SPEAKER_08

All right.

The.

Is SPS-TV or whoever.

We ready.

OK the special meeting of the board is now called to order at 432 p.m.

on March 13th.

Please note that the public portion of today's meeting is being recorded.

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

For the record I'll call the roll.

Director Briggs.

Present.

Director Hersey.

SPEAKER_03

Here.

SPEAKER_08

Vice President Sargio.

Present.

Director Topp.

Here.

And this is President Rankin.

We just learned of a, this is off topic, but we just moments ago learned of the gun violence impacting one of our students again.

Today, outside of school, across the street, a Garfield student was the victim of gun violence and is at Harborview.

It feels pretty crappy to say that and continue on.

And it also felt wrong not to say anything.

The.

Inside or out of our schools the impact of gun violence on our kids and families is just an absolutely unacceptable state of reality.

And I know that the board and superintendent and staff are committed to doing everything that we can and And we're also very limited in what our reach is.

We can secure our school buildings we can have places for students to report things we can you know take threats very seriously and intervene as appropriate.

But we can't be at a bus stop.

We can't be at a baseball game.

We can't be you know and but but members of our community are in all of those places and we all together are responsible for creating the environment in our city where our kids are safe.

I just.

Yeah.

Hug your kids.

If you have guns please please securely store them.

OK.

We have two topics to cover today.

We will hold an executive session and then we'll publicly vote on finalists for the director district 2 position.

Then we'll probably take a short break and move to the work session there for a discussion on our board engagement.

So as we discussed at the last meeting we're moving forward with the four applicants for the director district for position.

We're using the same evaluation criteria that we have developed for our own use as we evaluate candidates.

We'll use those with the district for candidates and throughout the process.

That criteria that we developed and are using to determine our district to finalists today So we'll beginning executive session and then return to the public session to select four finalists For consideration for the appointment to director district to the end of today.

We'll have a total of eight Candidates four for district four four for district two If we need to during voting we can go back for additional executive sessions.

But for now, we're going to plan to Have one come back vote.

And if we need to at any time we can step over there.

I general counsel Greg Narver would you please ground us with reminders on where our conversation can and can't go in executive session please.

SPEAKER_00

Happy to.

Good afternoon, Greg Narver, General Counsel.

The statute on executive sessions authorizes the board to go into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elective office.

You are allowed to go back and meet privately to discuss the applicants you have and your opinions about their qualifications and have a robust discussion about that.

However actions decisions votes cannot be taken in executive session.

That's why you'll be returning to the public meeting for the formal process of deciding how how you're going to get down to your list of four finalists.

The discussion and executive session though can cover all all of your opinions about the applicants and discuss their qualifications pros and cons.

However the actual process of arriving at four finalists needs to take place out here in public.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you.

Are there any other questions before we go do that.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

So just a question of like what will the process look like when we come back and we try to like narrow it down are we just going to go like applicant by applicant.

Are we going to do nominations just for clarity.

SPEAKER_08

So Ms. Wilson-Jones correct me if I'm wrong but the way that the meeting was noticed I think I have to do that after we come back out or can I go to that part now.

Just in the talking points, it's the next.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I'm happy to rescind the point.

SPEAKER_00

We have a process all worked out.

It's in the talking points to cover after you return from executive session.

But there's nothing, no reason you can't go through it now if you like to.

SPEAKER_08

OK.

SPEAKER_00

It's your call.

SPEAKER_08

So when we come back.

Oh, OK.

I was going to say when we come back, we can do.

Yeah let's do when we come back if that's OK.

Thank you.

OK.

So the board is now immediately recessing into an executive session to evaluate the qualifications of candidates for appointment to elective office per RCW 42 dot 30 dot 1 10. 1H in parentheses.

I don't know why I said that as it's in parentheses.

The session is scheduled for 30 minutes which brings us to an anticipated end time of 5 10 p.m.

If while we're in there we need more time I will come back out and notice that before we continue.

So directors please join me now in the conference room.

We will return.

SPEAKER_09

Okay.

SPEAKER_08

Okay.

So because we announced the executive session that was lasting until 5.10 and it's 5.08, we have two minutes before we can call back the meeting officially.

All right.

The board has recessed out of executive session and the special meeting of the board is now reconvened at 5 10 p.m..

As noted at the top of the meeting directors have evaluated the district for applications.

Because of that number we will move forward with all four applicants for that position.

The board will now move into our action item for today selection of final candidates for the appointment to director district 2. We currently have 11 candidates and we are narrowing to 4. Before we get started on the voting process I want to say a genuine and huge thank you to all of the applicants for the districts 2 and 4 positions.

We didn't expect to be appointing two vacancies amidst an already very busy time for our district.

And it was really encouraging and heartening and we're just grateful to have had the opportunity to consider appointments from such a large qualified group of candidates.

And so thank you for putting your names and being willing to step into this.

So we will be eventually appointing just one director to each of the two open positions.

But I do want to on behalf of the board and superintendent invite all of our applicants to continue working to ensure excellent outcomes for our students.

And we thank you all for your commitment to the success of our students and to our school district.

So we will be using a voting process to determine our four candidates for District 2 that we discussed and agreed to during a public work session held by the board March 6th.

That process will go as follows.

We'll be voting in rounds and we'll conclude our voting once we have identified four finalists for District 2. For the first round directors will each nominate four candidates they wish to recommend as finalists.

As they state their nominations, if you wish to, you can share why you are nominating those candidates.

You don't have to, but that is your opportunity to do so.

As we are making nominations, they will be recorded on, for directors, the screen in front of us, and for the auditorium, that big screen, and people at home should be able to see it on Teams or whatever streaming they're using.

As soon as we have gone down the line and everyone has nominated their four, any candidate who did not receive any nominations will be removed from the screen.

If the first round, we all cast the same four candidates, then that is our finalist list and we are done.

If there are more than four total we will continue with additional rounds.

In the second round directors will each nominate three candidates and those will again be recorded.

Anyone from the smaller pool will again be removed from consideration for the next round.

Again if we end up with four after that round we're done.

If we have more than four we'll do another round when we nominate two each.

And then if we have to we'll re-nominate one each.

Throughout these rounds that we're about to embark on additional deliberation and evaluation of candidates may be needed.

If our nominations overlap so we collectively nominate fewer than four candidates in any round.

which wouldn't be the first one but possibly the second one.

We would need to pause and discuss and determine if we want to back in a fourth or if we want to go with three.

We can return to executive session to evaluate qualifications of the candidates at any point needed.

But our voting will all take place here publicly.

So for each round of nominations the order in which directors state their nominations will alternate from one end of the dais to the other.

We flipped a coin to determine which end we were going to start on.

We're going to start on this end with Director Topp and then once we get to four candidates I will ask Vice President Sarju to put a motion before us to vote to confirm our four candidates.

Does that all track.

OK so we will begin now with our first round beginning with Director Topp then going this way.

Please speak to the four candidates you recommend to be nominated.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you President Rankin.

I appreciated learning about all of the candidates and watching their video statements.

You know this is a large commitment and a volunteer commitment and it was really great to see so many folks apply.

I don't have a lot to say about the candidates but I will list my four.

Kelly Luznia was my first one.

Then Sarah Clark then Carol Thompson and last Sean Sullivan.

SPEAKER_05

I am sorry we have the computer decided to freeze in this moment so I am going to work on if we could pause and then have you reread those in a moment when I get this figured out.

SPEAKER_07

This moment can we wish Brent a happy birthday.

SPEAKER_08

Oh oh that's a good idea.

OK.

While we're waiting for our technology to catch up we have a moment of celebration and he's not necessarily expecting this but it is our superintendent Dr. Brent Jones's birthday today.

Happy, happy birthday.

Thank you for spending it with us.

SPEAKER_02

We're glad you were born.

39.

SPEAKER_08

I remember one year when my mom was a teenager and it was her birthday and she suddenly No, sorry, when I was a teenager, when my mom suddenly realized that she was a year younger than she thought, she was like, oh my gosh, wait.

She got an extra year because she had been thinking for the whole year she was already one age.

SPEAKER_05

I think the computer has woken up.

So I'm ready to record those votes.

Apologies.

OK cool.

SPEAKER_08

I was going to suggest we get like a giant piece of paper or something but that's better.

SPEAKER_07

So Kelly Luznia Sarah Clark Carol Thompson and Sean Sullivan.

SPEAKER_08

All right.

I.

This is going to sound so like whatever.

I really wish that we could pick more people and it was really you know going into this process.

My biggest fear was that we would not have any candidates and we would have to figure out what we were going to do.

So to have the difficult choice of narrowing down from some really great options is I guess better than not having none but it's still.

You know a bummer.

So my four I think in alphabetical order by last name Sarah Clark Danielle Gall Ramona Hattendorf and Sean Sullivan.

SPEAKER_02

I didn't do alphabetical order.

I just did a random assortment.

But I just want to comment.

It takes a lot of courage to sit in front of a video camera when you're not a public speaker and try to articulate and form something that is coherent and impressive.

Not all of us are possessed with those skills and possessed.

possess those skills.

Cypress, I see you.

Anyway, that's one of my kids over there.

So I just, I wanna put that on the table because it's clear that people are invested in this process.

And so whatever the outcome is, just know that we noticed, right?

We read your applications, we looked at your videos, and we noticed, and we appreciate you putting your name in the hat.

So my four people are, and not in alphabetical order, and I don't have the last names written down here, so you'll, Hopefully Ellie will be able to decipher.

It's Sarah Carol Danielle and Sean.

Do you need me to look up the last names.

SPEAKER_05

Got Sarah Clark Danielle Gall and the candidates apologies for a name pronunciations.

Sean Sullivan and Carol Thompson.

Is that right.

Did you have Danielle Gall.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

OK.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I will spare you my platitudes, but just know that this is hard having gone through it and being on the other end of it for the second-ish time.

But my selections are Clark, Sullivan, Lusnia, and Thompson.

SPEAKER_06

OK.

I've got Sarah Clark.

Danielle Gall.

Sean Sullivan.

Carol Thompson.

SPEAKER_05

I'm going to read these back just real quick in case anybody's having their little tiny X's on the screen.

I just want to make sure I've got it accurately.

So Director Briggs I have Clark, Gall, Sullivan, and Thompson.

Director Hersey I have Clark, Lusnia, Sullivan, and Thompson.

Director Stardew I have Clark, Gall, Sullivan, I'm sorry Clark, Gall, yes Sullivan, Thompson.

Rankin, Clark, Gall, Hattendorf, Sullivan, and top I have Clark, Lusnia, Sullivan, Thompson.

So the candidates that will continue on for the second round of nominations will be Sarah Clark, Danielle Gall, Ramona Hattendorf, Kelly Lusnia, Sean Sullivan, and Carol Thompson, and I will prepare that table.

So you can pause or whatever President Rankin wants you to do in the meantime.

SPEAKER_08

OK.

So that's a total of how many people.

Six people.

OK.

Do directors want to exact session again or pick three from the remaining six.

This time starting at that and going this way.

SPEAKER_06

But we're now we're each going to name our top three.

And I'm fine to do that without going into executive session personally.

OK.

SPEAKER_08

So when the table is ready Director Briggs will start with you naming three.

SPEAKER_05

So the candidates that are potential nominees for this round are Sarah Clark, Danielle Gall, Romana Hattendorf, Kelly Lusnia, Sean Sullivan, and Carol Thompson.

And if anybody thinks they nominated somebody else in the last round, please let me know.

SPEAKER_06

OK, we're ready to go.

All right, my top three, Sarah Clark, Danielle Gall, Sean Sullivan.

SPEAKER_03

OK my top three are Sarah Clark.

Sean Sullivan.

Carol Thompson.

SPEAKER_02

So from this list.

I'm choosing three correct.

Yeah because I've already chosen.

OK.

Sarah Clark.

Danielle Gull and Sean Sullivan.

SPEAKER_08

Clark Gull — Hattendorf.

SPEAKER_07

I'm sorry about this Luznia Clark Thompson because we didn't eliminate anyone and did exact.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

So I have the candidates continuing on being Sarah Clark Daniel Gall Ramona Hattendorf Kelly Lusnia Sean Sullivan Carol Thompson which spoiler alert is everybody on the screen.

Is that sound right.

Did everybody cast.

OK.

I'm going to prepare for the next round which you'll be casting two nominations.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah.

So we could go to exact if we need to or we could we could each pick two.

And this time we'll start on this end.

Sorry it's possible we could end up with three.

That's OK.

In which case we could either talk about adding one or we could just say we have three.

SPEAKER_07

So Sarah Clark and Carol Thompson.

SPEAKER_02

Clark and call.

Sarah and Danielle.

SPEAKER_03

Clark and Sullivan.

SPEAKER_06

Clark and Sullivan.

That's for.

SPEAKER_08

So after that round the four candidates who have been nominated are Sarah Clark Danielle Gall Sean Sullivan and Carol Thompson.

If that tracks with what everybody stated we don't have anything else to talk about.

I would ask our vice president for a motion to name our our candidates for the district to seat.

SPEAKER_02

OK.

Can I just read from the screen.

OK.

Because I don't have it written down yet.

I move approval of the candidates Sarah Clark Danielle Gall hopefully we're saying that person's name right.

Sean Sullivan and Carol Thompson as the four finalists for the position of district to board director.

SPEAKER_06

I second the motion.

SPEAKER_08

This has been the acceptance of these four names as our candidates has been moved by Vice President Sardieu and seconded by Director Briggs.

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

SPEAKER_05

I don't have my fancy sheet today so it's just going to be in order ending with the president.

Director Briggs aye Director Hersey aye.

Vice President Sardieu aye.

Yeah.

Aye.

Director Topp.

Aye.

And President Rankin.

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you very much directors and thank you again to all of the candidates.

The next step in the process will be for the board forum for The four named nominees for District 2 and the four candidates for District 4 will be on March 27th at Lincoln High School.

The forum will be open to the public and more information will be provided on our board website soon.

It is 530. We're going to move into a work session on the board's community engagement before we do that with directors like a 5. So let's start the work session at 535. Thank you.

All right.

I'll just take your time getting settled on and I'm just going to start with the talking points.

So we are now moving into a work session on board community engagement.

One of our responsibilities as representatives of the public on the board are to engage in engagement with with the community and to engage into a community to engagement with between the board and the community.

We are responsible for providing direction to our one employee the superintendent based upon the vision and values of the the entire community of Seattle Public Schools.

And so we are responsible for determining vision and values.

What is the community want students to know and be able to do.

What are our expectations for the outcomes of anybody coming through our system.

So what are our goals about what we about student outcomes and then what values are held by our community for how our system makes progress on those goals.

So another part of our role is to build understanding of the role of the board and promote good governance to communicate progress towards the goals and monitor guardrails.

As the board something that is why we're having this discussion and why we had the work of the ad hoc community engagement committee is that it's very very easy for board members on any board to get pulled into engaging on operational or school level issues individual things that flare up.

And our responsibility is really to provide the clear direction on behalf of the entire community about the vision and values.

And when we don't do that nobody else steps in and takes that that responsibility.

So in our adopted framework student outcomes focus governance it's referred to as owner issues versus customer issues.

Our owners are the entire Seattle community.

We are elected to represent the entire Seattle community as representing the public that owns this public system.

And owners can be customers also.

Customers can be owners.

They're sometimes one or the other customer issues.

I don't love that term but it's essentially the people who are closer to the point of service and that under our framework is the responsibility of the superintendent and staff.

How is that service being provided?

How is our system responsive to the needs of individuals students and families?

Our responsibility is being very clear about the outcomes that are expected on behalf of the community and monitoring the progress that the district makes in meeting those expectations.

So we've got a bunch of things to support.

I think we're using the right talking points.

Yes.

This this work in this conversation.

We have.

Sorry.

Getting.

Getting the.

That's that's from what we just did.

OK.

Community engagement is something that we have talked a lot about and people say a lot and don't always mean the same thing.

And so where we are in our work is that we have in the meeting materials we have the sort of it's not a one pager because it's more than one page but.

General guidance about two way engagement at the board level.

We have recommendations that were created by the ad hoc governance committee and accepted by the full board.

And then we also have the work of the ad hoc community engagement committee.

So we have lots of pieces lots of resources lots of background and why I wanted us to have this work session is so we could do some things.

We have we have we have done this study we have made these recommendations what do we want to do with them as a as a board.

Both in the larger picture thinking in terms of a policy about the board's engagement with the community and also in the much nearer term is we have a strategic plan that is ending and we need to as a board provide the goals and guardrails to provide direction to the superintendent on the next strategic plan.

And.

We need to do that in pretty short order to provide the time needed to ramp up those you know receive the strategic plan and whatnot.

So the.

Sorry.

So today what we want to talk about is what is the state right now.

What is our desired state in the bigger picture.

And then how do we want to approach engagement on the immediate next golden guardrails.

So in the spring of 2023 then President Hersey convened an ad hoc community engagement committee to establish to do some background work and establish a structure for two way engagement and develop resources to support that engagement.

Director Hersey chaired that committee and the other two members of that committee are no longer on the board.

So I asked Director Hersey to give you know those of us who are new to the board and those of us who weren't on the committee an overview of.

what the outcome of that was.

So please go ahead.

SPEAKER_03

Oh.

Cool.

Right on.

Thank you.

Is it.

Can we put the.

I think we have slides right.

Let's open.

No.

OK cool.

Right on.

So I had the honor of chairing the ad hoc community engagement committee as we or rather as was just mentioned by Director Rankin and in order to kind of understand the magnitude of the work that we put before us and where we still have to go we kind of have to back up a little bit.

That to a sentiment that I think predates all of us and essentially exists for many if not all school districts across the country.

What and how do we do or is community engagement right.

Because we get feedback all the time when an measure or an action is going through.

we will have individuals that will come and they will say, you did not do community engagement because you did not talk to me or you did not talk to X group, right?

And in many ways they are right and in also many ways they are wrong.

The problem though there is that Our right as a board or as an individual board director does not supersede their right.

Right.

As a community member.

Let me explain what that means.

If you do not have a shared definition of what community engagement is.

In the absence of that, when a person comes to you and says, oh, community engagement was not done because I was not consulted, they, in and of itself, are correct to their definition.

For us, when we hear that, it's like, OK, well, we did community engagement.

We engaged with community members who we typically engage with.

Or we did some type of process.

Our right, or what our vision of right is, is also correct.

And so really as an educator by training and a policy person, what I wanted to do with this committee particularly was really get at the root of the problem.

What is our definition of community engagement?

And Student Outcomes Focused Governance does a really good job of outlining what it believes is a really solid way to look at community engagement and give it some parameters on what it is and what it isn't.

And then how do we fit those parameters along with other things that are important to us as Seattle Public Schools into a model that accomplishes a couple of things.

that gives us the opportunity to achieve engagement in teams, right?

So that we're not siloing information and there's not one director that is responsible for an entire engagement.

That allows that communication that happens at that engagement to be two-way.

And for those of you who are listening at home, the difference between two-way communication and one-way communication is For example, if you're coming to give public comment, that's one-way communication because we don't have an opportunity to respond in real time with you.

It's not a conversation.

Two-way engagement would be a sense where you and I are sitting at a table discussing an issue, having a conversation.

There is a give and a take that happens on both sides of the table.

As well as is predictable consistent and is accessible and those things are all kind of rolled into one.

And what that means to me is calendaring.

Right.

So if you take a step or rather if you look at that for Seattle Public Schools and you take a step back from there we oftentimes are in a reactive state.

as opposed to a proactive state.

There are oftentimes building issues.

There are oftentimes policy issues.

There are oftentimes fires, whatever your word or verb might be, that come to us.

And the first time that we're hearing of it is the day of, maybe via email, or for the first time, from the diaster and public comment.

The problem with that is that we We then put board directors, and this has happened again, let me reiterate, has been happening for decades.

It then puts board directors in a solution heightened cortisol state of being.

Because what they're doing is trying to fix the problem as like any elected official worth their salt would try to do.

But if you have a room full of 60 people who are rightfully so infuriated about some particular thing, you're not in a position to where you're making your best judgment calls as you navigate those processes.

Another problem is that when those types of things happen, the harm has often already been done.

And the impact that a board, let alone a singular board director, might have on that problem is minuscule, if not null.

So one of the critical things that came out of this was a large desire to have a multi-year work plan and thanks largely to the work of Ellie Julia others in the board office but really all of Superintendent Jones's team especially for like him giving the go ahead to do this is that for the first time we have a work plan that spans out a year.

Right.

There are a couple of reasons that that was a request that came from community engagement committee and why that is so critical.

In order to be less reactive and more proactive we the board and community need to have a shared document about that is paving the way for what is taking place.

So now that we have this work plan we can look at that work plan and see OK these are all the things that happen on a cyclical basis that we can decide as a board through whatever fashion whether it be a work session like we're doing tonight or a retreat.

We can say yo based on what I know this is going to be something that we want to get some feedback from the community on as early as possible.

So as we are taking next steps I'm really hoping that we are going to utilize our work plan as a road map and backward plan again coming at this from an educator's lens.

Our engagement to get the information we need ahead of time.

And it will give community an opportunity to know when critical decisions are being made.

Because another thing that we're trying to provide is predictability and access.

And I really do believe that that annual work plan is a critical piece to that.

we would be able to have that for two years out.

That's a hard thing to do.

There's a lot of things that we're going to be responsible for over the course of two years, so we're starting with one.

But just imagine the overall vision, and we're very clearly not there yet, the overall vision is to imagine a board member being able to come into the role, either being re-elected or elected for the first time, And being able to sit down and see, OK, for the next two years, these are all the major things that we already know about, right?

Because some things we do.

Contracts, voting on specific things like transportation service standards, x, y, and z, you name it.

There are some things that we do on a regular basis that we can predict.

OK.

So that's part number one.

The other piece that we really wanted to sit down and kind of work on is figuring out what is a structure for a community engagement opportunity that supports all of the themes and things that are really important to SOFG and to proper community engagement, that also builds in an accessible schedule for a board director, right?

And that is a shared opportunity.

When I first came into the board the way that we've always done it.

Now let me be very clear.

There's nothing wrong with this model but I believe that we can do better.

Is that an individual board director based on where they live in the city might reserve a library conference room or like post up at a coffee shop and hold office hours.

That is a very and I repeat very inequitable way to conduct community engagement.

Let me be very clear that's not wrong.

It's not bad but it is inequitable.

And let me explain to you why.

Depending on.

the type of meeting that you're trying to have and what your personal lives entail.

Some of us work full time jobs, some of us do not.

Some of us live in households that have two cars and can get easily to places, some of us do not.

Some of us have children that have very demanding schedules, some of us do not.

And so when you think about building in community engagement in a time that works for a board director, is not necessarily a community engagement opportunity that is going to be predictable or accessible for community members especially those who are the families or have the interest of students furthest away from educational justice in mind.

If we're thinking about some of the things that we've learned from the pandemic, doing things in person, doing things virtually, or having opportunities for passive communication are also valid ways to think about how do we want to engage with community.

And I also think that we have a very limited view of what and who community are as a board of directors.

Because when we think community engagement or at least this is true for me initially when we were before we went into this process I think of parents and families like that is the vision that pops into my head those library meetings.

And I think that we exclude students too often from that, not intentionally, but if we're really thinking about, OK, who's going to show up to a library on a Saturday?

It's not going to be a high schooler, and it's not going to be an elementary student who's seeking out that opportunity on their own.

They're limited to, are their parents even able to bring them?

They have full educational schedules, and we're asking them to come to a library on a Saturday.

You know what I'm saying?

On top of that we represent the entire city.

So if I am limiting myself to engagement in Southeast Seattle then that doesn't necessarily provide access to folks who I represent on the north end of the city and vice versa.

If you are exclusively holding your community engagement opportunities in your district you are effectively.

utilizing only a small portion of resource that is available to you to engage with community.

So as we think about how we want to move forward in an ideal model for community engagement, there are a couple of things that really came up.

within the conversations that we had.

And even though Director Sargi was not officially on the committee, she did join us for probably 75% of the meetings and was a very critical part of going through this.

So Michelle, if there's anything that I'm missing, hop in.

Don't worry, I got you.

I'm always going to correct the record in your favor.

So that being said, What we came up with was a cadence and this is ambitious right of one community engagement event a month for an opportunity for three board directors within OPMA.

That's not true right now but soon it will be to conduct community engagement to where they are rotating outside of their districts as well.

Right.

As well as utilizing our strategic plan and our goals to if there are other like opportunities to schedule additional meetings like we want to be going to where there is a high concentration high population of students who we have focused on our strategic plan.

Those furthest from educational justice black boys and their families.

What we also want to do by specifically doing so in Teams is a level of accountability.

Because I want to be super real with you.

When I first started this and I was doing the library model, I'm just going to call it the library model from now on, I would almost always bring my wife with me as a note taker.

Because it is impossible to engage with a room of 30 people and take incredibly accurate notes and also be fully present in that meeting.

We have to be in a space to where we are also not only providing space for people to come, but they can count on us to close that feedback loop, right?

Even managing our own inboxes.

for the volume of email that we receive, especially when something is popping, is very, very difficult.

Especially if I've got like three other inboxes that, you know, keep my lights on in my house that are going at the same time.

What I want to challenge us to think about is the concept that many hands make light work.

And the ability for us to develop a strong understanding and I would say vision for what Seattle is outside of our director districts.

Right.

So that is the genesis for why we want to do things in teams.

We un-silo.

We provide a more consistent opportunity.

It's not even our birthday, and this dude is sharing trees.

So healthy.

Oh my gosh.

As well.

No, I know.

Round two.

I didn't know that you were into raisins like that.

I'm sorry.

We need to we need to have that.

That's a bigger conversation.

Yeah.

It's like literally for those of you who are listening at home.

The superintendent got a bowl of raisins for his birthday.

Like every 39 year old asks for.

And so what we're really trying to do in this fashion is just ensure that we're breaking down barriers, we are unsiloing information, we are making consistent schedules that people can predict, right?

By having our directors participate in teams and by putting it on a calendar, we accomplish two things.

First, there is an opportunity for your community to know where you're going to be.

Right and maybe they might not necessarily be able to make it to your October engagement But they might be able to make it to your September engagement or your December engagement or whatever the case may be The other piece that that gives credence to is the ability for a community member to essentially if they really want to interface with as much of the board as possible they could then plan out their years like OK I want to show up at these community members and then I would have had an opportunity to speak with this many board directors.

It also gives us as board directors an opportunity to plan out our lives.

around our community engagement opportunities, right?

Because managing a monthly community meeting utilizing the library model with no staff is not a reliable source.

But if we are asking folks to commit to three engagements, because what it breaks down to, if we were to do 12 engagements a year, Members are doing these community engagements and OPM a guidelines which is three per engagement that works out to about three Opportunities that you are expected to be at as a board director over the course of a year Let me make a very clear distinction right now.

I And I've been really trying to think of an analogy to compare the library model to what we're doing now.

And the best way that I can articulate it is that there is community engagement, and then there are community interactions.

And let me go a little bit deeper into that.

I want you to think about it in a workout model.

So say you are on this really strict workout plan.

You're training to be a power lifter at the Olympics, right?

And you are going to the gym on a regular basis.

You're hitting your program, all that good stuff.

But one of those days, you decide, OK, you know what?

I am going to just do a Bowflex at home.

Do they even still make Bowflexes?

I'm going to do a home workout with my waist that I got at home.

That workout isn't bad, but it's not on your plan.

You see what I'm saying?

It's not a bad thing to have community interactions.

It's not a bad thing to continue to have your library meetings, right?

But it doesn't rise to the same level and credence that a community engagement event sponsored by the board does.

And here's the other thing, one's not better than the other, and we're not trying to say that you can't do that.

You should be interacting with your community as much as possible.

That is a good thing.

I would say that you want to be careful about the commitments that you make in those spaces.

I don't think that anybody has any nefarious intent here, but I've been wrong before, I'll be wrong again.

I think that what I'm trying to drive home is that I really view these things as separate, but they serve the same purpose.

To give us a better sense of what are the opinions out in community, How do we translate those effectively into the policy that we create?

And how do we do so in a way that prioritizes making our opportunities for engagement consistent and accessible and predictable, as well as being two-way, as well as hitting all the other marks that we set out for ourselves, or rather that Student Outcomes Focused Governance has set out?

But also, if you want to go and do extra, do extra for sure.

We just need to prioritize and put some parameters around what is the expectation of the board.

So let's talk about some of the deliverables that we've completed.

Before I move on, does anybody have any questions?

Does that track?

Cool.

Thank you.

Hit me up if it doesn't.

Yeah.

Looks like you have a question.

SPEAKER_08

It's actually not a question but maybe a slight restatement and make sure that we're all still talking about the same thing.

Yeah.

That what we're looking to do is define the difference between engagement as an elected official with people who voted for you or with people who have a complaint or concern they want to bring to your attention and engagement as authorized by the board on an issue that is of the board's purview.

So it's it's it's again what Brandon said it's not that the library It's not that that's not engaging with community members it is but that the where we where we are now and kind of historically have been as a school.

My experience as a community member over the last decade plus is that engagement is open mic at the podium which is one way.

which is not actual you know actual engagement or individual library meetings which may or may not be about anything that the board's actually going to make a decision on.

And it tends to veer towards so-called customer issues.

Which again, if you're having a hard time solving a problem and you're not sure who to go to and you hit a brick wall, your board member's not a bad person to go to.

The bad practice is if we as a board then say, we have engaged with the entire community and we can well represent the vision and values of the entire community.

That is what we have to hold ourselves accountable to doing as a board.

that I think that's what we're talking about is not what does it mean to have a conversation with a board director.

But what how do we as a board define board engagement.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

And I think that even taking that a step further it's like.

Going back to the conversation that we had at the beginning it's like OK you say that we didn't do community engagement because I didn't talk to you.

We say that we did community engagement because we talked to these you know community members over here.

I think what that necessitates is for us to a say exactly who we talk to in every instance and be super clear about that and also be prepared to be held accountable to like these are the folks that we talk to and like be super clear because.

It is beyond our capacity to be able to have a conversation with 770,000 people.

You know what I'm saying?

It is beyond our capacity to have a conversation with 45,000 families for every decision that we make.

That is why we have a representative model of government.

OK?

That said we also can't hide behind the fact that think that we're doing a good job and like that it's an acceptable answer to say oh no we did community engagement without telling folks exactly who we talked to.

And I think that like that is a good thing both in terms of accountability and in terms of our values that we have set out for our board and the values that we are trying to reflect to community.

If we are trying to actuate on our strategic plan.

we need to be able to say without question that we regularly interface and engage with black boys and their families.

Point blank period.

If we are saying that we have real goals around making any potential changes to a special education model, we need to be able to say that we have interfaced with those who are receiving those types of services and the people who care for them.

as well as other folks in the community because we don't want to just hear from the people who are most impacted.

We want to hear from as many people as possible or people that make sense.

But what I'm saying is we need to offer or rather take a more strategic approach to how we conduct community engagement and not just like try to you know cast a net and catch as many people as we can because what we are often doing is providing even more access to the folks who generally have showed up at our meetings, and that's not a bad thing.

You wave your head back and forth.

I think that what I'm trying to say is that many things can be true at the same time.

Those folks' opinions matter 100 percent, and we would not be doing our jobs if we did not try our best to take a more strategic approach, to getting as many opinions as we can from the people who are most impacted by the decisions that we're making.

That's just point blank period.

I will fight anybody any day on that.

Director Sargent or Michelle.

SPEAKER_02

I would just like to make a comment please.

Particularly for people who.

I don't necessarily understand the difference between representative governance and board governance.

Unlike other elected officials like city council and county council, they actually have a staff.

Right?

And so they field phone calls, they prioritize, they hand over the most, what they deem the most important to the actual elected official.

That is their sole job.

I mean, there are people in those offices.

That is their sole job.

Contrast to school board we do not have a staff.

I remember back in the day when I was attending when when Mary Bass there's very few of you in here who know Mary Bass but.

Mary Bass comes from a very influential and famous Seattle family.

They're all CD folks.

Her dad and her uncle were principals in this district.

Teachers and then principals.

I used to go to board meeting not board meetings.

Well I did come to board meetings but I used to go to community meetings with Mary and what I didn't know is that I was in training.

because I would have stopped going.

But one thing I noticed about Mary that it's something I don't possess is her ability to be all inclusive.

I do remember her having note takers there.

My role with her was to get food and snacks.

Black folks don't have meetings without food and snacks.

But here's the deal, Mary was paying for that out of her pocket.

So I want to bring up that we don't have a budget either to do actual community engagement.

And so for the public, it's important that you understand we're not city council.

We're not county council.

We're not state, you know, elected representatives or senators.

You know, we don't operate that.

We don't have a staff.

And so this model that Brandon that director Hersey is talking about is what I believe is going to be most beneficial for the community to actually elevate some of those things that we as individual board directors aren't necessarily able to do but then what we can do is we can bring it to Dr. Jones or we can bring it.

you know to Ms. Redman or you know to Fred my friend Fred Podesta over there.

Like we we can actually you know translate who does this go to.

And then the other piece of this and and I'm just going to say it may seem off topic but you shouldn't You shouldn't have to be someone to do this job.

You should be able to work and support your family and still be able to sustain the level of work.

I work a full time job for King County government.

That is my paid work.

It also means as Gina knows there's a boundary that I don't have that I have that other directors don't have.

Well I had that job before I came here.

I'm not quitting it.

And so this model that we're proposing will hopefully allow all of us to actually be involved in community engagement.

I haven't done any, well I've done one.

And I didn't feel like it was successful because it wasn't engagement.

It was me listening to people's complaints about things I could do nothing about.

And so that's not productive and it gives a false it sets false hopes and expectations for the participants.

And so we want the community to understand what our role is and how we can best advocate for this thing that we're going for which is high quality public school education for every single child in this district.

Right.

That's what we want.

That's our role.

But this just random, and it's not that I don't meet with, I do meet with people.

People call me on my cell phone.

If I don't change my cell phone number, I'm gonna continue to get the calls, like I got one today, right?

I'm not changing my cell phone number.

So people who know how to get to me will get to me, and then I've gotta do the back work to get them where they need to go.

And so I'm making these statements for the public, because it's really important that you understand it's not that we're ignoring you.

Right.

It's not that we don't care what you have to say.

It's not that we don't care about your child.

We do.

We do care.

We care about all the kids but we have a limited role and responsibility and we can only do so much.

SPEAKER_03

That's absolutely right.

SPEAKER_08

Go for it.

To add to that I will also say that every time we as individuals take being pulled into one specific instance is actually capacity that we are robbing from our system of providing clear governance and direction on behalf of the whole community.

And it's really really hard to not respond to those things because they're very urgent.

But our responsibility is not to solve those individual problems but to create conditions that will allow for future success of students and to create conditions that will eliminate this reactive stance.

And so I just from the recommendations from the governance committee Proactive predictable scheduling scheduled community engagement will ensure that the board takes responsibility for owner engagement with the entire community and frees the superintendent and the rest of the district staff to focus on customer service family engagement and partner engagement.

So another reason stuff comes to us is because historically the board has not.

solidly defined its role and responsibility in terms of engagement.

Therefore we cannot expect the district or hold the district accountable for providing more effective direct service engagement partnerships with community members who are providing service.

bringing in families to their community bringing families into their child's education because when when and then things still kind of spin out of control because when everybody's in charge of something nobody's actually in charge of it.

So this is also we as a board saying it's our role to represent the vision and values of the entire community and we have to invest in the time and direction in doing that so that We can be clear about our expectations from the district and people know where to go.

We can create a structure where we're not all jumping up every time everything happens.

So the two charges were board take responsibility for owner engagement.

The board creates a proactive engagement opportunity for community rather than a reactive one.

And the board learns to engage as a team rather than individuals which again doesn't mean you can't engage as individuals but we have to be clear when we're doing engagement.

as defined by the board and on something the board is going to discuss or make a decision of.

And when we're doing individual engagement that may or may not have anything to do with something that the board actually has authority over that thing can happen.

But we can't pretend that one is the other.

So Director Hersey if you're it looks like you're prepared to do this.

What the deliverables were and where we are.

SPEAKER_03

Oh yeah where we are.

Yeah that's where we're headed next but before we go there.

SPEAKER_06

Just real quick and it's possible that you're going to touch on this but one of the things that I feel like is really critical here is community education around what the board actually does because we're talking we're talking about it now.

That's part of our job.

OK.

That's actually part of our job.

I don't think so.

No I mean it is it.

Nobody and nobody actually knows what the board does or what the board doesn't do.

Like truly nobody.

And I include myself in that until like two months ago.

So I just think that in order for like I you can talk about that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

OK.

SPEAKER_06

OK.

So I'll.

SPEAKER_03

I think it is critical and I agree with you.

SPEAKER_06

OK.

SPEAKER_03

OK.

SPEAKER_06

I just yeah I feel like if we don't like lead with an education campaign around what we do and what we don't do then it's going to make all of our further engagement more fraught.

SPEAKER_08

And follow up with behavior that aligns with what we've said we do and don't do.

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

Did you have something you were going to say, Juneau?

OK, cool.

So I did just want to throw another log on that fire in terms of being super clear, because we can't just turn the faucet off, though, at the same time.

To your point, there is an educational campaign that is going to have to be multi-phase and multi-year.

Because here's the thing.

if you just have community folks that are coming to you after they have been, their community engagement efforts have been successful in the way that they have been operating for decades, and there's all of a sudden say, nope, we're not doing it, you will not be in your seat for much longer, which you might not want to.

But the idea that I'm trying to communicate is that, Our system isn't fully set up to be responsive in the way that it needs to be yet.

We're still I believe in us.

Our superintendent has made epic strides in that direction and we as a board are getting really really under ourselves.

But I don't want to paint this picture that like the folks who have shown up to the meetings at the library model are only concerned with themselves and their school and their problems right.

There are some real legitimate issues within our system that folks don't know how to fix because they either have not gotten an answer at their school level.

They have emailed either us or like central office and have not gotten a response.

And to just say that like we are in a position to where we are now only representing the vision and values of the community and not supporting those community members in wayfinding.

to get to some form of resolution when they've been ignored is also untenable and frankly unacceptable.

And I think that we all around this table can agree with that.

So it's not it's not as black and white as we would like it to be.

At the same time I think that there is an opportunity to do both and still hold true to all of the aims that we have set out for ourselves and we can talk about that more later if anybody has interest in that.

So let's get to the meat completed deliverables that we have done.

So to your point educating folks on what the board does we did a series of informational one pagers on the role of the board and they can be found in the committee packet and on the committee page on the website.

So those are there.

But I have a problem with that because those are boring, right?

Like, no one who is really trying to figure out what the board does is going to go to the website and be like, oh, I really found that one picture to be incredibly helpful, right?

Like, it just is not going to happen.

And there are some people out there who might, but the vast majority of the people aren't.

And so we need to think of it.

Go ahead, Liza.

I was just going to say, those people end up on the school board eventually.

Yes, exactly.

All of the people who would do it are right here already.

Found them.

But so I think that I would like to challenge us and this is an opportunity for community interaction.

It's not community engagement to think about OK how do we meet people where they're at.

That's the same thing that we ask our teachers to do for our students and our families.

How do we meet them where they're at.

So I think finding more ways to engage in all forms of media.

having a relationship with the news community here in our district, right?

Even though we have one spokesperson, and that is President Rankin, it is a widely known thing that you are more than welcome to talk to these establishments as long as you are communicating with President Rankin, and you're not, you know, going off on a tangent of left field if the board has already voted on something.

You can express your opinion as an individual board member, but once the board has voted on it, That's that's that's what it is.

I think that we could do a better job of utilizing video.

I think we do a better job.

The superintendent Jones really does a great job of this and has done really good jobs of this in the past in terms of just putting videos out to communicate things to the district.

And families and things like that.

I think that we could do a better job of going on podcasts I think that we could do a better job of like showing up in traditionally non-educational spaces There is a huge faith community that we have not necessarily tapped into a lot And if we're really thinking about where our students are it's not just limited to community based organizations surprisingly I think we can have a better relationship with our labor partners in the business community quite frankly because if I'm thinking about what I would be doing at this age as a 16 year old here in the city of Seattle.

And this is just for me I know I'm painting a very limited picture.

I'm either at a sneaker shop trying to find my next pair of J's right because I'm addicted or I'm at my job trying to earn money to buy whatever it is I'm trying to do.

So if I'm really trying to be in a position to where I am not only preparing our students for the world that comes after them or or rather the world that comes after our care at Seattle Public Schools.

I think that we could do a vastly better job of interfacing with our labor partners and especially those who might not necessarily have jurisdiction here at Seattle Public Schools.

I'm talking about like MLK labor building trades all that type of stuff to see OK what are you looking for.

Right.

as well as our business community.

Where are you seeing our kids hang out?

What are they interested in?

I think that there's just so much good information that we can gain from sectors that we normally haven't interfaced with that could do a really good job of indicating the vision and values of our community in ways that we traditionally haven't before.

So that's just my plug for doing things a little bit different occasionally.

Again, not engagement, but still important.

The next thing that we have completed is a template for a board community engagement event that's included in today's packet.

We wanted to provide some sort of structure because when I was putting together meetings for the library model and even meetings for the D7 group that I used to host during the height of the pandemic, We were really either just talking about topics of the day or like it was a free for all.

And by having a template and a starting place it really not only better positions board directors to be more effective in those meetings in terms of making sure that you're giving really good information.

It also provides a roadmap for folks who are going to be attending your meeting in terms of an agenda.

We haven't we would not go into a school board meeting without an agenda.

We should not do that for community meetings either.

OK.

List of topics that the board community list of topics for board community engagement also in your packet.

If you want to take a look at those and if you have any questions for them let me know.

I don't have it in front of me.

I'm not looking at one of the documents at this moment.

But I'm more than happy to come over there in just a second.

Cool.

Right on.

Next up is recommendation for cadence of meetings, phasing of work, and a fall engagement calendar.

Let me be super clear.

We were hoping to do this in a more, I would say, cohesive way.

But given that we are five and no longer seven, we got a lot of stuff going on, as we always have.

And that's been the real biggest challenge of being able to stand this up in the way that we all want and envision, is because I think as, again, Changemakers, solutions-oriented people.

Once we have a model, we want to stand it up immediately.

And nothing, Rome was not built in a day.

It took us decades, and this is something that I borrowed from Superintendent Jones and his team especially.

Shout out to Fred Podesta.

I don't know where you at, but shout out to you, Fred.

Hey, there he is.

It took us decades to build this problem is going to take us decades to solve it right to solve it effectively.

So and another thing I heard from Superintendent Jones but how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time when you're tackling something like community engagement which has been a problem in every school district since the dawn of school districts one meeting at a time.

I think that they're also for this board and for the individuals on this board is a need for things to be perfect before we do them.

And I think that especially because you don't want it to go poorly.

Right.

and you want people to feel like they got something from it, but a really, I'm just the king of sayings tonight, a really popular saying in the creative community, you've probably heard this, Evan and Liza, is don't let perfect get in the way of the good.

Yes.

And you will only get better from there.

But this is like, for me, like in my spare time, what little I have, I am a creative, I have thousands of hobbies.

And I have the perpetual desire to share those hobbies with the world in many mediums.

The problem is, is that like, I don't do that because I'm so inside of my head thinking like, oh, this isn't good enough to share yet.

I need to do X to it.

Whereas when I show it to my friends, I'll just be honest with you, I'm really into Lego right now.

I'm trying to get to a point where I have the skills that are good enough to present my work at the convention that comes here.

It's called BrickCon.

And I'm building these models, and I'm like, this doesn't look any better than when I was seven.

And then I'll show them to my friends, and they'll be like, where did you buy that set?

As if it was something that I had gotten off of a store shelf.

And so that is just a constant reminder.

We are our own biggest critics, and there are people out there that will love us just for putting it out there.

So I don't want good, or rather I don't want perfect to get in the way of the good for us because we don't have time to just like try to like, and I think this is another thing that we get critiqued on is like we're such sophists that like we'd sit and we'd talk through the Seattle process of like, oh, well, we've got to have this and we've got to do that and we've got to have this and we've got to do that.

And it's like, people just want to talk to us.

People just want to know where they can find us.

They want to come talk to us.

They want to know what's going on.

And we need to put ourselves in a position to do that.

I think Superintendent Jones did a great job of that.

And while it wasn't necessarily by student outcomes focused governance board engagement great engagement through well-resourced schools and an opportunity for board directors to come and see what that could look like I think was a great opportunity.

Did it fit.

to a T the model that was laid out.

No nothing ever will.

But I don't think that the answers would have been any different had we done it by the student outcomes focus governance model versus like what we got out of here and maybe they would have been.

I don't know.

I don't see the future.

But what I can say is that that was a group we get constantly really good feedback on that and.

I think that that gives us an opportunity to not let perfect get in the way of the good and to accept help when we can have it.

So.

Some key.

So those are the completed deliverables in addition to the timeline that Ellie and board staff or board office staff completed.

Do we have any questions on those.

Go for it.

SPEAKER_08

Timeline one pagers template.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

Topics.

Yep.

SPEAKER_08

Were there other.

Deliverables not met that we so.

So because the committee has sunsetted.

Yeah.

If there were other double deliverables not met.

Do we want to meet those or are they no longer relevant.

SPEAKER_03

I do not believe so.

No I don't think that they're relevant especially for this time.

I don't think that there were any that we'd like just draft.

I just can't remember.

Yeah me either.

But to that point I think what logically makes the most.

like the next step is that like so for example you had the ad hoc community the ad hoc engagement on governance right of like presenting or what was it the what was the exact name the one that you the government you mean presenting our recommendations but no no no what was the name of the committee ad hoc governance committee right so you present your recommendations and then it was up to the full board to execute right So you want to adopt to adopt.

Yeah but to also do you know what I'm saying.

So like yes to adopt but also to actually do the recommendations.

I think what logically from my vantage point knowing the work that we got done and where we need to be my suggestion would be either to.

Making a task of the full board and let's just do it or like figure out a way to implement it in a way that could either be through a separate committee.

But I think especially as we're having.

I'm just saying it could be.

No I know.

But I think it's going to be a grand opportunity when we have two more board directors join us to just hit the ground running and implement through some of the things that we've laid out here which is actually a really good segue.

Was that your only question or did you have more.

SPEAKER_08

No, I think that was it.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, sick.

So, which brings us to takeaways, right?

So, first one, phasing community engagement.

This kind of goes back to eating the elephant one bite at a time.

We need to just set a goal and take it one step at a time.

We need to have a meeting.

We need to figure it out.

Let's plan out once we get these two new board directors.

Let's plan out three meetings for the rest of the year whatever it might be.

I'm just spitballing.

But like seriously like we just need to do it.

We just need to do it.

And I think that like what I really love about where we are now is that we're actually utilizing work session time to do our work.

And I think that these would be great times to do some planning around when where actually get like the check boxes lifted for like how our community engagement is going to look per topic.

That way folks can also watch these work sessions to see how we came to these decisions.

So that's one thing.

The next piece is the need to coordinate with staff for community engagement timing learnings community feedback and technical support.

This Superintendent Jones was all in on this and what that looked like when we were meeting as a committee.

So just continuing that relationship.

I'm sure the two of you will talk as you often do to figure out what that looks like.

And then we need to, at the end of that process, we said we wanted to wait until the new directors started to hold the events.

Surprisingly, we are back in that position.

So I think that that actually holds really true.

I think that given the fact that we're gonna be holding forums for the new directors, that's engagement in and of itself is probably chief to the most important thing that we're doing right now.

So that we can have full representation to tackle big things like the budget and everything else.

So.

My two cents.

Continuing work.

I think that we need to schedule.

Spring community engagement events.

I think we need to determine numbers of events that we want to have for the 24 25 calendar.

I think we need to finalize our engagement toolkit.

And then there's also been a lot of talk around the community engagement policy.

I think the only thing that I would recommend is that the policy and actually doing community engagement are dual track, that one does not necessarily come before the other.

The reason for that is that by getting into it and seeing if this model that we set out for ourselves even works well for us would probably inform some pieces of the policy that have left to be seen.

And additionally, we just don't have any more time to wait in terms of making sure that we are engaging with our community as much as possible.

So that being said, this was a very heady committee in leading a community.

This was a very heady committee in leading a committee with the voting directors being Director Hampson and Director Harris was fun, to say the least.

I think, though, those two particularly, and I say that just in a silly manner, but there's a reason that I chose both of them to serve on that committee.

They both represent in a really critical aspect of community engagement that I think is both critical for the district and offers a ton of opportunity for growth in those areas.

And I say that because when we're thinking about our board in general like with those two directors who are no longer serving on the board with us.

an immense amount of institutional knowledge across many different aspects of this district and have seen a lot of the same problems that we are experiencing right now both from the vantage point of being on that side of the podium and that side of the podium.

I also believe strongly that.

as we are building this out we need to be 100% committed to making it stick because if we it's going to be another cycle of like if we get our community if we do our jobs good enough and we can show our community that like we can engage with you in a way that is not only going to be more productive and accessible for everybody, but also closes the feedback loop.

And then that all of a sudden goes away for whatever reason, that's problematic.

And it just adds to a spiral that I don't think would necessarily be healthy, especially given a lot of the really challenging things that are ahead of us.

So that's what I got for you.

Let me know if you have any questions.

SPEAKER_08

So.

Oh do you have a question.

Thank you Brandon for the work and also the report out of the work.

So we we had on here kind of discuss the current state and discuss where we want to go.

And so I think our current state is what it is and are where we want to go.

We have so we have here the recommendations from the governance committee which is a pretty solid foundation including a sample policy.

We have the.

creating an active and meaningful board ownership connection guidance from our governance structure.

And then we have a whole lot of implementation tools from the ad hoc engagement committee.

So.

What's where I'm headed for the rest of this meeting is as Brandon said the policy doesn't have to come before anything happens.

But we do need to take these pieces that we have and commit to something on paper.

Just because that's how we govern ourselves.

That's in our in our governance manual.

Any board director joining the board should be able to see what do we mean when we say community engagement and to go oh I see this is this is the this is what the board thus far has committed to doing with a procedure that says how it happens.

That's that's made in cooperation with staff.

depending on capacity so that there's an agreement of what are we expecting ourselves to do and what support is there to do it.

So we need to kind of take all these take the.

The implementation resources.

and the recommendations and that's our kind of longer term that eventually needs to be codified in policy and incorporate into the schedule.

In the immediate we have goals and guardrails for the next strategic plan.

Which is a huge opportunity for community engagement right now.

And what's really cool is that we will have a board of seven who gets to be part of that process together from the beginning.

Instead of catching up or oh I totally disagree with that or you know what are you guys talking about.

We have an opportunity to build that plan together and provide the guidance to the superintendent in a very cohesive way that I am excited about.

We also have an opportunity to just like we actually don't have time to wait.

We need to start that engagement yesterday.

Yep.

And so we're able to not let perfect be the enemy of the good and just do some stuff.

So did you have before I move us forward.

I don't want to.

OK.

So basically what I wanted us to talk about today was the longer term the work from the committee and these other things a policy for what our expectations are and what we hold each other accountable for and what committee can what the community can expect from us.

And then the short term we've got to get these goals and guardrails.

So the.

Typically or in in the model that we're using the committee a committee exists to make recommendations to the full board so they would pass recommendations of some kind vote them out and that would come to the board in a package for the board to discuss the recommendations and adopt as Brandon mentioned with the governance committee.

So these are implementation we could adopt a package.

We could also task if somebody is particularly interested in starting a draft policy that these things support and that could.

And again we don't have to wait for that to happen before we do these other things.

But that's a body of work that needs to happen.

We need to have sort of the the full authorization of the board for yes this is what we agree to do.

So I'm kind of throwing out there if anybody is.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah I'm happy to spearhead the actual policy work.

Cool.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And we could have a welcome a team.

SPEAKER_08

I was gonna say we could definitely have a second person without worrying about OPMA.

Yeah.

And I think I feel like that's something we could do without having to have another committee.

We could just say the work has been done.

It's very transparent.

We've had an opportunity to look at it and understand.

Yep.

the recommendations and now what we need is something that the board can can say thumbs up from the board.

Yep.

So that is awesome.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_08

I know.

If you want to take that piece.

Nobody has to decide right now but if somebody else wants to tag team and I know staff has already the board office staff has indicated and Bev that they are prepared to support us in that and to be super duper clear.

This is a governance policy.

This is not our direction to the district about how the superintendent and staff should engage with people.

This is a policy for the board's interaction and engagement with community and our direction to ourselves.

So this is all you know we could it could come back through the ad hoc policy committee too since we have to Briefly stand that up again to complete that work.

So so sweet.

We have that.

In the shorter term we have the goals and guardrails.

And so are we ready to shift to that from from the longer term conversation.

OK.

SPEAKER_01

I feel like there's something on the tip of your tongue.

Hold up.

SPEAKER_04

There was just a lot of a lot of positive things said around task and I've just been synthesizing and I was going to share that but I can come back because I think I think president Rankin got most of it.

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

OK.

But director Todd did you still have something that you wanted.

You sure.

OK cool.

SPEAKER_08

OK so in the short term we have been having the I don't know what to call it direct service engagement engagement with families about what they how they would define like critical components of a school what a well resourced school is.

The part that we are responsible for as a board is well resourced to do X.

So if we so we need to continue on that conversation with OK we've we've discussed with families and heard from families what's important to them in a school what they expect there.

Our job is to engage with the whole Seattle community about our expectations for the children of Seattle including business faith labor.

You know all these different groups and provide direction to the superintendent in the form of goals and guardrails about what the expectation is from these well-resourced schools and that will both is A our obligation as the board to set those but B allow for the continued conversation of implementation of when we're talking about what we what decisions there are to make.

It needs to be in the context of what it is we're trying to achieve.

So we.

Actually, is this?

If you are I would love for you to add now kind of the the highlight version of the well-resourced school conversation to this point which many of us have participated in.

But if you want to add that and then we can continue to talk about how those two things are going to dovetail together and then and then what we're going to do with that as a board.

SPEAKER_04

Yes I'm going to ask Bev Redmond to tag team with me on this.

And as.

President Emeritus Hersey was talking about well resourced schools was one of the four points that came out of the community engagement ad hoc committee and our attempt to do that was to just extend the reach of that committee to community get some some activity going and making sure that we've reached out to community five different five different regions and brought information back that could be used to advance the things that we need to advance.

Seeding what we're going to talk about with the levees, seeding what we're going to talk about with the strategic plan, seeding what we're going to talk about with the upcoming budget challenges at that time.

And so garnering that information was a very rich process.

If you could kind of talk about the highlights of that and then where director rank President Rankin and I have been talking about is how how does that how does that is that foundational is that a catalytic piece of piece of information or is it something that we can we can use and refine in a different way.

But I just wanted to make sure.

we got centered again on what the outcome of those engagements were and I think the real question on the table now is how will we use that information going forward?

SPEAKER_10

Good evening to the board and thank you for bringing forward one of my favorite topics.

I am going to drop back in the pocket just for a second to reclaim a little bit of information.

You said don't let the good become enemy of getting to great or that perfect element that we're trying to often the other way around trying to guard against.

That was really the impetus of well-resourced schools.

It started in the ad hoc community engagement committee.

And as we sat and talked and talked and talked, we said, we got to go.

We really need to get out there.

It's not going to be perfect, but we need to take the steps out there.

And it's better if we go together.

And that was one of the comments that we received from the community or the reaction.

All of us showing up in tandem.

And being in space together, they rarely get to see that other than in this kind of space.

And we know what viewership is like at a board meeting.

It's limited, right?

So that was one of the elements that got us started.

It wasn't meant to be everything, but it was meant to be a continuum and a start.

So we began in August of last year going out and talking and speaking to our community across the regions.

And breaking that up, night by night, yes, was it a sacrifice?

And we will have sacrifice as we're going back out and doing this.

But we came and we talked about three questions.

What do you love about your schools?

What about the academics and the extracurriculars?

And then what supports do you want to see?

Again, not knowing that we were guarding against that perfect piece, but not knowing exactly what we would get.

There's a fear of what you might encounter, but we encountered a version of success.

Not the ultimate.

We're never going to get there.

We're always going to be striving.

But what we saw, over 4,000 pieces of, I'm sorry, connection points or people coming to events.

Either they were coming in person or they were contributing to survey.

And over 7,000, Dr. Jones says near 10,000.

I'm like, okay, it's over 75. I'll get there.

Give me a little more room to run, thank you.

Those data points came in and what we heard, neighborhoods, they love their neighborhoods, love the schools that are in their areas.

Also love, don't touch the academics.

Keep that high and achieving.

Please give us the extracurriculars.

And then on top of that, the supports that we need, particularly across mental health, braid that in.

One of the, I would say, weak boards.

We identified it coming in again not trying to be perfect but we needed more time with our students.

We also needed more time with families that aren't going to come to the microphone.

Aren't necessarily going to go on and get to a survey because this may be their only piece of equipment that they have.

So the need is to go to well resource too.

So I'm going through we went through phase one we're going to two.

We'll be headed out toward the end of this month, not too many days from now, going out to see students, also doing a student survey.

Then we are also going to hold a night and maybe I don't know if we'll get to two but at least one major night for our families our multilingual families and our families.

And I'm going to use the word affinity groups for this reason but I'm going to explain what I'm talking about.

We want to make sure that we're getting to our families that we don't see in here.

And I'm going to say families that might look like me.

Families who might have ASL as part of their main language or is their main language.

We want to make sure that we're getting to those families.

That doesn't mean y'all can't come.

You can.

However, I want to make sure that the doors are open for those individuals and that this is a time to highlight what's going on in their families and how they feel about their schools.

How do they feel about the academics and the extracurriculars.

How do they feel about the supports for their students that need to be available or their children.

They don't like it when we call them students.

They're their children.

They're our children.

So.

That is phase two.

And we stand ready.

And I'll repeat we stand ready when you're ready.

To do the same thing that you did for us and well resource one.

And that is show up together.

Dr. Jones.

SPEAKER_04

Bev, always clear and compelling.

I want to, if it's all right with the chair, to just kind of open it up for you all to ask us questions about the ideation and where we're going and what our thoughts are, if you have those.

Otherwise, I'm going to give it back.

You all have a good sense of what well-resourced schools that engagement was and what can we do to extend that and make it go further.

Check out check some more boxes in terms of places that we didn't get to and things we want to see and reframing of questions and whatnot but just really want to open it up to you all.

SPEAKER_02

I just want to take this opportunity to thank my friend Mr. Podesta for finally getting to answering my question.

What is the definition of a well-resourced school?

For those of you who don't know like that is like don't come up with some term.

Don't come up with some acronym.

If you can't define it and explain it for the people then we really shouldn't be talking.

I hounded him and hounded him.

and hounded him and he just kept you know giving me grace and saying we're going to get to that.

And we got to it and we're on our way.

Is it perfect?

No we're not looking for perfection but it was really good.

At least the couple of sessions that I went to It was really good.

And it's something that has never been done in this district before.

And I know y'all I keep reminding you I've been here 37 years.

Right.

I've never seen anything like it.

And so we need to give praise to the organization and the hard work and the effort that that went in to that with no prototype.

of having done it before.

And so I think the staff deserves you know the executive staff all the staff who played a role right.

Because there are people who played a role that we don't even know we don't even get to see because they're not visible to us but they played a part.

Like I saw people in the Garfield cafeteria that I knew were staff but I'm like what are they doing.

You know like I didn't understand but then after was like oh this was their job.

This was their role to show up and do this.

And I don't know their names I just recognize them but I hope I'm going to I think I'm speaking OK on behalf of the board to give to let them know that they were seen at least by me.

I don't know what any of these other people were doing but they were seen by me.

And that matters.

Like it matters.

Anybody who knows me knows that I care about those people.

Right.

I care about the people that don't get the credit because they don't have the title or they their their pay grade is such that we just don't get to see them.

SPEAKER_08

Oh yeah.

Director Brinks go ahead.

SPEAKER_06

I was just curious to know a little more about the student engagement piece.

And is that something that you all are planning to do during the school day like going into schools with kids while they're there.

And you mentioned that that's happening at the end of the month or start will start at the end of the month.

And I'm just wondering if there's been if that's already been shared publicly and all that just detail kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_10

All that detail kind of stuff.

Yes.

Shared already.

No coming.

Yes.

So we'll be releasing that in the next few days.

You'll start to see some of that information start rolling.

And in terms of the survey we're going to start survey.

That will be focusing on our high school students because they have that access and we certainly have been afforded that access to them.

Releasing that by email.

Going to work with our schools to make sure that there is some time designated so it's just not left up to chance or to availability.

as much as we possibly can to encourage participation there.

And then we'll be able to work with some of our student groups.

We're working with the Office of AAMA and others to make sure that we are bringing some groups together to have those conversations in person as well.

So we're going to try on both sides.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

So so another piece of this is we have the opportunity to not just tuck in some questions that are vision and value questions but we can actually center some of those questions as we as we do this so this can have dual purpose not just uh getting information around how we do the work what we need to be sensitive to what we what the wants wishes and desires of community are both staff internally and externally but also really can as as you all will guide us you know what are the essential questions that you all want answered so that we can uh double down on these opportunities to get this vision and value data that you all can have to ultimately reset the goals and guardrails, thrust us into the next strategic plan, and then we can go forward.

So there's definitely room for that.

Bev, I'm not talking out of turn, because I know that's my desire.

But sometimes it's harder to get it done.

But I think we can.

It's not just a tuck in and an addendum.

I think it can be centered as we go forward.

Is that right?

Happy birthday, sir.

Yes, we can do that.

We can make it happen.

Wink, wink.

SPEAKER_10

No we can get it done.

SPEAKER_08

So where we go from here.

We've got the the longer term.

What would sort of our foundational cadence and expectation of engagement be that director Hersey has agreed to continue leading on in the shorter term for the goals and guardrails.

Dr. Jones and I have talked and are aligned in an approach that now I just want to share with you all.

And if this seems like a good approach we will keep going.

If it doesn't now is the time for us to talk about it which is that.

We should in order to give the clear direction that is needed for the development of the next strategic plan.

We should really have our goals and guardrails.

And again it's not going to.

I don't anticipate some wide departure from the current ones.

We're not going to start with everybody needs to learn how to scuba dive.

by the time they're in third grade or whatever.

You know it's not going to be like a huge shift.

I don't anticipate.

But we need to go back out and reaffirm with with the whole community.

What are the what are the what are the their goals for what children are able to know what children know and are able to do when they leave our system.

And what are the values that are that are sacrosanct that we won't violate on our way to meeting those goals.

And so we really need to have those adopted by the time we take our July kind of recess.

So you know about the same time we got the budget.

It's not a big deal.

It's not a big time.

There's not a lot going on.

But we basically are in a situation now where we're talking about the budget and the approve the approving of the budget for the 24 25 school year under the current strategic plan which is totally fine and appropriate.

As soon as we adopt that budget.

staff immediately starts to work on the on the next budget.

And so for us to get in front of that conversation and provide the direction on behalf of our community we need to say here are our goals and our guardrails so that they can get to work on.

proposing strategies to meet those and start looking at budgeting for 25 26 under a known set of golden goals and guardrails.

So yeah.

Director Topp.

SPEAKER_07

I thought on the timeline the budget timeline we would get a preview for those future budgets on your May 8th meeting.

Is that correct.

So how does that line up then.

SPEAKER_08

So we're going to get a sort of forecast on what the expectation is in terms of what resources we will have at that point.

My understanding is it's not going to be.

You're super specific.

SPEAKER_04

May 8th is the final plan.

This is where we're going for 24-25.

However, along the way we're going to start to talk about here are the 25-26 buckets if you will.

As you recall we approved the fiscal stabilization plan for 20 24 20 24 25. And then there's the other three items on the fiscal stabilization plan that also speak to what we're what we're considering in 25 26. And so by May 8th you all will have a good preview if you will of.

what we're considering for the 25 26 year but May 8th is really to close out to 24 25 is the final final document if you will.

And so but in our dialogues we're going we're starting to.

Gradually release some of the planning for the for the second year including you know what we're going to be trying to pursue with the legislature including what kind of things that we need to be focused on for our levy.

And those are all 25 26 items.

SPEAKER_07

Sort of.

I'm a little bit confused how it comports with your timeline but I'm willing to keep going here.

SPEAKER_08

I think there's always multiple like we don't want staff to wait on like staff has a pretty good idea of what our projected revenues will be what we'll have to work with basically.

And I think a good idea like we know that our highest costs is is people that's not going to suddenly change.

Right.

So the budget as always until it's approved and even when we approve the budget for 24 25 that's the budget as is the best guess at that moment in time.

You know things start to.

to change you know quickly thereafter.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah so I'm getting your question.

I think you know we we refer to this timeline that Dr. Buddleman shows us around budget as the snake and there's different elements of it that we're talking about now that would line up also with strategic planning.

And so let us work out a different snake that shows this sequence and some of these things are going to run concurrently.

And so the overlap we need to be able to be really clear on how things won't.

It's not going to be a sequential things are going to be happening simultaneously.

So I want to be able to show you that in a in a in a written document and in a graphical form so that we know what we're talking about.

And this is new that President Rankin and I have been talking about in terms of how do we sequence this up.

So we may have some.

And when she said July was the July ish.

And when we're talking about bringing a new guardrails and goals and guardrails on to inform the new strategic plan that will launch actually in 25. But this is just some some foundational work that we'll be doing in the duration of 24 and into early 25. And so we do need to sequence this in a way that it makes sense.

So I get your question.

SPEAKER_07

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

And a visual would be helpful, because I've got that snake in my head, and I'm tracking and crossing off days or months.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, we need to interweave some of these streams.

Where I would suggest we go and goals and guardrails is basically we need to decide what we need what information we need what we need to hear in order to be able to develop and approve our next set of goals and guardrails.

The well-resourced schools conversation has I think a lot of the values pieces in it.

But in terms of student outcome goals I think we are need to ask some other questions specific about student outcomes.

So to add on to that excuse me.

And so the suggestion that I would have as a way to start And if you all if it sounds good I will work with Bev and Brent to to firm it up.

But where we are at is and I've looked at a lot of other districts processes for determining their goals and guardrails.

We basically we need to schedule a work session or excuse me a retreat end of June beginning of July that we would dedicate towards whatever information we've gathered about goals and guardrails.

We would spend a day together looking at those to come up with what they're what they are.

And then there would be you know a draft of those and then we would adopt them at a meeting and that would provide what Dr. Jones needs to know for the target of what we're what we're aiming for.

You know the 2030 vision.

In terms of the information that we need to gather we could schedule as part of regular board meetings or as other events we could schedule I'm just making this up two times where we invite community to a session with all of us all seven of us in addition to or we could instead have our here's our five questions that we're going to ask that will help us get the information that we need to determine these goals and guardrails and we could each have sort of a outreach toolkit that if you go to a piece if you're invited to a PTA meeting you could say oh hey while I'm here We're working on our goals and guardrails as a board.

Here are the questions that the board is asking everybody.

So we're not all saying you know we're not all asking for we're asking for the same for answers to the same question as a whole.

And we could also have the support of staff to stand up a forum where people could just anybody could also put in their answers to the five questions.

or four or five questions and there's there's really good examples of the the the questions that other districts have asked to get at what the goals and guardrails are.

So if some combination of.

A way for us each to go out and ask questions wherever we are and collect that information works.

I will work on that with staff in a form of some kind.

And then and we don't have to answer these questions right now in this moment but also an opportunity or two where maybe we're all together in one space or maybe two.

I don't know a split.

an opportunity to invite people into a discussion.

But basically where we would and then we would as Brandon was talking about you know who have we talked to who did we engage with.

We would gather you know I'm going to actually like the Ballard Lions Club next week.

It would be so great to be like hey what is your vision for you know the students the children of Seattle and be able to be like Lions Club.

You know this ish demographic this area of town this relationship to Seattle schools and be able to you know when we get to the end or when we get to like the end of May be like oh my gosh you know in looking at all the different people we've asked about this we're hugely missing the business community or whatever that might be.

If that sounds like a reasonable approach we can work to formalize something.

The other thing I think is really cool is that it will give once we have our two other board members it just it will give us all an opportunity to have this immediate thing that has to be very much a team effort and also an opportunity for us to sort of introduce new board members to the to the community as we're doing this stuff.

SPEAKER_07

OK.

Yes.

All of that makes sense.

And then did Brent sort of offer through their part two of the well resource schools to add in some of this work as well.

So where that.

So we hadn't talked about it.

Also did I mishear that.

SPEAKER_08

No we had talked about that like if we have our questions that if Brent is meeting with I don't know higher ed faculty for something I'm just picking something that he could say well I'm here meeting with you on behalf of the board.

We would really they would really like your input on these five questions.

You know please send that feed send that to them.

SPEAKER_07

And I'm thinking even further in the well-resourced schools part two conversations that this is embedded into those conversations.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06

OK so tell me if I got this right.

So your your plan that you're proposing is that we wherever any of us end up we're like hey here's here's our questions that we're asking that I'm tracking with that that'll make sense.

And then maybe you allocate a portion of regular board meetings to this or something.

I think the part that I'm not totally understanding is what Where are the other intentional like deliberate actions that we are.

Sorry I'm like totally.

I've lost all my words.

I.

I guess what I'm trying to say maybe I need to come at this differently.

I'm not sure I'm not hearing in the plan how we are assured that we are going to get to hear from the folks who we already have a hard time hearing from who don't who don't like what are we doing between now and the end of May I guess or.

maybe beginning of June to ensure that we are creating opportunities for people who aren't necessarily going to show up to any of these things that we're talking about and making sure that we're hearing from them about what their vision and values are.

SPEAKER_08

So some of that I do think would be individually on us as directors to take those questions to reach out to our communities and take those questions.

We also.

So I guess my question is I feel like minimum we need these these questions that we're going to ask to inform us about developing the goals and guardrails a way to collect that information a way for us individually to if we're in a space.

Be able to ask it.

And then my question would be and it sounds like there is willingness and capacity on the part of staff.

Do we also want to set up as part of part two or as part of a board meeting.

Come to us session to answer these to talk about and answer these questions.

Yeah.

And then in terms of communities that aren't often reached I really think that's part of our role is to make sure that we are.

SPEAKER_06

Right going there I guess.

So yeah what I'm what I'm really trying to say is in this in our community outreach plan for how we're going to conduct community outreach going forward.

I feel like we need to implement that like right now.

Do you know what I mean.

Like I feel like we need to do the thing that we're talking about doing in the future in order to get the information now that we need for the vision and values.

SPEAKER_04

Yes so one of the points Director Hersey talked about was scheduling the 24-25 calendar now ish but there is also the remaining calendar for this year so I think we need to have to your point we need to have some intentionality behind which which groups do we want to hear from which groups to have the salient information that we need to move forward to say we've come up with enough information to establish these new goals and guardrails.

So I think it's maybe another session or a small group of the board perhaps that can say these This would be enough or these would be the type of groups we need to hear from between now and July for us to be comfortable to say we've we've we've we've met and we've conferred with these different groups and we have the we have the information and so I think we definitely want to be support and help and even have some advisory support for you all as to how to get that done.

But if we want to do it in an intentional way and we want to launch it now.

I think we need to put it we have to be intentional about putting it on the calendar.

SPEAKER_06

Totally agree.

That's that's exactly what I was trying to get to.

I think.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08

I think the other thing too is keeping some kind of a running list of you know and this is something we've talked about anyway of you know where have board members been who have we talked to.

This would actually be a really good test run of some kind of list for ourselves that we know where we've been and we know who we might be missing that we want to hear from.

SPEAKER_04

So so Bev, President Rankin, or I'm talking to myself, we've talked about this concept between a rotating board meeting and you know one of the concepts we've touched on was What is a well-resourced school?

Let's have a let's actually have a board meeting in a well-resourced school or something that has the contours of that.

And and wherever we're trying to be regionally or with specific groups we can actually be invitational and and maybe have a We have board meetings every twice a month.

Typically one one meeting here and one meeting at a school and at that school will also be invitational to the type of folks or not the type of folks the populations that we're trying to we're trying to reach out to.

So if you all can put a finer point on that I just want to kind of press into that a little bit around.

We have venues use them in a way to be be targeted and intentional.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah this is something that we have talked about more actually about meeting agendas but it's definitely connected to community engagement knowing that there's a desire and a need to add that in.

So something that I have a draft of on my computer because I don't have a life is an A agenda and a B agenda where an A agenda would be focused on progress would be focused on like the bulk of non-business items would be progress monitoring.

That would be here.

In a B meeting the there would be time reserved for you know hopefully in the future we have a policy review schedule for policy discussion or some other form of community engagement.

So I don't know what the capacity is right now but that is something we could think about implementing sooner than I thought maybe we would be able to with alternating between the John Stanford Center and a school.

And if we're in you know If we're at I can't even think of a school right now trying to think of a school that's actually the school that my kids go to all need to be rebuilt.

SPEAKER_04

Rankin Elementary.

SPEAKER_08

There if we're at Rankin Elementary we could and I like what you're saying about being an invitational go beyond just saying oh well there's a board meeting here.

But hey we know that there we know that we're going to have the.

May whatever meeting in this location and the communities that live around there are this this this.

Let's let's specifically ask that faith group that community resource hub to you know actually say like we would like you to come here.

We're going to have a meeting at your school.

Come at such and such time and we want to hear from you and we'll be talking about.

this.

I think the willingness and eagerness on the part of the board is definitely there to do that.

I also know there's a lot that needs to happen between now and the end of the school year.

This could be a really cool kind of jump into the deep end of.

What we need to do because we need that information from our community to make our goals on guardrails but also kind of a three month trial period of longer term.

What worked what didn't.

What do we want to do more of what do we want to maybe not do again in the future as we as we have a more kind of a less on the immediate need and more on the kind of foundational expectations for community engagement.

So I guess we're not taking any action right now but if this is feeling like the right thing to talk about and do.

I think we can move on that.

The thing we do have to do is adopt goals and guardrails for the next strategic plan.

SPEAKER_07

I think what would be helpful is sort of the ideas discussed here today, putting it together on like a timeline for, you know, here are the well-resourced school conversations and, you know, here are the, you know, we're incorporating in these conversations, you know, the vision for the outcomes we want for our children.

Also in this you know maybe the board is going to hold a you know one of these community meetings that they are that we're trying to stand up as we're putting together this policy is that going to go on this timeline somewhere and maybe it is up the list of who we want to intentionally make sure that we are reaching.

in coordination with our well-resourced schools conversations.

So that way we are hitting these different organizations.

So it feels like we need something to actually react to here at a timeline.

SPEAKER_10

I wrote down a couple of notes develop an ABC kind of something for you to react to.

I won't overwhelm my staff who's probably listening right now but I have some.

SPEAKER_08

I know I feel like everybody who works for the district is like.

What are you guys talking about?

SPEAKER_10

I don't think they'll be super shocked if they at least have been hanging around me for a while.

I've been foreshadowing a little bit for them.

But we have blueprint already.

Yeah.

Moving this into a well-resourced schools vision and values piece.

One of the things that we're doing in phase two is taking the results of one and saying this is what we heard, does this still resonate?

You have an existing plan that has not expired, how does this resonate?

So let us finish the March phase two piece and I think we might be able to kick in there and have some things for you to react to and possibly be out there sometime in April and use that April May timeframe before parents and students leave us.

SPEAKER_08

I am being summoned for jury duty in April.

So that's another thing.

But basically basically if this sounds like where we want to go I am happy to commit to working with Dr. Jones and Bev on something more tangible to react to.

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

Affirmative and quick logistical question if if I may.

If do we will we have any access to will the district be able to support any individual board member going into their community with like interpretation services or anything like that if we're going in and on our own as as we discussed.

To reach communities that were concerned could be missed in a lot of these.

What is that is is that something that the district can provide or is that not.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah I'd like to hear a little more about the need because it's.

Our staff is thin, and we want to just be, as long as we can be planful on it, certainly we can support it.

And so as much lead time as we have, it's hard to just grab folks, particularly in those competencies.

They're few and far between.

And so we just want to make sure we can schedule them out so that it's almost a guarantee they'll be there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah and I have an idea around that because I think that that's super important.

And I wonder how for like because what I hear is that there is a real need for translation in these types of community engagement opportunities.

How do we scale that up.

to get the most bang for the buck because it is an incredibly expensive resource to provide.

And if we could potentially do it with like your surrounding director districts and like really do good outreach because what happens a lot of the times is like I know for ours we might have one or two people that utilize the interpretation services that we have but then we have six other folks that all need another specific type of interpreter where had I had a bigger draw from just D7 We could have shared more information across more communities and it would have been a more I would say stewardly use of resource And that's not always possible But I just wonder it's like how do we accomplish that and scale up?

So that it gets the most bang for our very limited dollars at the moment.

SPEAKER_08

I would say in to in culmination with that that I This is where working with you know community members that you know already can be really helpful.

Like I if like Somali moms.

Either saying we're gonna hold a session in Somali and ask specifically like can we have Somali interpreters or Partake in a community meeting that's already happening where they may already have interpreters And and come you know ask to be invited into that space So there's there's multiple different ways that can be done, but we could also generally yeah, I mean there's Yeah not not in asking community members.

Hey can you can you come interpret this for me.

But oh you're meeting with this group you've invited me to come.

You're providing interpreters already.

That's so fantastic because I really want to make sure that this is accessible to those community members.

OK.

Yeah I think in tandem with what Director Hersey said.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

But I think I think you point out Director Briggs an important point of the important work that Director Hersey is going to do in pulling together a policy or a structure or calendar because.

I love the idea of having a monthly board engagement meeting where there are three directors where it's supported by the district.

I am the one person here who does hold a monthly community engagement meeting and I I find it very valuable as a listening session to be able to represent my community.

I move around.

I would love it to be instead supported by the district where there are resources because that's I do hear that I hear the need for those translational services and I'm like I'm in a library that I booked online and you know I picked the time that they had available for me sort of thing.

And so switching to that model and you know I'm going to continue to hold my monthly meetings until we do switch because I don't want to turn off that that spigot.

But I do see urgency in getting there and doing that work and somehow also then incorporating it into how we also because it's going to be a process to do these.

visioning of what we want for our students and the outcomes we want for our students because it is a continual process along with fitting it all in.

So it's a large calendar and a huge undertaking and I guess this is a long way to say I'd love to offer to help with you in that process.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah actually in lack of lack of ability to offer interpretation is one of the one of the reasons I stopped doing that because I was like this is just doesn't feel.

But yeah.

But again this is the difference between district supported engagement as a board and individual engagement and both things are valuable.

SPEAKER_06

Right.

And I think that's why I feel like sorry if I'm repeating myself but I feel like I wasn't totally I didn't make my my point very clearly before and I think what I'm trying to say is getting to what Director Topp was saying about how valuable that kind of community engagement is and it feels like that is exactly the kind of engagement that we need to do in order to like figure out what our vision and values are.

And so I'm like, I know it's a bigger project, but in the spirit of the perfect not being the enemy of the good, let's just make the calendar right now for that kind of engagement and have it start in April.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah yeah because we else we I mean we genuinely cannot say that we as a board are representing the vision and values of community if there are whole segments of the community that we can't communicate with us.

SPEAKER_06

Exactly.

We can't stand up here and say that we're doing that.

I'm trying to.

I poorly articulated it before but that's basically what I'm trying to say.

And I'm totally willing to pull my weight in whatever way is helpful to I realize it's a heavy lift for board members to to tag in like on short notice around all this.

But I feel like it's so important that I will make the time.

So yeah.

SPEAKER_08

Feels as though we're coming to a natural conclusion of the meeting and I hear consensus that that these.

This is a good path to follow and that there's not a ton of time for goals and guardrails but there's a lot of opportunity and we're willing to lean into it and do what we need to do.

OK.

SPEAKER_04

I just want to say that if we get into this and you all run out of capacity we'll flex on our timeline so that we need to push things back.

We can we can do that.

But let's stay ambitious for right now.

We're going to be responsive and we'll do what we need to do.

We'll call in extra support if need be, but I want you all to just be absolutely clear eyed about your capacity too, because if it starts to become too much, we need to back it up a little bit.

I don't want it to be rushed.

You all don't want it to be rushed.

We want to make sure we have adequate time to do all the things.

And so I do think we have a little flex in here if need be, but let's just be in communication about all you all's capacity.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you very much.

All right.

Going once going twice.

There being no further business to come before the board.

This meeting is adjourned at 730 on the dot.