School Board Meeting Date January 20th, 2016 Pt.2

One, two, three, four, five.

Okay, that's okay.

We can start over.

Let's go.

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Okay, I think, yeah, it's already over.

We're doing this so we can get it right.

We got this.

One, start.

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Okay, let's see if we can get this done One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

Hey, look at that.

You guys can go ahead and sit back down.

Yeah, thank you so much for doing that.

So this is the first activity we do with our Linkies on the first day of school.

We're in a group of like 10 to 11 and we have a Link Crew partner with us.

It's just a really great activity to do with them when they're like nervous and we get to break the ice and just kind of do something fun and tackle a challenge as a group.

Yeah, it helps us all bond together on the very first day.

It gives us all that connection.

We get that mind connection there.

So it's just a great thing to do on the first day of school.

If we do other activities too, you want to come talk about it Meredith?

So aside from the very fun games that we play with our ninth graders, we also mentor all year.

So we check in with them, we make sure they're doing along very nicely because the transition from middle school to high school is very challenging.

We also do lunch invasions where there's one every quarter on an early release day where we go into the freshman lunch, they're at two different times, and we sit with them, we eat lunch with them, so it's a nice bonding experience where it's at like an intimate level where we can just get to know each other comfortably and we play a few other little games.

There's also some outside events.

We do mash invasions which is an after school study hall and we go in and we help them and we tutor sometimes or some people take it as far as to take them out to ice cream or just to create those bonds.

We also teach five lessons a year where we teach them about time management or personal skills and they really enjoy that.

We also encourage them to make connections and get involved.

So we go down to the club fair and make sure that they sign up for a few things or try things out.

I am also here to tell you how it has impacted me.

So coming into high school I have always been a very quiet kid.

I would never do anything like this and Link Crew really helped me just become comfortable.

So I decided, oh, you know, this is something that I want to do.

So I signed up, I went through an interview process, and I got in.

And Link Crew has really given me a voice.

It has taught me to be a leader.

It has shown me that I want to be a teacher.

And it has helped me out in a lot of ways that I didn't even know it could.

And Annalise and Olivia are going to tell you how it helped them.

Hi, so my freshman year experience was really guided by the fact that I started off freshman year as a cheerleader.

I had been doing practices all summer and they were really there for me that first year.

just kind of guide me through and be there as like an older sister figure.

I wanted to make sure that every freshman had that really strong positive experience for freshman year.

It's a really scary time and I wanted to make sure that everybody kind of gets to feeling included and like they get to go to fun things.

So yeah.

So they shared how it impacted them.

I'm going to tell you how it impacts the school just in general.

When the freshmen come in on the very first day they see all these smiling faces, smiling right back at them and they come in and we're all cheering for them and they seem to be really excited about it and all of a sudden they get pushed into these groups and they're forced to bond with these people that they don't know very well, which is a good thing because you get to know these people that you wouldn't expect to get to know throughout your high school career.

And it's a good positive beginning to your high school life, basically.

And I just think that's a great thing about Link Crew that should stick around.

Thank you.

I'd like to thank West Seattle link program and Ms. McCarthy for a wonderful presentation.

Thank you so much.

I will now turn it over to our Superintendent Nyland for his comments.

All right I'll echo those great words for link crew.

A great way to welcome students and welcome to Jamie Bell.

Thanks for joining us tonight.

We're going to start tonight with a few reports.

We've got three, program evaluation and assessment annual report, equitable access annual report and a brief update on capacity management which comes up later on the agenda tonight.

So program evaluation and assessment annual report is part of board policy 2090 and I would invite Eric Anderson to make a verbal presentation on that report.

Eric's just walking in.

Hi, good evening.

Eric Anderson, Director of Research and Evaluation.

I'm joined by Sean Cook from Curriculum Assessment and Instruction.

We're here to present our annual report for Policy 2090 Program Evaluation and Assessment.

The annual 2090 report has traditionally been focused primarily on assessment rather than program evaluation.

As I think many of you know there have been a number of significant developments in K-12 assessment in recent years.

So we've really felt it necessary to keep the board apprised of changes to the mix of state and district assessments that our students take annually both for accountability purposes and for instructional purposes.

Keeping with this tradition Sean will begin this evening with a brief overview of developments in our district assessment framework.

Additionally we also want to provide a brief introductory overview of our plan to implement a new program review process for evaluating our instructional programs and services.

We are still in the planning phase but we do expect to select a subset of programs and services for review this year and initiate our process this winter.

Next year's annual report we hope will include summary findings from our first annual program review cycle.

So with that I will turn it over to Sean.

I'll have to work with this.

Hello, Sean Cook, assessment manager for C&I as Eric mentioned.

I'm just going to walk through briefly a couple of things.

I just want to walk you through assessment and the changes that are underway.

I think assessment has been, well obviously it's been a hot topic.

It's been a topic nationally with a lot of important discussion and I think a lot of the things that have been brought up are very important for us to work through.

In Seattle we've had some, we've had an interesting journey and I think I'm hoping to share just a really brief snapshot of where we're at in that journey and how we're trying to move forward from a focus on assessment more as testing and moving it forward to a real focus on classroom-based formative assessment and building teacher capacity around that.

So if you look here our goal is to really use assessment practice effectively to identify student learning needs and close achievement gaps.

And our work is really around building a balanced assessment framework and we say balanced because we feel like it hasn't been balanced before and we are trying to provide teachers with the tools that they need to improve student learning and also to close those achievement gaps.

And I've mentioned this to some of the board members I believe in our two by two but we're really trying to move away from tools and a focus on tools and a focus on moving to a focus on teachers and developing teacher capacity.

President Obama as you know many of you know he set a target of about 2% of instructional time spent on assessment.

And while we've done internal calculations here and we think that we are at or below this target we still feel that more work is needed and we're continuing to try to reduce testing requirements and make testing more meaningful for teachers and for instruction.

Before we had a focus on map assessments and on instruction or excuse me assessment that I think had limited instructional value.

And we also weren't investing in teachers to the degree that we're working towards and really trying to build that teacher capacity.

So just to give you a quick snapshot here you can see in 2013-14 we were doing map testing K-8 basically across almost all grades twice per year.

Last year we moved that down all the way to K-2 twice per year with one more test in fifth grade for math placement and then this current year we've now narrowed that all the way down to just K-2 one time per year.

And I would add that that once per year is necessary for several reasons including for advanced learning and so the assessment is being used on multiple levels.

Amplify interims, we've narrowed those from three times per year down to two times per year.

We've also significantly streamlined the assessment so that we can get to our goal of having them done in about one class period.

Looking at Smarter Balanced assessments, I just wanted to take a really brief moment here to mention Smarter Balanced because it was a major topic last year for many reasons and I think it's worth noting that our teachers, our students, our families deserve a lot of credit as C&I and the work Sean has done.

And others, we really outperformed the expectations, we outperformed the state by a significant amount and we also outperformed what the expectations were and so I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge our teachers and the work that has been done and you can see I'm not going to go through all the data here but our scores were significantly above both state and national averages.

Just a quick note about Amplify, this is an assessment that we've been working on as an instructional tool for teachers and we've been continuing to revise and improve that.

We've been gathering intensive feedback from teachers.

We've been doing surveys.

We've had focus groups and I just want to emphasize the point that we're listening to classroom teachers and our focus is on providing a tool that teachers can use to improve and guide their instruction.

So we've completely revised the content.

We've developed alignment with our scope and sequence.

We've trimmed the number of standards and we've also been incorporating teachers in the review process and that is ongoing.

For ELA, just to give a couple of quick examples, we're now focusing on a few high utility threaded standards to really give the assessments more focus.

All the passages now have authentic text.

I just wanted to walk you through a few of the key design improvements to highlight how we're continuing to refine and improve the work.

For math we have limited standards, we've narrowed the test down significantly, we've cut the number of test items, we have cluster standards now to show growth.

Again trying to emphasize how we're using this as an instructional tool for teachers to be able to measure students' performance on standards and also on growth.

So where are we going?

We have a three-year plan that we're working on and our focus is really around developing that classroom assessment practice, that formative assessment practice.

We have trainings underway this year where we're working not with a specific assessment tool but around really building the capacity of teachers to understand how to use assessment effectively in the classroom.

It doesn't involve even using a test per se but just a process and strategies for how to do that effectively.

And we're also working to build out our MTSS structures, that's been ongoing work to provide assessments that can be used to identify students for supports.

And then we also have, as many of you may know, we have an SEA committee that we're going to be working with this year.

We're underway with the plans for that.

And they will be guiding and sending up recommendations to Dr. Nyland for any future assessments that we're going to be moving forward with, if any.

Just a quick overview here of our theory of action around the work that we're underway with around this formative practice.

Our goal is really around closing those opportunity gaps and we feel that assessment and the research shows that assessment can be a very vital tool in doing that work.

So our theory of action is really that if teachers are working collaboratively and that's a key part of this work and they are using those formative assessments and again I would emphasize that formative assessments are not necessarily a test.

It can be conferring with students those kind of classroom practices that the teachers are going to make those instructional shifts and those are going to close those opportunity gaps that are now present across our district.

Here's an overview I just wanted to provide you a snapshot of where we're looking at moving this work.

Year one right now we're in the middle of a cohort which is developing collaborative using, collaborative use of existing assessments and also building out if you look on the right working towards designing their own formative assessments.

Year two that cohort will be working intensively on more specifically around designing their own formative assessments within a school or a PLC team or a department.

And then year three, we're going to move towards supporting the work of standards-based grading and giving schools more autonomy in that work.

So again, you can see here, I'm focusing on closing the opportunity gaps.

The formative practice training is on collaboration with peers.

We believe collaboration is a huge part of this work.

Analyzing data, data can be coming in many forms, making those instructional shifts, engaging students, we feel that's a huge piece that we haven't done well is really engaging our students in this process and not just being something that they're being subjected to and then evaluating those instructional shifts.

So to summarize, we're reducing our testing requirements.

I pointed out a few examples here.

We're increasing our professional development opportunities.

We've been doing that throughout the year and plan to do that for years two and three as well.

We're focusing on formative assessment and having that balanced assessment framework and building out that three-year plan.

Just a quick note that my supervisor Ms. Heath wanted me to point out.

The school board, excuse me, you might consider reviewing superintendent procedure 2090 SP and board policy 2090. My understanding is the board policy was revised in 2090 but the superintendent's procedure was not.

Thank you.

So Seattle Public Schools does not have established expectations and processes for evaluating the implementation and impact of district programs and initiatives.

Program managers often make an effort to measure, learn, and improve.

However these efforts are likely inconsistent, may lack methodological rigor.

And the information gathered is typically not compiled and shared in a transparent or consistent way.

Moreover, program theories of action may in some cases be loosely constructed and may not have a clear research basis.

I would say generally we do not have a systematic approach to measuring which programs have the greatest impact relative to their costs.

Developing that approach is a non-trivial exercise.

Traditional program evaluation is a labor-intensive endeavor.

There's great tradeoffs in terms of depth and breadth.

You want to look at a lot of things you're going to have to sacrifice looking deeply and if you're not looking deeply it's really easy to miss what's going on at the implementation level.

Another fundamental challenge is measuring impact.

And we just have to be careful and manage our expectations around what we can measure in a valid and reliable way.

There are statistical techniques for controlling, for creating match comparison groups and trying to tease out a counterfactual essentially.

If these kids got the treatment and these kids who are equivalent in some way didn't get it, do we see anything meaningful?

But even when we can do that it may, the theory of action or the program may not have been implemented to a degree where we know that the practice is changed to such a degree that it can actually now be measured at the student level.

So anyway suffice to say we just have to manage expectations but I think the district can certainly do a much better job at approaching this effort in a more a methodologically sound and consistent way and we can also start to report publicly into the school board what we are finding from our efforts.

So with that in mind I just want to give you just a really brief introduction and as was revealed in committee this is not a fully developed process we are still in the planning phase.

Just quickly, program review, it's a formal process for evaluating the implementation and impact of district programs and initiatives.

Our office will be providing really a coordinating role.

We obviously will be supporting data collection analysis efforts and working to compile the findings and summarizing that information across the programs that we're looking at.

But it will significantly involve a partnership with program managers.

There will be a consultancy layer to what we're doing, in other words we don't have the time to just Tell us the program now we're off and we're going to spend all this time.

We need to work with program managers Let them play a role in helping us figure out how to collect data across a range of programs I've already hinted at that but the purposes are to fully satisfy the requirements of policy 2090 which do require a plan for evaluating our programs and summarizing the extent to which we are meeting the goals of our instructional program.

And as I've mentioned we want to have clear expectations and a more consistent process and improve methodological rigor and share findings in a more consistent and transparent manner.

So there's really four design elements, and these are really the lens through which we will be looking at programs.

Four elements of the program review process.

So one is design.

We want to make sure that there's a clear specification of what is the program theory of action, what is this supporting body of audience.

supporting body of evidence, what is this resource model?

What are you actually going to do?

What is that actually going to lead to?

And how would you measure success?

How would you know?

And if none of that is in place, then that's a problem.

So we need to have that clearly specified.

And secondly, we want to look at implementation.

As I mentioned, program managers often do look at this.

We'll be just trying to add a layer of methodological rigor and consistency to how we're doing that.

And another thing that we want to do is because there are so many programs where managers do want to understand, You know how teachers are perceiving it and how school leaders are perceiving it.

We might be able to do some stratification of the surveys and focus groups so that we're not over surveying our teachers so we can help play a coordinating role for how we're collecting data across the system.

There are several dimensions to implementation which are mentioned here of course fidelity of implementation and stakeholder satisfaction are obviously important to measure.

Impact as I mentioned and just again that qualifier that whenever we can look at student outcomes we will do so.

We will try to look at other outcomes in addition to state assessment results whenever possible.

But in those cases where that might not be possible what we can do is we can try to measure impact on professional practice because typically that's what we're trying to do.

We're trying to change professional practice which will change.

student outcomes.

And so if our theory of action is solid and we can discern that there's a meaningful impact on professional practice, then maybe there's an argument that we're seeing some evidence of success.

And then some sort of apples-to-apples cost analysis.

will be useful to the analysis and we are always trying to work with the grants office and budget to think about how that might be done in an efficient manner.

So anyway I want to stop there.

That's a brief overview and if you have any input in terms of the programs and services that we are going to be looking at in this first cycle please let Dr. Nyland, Michael Tolley or myself know.

Thank you very much.

And if you have any questions for either of us.

Does the director have any comments or questions?

Director Burke.

Hi there.

I have one question and then one comment.

The question relates to the Seattle Education Association assessment committee.

I'm wondering if that has been put on the calendar.

Is there a block somewhere in the schedule has that been identified yet?

Good evening Shawna Heath Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction.

I've actually had two meetings with SEA and they are actually soliciting membership from SEA to be a part of the assessment committee.

We've also enlisted the help of Spencer Welsh who is the principal association director and he is also soliciting membership from the principals.

I know in the contract it allows for seven members, four from SEA, three from the district side but we have expanded that in conjunction with SEA to be more inclusive of the principal side, the teacher side as well as the district side.

Is there an opportunity for community to participate on that?

That would be a conversation I would have to have with SEA as well as to review the CBA and the policy related to committees and the makeup of the committee.

I'd be really interested if you could check into that and report back to the board.

Thank you so much.

The comment, I want to mention that this report came before C&I and was presented to us at the C&I committee.

We were able to discuss it.

One of the points that came up for a new board director, it's a little bit difficult to get one's arms around all of the different pieces.

And one of the requests that I made to Michael Tolley was to prepare what I refer to as an academic inventory.

And this is something that will be worked on as a dynamic document to understand what are the the pieces what are the assets of the district.

We know we have our schools we have our programs we have our services and to understand what are those pieces that we're we're going to be overseeing.

And I'm hoping that that's something that can lead into this work as well.

Thank you for that comment and we are actually doing some program mapping of our ecosystem at this moment and see if we can't create something that is detailed enough but also has some abstract coherence so that we kind of know what we are looking at rather than 10 pages.

Director Blanford.

As I was listening to the piece, the slide on how we have reduced the number of tests, I just found myself wondering about the, has there been any analysis of the opportunity costs of reducing the number of tests?

Do we know what we lose as a result of having fewer tests?

That's a great question.

I think it's a balance we're trying to strike right now.

I think, for example, if you look at map testing, the reason we have it once a year is because there is a specific use for that one time a year.

We use it for screening.

We use it for advanced learning eligibility.

Levee schools are using it for growth data.

Teachers can also use it for growth data.

So, we're trying really hard to strike a balance there.

I think we're still finding that balance and I think right now we're trying to allow schools also flexibility and so even though the district may have minimized for example map testing what we're trying to do is we're trying to help teachers as I mentioned to build that capacity to use other forms of assessment for example in the classroom that is in a lot of ways more actionable and more are impactful on their actual instruction.

And so we are trying to provide sort of the minimum amount that we think teachers need in order to do work that pushes equity and also make sure we are having some common data to look at but also giving teachers the flexibility to do the work that we know and research has shown is very powerful.

Director Geary.

In reviewing the final program review elements and the cost block.

I see that it is per student served per teacher trained and considering central office and school-based costs but I think that there are in looking at our program review and I don't know how to capture it but there are societal costs that should be reflected because when a student doesn't graduate there are costs and while it may cost more up front to educate students who need unique services that we need to be looking at that in a big picture analysis as well.

And so I would like to see that captured so that when we are talking about why some programs may not comport to the model that has been outlined here we recognize that these children are still valuable and that we are willing to account for that cost in the long run.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just have a comment and a couple of questions.

As far as what is lost by decreasing tests I am assuming that part of the reason why we would be decreasing tests is because something is gained by doing that.

I mean I know that instructional time is gained at least.

So I'm assuming in your evaluation of where you're going you're looking at both sides of that particular equation.

So that's just a comment.

My question is when Eric Anderson when you were talking about where we're at with this particular policy and the requirements of this policy you said that we don't have a systematic approach to measuring the value of these programs.

I appreciate your candor and what I would be interested in knowing is what will we set up so we know the value of these because one of the richnesses of this district is that we have lots of different programs because we recognize that all children are not the same.

But we obviously need to know what's working and when they are working then that should be a trigger for us to replicate what's working.

So I would like to know what you need in order to establish some way of measuring our program so you can report to us on the progress.

So that's my one question and I have a second question.

Do you want both questions together?

I mean honestly I think in this first cycle I think your engagement is good, an opportunity to brief the board on the work as we develop it.

As we start to work with program managers and we start to have some interim findings I think that how you and your capacity as board members can support and sponsor the work and help us guide it so that it's meaningful in helping to making better decisions in support of kids.

I don't immediately off the top of my head have a.

suggestion.

And then my second observation was you referred to the impact, measuring the impact of these programs on professional practice and I understand that as a component of it but I would hope that we are also looking at the impact of these programs on the student's own experience.

And I don't think I heard either one of you actually address that.

So do you have a way to measure the student outcomes, the student educational experience as a result of these programs?

We do and we will obviously make every effort to do so I just wanted to put that as a caveat that you know if you provide a certain type of professional development and you think about all the different types of professional development that teachers receive and all the various influences on student achievement over the course of the year.

and given that we're talking about at the end of the day one district or one subset of schools so at the end of the day fairly small sample sizes.

It just may be difficult to glean you know through the logic model and through that analysis if it's really having an impact that that particular professional development.

And the other thing is obviously we don't do random assignment you know we don't set things up for research purposes.

So I'm really just setting up is that we will obviously do our best to link any of these programs and there will be some that naturally do link to like a read 180, system 44, reading intervention.

You have specific students assigned, they are sitting at a computer, they are doing exercises so that's obvious.

But there are other things that we do that have more to do with training and professional development, support for teachers and we shouldn't ignore those just because it's harder to measure the impact.

Thank you.

Alright, thank you very much.

Moving on, equitable access annual report.

I'd invite director of school operations Mesa Garmo to the microphone.

Good evening I am Misa Garmo director of school operations and here with me for any questions I have Karin Andrews interagency principal, Cashel Toner director of early learning and Wyeth Jesse executive director of special education.

I'm here to present the January annual program placement report on behalf of Sherry Cox, school operation manager who couldn't be here this evening.

This document was sent to you in this past week's Friday memo and was presented at the curriculum and instruction policy committee meeting on January 11. The purpose of this presentation is to remind you of what the report entails and to answer any questions you may have.

Board policy number 2200 entitled equitable access to programs and services delegates the superintendent or his designee to make all program placement decisions.

The policy provides definitions to be used in implementing policy number 2200. It defines basic education services, services, programs, curricular focus and schools.

Specifically, it addresses actions to take to make changes to programs or services in support of districtwide academic goals.

The policy states that on a quarterly basis the superintendent or his designee should provide an update to the school board.

The fourth quarterly update, this report, an annual report provides details about all the decisions made since the January 2015 report and how those decisions relate to the decision-making criteria.

In this year's report there are details regarding service changes in special education.

Special education implemented phase 3 of the collective bargaining agreement and will continue to make changes to enroll, to roll out the full continuum of services in schools.

Services changes in English language learners ELL.

The ELL department has eliminated the designated ELL school model and initiated ELL services in all of our schools.

The other change was moving the bilingual orientation center from Viewlands Elementary to Northgate Elementary.

This change was due to overcrowding in Viewlands and because of a review of the demographics that showed that many of the students lived close to Northgate.

For program ads the skill center reopened a fire science program at Rainier Beach.

In this program students experience the inner workings of a firehouse.

Additions to the preschool program, three City of Seattle preschools opened in Seattle Public Schools.

The three locations Van Asselt, Old Van Asselt and Bailey-Gatzert were vetted through enrollment and discussed through the school board process.

And in addition to the interagency program Fair Start partnered with the district to build a facility specifically for culinary and customer service.

This program is at the Pacific Tower.

During this internship students learn culinary and customer service skills.

There are more details about these decisions in the program placement report but I do have representatives here if you have any other questions.

Any questions?

Thank you this would be a question regarding the Seattle pre-K partnership.

Is that inclusive of special education kids and what are we doing to meet those needs and recruit etc. etc.

That's always been a little fuzzy to me.

Thanks for your question.

Cashel Toner Director of Early Learning Seattle Public Schools.

So that's a nuanced answer.

The children that are enrolled at Bailey Gatzert Elementary when we opened that classroom over a year ago enrolled through the process of Seattle Public Schools.

When we switched the funding source to Seattle Preschool Program because of the timing the children were enrolled through Seattle Public Schools using Seattle Public Schools framework for enrollment.

It was open to and using those tiebreakers.

The other two classrooms were enrolled in August using the Seattle Preschool Program enrollment framework.

which is open to Seattle residents and has a little bit different enrollment process but in short the classrooms are open for application for all families living in Seattle and so does that answer your question?

Do you have some numbers of special ed kids in those three programs?

and the total land kids needing an IEP.

I don't have data around specific ratios of children that have benefit from special education services within those classrooms.

That's not to say that those children aren't there.

I don't have that data for you tonight.

We might ask Wyeth, Jessie to comment on, I mean we do have many many many special ed preschool programs and so I think you're asking about what's the relationship between those two?

that and the Seattle pre-k partnership.

Specifically what are the numbers, this is a question that comes up from the community and I need an answer.

Thank you.

Yeah hi Executive Director Wyatt Jesse for special education.

I just, I don't have the exact numbers but I think it's a great question because actually Cashel and I as well as the director for early learning with the city had just met and we did a walk-through at the old Van Asselt site just to talk about how can we work on providing those services and supports We can get you a direct number but we also do assess those students that would be under identified for any possible disability and so that we do set up services for those students both at those sites and then we have extended day as Dr. Nyland just mentioned we have many sites across the district for that.

But we will get you that number and we can send that out to you for sure.

Could you throw that into the Friday memo so everybody is on the same page?

Yep I can work as fast as I can, we will do that tomorrow morning.

Director Blanford.

I struggle a little bit every time, this is the third time that I have been here when we have received this report because it is titled equitable access and as I look at the eight criteria that are there I only see one that mentions access, that talks about access.

And as I read the rest of the report I don't see a lot that tells me and maybe I have a misunderstanding about what equitable access as a title means.

In my mind I think it means a way for us to analyze the impacts of the program placement decisions that we make on different populations of students that we serve inside of Seattle Public Schools.

And so there is not much there to tell me, to lead me to believe that we are making the best equitable decisions that we can possibly make.

I will make the assumption that they are happening but I don't see evidence that leads me to believe that that is taking place.

I'm having a moment of deja vu because I believe I said if not these same words, very similar words last year about how we can retool this document so that it actually lives up to its title of equitable access.

And so I don't know how that happens.

I would love to have a conversation with whomever drives this particular document.

I know it comes up before the curriculum and instruction committee.

I'd love to share my input and if other directors feel so inclined to share theirs too so that it actually matches up with the title.

We can work with Michael Tolley and Director Burke to get this on the C&I policy committee agenda.

Director Peters.

I have a comment and a question.

So the policy says that the board is to be given quarterly updates and then an annual report which is what this is.

And this annual report should provide the details about all the decisions that were made in the prior year and how those decisions relate to the eight decision-making criteria outlined in this policy.

So there are a couple decisions that were made this year that earned a lot of attention in the community and I don't see them addressed in this report.

And I'd like to know where these decisions should live if they don't live here.

And I'm specifically thinking about all the decisions around middle college like the decision to close the middle college site at High Point.

Is that not a program?

So Middle College High School is by definition of policy number 2200 a school.

It's a school.

A school was closed?

No classrooms, the classrooms at High Point and there are four locations now we have three.

So the classrooms at the High Point location were closed and policy number 2200 entails what we need to do when making changes to programs or services.

It doesn't specify what we need to do about closing schools.

or classrooms within a school.

Okay well this is where there is a gray area because you used the term school and if it is a school closure then that does have to come before the board.

Right but it is a classroom within Middle College high school and by definition within policy number 2200 Middle College is a high school.

All right well there is perhaps.

Michael Tolley associate superintendent for teaching and learning.

So middle college high school has not closed and as you are well aware we do have continuing three locations with classrooms associated so what we are emphasizing is the classrooms that were discontinued at High Point did not consider programs or services which this report governs.

There were classrooms of a high school that continues to exist so we did not close a school at that point either.

Okay so middle college at High Point was not a program or services or a school.

Is that what you just said?

Correct there are classrooms that are part of middle college high school which continues to exist.

So they are just classrooms.

Well this is obviously something we are going to have to take a closer look at because it sounds like we have got some categories that are very fuzzy and it is hard to know where the oversight should be for these.

Because I would have liked to have seen in this report some details about the decision that led to that choice of closing.

middle college.

I think this seems like this would be a good place for that information to live.

And then the two others that come to mind are the decisions around the EEU kindergarten site.

Does that, should that live in this document and if not where does that sort of decision live?

Again EEU, that is not a program technically of Seattle Public Schools.

We contract services with the EEU.

So it would not be part of this report because technically the EEU is not a program or service provided by Seattle Public Schools.

We contract for those services.

And then my other question has to do with the placement of special ed classes at the old Van Asselt school building.

Again that was a choice to place a specific program or service in a specific place.

Where would we the board look to find the rationale behind that sort of decision?

That information, those classrooms were established over a year ago so that was in the previous year report.

Okay so that was in this report last year.

All right thank you.

I think my general takeaway is it seems like we don't have a consolidated location for some of these decisions that we the board are able to see all in one place.

And we may have to look at the definition of some of these places especially when we are talking about classrooms versus schools versus sites versus programs.

Thank you.

Okay go ahead we are done.

All right thank you very much.

The next and last report we have and then I'll abbreviate my comments after this report.

Many of you I think are here around the capacity management issue with regard to before and after care in our schools.

So I'll make a few brief remarks and then I will invite Dr. Herndon, associate superintendent for operations and facilities to add to that.

So, yes we are running out of space and I guess with each passing year we see more schools that reach that point.

So we hear from parents about taking playground space, we hear about adding portables, we hear about dividing classrooms, we hear about taking over libraries, we hear about taking over faculty rooms.

Many issues and concerns about how we find room for our students.

I think we've grown about 7,000 students in the last seven years so that's huge.

If we do the math that's many many many many schools full of children that we need space for.

Tonight's action is really a beginning of the conversation rather than an end to the conversation.

We did notify providers, community providers last fall that we were running out of space as kind of just an alert.

And then this is a more precise look to say about half of those program spaces may be in need of being used for K5 classroom spaces.

That said, we will refine that number and we will work with providers to find alternate locations.

Before and after care providers do provide services out of the gym or out of a shared classroom and we understand that's a difficulty but we have to have room for the students that come through our doors each year for K-5.

So with that I would invite Dr. Herndon to talk about the timeline and then Carrie Campbell can talk about the meetings that we've been holding with the providers.

Good evening Associate Superintendent Flip Herndon.

So as Dr. Nyland was referencing this is certainly a challenge for us.

Capacity management over the past several years as we continue to grow in our enrollment as we continue to implement some of the class size initiatives at the early grades are certainly challenging much of our space that is available within our buildings.

And this is a position that Seattle has probably not been in for at least 50 or so years.

We had been in a steady decline of enrollment and over the past six or seven years as Dr. Nyland referenced we have been growing.

Various paces sometimes a little bit more one year than the next but nonetheless we certainly have challenges.

We are continuing to build and renovate buildings so that we are able to expand the ability for us to have more classrooms.

Some of our older buildings are definitely small and core spaces are small so we are trying to expand that so we have a good amount of space for all of our students.

And we want to make sure that we are acknowledging the fact that all of the services that we partner with community-based organizations that serve our families we recognize are extremely important and beneficial to us as an organization as well as to our families and our students.

So we are not trying to turn a blind eye or be cold about this we really are trying to have the conversations and ongoing conversations with community-based organizations to figure out the best way that we can hopefully still support them and provide services to our families.

So it can be a challenge.

So we did have a letter that was sent out that was following a conversation really sparked last year with some implementation of pre-k spaces within schools throughout Seattle Public Schools.

And in that conversation the board wanted a very clear prioritization about how we would be allocating space in the future.

because we knew that this challenge would continue to confront us.

That's when we sent the letter out to childcare providers, some of the pre-K providers and let them know that we would be notifying them right about this time when we had more information that would directly impact the building where they may be providing services for our families.

So from this point moving forward we are looking at initial enrollment projections that will be coming to buildings in February.

We then have our open enrollment process mid-February to the beginning of March.

So families then are able to choose programs and locations for a set amount of time and then we do an analysis after that that will give us the information more refined even after our initial projections.

Our process for trying to plan for classroom space to be available for our students come the first day of school is really about many of the codes, permits and requirements that we have to fulfill through a city process all for a number of very good reasons about reviewing and safety aspects.

So we need to make sure we are building enough lead time for that.

So we are working with providers.

I was at a meeting, I'll let Carrie Campbell speak a little bit about some of the meetings but so far the meetings I've been a part of have been very productive and providers definitely understand the need that we have for classroom space and they seem very appreciative of the conversations we're having with them and very open to possibilities that we may have in the future.

So far at least the few meetings I've been involved with have been very productive ones and I hope to continue those conversations with our providers.

Good evening I'm Carrie Campbell I'm the director of school and community partnerships.

We've been meeting with our partners since November really to build a common understanding of where we are with our enrollment projections, the unprecedented enrollment that Seattle Public Schools is seeing right now and how to co-create solutions that meet the needs of our shared families.

I think we all can agree that quality before and after school care is really critical to the success of our students and we can only do the work that we've committed to as a district with partners.

And so I'm really excited about the commitment from our partners to come to the table and figure out how we can continue to provide this service.

but maybe in a different way because the context has changed in Seattle.

And so our next meeting, we've had three meetings so far, our next meeting is on February 12 and we're not doing this alone.

It's with the city of Seattle, with YDEC, schools at Washington and various community organizations.

So I'm open for questions.

Any board members?

Director Geary.

In that process are you also inviting and including parents so that they can come and help assess what buildings can offer and what they are willing to accept in the educational environment?

So at this point we haven't.

I think that's a really great question.

I don't manage the before and after school providers that's actually done through another department so part of my work as sort of a bridge builder was to figure out what are the constraints, what's going on, what's the landscape and so we're actually trying to learn from our partners what are all the barriers that need to be mitigated in order to ensure success and a good outcome from our families.

I think I will bring that back to the collaborative team to see if there is a space where that makes sense to bring in family voice.

Across the board everyone agrees childcare matters in Seattle.

As housing becomes increasingly unaffordable, as working dual working families are a typical Providing a safe, affordable, high-quality option for families is necessary and I think that we all know that.

How that is provided is really what we are trying to figure out right now.

Thinking about licensing, multiuse space, shared space, looking at options within the neighborhood that are walkable is also really critical.

Director Harris.

First off my apologies to Associate Superintendent Herndon for harassing you for the last three weeks.

I appreciate that you have a really difficult job both of y'all as well as all the staff in this building.

I would suggest to you however that this is not new news and it's going to happen again next year and we start a whole lot earlier and I would like to echo and elevate Director Geary's comment with respect to inviting parents and our stakeholders to the conversation.

Getting this information as late as we are does not allow this board to do its due diligence for which we were elected.

And I've got tire tread I've got tire treads on my back where parents have run me over and backed up to hit me again.

And I want to be holding hands and be as transparent as we possibly can because we are all in this together.

Now a lot of new folks have come to the party because it affects their child and their school.

But look around you, everybody's kids are important in this room.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham.

Thank you both for your presentation and my question is again this capacity issue we are talking about growing thousands of students a year for the last seven years and we are renovating old school buildings put up new ones but as we look at them in my perspective A lot of these new buildings lack parking spaces, lack playground space.

Are we also considering what can we do to acquire larger lots to build these schools?

We sold some schools in the past, getting those back somehow to kind of look at the cost projected.

Are we going to just keep on building bigger and bigger taller schools to try to meet the capacity?

Those are all very good questions that we have been trying to answer and of course all of those are resource intensive.

The particular schools that we are renovating or replacing are lands that we already own.

So that's a little bit easier for us to do because we already own the land and there's not a cost with the property acquisition.

Whenever we hear about tracks of land that may be available for us.

We certainly are trying to explore that possibility.

We don't get that land for free though so as you know land in Seattle is fairly expensive and especially one that would be large enough to hold a school.

They do vary as you know some of our lot sizes for elementary are under three acres and others might be over seven acres.

So they vary depending on the geography within the city.

We do have codes that we have to follow from the city as well around parking, height of the building, we are really not trying to build buildings that are too much out of the norm for what we are looking at in neighborhoods but at the same time we do realize that the density within the city is getting much greater which means we do need to serve spaces for our students.

As far as other locations go parking is one of our issues.

Again when you have a finite space we are trying to actually maximize the play area over parking.

We prefer play area over parking because parking issues certainly can be a challenge.

But building large parking lots really for the code that's required is based on a very limited amount of use for a particular site.

It's basically trying to go for a maximum of people in a gymnasium or an auditorium.

which really that doesn't happen very often when you think about total school use, school year use.

So we do try and maximize field space or playground space when possible and some of our smallest sites don't have any parking on site.

So we have a certain number of schools that don't have any parking on site and it's all already offsite so we do try and maximize that.

Could I ask possibly if we can at least maybe get some data on open ground on our sites just so I can have what is the average for the schools that we have open ground space at each site and maybe someday that we would work to make sure we don't decrease that but actually keep it at a certain level.

Yeah we do have a couple of challenges on that front.

Some depends on the landmarking of a particular building which then almost turns that into an immovable object which can challenge us.

I do have some space, lot coverage but not for all the buildings yet.

We are continuing to work on that and that is a document that I will be able to give to the board fairly quickly because the other thing that we are trying to do is If we can be as efficient as possible maybe go up another level or two on a building and then not have to place portables on site which then take away play space.

So we are trying to think longer term about some of the positioning of our buildings and how we can optimize the use of those places.

Rick.

So thanks for your work to try to find pathways to sustain the before and after care services.

I don't think there's any disagreement.

I haven't heard that it's a critical part of our educational offering.

It becomes a critical part of people's daily lives.

And we have a fair number of families here that are trying to understand what they can do.

It's kind of putting you on the spot but I'm wondering if you can in addition to informing us if you can share some advice with the community on what's the best way that they can help be part of a solution.

It's a very good question and I don't have a great answer for that right now other than to say that I think Carrie would agree with me.

Our intent is to be able to continue to offer the services in another location within the building.

I mean that's what we are driving for.

We are not trying to eliminate programs.

We just know that if it's in a dedicated classroom area and we need a classroom for instruction in the fall that's where that's going to be but we really are trying to work with the service providers to figure out a way to continue offering the service in a multi-use space.

And that is a combination of us working with the city and the state on expediting licensing, working with our principals to help them out with the communication that happens normally anyway.

This conversation with providers and principals is an annual part of the alignment agreement that normally happens in April.

So we are actually kind of accelerating that piece but I would say that I don't think either the providers or principals are under the illusion that parents don't value or want before and aftercare services in their buildings.

I'm pretty sure that's evident as it is for myself being a parent who also has a child in before and aftercare.

So I know exactly how this feels and what the challenges can be like but we are trying to do everything that we can to preserve as many of these as possible.

So I would say that is our first message is we are really trying to do the best that we can.

but trying to be as positive as possible and if parents are in the building a lot, some more than I am because I'm not able to get to my own children's school very often but if they can see the locations, I mean they know the buildings, they know how they operate, asking good questions of their providers or their principal about what if we did this.

I'm just curious.

Operators know what they need to do for licensing.

I'm not expecting that parents are going to know that which is part of the reason why we've been having some of these conversations already with licensing.

But I think offering any creative solutions is a good thing.

I think that you know for curiosity I was just thinking you know with everything else that's been going on in terms of the various issues I guess my wondering is why didn't we actually invite or include parents in this whole conversation from the beginning.

Now I know we sent out a letter in October to let all the vendors know that this is coming down the pipeline.

But I don't think the vendors actually really pass out the words in terms of educating the parents and the clients that were actually, kids that were involved in this whole process.

And I just thinking you know you had three meetings and I was wondering you know why were not parents and community involved in actually in these meetings so they can get a better idea of exactly what direction we are going.

I'm just a little curious in terms of why we did not do that.

So I think again I think it's a great suggestion we needed to as a group, an internal group and with our partners really figure out what the context is because there is a confluence of two major things going on as Director Harris said.

One is the loss of potential dedicated space for childcare and the other is the bell time shift.

And so it's a significant change for schools to think about how to program, provide extended care for two and a half hours to four hours.

So quite honestly it really was because we had to get a handle around the largeness of the problem and we are definitely there.

So I appreciate the advice to include parents.

If you have really clear ways to do that that would result in solution orientation for our community I'm very open to it.

This is the tip of the iceberg.

As Dr. Nyland said this is the beginning of a shift and we have to think very creatively about where we create space for childcare and extended learning.

It can't all happen in our school buildings because we won't necessarily have all the space.

There will be a ripple effect so as partners lose dedicated space and move into multiuse space and PTSA funded partners move into the library or other shared space we are going to continue to need to come back to this and figure out where in the community we can identify additional buildings that are accessible and open to partnering to provide ongoing high-quality childcare for our kids.

So I think in terms of families engagement, that's the conversation we need to be having.

Where else can we identify other partners to engage with?

What are buildings within walking distance of schools?

And so we do need family perspective.

We just weren't at a point where we were ready to have that conversation.

I really appreciate all the work that you and Flip are actually doing.

But I really also believe that you know as board directors we do have our meetings on a monthly basis.

We can utilize those meetings to actually to help educate parents in terms of what direction we are going with this very issue.

That is an awesome invitation and I will take you up on it.

Thank you.

Director Blanford.

I appreciate the tone of this conversation.

I think being as there are many community-based partners, the leaders of community-based partners in the room, I think it's important for some of those leaders to convene their parents as well to figure out what's going to be the best approach for the partnership between the school and the community-based provider.

And I say that as a parent whose child was in community-based care for much of the time while I was able to be at these meetings and I also say that as the executive, former executive director of a community-based organization There really needs to be, I love your word confluence, there needs to be a confluence of interest that are working to solve this problem.

I think it's been abundantly been made abundantly clear that there is no malfeasance and there is no mean-spiritedness in this.

We are constitutionally obligated to provide K-12 services but we recognize at the same time that we can't accomplish our goals by ourselves that we need to be in partnership with our community-based providers community in order to accomplish the goals that we have set forth.

And so in my mind as someone who sat here and listened to the warnings that were coming that we were about to encounter a capacity crunch and you know and we added bell times which complicated that greatly and I appreciate the fact that you brought that up because I think that's a real issue that will continue to complicate this matter for us into the foreseeable future.

I think it's going to be critical that that we figure out ways to work in a collaborative way that we, to the extent that any of the emails that we've seen were pointing fingers and saying you're bad or you're wrong, I don't think that that's helpful.

I think it would be much more helpful for people to be in buildings, for them to put their minds to work and help us come up with solutions that can work for our children, for the children that we all serve.

All right thank you very much.

I am mindful of the time I will abbreviate my remarks.

I will make a few more comments on this topic before moving on.

We have engaged in a conversation with the city of Seattle.

They have asked what they can do to help.

I appreciate that spirit and so we will add that to the things that we are doing to try to work on this issue.

And then I would invite parents within the next two weeks we should know very specifically which school sites are most likely to be impacted and at that point in time we will be talking with the principal and the provider and parents about what are the alternatives within the building to try to make as many things fit into the building as possible.

Moving on to my remarks, Martin Luther King Day was on Monday and we had a lot of celebrations in classrooms as I visited, in schools.

Franklin had a great student-led assembly.

I was at Seattle College's 43rd annual community celebration at Mount Zion Baptist Church.

Garfield hosted I think the 33rd or 34th annual event there, one of the places where Martin Luther King himself spoke in Seattle.

So a lot of good recognition across the district that we appreciate.

Coming up is National School Counseling Week, the first week in February and we certainly thank and celebrate our counselors across the district.

Dede Fauntleroy one of our principals at John Stanford International was one of 20 principals invited to Washington DC to give feedback on the new Every Student Succeeds Act and the President's State of the Union Address.

Lori Dunn who heads up our health and physical education program has been honored with a top award by the Society of Health and Physical Educators nationally so proud of her work.

I'd like to welcome Noel Treat he's joined us as general counsel and he's actually returning to the district so welcome Noel.

We are approaching open enrollment.

There will be for our option schools there will be an admission fair at Mercer middle school on January 30, Saturday to showcase some of those option schools programs.

January 29 if you have an old calendar said that it was a day between semesters.

That was a day that is a school day due to the time that we need to make up because of our late start of the school year.

EEU, I think some of you are also here about that, we continue to meet with the University of Washington on a weekly basis.

We continue to explore the options and try to find something that will work.

Part of our challenge is that we've been under federal watch for special education compliance.

This is an issue that we've raised with the University of Washington in varying formats, probably not sufficiently obviously.

I think since 2013 and then because of our continued turnover of leadership in special education we have not until this point in time gotten to the point where we've had to say we really do need to find a solution that meets special education legal requirements.

So we continue to work on that, we continue to work with OSPI to get their technical assistance and find out what's possible.

I would comment that Roger Erskine died recently.

He was a great friend of and advocate for Seattle Public Schools.

He was president of the Seattle Education Association and an NEA leader.

I had the opportunity to work with him when I worked with and for the district 20 years ago.

He was an important partner along with John Stanford in kind of celebrating the many successes of Seattle Public Schools.

Jonathan Knapp, SEA president describes him as one who always had a true north compass for finding the way that would actually point us forward for school children and avoid the distractions.

So a tremendous figure, somebody who has been instrumental in my time here, my brief time here in the last 18 months.

I appreciate him and he will certainly be missed.

My Brother's Keeper Symposium is coming up on February 6 sponsored by the Seattle Alliance of Black School Educators.

So a lot of activities underway that support the district goal to close the opportunity gap.

I visited last week Rainier Beach, Hawthorne and John Muir visiting this week West Seattle Elementary in Stanislaus.

I had the opportunity along with Director Pinkham to participate with a meeting of Native American leaders last week and can report back that one of the requests from the school board earlier was to get better data.

for Gail Morris the head of that program.

The Department of Technology has found a workaround kind of a special fix for right now and they are working on a longer-term fix.

So Gail is pleased with the data that she has gotten so far and looks forward to making that more normal part of the way that we do our work.

And then a couple of final good news items.

Sarah Sawati Noel, world school teacher, has been selected to be the keynote speaker for the Puget Sound Council of Teachers of Mathematics at their February 8 meeting.

West Woodland Elementary took students to Nicholsville to learn about homelessness and they took a collection of supplies, water, socks, flashlights, hand warmers, protein bars and more to the encampment.

Chief Sealth International School Orchestra is being featured by City Arts Magazine with their partnership with the Seattle Youth Symphony.

And we had a presentation today at Sanislo where Holocaust survivor George Brady and his daughter visited the students at Sanislo Elementary.

Students have read a book about his life called Hannah's Suitcase.

Suitcase left behind by a victim of the Holocaust and students had the opportunity to ask him questions about his time spent in the camp and the death of his sister Hannah who was killed.

So an inspiration for our students.

And then the last item that I will comment on is in regard to ORCA cards.

This item has been on the agenda for a while.

It is something that we are eager to provide better access to many of our young people to and from school.

The city has been a great partner, the city has provided funding for additional ORCA cards.

We did as we promised at the last meeting have meetings with the team at Rainier Beach including the students and the school community.

And we are still trying to dot all the I's cross all the T's with the city.

So we are asking to pull this item and to have it on the February 3 agenda.

That does mean that instead of getting ORCA cards to students on the first day of the new semester, which must be the 29th or the 30th, will be the day after the next board meeting on the 4th of February.

So continue to appreciate the good work by all, by the students, the community, and particularly the city as they help us find more resources to assist more students.

That concludes my remarks.

Thank you Superintendent.

I would now turn to Ms. Jamie Bell for her comments.

Hi there my name is Jamie Bell I am a chair captain at West Seattle High School and I am on ASB.

I just want to thank you all for inviting me.

Sitting on the Board of Directors is finally going to be crossed off my bucket list so thank you very much.

I also want to go ahead and say thank you, well not thank you.

My summer homework wasn't done so that late start, that 6 a.m.

late start was very helpful for me also.

And then I just want to go ahead and say my comments.

So I go to West Seattle High School and I have been in the Seattle Public Schools my entire education.

I just want to say it is a great district and a great just all around I've had a really awesome education.

And so at West Seattle we really work hard with my administration and the staff and the building our reputation because over the past 15-10 years it hasn't been so great and so as an ASB leader and as an event coordinator and a cheer captain I work hard to build the enthusiasm and the spirit and really make West Seattle a good school.

So kids that are in elementary schools and middle schools look to West Seattle as a high school to go to.

And then I also just want to say that West Seattle is also a really good school for low-income students and helping to gain college college help and getting into college and getting scholarships for that.

So it is a really good school with counselors and with the can which is for college access now.

So it is good for low-income students.

However, one downside is that our ceiling is breaking and so as I walk through the hallway there are trash cans full of water and then in my AP stats class there's a hole above me in the ceiling.

So as much as I would love a new ceiling I know it costs money but I don't really want to walk through puddles anymore.

So that is all my comments for today.

Thank you guys so much for inviting me.

Do directors have any comments or questions for Ms. Bell?

Go District 6 in West Seattle.

Way to go.

Go Wildcats.

Thank you Ms. Bell.

Appreciate having you here.

As we have now reached the action portion of the agenda we will first address the superintendent's request to amend the agenda.

I will now entertain a motion to amend the agenda to delay action item number one, Orca car passport program enhancement for free and reduced lunch secondary students for the 2015-2016 school year to the February 3 board meeting.

I so move.

I so second.

Do directors have any questions or comments on this motion to amend the agenda?

Ms. Fobey please call the vote.

Director Harris.

Aye.

Director Peters.

Aye.

Director Pinkham.

Aye.

Director Blanford.

Aye.

Director Burke.

Aye.

Director Geary.

Aye.

Director Patu.

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

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

I move approval of the consent agenda.

I so second.

So passed.

Does anybody have any questions?

I want to remove anything out of the consent agenda.

All in favor.

Aye.

Say aye.

Aye.

It's now passed.

We have now reached.

Can we do that again?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

It's now passed.

Okay seeing none of all those in favor.

Now we're going to go into our public testimony and I'm going to call three names at a time but before we start each person has two minutes to speak.

take any personnel matters, the issues, comments.

I would not note that the board does not take public comments on issues related to personnel individually named staff.

I would also like to note that each speaker has two minutes speaking.

When the two minutes have ended please conclude your remark.

And I will call three names at a time.

If I screwed up your name please forgive me.

I always give people different names by the time I'm finished.

So the first three is Catherine Cregore and Katie Boudel.

Cecilia McCormick and Sabrina Burr.

Hello, good evening.

Thank you for having us.

My name is Catherine and I am a senior at West Seattle High School.

I am the senior class vice president.

My name is Katie Boudel and I am the senior class spirit representative at West Seattle High School.

A couple of weeks ago in our leadership class we were given the project to come up with something that would benefit our school.

And so today we are going to present our proposal to you.

That is establishing a point of sale for POS for the Seattle public school system.

One of the reasons why we thought a POS system would help better our school is because it would help increase revenue by opening up the convenience of using a card rather than just cash or check and so that parents and students were both most likely to make purchases at school events.

Also the schools would be more accountable and efficient in having and money handling.

A portion of the six-year building excellence capital levy was slotted to purchase POS systems.

And lastly, districts like the Issaquah School District have been successfully using in-touch receding companies for over three years now.

Kathleen and I are both students who spend a lot of our time selling things like spirit gear and tickets and we know for a fact that a POS system would make it more efficient and more convenient for both staff, students and parents.

So today we will leave you with this proposal and we hope that you can take it into consideration.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Well I left my fire and brimstone notes at work so you got off easy this time.

On the program evaluation and assessment report, we are in our fifth year and it is yet another report on assessment strategies than rather looking at the effectiveness of our current programs.

I would hope now we have to wait until next year to look at how the new Native American program is going to turn out.

How are our SM 3 and SM 4 classrooms working?

I'm afraid if you saw the data for those it would be extremely dismal in terms of graduation rates, assessments.

We have to do, we have to accomplish this.

Our kids have to learn.

As for the equitable access report, yes it is just a list of moving this program here, converting one there, SM1Gs whatever that is.

You know Director Blanford we agree on this seriously.

To me equitable access is affording a child an opportunity to access or participate in an aid or service that is equivalent to what is offered to others.

It is allowing a child to gain the same benefit of all the opportunities that are out there.

and to enjoy and have a right to participate in any aid or service like music or sports or challenging coursework curriculum.

So I will just conclude that like I said in August I have every expectation that the development of preschools in this district will be extended to six hours a day.

That will mean you will need double the classrooms you have now.

So please make them a priority over any other preschool.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The mic is messed up.

Good evening my name is Sabrina Burr.

I am a parent at South Shore pre-K-8 and the vice president of the PTA bilingual coordinator A lot of people are going to be talking about what I'm talking about today and that's the removal of, you call it child care spaces but they take care of whole families.

I know for South Shore we didn't have kids co-move in our building.

Our building was designed with them in mind.

They are a very integral part of our family in our school and they take care of far more needs for our families than you could realize.

This might be a band-aid for what you think is going to give you more space but you are going to create a whole dam of problems.

You have changed the time that their older siblings get out of school.

You are putting our kids at risk and the people that you have that thought engaging with families was a novel idea.

I can't believe that they are in their position if they haven't even thought through the implications of their decision prior to them rolling this out to the community.

I sat on the strategic plan committee and that number three engaging family and community goes far beyond academic needs of our children.

Our children aren't silos.

You need to learn about dual capacity and you need to look at the whole child and the needs of families within this.

KidsCo in our building is an integral part of programming.

for our kids.

They keep our kids safe.

And I need you to really rethink this and use the intelligence of community for solutions instead of doing what you're doing tonight and having every speaker talking about what I just said.

We can do better.

All of you can do better.

It's about us working together.

Thank you.

Because we have a large number of requests to provide public testimony therefore according to the board procedure 1430 BP the testimony list was increased from 20 to 25 speakers.

So the next three persons will be Alexandra Owens, Vicki Pinkham and Tama Weinberg.

Good evening.

I'm talking about capacity management also, believe that.

I'm a full-time working mother and I love my job.

I help immigrants and refugees find jobs and become citizens.

My husband works at a downtown emergency clinic, he loves his work.

But we have a child and he comes first.

So last week we got a letter from our childcare provider saying that their lease might not be renewed next year and that they might close.

If we don't have quality afterschool for our son we can't work.

If we can't work we can't afford to live in Seattle.

All of our plans for our work weeks, our school holidays, our vacations, half days, every day off depend on having quality afterschool programming for our son.

And I would argue that high-quality aftercare and preschool are inextricably linked to and not separate from a high-quality educational program.

For working parents and the school system as a whole there is not one without the other.

Our son goes to Gatewood which has 430 students.

Cottage school serves 100 or 23% of those students.

42% of students at Gatewood are on free and reduced lunch.

Cottage serves many of them.

Families that are not affluent, families that need affordable quality care for their kids and Cottage provides all of that.

Consistent caring instructors, hot meals and snacks made in their own kitchen.

Homework support, fun and games.

These are not small things for our parents.

I have heard the district needs additional classroom space due to initiative 1351 and exploding enrollments.

However enrollment at Gatewood is not exploding it dropped by 70 since Fairmont Park opened.

Initiative 1351 is on hold for at least the next several years per the governor's order.

And the two classrooms that are currently leased by cottage can't be used by any other school so if enrollment is not exploding at Gatewood why would you need those classrooms?

I know the district and all of you are doing your best but this year has been a really stressful one for me as an SPS parent.

First we had the strike then came the changes to the bell times which I strongly oppose for elementary school kids.

This is too much too fast okay.

Those changes have not even been implemented yet and now this it's too much.

Slow it down.

Thank you.

My name is Vicki Pinkham and I'm going to concede my time to Molly Pinkham and Joanne Pinkham.

Hello my name is Molly Pinkham I'm Nimi Poon Klinkett and I'm a senior at Ingraham high school.

I'm here to propose that the Indian heritage high school proposal be included for the Seattle schools district improvement plan because Native American students are the most underserved population in the Seattle schools.

We are the ones who have the higher dropout rates and lowest graduation rates.

We also have a 30 to 40 point different testing with our white peers.

Indian heritage was a high school and middle school that used cultural based teaching which helped native students have a higher graduation rate and a higher chance to go on to getting a higher education.

How we can get this back is one is that we get a certified teacher and at least one class to teach native-based education which has been implemented.

Second would be getting at least three certified teachers and three classrooms for the north end schools.

The third would be putting Indian heritage curriculum and ways into the new Robert Eagle Staff School and into Lifting Strings.

And making the landmarks and making them into landmarks but which Indian Heritage was before it was torn down to make place for 700 AP students.

Our goal is to get Native American students and other students success in their school experiences.

Lastly I would like to leave you with a quote from Sitting Bull.

Let us put our minds together and see what kind of future we can build for our children.

Thank you.

Peace.

Hi my name is Tammeil Weinberg and I'm also here to talk about capacity management.

I'm a parent of a kindergartner and a fourth grader at Kimball Elementary School in Beacon Hill.

I'm also a vice president of our PTA.

Our community is deeply concerned about the loss of 19 before and after school spaces starting this summer and fall.

Our school community and the success of our children as learners depend upon onsite before and after school care.

Nearly a third of the children at Kimball a Title I school are served by onsite programs like CDSA and Refugee Women's Alliance.

They enable parents and grandparents to work but they are more than childcare.

These programs work with our schools to provide much needed social emotional and academic interventions as well as enrichment activities like art and dance.

But SPS's proposal is poorly planned and poorly timed.

SPS has not told the public which schools will see childcare spaces disappear this summer or fall nor has SPS held any public meetings or engaged families on this proposal.

So those most affected by the loss of such spaces are unable to plan for this critical care next year.

If you are compelled to take back some before afterschool spaces to reduce class size you must do so thoughtfully.

This is not something that should be rushed through especially without adequately informing or engaging the people these changes will affect most.

SPS proposal may mean that some providers will shrink or cut their programs at the very same time that demand for afterschool care is expected to increase under earlier bell times this coming fall.

Given how important before and aftercare are to so many working families we urge you not to make this decision without knowing which schools, without community input and without time for us to find creative and equitable solutions to our capacity problem.

We are ready to work together.

Please require SPS to slow down, be transparent and engage affected communities before making changes.

Do not give SPS a blank check with no accountability to families or the school board.

Thank you.

Sarah Sands-Wilson, Renee Morrow, Chris Jenkins.

Could you please speak directly into the mic so everybody can hear your comments.

Thank you.

Good evening my name is Sarah Sense-Wilson I am Oglala Sioux and I am with UNEA and we are here tonight for multiple purposes mainly to welcome the newly elected board members so Jill Geary, Leslie Harris, Rick Burke and Scott Pinkham.

Congratulations.

We want to show and express support for the proposal for the ORCA card program.

We also emphatically want to support the Northgate Middle College program and the staff there.

Also we want to look at ratifying, we want to urge you to ratify the late bail plan.

That's obviously it's affecting a lot of, it's a ripple effect and very problematic in many ways.

We also want to support the before school and after school programs.

So I'm going to go ahead and pass the mic on and we have a number of new UNEA board members that want to introduce themselves and then we have elders advisory council that we want them to introduce themselves and then we have a youth advisory council.

Hello I am Dwayne Jack.

I go to North Cape Mellon College, I am a senior and I am a UNEA board member at large.

I am Vicki Pinkham, UNEA secretary, Tlingit.

I am Gwen Lee, UNEA treasurer and I am a foster parent.

My colonized name is Tom Spear.

I'm on the Tribal Elders Council.

Thank you.

My name is Lorraine Bays, I'm Cherokee and I'm part of the elder council for UNEA.

I'm honored to be here with you tonight.

I'm also part of the UNEA tribal elders.

If you could remember one thing, when we talk about cultural competency that's what everybody else gets to have and we're just asking for the same thing for us.

Thank you.

Hi I am the co-chair of the Clear Sky Native Youth Council and I go to Middle College as well and I am also a senior and I am Chippewa Sioux.

Casey Bear Tietzstedt.

I just said I am Casey or Bear.

I'm Snohomish and Sioux boy and Sioux and also in Lakota.

Hello my name is Joanne Pinkham and I'm secretary and I'm Ojibwe.

I am here today as a Clear Sky Native youth secretary.

Clear Sky is part of the Urban Native Education Alliance, an afterschool tutoring program.

I am hoping that this school board will honor the school improvement plan that will include the Indian heritage model.

Thank you.

Hello my given name is Lorna Edge Ansel.

My Indian name is Haya Bolsa.

I am enrolled upper Skagit and my role here is the interim executive director.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Renee Morrow, Chris Jenkins, and Ellie Nagy.

My name is Renee Morrow and I would like to defer my time to Jessica Colanares.

Hi I am here to talk about the before and after school program issue of course.

And I just want to make sure that you thought this through before you make a vote.

My daughters Lana and Eva They attend KidsCo at South Shore and Rainier Beach.

And you might notice by looking at them, they are biracial.

My husband is Filipino-American.

He was born here in the United States and grew up here.

And so we work really hard to give our children access to their Filipino heritage.

KidsCo has a tremendous commitment to diversity.

And so I send my kids to KidsCo and they learn more Tagalog at KidsCo than they do at home.

when they go to Kidsco they see teachers who look like them.

They see teachers who look like all members of their community.

While they are at Kidsco four and a half hours a day they build friendships with their classmates and while they are building friends with their classmates I'm out in the parking lot talking to their teachers and their principal.

It's my one connection to the school.

What they are building are lifelong relationships.

What I am building is community.

If you choose to remove before and after school programs from school buildings you will destroy that community.

And you will eliminate the richest most diverse learning environment my children benefit from.

Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you for your service.

My name is Chris Jackins Box 84063 Seattle 98124 on self-help playground projects at Viewlands and Broadview Thompson.

Two points.

Number one the King County agreements are missing for these schools.

Number two the district plans to demolish the Loyal Heights self-help playground.

Please change these plans.

On the Orca card passport program two points.

Number one the district should deliver services to all students who are envisioned to be served by the program.

Number two, this grant incidentally should free up resources for better bell time changes by moving more schools to times that they actually want.

On capacity management, the district should buy back the school sites that it wrongly sold just a few years ago.

On the BTA IV construction levy, a January 7 notice states that the district has decided that an environmental review is required for the BTA levy.

Question, did the district violate board policy by placing the levy on the ballot prior to conducting such review?

On Indian Heritage School, Middle College at High Point and African-American Academy, three points.

Number one, the district should reopen these schools.

Number two, Indian Heritage at Wilson Pacific, a Native American landmark and a city landmark was demolished.

The district sued the city to get a waiver from landmark regulations.

Number three, state law and board policy require a school closure process before closing a school site.

I can refer interested people to attorneys who are familiar with these issues.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Aaron Welch, David Beard and Brianna Jackson.

It's Ellie Nagy here.

Hello my name is Erin Welch I'm a single parent of three children in Seattle.

I also work at child care resources.

I work in the homeless child care subsidy program providing access to quality before and after school programming, summer programming for homeless children throughout the county.

When I first learned the district was considering converting childcare space into classroom space, I immediately thought of the conversations from 2005 that ushered in a wave of school closures.

We were having a money crisis, too much space, not enough money.

Communities cautioned that enrollment would increase and the district would soon find itself short of space.

Here we are, we have a space crisis.

And once again a short-sighted detrimental solution is being proposed with permanent consequences.

Converted childcare space, convert meaning cut, compromise or downright close.

And I call that kicking the can down the road and you were not elected to kick cans.

Please remove childcare conversion from the capacity management actions list that you will vote on tonight.

You have solid solutions and that one is terrible.

You have other options.

That one is terrible.

Please remove it from the list.

Amend your motion, remove that from the list.

Single parent, three kids in Seattle.

I fully support your intentions to lower class sizes.

I am right there with you and I see that that is a hard task.

What I ask is that you fully consider the ramifications of your decision before voting.

It's clear you haven't done that.

Why weren't parents talked to?

The answer I heard, it was too complex.

Yet I hear you saying, parents, get creative.

Find solutions.

If it's too complex to bring to us, how can we bear that solution on our back?

That makes no sense.

The potential impacts of this proposal are too extensive to list in full but I want to name a few.

First there is an assumption that programs can just be moved.

They are licensed programs.

They are participating in the statewide quality improvement program.

They are accredited.

You can't just move space.

They will lose their license.

When they lose their license they cannot operate as a program.

Okay, how can you operate as a program if you can't pay?

How can parents access it?

They receive subsidies.

They will not be able to take a subsidy.

When you made your bus decision, not you, but when the district made the bus decision, it wants my five-year-old to walk two miles.

Two miles to a program, Garfield, Garfield Community Center used to serve the overflow.

They are closed.

They are not a licensed center.

They are not a licensed center because the kids couldn't get there.

Okay.

Five-year-olds and six-year-olds cannot walk two miles.

I want to say one more thing and I'm out of here I promise.

407 spaces in Geary's Montlake area.

Okay.

Let's look at two miles from Montlake.

407 slots, 324 of those are school-based.

There are only 83 slots in the community.

that the community doesn't have the capacity to absorb those slots.

Please do not kick the can down the road.

Please remove conversion from your list of actions.

Thank you.

David Beer, Brianna Jackson and Connie Ching-So.

Hello, my name is Brianna Jackson and I would like to defer my time to Joe Hamer.

Hello my name is Jo Hamer and I am the program director for Community Day School Association at Kimball Elementary.

I am speaking to you on behalf of the students and families across the district.

I know that you have heard many of the challenges that families could face with losing on-site programming potentially affecting 19 communities across our wonderful district.

This could impact our communities at large financially with many families looking elsewhere to move because they cannot make ends meet.

The other impact that I would like for you to take into consideration are the students that these decisions could impact the most.

The programs provided across Seattle community offer students a safe place to be themselves.

They offer experiential learning and food to eat.

We all know that in order for a student to be successful in school they have to have their basic needs met.

They need good food, shelter, and warmth.

They need to feel safe and know and understand the world is full of opportunities versus being scared.

They need to feel that they belong and that they are not alone.

They need to feel esteem and know that they have a voice in things.

This is what we provide daily to students across this district.

All of these things are critical for students to thrive in an academic setting and the possibility of these students losing potentially their last meal of the day because they are hungry at home or they lose the ability to have hands-on learning which is critical for academic success.

Students who have learning challenges and behaviors need to have the opportunity within programs like ours to find support services.

In particular we strive to support systems throughout King County so families are supported.

In just one instance a student in my program was able to make leaps and bounds academically, social, emotionally because of the family support networks we were able to provide and find and put into place.

This is what we provide on a daily basis year-round.

The school day is not just from 9 to 3 and it begins when a student wakes up every morning.

On behalf of the students I ask you to reconsider taking away the support suddenly with no plan in place to foster growth.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm Connie So and this is Donnetta Sanford.

We are the co-presidents of the South Shore PTSA.

We are lifelong residents of Southeast Seattle and we are proud that all our children have either attended or are attending South Shore Elementary Middle School.

I am speaking to you on behalf of many South Shore parents that cannot make this meeting because we are not aware that under the vague category of capacity management that it meant that 19 on-site child care providers would lose their space at Seattle schools.

We are alarmed, angry, dismayed.

We understand that the Seattle schools have a capacity issue but we have heard that for years.

But even if we do enroll another 300, 1000 students, these families likely need more on-site childcare, not less.

While we love our Southeast Seattle neighborhood, we still would not want our young children to have to walk or take a bus by themselves to an off-site childcare agency.

That would be dangerous regardless of neighborhood.

And even if there is a bus provided they are often already at capacity, they do not come frequently enough so that the students would miss out after school clubs, sports and tutoring from their teachers.

At South Shore we are fortunate that for all our years of existence Kidsco has been on site to provide tutoring, diverse after school clubs and have acted as a stable institution for a community that is often overlooked, underfunded and has had six different principals in 12 years.

We want to note that Kidsco is already using the gym, already using the lunchroom and they are at capacity.

There is a waitlist.

So we quickly called an emergency meeting because we don't think a proper solution has been created.

For the short term we encourage you to go ahead and use even more portables.

Communicate with the community-based organizations that understand the families they serve.

When they should provide the list of places, I didn't hear Kisco and I'm sure there are a lot of other licensed daycare places that are not included.

If it takes additional money go ahead and get the additional money.

You are supposed to serve the students, serve the families.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Wysteria Oliver and Kimberly Malone.

Robin Swartz.

Wysteria Oliver.

Kimberly Malone.

Hi there.

My name is Kimberly.

My son, Owen, is an only child.

He is a kindergartner at McDonald International School.

And I think I'm not exaggerating when I say, sorry, I'm a little emotional about everything that's been going on.

I think I'm not exaggerating when I say that going to KidsCo in the morning is one of the favorite parts of my son's day.

And as a working mother in what is referred to as a dual working family, That environment is so critical to my well-being and my family's well-being.

And it was such a horrible shock to hear about this proposal on the table.

So, okay, I'm going to try to get it together.

We talked a lot about the community and how KidsCo is so integrated into the programs at the school.

I wanted to call out their summer camp program where my son participated for several weeks last summer in preparation for kindergarten.

We had the opportunity to get familiar with the school, build relationships with the staff at KidsCo, and make friends across different grades that he has today.

It's an amazing program and a great resource to the families.

I am super heartened to know that the board understands how important this resource is to families and that quality after school and before school care is super important and then I'm heartened about the commitment to trying to find an alternative But I'm disappointed to hear that it seems to be a done fact that the daycares don't need a dedicated space.

It feels like we could find a solution where the daycare does have a dedicated space and environment that is a safe, wonderful, welcoming place for our children to go as opposed to trying to come up with different solutions that might not be optimal for the children elsewhere at the school.

And so I really just want to request and ask that the board consider removing the conversion of these daycares off of the list of potential actions to solve your capacity challenges.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mari and Georgia Torres.

You tried.

Sorry about that.

My name is David Bogovich.

I work every day with families across the state to help them find childcare.

I listen to their stories often.

I think you've heard a few of them today.

Often families struggle to find childcare for weeks and weeks before I even talk to them.

This isn't due to any fault of the families.

Finding childcare can just be really tough especially for families in areas where supply doesn't meet demand like most of Seattle.

and even more so for families who require transportation.

On-site childcare is not only the best option many families have, it might be the only option.

By waiting to tell parents which sites may be converted until after enrollment, parents who select a school based on the convenience of on-site childcare will end up being screwed over and have to find childcare again.

I'll be happy to talk with them and help them through their options but many families just do not have the time to do that.

And it's not fair.

Taking away already scarce childcare options from our district's families even for a noble goal like improving class size will ultimately harm our community.

Please remove childcare conversion from the list of actionable capacity items.

There's many other ways to do this.

You've listed five of them.

but not this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening my name is Mari Offenbecker and I am the CEO of Schools Out Washington.

Seattle Public Schools has a long history over 30 years of partnering with community organizations to provide quality before and after school services to children and families.

including on-site childcare programming.

We acknowledge and appreciate the district's leadership in this area because we all know that kids do not stop learning at 3 o'clock.

We have worked in partnership over this time creating systems to help before and after school programs develop and implement curriculum that aligns learning to what happens during the school day.

We have been intentional in working from the knowledge that kids do not stop learning when the school bell rings and that out of school time programs are vital to working families, to supporting kids in schools and keeping them safe when they are not in school.

We need to work in partnership to develop a plan to ensure that kids and families have on-site or near-site before and after school access.

Closing programs will have serious implications on thousands of families.

While we know that K-3 class size space is a real problem and one that needs to be addressed please work in partnership with community providers and parents to come to a solution that does not mean shutting down child care programs in a city where we already face lack of access.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rebecca Graves, Tanya Westby and Daniela Sanford.

Hi my name is Rebecca Graves I am the mother of a second grader in the Seattle Public Schools.

She has had a magical magical experience in both her school John Stanford international school and Latona school associates her childcare, our childcare.

At least half of her time in her school building is at LSA at her childcare.

It is I would attest at least half of her educational experience.

At least half of the magic that contributes to her whole being.

It is delicious, it is fun, it is creative, it is convenient.

There is way more demand at our school than there is availability even as things stand.

I could say so many things that all the other parents have said already but I think I would ask you to think long-term about what it means to support the childcare resources in Seattle Public Schools.

If you were to create a 21st century school system or education system you would create these programs.

You would have project-based learning that includes arts and technology.

You would have supportive adult relationships that help the kids rest, help the kids cooperate, serve delicious food.

And if you were to create a care infrastructure for the society and the economy that we have here in Seattle you would also need to create these programs.

It is an accident of history that they exist separately.

from what happens in the official classrooms and what happens in what you all oversee as a school board officially.

So I just ask you to think about long-term what our kids and families and communities need because it is the support for the whole child and it is what these community partners do educationally and for families.

Thank you.

Good evening my name is Tanya Westby and I just want to thank you for listening to all of us tonight about our concerns about the capacity plans.

I'm a parent of two elementary school children.

They attend John Muir Elementary and Thurgood Marshall Elementary.

They benefit from the wonderful programming of Kids Co and the YMCA.

My husband and I both work.

That's the story of most families in Seattle, working families, we rely on this childcare.

We drop off our kids at 7 in the morning, we pick them up at 6 in the evening, sometimes by 4 if we're lucky.

I know I speak for many families when I say that that on-site childcare gives us peace of mind and it makes it possible for working families to feel like we're giving our kids the best education we can.

Sorry, I'm all shaky.

We rely on this child care.

It's not just like babysitting.

It's so much more.

It's an extension of their learning.

They get so much more in that after school space and before school space.

They get social emotional development.

They get the chance to build relationships with kids of other ages and from other programs, from other classrooms.

That doesn't happen on the playground, even if people say they try to make it happen.

It's a wonderful opportunity there.

They also get the benefit of building more relationships with trusted adults.

and seeing adult role models.

So most importantly at the YMCA, at KidsCo, at all of the other providers on site they provide this trusted really high quality care that we know we can rely on.

When I drop off either of my daughters I know that when the school day is about to start they are going to walk safely right over to the school or to the classroom.

When the school day ends they do the reverse and they go to a safe space.

I know that that time they have in the morning and after school is used constructively in learning and play and exercise.

It's not on a bus to some other location.

I know that smaller class sizes are a really important thing that all kids deserve but not at the expense of all the rest of our kids.

I heard you say that all of our kids matter.

Thank you for that.

I also heard you say that this is a critical part of our family's days so I think you get it and I think you support it.

You just need to consider more time.

Please take it off your voting agenda for tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am Daniela Sanford but I am going to defer my spot to a parent that is part of kids co so that she may express to you her

Hi my name is Michelle Salisbury thank you for letting me speak.

And so basically what I am going to be talking about is capacity management.

Of course I am against the ruling that is trying to happen.

So I am a mother of two children.

Both of my children of course go to Seattle Public School District.

My daughter went through the whole before and after school program.

She attended CDSA from kindergarten all the way to fifth grade so I utilized it completely.

Now my son is at South Shore and of course he goes to Kitsco and he has been at Kitsco from pre-K up until fourth grade and then he is going to basically be going there until he can no longer go there.

So the reason that we decided to do a before and after school program is because it was needed.

I would not dare have my child go off-site to a program.

My child needed to be on an on-site program so that we established a safe and routine venue for them.

I couldn't imagine a pre-K or kindergarten or walking to an off-site program to me that is not safe.

Mainly the reason that we do do before and after school program is because I work.

The work hours that I do I can't drop off my kids in time for school nor can I pick up my children in time for school.

And so having these type of programs is a necessity for my family for me and my husband and I couldn't imagine an onsite program not being there at the school.

So I please ask that you do not go forward with the closures of these onsite programs because it does benefit children and it does benefit my child and he loves it, he loves Kitsap.

Thank you.

Jean Salvion and Sarah Nautica and then I will come back and see whether the people that were announced earlier like Aaron Welch, no not Aaron Welch I'm sorry David Beard, Robin Swartz, Wysteria Oliver and if they are here I still have a chance to speak.

Hello, good evening school board members.

Sorry.

My name is Jean Sovion I am the mother of Gala and Eleanor who have come tonight.

We attend Graham Hill Elementary School and the kids go there.

I am a working parent so as their father we do a lot of work in the community as well, volunteer for the PTA and do everything we can to raise money for the school.

I just want to say I came in before the public testimony had begun and actually heard a lot of willingness from the board to look carefully and closely at the capacity management proposal.

I loved those words, partnerships, collaborative, really happy to hear that.

We all, so many families here including myself depend on this before and after school programs that KidsCo and other providers provide.

Just want to say education it's at the heart a creative enterprise constantly balancing different interests and needs and of course it's understandable that increasing enrollment will lead to growth and change.

But we urge you to take a second look at the capacity management proposal and consider other long-term solutions that will benefit students in the classroom and after the bell.

Please consider other options than the current capacity management proposal cutting those afterschool programs.

Thank you.

Sarah Noctigal.

That's me I'm Sarah Noctigal and my first grade son is in front of the podium.

I'm with Jeannie, we also go to Graham Hill and he spends three days a week at Kidsco and two classes at Powerful Schools on Thursday.

Jeannie and I kind of co-wrote our comments and we just want to say thank you for being so open to all the comments tonight.

Really appreciate that you extended them and that you're really listening.

Thank you.

We do have some open slots if anybody still wants to sign up.

Oh never mind.

I didn't know that she already had the waitlist.

I haven't got the list yet.

No I don't.

Can I get the waitlist please?

Do you want me to say the names?

Jill Santillan, Amanda Bakke, Eliza Rankin.

Hello I could easily say I'm a better mom than public speaker so bear with me please.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight.

My name is Jill and I'm a single working mother of a seven-year-old boy who attends Sasha and Kids Co.

Due to my income I receive partial subsidy through the city of Seattle child care program and with the help of the city and the low cost of Kids Co.

I'm able to maintain a full-time work schedule and still provide my son Hugo with quality afterschool care.

The fact that Kids Co. frees me to work a full-time work schedule qualifies me for employee health benefits.

Additionally Hugo's afterschool care has allowed him to participate in community building activities such as Taekwondo, healthy baking, modern dance which are physically active and provide learning opportunities.

As a single parent with my work schedule, commute time and budget it will be impossible otherwise to expose Hugo to these sorts of experiences which I first-hand see the benefits.

I feel the fears of many parents that if you shut the doors on our families it will be far more difficult to be economically independent through full-time We fear we will have to take our children from their communities and possibly even leave Seattle.

When the working class families feel we must leave then much of Seattle's diversity will leave with us.

And the city's equity gap will continue to widen.

So I just hope that we can come up with a solution that fits all families.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm going to try to be more concise than I was last time.

So I hear in the speakers today talking about capacity issues and other program closures and all these different things but the kind of common thing that ties them all together when you hear a motion and anger is panic.

I think panic anxiety and stress that's coming directly from the way information is commuted, is communicated from the district to families.

EEU parents are panicking because they thought kindergarten at EEU was an option and because they want more kids to be able to have access to that.

They thought they had another year to choose a school in SPS and now they have to figure out something right now and the list of what programs will be in which schools isn't available to them yet or to any special education family anywhere in the district.

Open enrollment starts in just a few weeks.

School tours have already begun but families with students who receive special education services can't get any information about where their kids might be able to go to school.

Panic.

You are seeing families who depend upon the onsite childcare programs to care for their kids.

For the district it's a logistical problem but for these families it's a crucial part of their lives.

The families of the providers don't know what their options are or even if they need to find other options since the list of schools isn't available.

Will the programs be moved or closed?

Are caregivers going to lose their jobs?

Nobody knows or can make plans because they haven't been on the discussions.

So we have a lot of anxiety.

This is supposed to happen eight months from now along with bell time changes and people aren't merely angry they are completely freaking out.

Life with children is unpredictable especially with children with special needs.

The way we all survive is by planning ahead when we can to minimize stress.

partnering with people and organizations that support us.

Our school district should be the staunchest ally we have when it comes to their education but instead we feel like we have no say in the decisions that affect our lives and a desperate chance to communicate is this reactionary antagonistic way.

We feel we are at the mercy of a system we don't trust to have our best interests at heart because too much happens behind closed doors and it's causing a tremendous amount of stress.

There are complex factors at play, our district is large and we need more money.

We get that.

We are just I'm asking for us all to find ways we can be partners and support each other.

I'm asking for the district administration to focus more on communication with families and try to understand why you only hear from parents when they are upset.

It isn't because we are demanding and reasonable it's because we don't know how else to be a part of what's going on and these are our kids' lives we are dealing with.

We need a real voice in this and so do the educators so please let's together find a way.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Jennifer Cooper and I would like to defer my time to Rhonda Cavanaugh.

Hello school board thank you for having us all here.

Obviously you can hear some of the concerns in the room.

I work at a childcare here in Seattle at Beacon Hill International School and we have a wonderful preschool program, a city of Seattle preschool program, the Seattle preschool program.

and we provide space for 20 little ones to receive vital care that their families rely on.

We also have a space for 75 before and after school children.

We lost space at the beginning of the year, so we're making do with what we do have.

Our families deserve safe, affordable, and enriching care for before and after school and for their preschool children.

We use formal assessments for all the full-time children in our care.

We share data from our preschool program with your kindergarten teachers.

We communicate closely with your social workers and teachers when we have concerns around the children that we share.

We provide uncompensated community childcare for PTSA meetings, conferences, open houses and other meetings.

We provide uncompensated translation services when needed for families.

We have family engagement nights where we all come together around a topic, a goal or a purpose.

We get to know our families and what their needs are in a much different way and a deeper way than often your own teachers do.

We also know that the lack of high quality childcare or childcare in general is an equity issue that disproportionately affects families of color.

We need more time to work on creative solutions that allow parent input as well as continued input from your community partners.

Listen to the voices before you here tonight and postpone your vote.

Thank you.

Tyra Griffin.

Tyra Griffin.

Nicholas Heyer.

Hi my name is Nicholas Heyer.

I am on the board of CDSA and I am in awe of the presentations that have been given today.

I think there can be very little doubt in your minds about the concerns of the parents who attend Seattle Public Schools.

So as a board member I simply want to say that I appreciated the attitudes and the talk about before and after school programs earlier today.

I appreciated your statement of the importance of before and after school programs.

But also as a board member I just have to say I do not believe there has been enough planning and enough time to make this transition.

I believe there is going to be some chaos involved and that programs will be heard.

and so I agree that this decision should be postponed and better planning involved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our last speaker Jessica Colonier.

Oh okay.

No that's okay.

Mike O'Brien.

Not here.

Noah Segner.

Not here.

Noah Segner.

Okay Patricia Bailey.

Greg Douglas Ricks.

Cynthia Portico.

Sally Seriano.

Thanks very much.

I know everybody's desperate to go home.

My child was born in 2010. In 2012, he was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified.

And a lot of people who are still here in this room know what it's like.

You don't sleep through the night because you're lying awake, worrying that your child won't get married, won't have a house, won't have the sort of lives that you want your child to have.

And you worry about how to be a good parent.

It's hard enough being a good parent to a child who doesn't have special needs.

When you have a child who has a special need, you feel that you have to give them the best education, that you can.

The most fortunate thing I think I have ever happened to be in an extremely fortunate life was getting Teddy into the EEU, where he was in the preschool program for two years.

And I'm a neuroscientist, so I'm pretty critical.

They were an extraordinary program.

They had an individualized education plan.

that mapped out where he was, where he needed to go and followed through on it.

And I hand that education plan out now to parents again and again and again saying this is how these plans should work because most schools don't know how to create them.

We spent a year in England and when we came back we felt it was actually time to give another family a chance to be at the EU.

And I figured I was educated, EU had taught me how to advocate for my child and what he needed.

And I worked very hard within North Beach, which is another excellent, well-funded school, to try to give Teddy the kind of access he needed to social skills.

And at this point he was doing very, very well and all he needed is pretty minor adjustments.

However, the infrastructure of even a well-funded, well-run school The education level of the teachers in a well-funded, well-run school were such that Teddy couldn't get what he needed.

And I sent him in the end to a small private school where he's doing fine, but most parents don't have the choice I have.

What I would say, and I see this in the room, and I've seen this in almost every comment in the room, is that you make very difficult financial decisions.

But in that process, what I see in this room is you are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

You are getting rid of childcare programs to lower class sizes.

You are getting rid of the EEU to try to implement better special ed in the classrooms.

That is not the way to build a better school system.

Keep what you have that is good and build what you have and make it better.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that is the end of our public testimony.

We are now looking to our board directors for their comments.

Scott Pinkham.

Thank you to all the parents, child care.

children that are here, yes it is going to be a very difficult thing to do and we do have to build and not tear down.

You know the successful programs that I've seen around here, unfortunately I got to see Indian heritage high school get torn down.

We talked about the time where it was about saving Indian heritage and now it's about rebuilding Indian heritage.

I'd hate for us to get to that point where we have to see about rebuilding childcare.

So Yes we have difficult tasks ahead of us and I hope us as the board here will encourage everyone let's make this very transparent and that parents, you are not getting those panic attacks, anxiety attacks, distress.

I am stressed out as it is myself.

But I just want to let you know we are here.

I'm hearing you.

I know I've got two kids myself that took advantage of the boys and girls club and the child care they provided onsite at schools.

It is a very beneficial program and we need to see what we can do to make sure we maintain those.

For those that were here as far as Other issues, I guess I have to give props to my wife and her, my kids are here to talk about the heritage high school.

The CBOs, the community-based organizations, yes we thank you for the service that you are providing to our students.

And I guess as far as me the final comment and I will actually have my community meeting on January 30 from 3 to 430 at Broadview library.

I would just like to note that the annual disclosure of financial conflict of interest forms for the board and executive administrators have been attached to the agenda and are available to view online.

Director Harris.

I will try and make this less wordy than previous reports.

Link Crew West Seattle high school way to go district 6. The word mentoring came up and we need a citywide mentoring program.

We need your ideas We need to pair up community members with students because the real closure of the opportunity gap is not going to come from this building.

It is going to come from relationships and holding hands.

Had a very profound and deep and a little bit rowdy community meeting on Saturday.

And several things were brought up and look for a lessons learned with respect to the potential violence incidents at Chief Sealth International High School.

How was that handled?

How should it have been handled?

Or was it handled correctly?

Stay tuned please.

I am in favor of finding a solution for the EEU kindergarten program and working hand-in-hand with the University of Washington for a nationally renowned program and maybe an alternative learning ALE program could be set up.

Good folks are working on it.

Capacity management.

We need something like FACMAC reinstated.

It's required under the Growth Management Act.

Folks are working on resolutions to do that because in fact that is holding hands with people from different jurisdictions and different skill sets and taking input.

My hope is to continue having my community meetings on the third Saturday from like 3 to 430 which again if you're passionate about an issue you can ride circuit and hit two meetings at the same time.

This is extraordinary.

This is incredibly difficult and you are being heard.

Thank you very much.

Director Geary.

So to the capacity management we are going to put out, we are going to make a motion for an amendment so I will save my comments to that.

But I hear you all and I truly feel the anxiety that our communications have made for your community, for our community, for our city.

The fact that letters went out in fall but we haven't had an opportunity to come up as a city with a plan so that we are a little bit better prepared for this moment.

And that we have an understanding of how this is going to roll out.

But I will talk a little bit more about that later.

I did want to give a shout out to the Roosevelt high school jazz program which was voted in a readers poll by jazz magazine as the number one jazz high school jazz program in the United States.

And so congratulations to them.

I know as a program that has been chosen for the Ellington contest in New York I just I can't remember the absolute formal title.

They're waiting to hear if they're going to be accepted now so let's all send good thoughts there because it's such an excellent program and a jewel to our city.

So just wanted to point out something very positive in District 3. My next meeting will be February 27th at Montlake, 11 to 1. If people have ideas of other community places that they would like to set up, I'm looking to do one as well, maybe over in Magnuson Park to reach some of the transient housing folks that live over there and make it easier for them to attend a meeting.

So look for that.

I'm hoping to do that in April.

And if people have ideas of how I can do that, let me know.

To help my community meeting.

am hearing from the EEU community at that meeting and will continue to look for ways not only to preserve that program but truly it is in my heart to expand effective inclusive kindergarten programs throughout our district so that it's not just those kids and that we have to look to that model.

I will not accept that we can't do that.

Heard again.

From the middle college folks, and I think that as we heard earlier, we just have to figure out a way to capture the EEU, middle college.

You know, we're getting caught up in titles, but these are education places for our kids that are meaningful.

And when we shift them around, it is very hard on our families.

It's very hard on our children's communities.

And it can have the effect of turning a child off from education.

at that very moment and we can't do that.

We have to continue to look for ways to engage our families and our children in educational programs.

Programs where they learn and are happy to attend on a daily basis.

I attended the most likely to succeed viewing at Roosevelt High School.

Highlighting project-based learning at a high school level.

Fascinating, lovely movie, documentary.

Please if you have a chance to see it, do so.

It is being duplicated in districts.

It doesn't have to be charters.

It can be done.

We have to look at ways to provide diverse educational opportunities for our kids in many different educational places throughout our city.

So we will continue to look for those things.

You know I know I have Rick Burke and he will be looking for vocational education, project-based learning and we will continue to look for that.

All right thank you everybody for coming so much and for speaking.

Director Peters.

I will also try to be succinct.

So at my recent community meeting there was a really great conversation and the two main topics were before and after school care and where it will go and how important it is.

And also the continuous school improvement plans for our schools.

And so I'm going to address the easy one first and that's the CSIP continuous school improvement plans.

One thing that came out of the discussion at my community meeting was that school communities would like to know more about these plans, they'd like to know what's in them, they'd like to have more of a say and so a proposal that I'm going to just bring forward is that we make it a point that these plans are posted on every school's website because I don't think that's the current plan and that more outreach is done to the communities at each school about what is in these plans and what they mean.

So, then on to the other issue of the capacity.

My own children benefited from some of the before and after school care that has been discussed tonight.

So I completely understand the value of what we are talking about.

So we will be discussing this a little bit later and I just want to clarify that this is not just about class sizes.

This is about 1,000 new kids coming into our district every single year.

And so this is about class rooms for these kids who are showing up.

on our doorsteps and so this is about, it's not about closures because I don't think we're talking about that we're saying okay we have to look at some space differently what can we do differently so that we can accommodate both our instructional mandate and also make things easier for our families in terms of continuity of care for their children.

When we are faced with so many dilemmas we are faced with every year in certain schools where it is so crowded they have to make very difficult decisions about whether they can still have an art room or a music room whether they can still have a teacher's lounge something has to give.

So that is where we are at you know where do we put our kids and so what I am hoping is that we can all be part of the conversation together.

and that we can come up with creative solutions that have the least detrimental impact to everybody involved.

But it was great to have you all here and make this very real for us so I thank you for coming tonight.

So on a couple of other issues, let's see, to the students who came to present about the point of sale.

Let's see it was Catherine and Bertie I think it was.

I very much support the whole point of sale idea if you have something specific you want to send to the board please send it.

We have been talking about, oh thank you I see we do have it great.

We have been talking about this in the audit and finance committee and elsewhere in the district we very much want to move in that direction so thank you for your initiative as well.

Let's see, I also want to thank our student guest tonight Jamie Bell, oh maybe she's gone home already but it was great to have her.

And to the link crew presentation that was Olivia, Annalise and Meredith.

Those sorts of efforts in our schools are so crucial because it really is hard to make the transition from middle school to high school and anything that the older students can do to make that transition easier is just a wonderful effort.

I would also like to reiterate my support for EEU and encourage staff to continue in their efforts to find a solution before open enrollment is over and my understanding is that that is the direction we are going in.

And then, let's see, I want to tag on to something that the superintendent said regarding the story about Hannah's suitcase, the story about the Holocaust.

There is also a play going on at the Seattle Children's Theater about that story and so that is another way to experience that.

that story.

And then finally I had a chance to attend the MLK rally and march at Garfield.

It was a very well attended event and I was very honored and pleased to be there.

I was there with my fellow board directors Geary and Patu and it was just wonderful the turnout that was there.

So I am really glad that was able to happen.

I thank all the people involved, the committee, the MLK committee, Flip Herndon, Principal Howard at Garfield and all the people who supported having this event continue in its wonderful tradition.

So thank you all.

Director Burke.

I want to echo a lot of my colleagues comments.

I will start by thanking Jamie Bell.

board neighbor for a brief time.

It was pleasant to have a new guest.

And I want to put a thanks to the link crew as well.

I have three kids who navigated the transition to high school.

And so I really appreciate the help that they provided at this important start.

The little exercise that we did as a board shows that it might take us a few tries to get started but we can be cohesive and efficient fairly quickly so we're striving for that.

A huge thanks to those who testified.

It's stressful to be in this situation.

It's stressful to be at the podium and I'm really grateful that you're willing to come here and share your stories.

the challenges that you're facing because when we're looking at things at a policy level it's difficult to see the impact to understand all of the ramifications and so your stories are super powerful when we're trying to evaluate these decisions.

And I'm trying to in my mind think of what would things look like if it were perfect and you know we heard some of it in the testimony where we would have schools that provided these services that provided before and after care that provided pre-K on site and we're not there.

And so as a board director the question is how do we get there, what are the funding structures we need, how do we collaborate with the city, how do we look at the regulatory aspects.

There's going to be some churn and so I'm really grateful that people brought their ideas and continue to bring their ideas.

It's not going to be an easy challenge for the next few years while we try to work through these things.

I can tell that as a director and talking with staff and board colleagues there's a lot more emphasis on how do we look long-term.

What are we looking at in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years.

The discussion of an oversight committee to capture and provide more transparency around what our city is looking like.

How it's evolving.

So this work is underway.

I also want to reaffirm the comments that Director Geary made and other colleagues about the EU.

I'm committed to finding a long-term solution and one that doesn't disrupt incoming families and that doesn't disrupt the enrollment process.

I think this is again a model program that we should be embracing and replicating wherever we can.

I had the opportunity earlier this week to visit Green Lake Elementary.

My thanks to the PTA for inviting me.

I learned about their magic program that they developed there.

It's multi-age grade instruction classrooms and it's a structure which has helped them be really resilient to capacity surges as enrollment boundaries have shifted.

So I learned a lot about the history of the school and some of their long-term hopes so thanks to them as well.

For people who are district wonks I want to share that in the last few weeks there have been a bunch of work sessions that have been identified and scheduled on the calendar and so set your Wednesday afternoons aside.

Budget, smart goals, math, early learning, technology, highly capable, all of these areas are things that the board is going to be doing work sessions on and we love the idea of community coming and listening and being able to provide feedback not particularly during the event but afterwards and understanding the work that's going on.

My next community meeting is also Saturday January 30 from 10 to 1130 at Greenwood Public Library.

Director Blanford.

I'll start off by also thanking all who came to testify before us today.

It has been shared that we hear you and it is important that you share your feedback with us on these, particularly on these critical decisions that we have to make.

On the capacity management challenge I have already shared my thoughts about that and so when we get to the actual agenda item then we will have a little bit more discussion I want to thank the Stevens special ed parents who invited me to come and speak to them last week.

I enjoyed the conversation and gave me a lot to think about and hopefully will spur some action.

Also to the Thurgood Marshall PTA who held an equity conversation about their highly capable program and access to that highly capable program.

It was fascinating dialogue and warmed my heart to be able to have conversations about equity in the neighborhood that I represent.

I also want to thank the administrators of Cleveland high school recently recipients of the school of distinction.

They invited me to come today and have a conversation about some of the challenges that they are facing as well as getting an opportunity to visit a few schools or a few classrooms and see wonderful instruction that was taking place in that school.

I have community meetings scheduled for the 23rd which is next Saturday from 10 to 1130 at the Douglas truth library and then on the 20th of February also from 10 to 1130 at the Capitol Hill library.

And I'd like to end my thoughts by thanking the superintendent for recognizing the former SEA president Roger Erskine who was a mentor of mine 20 years ago when I first started working for the district and later came into increased responsibilities at the district.

He has always served as a wise counsel and those of us who have been paying attention to district operations and particularly the relationship between the school district and our educational partners, many of them would agree with me that we probably hit a zenith in terms of the relationship between those two entities during Roger's leadership and he was primarily responsible for creating not an adversarial relationship which we frequently find ourselves in but one that was collaborative and dedicated towards improving outcomes for students which I believe is a shared goal.

I'd also like to recognize last week While we were meeting there was a dedication at Nathan Hale High School that's called Wetterauer Way named after a long-term teacher Elaine Wetterauer who is also a mentor of mine in many ways and a fabulously recognized teacher.

She had done profound things, was according to former Governor Gary Locke his favorite teacher of all the teachers that he encountered in his life.

and she passed away after a long battle with cancer and her colleagues at Nathan Hill High School as well as the community raised money to dedicate a part of the building to Elaine Wetterauer and I just wanted to take a second to recognize her and all the teachers at that school for doing fabulous work.

Thank you.

I would like to echo the thank you to the West Seattle high school Jamie Bell for having her presence here with us.

I also would like to also thank the West Seattle high school link program.

It was actually quite interesting to be able to play a game with them and be able to realize like Rick said we have to get into the rhythm where we are actually realizing in order for us to work together we have to realize how that process starts and how it ends.

So we figure out how we all had to sequentially say the numbers and not skip all over because it didn't work that way.

I also would like to say thank you so much to all the parents and communities who are here tonight letting us know exactly how you feel about the afterschool spaces that's going on in each of your schools and we definitely hear you loud and clear.

We all have kids that we've had to go through who actually needed those schools in order for them to be able to get the care that they need and we hear you loud and clear and as board directors sometimes it's really hard to figure out what's the best route to go.

How do we actually support our parents and be able to realize that kids are the most important that's the reason why we're here sitting up here because we know that the children that we serve are the most important to us.

So sitting up here trying to figure out how do we actually work together not only with the community and parents but our staff and our superintendent to make sure that we provide the best opportunities for all our children.

So what I would like to say is that we are, we hear you loud and clear and we are doing everything we can to make sure it is a win-win situation for both our communities, our kids and also the Seattle Public Schools and as one of our board directors said we are getting more kids than we expected and 1,000 kids is a lot of kids and that is our responsibility to make sure that we do provide excellent education for all children that they have the opportunity to be a part of whatever it is that the Seattle Public Schools provide.

So, thank you for your patience and hopefully that we can still work together and we are looking for better and greater things as we continue on this route.

But I have a community meeting and as I said before for some of you who actually don't get the chance to come to our board meetings or hear issues that you wanted to hear.

Each board director has meetings that we have on a monthly basis and my meeting is at the last Saturday of the month which is the 30th of January from 10 o'clock to 1130 in my cafe Vita at Seward Park.

And it's an opportunity for you to come and just let us know exactly what you think, what ideas you have and we are there to listen.

So thank you very much for coming tonight.

And we are now taking a 10 minute break.

like head, shoulders, arms.