And posted.
Please be considerate.
Please do not address personnel issues from the box.
You will be ruled out of order and we will turn off your microphone.
And we don't need to do that.
We can make our point otherwise.
Ms. Shek can you please read the next three folks to public testimony.
Thank you so much.
First up for public testimony this evening we have Beck Savarn followed by Chris Jackins and Theodore Nutting.
All right hi my name is Beck Savarn I'm the student body president at Ballard High School and I'm here to talk a little bit about nicotine vape abuse by students at my school and high schoolers in general but specifically my school because you know that's where I go to school.
And so just basically harmful effects, concerns I have, things I've seen within the student population, stuff like that.
So basically within the last year or two nicotine vaping has gotten much more popular, there's a brand name called Juul, so Juuling is a term used by many kids, it's something very popular, it's very accessible, Awesome Vapor is a vape shop just across the street from Ballard so students who are 18 can buy them literally during the school day and they're the vapes are hit in the bathrooms in the backs of classrooms after a few seconds they're odorless so they're very popular and basically it's kind of gone from more of a party thing to kind of into the addiction realm I have no statistics to back this up but it's much more noticeable dependency on it is much more noticeable than cannabis or alcohol at least with the kids around school there's a lot of people who are seemingly addicted to it at the very least, feeling the need to constantly buy more vape pods and stuff like that.
And so it's not a new fad.
I mean, it is a new fad, but it's not stigmatized as much as cigarettes.
There are people who are at least seemingly addicted to nicotine who have never smoked a cigarette in their life.
And so it's just a concern that I have because from a very young age we are told that smoking is bad.
Smoking is bad smoking is bad over and over again.
But especially since this is a new thing vaping is kind of kind of a new people like is it really that bad for you stuff like that.
So basically I would just like to wanted to bring it up address it and then hope that there could be some expansion both in high school health programs but then also from a younger age so kids understand the harmful effects of it before they become to my age and high school students.
Thank you.
My name is Chris Jackins box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4. On the personnel report three points.
Number one there are three people being hired for the Office of Civil Rights.
Does this reflect any specific development?
Number two for some years board members have remarked that the superintendent is the only employee that they hire with the exception of the internal auditor.
Number three actually the board seems to have a role in hiring every employee.
By state law the board must act on personnel reports.
If the board does not approve employees are not hired.
On the middle school math adoption the report states that the district evaluated the books partly based on their photographs of people.
Did the district evaluate the usefulness of having such photos in a math book?
On the Wing Luke Ed specs the board wrongly voted to approve this action at the previous board meeting.
Five points.
Number one the project is being scaled back due to high costs.
Number two the district still favors a design that would allow a much larger school.
later.
Number three district enrollment projections going out 10 years say that a larger school is not needed.
Number four the plan would waste money knocking down a six million dollar 12 year old building removing 50 percent of the trees on the site and disrupting a neighborhood.
Number five a less costly remodel would give a better result.
Please change these plans.
By the way happy Valentine's Day coming up.
Thank you.
Bye bye.
After Theodore Nutting we will have David Beard followed by Phyllis Campano and Andra Mon.
Members of the board the adoption committee has recommended Envision Math for middle school use.
It isn't very good but it's a lot better than the existing connected math project text with better explanations and more practice.
It's more closely but not closely enough aligned with explicit math instruction practices.
We have lots of evidence that schools in our district that do the best in math use explicit instruction in which the teacher actually teaches rather than the discovery or inquiry method that has been promoted in our district and most others for decades.
Unfortunately the administration did not even allow the textbook series that best aligns with explicit instruction jump math produced by a Canadian nonprofit to be considered by the committee making the textbook selection.
The adoption was advertised in two trade journals.
In addition to that however several publishers of textbooks currently being used in the district under waivers were individually invited to submit proposals.
Jump math was not even though it had been used under a waiver until 2016 and it was at the start of the adoption process being used in two middle schools with full knowledge of some district curriculum and instruction personnel.
Jump knew nothing of the adoption and submitted no proposal.
We find that three of our middle schools Mercer Aki Kurose and Denny all with high minority enrollment are doing quite well on standardized math test math scores and surprise they're all using explicit instruction.
Teachers there have set aside the miserable connected math project texts and are making up their own materials.
If I'd been running the adoption process I would have invited Jump Math to make a proposal and I would have loaded the committee up with teachers from these three schools.
In my experience the district administration never supported teachers who wanted to use explicit instruction other than by granting some schools waivers of the requirement the district approved texts be used.
Soon Seattle will hire a new superintendent.
I know that we now have a majority on the board for explicit instruction in math.
You need to hire a superintendent a person who will give strong support for explicit instruction.
Otherwise we'll go at least several more years without having good math instruction in our city schools.
Thank you.
Good evening board members my name is David Beard I'm with schools at Washington we support expanded learning opportunities after school and in the summer.
So I'm here today to talk about community partnerships and the community partnerships office that we work with most often does an amazing job.
But we've been concerned lately us and many other providers that we're working with particularly small community based providers culturally based organizations about some of the other units and SPS and how they're working with these community partners that are serving our kids.
Because we know that kids spend only 20% of their waking hours in the classroom so all these things that these other providers are trying to do are working towards student outcomes.
So two of those areas we are really concerned about, one is the superintendent search and the extent that community-based organizations are included.
We would have hoped to have been included from the very beginning all the way through the process so that we can make sure that the new superintendent both understands the role of community partners and the role they play in education.
But also so we could also help with the selection process, get the word out and really be a part of that.
So this is a full community effort.
So that's one piece.
Another piece we're really concerned about right now is space issues.
As you know we've talked about, remember two years ago I was up here talking about space and we're once again going to be challenged with the removal of school aged child care and pre-K for many of our school buildings which will not help our outcomes.
And also it's going to hurt struggling families.
And many of these programs are working with these kids on academic and non-academic behavioral issues and culturally based education.
So we're going to be losing a big chunk of our support if we do this.
So this is sort of a first call to say how do we get more strategic across SPS to include community voice and community partners.
Thank you all so much.
Good evening my name is Phyllis Campano I'm the president of Seattle education Association.
First I'd like to thank Dr. Nyland for supporting the educators and the students over a very successful black lives matter at school week.
Some great lesson plans and activities happening over the week so thank you for that.
I'm here to speak in support for the Seattle preschool program, keeping the ones that we have and adding more.
We have the Seattle, the SPP plus and there is, it's a pilot program and we need to work out some little small issues with that but we are looking forward to having educator voice involved in that as well.
And then I'd also like to clear up maybe a little misnomer around the superintendent search.
It's not just leadership that believes that the superintendent should stay.
We surveyed our building reps and over two thirds of them believe that he should stay.
But more importantly we really feel like you're not hearing the community in the superintendent search.
We had a conversation with over 200 of our building reps last night and they have some grave concerns.
They believe this process should be slowed down or postponed.
They do not think there is trust between the board right now.
There is no transparency in this process and there needs to be shared decision-making.
We've had that shared decision-making with the current superintendent and it needs to continue with the board.
And let me just say I spoke last time about who was involved giving input into this process.
2100 people out of 53,000 students is embarrassing.
And we know from the documentation you are not including communities of color, immigrant or refugee families in this process.
Clearly your own data shows that.
We are proud educators in Seattle and this process does not embody something that we are proud of.
Thank you.
Next up after Andra Maughan we will have Brian Terry followed by Lucia Levias and Lynn Nguyen.
Good evening Board of Directors and Superintendent Nyland.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight.
My name is Andrew Mon.
I'm with the Seattle preschool program and advocate for this essential program to continue within our district.
I've had the pleasure of working with them for two years now and have been proud about the ability of offering this high level education opportunity for families and students in our district.
It is through the positive learning, positive relationships, positive beliefs and positive partnerships that our teachers, our team, the district early learning team staff have done and that they have built and that they will continue to build that will prepare our students for kindergarten and beyond.
This past year our program we've been one of the pilot programs to have the Seattle preschool plus program and it's an inclusive model where we serve students with special needs with our general education students together.
Not only has this increased the opportunity of our students to have access to inclusive opportunities and education.
It also has created an opportunity for more collaborative experiences amongst our team.
I've heard from our teachers and our instructional assistants that through this collaboration all of their educational practice has elevated and their ability to serve students greater has gone beyond and that they are learning from them.
As a passionate educator who is committed to racial equity and closing our achievement gap I believe it is essential to continue this partnership with the city to provide high-quality preschool programs to our students and by expanding this we are creating more opportunities for kindergarten and readiness which will lead to increased outcomes for high school graduation and college and career readiness for all of our students.
Not only are students learning early academics, they're also increasing their emotional intelligence through our ruler program, which is also something that they will continue in their elementary programs as well.
Our students leave our program more prepared for kindergarten and beyond.
I believe that the power of this opportunity will lead to increased graduation rates for our students in all of our schools and that the ability to expand this partnership with the city throughout our district and continue to grow it will just mean more for our students and make us stronger as a whole.
Thank you for your time.
At our school we have happy students and happy families.
I would welcome for you to come and visit any time we are up on Beacon Hill.
Thank you.
Good evening.
Thank you for supporting substitute resolution 10 at the January 31st board meeting.
Unbiasing the highly capable identification process will finally bring an end to more than three decades of racial injustice in our schools.
Today a white student is 20 times more likely than a black student to be identified as highly capable.
Past attempts to address this inequity have focused on increasing the number of students tested without unbiasing the process.
As a result all of them have failed.
This time will be different.
Your commitment to change and your recent willingness to upset the status quo are inspirational.
Universal testing last year identified just 1% of black students tested as highly capable.
We cannot eliminate the opportunity gap unless we raise this number to 12%.
Neighboring districts have successfully done this by using local norms and changing their service models to better accommodate underprivileged students.
Our district staff have many ideas about how to proceed and are eagerly awaiting your leadership on this issue.
If you are serious about equity please address this severe racial bias in the HCC identification process.
Thank you.
Good evening my name is Lucia Ramirez-Levias.
Thank you directors for this opportunity to address the school board.
I'm a parent of a second grader and a fifth grader at the South Shore school in Rainier Beach.
As you know we do not have a principal at this time as of two weeks ago.
We met as parents last Thursday and we are here today asking that our voices be heard in the hiring of a new principal.
And thank you Director Patu for participating in our community meeting.
First we are asking for a transparent hiring process.
Second we want the process to include parents staff children and the community.
I am pleased that just a couple of hours ago we received communication from leadership in the district that set out a process for hiring the new principal and addressed parent involvement and many of the concerns that we've been raising the past week.
Now we need support from this board to ensure that we hold the district leadership accountable to follow through on that process and keep it transparent.
From our parent meeting last Thursday and from talking to additional parents I've outlined some of the views that I'd like to share with the board.
Our parents are concerned that there have been seven principals in just 13 years at South Shore.
Our parents are concerned that South Shore seems to be a stepping stone for principals as they head off to bigger roles in the district and beyond.
We want the search to focus on longevity of a new principal.
Our parents are proud of the school's rich diversity and want a leader who has experience working and living in a diverse setting and developing a culturally competent learning environment.
We want someone who can address the gap that often happens in a K-8 between the elementary school and the middle school.
We want a principal who is a good manager and proven skills in retaining skilled staff in the workplace.
We want someone who is face to face and hands on with students parents and teachers.
Someone who knows us by name.
These are just some examples of our views and desires for the new South Shore principal.
We know that the hiring process used in the past resulted in seven principals in 13 years.
Thank you.
Peters.
Donyetta Sanford, Sabrina Burr, after Sabrina we will have Eliza Rankin followed by Robert Stern.
Good evening.
I'm Sabrina Burr and I'm a South Shore parent.
I've been supporting that school for 11 years and the Seattle Council PTSA president.
Our parent who just spoke I ditto all of that.
And I want to make sure that this is a fair and transparent process also for our underrepresented families even if we have to go out to the communities in which they work.
They are.
There's a lot of voices saying one thing in our building and I think it's important to make sure we hear from the whole community and find out what our students need to say.
Especially our eighth graders because they were in fourth grade the smartest kids in South Shore and we have dumbed them down and we have failed them.
I ask this board to support our eighth graders for their whole middle school career.
So South Shore needs resources and our staff who are doing a great job also need compensation for doing double duty.
So I ask you to really look at what's needed at South Shore especially our special ed services because we have a lot of IEP's that are out of compliance and we have students not getting service hours because of what has gone on in our building.
So where our community we appreciate the two retired principals who are great in our building who know our community but we ask for support during this transition and that we are truly transparent and use the best practices of this district.
I see that this is a huge opportunity to ensure that we have a principal that is worthy of the brilliance of every student student that is within South Shore.
And I think you do because I know it's not easy.
So just make sure we put kids in classrooms before people in positions.
Thank you.
Hi I'm Liza Rankin and I have two kids in elementary school in SPS.
Identity safe welcoming buildings is an SPS priority as well it should be.
We know that kids and educators need to feel safe secure and supported if they're to do their best work.
But what if you literally can't get into the building?
Physically cannot enter the building.
There's a student at Bryant Elementary right now in a wheelchair that and there is a ramp outside and there's an elevator inside but At the end of both of those are doors that she can't open herself.
And that limits her access to the ramp and the elevators which limits her access to the building with the rest of her peers.
Door actuating buttons are not a luxury for this student and many others there is a difference between access and no access and they also benefit everyone else in the building.
with and without disabilities, volunteers, staff, community members.
Greenwood and Leschi have also had recent issues with their elevators.
At Leschi class was being held in the library because the student, to accommodate the student in the wheelchair and this is a lovely flexible solution and it's great that they were able to do that to continue to Let that student have access to their education but one small mechanical thing is now disrupting the entire building.
So how are we prioritizing access for students with disabilities and what backup plans are there.
ADA compliant doesn't necessarily equal accessible especially for small kids because the clients is all based on an adult body with adult strength.
So what do we do when a building is inaccessible?
We know that there's no slack in the system there's no extra funding there's no extra staff there's no extra space.
So what do we do?
School staff and building mindset can go a long way allowing a child to choose a buddy a peer who can go with them.
That's a simple workaround.
Universal design in all of our schools would be better.
Even in the best case every school can't be everything to every student.
Families of kids with disabilities need to know if the building they are assigned to is one that will welcome them.
Students with IEP's students with physical disabilities are all general education students first until the point at which all buildings are completely accessible.
Students with physical disabilities should have the opportunity to have a full riser planning review with their IEP team including appropriate school tours.
and clear pros and cons for that particular student's need at each school with placement done by the IEP team with parent input before the open enrollment period so that they can choose the school that says to them welcome this is your school we're glad you're here instead of the school with the doors that literally keep them out.
My name is Robert Stern.
From 2000 to 2016 I was a volunteer in four different elementary schools in Seattle.
The last six years at Olympic View Elementary where I worked with Jeff Ellsworth in his fourth grade classroom.
Excuse me sir.
Excuse me.
We do not make comments about individual school personnel.
You need not identify individual school personnel.
I'm not making any comments I'm just saying where I worked.
I'm not making comments I'm saying I worked there in that classroom.
If that's a comment I won't make it.
Thank you.
In all these 16 years there has never been once been a complaint by any teachers parents or administrators about me.
Jeff Ellsworth and I developed a strong bond as he saw the improvement of his student performance due to my mentoring and instruction.
I initiated 10 or 12 projects which were discussed and approved by Jeff.
The students themselves reacted positively to the project which I am prepared to share with you.
Every June Jeff and I would plan next year's activities.
In February 2016 I was handed the volunteer handbook and asked to sign that I had watched a website video dealing with volunteer responsibilities which I was ready to do.
But I was unable to do so immediately because I could not find the website.
I asked for an extra day to fulfill the requirement.
The principal's response was that if I ever went to my classroom that day she would call the police.
I of course left.
The next day I went to the school office asking for help.
The principal appeared and banned me from her school screeching at me and humiliating me in front of waiting parents.
The subsequent bullying and lying accusing me of refusing to sign the document has caused — You are identifying individual personnel.
Excuse me sir.
Excuse me sir.
Do not identify by title or by name individual Seattle Public Schools staff.
We have processes available if you have complaints.
More than happy to help you work through the district to make those complaints.
But please do not break our public testimony rules.
Thank you.
Can I finish?
As long as you don't name individual staff by title or name.
Yes you may sir.
Okay.
The result of this situation was that there was a cover up and circling of the wagons by the SPS administration who will not enforce fair and respectful treatment as guaranteed in the volunteer handbook.
The continuing harassment and trauma has caused me mental and physical pain.
I hope that as a result of an investigation by this board to prevent a possible lawsuit because if the treatment that I was subjected to can be condoned then nobody is safe.
This is not just about me.
After 16 years of volunteering not only do I deserve better but so do all our volunteers at risk from rogue principles and those who protect them.
Please ensure that volunteers are protected.
Thank you sir.
Shek Next up we have Matthew O'Connor followed by Nemco Bulal.
Good evening my name is Matthew O'Connor I'm an early childhood educator at South Shore Pre K-8 and I came here tonight just to read a letter that was drafted by our building leadership team and that received signatures from over 40 members of our staff and it reads as follows.
We the undersigned staff at South Shore Pre K-8 in response to our principals mid-year departure would like to outline specific steps to be taken as we move forward.
What we know to be true is that South Shore has had seven principals in 13 years and that the community has not always been consulted in finding and hiring the new leaders.
We are concerned about the short and long-term effects on our stakeholders if another transition happens to us instead of with us.
We demand to be involved because the current process of finding, interviewing and selecting candidates is clearly not working.
Will you allow us to be innovative?
To that end we want four things.
Number one, student family and staff representation at all stages of the hiring processes.
Number two, to add to the job description so it reflects the community's vision for our next leader.
Number three to design some of the tasks and questions presented at the interview and finally number four transparency of communication around why and how decisions are made.
This letter was presented to district leadership on Monday and along with some of the ideas and demands outlined by our community meeting as alluded to by previous testimony.
And in response we understand that we will be having parent staff and student panels or family staff and student panels as part of the interview process which really brings me back to number four of our request about transparency of communication.
We want to make sure that what comes out of that panel is used and really listened to and that whatever decision is made afterwards we understand how that input was used.
Otherwise I worry again about it becoming a decision made to us instead of with us.
So we're really thrilled to hear that those panels will be happening and we want to make sure that Afterwards, whatever happens, we know how that feedback was used.
Thank you for your time.
Good evening school board members my name is Nimco Bilale and I'm an education program manager at One America an immigrant and refugee advocacy organization here in Seattle but also statewide organization as well as with CSEC the Southeast Seattle education coalition and I would like to again emphasize what has already been said by many of the folks here in the room.
regarding the concerns about the superintendent search process.
Again I would like to emphasize that we slow down or postpone the search process, that there is transparency in order to build trust with the community and that there is a shared decision-making to help decide next steps as well.
Our communities do not just want to voice don't want to voice just later in the process they want to be a part of the process from the very beginning and I'd like to reiterate again what many of the folks here have said.
Thank you so much for your time.
This concludes the sign up list for public testimony.
Harris.
OK.
To my colleagues you have an opportunity to make comments of what you've just heard.
We can keep them short and then we can take a 15 minute break and we will go through the introduction items after that time.
Director Burke.
I just want to share some words of gratitude to the South Shore community for sharing their evening with us.
Our principal hiring process is something which for me formally before I was on the board was always a point of contention and now that I'm on the board I'm also looking for ways to stay within our collective bargaining agreement, be nimble and provide leadership But also make sure that we're encompassing the voice and passions of the community because I think what we've what we found is that a cultural fit is absolutely imperative in long term success for principals and community.
So I I really appreciate you helping us be innovative in this process and bringing your concerns forward.
Thank you.
I would also like to say thank you to the South Shore community for coming out and sharing your concerns and ideas in terms of us looking for a principal for South Shore.
Yes I'm hearing you loud and clear and I support the involvement that all the community and the parents and staff put into making sure that we find the right person for that school.
And yes we've gone through many principals at that school And I would really like to make this the last lasting principles that we decide to bring forth.
So I'm there with you supporting whatever we can do to make sure that we find the right person.
Thank you for sharing.
Director Mack please.
Ditto South Shore for coming out tonight and sharing your thoughts.
And also regarding the building accessibility and ADA well accessibility aspect.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
That is on my to do list to check into because those are concerning things.
So let's circle up and thank you for bringing that here today so that we.
are aware of it and can address it.
I guess the only thing I'd like to say as well is that I think I've said this almost every time I've spoken is that email me and I will do my best to not only read it but respond to it.
And I know when when we get emails that are of concern of something that the staff you know it's a concern internal to the district.
What I try to do is to forward that on to the right person and hopefully get it resolved.
And sometimes it's not something that board directors can directly assess but we can help figure out how to resolve that issue for you.
So thank you.
Thanks for coming out tonight.
Thank you for everyone that's coming out and sharing their comments and I do appreciate when the public comes out and they make the comments but also provide some solutions that we can consider versus just we're not doing things right.
Thank you for also sharing you know some things that we can take back and say we need to consider this they brought up some good points let's see what we can do to help.
address transparency issues getting our community involved so again thank you for not just coming up here and saying we don't like when you do that but also to provide a solution which you see as a way we can address those issues.
Thank you to Zach as far as We've got to acknowledge that yes yes vaping is something that maybe students are thinking isn't as dangerous.
But if we have I'm sure we have that in our curriculum but if he says we're not probably emphasizing it enough let's make sure our students are learning the risks of vaping if they're seen as being harmless that we need to emphasize that if nicotine being the addictive portion of cigarettes sometimes if they're just substituting tobacco for liquid vaping that's not acceptable.
So let's see what we can do for that.
accessibility issue thank you Ms. Rankin for bringing that to our attention and I too believe in a universal design that we need to get to.
A lot of our schools are old and they weren't designed for everyone and so we see that issue coming up.
where doorways either aren't wide enough or do we have the capacity to add wider doors and landmark issues.
There's a lot of things that get in this way but as we're building new schools I appreciate the operations committee and we are having that universal design so students do have access to it.
So it's getting our older buildings up to date in code with it.
And if you do see something out there at our schools that isn't that let us know and we'll definitely follow up with it.
Thank you.
OK last up with respect to the superintendent search.
We heard you.
We made the decision not to extend Superintendent Nyland's contract past June 30th 2018 in December 2016. It is a national time to find superintendents.
This is not an expedited process and with respect to shared decision making we are in fact listening but it is our statutory and fiduciary duty to hire the superintendent.
If folks want that to change then they need to go to Olympia and change the law.
Now it's wonderfully awkward for me to be up here saying all this.
and I believe the good people whom I respect immensely.
Here's looking at you SEA president Phyllis Campano and Vice President Michael Tamayo.
Touche.
Busted.
I accept that.
And thank you.
Well done.
Can disagree.
I do have questions about the South Shore pre-K 8 hiring process and where the Sloan League of Education voters money comes into that and whether or not Lev has a seat at the table.
My last recollection recollection of looking at the MOU between Lev and the Seattle Public Schools that predate some of us by over a decade suggest that there is yet another element in this hiring process and I have yet to hear a clear explanation as to where they fit in.
And it is no secret that While we appreciate the approximately one million dollars per year that go to that school.
I have concerns about folks paying to play.
So truly would like an explanation of where Lev sits in that principal hiring process.
And with that we're going to take a 15 minute break and we'll come back to only introduction items this evening and we hope to get you out of here by 730. Thank you.