SPEAKER_33
We are at 415 and my name is Leslie Harris.
I am the vice president school board director number six and I hereby call this meeting to order.
Ms. Shek the roll call please.
We are at 415 and my name is Leslie Harris.
I am the vice president school board director number six and I hereby call this meeting to order.
Ms. Shek the roll call please.
Director Geary.
Present.
Director Burke.
Here.
Director DeWolf present.
Director Mack here.
Director Patu here.
Director Pinkham present.
Director Harris here.
If we could all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you.
And it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to Superintendent Nyland for tonight's recognitions.
All right thank you.
Well we're pleased tonight to recognize the Seattle Housing Authority.
We have about a dozen what I've been calling premier partners that not only are very generous in partnering with us financially but also come to the table and work side by side with us so that I guess in my current speeches I'm talking about not only alignment of our arrows but coherence of our arrows where our arrows actually touch each other.
And Seattle Housing Authority has been a great partner and friend working side by side with us for the benefit of our 6000 students that go to Seattle Public Schools and live in Seattle Housing Authority housing.
And they've been side by side with us and maybe even leading the way a step or two ahead of where we are in terms of attendance.
And they know where the students live.
So they've got a little of a head start on us.
So I'd like to introduce Brent Jones who's going to say a little bit more about our partners and then we'll hear just briefly from Seattle Housing Authority and then we'll do a picture with them.
Brent Jones, chief of strategy and partnerships, Dr. Nyland, board members.
Actually I'd like to have Kathleen Penonene come up and talk about our partners today.
Good evening I'm Kathleen Ponanen housing and education manager here at Seattle Public Schools and it's my pleasure to recognize the Seattle Housing Authority this evening.
They are our largest affordable housing provider in the city providing subsidized housing and rental assistance to nearly 35,000 people in Seattle and they house like Dr. Nyland said one in 10 Seattle Public School students so that's 5,500 scholars that are attending every single one of our Seattle Public Schools.
And through this partnership we believe we have this tremendous opportunity to model what a cohesive education system looks like where students and families feel supported at school, at home and in their community and together we have this shared vision for how that students and families experience a community that's working together to promote their educational success to partnering with families as leaders and honoring them as their first teachers of their children and also providing and being responsive to the strengths and needs that families communicate to us.
So I'd like to commend Seattle Housing Authority for going above and beyond just the bricks and mortars of providing affordable housing and really thinking holistically with us about the whole child and the whole family's experience.
So over the next two years like Dr. Nyland mentioned we're focusing on helping our students be in school in class and engage and school attendance is just the first step to building meaningful relationships between students and families and our educators so that we can then provide the rigorous academic opportunities and the social and emotional support that we aim to provide each and every one of our students.
They've done an incredible job over the summer working with us to communicate to families about the bell time changes and explaining the importance of attendance.
They the Seattle Housing Authority adds to the number of caring adults.
in our children's lives.
Just recently they hosted a 20 day attendance challenge at New Holly community that motivated several students to improve their attendance.
One student went from over 30 period absence in just one month to during the challenge the next month.
have under 10 period absences.
So students and families were recognized and appreciated by their peers in front of their peers and family just last Friday night.
They're also working with us to build welcoming school environments.
They were at West Seattle Elementary and Bailey Gatzert on the first day of school high-fiving students and they've been great about inviting educators and our school building leaders to communities to build those welcoming environments and school foster school family relationships.
So we're joined tonight by Andrea Lozaga who's the director of policy and strategic initiatives at Seattle Housing Authority and Roy Chan who's the strategic advisor for education.
And I want to express how thankful we are for Andrew Lofton executive director of Seattle Housing Authority his personal passion and his leadership in this work and we really look forward to continuing our partnership.
And I'd like to invite Roy Chan to come up and say a couple words.
Good evening everybody.
Thanks again so much for this award.
We're really pleased to accept this award in part because we've long realized this has been a partnership more in name a real true partnership.
I think back on some of the things that we've really partnered together on.
I think one we share sort of a common vision for our students and one sort of same outcomes for our families.
I think too we have done We have invited SPS staff educators out in our communities and they have been so gracious to come and meet our families and our students where they are.
And then we've also accepted invitations from the school district to come to schools and talk to educators and give them information so that they can better educate the children at their school.
And then the other thing I'll just mention Richard really highlights that the true partnership between the Seattle Housing Authority and Seattle Public Schools is that we even share a board member Zach who is at SHA and also at SPS.
So you know like Catherine said this this work is just beginning.
And when we talk about this sort of cohesive supportive ecosystem we want our families and students to see SHA and SPS is really aligned.
So you know we're thinking about doing more home visits together for instance.
We're thinking about doing mentorships together and how well the out of school supports that we can really build in so that when the family thinks about education for their child they think of both Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Housing Authority working together.
And I think our next big step is how do we bring families more into that process and how do we bring other partners other community resources who have a lot of expertise and capacity so that we're all able to give our students what they all truly deserve.
So again thank you very much for this honor and we look forward to continue to work with you all.
I'll invite board members down to take a picture with our friends from the Seattle Housing Authority.
Thank you.
When are we going to email?
We're working on figuring out the financing for that.
Yeah no students.
No we do not have student representatives tonight although I think that the public testimony is let off by a Cleveland student.
Superintendent you still have the floor for your comments sir.
All right.
Thank you.
First of all congratulations to directors Patu Mack and DeWolf who took their oath of office last week.
It was a wonderful gathering and they had family there and a lot of fun and festivity.
Former Mayor Tim Burgess was there and Chris Reykdal superintendent of public instruction was there to give An impromptu 10 minute passionate presentation that was pretty spot on for the issues that we face coming up statewide.
Thank you to Vice President Harris for emceeing and thank you to all of the directors for participating.
Well last time we had a board meeting we had a lot going on and I didn't have the opportunity to make orally the superintendent comments.
Tonight I want to give some highlights from our strategic plan the smart goals and the state of the district that we did just prior to our last board meeting.
Have some good news topics of interest topics of board interest and then some community highlights.
So as I always do I will present a little bit on each of the three parts of our strategic plan.
However tonight it's really a recap of some of the good news that we shared in the state of the district and some of the successes.
So goal one educational excellence and equity.
Over the past four years we have seen a lot of significant progress.
We now lead the state by 10 points in third grade reading 15 points in eighth grade math and that's pretty representative of our third through eighth grade scores.
Our graduation rates are on the rise over that four years and graduation rates for African-American students is up 12 percent over that time frame.
And that does represent a trend for I think all almost all of our ethnic groups.
These factoids will begin going out from our communications office weekly with a did you know caption on them one at a time.
Next one up is 71 percent of our graduates enroll in college immediately after graduation.
I did not know that.
That's significant in that so many of our jobs do require family wage jobs do require some college.
Our partnership with SEA and PASS is focused on positive relationships and we've seen reduced suspension rates by 40% over the past few years and I think that the suspension rate for African-American males went down 29% this last year.
We also had 23 of our schools recognized last year for achievement awards for sustained improved academic progress.
And this just in as I was going through yesterday I didn't see it in time to talk.
I did meet as I always do with the principals during their professional development day but I didn't see this in time so my email started popping up with have you seen the article from the New York Times.
And so finally last night late it was kind of like OK I'll look at the New York Times article what does it have to say?
Well somewhere buried in there halfway down was Seattle was number three on the list actually tied for number three on the list with maybe three or four other schools as having the highest growth rate in the nation.
So the table that they printed was the 200 I think largest school districts in the nation.
Chicago is number one in terms of the amount of growth from third grade to eighth grade.
Some other district I forget who they were and then Seattle was listed as number three on the list and then there was two or three others side by side with us on that list.
So we'll continue to unpack that and find out what that means.
But it's a recognition of the good work that our teachers and our educators and our partners have been doing and a tribute to the board's focus on our key academic goals over that time frame.
Goal 2 is improved systems and number one on the list is special education.
When I came as we know we were on the list for improvements and we've gone from a score of 4 to a score of 1. We now have many other districts coming to us to say what can we learn from you about how to build the good systems that you have in place and as I mentioned earlier our special education work was featured recently at a national conference that was held here in Seattle specifically for that purpose to learn from the work that Seattle and Tacoma have been doing in this area.
As we know from HR our substitute fill rate continues to improve.
We continue to work on hiring more teachers and administrators of color.
We're about double what the statewide rates are and we know that it matters that if students have the opportunity to have a teacher who is of the same race culture as they are makes a big difference in their learning.
It's an area we continue to work on.
And of course as we know we opened a lot of new schools and 2900 new seats this year to kind of not only keep up but begin to catch up on our capacity issues.
Third goal is family and community engagement and we continue to work on that.
We had a 14 percent increase in the parent approval rates for our engagement process.
We had a 57 percent increase in our social media referrals to the district Web page.
And we continue to deepen our partnerships with the Seattle Council PTSA, City of Seattle, our premier partners, our community based organizations and internally with SEA and PASS.
And thanks to those efforts last year's legislative session was huge and that we were facing a 70 some million dollar budget shortfall.
And then we were able to close at least part of that gap with the help of our delegation.
So.
Again thank you to our board for keeping the focus on those top three goals and to all of the other partners who work with us.
The theme from the state of the district was better together and truly we are making gains for our students by doing that.
Finally in that area I would mention we're trying to figure out what a pivot looks like.
So we've been talking about eliminating opportunity gaps.
We've made several shifts in our terminology over time.
We've gone from excellence in our strategic plan to excellence and equity.
We've gone from all students in our strategic plan to every student.
And we've gone from closing gaps to eliminating gaps.
And then most recently we're recognizing that eliminating opportunity gaps starts with that deficit view.
And so we're trying to pivot to what is a positive view look like.
So it might be too clever but EOG too might be ensuring opportunities for greatness to make that pivot.
And then how do we demonstrate a belief in every student no matter what.
How do we build relationships that are meaningful and sustainable and how do we support students by knowing their story strength and need and building on their dreams.
So together we are doing great work.
Still much work to do in eliminating opportunity gaps but a lot of good work underway.
Good news.
Interagency recently graduated 12 students during the middle of the year.
Southwest Airlines helped Emerson provide food for needy families over the Thanksgiving holidays.
Rainier Beach and Garfield went deep into the playoffs for football and Rainier Beach came in second.
Betty Patu had starring athletes I think on both sides of the field that that evening and I was pleased to be there and have the opportunity to present the second place trophy to Rainier Beach.
Increased unified supports support.
Director Geary has been working I think for the last three months on figuring out how to make a generous donation to that and is setting that up as a matching fund and we're learning a lot about how we can streamline our processes for accepting money from people that want to contribute to great causes.
And not quick enough sorry.
Ballard won the big prize nationally a hundred thousand dollars for library technology.
They're doing cool stuff.
Outstanding music educator Courtney Rowley recognized by the Washington Music Education Association.
Heroes in the classroom.
Broadview Thompson teacher Brian Robertson honored by the Seahawks and Symetra.
And 14th year promise scholarship first day on the job.
Mayor Durkan announced her 14th year promise scholarships.
Not quite sure about all of the details.
I think that it builds on the 13th year scholarships that the mainly the South Seattle College are providing in four of our high schools.
And then.
I think Garfield and Ingram are next up for Central and North.
So it's really exciting and I'm looking forward to it as a kind of a banner or an advertising slogan that we can align all of our college ready programs around.
We must have a dozen or more.
and hold out that college promise for every student in Seattle.
Topics of community interest.
Transportation strike.
As you know we had the one day strike and we're continuing to monitor on a daily basis the conversations between first student who's our contractor and the Teamsters who represent the bus drivers.
And yeah so we'll continue to stay in touch with families and hope that we don't have another work stoppage but we'll continue to monitor that.
City memorandum of understanding has been in the works for a while.
Thank you to the board members who had an intense round of conversations about two weeks ago.
and had the opportunity at Memorial Stadium and Seattle Center to be with the city of Seattle.
Mayor Burgess at that point in time and Leslie Harris is representative of the board and then represent I was there and Bruce Harrell was there representing the city council signing an MOU saying We're taking one step further towards some kind of partnership at Seattle Center.
So not quite sure what the right metaphor is.
Both sides continue to hold veto power but it's basically a demonstration of goodwill.
that we think that there's a good deal in there for all of us by working together and all of the mayor was departing in his left office had a lot of good things to say about the potential for partnering possibly even monetarily in terms of design land and construction costs.
So I wouldn't bank on that but it was certainly an affirmation of the shared dream for doing great things at that site.
Ethnic studies and Fort Lawton actually there's more in that agreement than just Seattle Center.
Fort Lawton is in there which preserves the school district's ability to use six acres of that property probably initially as a soccer field and continuing to keep our options for potential future use.
And then others downtown school Roosevelt Reservoir quite a few other property possibilities that may come to fruition.
Ethnic studies continues to work toward a framework that we can pilot starting second semester.
So we do have some teachers that have come forward to work on that curriculum framework.
And then lastly later on the agenda tonight we do have the student assignment plan and the highly capable pathways piece.
Thank you to the board for the extra work session that we had on this topic last week.
Staff have been working diligently.
I think you have here at your places some of the emails that staff have generated after that meeting last Wednesday trying to get the additional information to you that you Asked for and needed.
And I would say that our goal is to if not make a decision tonight get closer to a smaller number of options.
We tee up tomorrow in the ops committee the high school boundaries discussion and we bring that first first reading to the board on January 4th and then a second reading in late January and then we have to go out for open enrollment.
So if we're going to keep to the timeline that the board had asked us to do which was get high school boundaries out there two years in advance so the eighth grade parents eighth graders and eighth grade parents could know what they were picking and what was coming.
So know that that's a complicated issue.
Know that still lots of questions but we'll be looking forward to the discussion later on this evening and hoping that we can at least narrow the options So that we preserve the sanity of staff and get good information to you and to the public as to what we're considering in a timely way.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Now I would like to welcome Tina Dang.
She's a senior at Cleveland High School.
She is the editor in chief of Cleveland publications and has been class president for her grade for the past three years.
She was one of four national journalism awards and will pursue business in college.
I will now turn it over to Tina for her remarks.
Go Eagles.
Thank you.
My name is Tina Ding and I'm the editor in chief for Cleveland publications which is Cleveland high school's journalism program also known as CPUB.
So my first leadership role in CPUB was last year when I was promoted when I was promoted to design director.
I'd previously been a photographer but my award winning advisor Teresa Scribner saw my potential for design and she pushed me out of my comfort zone towards design.
And that's what journalism is about.
Our team finds assignments that push us out of our comfort zone.
Our team of 39 students have very high standards for the work we produce.
We keep pushing until we get it right and own up to our mistakes when we get it wrong which is why I believe we succeed as a journalism program.
Cleveland publications has not only received state level awards but national ones that recognize us for our photography design and writing.
Last year our small team competed against thousands of student journalists from around the nation.
Our advisor is also receiving national recognition for her work.
At the JEA NSPA National Journalism Convention held in Seattle our staff members won awards for news commentary writing, photography and we also received the highest honor superior for graphic design.
This year CPAP took first place for design of the year for newspaper spreads.
It is one of the highest honors that is given in high school journalism and is equivalent to a Pulitzer Prize.
Cleveland publications also placed fifth for page one design.
Although being part of Cleveland Publications is very stressful being able to work with my peers on something we're all passionate about is personally rewarding.
The late nights I spend working on tight deadlines for the newspaper and yearbook has made me realize the passions I have for photography and design.
Being a part of Cleveland Publications has brought out the best in me and I cannot be more thankful for that.
Thank you for listening.
I would suggest that perhaps there may be some internship opportunities down in this building to work with other very talented folks.
Thanks for showing up.
Thanks for caring and thank you for your leadership.
We have now reached the consent portion of tonight's agenda.
May have a motion for the consent agenda.
You need to have items removed.
I'm sorry.
You need to move the consent agenda and then anyone can second that motion.
OK.
New roles for people up here now.
I move for the approval.
Which one is it.
I move for the approval of the consent agenda.
We have a second.
I second the motion.
OK.
Approval of the consent agenda has been moved and seconded.
Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda.
I've been advised of two.
Director Pinkham.
Yes.
I'm moving to remove from the consent agenda.
Make sure I'm on the right right once.
Item number eight VEX X Luke Wing Luke elementary school replacement project.
And where's the Magnolia one.
Right above it.
This is the one right above it.
OK.
Yes.
And number seven the BTA IV modification contract K 1243.
Thank you.
Then we need to go back to the consent agenda as amended.
Vote that up or down by consensus voice vote and then return to the two motions that have been taken off of the consent agenda.
We have a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended.
I move approval consent agenda as amended.
We have a second.
Second.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Those opposed.
OK.
We are then to.
Number.
7.
7.
BTA modification of contract K 1243 for architectural engineering services.
Mr. Best the floor is yours.
Best I'm Richard Best director of capital projects and planning for Seattle Public Schools.
And please be pleased to answer Director Pinkham's questions concerning item number seven.
Director Pinkham.
Well some of the concerns I have is one just to bring it out for more public exposure the rising costs of this project if we can get those hopefully out there and public a bit more.
And also the idea as far as this not aggravating racial imbalance versus minimizing racial imbalance and how we can move forward with this.
I will say that this project bid in May of 2017. It bid at that time approximately $5 million over budget and we were needing, we were looking at approximately having to make a transfer of almost $6 million from the program contingency.
At that time we made a decision because we had projects coming in on our construction estimates that we've been receiving from our cost estimators to punt and rebid this project in the fall.
We reached out to several contractors that we were working with, all advised us at that time that we thought we'd get more favorable construction pricing in the fall.
We did implement some redesign and some value engineering efforts over the summer.
We did rebid the project in the fall.
We did see some savings.
We did not see as much as we anticipated.
I will also say at our BEX oversight committee meeting in July we hosted a panel discussion with several contractors and a cost estimator about is this a fundamental shift in the market given the amount of work that is currently available to contractors.
And I think the consensus was from that panel discussion that yes for the foreseeable future we are going to see a fundamental shift in the construction market.
And I will just bring to the board's attention or remind the board because I think I have made this comment.
In the past there is literally seven billion dollars worth of projects that have been voted on and approved by voters between 2014 and today from Olympia to Mount Vernon.
In addition Sound Transit has approved a 50 billion dollar bond for their expansion.
And then we have private sector work as well.
Amazon in Southeast Lake Union and most recently Microsoft's announcement concerning their campus property last week.
So we have a very active construction market.
And so I think costs are increasing.
Director Pinkham for our school projects.
So we're recommending that we utilize some of our program contingency which those dollars are set aside for to address an unanticipated higher escalation than was anticipated at the time the levee was put together.
I'd appreciate a hold up and if you could read the motion into the record and then we'll need a second.
And this will be a roll call vote.
We'll continue discussion.
I move the school board authorize superintendent to execute contract modification with Malham architects in the amount of five hundred eight thousand six hundred forty six dollars for the Magnolia Elementary school renovation and addition project with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent to take any necessary actions to implement the contract modification.
I second the motion.
Thank you.
And do we have further comments.
Were you finished with your comments.
Director Pinkham.
Did we want to comment on.
Excuse me.
Did we want to comment that this was moved forward from Ops.
Most definitely do.
On November 2nd for consideration.
Thank you ma'am.
Yes and the reason for consideration was back on November 2nd.
Exactly the point that you're raising now Director Pinkham that we believe that because of the cost increase that this would be something that we would want to bring to light and that we would want to make sure that the board had an opportunity to consider.
Director Mack and it's such a nice thing to be able to say.
I'm just for clarification on the process through which this project has gone through for development and bid and bidding.
I understand there's different ways that you can do that design bid build and CCM which if GCCM is used then you have architects contractors and people doing the work actually working together on the design.
Correct.
Which of those was used in this one.
We use the design bid build procurement methodology.
Director Mack.
OK.
I don't know if it's appropriate to ask that follow up question of is it is it possible that while going back in history we can't undo what's been done but is it possible that a project like this in the future would benefit from GCCM as opposed to.
This is a historic renovation I think we would have, it would have been helpful to have had a contractor on board to help provide some guidance concerning the historic portion of the building.
We had some conversations, we opted for utilizing the design bid build procurement method but I think this would be a project that would get CPARB approval using the GCCM process as well.
And CPARB is an outside agency or it's an outside board selected by the selected by member the governor to oversee alternative public works construction.
And so the acronym stands for Capital Projects Alternative Review Board.
Go ahead.
And we are essentially far too late in the process to back up and do it that way.
Correct.
Thank you.
Other directors comments concerns or questions.
Director Pinkham.
And then about the racial imbalance aggravating and minimizing and just if he can.
We worked and I appreciate that question.
Director Pinkham we worked very closely with OSPI.
This is a school that.
We needed language inserted in the resolution that says we'll work to minimize.
We do not have the boundaries established at this time for Magnolia Elementary School.
So it's difficult to.
know exactly what the implications are for racial balance.
But we do know from.
I'm going a little bit by memory here that we actually with opening of Magnolia we were not creating a racially imbalanced school at Magnolia and we're actually enhancing the racial imbalance at one other elementary school.
We were slightly aggravating at two.
existing elementary schools.
So we were working to minimize from a district perspective the amount of schools that we had that were racially imbalanced.
Pinkham And OSPI was accepting of that.
Best We had numerous conversations with OSPI about this.
Associate Superintendent Flip Herndon.
Dr. Herndon.
Herndon.
Yes.
So we work closely with OSPI.
They ultimately are the ones who decide to approve that D form process and that D form means that it's the there are a series of steps that you take with OSPI.
OSPI to approve state capital match dollars.
So the D forms are the series of steps that we go through.
You see a couple of these on the agenda items that we go through.
And so working closely with them not having the boundaries but also having a timeline for construction we had to make sure that we were going to meet their approval and they would approve that for us to move forward in that process.
Harris Do we have other directors comments concerns or questions?
Seeing none Ms. Shek the roll call please.
Director Burke aye Director DeWolf aye Director Geary aye Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham nay Director Harris aye.
This motion is passed with a vote of 6 to 1.
Director Pinkham would you move please.
The motion number eight that's been taken from the consent calendar.
Agenda.
I move the school board accept the value engineering report dated June 2017 and the architects response recommendation matrix for the Wing Luke elementary replacement project.
We have a second and a report from Ops Committee please.
I second the motion motion.
This was heard in Ops on November 2nd and passed to the board for approval.
Director Pinkham.
Yeah.
And when this was introduced I brought the question as far as demolishing a recent addition was and I didn't see a response as far as was there a commitment that we had that that new addition that addition would be used for a certain number of years.
Yes.
Best.
No there's no requirement.
I did look into that.
Director Pinkham.
There is no requirement that we utilize the utilize that addition for a certain period of years.
That addition was not funded by the state of Washington.
It was funded by local taxpayers.
And then how do we then respond to local taxpayers where we build something and then 12 years later we tear it down to build something else?
Best So when we looked at this project and the placement of that existing addition it would actually be cost beneficial for the construction of this current project that is contemplated to remove the addition and build it as it is articulated by the architects.
Saving that building would have made some would have made some awkward educational program compromises and would have probably cost as much as the current project is new to marry those additions in.
And that's not uncommon when you have some existing spaces that have been added on.
in the manner in which they were added on many years ago.
So I can tell you from a cost-effective standpoint, you've got a cost-effective proposal at Wing Luke Elementary School.
Do you have an estimate about how much of that costs we would be saving by not doing it without saying we just kept the current structure then added on to it versus tearing it down?
Best Well the the new addition at Wing Luke elementary school and I say new addition because it was added about 15 years ago is in a right in the center portion of that.
entire site.
That center portion you do not want to have to marry into the existing, the new buildings that are being proposed into that new addition without having educational compromises that we will make in the new facility that is being contemplated.
From a design standpoint.
We did look at trying to save that addition.
That was one of the directions that was given to the architect and from a cost standpoint I don't believe we would save from my understanding of those conversations I do not believe we will save money if we retain that addition.
And I'm happy to provide additional information on this in a Friday memo to the board.
It won't be this Friday because I've missed that cut off date but I can get additional information for you.
Did you have further comments questions concerns director Pinkham?
Pinkham Well if they're going to send additional information later I'm not sure if I can vote on this.
I will remind the school board that this project will have several other opportunities.
This is your approvals required for a value engineering report tonight.
You're not approving the contractor's contract on this and there will be numerous other requirements.
This is one of the items that's required for a deformed process that Flip mentioned earlier.
And you'll have other items coming before.
before you to comply with OSPI's requirements on the D form.
So.
So this isn't an approval right now to tear down that addition is just that that may be one of the costs.
This is an approval on the value engineering report that was submitted.
And what I'm hearing from you what you're saying director Pinkham is go back and take another look and provide the board with the rationale for why the decision was made to tear down the addition in lieu of trying to save the addition and retain that in the new project.
And I can do that.
I just can't do that tonight.
Thank you.
Other directors comments concerns and questions.
Director DeWolf.
I just had a question about.
You said it's been about 15 years.
Correct.
Approximately 50 years.
I'll put the exact date as to when it's constructed in the Friday number of the board.
I'm not too worried about the exact number but I guess my question would be.
Given that time frame are there different advances in environmental standards kind of energy efficiency and those kind of things that would also kind of support the decision given that would be better to just recreate everything all together at the same time?
You'd have different code regulatory agency standards in the areas that you talked about.
Director Mack.
As a newbie I have a process question about the D form process and the items that come to the board for approval.
Are those presented to the ops committee or to us in a for each project that we have as here's the project and here's all the items that and timeline for when we are going to be bringing these decision points to the board.
Does that exist somewhere or is that something that because you just listed that there are other decision points on Wing Luke.
I mean if we have six decision points it would be nice to know that up front on each project.
Best So the D form process that OSPI utilizes we submit the odd number forms.
OSPI returns to the school district with authorization even the even number forms we literally go from a D1 through D12.
D12 being final acceptance of that project from OSPI and that there's no other requirements needed.
And you were authorized to release retainage.
But with each odd number D form that we submit there is probably 10 to 12 items that we have to submit some of those items do need to come to the board.
They all go to the operations committee.
First director Mack and then the operations committee will have a conversation with myself and sometimes with senior project managers and then they come to the board.
That's kind of our process.
Associate Superintendent Dr. Herndon please.
Yeah it's an excellent question because the time process does drag on for a little bit.
We do have a cheat sheet that basically shows the different processes for projects but you wouldn't necessarily get an exact date because they kind of if there's one part of the process that goes on a little farther it might drag on.
So what you would get is the sequence of approvals but not necessarily you know this one will be coming to you in May of 2018 but you could see the sequence that's coming for you.
Director Patu.
As the board director for that particular school I too would like to find out about that that part that you were talking about removing it.
And exactly you know that would be a great idea to actually to let me know.
Is that something that actually doesn't save money or it doesn't it's just something that's going to just you just remove it and not really see a lot of loss there.
So hopefully when you send information out to Director Pinkham I would like to see that same information.
Thank you.
Other director comments questions concerns Director DeWolf and Director Burke were you next?
I just I know this is technically out of order but I just want to say Tina thank you for presenting.
I don't know if you want to sit through this part of it.
I know that this is certainly riveting for a high schooler.
So if you do want to not sit up here and feel like you're in front of everything.
Actually I'd encourage her to stay for the whole darn meeting.
I just wanted to let you know you have an out.
You are welcome to stay as long as you like with no judgment from when you decide you need to catch up on homework.
Are there other questions comments or concerns from directors please?
And or could we make a request for the cheat sheet reference to be sent in the Friday memo as well to all of your board directors.
We like that idea.
I believe we do have that was passed out earlier.
Yes.
That's a new ones.
It might be in your little drawer in front of you.
Any other comments questions or concerns.
Ms. Shek the roll call please.
Director DeWolf aye.
Director Geary aye.
Director Mack aye.
Director Patu aye.
Director Burke aye.
Director Pinkham aye.
Director Harris aye.
This motion is passed unanimously.
Thank you very much.
We'll now move to the election of officers as the secretary of the board who presides over the election process.
I am handing the gavel to Superintendent Nyland.
Thank you.
Before I open the floor for nominations I'd like to review the election steps.
I guess before the review by state law we elect officers at the first meeting in December after elections are certified two weeks after the election that was held earlier in November.
So the procedures for the nomination piece tonight is that for each of the officer positions there's three of them president vice president and member at large.
I'll take nominations from the board.
A second is not required but certainly can be made.
After the nominations are made for a position there'll be an opportunity for directors to provide comments before voting.
After the comments have been concluded the board will vote for each position in the order that the nominations were made.
By law and board policy the voting will be conducted by a roll call vote.
The voting will conclude for that particular position at the point when one nomination gets four or more votes.
After the president has been elected we'll move on to the vice president and then the member at large elections.
In summary for each position there will be nominations then discussion then voting.
At the conclusion of the election process for all three positions each new officer will have an opportunity to provide their remarks.
Nominations are now in order for the office of president.
Can I can I go?
Director DeWolf and then.
Well go ahead.
Thank you.
I'd like to nominate director Jill Geary.
I second.
Jill Geary has been nominated for president.
Are there additional nominations?
I would like to nominate director Leslie Harris.
Leslie Harris has been nominated.
Are there any additional nominations for president.
Are there any additional nominations for president.
All right.
At this point I would welcome comments and those comments might be from the nominees from the candidates or I suppose.
Yeah.
Comments from any of the directors.
Director Geary.
So it's with great honor that I run to be the president of this board.
I can't say enough how proud I have been to serve in this capacity for the last two years.
It is a joy every single time I sit up here no matter how much People ask you know what we're facing.
I will tell them every single time that I love this job and I love representing Seattle and I love fighting and working on the education of our kids.
And I believe so much in the work that this board does.
I believe in the planning we do around our goals and I believe in the goals that we have set around equity around challenging education and around community engagement.
And I've loved the way that month after month week after week and even day after day I see each one of our board directors come behind those goals one way or another.
And I want to make sure that we continue to plan and move forward in achieving our goals.
I recognize as well that each one of you has your own focus and that at times we know that the passion that we bring can distract us from some of the work that needs to be done.
And that we are generous in our belief in the amount of resources that are available to move forward today.
on bettering the education of every one of our kids.
We are impatient and that is wonderful.
I wish we had the funds to bankroll all the projects that we do.
And so that we want to do.
And so as a president I want to be very mindful that I will always test Whatever it is that we are trying to move forward on against the goals that we have all agreed on.
And that's something that is really important to me because sometimes it feels like there is pressure and we know the staff is making choices to please us as individuals that may be sacrificing the goals of the whole.
And we need to be have those discussions and we need to talk about it and move forward.
And I want to do that.
In order for us to do that best, we know we have to engage our community partners.
From our staff here, to our people in our buildings, to our community based operations, to our city, county, and even our state.
We have to make sure that they continue to show up every single day that they take our calls that when they have something they want to get done or some resources that they want to share that they're thinking about calling Seattle Public Schools first.
And I want to make sure that we have the atmosphere that welcomes them and is positive around it.
And I will do everything in my power to make sure that we are here to answer that phone with a yes and a we can do it.
And let's make it happen.
I think as Superintendent Nyland mentioned just my trying to give funds for unified has been more of a challenge than I would ever want it to be.
And we need to work on that.
I'm an internal partner and it's hard to give money to our district.
I want to make sure that when our partners come we're making it easy to partner with them and make sure that we're getting this done.
But I won't ever want to forget that we need to celebrate the successes.
And I copied that New York Times article today.
because it's showing that we're making 5.7 years of growth for our students over a five year period.
That's huge.
We're one of the best in the nation and that is thanks to all the hard work of the people in this room and in our buildings and their willingness to look at and I looked at that article and what was it saying?
Strong building leaders, collaborative teaching, data focus to get down to individualized students and provide supports where needed.
It was everything that our staff has been telling us.
week after week and when we have our schools come in.
And I want to make sure that we are supporting all of that work as a board.
MTSS is working.
It's working in Chicago to close their gap and it's working here.
We're making great growth.
And I want to make sure that we're celebrating those successes and helping us stay focused to make sure that that's happening.
So if you vote for me as your board president I will keep us focused.
I will make sure that all of your voices are heard that we are abiding by the process of our board and that we're doing the work that is going to change education for our public school students in Seattle.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Other comments.
Director Burke.
I'll just speak briefly on behalf of my nomination of Director Leslie Harris for the president role as well.
And I don't want to over speak on her behalf but what I see we have here on our board is what I would consider a class A problem.
where we have amazing leadership.
And I think I'm sitting next to Director Geary and I've worked with several of these folks as well for the last couple of years and I'm looking forward to working with with two additional ones but in our district we have a or on the board we have this commitment to distributed leadership.
And everybody takes a role in that.
And I continue to be impressed with the strong leadership role that Director Harris has taken as well.
Asking hard questions.
Yes sometimes.
But I'm going to share a little story.
Because I wanted to embarrass Leslie that when I first campaigned with director Harris I was like you know what I think I'm a little bit I'm a little bit scared.
I'll be honest.
And then I got to know her and I was like wow what an amazing person.
And what an amazing commitment to what she does.
And it really kind of opened my eyes to how how that enthusiasm.
Coupled with that that level of heart and passion can be really powerful for us as well.
So that's the basis of my my nomination and I I leave you with that.
Thank you.
Other comments.
Sometimes I can't tell.
Thank you.
I wanted to first start with a story because I like stories.
I appreciate my perspective that I bring and that sounds really humble.
What I mean is.
I am very grateful to be able to sit up here and have a perspective of somebody who has been building community around schools and community organizing and making sure to engage folks in my community.
And one of the things I learned pretty recently with two examples with my as president of the Capital Community Council and then also as somebody who is on us who also still has a full time job.
On every day I have to show up to a job make sure I'm there on time which sometimes is hard.
But thankfully there's coffee across the street and I show up and I have to make sure that I do my job the best I can.
And I have I have to do it because I want to be there.
I love being there.
And the people that are going to keep me accountable are my bosses and my colleagues.
And I have been so grateful to be able to sit down with so many of our directors and the staff here at the Seattle School District in the last couple of weeks.
And let me tell you the onboarding process for new school board directors is pretty intense.
And one of the things that has stuck out to me is that for my job I have to do a good job or my boss is going to call me out.
And part of part of how they make sure to motivate me is to keep me accountable and make sure to let me know what I'm doing things right.
And I want to build the trust and the relationships with our staff.
And just today to affirm that you are doing a kick ass job.
And I see that today.
I see that in The New York Times and I want to continue seeing that a part of that and making sure that we're building a relationship with that staff.
I believe that there is a difference between accountability and adversarial.
And I believe that what we need is someone that keeps our school staff accountable just like my boss does.
Because every day you have to show up to your job because you love what you're doing.
I want to make sure that we work well together just like the state of the district better together.
So for me I know that from from the conversations I've had from the people that stopped me on the corner of the street in my neighborhood from the from the mom that stopped me on the train yesterday and said you're having presidential elections right.
And I said oh man is this really how it's going to be now reality or is this going to stop me on the train.
And she said please please make sure to vote for Jill Geary.
And that comes from the fact that I think that Jill has done an incredible job being an equity champion really strong listener and learner and make sure to show up and work well together with our staff.
And I'm really looking forward to your leadership.
So thank you Jill.
Thank you.
Other comments.
Director Harris.
OK then.
People ask me what do you think.
How's it going.
And I I say many of the same things and please appreciate my extraordinary deep respect for my colleague and my apparent competitor my competitor director Jill Geary.
We're in a good position to be able to have this issue.
I believe this is the most difficult and rewarding work I've ever done in my life.
And that's after doing 35 years worth of litigation for victims changing laws making products safer making medical procedures safer and protecting folks civil rights.
I do ask hard questions because I believe that hard questions are one of the reasons that you have elected the folks up here.
I certainly try very hard to ask those questions respectfully and collaboratively and I'm especially proud of the work we were able to do last year.
Week in week out on the community engagement task force with a great deal of outreach.
We have seen extraordinary gains but we didn't do that by ourselves.
We did that as a team.
I believe in team.
I don't believe in the word I.
There is no I in team.
I worked very hard in the last two years and I'm honored to do so.
I appreciate feedback.
I believe that this board of directors in the last two years has become a more thoughtful a more detail oriented.
and a more collegial board than we have seen in past years.
And I believe we can do even better.
And I believe we can do even better in terms of our board not having silos as well.
And we're going to need some new tools to do that.
without violating the open public meetings act because no one's interested in doing that.
Transparency has been my goal from day one.
I'm extremely proud as well.
of the memorandum of understanding with the city which was delicate which required a great deal of negotiation and unfortunately because it had to do with real estate was not done in the transparent manner that I would have very much liked to have seen.
But moving forth we now have a framework with which to do that.
And capacity crisis is really critical.
Being in the EIS for Fort Lawton I believe is something that we will be appreciative of 20 years from now.
Very difficult choices but leadership requires very difficult choices.
We have very difficult choices coming up to the dais just this evening.
And when we look forward to this next year they are indeed going to be challenges.
But I very much hope that we can do whatever it is we do.
openly collaboratively push back when necessary and with a sense of humor and thankfulness.
Thank you very much.
Director Mack.
I think I'd just like to say that all the people sitting at this dais I have the greatest respect for and appreciation for the work that I've seen witnessed experienced and participated in over the past four years two years some longer.
And however this goes out I know that we will work together as a board and be collaborative and continue to work forward and I'm really looking forward to that.
Thank you.
There any additional comments.
Director Patu.
I too would like to follow what Director Mack have already said.
I believe that this board have worked together very well in the last four years that we've been together.
I think that's how many years we've been together.
Oh two years.
OK.
Well hey.
Maybe because I've been on it too long.
But I believe that if we're going to accommodate any issue that the district has there's seven of us up here.
We have to be able to work together honestly and be able to share our ideas.
And you know sometimes we may not agree with everything that each other say but I think that as a board directors who our community has actually nominated for us to vote for us to be up here.
It's so important that all of us work together as a team no matter how it turns out tonight who votes for who but I think we need to just focus on who can do the best job and how do we work together as a team so that way we can continue on the work that all of us have hard have put a lot of time and effort into it.
And I want to say that I appreciate all the board directors who are here tonight.
And you know what?
Whoever wins tonight we would completely be able to support that individual because we're all one and we need all seven of us to work together as a team.
So thank you for all the work that you do.
Thank you.
Are there any other comments?
Director Pinkham.
couldn't be the only one not to say anything but I just want to say I appreciate all of our board members up here and what they do and Director Geary and Director Harris and what you've led and I definitely see strengths in both of you and what you bring to this board.
And you know as people think about who you're going to vote for right now I wouldn't think there would be a wrong vote for either one of these.
But I just want to let you know that I truly support each and every one of you and I Look forward to the vote.
Thank you.
Are there any other comments?
Hearing no further comments Ms. Shek please call the roll for the vote of Director Geary for president.
Director Geary aye.
Director Mack no.
Director Patu aye.
Director Pinkham nay.
Director Harris.
Director Burke.
Nay.
Director DeWolf.
Yes.
The nomination of Director Geary fails by a vote of 3 to 4.
Ms. Shek please call the roll for the vote of Director Harris for president.
Director Mack.
Aye.
Director Patu.
Nay.
Director Pinkham.
Aye.
Director Harris.
Aye.
Director Burke.
Aye.
Director DeWolf.
No.
Director Geary.
No.
The nomination of Director Harris is approved by a vote of 4 to 3.
Congratulations on your election.
I meant when I said I have beyond extraordinary respect for Director Geary and everyone at this dais.
Nominations are now in order for the office of vice president.
Director Mack.
Director Burke has been nominated for vice president.
Are there any other nominations.
Are there any further nominations for vice president?
Hearing none I will close the nominations for vice president and I will invite comments from any of the directors.
Director Burke.
It would seem appropriate for me to make a brief comment.
So I thank you to Director Mack for the nomination.
I'm honored at the privilege to serve on the executive committee and to help build the vision that you heard from the entire board from Board President Harris and Director Geary my colleague and how we build that level of collaboration goals alignment fiduciary responsibility accountability and respect.
I'm honored to serve in that role.
Thank you.
Any other comments?
Director Pinkham.
I just want to let Director Burke know that I appreciate everything that he's done for the district for the two years that we served on this together.
And I missed you because we were on the C&I committee the first year together and definitely appreciate the direction that you provided for that.
Then this year we weren't on the same committee so I definitely welcome you to help out the executive committee as vice president and look forward to the vote here again and hopefully welcome you to the executive committee.
Thank you.
Director Harris.
I could not be more pleased with this nomination.
And I think that Director Burke's strengths align and balance some of my strengths.
And one of the best things about serving for two years with Director Burke because he is not afraid to push back usually with a smile and usually to ask the question that raises the bar higher and higher both in terms of thinking in terms of systems and in terms of sustainable.
And I can't tell you how much I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any other comments.
Shek please call the roll for Director Burke for the office of vice president.
I move we do by acclamation.
I believe we're required by law to do it by roll call.
I withdraw that motion.
Thank you.
Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Burke I suppose.
Director DeWolf aye.
Director Geary aye Director Mack aye Director Harris aye.
The nomination of Director Burke has passed unanimously.
Congratulations.
Nominations are now in order for the office of member at large who serves with the president and vice president on the executive committee.
Are there nominations for member at large?
Director DeWolf.
I'd like to nominate Jill Geary.
Jill Geary has been nominated as member at large.
Are there other nominations?
Director Burke.
I'd like to nominate Scott Pinkham.
Scott Pinkham has been nominated.
Are there other nominations for a member at large?
Are there any further nominations?
Hearing none I close the nominations for a member at large and would invite board comments.
Director Geary.
One of the things that I'd like to be considered for the at large position is because while my colleagues Director Burke, Director Harris and Director Pinkham all work during the day at very important jobs.
I have a great deal of freedom in my time during the day.
I know the executive is often required to respond very quickly on things and I believe that In addition to all the other skills that I could bring and why I asked to be considered for president that it would be a good addition to the executive to have somebody who is very much available and can be responsive during the day in case that director Burke is traveling on behalf of his business which happens or director Harris is caught up in litigation which happens.
So I'd like to bring my enthusiasm for the work, my attention to the process and flow of the work over time to the position of at large so that I can support our board as a whole in its planning and its execution of the very important role that it plays in making sure that all the voices on the board are brought to bear in our decision making.
Thank you.
Are there other comments?
Director Pinkham.
I'm currently the member at large on the executive committee and I did voice that I would like to continue in that capacity.
I wasn't you know like a president vice president.
I felt like I have a good position as a member at large because one allows me to.
more sit back and observe and that's more my kind of personality that I'd like to sit back and observe see how things are going and then I could bring in the comments and perspectives to help augment and direct this direction the school district and what I feel would be a good direction for all.
Yes I do feel like I represent sometimes the voices that aren't heard all the time and It's interesting to see sometimes that people will like shake their head.
Oh like I never thought of that before.
So I feel like that's what I can bring to the executive committee to let them know that there are voices out there that we do need to hear and appreciate.
Yes.
Jill Geary also does that as well.
And there are a number of voices we need to hear.
So I would be honored if I can continue to serve on the executive committee as a member at large.
Thank you.
Other comments.
Director Harris.
My comments are not so much a vote against.
This doesn't feel good frankly but a vote for Scott Pinkham's quiet thoughtful consistent leadership.
And I feel very strongly that we also need to have a person of color on our executive board because he brings a different lens to the conversations.
And I think that's terribly important.
I appreciate director Geary's availability but my hope is we don't elect part time directors based on whether or not they have the capacity for a director position that pays very very little and does not need to work for a living.
There there are times when one of the three executive Committee members might not be available but we have never to my knowledge hit a time when all three were not available.
And some of the scheduling issues that Director Geary refers to.
can be addressed by the use of different tools and enhanced communication.
But I hope we do not ever become the kind of a board that determines one's position in elected position by virtue of availability because the legislature has determined that our value is not enough to earn a living wage.
And it feels very awkward to say that and I don't like having to say it but I do think it's terribly important that it be said.
Thank you.
Director Mack.
These are these are these are going to be tough decisions.
This whole being on the board thing and making decisions.
I would like to say that I was not aware that Director Geary was going to be interested in this position and I'm kind of excited about hearing about that.
Because I I.
support the leadership that she offers and part of my reasoning around my vote is I'm a policy and process wonk.
And it matters in terms of how we run things and having experience chairing committees and being on the executive committee to me is actually really meaningful and I think that.
having Jill Geary perhaps having the opportunity to do that and do president next year would be a really great opportunity.
I also think it's potentially really balancing perspective on our executive committee.
Not as much of the racial equity lens but in terms of perspective it might be so.
These are tough decisions and I have Some thinking to do in the next few minutes I guess.
Thank you.
Any other comments.
Hearing no further comments.
Ms. Shek please call the roll for a vote for Director Geary for the position of member at large.
Director Pinkham.
I'm sorry that someone is tweaking my ear.
Who voted for me first?
Director Geary is the first vote was first nominee.
OK then I'd have to say nay.
Director Burke.
Director DeWolf.
Aye.
Director Geary.
Aye.
Director Mack.
Aye.
Director Patu.
Aye.
Director Harris.
If we could do acclimation given this vote I would go for that so I would be the word for me.
The nomination of Director Geary is approved by a vote of 5 to 2.
Congratulations Director Geary.
I don't know if people know this but I've ran for the executive member at large each year I've been here.
Best so I guess one out of three ain't bad.
I want to just say I appreciate very much director Pinkham's participation on the executive and I definitely in running for president remembered that that was one of the first things he did on the board.
He ran for president as the newly elected member and I thought that was a really brave and.
Exciting thing to do.
So I remember that now.
It really bolstered me in taking the chance to run now.
So thank you Director Pinkham.
Madam President I'd like to report that the officers for the board of directors for 2018 are president director Harris vice president director Burke member at large director Geary.
And I would now like to invite our newly elected officers beginning with the president to offer any remarks that they'd like to make.
I will do my best job.
I am willing to listen.
I think we are going to have a very challenging but a terrific year.
And given the fact that this room is full of folks that are waiting to testify.
I will hand the mic to Vice President Burke.
Director Pinkham I miss you too.
We've got to find some time maybe some committee somewhere.
So I'm honored to to work with both of you and the rest of the board.
Director Geary.
Thank you everybody for your vote.
And thank you everybody for showing up today.
It's going to be an exciting year and I count on everybody to keep showing up so we can get this work done on behalf of our kids.
Thank you.
I now turn the gavel back to President Harris.
And I have lost my script but I can tell you that we are Twelve minutes behind starting public testimony and the rules of public testimony are on the screen.
Is that correct?
Looks like yes.
Ms. Shek will read each of the three upcoming people to testify.
Without reading all of the public testimony rules that are on the screen.
It is my hope that even though we may be testifying about sensitive passionate topics that we keep a level of decorum so that we can understand your hearts and your issues.
We must say however that there will be no comments regarding personnel comments.
Personnel issues are beyond the purview of the board and against the board policy.
And I appreciate there are a number of folks here that want to speak to a particular staff person or volunteer and I would encourage you not to make this a scenario where we have to shut you down because no one wants to do that.
There are multiple ways to contact the board of directors Visa V email if you want senior staff.
school board at Seattle schools dot org.
If you want to communicate just to the directors SPS directors at Seattle schools dot org.
You have two minutes to testify.
30 seconds before your testimony will be ended.
The yellow light will come on so that you can see you're wrapping it up and it comes a lot quicker than you think it will.
Ms. Shek would you announce the first three names please.
If you have any documents you'd like to share with the board please bring them up to me at this time.
First up for public testimony we have Jay Kent followed by Avery Wagger and Anna Nee.
Hi members of the board.
My name is Jay Kent and I go to Cleveland High School.
I am the content manager for the newspaper along with my colleague Tina who spoke shortly before.
And at the risk of being redundant, I'd like to say again that the Cleveland publications team has been both locally and nationally recognized for every aspect of our work, whether it's the journalism team, the photography team, or the design team.
And one of the biggest factors in our team success is how supportive our school's administrative team is.
Cleveland is privileged enough to have a team of administrators who allow the journalism team to work as a separate entity to the school investigating and printing whatever students are passionate about or interested in.
even if a story may not have the kindest things to say about the administration team.
Because of this freedom of speech that our administration grants us Cleveland student journalists are able to communicate and express the viewpoints of the school students with passion and honesty leading to a more powerful paper and a more engaged student body.
Student reporters hold full responsibilities for their stories and quickly learn the importance of accountability and accuracy in journalism.
If our team's writing was filtered by an administration team before it was published it would reflect in our reporting.
That learning experience for our students would end up being just another responsibility for the administration team.
In an era where journalism and the free press itself is under attack from the highest office in the nation, student journalism has never needed more support and nurturing than it does now.
That's why I'm baffled to hear when schools and administration teams filter their student journalists.
At Cleveland our administration team is willing to fight for our journalism team and that fight's positive effect on our community is obvious and apparent.
Because of all that it is extremely important that the district starts giving student journalists the same rights and protections that they would for their local press.
Thank you all for your time.
Thank you very much.
Does this work?
Can you hear me?
Okay.
I'm Avery Wagger, I'm a freshman at Ballard High School, a Magnolia resident and an older brother with two students at Gatherman Blaine.
Those of you who attended the September meeting at the Living Computers Museum had the opportunity to try my virtual reality astronomy simulator called Star VR which is on display there.
I hope some of you did.
Star VR won the best eighth grade engineering project at district science and engineering fair last year.
My work on it propelled me to become the first freshman ever to enroll in AP computer science at Ballard.
I started a virtual reality club with 23 members and I am also in Ballard's digital filmmaking program which is a four year pathway.
Ballard has been great for me.
I understand that the current staff recommendation but more importantly the student assignment plan would allow me to finish high school at Ballard and I'm thankful for this.
Even so I'm sure that a student who starts Ballard next year or the year after will have achievements and contributions that far exceed mine.
and want to stay at Ballard as badly as I do.
It's these students as well as my younger siblings and the students coming up to Blaine Lawton and McClure that I'm standing up here today in opposition to the scenario H2 high school boundary map.
I urge you to vote against today against Amendment 1 to the 18 19 transition plan for the reasons outlined by directors Burke and Harris.
And because without Amendment 1 the transition plan implicitly approves the scenario H2 map.
Additionally I want to urge the voting members of the operations committee to vote on Thursday against the recommending the growth boundaries placed on the scenario H2 map to the full board.
Scenario H2 is a deeply flawed map.
The task force and SPS staff did zero real work researching in the presentations the implications for the students from a transition standpoint.
An hour plus commute each way for many students between Magnolia and Lincoln and Wallingford is unacceptable and is one of the most accessible and frequent routes between Magnolia and Lincoln is also unsafe.
Taking students through a notoriously crime ridden bus stop in downtown Seattle.
Please don't abide a flawed process by voting for a flawed map.
Send the task force and staff back to do the real work necessary before they make such an important recommendation that will impact so many students.
Thank you.
Thank you.
After Anna Nee we have Honey Amen followed by Gian Rosario and Essence Roberson.
Okay hi my name is Anna Nee I go to Asa Mercer middle school and today I will be sharing about the importance of computers in my school.
Computers play a significant role in our academics especially in science class.
Computers and technology in general are extremely useful and convenient because they help students understand the curriculum by displaying simulations, models, videos and articles.
For instance, without the laptops I wouldn't have been able to fully understand the criteria of the force and motion engineering unit and create a supply pod to the best of my ability.
Computers and laptops also allow easy access to school websites which makes it easier for us to check our grades and stay up to date with our schoolwork.
Not only that but many tests and quizzes are taken on laptops and computers.
I think it's important to address that many of the school laptops are outdated or broken.
Therefore they often cause technical issues that can sometimes disrupt our classwork.
But when they aren't broken laptops provide the class with an easy way to turn in work to our teacher quickly and sufficiently.
It's safe to say that computers are definitely a convenient resource that I know all students can benefit from.
Thank you.
Honey?
Good evening Seattle school board members.
My name is Honey Ahmed and I'm a student at Rainier Beach high school.
First I would like to welcome our new school board members.
Second I have questions that need to be answered by the board by the end of this month.
First will Rainier Beach high school be number one priority above the downtown high school and middle school high schools?
Second I'm questioning why the board takes a long time on certain issues but expedites the process for other issues.
The school board took quite a long time considering that renovation of Rainier Beach high school.
While other issues like working with the city for the Fort Lawton site happen within a month.
I also ask that the school board place the budget of Rainier Beach high school renovation to be on par with the spending of their other high school renovation budget within 80 million or exceeding $100 million.
These quotes are from the archives from the office of the mayor.
On November 20th the city of Seattle and Seattle Public Schools announced a partnership to plan for a potential new school at Seattle Center.
Provide land for a new downtown elementary school and allow the school district to join the Fort Lawton redevelopment agreement process.
Second quote, the agreement signed today at Memorial Stadium outlines a process for this district and the city to plan together for a growing student population.
Will the process include equity lens and the negative financial impact it might cause to other schools?
The city also stated that there will be a financial partnership for Memorial Stadium's revitalization.
How about Rainier Beach high school?
Vice President Harris said we have added schools faster than we could add classrooms and buildings.
Is the school board looking into improving the programs of under enrolled schools?
Finally as we presented at the previous school board meeting the Seattle Department of reconstruction of construction and inspect inspections GIS map show that Rainier Beach High School has received that has not received the earthquake upgrades that it was promised in the last levy.
Please respond to these questions by January 1st 1159 p.m.
My name my email is.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Essence is that you?
Okay.
Hi my name is Essence Roberson and I attend Rainier Beach High School.
Sorry I don't like public speaking.
If the school board has not heard a charter school is being built less than two miles away from Rainier Beach high school and within a close distance from Aki middle school as well.
This charter school is the California based green dot organization which is apparently seeking city approval to build its Rainier Valley Leadership Academy at 3900 South Holly Park Drive.
If completed as planned the school would be at least 58,000 square foot three story building offering education to at least 600 students.
With chartered schools in the south end we structurally cannot compete to attract students which could cause the decline of student enrollment which affects the budgets of neighboring public schools.
This is why it is important for Rainier Beach High School to have a renovation.
Currently the Green Dot Middle School is in operation and parents are pulling their students out because they have been over promised and under delivered.
They're not the answer.
They are not the answer to quality and equitable education.
They will have to work out kinks for some time before delivering on any promises.
But why wait when we have established that if we are given the right resources from the Seattle Public School District we would outperform any charter school.
We know that charter schools are publicly funded but privately ran and exempt from the rules of governing traditional public schools.
They also drain resources from public schools.
This new charter school.
in Rainier Valley is a detriment to Rainier Beach High School.
The school board needs to fight a legal battle with the state for opening a school that diverts funds from public schools especially in this scenario where charter schools are placed near socioeconomically challenged schools to leech their funding.
The board needs to use its partnership with the city to shut down the construction of this charter school and future charter schools.
Charter is not the answer.
Thank you.
I'm going to take a point of personal privilege and I would invite you to look at the introduction item regarding that very topic that has been sponsored by each of your directors.
I believe it speaks to your point and I'm very pleased to tell you that.
Thank you.
Next up for public testimony we have Catherine McVickers followed by James Wager and Kimberly Peterson.
My name is Katie McVickers.
I have three Seattle Public School students a junior a freshman and a sixth grader.
I urge the school board to approve the 18 19 student assignment transition plan only with Amendment 1. In addition to approving the student assignment transition plan I urge the school board to address the issue of HC pathways concurrently with the high school boundary proposals.
It is no way acceptable nor equitable to prioritize one group of students over other students by securing a school destination for one group without concurrently considering all students.
Regarding the related issue of high school boundaries I oppose scenario H2.
This proposal will create severe transportation problems for Magnolia students who would need to travel across town to get to Lincoln which is version H2's proposed boundary school in Wallingford for Magnolia students.
The commute from Magnolia to Lincoln is disproportionate to the commute times of all other SPS students.
Magnolia students would be required to drive or take a bus with two to three buses commuting anywhere between 40 minutes to well over an hour each way.
Additionally there is no frequent transit available in Magnolia.
Unlike all the other neighborhoods in the district Magnolia is not designated an urban village.
Therefore in addition to grossly disproportionate commute times Magnolia lacks frequency to the access of transportation and further traffic commute times will logically increase over the next couple of years.
Magnolia has no functional relationship with Wallingford.
Magnolia has no boundary with Wallingford.
Magnolia students would not even have a reasonable or remote option to walk or bike from Magnolia to Wallingford.
It is unreasonable.
It is inequitable and it is an obvious oversight for the H2 proposal to even be considered.
In closing please consider approving the 18 19 student assignment transition plan only with Amendment 1. And please consider addressing the issue of HC pathways concurrently with the high school boundary proposals.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Good evening distinguished directors and superintendent Nyland.
Thank you for your service.
I'm James Wagger and I'm a father of three SPS students a freshman at Ballard Avery who you heard from a few minutes ago and a sixth grader and second grader at Kathleen Blaine.
I'm here today to give you three things and ask you for three things.
The three things I'm giving you which you should all have copies of are a transportation analysis showing the impact of scenario H2 on in particular Magnolia students.
This analysis shows that if H2 is adopted the commute between Magnolia and Lincoln would be 2.9 to 3.2 times longer than the commute on average to other SPS high schools.
It also shows one of the most frequent routes is highly unsafe.
The second item is the SPS response to our public records request confirming that neither the task force nor SPS staff did any transportation related due diligence in connection with formulating their high school boundary recommendations except for taking a cursory look at two maps.
And lastly the third thing is those two transit maps that the task force and SPS staff briefly looked at.
These maps only show which neighborhoods have transit service and do nothing to establish how boundary changes would impact students commuting to and from school.
The three things I'm here to ask you for are first please vote for Amendment 1 to the 18 19 student assignment transition plan.
Language governing an entirely different school year is confusing and should be removed for the reasons stated by directors Burke and Harris.
Second for the members of the operations committee please do not vote to advance the 2019 20 high school growth boundaries plan to the full board.
For the reasons outlined in the transportation analysis I gave you and the many other reasons my neighbors and I have shared with you more work needs to be done before such a disruptive boundary map is imposed on SPS students.
The last thing I'd ask of you is to use your oversight and stewardship to make sure SPS staff and the task force do the real work needed to justify the recommendation of the H2 boundary map.
A recommendation this disruptive needs at a minimum a comprehensive transportation analysis a cost benefit analysis and an environmental impact statement.
In the alternative I would urge you to support a less disruptive boundary map such as E F or G.
Thank you.
Thank you.
After Kimberly Peterson we will have Cause Hahn followed by Devin Bruckner and Chris Jackins.
Hi my name is Kim Peterson I have daughters at Roosevelt High School in Green Lake Elementary.
Regarding the student assignment plan I strongly support amendment one.
The high school boundaries and HCC pathways need to be viewed together to fully understand the impact of the choices.
Five pathways might be the right choice but before the decision is made I recommend the following.
One forecasted numbers based on cohort roll ups students who are in middle school today rather than current high school or last high school high school numbers.
There's a bubble coming and there's a large increase in HCC.
Two, maps that show the changes to attendance areas required to accommodate the pathways.
Do the boundaries have to be tightened?
Will students who currently walk be moved to further away schools to accommodate the pathway?
You need to know the tradeoffs.
And three, transportation, travel time, safe routes to school analysis for all the boundaries including the pathways.
We have not seen any of this analysis done in this boundary process.
And for a solid analysis of the impact to these schools would access to AP classes really be increased?
Or at Roosevelt for example would my spectrum level student be squeezed out as HCC students are prioritized?
And then regarding opening Lincoln the goal is to successfully launch a new high school.
But what we've seen recommended so far is the most disruptive boundary map possible.
Why not place programs at Lincoln like language immersion or HCC that will draw students to the new school and then create a smaller less disruptive boundary.
This would cultivate buy-in.
For years Roosevelt and Ballard have been overcrowded and Lincoln was supposed to provide relief so it's hard to understand why we would put these HCC pathways there.
So I'd like to be convinced with good data that this is a solid plan and I don't want to be back here having the same conversation in three years.
If you vote the pathways as part of the student assignment plan the district moves forward tied to this model and it might not be the right choice.
This will affect thousands of students.
If the decision proves to be a good one, it can still be made in January with boundaries.
It can still be made before open enrollment.
It does not have to be made tonight.
Thank you.
Hi there.
My name is Kaz Han.
I have a freshman at West Seattle High School and I'm a member of the racial equity at HCC team.
And I'm also a product of the gifted program of Washington schools in the 80s.
I believe that lifted my family Out of poverty it allowed me to be the first in my family to graduate high school and go on to college.
I want highly capable services provided in more neighborhood schools and at all grade levels.
This will do four things.
It will increase access to more students.
It will grow community awareness of the services.
It will improve diversity in the program and it will improve school dynamics.
by having the HC students at each school be a smaller proportion of each school's population.
I also want the district to identify a more diverse group of highly capable students.
House Bill 2242 adopted in June.
mandates that district practices for identifying highly capable students must prioritize equitable identification of low income students along with the Washington coalition for gifted education.
We advocate for the following four changes to our practices.
One test all students at least once before third grade and again before entering middle school.
Two, test only during the school day, not on weekends, not before or after school, but in that student's home school.
Three use district data to look for HC candidates who might not have been found through the screening and four use local norms not national norms to identify the most highly capable students in the context of their local school communities.
Please implement these practices so that we identify HCC students in a way that prioritizes equitable identification of low income students.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening directors.
My name is Devin Bruckner and I'm the parent of a student in HCC and part of the racial equity and HCC leadership team.
I agree with everything that cause just shared.
And I also want to share that after working on this issue with a lot of my energy for the past two years I believe the highly capable program needs a dramatic overhaul.
When I began this work I was focused on identification changing the process so that we can find the missing HCC students.
I still believe that is important but now I see that much more dramatic change is in order.
The problems run deeper are more complex and have more impact on the rest of the students and the district than I first realized.
I believe we need major changes to the HCC program including where it is offered, what is offered and how we decide who is in it.
If Seattle puts its mind to it, it can accomplish this.
We need to serve HC students by law.
But where we've ended up is in is a situation where nearly 10 percent of our district is HC eligible and the numbers are dramatically rising each year.
These students are cloistered in a small number of schools.
The racial diversity and income levels of these students don't reflect our district at all.
We look around and we know we must not really be identifying giftedness.
We must be identifying something else.
Do we want to have two Seattle public school systems one for the 10 percent of students in HC and the rest another system for the other students?
That doesn't feel right but it's what it looks like and feels like right now.
We need to work to create a system that feels more like one district and for the HC program not to be like a separate program that is often an escape from local schools.
While there are outlier students the 1% we need to figure out how to identify and serve this 10% of students in a way that's more inclusive and less divisive for our district.
I believe this means among other things serving more HC students in neighborhood schools.
Other districts like Federal Way are doing this.
What we're doing isn't working.
Almost no one is happy with it.
We must open our minds think big and get creative and tackle this problem like an advanced learner.
Thank you.
After Chris Jackins we have Kate Poe followed by Brian Terry and Kara Golgert.
My name is Chris Jackins box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4 on the student assignment plan.
Three points.
Number one under the previous system the distance tiebreaker did not require yearly boundary changes and most people went to neighborhood schools.
Number two the current plan has created an aggravated racial imbalance.
This was confirmed by a court ruling.
Number three for equity please restore guarantees of transportation to all schools.
This would allow voluntary choices to coincidentally reduce racial imbalance.
On the half million dollar cost increase to the Magnolia contract three points.
Number one this project will aggravate racial imbalance.
A previous board resolution should have said that the project will not create or aggravate racial imbalance which is the language of state law.
Instead the district had to replace the words or aggravate with the words but will minimize.
Number two a previous board approved five million dollar cost overrun but only by a vote of 4 to 2. Number three today's vote should have been a chance to help stop this racial segregation plan.
I wish all of you had voted no.
It would have been nice to be able to speak to you before you voted.
On Wing Luke the district plans to tear down a six million dollar 12 year old building.
I wish you had voted no on that also.
On district underspend funds from last year.
Two points.
Number one the board's decision to put these millions of dollars into a reserve account lacked a consideration of alternatives.
Number two for example last year health care was not offered to school bus drivers.
This decision was made without the board knowing about the underspend funds.
They hadn't come up yet.
Thank you very much.
I'm Kay Pooks and I cede my time to Destiny Lanayo.
Hi school board.
Thank you for having me.
I am a parent of three children in SPS two 6th graders and one 7th graders at Mercer Middle School and formerly Maple Elementary.
I would like to read what I sent you earlier this week.
As a multiracial parent of three flourishing multiracial young adults in the Seattle school district I have a vested interest in higher learning opportunities but not at the expense of racial diversity.
My children have qualified year after year while at Maple for AP and spectrum tracks and have made it to final rounds of Rainier scholars.
After much conversation with our principal teachers and district curriculum advisors I chose to keep my children at our neighborhood school of Maple for a variety of reasons and they are as follows.
Partnership with my school to foster increased academic challenge in their current setting.
Consistency continuity and community and strong engagement with our neighborhood school and fostering that.
Student to student pairing that connect emerging leaders with highly capable learners to peer teach whereby all academic tides rise.
Ability to have a balanced combination of academic emotional social and racial diversity that prepares our students for adult life realities.
Ability to relate to my two peers of many backgrounds versus assimilation pressure into homogenous group in order to have access to higher education.
Fortunately our school and has been six that our family has been successful happy and wise.
Recently I attended forums for admission offices for University of Washington and Seattle University in preparation for understanding college bound readiness.
It is very informative and eye opening.
This has made me evaluate our next steps on how we be impacted by the district decision on highly capable learners.
Our feeder school is Franklin High School.
My kids will and do qualify for highly capable curriculum But it will be to their advantage and it will be to their advantage to index well in these courses in order to have college acceptance.
I'd like to be confident that Seattle Public Schools would equitably provide access to kids and others to true potential at Franklin High School and have a holistic AP curriculum offers offering diversity and thought is rooted in every student's background will provide on how our world will successfully problem solve and grow.
We all have the power to build this path forward equitably for all students now.
Thank you.
Good evening.
In our schools a white student is 20 times more likely than a black student to be identified as highly capable.
Thanks to universal testing we now know that this is because there is an alarming 13 to 1 racial bias in the identification process itself affecting not only black students but all students of color.
This racial bias leads to highly segregated classrooms promotes racial stereotypes and hurts all students.
to any student who looks into an HCC classroom you are sending a clear message.
White students are more capable and more deserving.
This is institutional racism.
The solution is simple.
Follow state mandate and district policy and expand the program to include highly capable underprivileged students.
But there is a catch.
A vocal minority of families believe that increasing access to the program will negatively impact their privileged students.
You must decide how much institutional racism and sacrifice underprivileged students should endure for the perceived benefit of the privileged 10 percent.
District staff school administrators and more than 90 percent of families in our district are eager to see a dramatically more inclusive program and are looking to you for leadership.
Now is the time to end this elitism and increase access to HCC.
Ask the district to unbiased both the service model and the identification process and offer services at more schools.
Most importantly consider the impact of your decisions on not only the elite 10 percent but on all of our students.
Thank you.
Thank you.
After Kara Golgert we'll have Whitney Patterson followed by Kim Torones and Emily Lasky.
Hello I'm Kara Golgert early childhood special educator and I'd like to cede my time to parent Lori Phipps.
Hello directors thank you for having me today and thank you for your time.
My name is Lori Phipps.
My son is a kindergartner at Sacajawea Elementary School in District 2. I am here today with some other parents and one of the students from Sacajawea.
And my son is actually listening at home right now.
He's five.
We're here to urge you to approve the BTA IV phase 1 that is on your agenda today.
Access to computers in the classroom creates a blended learning environment that has been shown to improve math skills reading skills as well as just prepare students for life in the in where basic computer skills have become a must.
And my son he actually really loves Gigi the penguin that he gets to watch him climb the mountain as he's learning in the ST math program.
Things like that would not be available if they weren't able to have computers in the classroom.
The technology that Sacajawea will receive in this phase will benefit our whole school.
We are multicultural students with diverse learning needs from preschool to fifth grade and Sacajawea has desperately needed to improve its technology equity for many years.
And I think approving this BTA IV phase 1 it will be a step in achieving that goal.
The Sacajawea PTA has always tried to support our diverse student community and school staff to create the best education experience possible.
And I hope that you will join us in those efforts and approve the BTA for phase one.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi I'm Whitney Patterson and I'm the mother of two biracial children.
We live in Ballard and our zone to Adams Elementary.
Growing up in West Texas the schools I attended were majority minority students.
The gifted education and honors classes I was in consisted almost solely of white students.
The children of professionals of oil company owners.
In fact in a school of 1600 students there was only one black student in my grade in high school honors and AP classes.
Nicole the only black honors student in my grade talked about how uncomfortable it was for her to be the sole black voice in our class discussions.
And we white students weren't any smarter we just had parents who pushed hard for us to get in, teachers who catered to our cultural norms and systems that made it challenging or uncomfortable for students of color to see that they too belonged in these classes.
In Seattle a white student is 20 times more likely than a black student to be identified as HC.
Our nation's schools are more segregated than they've been since the 1970s.
Honestly I expect more of Seattle than I did of Texas.
It's a city that is proud of its progressive views on social issues.
It's so easy to hold an ideal like desegregation in high regard but actually further systemic inequalities with our de facto approach to desegregation.
We have a huge opportunity to do the right thing.
Ensuring HC programs are accessible is a critical component.
Creating more pathway schools is part of the solution.
Thanks for your commitment to doing the right thing for all of our students.
Good evening school board members.
I'm Kim Taronis a parent of three children in the Seattle Public School District and I seize my time this evening to my daughter Isabella Taronis a student at Ballard High School.
Good evening.
I'm Isabella and I'm Cameron.
We are freshmen at Ballard High School and we oppose Scenario H2.
Although we've only gone to Ballard High School for a few months, we feel that it's already our second home and we want it to be that way for the next four years.
We are both student-athletes and are taking all of the freshman honors classes.
We are part of the clubs and like meeting new people through them.
We love the spirit filled events like cheering on schoolmates at football games and going to pep rallies.
We've both also talked with our siblings and they're super excited about coming to Ballard in the next coming years.
But what if they're forced to go to Lincoln?
If students in Magnolia have to go to Lincoln they will miss out on all the great opportunities that Ballard presents.
All of their new friends, sports teammates, and most importantly, the culture at Ballard just isn't at Lincoln.
So please, don't have us bust over an hour every day, back and forth, especially when the transfer spots are kind of dangerous.
People would have to get up way early than they should get to go on a bus to then have to transfer.
The transfer station isn't a safe part of Seattle either which would put future students in danger.
Do you really want a bunch of sleep deprived non excited high schoolers at Lincoln?
Ballard High School is our second home.
Please let it be our siblings as well.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
After Emily we will have Cyrus Bunyareth Hall followed by Jarek Sean Rugardos and Mary Ann Virginia Jarnigan.
Hi I'm Emily Lasky I'm a national board certified teacher in EEA science CTE certified and this is my 10th year teaching eighth grade science at Mercer middle school.
I'm here to support the BTA IV to get more technology into classrooms.
I think it's very important to have equitable access for our students to be prepared for 21st century skills and careers.
I'm going to cede the rest of my time to my student and future scientist, Samarwit.
Hi I'm Sam Ruit and I think Mercer should get new technology because my understanding mainly comes from making models and doing lots of tests and simulations.
Technology has taught me a lot like how methane and carbon dioxide come in and out of the atmosphere and what happens when two objects collide.
Technology has played the role of supporting me and helping me to answer these difficult questions.
Mercer has been very dependable on technology to teach us new things.
So am I.
It's very important for Mercer to get new technology because I want to learn new things and so do other students.
So please give us new technology.
Thank you very much.
Good evening school board.
I'm Cyrus Hall an 8th grader at Mercer Middle School.
I'm here to talk about us getting new laptops.
We use laptops for basically everything.
SIMS articles and modeling tools.
We also take tests on these laptops.
We need new laptops because the Chromebooks we are currently provided with often have problems and we have to conform to these problems and try to solve them.
But it tends to often mean we aren't learning.
We are more focused on solving the problems than actually learning.
It would be a big help to me and other students for you guys to give us new laptops.
I've learned about force and motion and without these laptops I wouldn't learn about that.
So I would like to have new laptops.
Thank you.
Hi my name is Jerick Rudos.
Today I will be talking about the laptops we currently have are negatively impacting our academics.
As you know technology is a big part of our academic future.
If we had newer laptops we would be able to finish our work on time instead of wasting time looking at the loading screen.
We end up wasting our class time fixing a problem and overall delaying our classwork.
Delayed classwork then leads to pushing back new units that we may not even learn.
Also test taking is a big part as one of my main reasons causing my grade to drop.
We use laptops for designing classwork iterative testing engineering and taking tests.
We continuously end up having to restart over and over and the overall loading speed is too slow.
Therefore we need new laptops for better use of class time and able to do work with no issues.
Thank you.
Good evening school board, I'm Mary Ann Jarnigan and I'm in my fourth year teaching at Austin Mercer middle school as a science teacher.
I have been a part of the PSAP transition between the old Washington state standards and the new NGSS standards.
In our PSAP we have been focused on authentic 21st century learning, three dimensional learning and also ELL discourse as ELL populations is probably one of our more at risk.
I have an interesting lens as Mercer middle school is at 68.9% free and reduced lunch, 11% special education and 17.8% ELL.
Through the use of amplify our online curriculum which uses the laptops the students before me referred to I have been able to give my students authentic science learning that is more modern through the use of simulators and organization of data on computers.
Additionally I have the ability to further differentiate my instruction through text to speech.
Also multiple languages for vocabulary at home access access in other classrooms is necessary.
I have submitted to you letters from my students imploring you to vote yes on BTA IV and in this I would also like to reference our policy number 30 ensuring educational and racial equality.
Point A for how that we will provide our students with the best skills possible for future education.
A equitable access.
The district shall provide every student with equitable access to high quality curriculum support facilities and other educational resources.
Even with this means differentiating resource allocation.
My students and I implore you to vote yes on BTA IV.
Thank you.
Next up for public testimony we have Jennifer Chu followed by Dijanae Austin and Rose Wallace-Croon.
Good evening my name is Jennifer Sue and I'm speaking on behalf of the highly capable services advisory committee regarding the district's proposal for future HC high school pathways.
First I'd like to thank the district staff for their tireless work towards satisfying the needs of such a great and diverse school district.
However we have concerns regarding the staff's recommendation for five pathways and believe that adding sites at West Seattle and Franklin are premature for 2019. The five pathway proposal has afforded little time for public review and assessment.
We expressed concerns in a communication to the superintendent and board on November 15 which we resent today.
Moreover we do not believe that five pathways at this juncture offers the best alignment to district policy 2190 which calls for pathways to sites with adequate cohorts of highly capable students in order to provide peer learning in addition to social and emotional opportunities for students, trained and experienced teachers with experience on the needs of these students, appropriate curriculum and a continuum of services to be provided to identified students through grade 12. I would like to reiterate our concerns and urge the district to reconsider the five pathway proposal.
We do agree that additional pathways in the north are needed sooner rather than later.
Ballard and Roosevelt would certainly meet the needs of many of these students as they serve a large number of these students today.
However from a proximity perspective it doesn't make sense to assign Lincoln HC students to Garfield when Ingram Ballard or Roosevelt could afford a shorter commute to the north of the ship canal.
We do support the building of the foundation in the south for equitable future pathway expansion at West Seattle and Franklin.
But to open these schools in 2019 as the official pathway for HC students would be highly premature.
Therefore we recommend that Garfield remain the only pathway school for the central southeast and southwest in 2019 and suggest that the district first build up the AP course offerings at these schools and also ensure an adequate cohort size exists prior to making this change.
Finally we encourage the district to grandfather all current high school students and 8th graders in their current pathway.
Thank you for your careful consideration.
Thank you.
Hi my name is DeJanae Austin and I'm ceding my time to Ivy Ha.
Hi my name is Ivy and I'm a Rainier Beach cheerleader.
On behalf of me and my 12 cheer sisters I stand before you to say that our principal has robbed us of our opportunity.
I'm sorry I'm going to interrupt you.
The board real board rules suggest that we cannot have comments regarding personnel issues.
So we need to be exceptionally careful here.
So you don't get ruled out of order.
And believe me I don't like being in this position.
I like free speech but there are ways to go about this that the district has procedures for.
This is one.
I've been a cheerleader for two years and coach Tate has always been by my side.
She when I found out she was fired it really hurt me personally hurt me.
I felt sorry.
It's just.
Can I make a suggestion?
Please director Geary.
I would like to hear from you what your cheerleading program is and what good things it has done for you.
Can you tell me that please.
Just tell me what it what it means to you as what does it look like.
What do you do when you go and what it has how it has changed your life.
Answer those questions for me.
And could we maybe start over.
Thank you.
When I joined cheer it's really helped me come out of my shell and I know I can speak on behalf of my cheer sisters that it has helped us a lot.
We volunteer we help out we volunteer we give out to community our time and recently she was fired And we've got to be really careful here.
I apologize for interrupting you but please let's stay on the other line.
Before I joined CHEER I didn't really have that many friends and CHEER has always been my place to go to where I felt like I had friends and people that supported me.
And Coach Tay has always had my back, and she's my cheer mother.
And it's been really stressful without her.
We haven't been the same without our cheer mother.
And without her, we're just no longer a team and we really need her back.
I'm sorry.
Rose?
Yes good evening.
Good evening.
My name is Rose Wallace-Croon I'm a parent Seattle Public Schools I'm also a product of Seattle Public Schools a graduate of Garfield High School.
Currently I have a son that graduated from Rainier Beach High School and now attends a division one university.
I'd like to say that On behalf of Rainier Beach my son also was a product of the advanced placement system didn't work.
We went to our neighborhood Rainier Beach High School where Principal Chappelle was there and worked with my son and the rest of those students of color and did a phenomenal job.
I'd like to say that Rainier Beach is a family and when you break up that family it causes a rift and the current administration has I'm not going there but I'm saying under the current administration we have several issues.
I'm asking the school board to look into Rainier Beach's current administration.
Our cheerleaders are family.
We work together, many volunteers, parents that come together.
We don't get paid to ensure that our children do well.
Look at the statistics.
Rainier Beach High School has the largest number of students that graduate and attend division one universities.
And we are a school of color.
I'm asking you don't break up the family.
Take a peek at what's going on at our school.
Don't leave us out there alone.
We need your help.
I have emailed Miss Patu already and I'm still waiting to hear back from his supervisor as well.
We need your help.
We need your help.
Look at what's going on in our building.
You see our girls.
I don't want to talk about the unfair unfair treatment of our ladies our young ladies and the message that it's sending to this generation.
Please please please please take a look at what's going on at Rainier Beach High School.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next public testimony speakers we have will be Sabrina Burr followed by Jessica Cran.
Good evening and congratulations Dr. Harris Dr. Burke and Dr. Geary.
I am here because we talk about family and community engagement at the core of one of our strategies.
We talk about people who do the hard work for our students.
Coach Tay is a woman of integrity that has shown integrity.
It's not a personnel issue.
It's a human issue of who she is as a person.
Her integrity as a person in our community that has been forever and will be in this issue outside of this issue as she stands as a beautiful black woman of color and a leader for our.
This is not a personnel issue.
Respectfully this is a life issue of who she is as a woman.
I am here because I was called to a community meeting and I'm here to witness and to specify what I heard from our families and mostly from our students that we can do better by the policies that you uphold around engaging families and making sure that our students are safe in our schools.
When I heard at that meeting from these young girls that they are targeted on Fridays when they wear their uniform it made me cry.
When I witnessed mothers and daughters working together in sisterhood and somebody giving them the strategy to work out the girl stuff and telling them go talk to your parent.
We need that.
We need to embrace that.
We need to duplicate that.
So I'm here to testify for that and for the single mothers who felt implicit bias and.
for who they are as single mothers.
And the last thing I want to say for the married mother who was there with her husband who tried to be invisible.
That's not who we are.
We can do better and let's do better practices around how we engage families how we engage communities but most important how we uplift and support our beautiful amazing beautiful students.
And that's what I came here to say.
Thank you.
Jessica.
Jessica Cran.
I apologize.
That is my daughter.
I took her time and read part of her statement.
LaCretia Craylor.
Is it OK if I give my time to another student.
Thank you.
Good evening board I am LaCresha Claytor here to speak about the climate at Rainier Beach High School and the cheerleader.
The term school climate refers to the quality and character of a school life.
School climate is based on the patterns of students based on pardon me the school climate is based on patterns of students parents and schools personnel experience of school life and reflects norms goals values interpersonal relationships teaching and learning practices and organizational structures.
I wonder if their administration at RBA high school took the time to develop an interpersonal relationship with the cheerleader.
Allow me to describe what the definition of interpersonal means.
This is specifically for those who seem to have forgotten it.
It relates to the relationship or communication between people.
I repeat it relates to the relationship or communication between people.
I wonder if the Rainier Beach administration cared enough to establish an interpersonal relationship with the cheerleaders, their parents, and the cheerleader, Coach Tay, collectively.
For the record, Rainier Beach High School went from having two of four, yes four, cheerleaders eligible to cheer prior to the cheerleader.
Upon coach Tay's hiring surprised she is far from a volunteer.
She is an unpaid staff member of Seattle Public Schools with an employee number.
She is unpaid because she was told by the RBHS administration that there were no funding for her.
I challenged the board to check into that.
The cheer squad has grown not just in number now at 16 but also in character.
The cheerleader instills confidence, a sense of belonging, responsibility and the value of these young ladies of which is the utmost importance to their parents and families.
Take a look around.
All of these people are here holding up signs snapping their fingers on a crisp Wednesday evening.
They are here just like Ingram high school parents and community were here when they wanted to save their beloved principal.
We will continue to speak with the Seattle Public Schools board just like Ingram.
We will engage with the community parents and cheerleaders parents of cheerleaders cheerleaders and the media to save our beloved coach Tay.
Until we meet again.
This concludes the sign up list for public testimony this evening.
Thank you.
Given the number of guests that we have that perhaps want to hear from our board directors.
Could we do board director comments while testimony is still fresh in our mind and then take a 15 minute break after those comments.
Who would like to go first this evening.
Director Patu.
Good evening.
First of all I'd like to thank Seattle Housing Authority for their partnership with the Seattle Public Schools and all the wonderful things that they provide on behalf of partnership to really move forward in our education for our students.
And secondly I wanted to say to Rainier Beach High School this is actually not had the chance to really do look at the problem.
I've been told bits and pieces but I was planning to actually contact Tay and actually bring her in so we can actually meet at Rainier Beach High School.
There is you know to hear both sides.
And you know I'm a I'm a longtime Rainier Beach person and I want to make sure that everyone get the opportunity to be able to bring in what you know what is the problem and how can we come together because we are a family.
You know Rainier Beach has always been a family.
And we don't want anything to interfere with what is it that we need to do to bring things back together again.
So hopefully we'll get a meeting together and for all of you here tonight.
Thank you for coming in and letting us know what's in your mind.
And we're hoping that as we plan this meeting that we can all come together and be able to bring in comments and what can we do to bridge this.
I don't know what you call it but it's not it's not what Rainier Beach needs.
So hopefully we can do that in hopefully in a week depending on how what's available for everybody.
But I want to say is that you know for the students and for all the adults are here tonight thank you so much for coming and letting us know exactly what's going on.
And you know we will work together.
It's our community it's our school and that's how we do things.
So I also wanted to say thank you also for the parents who come tonight and talk about HCC.
I believe that HCC is for every student that no student should be not be allowed to be part of HCC.
that all students have ability to be able to advance in all kinds of learning.
And this is something that I believed in.
I know I've always said that you know the district has not done its job in terms of integrating HCC to all kids.
because it has not come to a lot of our schools in the South End.
Now you know it's beginning to come in.
But I talked to some of my schools and they said no we don't want ATC.
We know how to move our kids forward.
They want to be able to do that and be able to provide opportunities for all students because we look at our students they're all smart.
And it's our opportunity as schools to be able to bring that out and do what we can to make sure that all our kids have the opportunity to be advanced in learning and whatever it is that our kids come with them we need to make sure that they have that opportunity to be advanced not only in their thinking but also in different directions so they can be able to be And with the rest of the students in Seattle Public Schools.
So we're hoping that we can actually be able to look at that.
And because not all schools want HCC in their schools because I know Franklin doesn't want it.
They feel like they're doing a good job of moving their students forward.
But I think it's an opportunity for every school to have highly capable in their schools.
So all students have the opportunity to move forward.
I also want to thank everyone else who actually came tonight to be able to let us know your thoughts and what is it that we need to do better.
As a board director you know it's hard to please everyone but we're here hopefully to listen and to hear what is it that that you have to say and we're hoping that we'll do the best that we can to be able to improvise or provide opportunities because all our students at Rainier Beach or also at other schools in the Seattle Public Schools they're all important.
We're here because of our kids.
And for me I know that you know if I'm not here for the kids then I have no business being up here on this sitting up here.
And that's.
The reason why I'm here and I want to make sure that you know that I'm hearing what you're saying and that you know and that we are able to try to find a solution or what is it that we can do to come together to help you to be able to resolve some of these problems that are ongoing and because sometimes I think that you know when you bring problems that you know sometimes I think that you don't that we as board directors do not hear you but we hear you loud and clear and we're trying to figure out what is the best route that we can or way that we can actually be able to come together and be able to find a mutual way of pleasing everyone because we can't please one group and forget about the other group because all our kids are important.
And so it's important for all of us up here to make sure that we come up with a viable solution so we can be able to provide the best opportunity that we can for all our students because all our students in Seattle Public Schools are important to us.
That's the whole reason why I'm up here because of the students.
If I'm not up here because of the student because In reality I want to retire.
I really want to be home instead of being here tonight.
But because it's important I'm sitting up here trying to figure out what is it that I can do to be able to find an opportunity for all our kids.
So every one of our students are in Seattle Public Schools have the best education that we can provide.
Lord knows where your beach has been.
You know that's a school that actually is my heart because it's never had an opportunity.
Every time we came to Rainier Beach, Rainier Beach was always the last school to receive anything.
And I know that because I worked there for 30 years.
And that is the reason why I'm on the board because I want opportunities for all our kids.
Not just some of our kids but every one of our students in Seattle Public Schools deserve to have the best education in every way that we can.
So for Rainier Beach student go Rainier Beach and hopefully that we can be able to find a way to resolve this problem so we can work together instead of working in division.
Thank you.
Director Burke.
I also want to extend my thanks to everyone who joined us today who is taking the time out of their Wednesday evening to share your hopes and dreams and passions and help us make this district a better place.
It's already pretty awesome as many of us know but there's all sorts of places where we can make it more awesome so your feedback is imperative there.
A shout out to Miss Tina Dang for joining us from Cleveland and also her colleague who gave public testimony.
When my daughter was in high school she was on the journalism service editor briefly so I had a little bit of insight into how much work that is.
And as I watched her give her her testimony I could see her smile little parts of her smile whenever there were aspects of particular pride.
And so that's when we talk about learning and we talk about engaging students.
That was just a classic example of how much she she loved the work and was really proud of the outcome.
So I just wanted to thank her for sharing that.
The team from Seattle Housing Authority that is a critical partnership that before I served on the board I knew nothing about.
But now when I go out and talk to people and I say did you know that.
You know the Seattle Housing Authority serves 10 percent of our students and that we actually have 10 percent of our students that are in this this homeless categorization and people don't realize that they don't realize the magnitude of that in this amazing and affluent city.
So it's great the work that they've been able to do to help us both bring awareness to the challenges but also to bring solutions that are really helping the kids.
I want to put a welcome to our new board colleagues.
Director Zachary DeWolf and Director Mack thank you for committing the next four years of your lives.
This this is a it's an amazing journey as you've experienced on this first meeting already.
And we're super excited to have you.
Apologies to my colleagues that last meeting I was not here but I just wanted to give a brief synopsis.
I was actually in Kobe Japan at the International Conference for Environmental Ergonomics which is a wonky work thing but it's basically people that are measuring humans to know how they how they heat how they sweat how they cool how the blood flow works.
So if anybody's wondering how much heat you generate when you get really cold and you start shivering.
I'm learning that now.
So this is a part of being a learning organization.
I also try to do that at work.
Fascinating fascinating work but not really relevant to this sorry.
Tangent.
The the previous week though I did have the pleasure of joining the Seattle Public Schools and city of Seattle delegation to visit the GCEN I believe.
GCEN meeting in Denver.
This is this is a consortium that does a lot of different things that global some global cities education network.
That's what it is.
Schools districts and from regions all around the world.
Come together to talk about promising educational strategies and the theme around.
at the Denver meeting was around career line learning.
And it was built it was in Denver because Denver has built out a fairly robust framework that is again nothing is perfect in education but they've they've figured out how to do a lot of things within their state laws within their funding structure.
and engaging with a lot of external partners to provide a really solid academic and experience that gives students exposure to careers in the middle school and high school grades.
And by the time they get into the later grades of high school they have a lot more opportunities for work based learning where they can earn credit for actually volunteer or actually working in you know actual work environments and it helps them.
try out all these experiences before they're committing to them.
And it leads to a lot of credit bearing opportunities.
So it was really a neat experience and I think it helped open my eyes to some of the things that we could be building out here in Seattle as well.
A couple specific things I want to really again thank the Rainier Beach speakers for coming out.
Your energy is just inspiring whether it's around facilities whether it's around programming whether it's around the family relationships I think that you bring a level of energy and collaboration that reminds us what we're here for as Director Patu had mentioned so thank you.
for your consistency and just the passion that you bring to it.
And I hope that that I can also serve those needs well.
And I'm learning from from Director Patu on how to best work as a board to build towards some of these goals in the Rainier Beach community has been repeatedly asking for.
I want to put a message out to some of the Magnolia community that has and other folks who have had concerns about boundary map H2 and first of all I hear you I understand the transportation thing.
The flip side of that I just want to tell you I am absolutely committed to making Lincoln an awesome place as well.
That is something that between myself my colleagues and the great team that we have here there have been a lot of conversations about how to do that how to how to make sure that it isn't a school without an identity.
that it isn't a school that doesn't have robust programming.
So while I don't want to say oh my gosh you're going there I do want to just recognize that there's a lot of people working really hard to make it an amazing destination.
And that said we'll continue to work on optimizing boundaries and assignments so that we have the best balance of student enrollment in the schools but also safe routes to school and optimized transportation.
In closing I have a director meeting this Saturday at Fremont library 1 p.m.
So that's the next meeting I have scheduled.
I'll get another meeting scheduled in the next week or so.
Thank you very much.
Next up director Pinkham and then director Mack.
Thank you.
Actually creator.
I want to first start out with Rainier Beach High School and let them know that yes there's this really big issue about it.
I shared this before when we get education and the direction that we're trying to go to try to create a community.
But we need to focus again on our community creating the education.
I think that's what you're trying to share today that we have a good community going at Rainier Beach High School.
Let's keep it going because it's educating our students.
They're getting through high school and graduating and going on great.
You know the division one school.
So if there's something there that the community is contributing let's do our best to support that community so that they can keep on continue seeing their kids graduate seeing them be successful.
So thank you for coming here and sharing and.
Yes I think we need to actually you know unfortunately it's kind of almost had a bad thing to say that yes Rainier Beach is coming here every time and saying things we need to start moving.
We need to see what we can do for Rainier Beach.
Betty let's make that one of our priorities this year that we get Rainier Beach moving forward.
I also want to give a shout out to Meadowbrook team center out of Nathan Hale who just recently did a room dedication for someone that worked there Glenn Hubbard who provided a lot of guidance again kind of example of our community coming together and helping our students to succeed.
And as I said he passed away last November and they actually dedicated a room to him and with the last name of Hubbard now they have a room called the hub at our Meadowbrook team center so.
Congratulations to the community out there at Meadowbrook Teen Center for doing that.
I too want to welcome Zachary and Eden to the board.
Hopefully this first board meeting is going well and that the retreat on December didn't put any false apprehensions about what this would be like and also congratulate Betty Patu for her third term on the school board.
Betty you're the one we're going to have to follow here so keep us all in line.
And also give my best to Sue and Stefan wherever they are if they're watching now.
Hi.
And you're probably saying hey I'm glad we're not behind the desk this time.
But best of luck to you and thank you for your leadership while you're here.
Thank you to the Seattle Housing Authority for the support they provide for our students and 10 percent of our students are homeless and I know Zachary DeWolf you're bringing that perspective of the work that you do with the homeless and welcome your input.
I also want to mention that I myself personally I was interviewed by Deborah Horn from Cairo in response to their issues about the revitalization of the Indian heritage high school.
And I was asked to do an interview and that will hopefully be aired sometime over the holidays.
I definitely shared my perspectives and I think from me I get back that's a community.
our native communities asking for something where they feel like hey I'm represented.
But it's not just for the native community but all people here that hey let's learn about the indigenous people out here first.
Let's learn from their perspectives and how that can maybe lift not just the native community up but everybody up.
And so we can see we can all be successful.
The HCC program says it's not just a program for the privileged white population although that's what we're seeing who's being tested in it.
We need to then see what's wrong with the tests.
We're overlooking a lot of our talented students of color and I feel like something like the Indian Heritage High School lifting up Rainier Beach with their community that hey we will see these highly capable students start showing up from these different backgrounds.
Also want to give a shout out to the Urban Native Education Alliance who just got an announcement that they have a new scholarship that they'll be offering for students to apply to attend college.
It's actually named after Sarah Wilson's mother Roberta Wilson who was actually my counselor when I was at the University of Washington and she passed away a number of years back but now they have a scholarship in her honor.
They'll also be hosting a holiday winter event this Tuesday December 12th at the Robert Eagle Staff Middle School from 6 to 830. They invite all the community to come out and enjoy because they'll be premiering a spoken word presentation that was put together by the youth involved with UNEA with the help of Roger Fernandez.
Actually I probably should do it the other way.
Anthony Fernandez who happens to be the son of who Roger Fernandez came out and helped their students to express themselves and let them share their voice and I think it's going to be a very impactful thing to see what the students had to say.
I also want to thank Superintendent Nyland for coming out to visit me at the University of Washington a while back and that was last week.
wasn't that long ago but I was able to take him on a tour of the Weschelbalt which is the University of Washington's longhouse style building and Weschelbalt is the chuteseed roughly translated means the house of intellect or the intellectual house.
I also want to thank Tina Dang for coming out here from Cleveland High School sharing her thoughts perspectives and the power of journalism that students can share their voice.
And I do not have a community meeting yet planned but keep an eye on the district website and I'll post it once I get one going.
Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ Thank you.
Director Mack.
Hi.
I am so appreciative of all of the folks that came out and there's a lot of people left already but big believer in continuing the conversation and hearing from folks.
And if we don't hear from you we don't know what's going on.
So I encourage e-mails I encourage testimony I'm really excited about that.
I just started a couple of days ago turned on the e-mail 200 e-mails dropped in.
It's a lot.
And I'm super excited about it.
I'm reading.
I'm actually incorporating all this comment but I haven't figured out a way to respond to everyone yet.
So I just want to let folks know I have gotten your email I have read it.
I am I'm engaged I'm hearing what's being said and I really appreciate getting it and I'll figure out how to be able to respond to six million emails that come in.
I'm also really really excited about the opportunity to vote on the student assignment transition plan.
It's actually an issue that I've been engaged in for a good few years and so having it be my first real vote well other than the elections but.
I'm excited about that and I am looking forward to setting up community meetings.
I don't have any.
I don't have it set up.
I'll look at doing that in January after the holidays.
And I want to give a thank you.
I appreciate the other thank yous that were given.
I echo them.
I don't want to repeat that but at our retreat on Sunday we had the opportunity to hear from Cantonese speaking mothers.
about their experience at their schools.
And I really appreciated the opportunity to get the personal stories and hear their perspective on where where the gaps exist and what we can do to help support those gaps.
And I'm looking forward to continuing to work on those issues and just appreciative of the folks that brought that together and being able to hear those voices.
So thank you.
Oh this is real.
I'm here.
Director DeWolf.
I don't want to take too much of our time but just I think it's important to make sure we're just sharing gratitude to thank you so much for spending your Wednesday with us.
We have to be here.
So we're here.
But thank you for spending your Wednesday with us and particularly thank you to the student commenters.
It is really helpful to make sure that we're hearing from the students.
I don't have much more to say.
We'll have more to say later but y'all are doing really really great work to come here and make sure that we're hearing from you so thank you so much for that.
to Richard Geary.
I feel like I've already taken up a lot of time.
So but I always want to give out our thanks to our students.
Of course our students from Cleveland Tina Dang and Jay Kent their passion around the journalism program their willingness to come and stand up on behalf of their school.
I think that's great.
I think it's great for all of us to see the great things that are happening in our high schools because there's so many really exciting things.
I'll jump right in on the high school issue.
When I ran for school board I ran around a platform that we have to be really careful about labels excluding and pushing to include.
And we've had a lot of testimony about a group of kids called HC kids.
And that.
It makes me so nervous.
It makes me so nervous that we have invested so much of our energy.
And identity.
Around education in these labels.
And.
If your kid gets the label what what's the kid who doesn't get the label.
What do they think about themselves.
What do they think where do they think they belong.
And we're all responsible for that because we all use that language and that language is really powerful.
And really detrimental to both sides of the equation.
The pressure it puts on the kids with the label to be something to do something.
Are they the bottom of their class?
Are they really HC?
The kids who don't get the label.
who still may be bored who still may be fighting the parents who have to fight but even after their kid didn't get the label because they know their kids bored and needs more but couldn't get the label.
So let's all be really really mindful of that as you're looking at our district and what you're asking us to do or not do.
Because it's my goal to make sure that every single school can deliver a great education to a kid.
And that education includes an education that will get their child into any any pathway for a future that they want.
Be it a four year college, be it a community college, be it an apprenticeship program.
I want every kid to be inspired to have a pathway, a goal for themselves, a goal for their future.
And I don't want us to shut down in their mind any pathway because they didn't get a label.
And it's my job to make sure that wherever they're going to school that we are fostering the best out of them.
And that means for our really really smart kids fostering their ability to work with others recognize the value of others.
Their social emotional learning.
Their self-regulation.
That's true of every single kid in our district.
So we'll have some discussion later on about how that's going to go down.
But it is my goal and you will also hear it is one of our goals that we serve all of our high schoolers in their assignment area But we have to be careful about that because I've also lived on the side of Seattle public school planning where best intentions of moving forward without preparing the landscape without being sensitive to the cultures of the schools.
ends up creating greater problems than we anticipated.
But they were foreseeable and we need to take the time to plan.
I don't know as we're all unanimous in how that's going to happen but I think we're all very very mindful of it.
But when you talk to me be careful about your your weddedness to a label around children around students.
Hold on my screensaver went off and I was going to be short.
So I will try to abbreviate now.
Rainier Beach, Hani Ahmed, other people talk about anything.
I heard you loud and clear about the MOU that was my comment to everybody.
That even if we can't get the MOU to include the city's understanding around the equitable distribution of resources as we go forward and create all this energy right in the center of our city.
that we need to we need to have an understanding in our minds here at Seattle Public Schools that anything we're doing in the center we have to be mindful of the edges.
And that is not just Rainier Beach.
That is the very top of our city because the both of those areas have people who need extra supports extra mindfulness their cultures need to be celebrated.
They need to be included in these conversations.
They need the resources too.
I'd love to see the South needs to spend time reaching out to figure out ways to support the North.
This is a city where the political power around poverty and color resides in the South.
But there are lots and lots of people in the north who need the support who need the welcome.
They are isolated I am sure up there.
And that's the one thing I heard this weekend about the Cantonese families.
The profound feelings of isolation.
that our families especially our families who do not speak English as a first language feel in our schools.
And the one that got me was that when people are laughing at PTA meetings that seems welcoming that seems friendly.
But if you don't understand the joke and nobody's taking the time to explain it to you and your child's asking you mama what are they laughing about and you can't you can't turn to your child and explain what's happening.
That's a super uncomfortable situation.
So everybody remember be mindful.
Be mindful to look around the room and see who's not laughing and think about maybe why not.
It may feel good to you.
Make sure it's feeling good to everybody.
So honey I will continue to look make sure that my memorandum of understanding includes that Rainier Beach gets resources as we move forward in creating anything in the center of our city.
And a final shout out to the unified robotics program.
They had their competition in November.
For those of you who don't know unified is our program that has a team member or an athlete with a disability who is partnered with a person who does not have a disability.
They create a team and they compete.
In this instance it was robotics.
The Special Olympics will be here this summer.
here and it's going to happen predominantly at the UW.
And so it's a really great opportunity for us and all of our high schools and whoever in Seattle Public Schools who wants to show up and compete.
And so to that end I want us to show up for unified.
We need to help our coaches just like we have cheerleading coaches who don't get paid who are expect to show up.
Sometimes it helps to have a little something.
I'm going to make a donation to help with the stipend.
for those coaches so that we can incent people to want to come and work in our high schools to develop these teams and support them so that we can show up at the U this summer proud and strong.
That is our job.
It is here.
We are the hosts.
We need to show up.
I will start by making a donation.
I will find a Web site or a link for you all to make a donation so that we can show up proud and strong at the Special Olympics this summer.
Okay I was continuing to have my coffees on Tuesday morning at Zoca on Blakely behind the village.
Anybody wants to show up just have coffee with me.
Look on Facebook beforehand because mornings you know kids can sometimes disreal you.
But if you look at my web page I always say if I'm going to be there it's usually 8 to 930 and I will find a place to have a community meeting this month.
Thank you.
Thank you Director Geary.
I will save my comments because our old fashioned video system needs to change the tape.
We are going to take a 15 minute break until 730 and I promise I'll make my comments short and sweet.
Thank you ever so much for being here.
You can watch the rest of the meeting.
Channel 26 go to the board web page.
It'll be uploaded to YouTube by tomorrow.
Thank you.
Very, very much for attending.