SPEAKER_04
And good evening, everyone.
My name is Bev Redmond.
I am your chief of staff.
Welcome to our community conversation for Seattle Public Schools.
Tonight, we will be discussing our preliminary recommendation for closure and consolidation.
So if that is why you're here, if you're watching us on YouTube, comcast or even on zoom tonight you are in the right place first we would like to welcome our families who are non-english speakers we do have language services for you this evening we will be translating and interpreting in asl amharic Cantonese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
We would like to give an opportunity for everyone to find their way into those language rooms as needed.
You can see on your screen before you some instructions on how to weigh fine tonight.
Again, welcome to our session.
Again, if you're watching on YouTube or you are watching on Comcast, or on Zoom, you are in the right place for Seattle Public Schools' conversation regarding consolidation and closure.
We'll be with you in just one second as everyone makes their way into the room and finds language services if they need it.
Thank you.
Hello again, everyone.
Again, my name is Bev Redmond, Chief of Staff for Seattle Public Schools.
As you are entering the space tonight, we are preparing to start and we certainly do apologize for the delay for our community that is gathering.
You are in the space to hear our community conversation regarding closure and consolidation.
the preliminary recommendation.
Tonight we are offering interpretation services and we want everyone to have an opportunity to way find and make sure that you get there.
On the screen are some directions so that you know that we are offering the session in ASL, also in Amharic, Cantonese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Also, as you're listening this evening and you're hearing something that you would like to question or submit a question about, we are going to use the Q&A function.
So please, as you're listening, please prepare your thoughts, your questions to submit.
We are ready to begin this evening and we always start our sessions with a land acknowledgement.
We would like to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands and the traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people.
I'd like to talk about why we're here.
And before we get into that, I would like to introduce the panel.
I've said it a couple of times.
I am Bev Redmond, Chief of Staff.
But off to my left, or to my right, would be our panel, starting with Dr. Kurt Buttleman, our CFO, Dr. Marnie Campbell, our Well-Resourced School Officer, Phou Minh Nhu, our Director of Enrollment, our chief operating officer, Fred Podesta, and our facilitator for this evening, Jerome Hunter.
Now a little bit more about why we are here.
We certainly want to share updates and information regarding that preliminary recommendation that was made last month by our superintendent.
We will be going through that proposal in detail, providing some highlights.
This is a general session.
We certainly are offering sessions at our schools that may be impacted by this decision or this proposal.
However, we wanted to offer a general session for our community.
We know that it impacts more than just a few people.
We want everyone to be up to speed with the same information.
Also tonight, you may be listening and you want to find some information on our website.
We will have the full proposal, the full recommendation, as well as some additional analysis.
As you're listening tonight and you want to take a deeper dive, we do advise and want you to check out that information on our website.
We have a QR code for you, as well as for those who would like to type in longhand, there is the address on the screen.
the charge that we have, the big responsibility.
And we take it very seriously.
And we know that this conversation regarding closure and consolidation, that potential, that recommendation is the hardest conversation that we could possibly have with the community.
Our goal tonight is to continue to operate in transparency, to build trust, and to get you some vital information so that you know about a plan that we have or our recommendation for students to continue to thrive and excel in Seattle Public Schools.
It's also important that we talk about our timeline and where we are.
Certainly the superintendent, Dr. Brent Jones, has made a preliminary recommendation.
We are now in what we would call a sort of a hearing period or a closed, not a hearing period, but a hearing review period, sorry, so that you can question.
We can also get to you with information.
and so that you will have a chance to absorb and come up to a certain level and understanding across our community.
After this particular review period, we will be moving into the hearing period.
That will be a chance for our impacted schools to have hearings with our school board, a chance for them and parents to raise their voices.
After that, between December and also through January, there will be a chance for the superintendent to make a final recommendation as well as another review period before the board takes action.
That is our timeline.
We'll continue to repeat that throughout the evening so that is clear.
And at this time, we're going to get started with our presentation.
It will be a brief one, and then we will go and spend most of our time in a question and answer period.
With that, I would like to introduce Dr. Kurt Buttleman, our CFO, to talk about our budget.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00
I'm happy to be here today to provide a high level overview of how school districts are funded in the state of Washington for families in an accessible way.
I was a PTA treasurer a few years ago and remember trying to understand the acronyms and all the jargon that people were using around the school budget.
So I wanna provide this in a way that people can understand it for those of you who are not sort of conversant in this language currently.
So I'll start with the state constitution.
Article nine of the state constitution states in part that it is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex.
In other words, state funding is supposed to provide school districts with enough funding to serve their communities.
Of the Seattle Public Schools budget for this year, 2024-25, 63% of it is funded by the state of Washington.
Additionally, Seattle and most other districts rely on additional funding from the federal government and their local communities to meet the needs of those communities.
For the coming year, 25, 26, Seattle Public Schools is currently projecting a budget deficit, which means more expenditures and resources coming in, of about $94 million.
This situation, unfortunately, is not unique to Seattle Public Schools, as many other districts across the state are also struggling with these same issues.
There's a structural issue in that the needs of Seattle Public Schools and other districts, students and families are growing and the cost of providing those services is increasing and exceeding the funding provided by the state and the other sources.
And go to the next slide.
Getting into some of the strategies for how Seattle Public Schools has been working to balance its budget.
Over the last few years, Seattle Public Schools has been addressing the structural budget deficit, and we continue to work with state legislators and other colleagues to work to bring more stability into the state's K-12 system.
The importance of new resources for K-12 education cannot be overstated.
This is a critical component necessary to bring stability to Seattle Public Schools and many other districts across our state.
The second part of this slide, you'll see current estimates from Seattle Public Schools for what these four consolidations we'll be discussing tonight would save each year.
As final decisions are made around district-wide transportation changes and other changes in areas that support schools, these numbers will continue to be refined.
But in general, it is estimated that each of these school closures would net between one and $1.5 million in savings.
Another part of the equation, it is to provide more stability for families at these schools and for all schools across the district.
In addition to school consolidations on the next slide, Seattle Public Schools has been implementing or is considering to implement some additional reductions.
Among those are reductions in central office staff and other expenses at the district office.
These have been taking place over the last few years and are contemplated to continue in the coming year.
Transportation changes.
Seattle currently offers two bell times for its families There's some savings to be gained by offering three bell times, another consideration the board will be making for the coming school year.
Reductions in reserves, in addition to the reductions that the school district has taken over the last few years.
Furloughs for nonrepresented staff.
The last two years, nonrepresented staff have had furloughs.
If they were to be implemented for the coming year, that would be the third year of that strategy.
Reductions in school staffing and discretionary funds.
In most recent years, secondary class sizes have been increased and discretionary funds have been decreased at the schools within the system.
And this year, voluntary athletic fees have been implemented at Seattle Public Schools.
Other districts in our neighboring communities have mandatory fees in place for this, another thing the district will be considering going forward.
A couple one-time strategies the district has employed recently are the liquidating of its emergency reserve funds to help balance the budget.
That was two years ago.
And then borrowing from its capital fund, to balance its budget this year.
This repayment of the capital fund is currently scheduled for the 25-26 school year.
All of these solutions have been implemented or being considered through the lens of mitigating or delaying significant direct impacts at schools.
As you can see on this slide, teaching activities and teaching support comprise nearly 73% of the district's budget.
The district continues to do what it can to minimize reductions in these areas as they are most directly impacting student outcomes.
For folks who are really interested in this information and doing a deep dive into the financial information, the Seattle Public Schools budget book, which is 205 pages, can be found on the seattleschools.org website by entering budget book into the search box.
Also, please be aware that the school board will continue its budget discussions in the coming months with formal adoption of a budget for the 25-26 school year scheduled for July.
It is now my pleasure to introduce Dr. Marnie Campbell, my son's previous middle school principal and Seattle Public Schools' well-resourced school officer.
Dr. Campbell.
SPEAKER_01
Thank you, Dr. Buddleman.
And I also wanted to introduce, reintroduce Director Manu, Pham Manu, who is our Director of Enrollment Planning.
I am Marnie Campbell.
I am a longtime Seattle Public Schools educator, school leader, also a parent.
I have three children who are graduates of Seattle Public Schools.
I had the opportunity to actually be their principal in middle school and in high school, so I have really experienced Seattle Public Schools from a variety of spaces.
And my commitment and my heart is in the work that we are doing every single day in Seattle Public Schools.
And I want to echo what Chief Redmond said, that this is some of the hardest work that we can imagine doing.
And it is all of our work to come together and to contribute to a solution to what Dr. Buttleman has just described, which is that we need to balance our budget so that we have a stable and strong school district moving forward.
I'm gonna talk a little bit about the superintendent's preliminary recommendation.
And on the next slide, I will again show you where you can find details about this information.
We'll be going over it a little bit more briefly, but we believe that clarity is kindness.
We want to make sure that everybody understands the details of why we are consolidating schools and why these particular schools were chosen for consolidation.
If we can go to the next slide, we'll be able to share with you the decision that was introduced on October 24th by the superintendent as a preliminary recommendation.
that Sanislo would close and consolidate with Highland Park, Stevens would close and consolidate with Montlake, Sacajawea closes and consolidates with John Rogers, and North Beach closes and consolidates with Viewlands Elementary.
Again, we recognize that any time that we talk about a school closure, there is the feeling that our school doesn't matter.
We want you to know that we very much value and honor our schools and that our intent is to bring two school communities together to create a truly combined school community, bringing the best of both school communities.
As we do this, we need to look at where our best buildings are that have the most resources, that are the newest facilities, so that as we combine school communities, we're really utilizing our buildings that we and you have invested in so much to create in our wonderful city.
So the first thing we looked at as we went region by region is we looked at schools that had the capacity that we need and also have the building condition and what we call learning environment.
That's a score that is given to us by external partners who evaluate our buildings on a regular basis so that we're continually making sure that our portfolio of buildings is as strong as it can be.
That learning environment score specifically is about classroom configurations, the location of shared learning spaces, the adequacy of common spaces.
It also has to do with ADA accessibility.
All of those things contribute to that learning environment score.
So in the four schools that were selected for closure and then the four for consolidation were schools that were neighboring so that we could look at the population density in our district and identify where we have more buildings than perhaps the enrollment would indicate as needed.
And again, identifying those buildings where we can create a combined school community.
Next slide.
Closure and consolidation over time will do a number of things.
We're really talking about right-sizing our school district.
Number one, we're looking at access so that every student in our district has the support and challenge they need to thrive.
This is not just a budget exercise.
This is about creating schools, elementary schools in particular, as we're thinking about a strong start for our students, those elementary schools that have the right kind of stable staffing so that our students have all that they need to grow and thrive.
It's about making sure that we're providing advanced learning opportunities, access to arts learning opportunities, PE and STEM opportunities, equitable access, providing IEP services in schools that are close to home so that our students can attend that school that is in their neighborhood.
We're looking at holistic supports because our students are whole people.
making sure that we have consistent social, emotional, and mental health services.
And of course, financial stability is a big part of this picture.
We need to make sure that our district is as stable as possible so that year over year, our schools are confident that they can provide those things that our students need.
We're gonna give you an example of a potential staffing plan at one of our consolidated schools.
In this scenario, The current enrollment of the two schools that are consolidating comes to 403 if we were to combine them today.
Using our current staffing allocation model, we call it weighted staffing standards, these two combined schools would have the staffing that you see here.
20 basic education teachers.
What that means is that at every grade level, we have several teachers for each of those grades so that those grades have the opportunity to balance their numbers.
We'll have fewer split grade classes.
and we'll have more opportunities for inclusion, which I'll talk about in a moment.
It means that we have the opportunity for three full-time specialists.
We won't have to choose between music and art and PE.
All of our elementary schools currently have a half-time librarian, but it also means that we are providing a full-time counselor to this school community.
Many of our school communities are purchasing extra staffing for these critical social emotional supports.
This means that we'll be able to provide that full-time position that is a much more stable position.
an assistant principal, a half-time assistant principal, more multilingual support staff to meet those needs across grade levels, more nursing allocation, and then teachers that support students with IEP needs to meet all of those needs, both our teachers and our instructional assistants.
Again, we believe that with these elementary consolidations, we will be able to create stronger school communities.
We will have an updated facility with well-resourced capacity to meet the needs of our students.
Our stabilized staff will include more full-time teachers, counselors, and specialists.
We will have more opportunities for inclusion as we have multiple grade level classes where our students can be part of their general education learning and receive their supports with IEPs, with highly capable learning, with their 504 accommodations and needs.
we'll be able to have more comprehensive services in these consolidated schools so that more of our students can stay in their attendance area school with their siblings and friends and neighbors.
In this proposal, we also keep schools whole.
If they choose, our full group of students and families can consolidate with another school and stay together as a community.
I want to give Director Minou a chance to follow up on any of those details.
SPEAKER_05
Thank you, Dr. Campbell.
No, I think you said it clearly.
I just wanted to reiterate how very challenging this time is for everybody and a very difficult decision.
And I want to express my thank you for being here tonight and just making sure that you have the answers that you need so that you're informed.
You also have some options in school choice that we'll talk about later, but I wanted everybody to understand that how difficult this is and also our enrollment is in flux and as we show decline and especially in our kindergarten grade, we will continue to see those lower enrolled schools.
And so we appreciate you being here tonight and look forward to your questions.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01
Thank you very much.
I will now transition back to Chief Redmond.
SPEAKER_04
Thank you to Director Minou and also to Dr. Campbell for providing that initial information regarding the preliminary recommendation from our superintendent regarding closure and consolidation.
At this time, this is really the most important portion of our presentation.
Yes, we want to give you information, but we also want to answer your questions.
Our panel is assembled and we do have Jerome Hunter who is our facilitator, He's an educator, has a lot of experience and a lot of background in the Seattle area.
So with that, let's get started and let's dive into some of your questions.
Jerome.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you, Chief Redman.
And thank you everyone for being here tonight.
My name again is Jerome Hunter.
I am a former classroom teacher and school leader.
For the past six years, I've worked alongside communities, schools, and families understanding the importance of working together.
And tonight I will be your moderator for this discussion.
My role is to collect your feedback and share it with our panelists.
And our goal tonight is to make sure that your feedback is heard and respected to where we can come to a shared understanding of the recommended consolidation.
Given the number of people that we have attending this evening, I want to ensure that we have as many perspectives shared as possible.
So I'd like to invite you to our Q&A section where you can share your comments, questions, or feedback regarding this recommended consolidation.
If you would prefer to write in your native language, we have interpretation support for you.
Before we begin, I'd like to ground us in a few conversation norms.
As we think about this process, we don't take it lightly, like us to center on student needs, listen with an open mind, hold space for multiple truths, be kind, but also be brave.
So as we populate your feedback, I'd like to revisit some questions that were posed in our previous community engagement.
And so what I'd like to do is share those questions with our panel and have those addressed as our questions populate in real time.
So the first question asks, how do you plan to support students through this transition?
SPEAKER_01
I'd like to take a chance to respond to this question and I think there are two really critical parts of it.
The first, we always start with the heart and we start with the social emotional needs of our students and families.
First and foremost, we recognize that any transition is difficult.
And it is our primary responsibility to make sure that what matters most, which is students' relationships with the educators that they're working with, is solid, regardless of who is teaching them, that we are engaging first and foremost with our students as learners, knowing who they are, knowing their strengths, and knowing their needs.
However we transition and move forward, this will always be the first thing that we think about.
We also anticipate having our two school communities coming together to create a connection, to create an opportunity to get to know each other, to create ways of saying goodbye to our school community and saying hello to our new school community.
That's going to be a critical part of this transition.
Students need to be at the heart of it.
I also want to talk a little bit about the technical side of it.
When there is a decision, we will be moving into that phase of time when students and families will receive an assignment letter.
That assignment letter will welcome them to their new school, will let you know about transportation eligibility.
We will also have an open enrollment period so that if this new school is not the school that you want to attend, you will be able to select another school and we would like to be able to make sure that we can help you find your way to that school that is a preferred school if that is what you so wish.
So again, I want to come back to number one, the social emotional needs of our students is first and foremost what lays the foundation for their learning.
we will make sure that those relationships and our commitment and our goals are centered around our students and also make sure that you have as much technical information as you can as soon as we come to a decision about closure and consolidation thank you thank you dr campbell the next question from our previous community engagement asks what will happen to our buildings
SPEAKER_04
Jerome, that is a common question that we often hear.
And SPS certainly does understand that our buildings, our schools are important portions or important pieces of our community.
I'm also going to share the answer to this question with Chief Podesta, who is our Chief Operating Officer.
and understands how we bring schools on and offline and how we care for them.
The properties, the buildings will remain in our care and they will remain secure.
But to talk a little bit more about those plans, Chief Podesta.
SPEAKER_03
Thank you, Bev.
We have a large portfolio building.
Some are, most are open, but we often have closed buildings that we use as interim sites or for other purposes.
So we understand the costs and the practices to maintain a property that is unoccupied or being used as a school.
First and foremost, these buildings will be maintained and secure.
And then we'll evaluate potential uses of the buildings or the surrounding green space with the surrounding neighborhood to come up with a management plan for each building.
Our long-term goal is to maintain all the properties come up with management plans that have the highest and best use of the interim sites, but maintain flexibility as we deal with enrollment and address enrollment questions as changes come in the future.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
Thank you for addressing those questions.
We're now going to move into our live questions.
And this first one is regarding budget.
It asks, how will SPS cover the shortfall?
What programs and or costs does SPS plan to cut to make up the 16 schools that will now not close?
SPEAKER_00
So I guess that's for me.
So yes, 5 million does not equal $94 million.
So recognizing there'll need to be additional reductions and most importantly needs to be additional resources supplied to the Seattle Public Schools and other school districts.
There have been presentations, there was a presentation September 18th to the school board with some information about what some of the savings could look like should they pursue some of those options around DIFFERENT WAYS OF PROVIDING TRANSPORTATION, WHICH COULD SAVE UP TO $10 MILLION AS THE CURRENT ESTIMATE.
THE PRIMARY COSTS AT SAN FELIPE SCHOOLS AND OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND ALL OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICTS IS THE STAFF IN THE SCHOOLS.
AND SO 73% OF THE BUDGET COMES FROM TEACHING AND TEACHING SUPPORTS.
And so to make up some of this, potentially some of the reductions would have to happen in those areas.
We talked about fees.
We talked about additional reductions at the central office.
Those things are all sort of in the discussions right now with the school board around how to make up this shortfall for long-term.
But again, I want to emphasize that there is no long-term solution without additional resources from the state for public education.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
This next question is regarding communication with families.
When can families expect that their questions from the individual community meetings to be answered?
SPEAKER_01
Thank you.
I'm happy to take that question.
Many of the questions that were asked are already answered.
On our website, we provided you with some ways to find your way to that website under the frequently asked questions section.
If we do not currently have an answer for those questions, we are reviewing those and adding those answers as we go.
If, however, you have a very specific question that's specific to you or to your school, I encourage you to email me directly.
You can find my email on our website and I will reach out to you and respond to you directly.
But chances are, if you've asked a question, it's one that somebody else might have as well, which is why we create our frequently asked questions document so that you can find answers and information on our website.
If you also send a question directly to our Let's Talk portal, our Let's Talk interface, we're also monitoring that regularly and providing responses there.
So again, responses to many of the questions we are uploading and regularly refreshing in our frequently asked questions section on our website.
You can also add additional questions through Let's Talk, and you can also reach out directly to me, Marnie Campbell, through my email, and I will gladly respond and find a time to even talk with you in person.
Also, me, Pfau, and Tyler Hamilton are regularly at our four closing schools, and we will be also providing one-on-one time and connections with families to provide those answers to those questions that are very specific to you.
We wanna make sure that we're giving as much clarity as we can right now.
We can't answer all of the questions, but we can share with you the rationale, the reasoning, and the criteria that we're working with right now.
So thank you.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you, Dr. Campbell.
The next question is regarding enrollment.
It asks, has the district reevaluated enrollment trends since the October count revealed enrollment is up?
Just a little.
Can you address this particular trend at this moment?
SPEAKER_05
Absolutely, thank you for the question.
So enrollment is evaluated on an ongoing basis.
And yes, we had a slight uptick of 14 students from last year.
And although this doesn't guarantee growth, our trends usually are in a two period, two year cycle.
And so we will be evaluating that for next year as well.
Our team does a phenomenal job in projecting enrollment.
and a high degree of accuracy within 1% of its margin of error.
So about 99% of accuracy is what we produce.
And so we're confident that with the continuing decline in our kindergarten enrollment, we're gonna still see our K through five elementary continue to have that slow decline year over year.
But we absolutely will be reviewing that as we go along.
as we provide our next projections for our budget for next year.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you for that response.
The next question is regarding family engagement with multilingual learners.
So the question asks, how is the district reaching out to multilingual families at schools?
How do you know that parents who speak multiple languages have the knowledge needed during this potential process?
SPEAKER_01
That is such an important question and it's something that we hold as a really very high priority.
One of the things we began doing in September was meeting with affinity groups, actually going into the community where our communities who speak other languages already have gathering spaces and organizations and going out and meeting with groups in their spaces, in their home languages.
So we've met with our Spanish speaking community, Thao and I were on the radio with Manuela Sly from our Seattle Council PTSA in a Spanish language show, a call-in show.
We've met with our Chinese-speaking community, our East African community, our Somali community, and our Vietnamese community.
And we will continue to do so.
As we have gone out to meet with communities, we have brought interpreters with us so that we can respond again to families in the moment.
As we have held our community meetings, we have also brought interpreters with us for those meetings and will continue to do so.
We have interpreters here tonight, but we recognize that a meeting that is conducted in English and interpreted or translated is not the same as having a meeting in your language, which is why we're committed to holding our affinity group meetings.
So again, I extend the offer that if there's a group of families that would like us to come and share this information in another language, we are happy to do so.
You can find on our website our core documents, the summary documents also translated into different languages.
But we know that we need to try multiple ways of connecting with families and want to make sure that we're responding in ways that are meeting the communication needs and that we're we're coming to you, not asking you to come to us for information.
But those are just some of the things that we've been doing.
Again, meeting with affinity groups, providing interpreters at all of our meetings, making sure that as many of our documents as possible are in alternate languages.
But again, we will continue to try to make that one-on-one connection.
We still have half a month or beyond where we want to continue to provide that connection for you.
So please know that we are going to keep working with this until we're sure that we've reached as many families as we possibly can.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
This next question is regarding student experience.
It asks if closing buildings would help reduce, I'm sorry, other research shows that these school closures won't save money.
Your best case estimate is 1.5 million, which is peanuts.
So why are we putting kids through longer bus rides, bigger classrooms, and separating them from their friends?
SPEAKER_01
I can start with the final piece.
Classrooms will actually not be larger due to consolidation.
So when we look at consolidating schools, we are increasing the number of classroom teachers proportional to the students.
That's how we allocate resources.
So this consolidation will not result in larger class sizes.
our buildings have ample space to have more classrooms and the buildings that we're consolidating, we know have enough classroom space so that we're able to maintain our ratios and that the consolidation will not result in different ratios.
And there was bigger classes and there was, oh, separated from their friends.
And this is exactly why the superintendent asked us to look for schools that could consolidate together so that friends could stay together so that we are not separating communities.
So that's actually a very, very good question.
One of the reasons why we opted to have schools that could consolidate in whole so that our students could maintain that connection.
As far as the savings, We know that 1.5 million doesn't sound like a lot of money, but it is an annual.
First of all, it is a regular savings.
And it's not just a savings, it's a deficit reduction.
So it's really critical that we make this initial step toward creating a school district that is financially stable.
But along the way, we also know that the school communities themselves will benefit from having that more solid student body and that more solid group of staff members so that we have fewer split-grade classes.
There's less instability from year to year, more full-time staff members, which means that students have access to them every day throughout the week.
Kurt, did you want to speak a little bit more to the budget savings?
SPEAKER_02
No, I think you covered it well.
SPEAKER_01
All right, thank you.
SPEAKER_02
Fantastic.
This next question is regarding alternatives.
It asks, what other proposals or solutions have y'all considered, if at all, regarding well-resourced schools?
SPEAKER_04
I'll be happy to start out just a little bit there.
There are multiple pieces that we have considered and we have multiple strategies in order to close the gap in our budget.
One of the ways is that we have actively been pursuing our legislative delegation.
and working with our delegation so that they understand the needs of Seattle Public Schools, the needs of Seattle, and they're not uncommon needs across the state of Washington.
We are preparing and working to make sure that our case, our situation is understood as we enter the long session in January.
And we believe we have the attention of our delegation, the partnership, the collaboration, of our delegation and that they will be actively advocating for us so that we can get closer, as close as possible to fully funding public education here for Seattle Public Schools students.
So there are multiple strategies.
One of them is certainly partnering with our legislative delegation.
And then I'll turn back to our panel to see perhaps if Curt or if Marnie want to add more.
SPEAKER_00
And I can just add some of the alternatives to balancing the budget, not to an alternative well-resourced schools proposition are the things I mentioned earlier around transportation changes, additional reductions at the central office, fees for athletics, all the typical things you're hearing from other school districts, Seattle Public Schools is considering many of those as well, and has implemented a number of those over the last few years.
And so we'll continue to interrogate and investigate those as potential solutions for the budget situation.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is a related question around state funding.
It says, people in my school have asked, have you considered suing the state for obligating certain things in all schools, not fully funding all those things such as special education?
So thinking about how to engage the state in funding in that.
SPEAKER_00
I can take a stab at that.
Sure.
When I was not a part of K-12 education, the McCleary decision happened, which was someone suiting the state to meet that Article 9 of the state constitution.
I can't speak to whether or not Seattle Public Schools has considered this idea, but I know others in the state think that is a way to go in terms of and to pursue this adequate funding for K-12 education.
I don't know if that or Fred or someone who has been involved in this for longer than I.
We've had really constructive conversations with legislators
SPEAKER_03
We feel at this time, rather than engaging in litigation, partnering with districts across the state that many are facing the same issues we are and have prioritized special education funding, that we're confident these issues are really the best way to bring these issues to the floor in Olympia is to operate in good faith and try to find mutual solutions.
SPEAKER_01
And I will just add as well that regardless of funding, when we look at our enrollment and look at the number of schools, particularly elementary schools that we have, and the number of very small schools, so relative to other schools throughout the state, or districts, rather, throughout the state and in our region, if you look at our website, there is a chart where you can compare the school size of surrounding districts, and you'll see that Seattle Public Schools runs many more very small elementary schools than most districts surrounding us.
And while a small school, definitely we've heard from you, you love your small school communities, you feel cozy, you feel seen, you feel known.
Those are also schools that are more challenging to run.
We don't often have the full-time staff that we think that our students need and deserve.
We don't often have the opportunity to have the services and resources, particularly IEP services that our students need.
And we don't often have that stability of staffing as year over year fluctuations in enrollment makes it more difficult.
So regardless of our funding, we know that we want to get our schools to that space where they're in that place of strength.
where we can do more inclusive practices and where we have that stable staffing year over year, and that we're able to utilize the buildings that have the capacity to provide those services to our students.
So all of these things aside, what we're envisioning is schools that are healthy size to provide that learning for our students.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you for that feedback.
This next question is around student support.
It says that we're concerned about the proposal to send some students with disabilities to different schools than their peers based on their disability needs.
So according to the plan shared in the previous meeting, how is the equity lens used when transitioning students who have disabilities to a new school?
SPEAKER_01
I'm happy to speak to that one.
That's such an important question.
So first and foremost, all students who receive IEP services, they are part of the school community.
They are general education students first.
That is actually their legal right.
They will be able to consolidate along with their peers.
They will not be moved to different schools.
We will ensure then that we are working specifically with the two staffs as we combine those staffs to build on those relationships, to maintain those services, and to maintain that healthy relationship environment and supportive environment so that our students can grow.
So again, students with IEPs and in our service models will be able to continue to receive those services in the consolidated school.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
The next question is about staffing.
Can you ensure that staffing is transitioned to the new school?
SPEAKER_04
I can start out the answer and then partner with Dr. Campbell to wrap it up.
I want to say that to our staff, we certainly are very, very concerned about how you fare throughout this potential transition process.
Also want to acknowledge that it's important for our staff members, our SEA union leaders, to begin that conversation with us at the table to decide how to proceed from this point.
Those conversations are soon to begin and then we will be able to share more of those details in terms of what will happen for our staff and how they will transition through the process.
But it's important for us to give them a little space give some respect and allow some time for that conversation to occur.
Just in the same way we're having conversations with our community, we want them to be able to be free to establish a process and move forward.
Dr. Campbell, did I cover that pretty well?
SPEAKER_01
Thank you, Chief Redmond.
Yeah, I think speaking to, first of all, just the human side of this, both for our staff members and then for our students who experience their teachers and staff, their support staff, every single day.
Stability, again, is really critical as our students are learning and growing.
It's critical for healthy development.
It's critical for all of our students.
And we want to make sure that our students feel that sense of stability so that they can grow and thrive.
That being said, we do have labor agreements with our labor partners, that includes our school leaders, as well as our teachers and librarians and other staff members in schools that we need to honor.
And we are working together with our partners to make sure that we're able to provide transitions that respect Respect those agreements, also respect the needs and wishes of our staff members, but also create that stability as much as possible.
So we're working on that.
We recognize that this time of uncertainty is very, very challenging, but we are really acting and operating in good faith with all of our employees to make sure that we're proceeding in a way that is respectful of all of the things that we need to consider.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you, Dr. Campbell.
The next question is regarding staffing and equity around counseling.
It was said that there was an example of a consolidated school around 400 students would have one full-time counselor.
The proposed North Beach Viewland School of over 650 students is also projected to have one full-time counselor.
Can you explain this?
SPEAKER_01
Yes, so those projections are based on our current weighted staffing standards allocation formulas.
And so those are just a starting place for us.
What we do know is that many of our schools are currently using levy funds, high poverty dollars, which are funds that we provide for our schools, Title I and LAP funds, really to fill in basic gaps of staffing.
And our goal is to make sure that we are providing that fundamental foundational staffing so that any additional funds can be really used to enhance the unique needs of each school community.
So again, those numbers are based on our current weighted staffing standards formulas.
They're based on just really current numbers and might wind up being different, but that is the way that the numbers currently look.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you, Dr. Campbell.
The next question is regarding enrollment.
It asks, how sure are we on enrollment projections?
Isn't there an upcoming enrollment study?
My understanding is that enrollment this year is higher than predicted.
What will be the cost if these schools need to be reopened?
SPEAKER_05
Okay.
Yes, thank you for the question.
We are in progress actually for the enrollment decline study and that will be completed by the end of December.
And we are looking at why the students have left the district.
And so that's an important part and understanding of the behaviors families of why they're leaving our district and I think another question was asked about How are you going to market in increasing enrollment?
So it's important to understand that data and we are reviewing it right now and you know, it's really important that people understand that projections is just that we have standard methodologies that we use and a little bit of math, a little bit of science to look at these analysis year over year.
And we look at the trends and the in and out migration of our families who are leaving and those who are coming in.
And all that is also collaborated with our partners from the City of Seattle with our housing units of seeing how many students are gonna be school age that are gonna be entering in years to come from those housing units.
It's a lot of collaborative work, but we're excited to see where this decline study takes us, and we'll be excited to provide that information to you by the end of this year.
SPEAKER_03
And I guess if I could add to the operational aspect of considering the cost of reopening buildings, we have to keep in mind that right now Seattle Public Schools is only using about two thirds of its elementary school capacity.
So while we would welcome increases in enrollment, the notion that we would have to reopen buildings to serve that capacity is not realistic.
SPEAKER_01
And I will add to that, thank you, Director Manu and Chief Podesta.
We have built into much of our work really additional space to account for any unexpected increases in enrollment.
But we have also worked with external agencies to verify and look at our enrollment projections.
Wanna make sure that our methodologies are verified by third parties.
We feel quite confident about our numbers, but as Director Menoud said, we are always reevaluating.
We're always looking at what's going on around the city.
Your feedback is really critical for that, so we hear that and we take it very seriously.
But we also know that we have built in, as Chief Podesta said, we have additional capacity.
So reopening buildings is not necessarily something that we would look at because especially as we've built our wonderful newer buildings that are much larger and have that capacity, it enables us to have a lot more flexibility.
One of the other things I want to mention is the increase in enrollment this year happened primarily in middle school.
which is anomalous and interesting and something that we're studying.
But when we look at enrollment forecasting forward, we really do start, as Director Minou said, with kindergarten.
Because kindergarten is that starting place where we can then project out year over year what our enrollment is going to be like.
And there are a few factors that are playing into that.
Number one, fewer...
children are being born.
Number two, fewer families are staying in Seattle.
They have other options, other opportunities to work outside of Seattle where housing can be very expensive.
But we are also very interested to know what is happening to kindergarten students who were born five years ago.
Why are they or are they not coming to our kindergarten?
So that's something we're really asking.
and looking to say, what do we do?
How do we work with our curriculum instruction department?
How do we work as a district to make sure that what we're providing is the best thing we can provide for our students?
We want Seattle Public Schools to be the system of choice for you and your family.
You have other options, we recognize that, but we also wanna make sure that we're providing the best that we can for all of our students.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
This next question is regarding student support and student wellness.
The question asks, closing schools can put students who are most vulnerable at risk.
What's your plan to support them?
SPEAKER_01
Thank you, and I'm happy to respond to that question.
That is something that is, again, first and foremost in our minds, the wellness of our students, because student learning is our primary work as an educational structure, all of us, whether we're in culinary services or curriculum instruction or the superintendent.
Our primary work is to make sure that our students have a large and gracious and generous space in which to learn and grow.
And we know that that starts with fundamentally a feeling of safety, a feeling of being known.
That's how we learn as human beings.
So making sure that we're guiding our students through this transition, if this transition does happen, is critical.
Keeping our two school communities whole will really help with that.
It means that they're not rearranging themselves into entirely new social groups and social units.
We can bring those two school communities together and the two school communities can work together to start building that transition.
One of the things that we're planning is a potential spring break and then summertime, almost a jumpstart experience for our students that are combining together in these new school communities.
We're also looking at adding STEM robotics programs to each of these consolidated schools.
And that's something that we want to be able to provide to make sure that we're providing a little something extra for our students that are going through this consolidation process.
We also, and the superintendent has charged us with making sure that we have additional supports for academic support, for social emotional support, so that we're able to address and identify and really mitigate some of the potential negative impacts of school consolidation.
So again, keeping our school communities whole is a really key strategy in this.
Making sure that our school communities are working together through this transition process is critical.
And then having some actual structured activities like a spring break and then a summertime jumpstart activity will make sure that our students are given some extra and ample support to make this transition.
SPEAKER_02
Wonderful.
The next question is regarding enrichment and programs for students.
It says that HC and AL services are not provided for teachers in the neighborhood schools.
Is there, have you considered adding HC pathways into the buildings that you might close as a way to draw in new families who have left for private HC opportunities?
SPEAKER_01
I'm happy to speak to that.
We're very excited that we are providing highly capable services in all of our schools.
We think that gives more students access to highly capable opportunities.
And it's something that we're starting grade by grade, year over year.
As we continue to measure and study and see the effects of this, and we'll be working with our curriculum instruction department, we know that this is going to grow and thrive as a really key strategy.
There are so many students who are ready for that level of challenge and that level of service in every one of our schools.
And we've seen in schools that have done this in an inclusive way that many students benefit from having access where they did not have access before to highly capable opportunities.
So one of the things we will be watching for and studying is the extent to which we're really able to provide that challenge.
Many of our students need both extra support and extra challenge.
Those often come together.
So we wanna make sure that both of those things are available for all of our students.
And we know that we can do that.
We're confident we can do that in our neighborhood schools.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you, Dr. Campbell.
The next question is regarding operations.
It asks, why are schools such as Sacajawea being closed instead of rebuilt when there's a levy already allocated for funding this building?
Isn't it more costly to choose to rebuild different schools?
SPEAKER_03
The costs of rebuilding in elementary schools are fairly uniform.
The reason we're proposing not to invest upwards of $150 million to rebuild Sacajawea is that we have the capacity in an adjacent school where we've already made that investment.
And so what has been in the levy so far has been kind of pre-planning and design, but with as many schools as we have, there is always another school with the enrollment necessary to keep it open where we can program those construction dollars.
SPEAKER_01
And I will add, too, that when we build schools, we want to think about the school buildings are beautiful, wonderful things in our communities, but we also need to have the capacity to enroll those buildings to the right level.
And so we just have to look at the history, for example, of Sacajawea, of its enrollment has been lower and declining.
And as Chief Podesta said, we have several adjacent buildings nearby, but in particular, John Rogers, which is opening as a brand new building, we've made that investment and it has the capacity to have that combined school community.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
This next question is regarding school choice and enrollment.
Will families on the border and closer to other schools be allowed to move to those schools instead, particularly if there's a sibling that already attends that school?
SPEAKER_05
That's a great question.
So open enrollment will continue and we usually start our open enrollment event in February.
And so yes, the answer is yes, you may apply during open enrollment to another choice school.
Also, if you've been impacted by a closed school, you will be prioritized as well in addition to the sibling tiebreaker if you have a sibling that you want to go to at that new choice school.
So I encourage anybody that is looking at other options to participate.
And again, if you are impacted by a school closure, then you will be prioritized even further for consideration.
We cannot guarantee an assignment to a choice school, but that priority will be there for you.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_02
Wonderful.
The next question is regarding AP allocation staffing.
I'm interested to see that each well-resourced school of 400 students has a halftime AP allocation.
Can you say more about your thinking behind that?
SPEAKER_01
So again, I wanna be really clear and thank you for this question.
These are not necessarily final allocations.
These are projected potential allocations based on their current staffing formulas.
So how we currently have a committee that meets and they meet regularly, our weighted staffing standards committee that will make determinations as to how we allocate staffing to our buildings.
So currently that is reflective of our formula that we use right now to send staff to our schools.
That could change, it could not change, but that is reflective of how we currently calculate our staffing to our buildings.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
And this is a new category, and I do appreciate the perspectives that have been shared through this Q&A function.
This is about pacing.
Why is this process being rushed?
For example, why not wait until the enrollment study is completed and a parent, teacher, and staff task force is created to discuss how best to handle the budget issues?
SPEAKER_04
Thank you for the question.
Certainly, I understand about pacing.
And when we originally began this process, we entered and started with conversation.
That was about almost, if we look at our calendars, about a year ago that we began conversations on well-resourced schools.
And with each iteration, we continued that conversation.
And we have listened.
As we released the initial proposals, we understood and we received the feedback that perhaps we were going too fast, that we needed to scale back and make something smaller.
Our school board supported that and provided parameters with the resolution to keep this at a smaller level and then require us to come back at a later point if we felt we needed to increase or to move forward.
So the parameters are there to take this at a pace that our community can understand.
There are also pieces built into this, again, hearings coming up, review periods that we're in at this particular space and time.
So the effort is not necessarily to rush, but we certainly do want to make sure that we have plans in place to stabilize our community.
And I'll turn it back to our panelists.
SPEAKER_01
Thank you.
And I would just add, Chief Redmond, thank you.
Stabilizing our community is critical.
In some of our smaller school communities right now, the lack of access to certain resources is happening every single day.
And making sure that our students can have those things is a really critical part of the work that we're doing.
So again, I would just echo what Chief Redman said.
We actually began in the fall of 2023 asking you what you valued in schools.
That's how we started to build our picture of what a well-resourced school looks like.
But we recognize that no matter what, this is going to feel, it's going to feel like it's moving too quickly.
We are ready, however, our teams are ready to provide that support through the transition, should that be the decision.
And we want to make sure that we let you know that we're here to support you throughout.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you, Dr. Campbell.
This next question asks, what is sacrificed and what is gained by reducing the number of school closures from 20 to four?
SPEAKER_01
I can speak to that.
So we know that our initial picture that we shared with you brought us to a place where we could feel confident that most of our schools, most of our elementary schools were accessible to our families.
And we're at a size that provided the kind of stability in education that research tells us and that we know is going to be best for our students.
However, we also knew that that was a very big move and it involved dividing communities as we had to change some boundaries to create more right-sized communities.
It had some impacts on some of our schools that are K-8 and option schools.
That was a big step and a big change for us as a community.
That also, however, was really honoring and reflective of our values as a district, that we know that our neighborhood schools are our primary offering for our families.
It is imperative, it is our primary duty and responsibility to make sure that our neighborhood schools are strong and healthy.
That being said, we also know that we have to move at the speed of trust.
We have to make sure that we are listening to our community, as Chief Redmond has said, and that also that we're assessing our efforts.
So what is gained as well is an opportunity for us to really show that we can follow through on our commitments to you.
that we can study our efforts, that we can have a very focused view on our students and provide them with what they need as we go through these transitions.
And I would say a big gain is that this keeps, again, it keeps our two school communities whole, whereas our prior plans in order to balance throughout the city involve some boundary changes and many more schools beyond the ones that we're closing.
And we heard from you that that was a lot, that was a lot to take on.
So this maintains wholeness in our communities, It allows us to really focus in on our students and families and making sure that we're giving you that personalized support.
But we also lose some of that initial deficit or operating deficit reduction.
And we also lose out on an opportunity to make sure that more of our attendance area and neighborhood schools have that strength and stability.
But we know that we can get there.
There are many, many different pathways to get to that outcome and we will continue to work with our community and with our families and as a system to build the best district that we can.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you, Dr. Campbell.
I do want to be cognizant of our time together.
We've run up about an hour.
We've got a late start, but I'm seeing a lot of really good questions and comments in our Q&A panel.
And so I want to pose one more question and then see if there's time for a few more before we close out.
This question is regarding programs.
And it asks, what programs are you confident about that could attract more enrollment?
SPEAKER_01
That's a great question.
We feel pretty confident that what we provide is strong and wonderful and that we're going to continue to build on those.
those services.
So I want to be clear that we talk about services, which are highly capable services, multilingual services, and special education services that we care a great deal about, that we want to provide to all of our students in a school close to home.
When we talk about programs, we might be thinking about things like some of our option schools that provide expeditionary learning.
That's an instructional focus in a school.
And we also maybe think about dual language instruction, which is a way of providing instruction that primarily is in service of our multilingual learners that enables them to really build on that superpower that they have as people who speak multiple languages.
So we know that if, for example, dual language immersion, is something that by per state and OSPI guidelines and the best professional work that is going on in dual language immersion is best served as a service and a support for our multilingual learners.
So we are exploring adding those opportunities in those places where our multilingual learners live and where they go to school.
That certainly is something that we want to provide, not just as a way to attract more enrollment, but really as a way to better serve our students.
But we also know that strengthening STEM opportunities is something that is really critical.
We want to do that in all of our schools to provide that real world 21st century skill base for our students and making sure that we are providing the opportunities for our students to become strong readers, writers, thinkers, mathematicians, and scientists in all of our schools.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
Please know that we're going to keep the conversation going.
We've got time for five more questions, but you can engage with us through the SPS website, letstalk.exchange and the FAQ.
And we have upcoming community meetings throughout the week or in the upcoming weeks to engage further.
This next question is, is about buildings.
It asks, can you speak to some of the advantages that these newer buildings will have, such as tech, learning environments, HVAC, things of that nature?
SPEAKER_03
Well, that question actually covers it pretty well.
The new buildings conform to our current educational specification, where we try to make sure that every building has all the spaces needed to provide all the services that Dr. Campbell spoke about, that we have modern technology.
And something we certainly learned during the pandemic is the importance of maximizing the amount of fresh air that can come through the building to maintain a healthy environment.
Our new designs feature all of that.
SPEAKER_01
Can I just add, we heard this actually at Santa slow and I want to thank the person who raised this access to green space is something that many of our buildings have.
And we know that Santa slow is situated adjacent to a green space.
And we want to make sure that we're maintaining the quality of those spaces for our students and communities.
So I just wanted to note that, that we're listening and, and that we want to, to honor really the wisdom and knowledge of our communities that know our schools and know their environment so well.
So our new buildings certainly do have enhanced green space.
Not all of them do, but most of them do.
And then I would speak to security as well.
Our new buildings are built to ensure that there's a good visibility for our staff within the buildings to know that we're able to be watchful and mindful of what's happening in the community.
and have additional security enhancements.
We are adding those to all of our buildings, but our new buildings are built to provide that level of visibility and that level of security as well.
SPEAKER_02
That's great.
I've just received some more questions that are related.
And this one asks, will there be tours offered to these new spaces and what can families expect that those will look like?
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
When a decision is made, one of the first things that we will do is to convene our school-based transition teams.
And those teams will really work together along with student voice, family voice, staff voice to determine how are we going to really go about constructing this new community together.
Some of that will be honoring the building that's closing.
That's a really critical part of it.
Many of our schools that have closed in the past and we've studied this have created artwork, poetry, pieces that individuals can take with them as they move on to their new school setting.
And then we want to make sure then that we are oriented to that new building, providing that opportunity to be in that space, getting to know the traffic garden at Viewlands and see what that looks and feels like to practice riding your bike around this really cool, you can go there now and see it.
There are new buildings that have, a lot of our new buildings have these wonderful traffic gardens where you can practice making your way around in your bike or walking.
So yes, that's one thing that we will do right away to make sure that we're able to provide that orientation to the new space.
SPEAKER_02
Wonderful.
This next question is regarding the consolidation transition.
And it asks, well, it says that you had said that the consolidation would include the school community to move together as one.
That would include mission, mascot, potential teachers.
Can you add on to that a little more about what the thinking is?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I think that's a great question.
There are procedures and processes around changing school names, and I don't wanna get ahead of it too much, but some of our schools might consider a new school name.
you know, creating a name that is reflective of the shared experience moving forward.
Mascots, certainly school colors are all part of those ways that we can identify and share a vision of who we are and who we want to be.
It's a wonderful chance to really be aspirational together.
Our schools all have what we call continuous school improvement plans with goals and strategies to meet those goals.
Those plans should help to then define how we're utilizing our resources and how that critical resource is also time around professional development.
So those are also things that we would want our schools to come together on to really take a look at our values and how we blend those values.
Again, to take the best of both communities, what is working well in both communities and what do we bring together to create an even stronger, new, stronger community together.
SPEAKER_02
All right, and we'll have time for two more questions this evening, but just again, know that we want to keep the conversation going through our FAQ, through ThoughtExchange, as well as Let's Talk.
This question is concerning student-teacher ratio.
So in this consolidation, what can we expect the student-teacher ratio to be?
SPEAKER_00
And I can take a first stab at that, the weighted staffing standards model that Dr. Campbell mentioned earlier is what drives the student teacher ratio, along with some state funding restrictions.
And so this consolidation shouldn't have any impact on what the student teacher ratio would be in those classrooms without this consolidation.
So nothing related to this consolidation would change around the student teacher ratio.
We did talk a little bit about one of the other alternatives to closing buildings is reducing staffing in those buildings around teachers.
So an alternative thing that could have happened here is to increase the student to teacher ratios to save that savings.
So $5 million is approximately 30 teaching staff salaries, 30 to 40 teaching staff salaries.
This proposal doesn't do anything in terms of those teaching resources, changing those.
SPEAKER_02
All right, and this will be our last question for the evening and is a two-prong question.
It asks, when will be the next time we visit community conversations again at the schools and what can participants expect from those?
SPEAKER_01
Thank you for that question.
The dates of our upcoming community conversations are on our website.
Right now we are primarily engaging with our, initially with our school communities that are closing.
What you can expect is that we are here to provide as much clarity and information as we can.
I wish that we could answer all of the questions, but what we wanna make sure is that there's clear understanding of our criteria and how initially we can envision these school consolidations taking place.
and that we can also hear from you.
That if we do make this transition, what would help that transition to go successfully for you?
What would it look like?
What would you want to see as we move into that transition?
We also fully expect you to tell us that you don't wanna close your school.
And in some ways, we're grateful that you love your schools.
Well, certainly we're grateful that you love your school so much.
We're glad to hear that.
We are here to share that message, to hear it from you, to really feel in that space the challenge of knowing that your school could close.
but primarily we're there to make sure that we're as clear as we can possibly be and answer as many questions as we possibly can.
So again, we have upcoming meetings at our schools that are set to close.
We're also working on scheduling meetings at those communities that will be consolidating with those closing schools.
And then in December, we will also have our site-based hearings and those dates are all listed on our website.
SPEAKER_02
Well, I want to thank everyone again for participating in such a thoughtful, respectful dialogue.
I appreciate the diversity of opinions that were shared in our Q&A function.
Obviously, I appreciate your subject matter expertise and your responses to these critical questions.
I do just want to reiterate, we'll continue the conversation, and you can find the information where Dr. Campbell is. and what I'll do now is turn it over to Chief Redmond to close out.
SPEAKER_04
Thank you, Jerome, and thank you to the panel.
I want to reemphasize that the conversation continues on ThoughtExchange.
We did have a QR code up before you, and hopefully we can get that back up on the screen.
Thank you so much.
So that you can participate in that dialogue.
Also, you submitted a great many questions.
With it, we were able to get to all of them tonight.
and I'm kind of calling an audible for my team, that once we get these questions answered and added to our FAQs, we will send that information out to the community so that you know that we have answered the questions and that information is available to you to see exactly what we've done.
heard so many themes tonight from transition concerns, also how will we make sure that all of the services for students are provided at our schools, concerns for your staff, for your team members, for the teachers that are in our buildings.
Thank you for lifting those questions up.
Certainly they're not new to us, but what concerns you concerns us.
And we will be taking all of this information back going over it as we continue to plan to stabilize our district.
As we look at the timeline, we certainly know that Dr. Jones has made that preliminary recommendation.
We're currently in a review period where we're meeting with schools, going out into community, Then we will enter the hearing phase where you will have that opportunity to meet at the impacted buildings with the school board to share your thoughts on this particular process.
And then we will go into a space and time where the superintendent will make a final recommendation, there will be a review period, and then the board will take its action.
Thank you so much for all that you have given us tonight in terms of your time, your patience, you weathered a little bit of technical difficulty with us and you hung in there with us.
So again, whether you watched on YouTube, Comcast, or whether you were with us submitting questions in Zoom, we appreciate your time.
So on behalf of Kurt Bottleman, Dr. Marnie Campbell, Director Fowl Manu, Chief Operating Officer Fred Podesta, and our facilitator Jerome Hunter, And Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones, thank you so much for your time.
We will see you soon.
Please be well.
