking to see if any of my fellow staff members could help with the answer to that.

I think can you run that last sentence by me because I didn't get that one at all.

How much time we have before we just.

So we have to have our go ahead.

President Harris if I could make I'd like to actually please.

If I could suggest that we've got the motion on the table with have two things I'd like to suggest pulling it as is off and pulling it into two separate motions.

From a standpoint of we have.

So you're moving to divide the motion.

I'm moving to divide the motion.

That's appropriate isn't it.

Associate General Counsel Cerqui.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So so because of the timing of the transportation service standards and the need to get this passed I'm hearing concern around the second part of the motion.

The first part is just the grandfathering which is consistent that we've done in the past and I would like to separate the two motions.

So motion one would be.

I'll second that motion.

Thank you.

This is Scrivener catch up correct.

Associate Counsel Cerqui I got to keep this meeting moving.

So I would prefer that Director DeWolf reread the motion from start to finish with the first part and then he can reread it to the second part so that we all know what you're voting on.

It's coherent and clear so you could.

And would we would we do that one at a time.

I would ask that he do that one at a time and if you're withdrawing your motion I would make a motion.

Director Mack to withdraw your your amendment 1 and that we can then read in the new amendment.

So if you want to withdraw your first one and then break it up into two that would help clarify that we don't have that existing motion currently outstanding your amendment 1 motion.

Yeah.

So I'd like to make a motion to withdraw the original amendment.

I'll second the motion.

Thank you.

Do we have to vote on that.

All those in favor of withdrawal that please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

OK.

And then I'd like to make a motion for a new amendment one.

Should I just correct.

And should I read it or you want.

Go ahead.

This is my job.

OK.

Read it.

I get one job.

Oh no you have a lot more than one job.

That's true.

I move that the BAR for 2019 2020 transportation service standards shall be amended to add the following language in Appendix A as item number four under under other exceptions quote Catherine Blaine K-8 and Lawton Elementary students that are enrolled during the 2019 2020 school year through grandfathering assignments that reside in the Magnolia Elementary attendance area and outside of the respective walk zones will receive district provided transportation until the 2022 2023 school year.

End quote.

I second the motion.

And for clarification this is this is just the grandfathering this takes out the middle school portion and it's just the the the parity with the students that would have had transportation and are now losing it because the boundary change.

OK.

We have pretty well beat this one to death.

So unless someone has a burning desire to address it at this point in time I'd like a roll call please.

This is the amendment.

Director DeWolf.

Can you.

I just feel like I need more time to be honest.

No.

Director Geary.

Aye.

Director Mack aye Director Patu no Director Pinkham aye Director Harris aye.

This amendment has passed with a vote of 4 to 2.

OK.

Now we're back to another amendment.

The second amendment.

I thought you withdrew the second amendment.

No no no.

No I just separated.

I would like to withdraw the second amendment.

OK.

Amendment 1.2 I move that the BAR for 2019 2020 transportation service standards shall be amended to add the following language in Appendix A as item number 9 under transportation outside of basic eligibility quote Catherine Blaine students in grades 6 through 8 that reside in the Magnolia Elementary or Lawton Elementary attendance areas will be provided ORCA cards they reside more than one mile from the school as an exception to normal attendance area elementary slash attendance area K through 8 schools end quote.

I second the motion.

I'd like to speak to this one.

I'm going to abstain and it distresses me that I'm going to abstain because I think we have had a decade or more of precedent for doing business this way.

And I think it's really painful.

That now that we are looking at things like fiscal notes and real analysis that we have to start someplace and folks are going to get hurt by this and they're going to be frankly irritated and angry about it.

And no we don't treat our sectors of the city at all equally or equitably.

No question about it.

And.

We're trying to do a whole heck of a lot of technical serious unintended consequences Rubik's Cube kind of work frankly on the fly and we get started too late and we don't have enough bandwidth to avoid killing and mistreating our staff.

And it distresses me.

I'm OK with grandfathering piece.

I will say again as I have for the last three years when it comes to student assignment plans when it comes to the the Rubik's Cube portions of our work in this district.

We have to be earlier.

We have to be clearer.

We have to have much better community engagement and much better equity analysis and I.

Surprising myself talking about things like fiscal notes.

In fact I'm a little shocked but I'm really proud of this fact that we're actually going to do this work and try our darndest to do it right.

My two bits.

Other comments questions concerns seeing none roll call please.

Director DeWolf No Director Geary No Director Mack aye Director Patu no Director Pinkham no Director Harris abstain.

This amendment has not passed with a vote of 1 to 4 to 1.

OK we're back to the main motion as amended with amendment number one roll call please.

Director DeWolf.

All that motion as amended don't I.

Is that correct.

I just did.

I move that the school board.

Excuse me please.

Thank you.

Are we good.

I'm trying to keep this meeting going.

Understood.

I also want to honor that this is a process.

I appreciate that.

Deputy General Counsel John Cerqui so if you read it as amended for Amendment 1 then the motion would be clear to me.

Roll call please.

Director DeWolf aye Director Geary aye Director Mack aye Director Patu abstain Director Pinkham aye Director Harris aye this motion is passed with a vote of 5 to 0 to 1.

OK.

What is the will of the body.

You want to take the break now before the student assignment transition plan.

Or do you want to get through that before we.

Excuse me.

I'm asking a question.

Please give me your feedback.

My feedback is I think we have a lot of people from Graham Hill here who are waiting for this next one and I think it would be nice if we got through it so they could go home.

Fair enough.

Here we go.

Number four.

Not the least bit offended.

Believe me.

Number four approval of the student assignment transition plan for 2019 20 came before Ops December 6th for.

Consideration.

Staff has requested the motion language be changed.

I am reading that I am reading that revised motion which would allow for minor modifications to address Scrivener's errors in the document.

So — Is that on the website guys.

I'm not sure what to say here.

No that is — Can someone help me create a record here please.

We will be in this will be in the minutes that we're modifying the motion language.

There was some a typo that was caught by Miss Davies that she wants to make sure the document is correct so that the motion is read then it will eventually get incorporated into the minutes and we'll have that documented that way.

But it's not up right now on the website.

Thank you.

Please continue.

I move that the board approve the student assignment transition plan as attached to the board action report with any minor additions deletions and modification modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent.

I second the motion.

Take it away.

Good afternoon.

My name is Ashley Davies director of enrollment planning.

Did you want me to just start with the changes since last time or did you want to say anything.

I don't know if Director Mack — Let's back it out if we could the changes since last time and then you backfill.

Does that work for you Director Mack or would you like to lead.

I was actually going to say that you know we had a pretty hearty yes we had a hearty discussion on intro and that there was a number of items that were raised here and had been discussed.

It got delayed for two weeks in order to have those things worked through and the one substantive change is there's one of them.

And there's not anything different than what was proposed on intro other than the one correct.

So there's one substantive change.

There's also we also had removal of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that partnership no longer exists.

And so we needed to remove that from the list of service school.

So it's actually not a change to anything that is happening within our district currently but it was still listed in the service school.

So we took that out.

And then the more significant change was the language around special education.

And so we can talk through that and then I can also highlight for you what those small grammar errors were that.

So there's full transparency around what we are adjusting.

So why don't we start with the special education language.

So based off our conversation from introduction There was conversation around the intent around the language and the way the language was written it was read with the intention such — wasn't that brought up a year ago.

It wasn't just the introduction that this is a year outstanding and we didn't we didn't do the student assignment plan last year so it got stuck for a year is that correct.

Correct.

Thank you.

Yes important distinction history.

Correct.

So last year when we brought the student assignment transition plan up for introduction and then action we did talk about this and we ended up not approving the plan.

So we were carrying over those changes into this one this year.

So our conversation on the 9th was around the language assigned as it relates to students who are receiving special education services who are in the language in the plan was assigned to a school outside of their attendance area.

And the intent around that was such that a student who is not able to be placed at a school either their attendance or a school or a school close to home and after much discussion conversation finessing of language we came up with the language that is now in the plan.

And if it's OK I'll just read that so people can hear it.

So on page 5 of the student assignment plan There's a bullet that says special education when a student with an IEP is initially assigned to an elementary school that is not the attendance area school because that student's IEP requires services that are not available at the at the student's attendance area school.

The student may choose to attend the attendance area middle school or middle school in that elementary school speeder pattern.

So the intent of that.

was clarified but ultimately still remains such that students who are having to be placed in another elementary can then continue in that middle school feeder.

Under that we've also added some additional clarification to address students who may have a.

may have a choice assignment.

So this language then says students with an IEP who receive an assignment through the school choice process at an elementary school outside of their middle school feeder pattern will need to go through the school choice process to attend a middle school outside of their assigned middle school based on their address.

In some instances.

Some and then there was a typo.

So we removed an extra word it said of some students may require individual middle school assignments based on their needs as identified through the IEP team process.

So that was to specify that in some cases if a student does require or may need for stability or other reasons through the IEP process to continue on in that middle school feeder and they have a choice assignment that would address that and that would go through the special education procedures and then we have that same language as it applies to middle and high.

May I say something here.

May I say thank you.

Thank you to Director Geary.

Thank you to Chief Jessee.

Thank you to Ashley and your team.

This is really good stuff.

This is long overdue and really appreciate you putting it together that folks it may not feel like it but there is some really stunning Staff work has been done at this district in the last year and we need to acknowledge it.

And I say a round of applause.

Thank you.

I would like to echo that statement around the process for working through the student assignment transition plan and our boundaries and all of that work that has gone on and will continue to go on.

this year's experience in terms of how we've managed to work out the issues and resolve them and come to a plan that is solid and I think hopefully will be adopted here in just a few seconds.

I'm I'm I'm proud and grateful.

So I appreciate all of your work and all the staff for.

for that as well as the board directors for engaging fully on the details so that we can get through this.

So thank you.

Okay unless anybody's please Director Geary.

I want to thank you both for working on this issue.

For me the importance was to get clarity.

Well we made concessions.

around this issue because I personally think that students with IEPs should have ample choices in terms of going with their peers.

I understand that leaving language that is unclear is simply unfair to our families and for them to think that they have that choice by the language and then to find out that we are interpreting it differently which is what has happened since the student assignment transition plan wasn't.

passed last year.

So that said clarity to me is important because we don't want to create expectations that we're not meeting that just puts people in conflict with us.

So understanding that the choice made when they make it creates a set of circumstances in the long run that they're aware of and will live with that is then truly a choice that's being made with knowledge to I was assured And so I'm going to say it now to anybody who is watching that as part of the riser process that process by which children students are leaving their one school to go up to the next stage middle school or high school that there will be an intentional conversation about where their student will thrive in terms of the social emotional needs that.

is so fundamentally important to kids with disabilities.

No very few populations have as hard of a time in creating peers that understand them know them and accept them.

Communities that understand them know them and accept them for who they are.

And I just want to make sure that the IEP teams are truly talking about that with their families and that the families know that they have the right to that conversation with regard to their students.

So that was the deal we struck.

And so I just want to make sure that the special ed piece of that conversation is in place.

I was shown a form where those considerations are to be discussed.

Families are on notice that that should be happening.

So thank you again — for the work.

Director Harris — I have a point of inquiry then for Chief Jessee and for Superintendent Juneau to take off after Director Geary's point.

Can you come to the dais please sir.

So are we going to codify that in our happy manuals that we work so hard on to get the how many millions of dollars back when we were tagged by the.

Three.

OK.

And so.

We move mountains.

Are we going to codify that in our manuals and in our superintendent procedure.

Yeah.

So again why Jesse chief of student support services.

And so we actually as part of the improvement process we're always looking to absolutely improve the language for our families and of course our students as they advocate for themselves and guide their own education.

So we there's a lot of complexity here but we do have a separate form as part of it's a supplemental form as part of that process for the riser process that we have.

that educate that the case managers or special education teachers or our ESA staff like OT occupational therapist physical therapist school psychs or speech language pathologist also as they guide through that IEP process that they're making considerations many considerations not just social emotional learning but we also have nursing needs for some of our students as just another example.

And then also just even the transition program.

So about what's on their IEP for transitioning and access as they think about post-secondary outcomes.

This is an official form.

It would be as a supplemental to our procedural guide that we have here in Seattle Public Schools.

Superintendent procedures as well.

Is there anything that prevents us from doing so.

I want to lock this down.

This is really great stuff to me.

I want to lock it down.

I believe we locked that down.

In this particular student assignment transition plan.

That's what I believe we locked it down.

Thank you.

Other burning comments questions concerns otherwise we're going to the roll call roll call please.

Director DeWolf.

I did want to address one other thing.

There's no change but there were questions about middle college.

So if there is still interest in discussing that I would just want to clarify some of the questions that came up last time when we talked about it.

So when we brought it to introduction in the plan in our board action report we talk about a change in middle college service to offer ninth grade.

Currently the it offers 10th through 12th with the majority of the students being in 11th through 12th and there has been a plan put together to offer ninth grade and the clarification that I wanted to make based off of our conversation that would be offered at two sites University of Washington and Seattle U with no additional staff.

So the principal has already put together a plan such that the current staffing would be able to serve all students across the grades again with the current staff they have.

And really the intent of that was to be able to have that option available for students earlier and being able to do more.

work with our counselors in middle school to identify students who may need a smaller environment such that they could be set up for success earlier.

And even we've talked about the ability if they start early to if they want to graduate from a traditional high school they still have that opportunity if they're able to enter early get back on track and then do just open up the totality of options for those students.

And not necessarily get back on track.

Get on a track.

Yes because we're not using deficit language anymore with respect to middle college are we.

Correct.

Perfect.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for shouting out.

Director Geary.

Roll call.

Let's go.

Make this happen.

Director Pinkham.

You said it so quietly.

Director Patu aye Director Mack aye Director Geary aye Director DeWolf yes Director Harris aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you all.

OK.

We are going to take a break until 7 52. Thank you.