School Board Meeting December 11, 2019 Part 3

We'll make sure that they have ample time for that portion as well.

So Ms. Shek please read off the testimony.

First up for public testimony we have Kimberly Hernandez-Cortez followed by Chris Jackins and Alex Zimmerman.

Thank you.

Hi everyone.

My name is Kimberly Hernandez and I go to 2 South but I do skill center at Ingram for construction trades and skill center is an amazing program that helps students develop skills that they can use in the future.

When I first signed up for skill center for construction construction class.

I was a bit intimidated because it's a male dominated field and being a woman you know we always like hear like things like oh women can't do that and you just don't see many women in construction.

But when I first walked in on my first day I was welcomed with open arms.

I remember within our first week we learned how to use loud power saw machines that I would never have imagined to use to use.

The class has helped me become more confident in myself.

You know I am not scared of saws or you know things like that.

And I've met many great people at Ingram.

I've made a lot of friends and including my teacher Mr. Wentzell who has.

Gotten to know every student individually because we have a small class.

We have a small class of less than about 12 and that just makes it more easier for everyone.

I felt like I took a risk going from Chief Sealth all the way to Ingram because I've never been to Ingram in my life and I was a bit intimidated too but I felt it really pushed me to like know my boundaries and just get to know a new place.

I am very glad that I signed up to do school center and although there isn't much I'm sorry advertisement towards school center I had to find it on my own by browsing online.

So if it would be more like put out there and also I'd like to mention transportation was an issue for me.

So if that could also work that'd be great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

My name is Chris Jackins Box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4. Wish to welcome the three newly elected board directors on the final acceptance of the Arbor Heights Elementary construction project.

Four points.

Number one the report does not analyze the effects of the project on racial imbalance at schools in the area.

Number two final acceptance was delayed due to installation issues with the grass playfield.

It was determined that the field was not installed per design and the field was rebuilt including sections of the under drainage.

Was the cost of rebuilding the field covered by the warranty.

Number three.

I help people file an appeal of the environmental review of this project.

Until the appeal hearing it was not disclosed that the flooding had been occurring in residents front yards south of the school.

Number four for the last 20 years district construction projects have included a public meeting to address environmental review.

The district is now dropping these meetings.

These actions directly contradict transparency.

On the Spanish instructional materials adoption in the Southeast Elementary attendance area boundary changes.

Four points.

Number one the board approved both of these actions on November 20th 2019. Both actions appear to violate state law.

Number two I ask the board quickly entertain a motion to reverse these actions.

Number three failing to address violations of state law can be grounds for recall from office.

Number four when Marysville school board members faced a recall a few years ago they cited legal advice from their general counsel.

The judge did not accept this defense.

Please quickly take action on these issues.

Thank you.

Alex.

Next up we have Christine Shigaki followed by Wilhelmia DeSoteno and then Brian Terry.

Can never deal with this microphone.

Very well.

Hi Christine Chigaki.

I'm parent of two and SPS.

Congratulations to the duly elected board members and thank you all for your service.

You guys put a lot of hours in and I appreciate it.

I want to mention that to achieve true equity I'm asking the district to be accountable for the following.

Please pay attention to the southeast where most people of color reside.

Since we are the most diverse community we have a very diverse needs of services and so please consider how all of our kids will be served and how the diverse needs can be all met.

I don't feel that TAP is incompatible with HCC and so can we have both.

to serve all of our kids and our divergent needs.

I'm also asking for calibration of class offerings across the district including robust math and reading in those early grades.

HCC services at every school is a great long term goal and that should be something that we should do definitely.

But removing the HCC in the southeast is. in my way inequitable especially for those of color.

I would ask you for better outreach and appropriate testing and access for those farthest from educational justice and hiring of more racially diverse teaching staff for people of color teachers and role models that students can identify matters.

for my my child here.

For those of us who are of color it is very difficult to find a school where we can have both diverse community and academically rigorous education.

And so in order to achieve true equity everyone's voices are important.

All people from all walks of life need to be heard.

And as an Asian-American though many have come a long way we still have a glass ceiling and deserve to have equal voice at the table.

So please hear our voices.

I am also asking the district for transparency trust and true engagement with your community with the possible opportunity of TAF at Washington.

The information is limited to families where little information is available to grasp a full picture of the program.

And most importantly teachers have been wrongfully treated.

and having their voice minimized.

Families of HCC have been vilified.

So please consider all the recommendations of ALT F and a solution where all kids could be served well.

True engagement and respect for your teachers and greater community and diverse.

Please conclude your remarks.

Okay sorry.

Diverse voices make us stronger and not weaker.

Thank you.

Good evening and congratulations to the newly elected board members.

My name is Wilhelmina De Los Trinos and I'm here because like just as all of you all we want is an equitable and thriving gifted education solution for Seattle.

And so I'm here today to provide my perspective from three different viewpoints.

Number one as a parent of a fifth grader and had the highly capable program at Fairmont Park Elementary in West Seattle.

Number two as a Seattle Public Schools graduate elementary middle and high school Garfield High School class of 1994. And then number three as a senior director for Kaiser Permanente Washington who built our equitable and inclusion diversity programs to reduce health inequities in health care which we are the model of the health care system today.

I believe some of the learnings that I found building the equitable equity inclusion diversity initiatives in my line of work and my experience as a parent and as a Seattle Public School student may I am hopeful will be beneficial to you.

Number one increase access.

I believe that by eliminating or reducing advanced learning services especially in the south end is just going to create even greater inequities in opportunity for advanced learning.

Case in point myself as an immigrant with parents who did not speak English as their as their native language living in West Seattle.

We didn't know anything about highly capable program.

We did not have access to it.

Once we find the only reason I found out about it was I eventually because of busing in the 1980s and 90s in Seattle Public Schools was sent to Garfield High School because there wasn't enough Asians in their community.

That was the only way that I learned about the highly capable program.

My parents fought to try to get me into those program and with that cohort which then leads me to number two.

Again in the line of work what I do what's important is peer group putting peer groups together to then push each other.

We do this with our diabetes programs our heart disease programs and that's what I'm saying is what happened to me and enabled me to be successful in my line of work today.

Again number three number three is I forgot.

Hold on let me open my.

Thank you.

Your two minutes have ended.

Please conclude your remarks.

Improving communication.

My ask is getting the marketing out there so that more people learn about the programs that are offered.

And then finally.

Can we please invite the next person up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up we have Brian Terry for public testimony followed by Emily Wheeler and then Sarah Mohamed and Fahmo Issa.

Good evening and welcome to the new school board members.

Integrated classrooms offer a profound benefit for underprivileged students.

It has been estimated that spending 12 years in an integrated classroom is enough to help black students completely overcome the black white education attainment gap.

Despite this we have faced an uphill battle to desegregate our advanced learning classrooms.

This is not a new problem.

We face the same challenges in board versus the Brown the Brown versus the Board of Education.

Then as now we told ourselves that black students due to their economic circumstances could not keep up with white students and would slow the class down and they would be best served in segregated classrooms which would make it easier for teachers to teach and for students to make friends.

I hope that you will take a hard look at the data and see what the Supreme Court saw in 1954. The undeniable evidence that black students served in segregated classrooms receive a significantly inferior education.

Separate is not equal.

The Supreme Court warned that segregation may affect the hearts and minds of students in a way unlikely to ever be undone.

Furthermore we must acknowledge that many highly capable students find it difficult to make friends with kids who are different.

It is vital that we teach these students this critical life skill by giving them ample opportunities to interact with a diverse group of peers in integrated classrooms.

Please find ways to eliminate racial segregation in our advanced learning program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Emily.

Emily Wheeler two students in Seattle Public Schools one currently at Washington Middle School.

I've provided a just a quick synopsis.

It took me a little bit to find this information.

But the point of this is that Washington Middle School is your most diverse HCC program and Eliminating that program is really just going to increase the lack of diversity in the HCC group as a whole throughout the city.

So what I'd like to do is I have a couple of questions.

First question is why was TAF selected for Washington Middle School.

The other thing I provided is the map of the middle schools.

There are 11 other middle schools in this city that could have been chosen for this program that do not have an HCC program.

So.

That needs to be figured out.

Why are we targeting Washington Middle School which already has a special needs population and it doesn't really fit.

I'm an architect and what I do all day every day is look work with all sorts of diverse people all sorts of diverse situations and challenges and look for solutions.

I do not see a solution where TAF works at Washington Middle School with HCC.

So.

If you guys are going to move forward with TAF in Washington Middle School you're going to eliminate HCC on the south end.

And if you're going to eliminate HCC on the south end you're going to eliminate it citywide.

You are not doing this to the south end.

We're not having it.

If you have an issue with the racial makeup at Washington Middle School you can look at this map and wonder who drew these boundaries.

So maybe look at your maps.

and look at what's going on.

If you take HCC out of Washington Middle School you're also going to have a population shift of those 300 and some students.

And where are they going to go.

They're going to go to their neighborhood schools because that's what you're saying they need to do.

Well now you've got a gap of 300 kids at Washington Middle School.

There needs to be a lot more thought put into this and a lot more equity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sarah Mohamed and Famo Issa.

My name is Sarah Mohammed and my daughter she's going Freemont Park and she's a fifth grade.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

I was in the second grade of high school.

This is a program that we have been working on for a long time.

My daughter she's passed the test to HCC so she's eligible when she's a second grade.

But unfortunately in the advanced learning department they didn't contact correctly.

But when I find out it takes me three years and also my daughter she's taking again when she's a fourth grade and the test and she passed again then I came down myself and the the district to find out.

Instead early early learning to a high capable department instead they contacted me they didn't contact me.

My daughter she's passing the second grade but now she's attending as a fifth grade at Fremont Park.

She lost in three years.

Then I'm asking the district to better communication and also to get equal opportunity and all the children.

One she's having for example she says in West Seattle elementary school it's 400 kids enrolled over there.

I believe myself 250 students in high capable but somehow the teachers they are not making referral and also my community have a gap in that area to find out all those information and their children if they are capable where to go.

And we need a better job as a district and also advanced learning to communicate the parents and where to go and how to find this program and also.

Then I would like to see and to have it all high capable ACC and schools as our attendance area.

Same like the Madison Middle School Denny Middle School and when they go high school if we leave West Seattle then our feeding schools and attendance area schools same like the chief cell then our children to be continuing to have HCC in those schools and around them.

And also my daughter she's going to another program she enroll other programs like Renier scholar and we would like to see all this kind of opportunity to get our children because we have a lot of children we speak second language at home but our children and they are very talented.

We want we would like to see to get all those opportunity.

Some other children they need to be deserved and to go high CC classes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up for public testimony we have Suresh Chandmugam followed by Manuela Sly and Christine Vague.

Hi my name is Suresh Chandmugam and I have three children enrolled in Seattle Public Schools.

In 1999 when I moved to Seattle to work as a software engineer I was alarmed at the lack of diversity in our region's technology industry.

And in 2001, I found an incredible nonprofit, Technology Access Foundation, that was working to bring STEM education to minority youth in the Central District through an after-school program.

And I decided to volunteer 12 hours a week at TAF throughout the entire 2001-2002 school year.

helping students with their software engineering classroom assignments and I was deeply impressed with the positive impact that TAF had on their lives.

Flash forward a couple of decades.

I have three children enrolled in Seattle Public School System.

We live in the central district in the Thurgood Marshall and Washington Middle attendance areas.

I have a son Podrick who is currently a third grader who was identified as highly capable.

But I've chosen for him to continue attending a general education class at Thurgood Marshall, even though there's an HCC class that he's eligible to attend a couple doors down the hallway.

In the same standardized tests that initially identified him as highly capable, continue to identify him as highly capable, which is an amazing testament to the great work his teachers have done at Thurgood Marshall to support students in their classroom with diverse abilities and needs.

I know that comments around personal matters are not allowed but I just want to shout out to the 4 G's Ms. Grice and Ms. Gorder Ms. Glass and Ms. Guillermo.

So anyway I appreciate that the state grants special education status to highly capable students but I believe the best way for our school system to deliver those special services is in integrated and diverse classrooms.

I'm also concerned that Seattle schools are deeply segregated and have significant achievement gaps between white and African-American students.

I believe that the highly capable cohort of which fewer than 2 percent of students are African-American perpetuates a divided and inequitable education system.

I fully support bringing STEM by TAF to Washington Middle School and I'm really excited that my three children might have the opportunity to attend a STEM by TAF class.

Thank you.

Good evening my name is Manuela Sly I'm Seattle Council PTSA president.

I'm here number one to welcome the new board members Ms. Lisa Rivera-Smith Chandra Hampson and Lisa Rankine.

Seattle Council PTSA is committed to advocating for all students and bringing family voices to you.

Ultimately you make the decisions.

So I'm looking forward to meaningful collaboration and support.

But again the decisions are made by you.

So I hope that you listen to all voices especially those that are usually not at the table.

I wanted to say that as many of us know the advanced learning task force just finished their recommendations yesterday.

So we're looking forward to learning what this will look like.

As we move towards a more equitable system more than anything we're here to keep you accountable.

So again partnership but accountability.

Students families are watching.

I also want to say that I'm very excited that the strategic plan goal of reading grade level by third grade is coming to light.

It's very important to me personally and also as a leader.

But I have to say this again unless dyslexia is properly screened and served we're setting 20 percent of the students to failure.

Please don't do that.

And we're also including the African-American males that we're focusing when we talk about the strategic plan special education PTA is looking to form an advisory committee and we need your support whether it's an advisory committee to the superintendent or the school board.

We need support to do that kind of work.

Last but not least I want to talk about the anti-racist policy that I know is in the works.

Seattle Council PTSA is in full support of the anti-racist work that is much needed in our district.

We're looking forward to that.

This will look like at the district level building level and classroom level and how staff leaders and teachers that will be doing this work will be supported.

This work is hard.

It's exhausting.

I know I've been there.

But we have extremely talented educators willing to do the work.

So we need your support.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Christine Begay and I am the mother of two daughters who are adopted from mainland China and they are 7th graders at Madison Middle School.

They've been fortunate enough to be part of the HCC program since second grade.

One of the things that I would like to see and ask of the board is to increase the availability of the testing for kids across the school district.

For me it was quite a challenge.

It's kind of gets lost and it's not very well easily recognized for how to take the test or how to apply and it would be I think much better served for the community if it had a broader reach and a broader access to all students and not just those that whose parents and or so can recognize and actually go through the process of having those applications submitted.

That's one thing I'd like to do.

And then I'd also like to ask for transparency from the board that if you do get rid of the HCC program what is your plan.

How are you going to deal with these students who are considered highly capable.

When my children were labeled as highly capable I went to the principal of their local school.

I asked I don't want to move them.

They have very good friends.

It was a great environment for them.

How are you going to address this.

It was an AOL labeled school.

I mean they were supposed to be able to address advanced learning and she said no I don't know.

We'll do it as can.

We'll try and fit it in.

There is no plan.

So we had to make the decision to move.

And my kids have been well served.

But if you're going to desegregate are going to get rid of this plan.

What are you going to do with these children moving forward.

And that is what I ask for transparency from you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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

We have now come to the board comments section of the agenda and I wrote some notes.

So I just want to offer on behalf of the board.

Thank you to our student presenters from Media Middle School.

Thank you to Jamie from Seattle Skills Center and our student speaker as well from Seattle Skills Center and to all the folks for coming out to speaking today to our board during public comment.

We greatly appreciate that.

So I think given just the interest of time and I want to make sure folks get a break that if we're speaking today during board comments if it's pertaining to a topic that's coming up later reserve that for that but otherwise please share now for your board comment part portion and if any speaker if any board directors are interested in speaking first let me know.

Director Hersey.

I'll go ahead and knock out my comments.

First off thank you to everybody who has come and shared your thoughts with us.

We greatly appreciate it.

First it's been a busy past couple of weeks for me personally and I'm sure for the rest of our board directors as well.

Directors Mack and DeWolf and I had a wonderful community meeting at the Capitol Hill Library this past weekend.

I really love the aspect of these co-community meetings.

I think for a couple of reasons.

First it's super fun to see you guys off of this dais and then second I think that our constituents really appreciate it as well especially when we have differing opinions on how we get to the shared desired end goal of some things right.

And I think that that gives us an opportunity not only to express ourselves in a way that might not necessarily be as comfortable from the dais and it's a really awesome opportunity to be able to talk across communities as well.

So looking forward to potentially having a co-community meeting with anybody that's interested.

I'll find the space.

I'll bring a pie.

We'll have a good time.

The next piece was it was a pleasure visiting Bryant Elementary's PTSA last night along with directors Hampson and Rankin.

We had a thorough and robust conversation around many topics but especially how is our district thinking about.

How are we serving and making our spaces more accessible to our differently abled families and students and their parents.

And it just offers such a wonderful opportunity to think about what pieces are we missing.

Right.

Because education is so focused in some areas but then there are these fringes that make us really aware about how things are actually happening in the operational pieces as well.

And it's just a great reminder that you know we're not only representatives of our respective districts but we're also representatives of our city and being able to travel up north and travel west and whatnot is a really cool opportunity and I highly recommend that we all get a chance to bop around a little bit as much as we can.

I got a chance to stop by Rainier Beach High School last week to be a part of the laptop deployment.

I am so proud to say that Rainier Beach is now a one to one school and when we have a conversation about you know what does equity look like for our students having access to technology and access to the learning and access to this.

wonderful thing we call the internet and various you know applications and things on our devices that go beyond a cell phone.

It's fantastic and I'm just really glad that you know I was able to be a part of it.

We had some students that were a little shaky about it but then we had some other students that were just thrilled to have a device that they can take home and to use for whatever aspects of their learning.

The next piece is congratulations to SEA and their new leadership Mr. Tamayo and Ms. Jemison were elected president well yeah elected president and vice president respectively.

I'm really excited to build even stronger relationships with our educator partners and look forward to getting to know both of them better.

Wrapping up here.

I got to stop by Cleveland High School today and spend a little bit of time talking with students a lot about nutrition a lot about what does it mean to be a Cleveland High School student.

And it was just a wonderful environment.

The work that Principal Breland and his staff over there are doing is just.

Absolutely amazing.

You can feel the energy walking around that school about how much kids love being there.

I even actually saw some students get Uber Eats delivered for their lunch and had some really great conversations about what nutrition looks like for those students.

Today was a particularly good day.

They have fried chicken sandwiches but they did give us a lot of feedback on what they would like to see.

Pizza was at the top of the list.

But also right under pizza was more raw vegetables right.

More opportunities for our students.

One student specifically really appreciated the celery another appreciated the broccoli.

So I'm really excited about you know the grant that we just received to purchase more fresh fruits and vegetables.

And you know these are coming directly from the mouths of our kids.

Well I guess also going into the mouths of our kids.

But I think that we should really be pushing forward and thinking about how are we even expanding that further.

A salad bar in every school even though we've already got that except for one.

And last but not least we have a CPI meeting coming up a community meeting on January 13th.

CPI I'm getting to it.

I don't actually know what CPI stands for but I know that it is dealing specifically with student restraints.

Can somebody educate me on the proper acronym for CPI.

Intervention.

Crisis prevention intervention.

You heard it there first.

So we are going to be having a community meeting for folks to come and learn about when it is appropriate to and when it is inappropriate to use restraints for students to make sure that they are safe not only for themselves but for others.

I view this largely as an opportunity for our community to come together and for us to build trust and for us to also give an opportunity to be held accountable in situations where it might be necessary.

So on January 13th we are still hammering down the details.

I know that I'm going to be in attendance I believe Director DeWolf will be in attendance and I hope to see you know at least one other board director there.

I mean it's a publicly posted meeting does quorum count.

We can always notice a quorum.

Great.

OK.

Well I hope to see all the folks there that would like to attend.

Yeah it's been a really great last couple of weeks and I'm excited to have more opportunities to get out and meet with as many students and families as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Hersey.

Others.

Other folks.

Director Hampson then Director Mack.

Good evening.

Echoing Director Hersey's comments about our community meeting during the campaign Director DeWolf and I held a number of community meetings around specific topics which is really informative and helpful and.

And I do agree that having the joint meetings is is it's great when I'm off in my meetings by myself I often don't have as many people turn out.

We had about 20 folks and they all had you know there was a variety of topics there was a.

a focus on some of the major hot topics that we're experiencing.

But I really appreciate that everyone came out was interested in sharing what their thoughts were and having conversations around them.

Some of the stuff and I just wanted to bring this forward kind of publicly because we heard it but I think it's important for superintendent and staff to hear you know that the issues that were brought forward.

There's a number of continued staffing allocation concerns at a number of schools that there's overloaded classrooms at some places and another school with a getting the loss of instructional aid for special education.

I mean I don't know how these specific cases are.

Do they need medication do they not.

I forwarded those on to staff to kind of take a look into whether or not those are Places that could or should have some support on the staffing allocation.

We also had someone talking about and bringing up the issue again around dual language pathway in the southeast.

that no one selected to go to Rainier Beach for the pathway and that many of those students are this year in Cleveland and Franklin.

And so then we have this issue of those students are there there might be enough of a cohort to provide that higher level language courses and maybe I'm wondering that was the question of whether or not we should consider actually even though the pathway is not there providing that because there's enough students that warrant it.

Ethnic studies and its implementation in different schools was brought up.

There was just some parent questions around.

I don't know what's happening.

My kid came home with this stuff and I I'm not opposed to it.

There was no opposition really to the content.

It was more like I don't understand what this lesson is about and and around identity there was some stuff that sounded a little sensitive that they had questions about and so.

It sounded to me like a number of parents were more curious about the communication about these lessons and being informed ahead of time around these topics.

Not that they're in opposition to the content or what's going on but they that they just wanted to be more engaged in knowing that these lessons were coming forward.

And then someone came in specifically brought up the issue of the reporting around special restraint and isolation and that we need to continue monitoring that.

And of course we had a number of folks there talking about highly capable and TAF and Washington and the whole system and folks in support of integrating the program.

Folks stating concern around as this previous speaker spoke to is like you know how are these students going to be served going forward.

And I'm grateful that the advanced learning task force just came out with their recommendations.

We haven't seen them yet.

They haven't been completely published but from what I've read so far I understand that they're really robust and they have a lot of great suggestions.

There are likely to be implications on student assignment going forward and how you know and one of the questions that I continue to have personally that I think we need to wrap our brains around is is defining specifically what those services are so students know regardless of what setting it is whether or not it's in a cohort setting or not.

What are those services and that is that that for me I just keep hearing that question that folks want advanced learning.

They want access to it.

They don't want it restricted and we they also want to know exactly what that is and how to how to access it.

And that's that I just feel like that's really across the board.

And so I just wanted to echo what I'm hearing from folks.

So and I also just want to say that I am I'm really looking forward to this next year.

We have we have got a lot of great things set in motion with the capacity enrollment and facilities master plan advisory committee launching.

That advisory committee will help be the place for some of these challenging analyses and conversations around.

boundary changes in student assignments and capacity that all of this when we're talking about advanced learning and changing the models it's going to impact our student assignment.

We have new buildings coming online.

It's going to impact boundaries.

I appreciate the map that was brought forward because how we draw boundaries and you know does have a racial component as well.

And we have to be very thoughtful around that so.

As well as just to put out there again as well it has been noticed and it's been sent out but also there's a highly capable and racial equity if I hope I'm saying that correct advisory committee that is also spinning up and that's an ongoing advisory committee.

So the community knows that that's been noticed and you can apply.

It's on the advanced learning website.

and look forward to folks getting engaged in that.

And as always thanks for coming out and to our to our community meeting.

I don't have another one scheduled.

The executive committee of the whole for TAF just for noticing that is happening next Wednesday where we'll have a full conversation around TAF.

that proposal the implications around the highly capable cohort that are being proposed etc.

So that's the next step in that process is where that conversation happens and.

Thank you Director Mack.

Thank you.

Director Hampson Director Harris after.

That's me fumbling through saying when I wrote this it was going to be good afternoon because I thought we're going to do our comments earlier.

Good afternoon.

Greetings to each and every one of you.

My name is Hinuka Draidiga is the one they admire in Ho-Chunk and my English name is Chandra which is actually not English but Hindi.

I'm going to make an effort to model speaking your language because I am a strong believer in dual language and in honoring everyone's home language their heritage language.

I really appreciate the family that came and spoke through a translator and I hope that we can work together as a board to find ways To make more communication from our non-English speaking families possible.

I do believe that dual language is part of how we address that.

I strongly believe that dual language is how we address many of our equity and community engagement.

issues because of parents who don't know even what programs exist and don't necessarily have the ability to be involved in their students education because they don't speak the language.

For my community it's a matter of preservation and trying to keep our language from dying.

And it's a very active part of my.

tribal community back in Winnebago Nebraska.

And so I'm proud to speak that language here and on this Coast Salish land and hope that at some point maybe some of them will start watching watching me trying to and then they'll send me messages and tell me how I'm messing it up.

One of my aunties in particular will be correcting me when I especially when I go back this summer and she'll be correcting my accent and that's all.

good and anybody who's had to learn language knows that that's a necessary part of the process.

So I want to model again being brave and and and putting myself out there and doing the things that are that are really important.

One of the things in terms of what I won't speak to the specific things that are on the.

The intro the action item and intro agenda.

But I do want to make a note that I believe that equity analysis racial equity analysis and equity analysis in general is really critical for everything that we do.

It is consistent with the strategic plan that we build up that muscle in this board in this building in our.

school buildings in our classrooms of asking that question of what is the racial equity analysis for every decision that we make and as I go through the the board action reports aka BARS.

I'm not super excited about what I'm seeing.

I'm seeing a lot of utilization of that particular mechanism and knowing that that our staff was very intentional about how they created that equity toolkit analysis model that we need to do a better job.

I'm going to be a stickler about that and I hope the community will help me do that because I know that many of you see things where that we are not going to see about where the equity analysis isn't happening.

There's always an equity a deep equity analysis that can be done in all situations and even if it is multiple steps removed from the action that we're taking up here on the dais we need to be clear about what we have done as a building.

and articulate that in our board action reports.

This is an opportunity for us to be able to talk about the equity work that is happening in our buildings and in our central office and with our community partners and some of that will be talked about later.

I.

We have all been very very busy doing one on ones with staff as new board members and having our first meetings.

I have had the opportunity to be in community as well with directors Hersey and Rankin in conjunction with one of our city council members and three of our state legislators and a massive thank you to Samantha Fogg a Bryant PTSA president for pulling that together.

How she's able to get all of us in the room just by asking.

I don't know if she's got this magic power to make that happen and I can't tell you how important it is.

I think it really set the stage for us three in particular as new school board members that we are going to do this work together.

We're going to hold the city accountable we're going to hold they're going to hold us accountable.

The state we're going to hold the state legislators legislators accountable and them us but we're going to do it together.

So that was really exciting.

We did talk a lot about access.

I learned a lot in terms of the backlog that we have in this city of families being able to access our buildings.

I know it from close family friends but when you don't when you hear about it in bulk it's pretty stark in terms of the backlog of accessibility relative to our to our buildings.

We also talked a lot about behavior.

I call it mental health but we also called it behavior health.

We are very much at a crisis in the state of Washington in our in this Seattle community.

And I think that was one of the more important priorities for me that we talked about.

And it's personal for me because I'm working with community students and community members that are actively trying to find services for their students and are not able to we don't have anything in the way of residential programs here in the city and very little even in the state to speak of.

And so when a when a student is really in crisis we're looking at truly sending them away.

And I think that's the last thing that any community wants to be feeling.

And this is I have watched many community members throughout Seattle Public Schools pull together to try to find other solutions and the reality is That right right now that there are things that we just don't have the capacity to and even in the state or neighboring states and so we have a lot of work to do together to make sure that we've when we've exhausted all curricular and other support special education support services in our buildings that we have options in our communities and we have to do that work together.

I will be at McGilvra on Thursday.

I'm going to do a tour and and then I'm going to attend the PTA meeting that they have there and I'm glad to be doing that because they are bringing up very early this the issue of large scale PTA funding in buildings and that's something that we're going to that we tackled in audit finances director Harris spoke to and so I hope that others will engage with me.

I don't have specific community other community meetings set up yet but I will and I'm open to input about what that looks like where I would like to spend as Director Hersey said time in all parts of the city to and also do it during different times of the day because I think it's for many people it's something maybe they need to do during their lunch period maybe they need to do it in the evening.

So I'm open to being flexible and going to where my community members are to discuss these these really important issues.

It is going to be a very difficult conversation.

And then I will be at also on Thursday I will be at the Native American Huchoosedah Parent Advisory Committee meeting at Meany Middle School.

And we have our annual event at Daybreak Star on Now I've forgotten the date maybe Superintendent knows.

It's it's I think it's on the district calendar but it's definitely on the Huchoosedah Facebook page.

I think it's the 17th.

And that's a wonderful event where the Native community gets to come together and celebrate our kids and provide toys and have a meal together.

And I'm going to leave it at that.

Thank you Director Hampson.

Director Harris.

Okay.

Y'all that don't have community meetings scheduled December 21st Delridge library 3 to 5. If you're keeping track I think you're eating lasagna.

December 21st.

I try for the third Saturday of the month 3 to 5 and I rotate throughout the West Seattle community libraries.

I'm going to keep my comments pretty short because y'all have heard a whole lot from me.

But this next one is painful.

Denny International Middle School lost a student two weeks ago and we had a vigil on Friday night.

We had 250 folks in the dark in the rain with candles and any time we lose one student it's a tragedy but I want to.

call out the leadership the extraordinary leadership of our school leaders.

Principal Jeff Clark had powerful and thoughtful words.

I have the video but I don't want to belabor the point.

We do have permission from the child's family and foster family to share this call out.

But I also want to call out to a new assistant principal at Denny International Middle School Elliot Flavors an African-American male who has a sister that is also an assistant principal in the Seattle Public Schools.

And we got him back from California.

He grew up in the southeast part of Seattle and he read from his phone these words and please appreciate that the age range in the rain in the dark with the candles with music from his foster father father.

Amazing Grace 12 string guitar and harmonica.

I want to take this brief moment to remind you all especially my scholars that life your life is precious.

We cannot change anything in the past.

So I ask that we take a couple of things from this recent heavy loss as we approach the future.

You all are celebrating the loved ones in your life.

Even if you are mad or not on good terms with your friends and loved ones let them know that even though things may not be great between us I still want you to know that I love you.

Secondly I call you all to self-reflect on what it is that you need to do to take care of yourselves.

Handling life situations on your own can be difficult.

So seek the help and support that you think you may need to overcome the struggles in your life.

We are here to help you.

I love each and every one of you and I look forward to celebrating our time together this school year and beyond.

Bottom line that's what we're all about people.

Thank you.

Thanks Director Harris.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Is this on?

Okay cool.

Good evening everybody.

Thank you for those who came out tonight.

Our first of many we'll spend together.

I am so proud to be here and so proud to be working with this amazing team.

And I had.

And if I.

I've been out in the community a lot so far but if anybody wants to reach me they can at my my brand spanking new district email address.

It is Lisa Dot.

R-I-V-E-R-A hyphen S-M-I-T-H Seattle Schools dot org and it'll be online and stuff I'm sure.

But anyways excited to have that already filling up.

Opened it and had a hundred messages so seriously.

Be patient with me.

But I'm but I'm excited to be able to have that connection with people and I'm hearing from so many people.

So anyways in other news nine days into this job and I had one day without a meeting but that's that's awesome to me because that means I've had a lot of opportunity.

To be out and about I have continued to attend all four board committee meetings.

That is the executive committee the curriculum and instruction committee the Audit and Finance Committee and the operations committee.

Which one am I officially on.

Well this month I was on this the curriculum instruction committee as President DeWolf mentioned earlier we we met and we Talked about one one bar that came up was about some proposed courses new courses that our staff and teachers are working on and it's really exciting.

They will bring that before the board next month for approval.

But it's it's really it's a great group of classes they've got they've got Latin American Literature course immersive media skills a skill to trades pre-apprenticeship class which is great because it's going to tie into our forthcoming student community workforce agreement which will expand student access to training and careers aligned with our CTE pathways.

So that was really good to see in there and a bunch of other classes you'll hear about next month.

But speaking of those CTE pathways I also met with our partners in the building and construction trades at their holiday open house.

which was a lot of fun and as many of them pointed out to me that room looked a lot more diverse this last week than it did years in the years past.

A lot more minority and women business owners and industry leaders and it was very welcoming and a lot of them everyone I talked to was looking forward to working with us or already They already are on our on our student community workforce agreement committee that has been hard at work.

So anyways a lot of good stuff will come out of there.

And that was one of my stops on the same day I was also at B.F.

Day Elementary doing my first of what will eventually be 14 tours of my district two schools.

And that was really that was a great experience to see the inside.

I've always wanted to see the inside of that building because it's beautiful.

hundred year old building and it was just so warm and inviting.

Those teachers and students have a wonderful community going on there and they're very proud of it and they should be.

And I can't I can't wait to visit more schools in my district.

I've already had my first community meeting.

I got right on that and that was on Saturday.

at the University District University District Library which is also where I live.

So that was nice.

I got to walk to it and that was that was really exciting to have that get started.

Great group of people came out to that and I have my next one is going to be January 4th in Fremont at the Fremont Public Library.

Then I have one February 1st at the Green Lake library and March 7th at the Greenwood library.

Those are all within my district.

I'm trying to move them around but they're all on the first Saturdays of the month.

I'm going to try to keep them there so it's consistent in that.

But I also lastly I want to give a huge thanks to our as you heard our advanced learning task force finished up last night and they worked for about 18 months on that.

And it was I think it was it was an amazing feat they did because there is there is such diverse thought and people in that room that came together.

It wasn't always easy but they did it.

And I understand they're pretty proud of what they produced and we'll be seeing that soon.

I imagine.

But thank you to them and thank you to all.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

Director Rankin did you want.

You can also say no.

I don't think it's back.

Hi.

Thank you everybody for being here and participating and all of that.

I.

Keep going back and forth between feeling like I'm like pretending doing this and also feeling like it's just the absolutely most natural place for me to be at this point in time.

So that's that's just been sort of interesting.

Before the break as some directors I think mentioned there was the WSSDA conference which is the Washington State School Directors Association.

And it if you're in the PTA structure it feels very familiar kind of goes you know local to.

you know regional and and they make and pass resolutions very similarly to the way that PTA or Seattle Council PTA or Washington State PTA might.

So the structure felt really familiar and comfortable to me.

But it was a lot of new information and a lot of new people and a very large scale.

But something that was really a great way to sort of start this entry into being a board director was the opportunity to connect to connect with board directors from around the state.

and to realize how how these different funding funding shortfalls and.

various other issues that we're having that are also being had across the state but how our our district is the largest district in the state.

It's a third again as much as big as the second largest one.

And and a lot of districts have fewer than five thousand kids fewer than one thousand kids.

So actually like I knew that intellectually but actually talking to people from those districts and us having that connection and realizing that you know when decisions as we're going into a legislative session in about a month.

The decisions that are being made there are decisions that are being made with these wildly different needs across the state.

But at the same time at the center of it all is trying to serve serve our kids in our communities the best that we can.

So I'm really looking forward to building on some of those relationships and staying connected with the people that have the same priorities and hopefully take take our voice and our needs in a more powerful and united way.

to the state legislature.

The other interesting thing about that that I was sort of taken aback by was how much people didn't realize we in Seattle had the same struggles that they had.

I had one one woman I think she was from Arlington was talking was saying well we don't we can't do that we don't have Seattle resources.

And I'm thinking like.

Have you been in a class.

You know I've been in the classroom and and she she suddenly like the light bulb went on and she said oh wait you have the same issues that we have but on a much larger scale.

And I was like yes yes yes yes.

On the other hand because we're in a large.

Wealthy urban area.

We do have access to different specialists and different you know things like that within our our city not necessarily that are accessible to everyone in our school district.

But I mean you know if you need to see a neuropsych and you're in concrete Washington you're going to have to come to Seattle and we have those things here.

So trying to figure out a way to just connect all the needs from around the state and bring those things together so the legislature was really.

The most important thing to me about the conference and also of course the open public meetings act that government required training which was really interesting about being careful to not be not not form a quorum which if you've ever wondered why board directors when you email us.

where they don't hit reply all it's because that actually create.

This is my new piece of learning that creates a meeting.

So if you hit if I hit reply all and includes all of them I've created a meeting that the public wasn't informed of.

So I have sort of wondered that before and anyway maybe somebody else out there has wondered the same thing.

So after that we've had you know starting off just like getting right into it.

with the official badge and email and having one on ones the one on ones with senior staff a lot of whom are lined up here against the side of that room have been a really great introduction into this work that's happening.

And I'm really looking forward to building on those relationships.

There's a lot of.

New faces and some familiar faces since I started advocacy and hanging out in this room a lot and I think I'm taking very seriously that part of my role as a board director is to help amplify.

I know sometimes the work that happens here is really hard to feel or see out in the district and I'm hoping to as part of my my responsibility as a board director help Elevate some of that to the public because there is a lot of really great.

There are a lot of really great things happening as an As an advocate and now as a board director I think about there's the district with a capital D and then there's the people that are actually inside the district and the district with a capital D is often like this looming like oh the district did that and the district did that.

And I think for community advocates out there and for us as a board new board members thinking about the difference between district with a capital D and the people inside it.

Now that we're up here we are.

may not have been around when different decisions were made but we're part of district with a capital D whether we like it or not.

And so owning that and being being comfortable with it but also recognizing that.

people within this entity are doing really amazing work and really focused on our kids and our educators.

So doing those one on ones has been really great.

We've had our first budget work session and a BEX work session.

I went to the community meeting that the district held for Mira and Leschi families around TAF and that was really great to be in the room with families and.

A lot of questions that I might have had as a parent other parents asked and and then I have some other questions as a board director but it was really nice to be just they did a good job of bringing together community representation and.

We had superintendent and staff were there and then staff from TAF was there and so getting the opportunity to see and hear more about this decision that we're sort of starting partway in the process as the new board directors.

It was exciting.

The curriculum and instruction committee meeting because I was so fun which I just like.

Yeah.

Anyway the curriculum instruction was really fun.

I'm just going to say I this role and being up here and the way I talk and communicate I'm just going to be super transparent.

If this is not I'm a theater collaborator and I use my hands a lot and move my hands a lot and you may see that I may fidget more than other people up here and I just want to be like really transparent about there are kids in our class that probably feel very very uncomfortable having to sit and listen and not be able to get up and move around and stuff.

that I'm that that's me I'm that kid but now I'm a grown up and you still have to like you know do do all those things.

So I instead of apologizing for it which I have done as as an as an adult I'm just going to say like yeah you're going to see me probably fidget and get up and that's just something that I need to do because actually asking me to sit here and not be able to build something with my hands at the same time to communicate is actually asking me to do something harder than than it is to ask somebody else.

And so I just want to put that out there as a just reminder as we especially as we go into the conversations about HCC and neurodiversity and all this type of thing.

Anyway just sharing that.

I was really enjoyed the Bryant PTSA meeting.

I want to also give a shout out to Sam Fogg and the Bryant PTSA like like Director Hampson said and I think I said to the Bryant families I said you know that nobody else gets this many people in the room together for PTSA meeting.

All three of their state representatives their city council person and then three board directors.

So that was really really fun.

And what I actually really really enjoyed about that conversation was that.

The Bryant families had the opportunity had a captive audience and all of us and their questions were really about the health and happiness of our whole school system and our whole city which I just really I mean so many times one issue or one group can kind of suck all the air out of the room and and they really as a whole were you know thinking about their own students of course but When they were asking us questions they weren't asking you know what can you do for us right here right now.

For my kids they were really thinking about the future of Bryant as a school and a community and what their place was in Seattle Public Schools.

And that is something that I'm that I just really appreciated and I'm going to kind of.

try to remember and hold with me going forward and tomorrow I am going to have the the pleasure of visiting Olympic Hills with the superintendent.

It will be my first official school visit besides my own kids school which I guess that was an official visit but in one of my district schools.

So I'm really really excited about that.

I don't have.

community I haven't figured out what I'm going to do for community meetings yet.

I was introduced by some sixth grade friends to TikTok before Thanksgiving.

And so my kids and I made some TikTok videos over Thanksgiving.

And so I'm going to experiment a little bit.

I know I'm like over 40 but I'm going to experiment using.

TikTok for for those of you who also maybe don't have teenagers in the house.

It's a super just fun way to make a short videos that you can sync with sound.

And so I'm going to really try to do that put that out there to share some like positive good work and also just sort of demystify some of for anybody who might be interested what the school board does.

And in these little quick blurbs I'm going to see how I can get them captioned or you know.

But anyway that's.

Yeah and they're fun and they're funny.

And you know as as very as very very seriously as this work is and as much as there is at stake I think at the heart of it also there is so much fun and joy in that I really want to try to help keep us thinking on is that it's it's we have to find happiness and joy and fun to serve our kids and and have our schools be places where kids and.

their teachers and their families want to be.

So anyway.

Thank you Director Rankin.

I'll just I'll just finish up briefly and then we'll head out for a recess.

We could just first as a citizen of the Chippewa Cree Nation of Rockabelle Montana I do want to recognize again that we are on stolen and indigenous land.

I'm grateful to live work and serve in the city as the ancestral homeland to the Duwamish people the Muckleshoot Nation Nation and the Suquamish Nation.

We acknowledge them as custodians of this land since time immemorial and as guests and certainly in many cases as settlers on this land we extend our deepest gratitude and respect to their ancestors and elders past present and future.

I wanted to share my continued gratitude to our labor partners SPS staff community members and the board for deeply engaging with each other in the participation of the student and community workforce agreements task force.

We have a handful of meetings of meetings left and thanks to some great advice from our superintendent we are working on adding an additional weekend session to hear from and engage students from the student advisory board.

And as you might know as part of our board goals last year we were we were we told ourselves we would hold two work sessions out in the community and we held our final of those two at Lincoln High School last week as Director Rankin mentioned about budget and BEX V. I also want to just extend more gratitude to our capital staff and the resource conservation team.

We heard from them at our November operations committee and I found a time to come back for another longer meeting with them.

And so I look forward to expanding our commitments to a more green and sustainable school district capital D.

And I think just you know as a personal point too we have about eight to 10 years to hit an important greenhouse greenhouse gas emissions reduction target.

We can do this.

In fact and in the words of Greta who is a young person who was just named a Time magazine's person of the year and a young climate activist real change is going to be costly.

It requires giving things up the loss of power and privilege.

But we do need new commitments new systems and new ways of life in order to address this crisis.

I was also so honored to speak last week on a panel with colleagues and friends such as County Councilman Virginia Cole-Wells on homelessness in our region hosted by the League of Women Voters Seattle King County last week.

And as Director Hersey Mack and mentioned we did hold our community meeting was very I would say just super grateful for the folks that came out.

But I think one deeply important thing I just want to elevate from that meeting and I think Director Mack mentioned this too is we had a couple of questions about our ethnic studies.

And one of the parents had mentioned that there was certainly the lens by which that teacher was teaching that year was through an ethnic studies lens.

One of the conversations that came up was about racism and there was a discomfort about thinking about that topic and I want to at least be very clear from my perspective as board president now I think we should be engaging in these topics with our with our young folks because we I think as adults have have not done a very good job of engaging in those conversations.

I'm really grateful at least our students are taking on that challenge.

The other thing we talked about was as Director Mack did mention that there were some questions about identity and a lot of I think parents because there weren't a lot of students in that room the parents felt uncomfortable that their Children were put into a position where they're describing their personal identities.

And again just want to be very clear on the record to say that particularly as an LGBTQ person often the discomfort does not come from students or young people it comes from the parents and the adults.

And if a teacher had asked me anything about my gender identity or sexual orientation or just made the classroom feel safe that we could talk about it.

I think that my certainly my young public school experience would have been a lot more positive.

So I really am grateful that our that our students are engaging in these difficult but important conversations because I think often as adults we've we've not had them when we needed to.

The only last thing I want to mention is I'm working with excuse me Director Rankin on a letter to city council.

I don't know if you know this but I'm Both here in Seattle Councilmember Sawant is exploring a ban on evictions between November 1st and March 31st.

It made me think about what are the ways that we as an educational expert and authority here in the city can advocate for still educational.

kind of needs while also advocating for things that intersect as such as housing and in San Francisco they've attempted they've actually been successful in passing two ordinances that ban evictions for teachers and students and their families during the academic year and it's been upheld in the court.

So Director Rankin and I are going to work on a letter to city council that we'll put into a bar and a resolution that we'll bring to executive committee in January.

And then we'll have the full board be able to look at that.

But just as an example of the fact that as a board we not only think about education but particularly about the intersections of important things such as housing which also impacts our students educational outcomes and we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

We can advocate for housing as well as make sure students are graduating on time.

So that's it for me.

The board meeting will now recess for a 10 minute break and we will reconvene.

The board meeting will now recess for a 15 minute break and we will reconvene at 7 p.m.