Seattle Schools Board Meeting June 1, 2022

We will be calling the board meeting to order in a moment and SPS-TV will begin broadcasting.

For those joining by phone please remain muted until we reach the testimony period and your name is called.

Okay.

This is President Hersey.

I am now calling the June 1st 2022 Regular Board Meeting to order at 416 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Vice President Hampson.

Here.

Director Harris.

Here.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

Director Sargeant.

Present.

Director Song-Moretz.

Present.

And President Hersey.

Here.

Just a quick heads up.

The call is not on.

Thank you.

Deputy Superintendent Gannon is joining us today to offer comments on behalf of the superintendent and a proclamation for National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

The board adopted a proclamation for this recognition last year and today the district renews our commitment to reduce gun violence.

The proclamation will be circulated for directors to sign individually as they wish.

I also want to welcome Representative Liz Berry and Ballard High School Student and Student Advisory Board member Lena McRoberts who will be joining us for this recognition.

Finally thank you to the volunteers for Moms Demand Action for their partnership in bringing forward this proclamation.

Now I will pass it to Deputy Superintendent Gannon.

Thank you President Hersey.

Good afternoon directors.

Just for a point of order I'm here on behalf of Dr. Jones obviously who's dealing with family issues and emergencies this week and I'm honored to be here in his stead.

I want to start if I could by honoring the memory of the 19 students and 2 teachers who died in last week's shooting in Texas.

And if we could, I'd just like to pause and everyone have a moment of silence.

So I have no words.

to offer an explanation or consolation to our fellow educators our school leaders our families and our students as they all as we all grapple with this senseless act of violence.

I'm grateful and I know Dr. Jones is grateful so I speak here for him.

for the work of so many in our community who tirelessly strive to make our region safer our community safer our neighborhood safer for our students and schools through their advocacy their educational efforts their activism and their on the ground leadership.

Here in this boardroom I want to acknowledge especially the leadership of Director Rankin and Director Rivera-Smith for raising awareness about gun violence prevention.

Like all of us they care deeply about preventing gun violence and are consistent in advocating on behalf of better practices better policies and more awareness around what each of us can do to protect our students to protect our kids.

Following their lead and again on behalf of Dr. Jones I'm introducing a proclamation this afternoon for all of Seattle Public Schools to acknowledge Friday June 3rd as Gun Safety Awareness Day.

This nation has lost too many precious school aged children to senseless death at the wrong end of a gun.

The least, and I stress this, the least we can do is pause, join together as community, and show the world our solidarity around ending gun violence.

I want to also say that just earlier we concluded the flag raising to kick off Pride Month, and it was a beautiful celebration.

And it was grounded in things that I think we should bring into this space more often.

It was grounded in a sense of generosity and grace to our people and our community.

It was grounded in a sense of fellowship, that we are here together in all our differences to find unity and common cause.

It was grounded in a sense of love.

Not just the word love, but deep and abiding love.

And I think too often that we fail in our public spaces to remember that what should drive us is grace.

Giving it and receiving it.

That what unites us is a sense of fellowship.

And that all of our efforts, if not grounded in love, are grounded in something too hollow.

But things grounded in love motivate deeply and genuinely and change the world.

As to the proclamation I'm very pleased to introduce Lena McRobert a junior at Ballard High School.

who will read the proclamation on behalf of Dr. Brent Jones and Seattle Public Schools.

A proclamation of Seattle School District Number 1 King County Seattle Washington.

declaring the first Friday in June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the Seattle School District to honor and remember all victims and survivors of gun violence and to declare that we as a country must do more to reduce gun violence.

Whereas every day, more than 110 Americans are killed by gun violence, alongside more than 200 who are shot and wounded, and on average, there are nearly 16,000 gun homicides every year.

And whereas Washington State has an average of 810 gun deaths per year, and whereas It is the policy of the Seattle School Board that district programs promote and support students' access to instruction while maintaining a welcoming supportive safe and healthy environment.

And whereas gun violence prevention is more important than ever as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to exacerbate gun violence after more than two years of increased gun sales increased calls to suicide and domestic violence hotlines and an increase in city gun violence.

Whereas in January 2013 Hadiyah Pendleton was tragically shot and killed at age 15. And on June 3rd 2022 we recognize the 25th birthday of Hadiyah Pendleton born June 2nd 1997. People across the United States will recognize National Gun Violence Awareness Day and wear orange to tribute Hadiyah Pendleton and other victims of gun violence and their loved ones.

And whereas the idea was inspired by a group of Hadiya's friends who asked their classmates to commemorate her life by wearing orange.

They chose this color because hunters wear orange to announce themselves to other hunters when out in the woods.

And orange is a color that symbolizes the value of life of human life.

And whereas Anyone can join this campaign by pledging to wear orange on June 3rd, the first Friday in June in 2022, to help raise awareness about gun violence.

And whereas, by wearing orange on June 3rd, 2022, Americans will raise awareness about gun violence and honor the lives of gun violence victims and survivors.

And whereas in June 2021 the Board of Directors of the Seattle School District voted unanimously to recognize the first Friday in June as National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

And whereas we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the wrong hands and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep our children safe.

Therefore Seattle Public Schools declares the first Friday in June June 3rd 2022 to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

We encourage all schools to support their local communities efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives.

Thank you so much Lina.

We have with us also today by phone Rep Liz Representative Liz Berry from the 36th Legislative District who is an SPS parent and a gun violence prevention champion.

Thank you so much Liz.

And if you have a few words to say please go ahead.

I do.

Thank you so much.

Can you not see me you can just hear me.

We can see and hear you.

Oh hi.

Thank you so much for having me today.

It's a real honor.

to be a part of this resolution especially because as you said I'm an SPS parent.

My son George is a kindergartner at John Hay Elementary and that's been a really special experience for us and also absolutely devastating with the news out of Texas last week.

As a parent of a kindergartner I am angry as are a lot of parents and teachers and educators and students.

So I very much appreciate the resolution today read by our student.

I believe our elected leaders have a responsibility to do everything we can to keep our community safe.

And that's why I made gun violence prevention one of my top priorities when I was sworn into office in January of 2021. And it's personal to me.

I'm the former legislative director to Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

And my life changed forever a little over 11 years ago when a gunman opened fire at a Congress on Your Corner constituent event in Tucson, Arizona and shot my boss in the head.

killed six other people, including my colleague and friend Gabe Zimmerman.

He's the first congressional staffer to be killed in the line of duty.

And as you can imagine, this experience touched my life in a profound way and has inspired my passion for ending gun violence in our communities.

And that's why it's so devastating to me that gun violence has gone up since the pandemic, that more people are buying guns and that gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and teens in our country.

As a mom, this is absolutely devastating to me.

And that's why I'm so proud that our state has been a real bright spot where the federal government has refused to act to protect our communities.

We have delivered on some fantastic gun sense policy legislation over the past few years.

We banned high capacity magazines, of 10 rounds or more.

We banned untraceable homemade ghost guns that are the favorite of gun traffickers because you don't need a background check to obtain them.

We banned open carry as a way of intimidating at school board meetings like the one you're in right now and at the state capitol building and at other election facilities.

And I'm really proud of what we've done.

And you better believe I've already gathered our champions together to start working on our 2023 agenda.

There is no reason that we shouldn't try our hardest to ban assault weapons in the state of Washington to keep our students safe in their schools.

What can you do?

You know, this is really sad.

This is hard stuff to swallow.

Don't give up hope that our laws can change.

That would be the number one thing.

Demand support from your elected leaders and back candidates who support gun safety prevention measures.

March with me on June 11th.

There is a national movement to do a March for Our Lives part two, and there will be activities in the state of Washington, including in Seattle.

So go to March to Our Lives website to check out for those.

I believe gun violence is preventable, and I will never stop fighting for those we love.

So thank you so much for having me here today.

And thank you for the inspiring remarks.

Thank you very much Representative Berry for being with us and also for all of your work to keep our our community safer.

Thank you.

Thank you all very much.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

This is Director Hampson.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

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

Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda.

Director Harris.

President Hersey I would like to remove item number three approval of the amendment to the Gersh Academy Services contract.

I gave a heads up to Associate Deputy Pedroza that I would be doing so.

Thank you.

Fantastic.

I'll move approval of the consent agenda as amended.

This is Director Hampson.

Second.

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

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

All those opposed.

Passes unanimously.

Okay.

All right.

So for the item removed I would entertain a motion for that particular item.

Oh let me get that up for you.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to amend the contract with Gersh Academy and the additional amount of $448,125 for revised total contract amount of $1,025,400 for private placement of fewer than 10 students who require therapeutic day service and programming with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement this contract.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Okay.

This has been moved and properly seconded.

I see that we have Dr. Pedroza with us.

Would you like us to begin with you.

Director Harris do you have any comments.

President Hersey appreciate it.

This is not the first time that Associate Deputy Superintendent Pedroza and I have spoken about this issue.

And at the last meeting when we approved another similar contract we asked the questions as to whether or not Our folks had been out to these facilities and conversed and inspected and done our due diligence.

And I understand you have an update for us on the Gersh Academy and that we have made it very very clear about our policies on isolation and restraint.

Yes.

And this comes from constituent contact who was very worried about that issue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Harris.

Yes.

Immediately on receiving that information the special education department Dr. Torres is here as well.

He can answer further questions but specifically they have had a team go out.

They've met with the GERSH staff.

They reviewed the policies and procedures And with all of our MPA contracts actually have a plan in place to go out and be more diligent in supporting some progress monitoring and meeting and just making sure because as our policies change we have to make sure that all our MPAs are aligned with the policy changes and they're aware that they're receiving Seattle Public Schools students that we want alignment to the procedures that we put in place through the processes of the policy and governance.

Are there any additional questions.

Do directors have any additional questions on this item.

Okay.

Seeing none.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will you please call for the vote on this item.

Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Sargeant excuse me aye Director Song-Moretz aye President oh sorry Vice President Hampson aye Director Harris aye Director Rankin aye President Hersey aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you.

Okay.

We have now come to the board committee report section of the agenda.

We will hear briefly now from the chairs of each of the board's four committees.

Beginning with the Audit and Finance Committee.

Vice President Hampson do you have some brief comments that you would like to share.

Nothing substantive to share.

We meet again on Monday the 6th at 8 a.m.

So please join us.

Thank you.

6th of June that is.

Thank you.

Oh I'm sorry.

And the 7th audit.

I'm sorry.

Finance on the 6th and then.

Audit on the 7th if I'm not mistaken.

Yes.

There should be some there's agendas should already be posted on the committee pages.

Thanks.

Thank you very much.

Director Rivera-Smith would you like to provide any updates for the Operations Committee.

Absolutely.

Director Rankin would you like to provide any updates for the Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee.

Just very briefly.

We have our next our June meeting on also next week the 7th which is a Tuesday afternoon.

And it seems like we just had one because the schedule is a little bit different I think because of graduation.

So I encourage anyone who is interested to look at the meeting materials when they post.

As for the Executive Committee we had a robust discussion concerning our transition timeline for Student Outcomes Focused Governance.

We were joined by A.J.

Crable who has been a great coach for us from the Council of Great City Schools.

And we also had a bit of discussion about our June 11th board retreat.

I want to remind board directors if you have not looked at your calendar for June 11th make sure that you have not scheduled anything on top of that.

Yes we are here and in person live and in living color.

That is going to be a really special one because as many folks know we are going to be bringing some student board members to join us in our decision making process and that entire agenda is going to be focused around how best to work with students.

So it will be a very riveting presentation.

I'm sure they've been working very hard on it.

Are you prepared Director Rivera-Smith.

Take it away.

Thank you.

Yes.

Our last operations committee meeting was on May 19th.

It was.

We've had a lot of robust committee operations committee meetings lately so this one was a little more low key but we did get a great presentation in the Rainier Beach High School construction phasing and their women and minority business is outreach that's being done at that location and really saw what A truly student and school centered effort is going on over there at Rainier Beach and hopefully finding out ways we can duplicate that at all of our sites going forward.

We got a Clean Energy Task Force update which is dear to my heart.

And we're hearing more from them quarterly.

And we also saw a couple items that you may have seen today for introduction so I won't go into those now.

Our next operations committee meeting is Next week on June 9th 430 the public is welcome via Teams.

It is not has it does not have an in-person location and I look forward to seeing you there.

Thank you.

Thank you very much Director Rivera-Smith.

We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda but it is not yet 5 p.m.

To keep the meeting going I would like to begin with introduction items if possible.

Taking a look at our agenda.

Do we have no introduction items tonight.

Am I missing.

We do.

Would you like me to.

Do I have a different one.

I've got a different one.

It might be the one from last time.

Hang on.

Yep.

Almost certain.

Yep.

Last meeting.

I do indeed have it.

Thank you.

All right.

So introduction item number one is acceptance of screening and brief intervention and referral to services SBIRT.

I'm.

Is this called SBERT.

SBERT.

That is so clever.

Grant.

And this came through the SSE&I committee on May the 24th for approval.

We will first go to Director Rankin.

Do you have any comments.

Yeah.

That's fine too.

Hello everybody.

So for the record I'm Dr. Cohn-Spadrosa Associate Superintendent.

I'm here to bring in front of you and introduce this BAR for the acceptance of funds from King County's Best Starts for Kids school-based screening and brief intervention and referral to services grant in the amount of three million dollars over three school years.

One million each school year beginning September 1, 2022 and ending August 31, 2025. The SBIRT is a substance use reduction and mental health promotion program in which identified students are provided additional support services either internally or through community providers.

A 2018 King County Best Starts for Kids grant provides us funding at Eckstein Hamilton Jane Addams Madison Meany and Whitman Middle Schools as well as Seattle World School.

And the new grant maintains this funding and allows expansion to additional schools.

Data from the check yourself screener for this current school year indicate that 20 percent of students report symptoms of anxiety within the last past two weeks.

14 percent report symptoms of depression within the past two weeks and 18 percent report being bullied within the past year.

During the previous grant period the this BRIC program has provided behavioral health screening services to 4,474 students.

Issues facing youth include substance use mental health concerns lack of adult parental support and basic needs which have great impacts on students ability to learn in school.

And by providing behavioral health services in an accessible manner students would get better support to succeed in the classroom.

And the acceptance of these funds upholds and improves equity in services received sustains a focus on identifying available referral resources that are culturally relevant to our communities and continues current community partnerships with focus on identified priority student populations.

And I also have here Lisa Davidson who introduced this at the committee here to answer specific questions if any of the school board members have them.

Thank you very much Dr. Pedroza.

First going to Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions.

I just our discussion in committee for the benefit of the rest of the board was about that this is a Not a new grant.

We've had this since 2018 but given that the pandemic and things have happened in there it you know that's obviously impacting data.

And as legislatively I'm hoping that we will keep the data from this you know it's not connected to individual students but the data in mind as we go into advocating for the resources that our system needs.

That indicator of anxiety was a particular particular one.

But just our committee recommended this for approval.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

All right.

We will now move on to introduction item number two.

Oh I'm sorry.

I didn't see you.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I'm wondering so I see the list of schools that this is going to be at and it's almost all of our middle schools but I see a couple missing like Robert Eagle Staff in Washington.

Is there a reason that those schools will not be having this.

You know I don't have that information but Lisa Davidson's on the line.

Lisa can you answer that please.

I think she's on the line.

This actually came up in committee if Lisa's not available.

And if you look through the meeting materials there's some other grant funding that provides a similar service to some other schools.

So the schools that are listed as receiving this grant for this service are not the only schools that have screening and and resources to do that.

It's just that attached to this specific grant is those schools and that should be in the materials or with the BAR as I remember.

The goal is always just with our coordinated health plan because you know Pat Sanders is here.

It's always to provide services based on our coordinated tiering supports Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3. And so but this grant funding is specifically as Director Rankin stated for these specific populations.

Thank you.

Any other questions.

Again apologies Director Rivera-Smith.

We are going to skip over number two for now and come back to it and move on to number three.

Authorization to extend the commercial food products and supplies contracts B052181-1 and B05281-2.

This came through the operations committee on May 19th for approval.

And I see that Mr. Podesta has joined us.

So take it away.

Well thank you President Hersey.

Fred Podesta Assistant Superintendent of Operations.

Introduction Item 3 is an extension of our commercial food product contracts.

The district has contracts for commercial food products and supplies with U.S.

Foods and Cisco Seattle.

These contracts provide general grocery products.

such as frozen foods dry goods canned products condiments side dishes and supplies in providing meals.

These contracts were competitively bid in 2021 and have a couple of optional one year extensions and we would like to execute the extension for the 22-23 school year.

OK.

Thank you Mr. Podesta.

First going to the chair of the operations committee Director Rivera-Smith.

Do you have any comments or questions on this item.

Thank you.

Now, when we saw this in committee, I think we had questions regarding the selection of items through this contract.

And Mr. Podesta explained this is this is this is the vendor, or sorry, this is the distributor.

Which way is it?

This is mostly a distributor and passes through with a lot of different providers.

Yeah.

So in that, the selection for specific items.

is still to be decided sort of by the department.

And and that's where we have questions about certain packaging and items that are going to our students.

But this is the distributor and service has been good so we're wondering.

It's you know given the supply chain problems that many organizations and districts face I think service has been pretty good this year.

I will say the Culinary Services Department has a really good done a really good job of ordering ahead and being thoughtful and going to other providers as needed.

So thank you.

Thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

Any other directors with questions on this item.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Okay moving on to introduction item number four.

BEX V final acceptance turn up of contract P5175 with Dixon Company for the Kimball Elementary School Phase 1 project.

Thank goodness.

Ops May 19th for approval.

I believe Mr. Podesta will also.

Yeah this one is only a half birthday celebration.

So the Phase 1 is the demo where the Kimball project is building a whole new school building for Kimball Elementary.

This contract was to demolish the existing building, prepare the site, remove hazardous materials.

So that's an important step, and it's a big job, and it's done.

So we'll take our wins where we can get them.

The existing building, portable site prep, and hazardous materials were removed.

The work has been approved by a consulting architect who always oversees this for us.

Change orders were a bit higher than expected.

at 12.7 percent but there were more hazardous materials that needed abatement than we expected and the project is now under construction and we're getting ready to open the school.

We'll be back with the real celebration sometime after the fall of 2023.

Very exciting.

Director Rivera-Smith anything you'd like to add.

Nope.

We had a building successfully demolished and hauled away and now a new one is rising from that.

So thank you Mr. Podesta.

Thank you.

I have one quick question.

Given that we just had a conversation about supply chain issues, are we anticipating any delays in the development of that building?

No.

I think given we have a lot of runway left, we're expecting that to go well.

Thank heavens a concrete strike a strike related to concrete delivery has passed so we're able to start catching up on our projects.

Indeed.

Indeed.

Thank you Mr. Podesta.

Thank you.

Greatly appreciate it.

Are we prepared to receive introduction item number two at this time.

I can always come back.

Just let me know.

I'll do my best on behalf of Dr. Perkins.

Hello I'm Dr. Keisha Scarlett Assistant Superintendent of Academics.

Just one moment.

All right.

I don't have my reading glasses and I'm reading on my phone but we'll try our best here.

All right.

So this board action report amends and retitles board policy number 2140 with the proposed title being Advising Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling.

The new policy incorporates state law updates on three main topics.

Those are the first addresses efforts to eliminate discrimination and access to course offerings in district or school created advising materials.

The second implements the new requirements for a district comprehensive school counseling program.

And the third clarifies the roles of school counselors school social workers and school psychologists to reflect changes in state law and guidelines.

Our school counseling team has done a skillful job of synthesizing several new changes in laws and rules into this new policy.

Here are some of the examples of the state guidelines we're aligning to.

OSPI adopted revised rules to prohibit discrimination in the provision of counseling and guidance services.

We do excuse me we need to do an annual equity review of disaggregated enrollment data.

within courses and programs to identify disproportionalities and address discrimination.

And Senate Bill 5030 requires districts to develop and implement a comprehensive school counseling program for all schools within the district that addresses students' academic career and social emotional development.

As you can see There have been a great deal of staff engagement on what this means including our joint SEA and SPS workgroup on counseling.

With respect to equity given SPS's targeted universalist approach it is important to determine how this change in policy could affect African-American male students.

There are three specific areas that I note above that also connect with our efforts to promote racial equity.

Those are advising.

These changes specifically provide protection to students ensuring they cannot be denied access to any course offering.

SPS data reveals the needs for these changes as included in the BAR.

Annually the district will review student enrollment data within courses and programs disaggregated by race.

sex and race and ethnicity limited English proficiency and disability including students protected under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

In reviewing the data the district will determine whether a substantially disproportionate number of students within these categories are enrolled in a particular course or program.

The Comprehensive School Counseling Program It is the goal of the board that the district's Comprehensive School Counseling Program will assist every student in acquiring the knowledge skills and attitudes needed to become a lifelong learner who is college and career ready.

Again let me conclude by giving a huge thanks to the SPS counseling team and all of the district counselors and social workers and other staff to provide advising mental health counseling and school counseling.

At the May SSC&I committee meeting the board action report was moved forward for consideration.

Director Rankin raised questions about the connection to larger goals and values to move pieces to procedures rather than within the policy.

We want to have our policies really work at a higher level.

And at the same time we followed the WSSDA model policy to guide district on how to implement recent law changes.

We also reviewed this policy with legal.

Short term we will make small changes to include language about our values in the introduction.

To give a broad rationale for the board's support for these areas.

Add some more clearer language around where the district will statements.

Move domains and roles to the procedures.

Keep advising in the comprehensive school counseling program.

We will also bring this revised version to the full board for action on June the June 22nd meeting.

Long term we'll move more of this to procedures once we have had more of a policy review brought by the Student Outcomes Focus Governance.

And I will conclude my remarks.

Thank you Dr. Scarlett.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Scarlett for pinch hitting.

I don't think you're supposed to be the one there so good job.

Yeah.

So as was mentioned by Dr. Scarlett in we talked about this in committee we had the conversation about you know focusing really focusing board policy on the work of the board.

And so with my committee members permission I committed to to we didn't have any issue with the content really.

There were no big questions or concerns but in trying to move us forward in our work of board policy being about board work with permission from my my colleagues I committed to working with staff to refine some of the language.

So between then and now I went further in my head of Should this even be board policy because it's very prescriptive what came from the state and what came from WSSDA.

So I'm gonna I'm going off the usual standard playbook because that's where we're trying to go.

So my my wonder and I guess what since Superintendent Jones isn't here today what I will commit to checking in with him about is Because of where we are right now in the process of shifting so that board policy is board work and district policy and procedure are district work.

You know once you start once you see it you can't unsee it.

And all of these things are really tangled together.

And that kind of happened to me and to staff working on this in the middle of the process.

And so what I would like to do is to consult with Dr. Jones about whether or not this even needs to come for action.

or if it belongs actually in more of a district policy because what's what the state does when the state directs districts to do things is it says you know the state is required to adopt such and such or the district districts are required to adopt such and such policy or districts are required to ensure such and such services.

And it's the language is kind of all over the place.

So if taken very very literally we could say OK put it on a piece of paper make a policy.

But as we know.

The policy doesn't mean that the work is happening and how we want to monitor if the work is happening or not is through progress monitoring on student focused outcomes.

And so this is I just wanted to be able to say this to all of you in the same room since we don't get to talk together that my wonder of where we are in this shift with this policy specifically is and this is why I want to check in with Dr. Jones.

for expediency and because of the the legal requirement maybe we just approve it and then revisit it when we look at a policy diet.

However I don't believe it is a state requirement that it's board policy.

It's a requirement that districts enact policies which could mean any number of things.

And so that so anyway I just kind of wanted to single that that.

I will consult with Dr. Jones and anyone else who has questions or comments obviously let me know but that it's possible that we may not take action on this because I don't know that it's really appropriate for it to be a board policy even though it is right now.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Director Harris.

Thank you.

I have very strong feelings that we do not put enough bodies and money towards high school counseling.

I appreciate very much the legislature putting more money to elementary and middle schools this last session.

But given the social emotional issues of the pandemic and that had been there long before the pandemic.

I guess I progress monitoring is a little too amorphous for me and I well appreciate that I may well be a minority on this board with respect to that.

I firmly believe that we were elected to vet to get regular updates and for transparency and accountability.

My big question though Dr. Scarlett is what kind of funds come with this.

Again I will state it probably to my dying day.

We can pass all the policies and all the procedures in the world but if we're not willing to put our money and our bodies behind it it means not very darn much.

So what kind of budgeting are we talking about to expand these roles.

And I'm also very interested to see that we have several folks testifying on that tonight as well.

So there are no allocated funds.

Director Harris toured this you know effort.

So much of the enhancements are the state you know based enhancements for this effort.

So there's not been anything allocated to date.

But my understanding is that for high school anyway this is yet again another state unfunded mandate.

Is that correct.

Correct.

Beyond the enhancements from the state.

So it's ink on a paper and that distresses me extraordinarily.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions on this particular item.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Really quickly I'm wondering so in the part about I should get the page in front of me regarding that no child would be denied enrolling in a class How does that work if it's not offered at the school that they are assigned to.

Is there would it be they'd be transported to another school for a certain course if they wanted to take it or would it have to be an online class.

Do we do we know yet how that would happen.

We do have some creative options and you know we've done the high school coordinated schedule to be able to open up more opportunities through virtual classrooms and coursework.

So that is one pathway forward.

within that.

Also the denial will depend upon the course offerings that are at the school as well.

And so there are some schools that just specialize in certain courses that aren't necessarily universal courses across the entire school district.

So it'll be you know likely ways for us to increase equitable access through some of the virtual options that we have to be able to better be able to to leverage our FTE across different schools.

But also just keeping in mind that some of our schools the courses may differ you know some across that.

But the denial means that students will have equitable access to the courses that are offered in their school.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Starlet.

Thank you.

We will next go to public testimony.

We will be taking public testimony by phone and in person as stated on the agenda.

Board procedure 1430BP provides the rules for testimony.

And I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules and I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

First testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website.

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones or step forward to the podium and only one person should speak at a time.

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called.

The total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers.

Time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins and the new speaker will not be called again later if they are on the testimony list or waiting list.

Those who do not wish to have time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or wait list.

The majority of the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones will read off the testimony speakers.

And one correction.

Today's testimony list we will begin with our invited student speakers from Ingraham High School.

Hanan Hussain and Luam Genem who I believe are joining us on Teams.

Hello.

Hi.

Can you guys hear us.

We can hear you.

And we do have one more student with us but she won't be joining us right now.

Her name is Lena.

We want to talk about school.

Okay.

The topic that we want to talk about is like safety regulations at our school.

Like in light of recent events we like had a discussion and we've realized that like there's a lack of safety and like protocols at our school.

We've realized we talked we had a class discussion and we talked about how like anybody can just walk into our school and just go anywhere at any time any place.

Yeah I mean there's been multiple occasions of just students from other schools just coming in to hang out and like no one would know because the doors are unlocked at all times and anyone can just literally walk into our school and the teachers and security would like have no idea that they didn't go there.

Yeah.

And it's really unsafe.

And I think that there should be some sort of like protocols or regulations against that.

especially in light of recent events that have occurred just they just got us thinking more because to be honest before this we weren't thinking about it because you know it did happen to us so we weren't thinking about it too much but now we are because it happened to elementary school students like what could happen to us.

Exactly.

And we were coming up with like maybe possible like solutions.

Like for example at my middle school we had like a like a code that you needed to come inside the school.

Like no one who didn't know the code could come in.

And.

And at my middle school there was like two doors.

So like there was a doorbell and then you come in and then you go to the main office and then you would be let in.

And this is just middle school.

Thinking about like I feel like at a high school there should be like like more like there should it should be taken more seriously because there's more students and.

Like a serious way but then a way for us students to feel safe.

and still have our freedom not to feel like we're locked up in a box.

Like I know that some universities or most universities have like key cards that come with their IDs and.

And then we are given ID cards in the beginning of the year and we don't do nothing with them to be honest.

We we should utilize it.

Yeah I think having some sort of system maybe like at the doors where you'd like scan to get in the building or just just something like that.

I mean these are just ideas obviously but.

And we can't.

Nothing can change right away.

Like I think we all need to come together and actually talk about it.

Like us me my friend Luama and our other friend Lena we stepped up and we're like we need to do something about it because we don't feel safe and I don't think anybody else feels safe.

Yeah.

And yeah that's all.

And for I forgot to make this announcement.

So if you are joining us by phone today please press star-6 to unmute when you hear your name called.

The next speaker is Ezra McCray.

Ezra McCray.

Can you hear me.

We can hear you.

Okay.

So hi my name is Ezra.

I am an eighth grader at David T. Denny International Middle School, and I am here today with the race and equity team of my school.

And today we are here to talk about changing the name of our school, because we've done some research and realized that the name is quite problematic to the people in our community.

We are called an international school, meaning all are welcome no matter who they are, but with this name, the name of a person, who brought pain to so many people uh...

welcome everyone david t denny was white but but doesn't that doesn't prove that we're like working towards more of a diverse uh...

community although david t denny didn't do anything extremely bad he still didn't do anything right to help the native americans uh...

as one of the cellar uh...

members of members of the cell board of trustees he uh...

had a chance to speak up and stand up for the native americans are losing their land but he didn't do that he sat there and watched as they were driven out of their rightful places and he had the power and the authority to make a change but didn't even bother to try And our school motto is we all belong with academic excellence for every scholar in our global village.

Yes, we follow the part where it says for every scholar in our global village, but we don't follow the part where it says we belong.

How can we belong if a lot of the students who go to our school are the ones who are part of the Native American people and that community that were removed from this area?

how can we be called international for schools named after someone who treated those who are first here is not human washes others were treated so inhumanly you have all problem you've all probably heard about how to do our mission have been filling a lawsuit at the government for not being recognized uh...

for the treaty they signed in the eighteen hundreds mad that they're not being recognized due to the fact that they were willing to give up uh...

thousands and thousands of acres of their uh...

homelands to strangers that didn't even know and um...

feel like the least we could do is uh...

changed the name and like some place that doesn't inflicted painful past upon any other communities

The next speaker is Satomi Giedemann.

The next speaker is Satomi Giedemann.

Please press star-6 to unmute if you're on the line.

Hello Superintendent and others following at the board meeting.

My name is Satomi Giedemann 8th grade or 8th grader at David T. Denny International Middle School on the Student Ration Equity Team.

On April 17th 2022 we forwarded you an email requesting that you look into the name of our school and hoped that you would come back with feedback.

However it has been more than a month left on silent.

Estimating that you have not investigated it we will catch you up.

David T. Denny part of the Denny family was a major contributor who played part in the removal act of Natives in 1865. This is I direct kids and Natives living here and disrespecting their heritages thus promoting a racist name in school.

As a part of an international school where all is celebrated is completely discouraging the students and the work being undermined in the school.

This is truly unacceptable.

We are not here to sugarcoat these scars but by people who have had so much power in this country especially when our states are covered as protection of our community cultures to which our cultures do not resonate resonate with the people who murdered and stole this land.

It stays with the people who cared for and appreciate this land with their lives to which we find the behavior of doing nothing at all easily worse to exerting racist norms which has already been exerted in this school district.

You see during this past month our team conducted a school-wide survey catching the responses of 580 students nearly the majority of the school to where more than 50 percent concluded that our name be changed.

Let me also add this is because we issued out a school-wide advisory lesson created by us discussing the origin of David T. Denny later that morning.

Today is now June the beginning of the last month in my school year here at Denny and our hope is that you investigate this with the right intentions and interests.

It has been incredibly frustrating and disheartening along with my team knowing that although in the time and effort outside of school doing this you have chosen not to even address it.

We have given you plenty of time to look.

We now have more concise information on hand to further push for the best outcome for our school.

Despite everything we still implore you to please consider partnership of this movement in our school moving forward for following students to come.

Thank you for your time.

Next.

The next speaker is Addison Whited.

Addison Whited.

Hi I'm Addison Lloyd and I'm an 8th grader at David T. Denny International Middle School.

The purpose of my presence here today is to speak on the matter of changing our school name due to its origins not aligning with our community's values.

Doesn't it seem irrational for a school that claims to be international to have a name that projects such violence instead of reflects the voices of our students that have gone too long trying to remain silent.

If 56 percent of our student body agrees that our formerly beloved school name beginning in David T.

has become an unjust and offensive representation of this community in which we instill our trust.

Wouldn't it be inhumane not to listen to us.

And there are lots of questions to still be addressed but most importantly how can we claim to be anti-racist and then not just name our school after a colonizer but go so far as to embrace it.

Here's the facts.

Our our current school name has got to go because the school name should not just should be something that we honor not just another act of harm that distracts us from the bias around around us and their impact.

So we beg of you to please not just listen to the dilemma that we present you with and not just to recognize our suffering but to instead take the next steps with us in order to solve the problem and unveil the dark path that our school's name has been covering.

It is time that we begin to question our ways and it is time that we do not just speak of change but instead help create it.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Burke Popelka.

Burke Popelka.

Hello everyone.

My name is Burke.

As you know I'm in 7th grade and I am a part of the student risk and equity team of David T. Dinnie International Middle School.

Today I am here to talk about the horrific name of our school.

If I'm being honest I really didn't want to be up here like in representing a school that supports the racist acts of David T. Dinnie.

Some of you are probably wondering what's so bad about this name.

The answer is that David T. Dinnie was the leader of a group called the Dinnie Party.

They were pioneers who like all settlers at that time came into Native land and kicked them out.

So with that being said I'm here to ask if the school board is in favor of removing a name that represents genocide of Native people in the Seattle area.

And more importantly as the title of our school that is committed to anti-racist practices in all of its forms.

This would be amazing to see.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Jonah Reby.

My name is Jonah Rebe.

I am a current 9th grader at Cleveland High School.

I have diagnosed dysgraphia as well as ADHD.

Additionally I have an IEP that I got late in elementary school.

I first and foremost want to say to the members of the school board I respect you all deeply.

You have made and continue to make so much positive change in SPS.

The school board gives me faith in Seattle Public Schools future and fulfilling the goals of helping students furthest from educational justice and empowering student voices.

I want to say thank you for listening to student voices at Cleveland.

It feels amazing to be heard.

We have noticed the change.

You've kept us updated on the principal hiring process at Cleveland and began to include us in it.

Something that disappoints me in this situation regarding Ms. Brown's replacement is in the letter regarding her replacement.

Seattle Public Schools failed to address the fact that Ms. Brown is rooted in the positive change at Cleveland High School for her 18 years there.

For 18 years she has been fighting for student voices to be heard.

For 18 years she has been Fighting for support for students furthest from educational justice.

You have failed her your students and staff by removing her with no acknowledgement for that.

This has been terrifying stressful and disappointing for students and staff at Cleveland High School.

You have ripped our principal out of our school with no acknowledgement for the work Ms. Brown has done in her 18 years at Cleveland High School.

SPS students and staff deserve better.

You owe Ms. Brown in our school an apology for lack of transparency and the sudden change with no mention for her 18 years of work.

There should be a policy in in place preventing changes like this from being so sudden without any community input.

Now I understand there might be urgent reasons for a principal being removed at a school but on the reverse standpoint most schools can run without a principal for a sizable duration of time.

The community should be included in the hiring process at schools but the community needs to be included in the hiring process of principals on the high school level and Seattle Public Schools.

There also needs to be transparency on decisions to remove principals and other significant staff.

Thank you for your time.

I hope you can do something to prevent something like happening.

I'm going to say that again.

Sorry.

Thank you for your time.

I hope you can do something to prevent something like this from happening again.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Rina Walker-Burr.

Rina Walker-Burr.

Rina Walker-Burr if you're on.

Hello can everybody hear me.

Yes we can hear you.

Hi my name is Rina Mateja and I'm a senior at Cleveland High School.

And today I'm going to be talking about Ms. Brown.

I do thank the school board for everything that they have done as far as the transparency but that is not enough because not only did this transparency come after the fact but you removed the principal in the first place who was being transparent which shows that you guys had no intentions of being transparent when it came to contact tracing in the first place and removing a principal for being transparent and being open with the students is wrong.

We now have to scramble at the end of the year and students have to worry about who their principal is going to be and whether they're going to be safe in their school environment at the end of the year when they have better things to worry about about summer possibly college and all these things.

And not only fair not only unfair to students but it's also unfair to staff as well because Catherine Brown was somebody that we trusted.

Catherine Brown was somebody who loved the Cleveland community and Catherine Brown was somebody who we knew for 18 years.

that put the dedication and the hard work into Cleveland.

And once she got her dream job and was doing what she needed to do for the community to be successful it was ripped from under her and that is not fair.

So like I said in my last testimony we will not stop fighting until Catherine Brown is back in our building because we don't want these things that the district continues to give us to shut us up and to make us happy.

We want our principal back.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins.

Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the personnel report under separations the report lists Ronald Boyd from the general counsel's office.

I wish to express my appreciation for Ronald Boyd's service to the district.

On not demolishing Rainier Beach High School the board should take action to retain some history at the school.

On school bus transportation for the 2022-2023 school year.

Nine points.

Number one the district has delayed its plan to change bell times.

Number two the district estimated that the plan would have saved five million dollars.

Number three without these funds the district has indicated that families on as many as 50 bus routes would remain unserved next year.

Number four the board should not accept this outcome.

Number five for next year's budget the district has already proposed using 10 million dollars of capital funding to cover eligible general fund costs.

Number six please change that amount to 15 million dollars.

to free up the needed five million dollars to serve all families with transportation.

Number seven.

As you know the state reimburses the district for transportation costs that were incurred during the previous year.

Number eight.

Putting the five million dollars into next year's budget will thereby have the potential to get that five million dollars into the reimbursement pipeline for the year after that.

Number nine.

There should be at least two board members who could bring forward such a motion.

Please do so.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Alex Zimmerman.

My name is Alex Zimmerman and I will speak about Discrimination and sexual harassment, what is makes Seattle dead more deeper and deeper and deeper.

And I give you a couple example, my analysis.

School board is a six woman and I'm okay with this.

I respect every woman in my life.

But situation very simple right now because for children in normal family is supposed to be father and supposed to be mother.

So when somebody don't have this, for example, you know what it means these children cannot be normal.

It's not about normal or not, but this can be totally different.

This exactly happened for a thousand years.

Nothing changed.

I'll give you another example, very critical too.

Six women in Seattle council and mayor are a minority too.

Is this equal?

No, absolutely not.

I'll give you another example.

Seattle port, five commissioner, four minority.

Guys, I try understand why it's going on, where is we going right now?

I think what is example, what is I give you right now, it's very critical example because this represent people who represent only 30 percentage in Seattle, but have control everywhere, everything.

You know what does mean?

What is I talking about minority?

But minority women right now represent everything.

By definition, it's a racism and sexual harassment.

This is exactly what I speak right now to everybody.

Because it's a pure, pure violation of constitution in minority talk.

Equal, equal, equal.

How can it be equal when everybody is dominated by minority and women?

How is this possible?

Stand up, America!

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Melissa Westbrook.

Melissa Westbrook.

Melissa Westbrook.

Looks like you're unmuted on the conference line.

I think we can hear you.

Perhaps.

Oh please press star-6 again to unmute on the conference line.

You are unmuted.

We are not able to hear you.

Make sure you're unmuted on your device.

Moving to the next speaker I'll go back through one more time at the end.

Albert Albanez Albanez.

We can hear you Albert.

Can everyone hear me.

Yes we can hear you.

Oh thank you.

My name is Albert Albanez and I am a teacher at Denny International Middle School and I'm here in support of our student racial equity team.

And I just first want to say thank you.

Thank you for listening to our concerns and being present.

It really does mean a lot to us.

And I'm really just here to conclude the teams the team that already went the team of students that already went.

And they're a group of students that are really proud of what they're doing.

Two years ago they started the student racial equity team.

And this year they really focus on the name change of Denny International Middle School.

And they've gone through the length of doing all the research that was necessary to find that Denny was a part of the board of trustees and who voted for the removal of Native folks from the Seattle area.

And with that they put up an advisory lesson for the whole school that was taught by all the teachers there.

And then they gave out the survey to students to make an informed decision about whether or not they should change the name.

And like they already mentioned I think it was about 56 percent of students voted in favor of the school name change.

And they're also going to be handing out that survey to the staff and then also to community members outside of the school.

So with that they're at the step of they wrote a letter to the superintendent to Dr. Jones for approval for the name change and that's really where they're at.

They sent this about two months ago and they're waiting for a response.

And since they haven't heard a response they've been really wanting to know what the next step is and coming to the to the Seattle board here to to speak out there.

Their journey was something that they believed could help them out.

So with that I'll just end.

They're looking for advice.

They're looking for direction because they don't know what to do at this point to get this passed.

Thank you.

I'm going to try one more time for Melissa Westbrook.

I think you are unmuted.

Oh now you are muted.

You are unmuted on the line so we should be able to hear you.

We can hear me.

Yep.

Okay thanks.

Good afternoon.

I'm here to speak on the SBIRT grant better known as Check Yourself.

The screener is a real concern for student data privacy.

I know you're all thinking but we have so many mental health needs because of COVID and you wouldn't be wrong.

This fair is much longer than the one used in pediatrician's offices and it collects a lot more personal data from middle school kids.

The parent notification the start of school packet is not a good place for something this intimate and personal.

Nor is it right to then throw the responsibility to PTAs.

In the first year this fair was viewed I contacted PTA presidents at 6 of the schools involved.

4 of them had never heard of it.

There are 40 questions and yet the wording to parents is vague on the content.

Some questions are is any member of your household in jail.

What is your gender.

Are you in therapy.

I am especially concerned with young world school parents who very likely have no idea these sensitive questions are being asked.

Also the district's numbers on who's used the screener are not clear.

There is no notation for the population of grade level at each school and how many of those students took the screener.

As well a charting race of students who did take the screener It's not noted what the racial makeup of each school is.

How does the district know it's trying to keep students furthest from educational justice if that data isn't even made available.

Also the data is sent to an external database in Canada.

Lastly there is a data sharing agreement that says quote in some circumstances PII personally identifiable information may be necessary to match data over time or program.

That's wrong to do.

The FBI even said the student data privacy is threatened with quote the widespread collection of sensitive information I add to that.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Joseph Lenzo.

Joseph Lenzo.

Good afternoon.

Thank you all for being here.

I want to extend a special thank you to the students and families of Cleveland High School community for sharing their experiences and advocating for positive change in our school.

I'm a math teacher at Cleveland and this is this year is my seventh year teaching here.

Throughout the time I've become well acquainted with the culture of the students of this school.

More than any other students I've ever known.

Cleveland students are outspoken.

We are a collaborative project based school where to study something means to discuss it and look at its impacts in the real world.

Through these many conversations and projects students develop their own perspectives and skills to effectively communicate them.

I was and am so proud to share a mic with these young people.

It was not surprising to me the students would stand up and fight against the replacement of Principal Brown.

Here you have a beloved principal with 18 years of deep roots at the school taking risks to communicate up-to-date school safety information so that families many of them living in multi-generational households can make right decision about safely educating their children.

This was a betrayal.

Sorry.

And for this act of honesty she was demoted and replaced with no input from this community.

This was a betrayal of all the good that Ms. Brown has always stood for.

Honesty community outreach and honoring student voice.

And frankly this was a betrayal of our students themselves and the communities that we all serve.

I ask everyone to think about this question.

Who is the principal most accountable to.

This is the type of leadership that we want to see if we want to have schools that serve all of our students.

Ambitious progressive action that starts and ends with listening to the people we serve.

and the people we serve want Ms. Brown back.

Ms. Brown has been one of the finest supervisors I've ever worked under.

She was there for the transition to project-based STEM school in 2009. 2015 she oversaw the implementation of the restorative justice programs centered around restorative circles that saw reduced suspension rates for African-American students by 75 percent in one year.

She coordinated levy funds to hire academic intervention specialists for each grade level.

She's been a committed member of the racial equity team my entire time I've worked there and found money in the budget to pay team members for the extra hours they put in.

And on her watch Cleveland has attained the highest graduation rate of any Washington Public High School.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Sabrina Burr.

Good evening.

I want to start off with some clarity based on my last school board testimony because even in social media and on blogs people are assuming what I said.

So I want to be very clear where I was very disappointed in our superintendent's decision.

I am not disappointed in our superintendent.

My belief in him and his leadership and knowing that he is the best man to lead Seattle Public School Schools.

I know that in the core of my being.

And do I know that even though the buck stops with him he is a leader that allows who is the owner of departments and decisions to do their job.

My question to him was who are you listening to.

So I just really want to be clear that there is nobody better to lead Seattle Public Schools than Brent Jones.

So let's get that really clear.

The how this was done was bad.

And the thing that saddens me the most nobody looked at the impact and how it would impact mostly the students the staff who have been doing an amazing job and our families.

We have to do better.

We have to look at the impact of every decision.

We have to look at the how.

It's an HR decision you guys going to tell us a whole lot of things that we don't know.

But Katherine Brown was disrespected.

My daughter chose Cleveland in the fourth grade because she knew that community.

Katherine Brown helped to build that community.

And when I saw those students out here telling their stories.

Katherine Brown was why so many children that are who we call truly furthest from educational justice were there.

The one girl who caught the bus from West Seattle because that's where she felt safe.

If we're really going to be about student focused centered governance we have to focus on the students.

We have to focus on the input and we have to value the relationships because when we make decisions like that we erode trust.

We erode relationships.

And it takes away the great stuff that's happening.

So we have to do better.

And as a district we truly have to stop talking about engagement and define what it is and what it is in every instance.

And I think once we do that half of the problems that we deal with will be gone.

So let's get together and collaborate.

Make sure our children's voice our students voice are at the center of it.

And let's really talk about what true engagement is in this district at every level and how we successfully leverage this.

And this is the last thing.

At a principal's breakfast I said that through this work and through love the reason why most of us are in this work and why most of our families give of their time we can create the lift and shift that our children do.

But we have to stop being deficit based.

We have to raise our vibration and we have to raise the support.

But first and foremost we need to make sure that every student that leaves Seattle Public Schools has a place to go when they leave here.

Where the road is in their life.

So I want to thank you for what you do and thank you for letting me go over.

But we got to work together and we got to get this together.

But please know there is nobody better to lead Seattle Public Schools than Dr. Brent Jones.

Let's get that straight.

Then the next speaker is Azara Jimenez-Guerra.

Thank you.

My name is Isaura Jimenez-Guerra.

You say them pronouns.

I'm an educator at Cleveland and a member of the Beacon Hill community.

I've been working in schools for the last 14 years or so have really seen how disempowered young folks are right now throughout this pandemic.

And yet all this school year I've watched young people move their ideas into action.

When faced with unsafe COVID conditions in their schools they walked out.

When faced with an unexpected shift in leadership at CHS they researched walked out mapped out who the folks with power are and have been asking to hold meetings to have their voices heard on this issue.

All year students have been leading the way in what it means to live out their values.

Seattle Public Schools prides itself on its foundational beliefs underlying our district's strategic plan which include dynamic and meaningful relationships with students family collaboration and authentic partnerships and institutionalizing racial equity.

And while we appreciate and thank Dr. Jones for the opportunity to have a hiring team the quick timeline required by the process will alienate students and families who are furthest from educational justice.

The last several years have been filled with unprecedented challenges and for the last 18 years Principal Brown has been a consistent and empowering leader for our community throughout all of this.

Students and families see that.

Many are calling for her to be reinstated for Ms. Brown to be reinstated and recognize that if she were to be replaced and the community deserves a hiring process that is actually invested in developing that authentic partnership.

Students and families are clearly naming what they want and need and by ignoring the calls to reinstate Ms. and their call to slow down this process and really sit with the impact of this shift on our school the district is failing to live out its stated values.

I'll reiterate one of the most clear calls to action coming from our community which is an invitation to Dr. Jones to please come to our school to sit with students families and staff to hold space and authentically engage our community.

The next speaker is Jennifer Motter.

Jennifer Modder.

Hello.

I'm Jennifer Modder SCA President here today to raise concerns about the proposed changes to Policy 2140. School counselors provide integral supports and services that address the academic career and social emotional development of all students.

However the proposed policy changes do not acknowledge the full breadth of school counselors work.

Instead it overly emphasizes the work around academics and career readiness while de-emphasizing the social-emotional support they provide.

Just last night I met with a group of school counselors who raised these concerns.

I'm going to read an excerpt from a high school counselor's letter they wanted me to share directly with you.

The hard thing about being a school counselor is so much that goes unnoticed and unseen.

When the language is changed to not encompass so much of what we do day-to-day that isn't visible it appears to lessen the value of our roles and what we do.

School counseling is so much more than changing schedules tracking graduation requirements and supporting students to complete their high school and beyond plan.

What isn't always seen is the support of families and students in crisis.

It's talking to students who have been assaulted or abused and connecting them with resources and working to ensure their safety.

It's checking in weekly with students to try to prevent them from harming themselves.

Sorry I lost myself.

And so they know that someone at school cares and values their life.

It is helping a student who is so depressed that they cannot come to school find ways to build hope and keep on trying.

It is tiring and grueling but so rewarding.

In my role I have seen firsthand how quickly a conversation about college and graduation requirements turns into learning that a student has been kicked out of their home and taking action to support the student to find safe housing and providing emotional support.

This is what keeps us in this role.

It's helping the whole student to overcome barriers and obstacles across three main areas social emotional college and career and academic.

They all go hand in hand and cannot be separated and divided.

Please revise the policy to align with the American School Counselor Association OSPI and Senate Bill 5030. They all three clearly call out that school counselors provide integral supports and services that address the academic career and social emotional development of all students.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jeanette Ambellan.

Good afternoon.

My name is Janet Ambowen.

I'm a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and I am a member of the Ballard High School PTA.

As you've heard this year National Gun Violence Awareness Day also known as Wear Orange Day is Friday June 3rd this coming Friday.

This year our thoughts are with the Uvalde community in Texas as we mourn the loss of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.

No one is immune to gun violence as proven by the tragic shootings in Uvalde and many other communities that have claimed the lives of students and educators.

Every year approximately 18,000 children and teens are shot and killed or wounded and approximately three million are exposed to gun violence.

This is unacceptable.

The poet Amanda Gorman wrote the following.

Schools scared to death.

The truth is truth is one education under desks.

Stooped low from bullets that plunge when we ask where our children shall live.

and how and if.

We are grateful to the Seattle Public School Board for its gun violence prevention efforts and for supporting the Wear Orange proclamation.

There's still much work to be done.

Our Seattle School Safety Team is looking forward to working with Superintendent Jones and the board on a targeted communications campaign to promote strategies such as safe storage suicide prevention school safety and student education.

What happened in Uvalde underscores that the need for change and action is greater now than ever.

As part of ongoing efforts to reduce gun violence in our communities students and staff all over the country are being invited to wear orange on Friday.

We hope to send the message that working together we can help end gun violence in our communities.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Sam Pacampara.

Hello my name is Sam Pacampara.

I'm the head counselor at Lincoln High School.

I appreciate your time tonight.

I'm here to express concerns for the proposal to adjust SB policy 2140 and specifically the definition of the role of school counselor within SPS and the removal of mental health from the description of our duties and professional knowledge.

As a school counselor, I'm trained to support students within three domains, academic support, college and career readiness, and social emotional health.

We are the first to respond when a student is in crisis, the collaborator with staffs and principal to develop programs that impact all students, and the first contact for families when a student is in need of any support.

School counselors touch every intervention.

Those who are stuck about their plans after high school are often struggling with seeing a future for themselves that they can achieve.

Those who are not engaged in school are often in need of finding a place that they belong and counselors do this work every single day.

This year as the COVID-19 pandemic endures and the behavioral needs of our students and the return to in-person learning escalates school counseling school counselors are taking on the problem solving and the individual care that is required during these unprecedented times.

The proposed language and the adjustments to policy 2140 does not accurately reflect the work of counselors.

Furthermore it does not align with the Washington state law SB 5030 or the standards set by the American School Counseling Association.

We would be remiss and negligent of our student needs if we stripped school counselors of our vast professional capacities and eliminated necessary components from our position.

A mentally healthy student is a successful student.

I have two asks for you tonight.

Number one please edit the role definition to align the language within the definition of school counselor that is defined in Washington State Bill 5030 and the standards within ASCA including the 2021 MOU here in SPS.

This includes returning the language that clearly states we support social emotional health and broadens the scope of our work to include more than just college and career readiness.

And number two please seek feedback from all school counselors who are working in school buildings.

and before moving forward with any adjustments to this description of our role.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Catherine Fetter.

Catherine Fetter.

Hi.

We can hear you.

Oh great.

Hi my name is Catherine Fetter and I'm the school counselor for Ingraham High School.

I'm asking the school board to pause the amendments to school board policy 2140 because the language in regards to school counselors is missing key components of my job and of my training.

As I testified to the legislature this past session I'm in the forefront of supporting our students' mental health needs.

This is not the first year a student has come to my office covered in blood.

Sorry I get emotional.

Saying Mrs. Feeder I tried to kill myself in the bathroom but I actually want to live.

Can you help.

I'm the one to sit with the student to work with their family and community agencies to get the student support.

I provide academic interventions to connect students to resources like clothing and food and leave classroom lessons to help ensure that students are thinking and preparing for their post-high school plans whether it is college vocational programs Seattle Promise internships apprenticeships or a career.

I'm trained to support my students academically.

I'm also trained to support their social and emotional development and help ensure that students are healthy functioning young adults.

The amendments proposed to the school board policy 2140 do not reflect this.

It's missing key components of the emotional supports that I'm trying to provide with fidelity and evidence-based practices.

Thus I'm asking the school board to work with school counselors on creating more appropriate language for school board policy 2140. I would also like to state for the record that I was part of the initial SEA SPS work committee but I was not privy to any of the conversations in regards to the updates for the school board policy and was shocked to see the proposed edits in the school board policy.

I look forward to working with the district to create to create a comprehensive school counseling program and for our district so our students may all be served equitably.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Leigh Ann Hust.

Leigh Ann Hust.

Hi.

Can you hear me.

Yes we can hear you.

Hi.

Can you hear me.

Hi thank you.

Thank thank you for being here tonight and thank you school board for listening to our public comments especially the students.

My name is Leigh Ann Hoost and I'm a school counselor at Ingram High School.

I'm asking the school board not approve the school board policy number 2140 as amended.

I'm asking for more time for input and feedback.

As a school counselor for the past 23 years in Seattle Public Schools I provided academic career and personal social emotional supports for all students.

I'm trained to provide emotional supports to suicidal and homicidal students.

Many years ago a student came into my office and said Ms. Hoost I'm having very disturbing thoughts.

I want to cut myself and all my classmates.

I want to die and I want my classmates to die.

I see blood everywhere.

My student was having homicidal and pseudophile thoughts.

Every aspect of my training as a school counselor went into overdrive.

This may be hard to believe but I sat with my student in my office alone and worked out a safety plan.

This student has contacted me recently and thanked me for saving his life.

I am so beyond proud of this student.

In fact I don't mean to boast but many of my students have thanked me for saving their lives.

They've stopped me in restaurants grocery stores parks and thanked me for saving their lives and really helping them succeed and be successful in life.

If I reached out to one of my or any of my former students and asked them if I provided them personal social and emotional support they would all say 100 percent yes.

Thank you for your time.

Again my name is Leigh Ann Hoost school counselor Ingram High School.

The next speaker is Brian Duncan.

Brian Duncan.

I'm just speaking for myself today.

I'm a parent at Ballard High School and also just happen to be in the Seattle Council PTSA and the Washington State PTA Gun Violence Prevention Caucus.

And I just wanted to express support for the students demands today or today at the City Hall for a calling for more counselors in schools and for a special session to address the assault weapons ban that we so desperately need.

And I just wanted to remind the board also that the Washington State PTA has been advocating on this issue and with some success.

You know we recently got the high capacity magazine ban through as Representative Berry discussed, and also we did raise a couple of years ago the age to buy an assault weapon from 18 to 21, which would have been helpful in Texas.

Remaining to be done is still getting an actual assault weapon span through the state of Washington, as well as mandatory safe storage information dispersal education mandate that didn't pass this year.

Thanks very much.

That was our 20th speaker today.

Thank you all very much and thank you Miss Wilson-Jones.

Before we move on I'd just like to note that board directors do not typically and are not obligated to respond to questions or challenges made during public comment.

And directors' silence should not be deemed to signal agreement or disagreement with any of the remarks that were offered tonight.

We invite you to continue to engage with your board directors in an individual fashion if you would like more context on any of the issues that you shared.

That being said we will now move on to the board comment section of the agenda.

And we have an order that we will go in.

Director Hampson you are first on my list.

Are you still with us.

I believe Director Hampson has some family obligations that she needed to attend to tonight.

So we will move on to Director Harris.

Thank you President Hersey.

Much appreciate.

Much appreciate everybody coming down listening giving your testimony.

We hear you and we're very grateful for that feedback.

First up I have another community meeting on June 18th from 3 to 5 at the Delridge Library.

You now have a 2 and 3 chance of getting lasagna.

It's good lasagna.

You gotta come.

Miss Michelle you don't laugh at me.

Well then come on down and share with us.

Huge special thanks to the Honorable Representative Liz Berry.

She's a friend and I admire her so much for taking her emotions and her intellect to Olympia to change these laws and to focus on these laws.

And it's been a very very tough fight for her and her comrades down there.

I.

I'm sickened and disrapt over what happened in Texas.

Some of you all may know that I was a lead on the Amina Bowen shooting in the Bremerton school district several years ago when a third grader brought a gun to school in his backpack and it went off.

And Amina spent I want to say five months at Harborview in the ICU sustained several surgeries and still has a bullet in her spine.

And.

There were so very many victims.

The young child the boy.

Grew up in a family.

That.

Was not doing their jobs.

And who was surrounded by loaded guns and automatic weapons.

And he was harassed and bullied.

And the Bremerton School District did not connect the dots.

So he felt it necessary to bring a loaded handgun to school.

For two years.

Every day.

Day in and day out we worked really hard and it's one of the reasons that I'm on this school board is because of things like policies and victims and it's it's it's a version of insanity.

I am happy to report to you that we settled that case for I think it was one point three million dollars and that Amina Bowman started Mount Holyoke College last winter.

She will never have children.

And I guess the point is all of those folks in Texas and in Sandy Hook.

It's it's it's not just the people that were killed.

It's their families.

It's their teachers.

It's the eyewitnesses.

It's a survivor's guilt.

It spans generations.

There have been studies following Sandy Hook victims and victims in Florida that suggests that the PTSD is decades long and extraordinarily harmful.

And one thing we're talking about tonight is our students having a place to go.

Man they're carrying a heck of a lot of baggage as are those teachers as are those families.

And it is truly a version of insanity that we continue to allow.

this to happen and bless Premier Trudeau and other folks around the world that don't have to put up with this baloney from the NRA.

And please please please vote your values.

There's no there's no better way to say that.

This is this is absolute insanity.

Some call outs if I might.

To Erin Romanek.

We're talking about caring.

We're talking about an extraordinary career here in the Seattle Public Schools.

And she's going to Lake Washington School District to be their Director of Special Education Services.

She will be hugely hugely missed.

That is one of the star teams in this district.

Do they get enough money.

No.

Do they get enough bodies.

No.

Do they work their backsides off.

Every day.

365 and she will be greatly missed.

And even when we're picking on her in committee meetings and in board presentations she listens.

She responds.

She's made huge changes in things like our student handbook.

If you saw the red line track changes version of these things.

She has come to play or as Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland used to say fly to the ball.

Well she's one hell of a catcher and I personally will miss her very much.

Her her fly to the ball attitude and the fact that she has always put students first long before it was a meme or a cliche.

Jeff Clark principal of Denny International Middle School is going to take a year off to attend to some family needs.

But I would suggest to you that the testimony that we heard here tonight both from staff and students shows what a leader and a rock star that man is.

And he will be missed for next year but we know where he lives and he's got to come back.

Ronald Boy.

Personnel report says that his last day is September 1 2022. He has served in the legal department and in the HR department with extreme distinction.

And he's also another one of those flight of the ball guys because he was the interim general counsel for almost a year.

And that's a job that nobody wants to be interim in.

And he stayed.

And then he was picked up by HR.

And then he was picked up by the council's office.

And he has done extraordinary work on the scholarship committee on student dress codes on LGBTQIA policies and outreach gender identity.

Having been disrespected by that man publicly on more than one occasion.

And I'm sorry he feels the need to wander about town to school people with his interesting ideas.

Page Ahead.

One of our community-based organizations is celebrating this week for the four millionth book distributed to the Seattle Public Schools.

You all know that one of our goals and guardrails in our strategic plan is reading.

Well in order to read you gotta have books in your hand and it's a fabulous fabulous organization and we're really grateful to work with them.

I am beyond excited about graduations and a little sad for those seniors because they've been through it with the pandemic.

And I often wonder what we're going to call this generation that has lived through the pandemic.

But but I'm sure there'll be a meme at some point.

But I cry at these graduations because it is a huge celebration for families and those students.

And I also cry for the ones that don't make it to graduation.

And we can and must do better.

And it's an honor and a privilege.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Like many of you I have been holding my children extra tight this past week.

And as I do that I take really deep breaths.

Kind of hoping that I can breathe them in and hold them there and keep them safe forever.

But I have to exhale at some point and in doing that I have to know just as you do that we're releasing them into safe spaces safe school buildings and a safe world.

And I know that's a huge ask but it has to be asked and it has to be expected and has to be demanded.

Last week we saw as we have many weeks over many years a young person get his hands on a weapon of war and take the lives of innocent and unsuspecting children.

Even the adults were someone's children.

They were all loved deeply by many others.

There's a saying I think of in times like this.

Hurt people hurt people.

I don't know the shooter's story but by judging by his age and knowing that the struggles our students and young people have experienced these last couple of years.

I think it's safe to say he was hurting in some way.

But make no mistake he did not act alone.

He acted with the implicit and complicit aiding and abetting of every member of Congress who has failed to act with the urgency of a parent standing outside of a school building for over an hour not knowing if their child is dead or alive.

For every congressperson who has failed to be afraid to walk into a grocery store because they might get shot based on the color of their skin.

And every congressperson who has stalled or obstructed or flat out worked against even the most sensible gun legislation to get drafted.

The families and community at Uvalde cannot hold the gunman accountable.

But we as a nation can hold our Congress people accountable.

Washington State voters and legislators have gotten it right with the passage of I-1639 four years ago and House Bill 1630 this year.

We have proven that we prioritize people over guns and lives over gun show loopholes.

And our school board has proven that we value those things as well.

I passed school board in 2018. Passed the resolution.

Director Harris was there.

The rest of us were not.

In support of sensible gun legislation in opposition to arming our teachers and in support of the march for our lives that took place following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland Florida.

Our current board has for these past few years signed on to the wear orange pledge in recognition our last Friday and first Friday in June being National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

I am proud to sign on to that again this year.

It is an important symbol of our commitment to our students and our schools and their safety but it is only a symbol and we know that so.

Using the powers that are ours is where we need to walk that talk.

And we have.

We have in in ways you don't think of which is one of which most recently we approved the last school levy approved by voters.

And in past levies we've been able to fund safety improvements to our schools.

The BEX V alone.

is providing AI phones with cameras and card readers and security cameras at all 105 of our schools.

And those are just a few of the ways we're keeping our students safe.

Putting the physical safety into our safe and welcoming schools commitment.

Another saying I think of in times like these is especially the screensaver of my phone you can't see it.

It says arms are for hugging.

So I hope we all use our arms and hug our babies and big babies of all sizes extra extra tight.

Thank you.

Okay we're back.

Called on Director Rankin.

Director Rankin had no comments.

Director Sargeant.

Thank you.

Director Samuels.

Thank you.

And I also have no comments for this evening.

Aside from before I came to this meeting I got a video of my nephew who just walked for the first time.

You clap but he's.

been rolling for a long time.

And as a teacher and a uncle to a couple of kids it just it puts it into perspective every time this happens and there's just so much more that we could all be doing to make sure that it never happens again.

So with that being said there being no further business on the agenda this meeting stands adjourned at 6 10 p.m.

Have a wonderful safe evening everyone.

And please follow Director Rivera-Smith's advice and hug your loved ones very closely.