Seattle School Board Meeting September 22, 2021

I'm now calling the September 22nd 2001 Regular Board Meeting to order at 415 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Director DeWolf.

Director DeWolf.

To my knowledge Director DeWolf will not be joining us today.

Director Dury.

Here.

Director Harris.

Present.

Vice President Hersey.

Here.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

And President Hampson.

Here.

Superintendent Jones is also joining us for today's meeting and additional staff will be briefing the board as we move through the agenda.

This meeting is being held remotely consistent with the governor's proclamation on open public meetings.

The public is being provided remote access today by phone and through SPS-TV by broadcast and streaming on YouTube.

To facilitate this meeting I will ask all participants to ensure you are muted when you are not speaking.

Staff may be muting participants to address feedback and ensure we can hear directors and staff.

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

Thank you President Hampson.

Today in my comments I'll talk a little bit about our mitigation strategies and then introduce a VIP that we have in our midst.

And so before I introduce our VIP I'd like to talk a little bit about what we're trying to do in terms of COVID and our response.

And so we've promised families 180 days of excellence and that's high-quality learning opportunities for students.

And in three weeks we've identified additional measures that we can take to keep that promise.

Both through additional safety measures and more options to ensure students can learn even if they're not technically in a classroom.

And so our goal is to disrupt the spread of the virus without disrupting learning.

And so objectives from that are really to stay in concert with the with the experts from Seattle King County Public Health to evolve our testing and screening processes to expand our internal capacity for contract tracing for doubling our remote offering efforts and looking for ways to provide simulcasting.

So when we talk about testing we as you know we have free on-site testing in place for students and staff who may show symptoms of the virus.

And we have a clear and consistent process for notifying families when Their students have been exposed when someone has a positive case.

But currently we're only testing students who exhibit identifiable system symptoms of the virus.

We are working to scale up this screening testing process so that this can help us identify positive cases before they have exposed to been exposed to other students.

When we talk about contact tracing we've learned in these early weeks that our fantastic team of nurses that are tremendously hardworking tracking students who might have been exposed to cases of COVID-19 just can't keep up with the volume.

And so this evening we'll present the board with a request to bring additional help so that we can track these exposures and notify students and families.

But when we talk about virtual remote options we understand that some families aren't able to be vaccinated and or they prefer to keep their students out of school buildings.

And so far we've been able to accommodate 300 K-5 students who are and we're going to now expand that to another 300 who are on a virtual waiting list.

And we're also looking to talk we're talking with our labor partners about additional learning remote options for our K-3 excuse me our 6-12 students.

And then lastly we are looking at simultaneous learning also known as simulcasting.

And we're looking at the viability of offer offering simultaneous learning to students who are learning from home.

With this technology in place educators would be able to broadcast in real time to students in the classroom and those learning remotely.

And this will help us to really provide learning to those who are quarantined and cannot attend.

So those are some things that I wanted to really just express around what we're trying to do in terms of being responsive to the current situation.

And now for the more exciting part of board comments or my comments I want to do a recognition of the Teacher of the Year.

And we have in our midst Boo Falcon-Foster and we're thrilled to have her have her be in our midst around the Seattle Seattle Public Schools Puget Sound Educational Service District Regional Teacher of the Year.

And Boo is a Sikachi teacher in the Native Education Program.

She teaches leadership at Chief Sealth and Denny Denny International Middle School.

She's serving students from ranging from 6th grade to 12th grade.

She's an education she's an educator with 26 years of experience and Boo's love for students as a parent And many people have testified around her commitment to students.

This is a first for Native education at SPS to have such a recognition.

And now Boo qualifies to be a candidate for the Washington State Educator Award and I'm already claiming that she'll win that distinction.

Boo has recently received the Enduring Spirit Award from Native Education Network and I really want to congratulate Ms. Boo and this well-deserved recognition.

President Hampson and I thought it'd be really important Boo for you to talk a little bit about your perspective or just some thoughts and some words of wisdom as you are walking through this recognition year of being recognized as the Regional Teacher of the Year.

So without further ado Boo please share some of your thoughts with us.

Thank you Dr. Jones President Hampson and directors.

My name is Boo Balkin-Foster.

I'm Apache and adopted Makah into the Turk-Markusham family.

Nearly three decades ago Seattle Public Schools recruited me to teach.

In exchange for a three-year commitment the district paid for my last year of graduate school.

Seattle has gotten their money's worth out of me.

However I share this in the hopes that Seattle will continue to reach out and actively recruit teachers of color.

Thank you for celebrating me as the 2022 Regional Teacher of the Year.

It is humbling to hold this title.

However it does not mean I'm the best.

It means someone saw something in me and in my practice and took the time to nominate me.

It means the evaluators responded to my essays my interviews and my keynote where I highlighted Native student brilliance and strength.

I am one of 77,000 educators in Washington State and I'm honored to represent the Puget Sound.

Please continue to recognize educators.

It matters now more than ever.

I'm proud to work for the school district that hosts the Shikachi classrooms through Native Ed under the laser focus of leadership excuse me under the laser focus of leader Gail Morris.

We often talk about equity.

and reaching marginalized students.

However it is only when funds are allocated to support such endeavors that this is anything more than pretty words.

Seattle Public Schools has done this with the Shikachi program and as a mother a community member and an educator I am grateful.

Being the Shikachi teacher in partnership with Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School has allowed me to build relationships with students that set the foundation for academic and personal success.

Having my class housed under the leadership of Gail Morris and Native Ed has allowed me to build a program and advocate for students and their families in ways that I would not have been able to otherwise.

Too often the exaggerated negative narrative of Native student failure is highlighted.

I am here to publicly state it is not true.

Native excellence is alive and well.

It is thriving in Seattle Public Schools.

Dr. Jones and board members please invite me to speak more about it and invite Native educators to the table when decisions are made.

I want to thank my teaching partner Cam Pom my supervisor Gail Morris my hot husband Mark and my family Nancy Amy and Emma for supporting me.

But most importantly I want to thank my students for inspiring me.

To my students you are strong.

You are smart.

You are the prayers of our ancestors and you are my personal heroes.

Thank you.

Thank you so very much Boo.

I. Just want to add a couple of additional notes which is it's I don't actually now because I don't want to have to try to follow those words which were wonderful and inspirational and indicative of why it is that your work is so powerful in this district.

For those that don't know what Shikachi Biz for which I'm very sorry because everyone should know what it is and how critical it is.

The word itself is a Southern Lushootseed word meaning raising hands.

So when we raise our hands to say hello to show respect to say thank you to say good morning.

But in the words of Boo it is much more.

It essentially means I hold you in the highest esteem.

And viewing students again these are Boo's words.

Viewing students through this lens is the first step in supporting connection to school family culture and community.

This is just a perfect segue to what we're going to do next but also I wanted to which is about place-based learning and the the fact that we are using the notion of targeted universalism with the Shikachi program and providing our Native students the opportunity to have an identity-safe environment in which to to learn and feel safe is something that I've known about as foundational to the work that was happening in Native Ed with this district from the moment I walked through the doors as a Native parent and and with three Native students in Seattle Public Schools it was heartening the moment that I walked in to meet Boo immediately and see the extent to which she advocated for her students and and she's And she was that way I don't even know how because she she looks like she's 20 but she's been teaching for decades and and she's got all those years of experience and history with Seattle Public Schools and with with support for Native students.

And and then she and she just keeps going.

And it really gave me a lot of confidence that that Seattle Schools might actually be a place where my students could find some safety as as Native students so.

Congratulations Boo and thank you so very much.

I was there rooting for you for the for the state award and was sure you were going to get it.

And but and in my heart you won.

And so I'm glad that we have the opportunity to celebrate you here.

And and and all teachers within our communities that have come before you.

So Pįnagigi in my language.

And we will see you again soon.

Boo I just want to thank you for your call to action.

I want to thank you for your invitation to send your voice in what we do and guide us in our next steps.

So so thank you again.

And again we're going to claim in advance you being recognized as the Statewide Teacher of the Year.

Thank you Boo.

We'll tell him later.

Okay.

That concludes my comments President Hampson.

Thank you Superintendent Jones.

Thank you for that update on some really critical items related to COVID.

And we have hold on let me just make sure I get this right because we're changing things up a little bit today.

Yeah.

Okay.

So we've now reached the consent portion of today's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

Absolutely.

I move for approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

The Vice President Hersey has moved for the approval of the consent agenda and this has been seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda.

Seeing and hearing none.

All those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed.

The consent agenda has passed unanimously.

Okay we've now come to the board committee report section of the agenda.

We'll begin with Director Rankin's report for the Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee otherwise known as SSC&I which today will include an important update on the Outdoor and Community Education Task Force.

We'll then move back into other committee reports after the task force update or come back to them after public testimony depending on our timing.

So I'm going to turn it over now to Director Rankin and the task force to give us a follow-up on some important work that as I said relative to Boo's work is about place-based learning and have them update us on how far we've come since last fall.

All right.

Thank you President Hanson and thank you and congratulations to Boo.

We're so lucky to have you as part of our district.

So I'm going to kick off this update with just a little bit of background to remind us all what we're talking about how we got here and then I'll hand it over to members of the task force to present and give some recommendations.

Next slide please.

So just for context if you'll remember Last school year was huge unknown as how I was going to start.

And it was determined that we would be start by Superintendent Juneau that we would be starting the year remotely.

The state required that all districts pass a resolution for reopening indicating what what modality they would be in and how they would be addressing student need.

As part of that.

There was a template sample resolution from the state and Directors Hampson and Hersey and I took that opportunity to bring in community voice and work with with partners and families and organizations both as a response to the the health implications of COVID and to the need needs that we've known exist and are hearing from families and community.

So there the two pieces were that we would be starting or a couple pieces we'd be starting school remotely knowing that some students would really struggle in that context.

Knowing that the virus was there was less risk of contagion outdoors than indoors.

And also Just as a as a call to action and a response to what so many of our community members have been asking for.

Connected to place identity and giving students the opportunity to apply education into their daily lives to learn about themselves and their environment to learn about the land that we're on to learn about their history the history of our place.

And and also to simply move their bodies around and be together and engage with education in a different way.

And so as part of our resolution one of the whereas clauses was that the board directed Seattle Public Schools to respond to the most difficult education challenge of our time not through fear and status quo thinking but with courage and creativity engaging with families community and nature in co-designed solutions based in hope and connection drawing on the strengths of our communities and our families.

And so yeah there were you know there was technical need for this resolution and also opportunity to meet the needs of our students and families in the context of COVID and and in a broader context.

So that was passed and directed to that was unanimously passed approved by the board.

And out of that was both direction for a pilot program first for educators who wanted to were ready to try taking education outside.

And also a task force was called for to develop recommendations and further work.

So The the task force was approved in December last year and the next slide talks about that a little bit.

And the pilot program was a mechanism to allow educators and students to return to campus when we were in a remote a fully remote model.

Once the governor directed the return to school The pilot submission program wasn't needed anymore and schools could make the decision to do outdoor learning on-site as they wished as buildings were reopened to students and educators.

Next slide please.

So for the task force we had 23 people sitting on the task force and this task force as you'll hear more about was such an incredible group of people.

It was a great pleasure and honor to to participate in meetings with these folks.

We very deliberately recruited for a balance of community members family community organizations educators with a variation of geographical representation from all over Seattle.

And I think because of that very deliberate recruitment at the beginning we were able to to to have just really good representation of all kinds of different experiences that reflected our students on this task force.

So through so Erin Jones facilitated the task force for us and Devin Cavanilla from the CAI department within SPS was our project manager and kept us focused and also oversaw the pilot the pilot programs.

So we had 12 different community-based organizations and representations from different levels of government educators parents.

We met twice a month for about 90 minutes and just discussed various topics and then created a set of recommendations that you're going to hear more about in a moment.

Next slide.

So I'm not going to read everybody's name but here is the list of everyone who participated who I just want to give a huge thank you to and I hope that we'll see continued engagement and contribution from these folks as it was a really really really exciting group.

Tons of knowledge and experience and passion for this work and for supporting our students in this way.

And as you'll hear I think there are a lot of People in our community have been waiting for this opportunity waiting for something to bring it together for our students in our city.

So that is very very that's exciting.

That's just a rock star list of people.

Next slide please.

And so now I will allow Che Devon Jason and Sabrina to introduce themselves and they will be telling you more about Devon will be talking about the the pilot programs that happened last year and the other 3 we'll talk about our recommendations from from the group.

So now I'll pass it on to you all.

To introduce yourselves.

Hello my name is Che San.

I'm a parent of 3- and 4-year-old children.

I live in Seattle.

I'm an artist an educator and entrepreneur.

I run Experience Education which is a nonprofit I started.

It was really in response to my own experience growing up in the education system and feeling like I had to continuously learn myself and teach myself far beyond public school just to understand how to live in this world and you know myself and all these things.

And you know when I graduated from college I started working with a lot of immigrants and refugees in Chinatown.

And I started I saw how the same problems I experienced growing up were just you know nothing had fundamentally changed in you know a decade or two.

And so I started this organization to provide art and culture based life skills and experiences for individual empowerment community well-being.

And that's really brought a lot of joy and and community building and holistic education youth development for the last seven years.

And I'm really honored to be here and support this you know systemic change for outdoor education.

There's millions of things that show how great it is.

And so I'm just honored to share my perspective and show support for this amazing work.

So thank you.

Hi everyone.

My name's Devin Cavanilla and I am the Senior Continuous Improvement Project Manager for Dr. Keisha Scarlett in Curriculum and Instruction.

went through the pilot program last year through SPS and then I also was a participant within the task force as well from just an organizing side.

And the task force itself is composed of a brilliant set of people and I'm very proud of all the input that they provided.

As someone whose family is in its fifth generation in Seattle I grew up living off the land and being part of our environment.

And I'm glad to help push this forward and making outdoor education something that we can highlight today.

So and off to you Mr. Medeiros.

Thank you.

And thank you to the board and the superintendent for being our audience today.

My name is Jason Medeiros.

I have a 4th grade student at Salmon Bay Elementary and I have another daughter who graduated from Ballard High School in 2016. I for the last 18 years have been a science teacher with the Rainier Scholars Program which is a college advocacy pipeline for highly motivated students of color.

And I've been teaching environmental education and outdoor education in various ways since 1998 here in the Seattle area.

And I am really excited and honored to have a chance to serve on this task force and to to really push for some some central change embracing outdoor and community-based and place-based education.

We're trying to get Sabrina unmuted right now.

Okay.

Hey Sabrina if you are on the phone you need to press star-6 to unmute now.

She did.

Maybe you need to press it now Sabrina.

It looks like our callers are still muted.

I was just dropping off my kids to preschool and there's an old man who was like with their grandchild and they were like man I don't like I don't know how to get into this school.

I don't know what to do.

And I was like oh there's a QR code you got to do with your smartphone.

And he's like man I don't even have a smartphone.

How am I supposed to take my kids to school.

I thought that really pointed out the digital kind of you know landscape and diversity that we have.

Try one more time.

If not we might need you to hang up and then try calling right back in.

Okay let's.

As soon as we get Sabrina on we'll let her do her intro Liza and.

Yeah.

Okay great.

I was going to say we can have Devin do you want to do the part about the pilots and we'll see if we can get Sabrina in here.

Sure.

Next slide please.

As Liza already mentioned we had a pilot that began last year.

And in October we started receiving applications.

We set up a very a very robust program because this was occurring during a time frame when it felt like the laws were changing every day and we were we had to be so careful at the height of the pandemic in how we conducted an outdoor education pilot.

Our first applicant was Interagency Interagency High School and their application came in in October.

And the range of schools we had 24 applications across 19 schools.

Some schools spent time doing multiple applications for multiple classrooms.

So class by class there were different grade levels.

An example of that is at Pathfinder Elementary where they had multiple grades at their school.

And as you can see they had a a a playground and also an outdoor park nearby that they leveraged to conduct outdoor activities.

And and then also.

My my laptop won't unmute.

Sabrina we can hear you.

Oh shoot.

She's gone now.

Sabrina I'll give you one I'll give you five seconds Sabrina.

Okay.

So the the outdoor program multiple applications multiple schools.

Pathfinder had a traditional approach.

Schools like interagency they were using open areas to do metalwork.

So the range of what we offered was very different.

And part of our central office procedure was going to each of these sites and investigating what was the outdoor environment like and making sure that they held up to safety standards.

Next slide please.

Like Liza already mentioned the pilot programs stopped following Governor Inslee's reopening order.

And a large amount of our applications came in March.

So some schools we just basically indicated to them if you want to conduct this outdoor effort and you want to do so through your own school please continue to do that.

The the Surveying that happened after this time frame we got a lot of feedback from some of the teachers at the elementary level and then also from some of our alternative programs.

So not every class that happened out outside was based on like nature learning per se.

Some of it was just maybe doing you know standard curriculum in an outdoor place.

Next slide please.

These these examples of doing.

Me Sabrina.

Sabrina go ahead.

I do apologize.

My name is Sabrina Burr.

My equipment doesn't like teams.

I am the proud parent of a Cleveland High School senior.

And I am a parent who literally went back to school with my daughter from pre-K through 8th grade and I've missed 2 field trips since pre-K.

So I've been on all the outdoor experiences.

I've been to Islandwood and I did for 3 years walking field trips.

So that's why I'm on this task force because I know firsthand what we discussed and what you'll hear more about.

But I am an advocate for kids.

I grew up in Southeast Seat — in Montlake.

Montlake Elementary and the Arboretum was my backyard.

Because of the neighborhood and the land that we were in over 50 years later our community who is now in Southeast Seattle are tied together.

So I advocate for all 54,000 students of Seattle Public Schools.

I am a proud member of Seattle Council PTA and that's who I am.

Thank you Sabrina for with us.

For the outdoor pilots.

Go ahead.

Are we on slide 12. No no no no.

We'll let you know when it's your turn Sabrina.

Thank you Devin.

Yep no problem.

So we're on slide 8 and this is just a list of activities and it shows the range of what different grade levels are doing.

So at the high school level we're calling it applied math.

Then we get into that traditional idea of outdoor nature work gardening field studies.

Some schools have gardens some schools don't.

Some schools have parks nearby some don't.

In different shapes and forms outdoor access is possible.

At lower grade levels they did chalk writing on their sidewalks.

And also an important need that was expressed by so many educators was we need to do relational growth.

That's getting lost in digital learning when we're working remotely.

So this demand to do outdoor pilot activities came from connecting with students in-person again.

And that socio-emotional learning was a highlight for several of our educators.

Next slide please.

Slide 9. Specific recommendations were considering to use parks and greenways.

Pathfinder used their greenway in West Seattle.

Magnolia used their park and then also Teachers who were in more of an urban setting finding unused areas of the campus that could still be considered an outdoor space.

And another demand was increasing central office support.

Although we had a lot of activity from an administrative level the support in terms of getting outdoor learning wasn't clear from an educator perspective.

They also asked.

for making dedicated time including all grade levels.

And we were getting supplies out to schools who needed it.

There was a specific equity fund that we made available for schools that wanted to do outdoor applications.

But there is a demand that the district does provide supplies for educators who want to engage in this work.

Especially reflected from the educator recommendations from our survey of them was we need to keep equity and focus for those who need it.

And Sabrina slide 9 is here and this is just sort of talking about expressing the moment and passion of the task force.

So next slide please.

So our outdoor task force I just want to say was awesome and amazing and our task force members were extremely passionate and the creativity.

I have been on many task force over the last 15 years for Seattle Public Schools and this one had the right mix.

You know our task force was filled with the right experts community partners.

We recognize the richness and the greatness of the outdoor education that exists in Seattle Public Schools and around our partners and the deep participation.

You know everybody just was really present.

We were reimagining what it could look like and how Seattle Public Schools could be.

And we were really excited.

about this.

We are really excited and we are just waiting to see this come to fruition.

Our task force was very rich and experienced in who we are about this.

We are really invited to diversity.

Please mute your phone if you're not speaking.

And so yeah.

So we're we we were one of the strongest task force I believe that I've seen in Seattle Public Schools.

because of the partnerships the educators from Seattle Public Schools and the excitement and expertise on the facilitation.

And so yeah I think that's what I have to say about that slide.

Sabrina this next slide is showing all the different organizations.

I don't know if you want to talk about the community participants or we can move on.

I'll just say briefly because I know we're behind because of my technical difficulties but I just really want you to take a look at this slide.

Take a look at the different organizations the different Seattle Public Schools experts in this work and that we had government we had you know different partners Islandwood and a lot of these partners are existing partners within Seattle Public Schools in informal ways.

So yes.

Slide 12 are different meeting examples.

Did you want to speak to that Sabrina.

Yes I do.

So we had a series of 6 meetings.

As you can see they're they're headed but they really don't capture the richness of the meeting.

Meeting one you know it was an orientation but it was really about a roll call a team building who was in the room and it really propelled us for the work that we were really going to be doing.

And we the sky was the limit and we used our expertise but you know We really reimagined what this looked like but we also talked about a lot of the things that were that were in place and a lot of the things that were happening with our community partners.

We took the time just to go deeper to break out and we did a really good job of not only just like visioning the process but looking at some of the system barriers and the things that we really needed to do as an organization to really leverage this systemically.

and equity to make sure that all of our children experience similar experiences in richness and outdoor.

We had best practices from Highline coming in and showing us how it's working within their district.

And you know we recapped and right now we're excited.

We're excited for the next step.

We're excited for what you're going to do to support it.

It was like I said I can't say it enough.

It was a very very rich task force with rich experts and very much collaborative and making sure that intellectual capital of everyone in that room was honored.

We didn't have our our professional hat.

We were people who were passionate about kids and all the expertise that we needed to make sure that this works well.

for our system in all 140 104 locations.

We can go to the next one.

So.

I think we're to Jason now.

Yeah it looked like we skipped a slide.

I'm happy to speak about our values but we skipped a slide that referred was referring directly to there we go the resolution.

So we really wanted to speak on the resolution.

We really wanted to look at really intentions for the board for writing this resolution.

As we know our last school year really exposed some inequities both in our system and in our human service systems across.

And you can see on the left some of those disparities.

But we in education looked at new approaches.

and the needs and community partnerships innovative educational opportunities especially we have to we have too many rich resources frameworks for correcting inequities.

We have far too many inequities.

And so we really looked at how do we really make sure that this is equitable across the board from equipment to time to experience.

even to relationship to land to where the building is and really making sure that we're learning through physical activities and the whole context that the environment has.

And so you know we worked really hard at really making sure that our focus stayed laser-focused on what the board resolution is saying and directed us to do because we could have Done a whole lot more with the creativity was in the room but that's what we were tasked for and tasked with and that's what we're we're charged to do.

Go ahead.

Jason.

Jason you're muted.

Yes I am muted.

Okay.

This is Jason again.

Thank thank you Liza.

And I wanted to speak briefly about the values that surfaced as our task force and then I'll get into the recommendations that we have for you tonight.

But but really in our discussions there were values and philosophies that we kept coming back to over and over again which are really the heart and the sounding board for the recommendations that I'll be sharing with you in a moment.

Instead of trying to define exactly what outdoor education is I think we recognize that outdoor what outdoor education is doing and recognize the fact that there are outdoor educators that work in wilderness areas in urban areas that work in like individual challenge team challenge as well as science education as well as equity education.

What what surfaced as common values for us all in our experiences with outdoor education and our practices if we're teachers is one recognizing the pandemic exposed inequities that that have been there for a long time.

It just made them more obvious.

And so we can't stop this work because the pandemic is getting better.

This is an opportunity to reimagine education on a systemic level.

and really address things that the pandemic exposed but are not going to go away unless we address them directly.

We all had a very deep appreciation and belief that there is undeniable holistic benefit and this is something which is outlined in the resolution.

Benefit to students for being in the outdoors learning in the outdoors and learning within a community in a community setting.

And there is massive support from individual educators around the district and in community-based organizations for outdoor education.

Again in many ways as I mentioned.

And it's something which is not new.

I've been participating in I think most people on the task force who were from the Seattle area had stories about participating in environmental or outdoor education in the 1980s 1990s.

It has evolved though.

And I'd say it is probably hard to find a community-based organization that says they do outdoor education that is not somehow focused on wanting to serve BIPOC communities and recognizing the need to fight educational injustice.

A big theme that arose was that this style of education teaches with place and local environments and developing student relationships with history and culture and the future of where they live and where they are.

And this is something which becomes deeply healing.

It promotes resiliency and develops community and relationships.

So this this is what we want from outdoor education in Seattle Public Schools.

Our concerns are how will this be implemented.

Is this something that's really going to happen.

Is it going to be accessible to everyone.

Ideas about outdoor education have been around for a very long time but it's not something which has been accessible to all students in Seattle Public Schools.

And finally how is this going to have systemic support.

And that that really is something that we'll be coming back to over and over again.

Advantages that we have.

There is a huge and diverse range of options for meeting local and state education requirements.

Next Generation Science.

Common Core.

You name it there are outdoor programs or people that have been developing curricula that happen outside of the classroom in a community or wilderness or urban setting that are meeting state requirements.

And lastly there are already a huge amount of existing resources and models out there.

The Highline School District being one model of kind of universal environmental and outdoor education happening kind of by grade level.

It was a fantastic inspiring talk with their representative from Highline but also just the sheer number of community-based organizations that are out there that want to work with all Seattle students and teachers that are already wanting and trying hard to do this work.

And that leads me.

Next slide please actually.

Leads me to our our first series of recommendations and we kind of group these into four goals.

The first being removing barriers to access and that's not just barriers to access in terms of who gets to do it but also in terms of getting outside.

We need to make this easy for people.

The first bullet point there I'm going to speak more about and probably talk about on every slide is that this is something which needs to happen for everyone.

It needs to be equitable and systemic and a lot of the The goals and the recommendations we have some some will be low-hanging fruit and some will be things that will have to happen over time.

But we wanted to make sure that looking at things systemically was right up front and it will also be how we close.

Removing barriers to access.

Universal permission forms.

Make it really easy for for a teacher that wants to go on a walking field trip to pick up their backpack that has their first aid supplies and their universal permission forms.

and go out on a school grounds or go to the park next door.

Make it so that this can happen whatever season whatever weather is going on and teachers can take advantage of it in a way that that flows with what they're trying to accomplish with their class.

Making sure everybody is aware this is a low-hanging fruit.

Let's make sure there is a map of all green spaces across the district that are adjacent to schools and walking distances.

So the teachers who aren't sure can say hey look maybe I should go check this out and think about it as a spot to eventually hold a class or visit.

And then finally making equitable access to gear for safety and to outdoor spaces themselves.

And again that's another systemic ask and maybe farther in the future but something which needs to be considered now in terms of making sure that everybody is safe and prepared to take kids outdoors.

Next slide please.

Goal 2. Enabling community partnerships.

The first one in my mind first goal is kind of about letting teachers out.

Make it easy for teachers to go out if they want to and take their classes out for students to get outdoors or out of the classroom.

This one is about making it easy for schools and teachers to get the help they need and recognizing that there are lots of organizations that want in that want to help.

So making a simple process for classroom teachers and buildings to access outdoor education programming whether it's a list of certified providers or folks that are already on you know involved in that universal permission slip making it something which there is as little barrier as possible to say hey I need a group or an educator who can teach me about the park that's next to my school.

Make it as easy as possible to find.

Making a smooth pathway for volunteers and those community-based partners to be on school property.

I think this point came up specifically in reaction to what it was like to have to teach in COVID conditions when kids and teachers were allowed on school grounds but there was the desire to take kids outside and there wasn't help.

There's a need for increased supervision.

There's a need for increased expertise that a community-based partner could bring.

That couldn't happen.

Regardless as we move forward creating simple and easy ways for these outdoor education experts and volunteers to come help take students into less controlled settings.

is essential.

And then finally and if we're talking about this on a rubric this would be the exceeds expectations portion.

Looking at the fact that if you see this holistically that there are high school students that will want to help out with middle school and middle school students that will want to help out with grade school and parents that will want to be trained potentially to help learning happen in communities and the outdoors.

So making sure that there's mutual training opportunities kind of for all possible helpers.

to make an outdoor or a community-based education experience happen for a classroom.

Okay.

Next slide please.

And I'm sorry.

I think I think I'm I think I'm doing this one.

Okay.

I think I was doing the next two three goal three and four.

Go for it.

Okay.

Cool cool.

So, yeah, I think, you know, or go through the four goals and, you know, breaking them down, like, you know, there was an overwhelming support and just an understanding recognition that this is such a good thing.

So, like, but again, the recurring theme is that it's kind of.

put on the individual or you know on the PTA or like if they have more resources at the school.

But really you know the our recommendation is to really enable motivated teachers to have this kind of more centralized systemic support that can look at it from a from a more like district-wide standpoint to make it more universally accessible and equitable.

So things like having paid time set aside for educators to develop new skills and to collaborate.

because you know everyone already knows teachers aren't being paid enough and they're already being asked to do more than what they're being paid for.

So then even though this is something they're motivated by and know and see the value of it's still important to value them by setting aside time and funds to develop this in a real way.

And then that also includes stipends for building like outdoor education leads.

kind of like tech support it's like you know they might set up an infrastructure but you need people to kind of build this relationship and support them and build the curriculum until it becomes sustainable.

So it's like taking something that's been piloted and successful and liked and making it more universal and systemic.

And and really focusing on and empowering the teachers to help guide that kind of creative change because there are a lot of differences in the school district.

Also we support and recommend teachers using the Amplify Science curriculum to embed in outdoor education instruction.

And there are many works that have been done for like you know decades that that can make this transition a lot easier than you know you know people might think if you just say oh district wide outdoor education you know.

So this is just a very important point to empower the people who are actually directly serving the students who already bear so much of the workload of the value that comes out of SPS.

Next slide please.

And so yeah overall like we are we are looking to develop structure for district-wide outdoor learning and systemic change.

So this would in our minds given the opportunity and given you know the pandemic but also like the importance of equity and you know all the things combined together and the value of it long-term and short-term of outdoor education is to fund and hire district-wide outdoor education specialists with staff support.

So like so the so that you know there's a dedicated leader in force who's responsible and accountable in managing it overall.

And then also have staff to support it because to do district-wide work with so many sites it's going to take a lot of support.

And then this is to ensure that these district-wide policies are — And that that it's not just kind of a mandate with no teeth or like you know a nice idea but you know only the people who have the power and the privilege to do so take advantage of it.

You know I remember I just read a Crosscut article that was saying how one PTSA raised and spent just under a quarter million dollars while on the South End another high school had zero dollars.

So like I mean it's like.

You literally have just you know wild wild inequity in Seattle Public Schools.

And so you know and then things like creating simple district-wide outdoor curriculum options.

Just making it really easy and empowering folks to just take that next step and do their job easier in a way that's more beneficial to the students.

And really take the pressure off of kind of individual all-stars but really fundamentally changing the system so that all teachers who work within the system have a better relationship and more support for this you know needed outdoor education.

And one way that it could really kind of start off is to set required hours for outdoor learning to start almost you know similar to like volunteer hours.

And that and then leading to universal outdoor experiences which has been done very successfully at like Highline and other places.

But you know again the issue of equity is what we're working to change because it's already well-known and documented that outdoor education is very beneficial for holistic student development and community building and just a healthy society.

And so that is yeah that is that.

That is our recommendations.

And as we start to summarize you can see on this slide some of the outdoor benefits.

And then I want to go ahead and read a quote.

Whereas on June 25th 2020 the American Academy of Pediatrics stated that it quote strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with the goal of having students physically present end quote and to quote utilize outdoor spaces when possible end quote as a high priority for all age groups and necessary for activities since quote outdoor transmission A virus is known to be much lower than indoor transmission end quote.

Whereas outdoor education demonstrates to have substantial benefits for students' well-being a systemic a systematic review of published research on regular compulsory school and curriculum-based outdoor education programs found that it promotes students' social academic physical and psychological development.

And so this right here shows all of the things that we basically said in our presentation and speaks to why this is imperative that we we act with urgency.

I believe we're going to go to the next slide.

Ms. Jason.

Yeah and it's our summary slides too I think are our attempt here is to capture learning from both the pilot programs that that Seattle Public School teachers organized themselves as well as the discussions we had as the task force.

And there were some again really strong themes summarized here.

There is a lot of energy and interest in in doing this in taking kids outside and using more creative non-traditional spaces for teaching.

So teachers are asking for this.

The task force is asking one we remove the barriers.

Let let kids outside let teachers outside make it easy to get outside.

Allow people in.

Enable partnerships with community-based organizations that are already excelling at this.

Hey if we got a school that needs to meet how many however many hours of outdoor education a year we could sit down and list I think amongst the you know the 4 of us that are here from the committee at least 20 different organizations that be willing to help out and do that at a school or for it.

Let community-based organizations in to help take kids outside.

And then finally enabling teachers to share and learn from each other.

Let's encourage this.

We have absolutely incredible examples on our task force of teachers at Dunlap at Aki Kurose at Franklin High School that are doing this kind of work already and have been for decades.

Allow them to share their expertise with others.

Let's not stop them from doing it in the name of equity.

Let's encourage them to share and create professional development opportunities for teachers to collaborate and for teachers who want to to learn how to do this.

And for our last summary slide you know we really you know with all the experience that The task force brought you know I've been super humbled and it's great love to share ideas and share this excitement and you know themes that came up over and over again where you know we all believe in it.

We all know it's good.

But you know to make it real it takes to have long-term success and to have it done equitably it takes systemic inclusion of outdoor learning in Seattle Public Schools.

And it it's You know the way that it can happen is through these universal standards and shared experiences by grade level.

Camp Waskowitz is an amazing example.

It was you know for those who don't know it's stemmed from kind of Roosevelt's CCC the Conservation Corporation things where they made a bunch of national parks and all these things.

And then then for the last 70 years we've been a learning education center for Seattle public or for the Seattle public.

And it's been partnering with Highline to create these universal education outdoor education examples by grade level.

And I remember when I was like 5th grade or 6th grade I went to Camp Rekaila and like you know that that experience has stuck with me.

I've always loved the outdoors and it was my first time going up from like immigrant refugee like you know low-income family to access that you know.

And so when you know when we think about why it's so important and why it needs to be done equitably it's like you look at the world we're in right now.

And it's really kind of telling us it's like a wake-up call you know almost forcing us to be it's like it's like literally forcing us to be outdoors or you know be separated you know.

And that social emotional development is so important at this you know during this K-12 you know what what Seattle Public Schools does for the kids in the future.

It's just it just needs to be done in a holistic and equitable way.

And again it's it's already It's already being done by the Highline School District.

But to have a more centralized support from Seattle Public Schools and have the funding and support that's needed to make it work is what our policy recommendations are really centered on.

And so things like having professional development coaching advocating outdoor learning hiring these positions and really implementing this long-term change for literally like you know the future of Seattle and you know all the all the ways that it can support the next generation.

And so you know the task force has really thought through what at what stage you can start out realistically right now.

And so things like having essential support for equipment and safety and like these mapped green spaces and these positions.

And so we really encourage everyone to see the value.

See how these recommendations have been thought through by community members and professionals and educators who have been either doing this themselves or advocating for this work for decades.

And hopefully these recommendations get implemented and outdoor education is really a way to support all the schools during this pandemic but also for this district and to really take Seattle Public Schools education and their commitment to equity and holistic development for youth to a real tangible level and a time for great social change.

Thank you very much.

That's all I got.

I don't know if someone else will come after this.

Thank you.

Erin Jones are you on the line.

I'm here.

Hey.

I am in Spokane right now.

I've been working with Gonzaga all day so I've been walking outside which is kind of perfect in the context of this conversation.

I've been getting a lot of fresh air after sitting in a building all day.

So I had the opportunity to facilitate this group.

Thank you all so much.

an amazing crew of people to facilitate.

And I think the only thought I would leave you with it's something that I share with every I get to talk to superintendents and school boards across the country.

And one of my concerns has been for the last few months that we will naturally snap back to what was normal before.

I think there's so much opportunity here to reimagine what school what education looks like.

And I think this is a really profound way And as I've said for years what Seattle does will shape what the rest of the state of Washington does.

Everyone is watching you.

And so I think if you can do some really good work and take all this this brain chest that you have with these amazing people with expertise in outdoor education and really transform it into practical application there are other districts watching you.

And I think this can shift how we think about education for the future and so Thank you to each of the team members.

Thank you Liza for spearheading this from the board.

Thank you for letting me participate.

And great presentation y'all.

Great job.

Okay so Director Rankin I think we have time for a few brief questions from directors if they have any before we move on.

Directors Hersey Dury and Rivera-Smith and Harris do you have any questions.

Yeah I mean I've got a ton of questions.

I don't know how much time we have in this intersection.

First off I just want to thank everybody who has given what seems like an immense amount of time to this effort.

When we first brought this resolution forward I had no idea that it would materialize in this way.

I guess what I would say from or I guess rather what my question would be is from the perspective of an educator I'm really thinking about like what long-term trajectorial ways that we can implement this into our curriculum right.

Finding ways that what you learn in first and second grade build on what you learn in third and fourth grade.

And so could was there any consideration to like potentially what that looks like in a context of maybe even a school-to-school model right.

So like Maybe the outdoor curriculum that takes place in MLK looks very different than what takes place at Sandpoint.

And so just hearing a little bit of the thought process so that as we go back and potentially make curricular changes and policy updates and whatnot to make this happen and to reduce barriers I'd really like to hear a little bit of like what the conversation was around in terms of really having that holistic approach so that it's not disjointed but more so interconnected.

So I'll jump in first as.

Sorry.

As someone who's been at the.

As someone who's been at the systems level I'll jump in first and then the other people.

We talked at significant length about that.

About whether I know that in Highline for example you know every 4th grader has a particular experience.

Every 5th grader so that you know that you're building on the experiences so you're not kind of random.

So if a kid moves they're going to miss something.

So we talked at length about whether we have like experiences like types of experiences that every kid is expected to have at different grade levels.

Is there a specific place that students go because I think it is really important to think about equity and making sure that all students across your district have similar kinds of experiences even if they don't go to the same place.

That we're thinking about what kinds of experiences do students get.

And that's what's at the top of my mind right is because it's like it's got to be a balance between making sure that everybody has access to some very key things, but then also giving space for those differences in where the places that the kids are learning are actually at.

and some freedom for each individual building.

Yeah.

Thank you for that feedback and I would love to chat with y'all more specifically about that just so that we can you know make sure that educators can put their own special spin on it because what's special about the land that a particular building is on is completely different from you know another one that might be in a different part of the city.

And so just making sure that we're creating space in there to honor that as well.

But thank you for that.

I appreciate that feedback.

Something that that we were really aware of going from we consider this to be Phase 1 and now we're kind of bringing it back to the district for Phase 2. We were really aware of the fact that this was a board task force and so trying not to get too deep into how it would be implemented or kind of exacting programmatic direction.

But what you're talking about did come up a lot just in terms of what are some universal resources and shared experiences that we could have.

And then how can it be adapted or adjusted to really focus on specific place.

So that's where things like having a common science curriculum where we could have some you know Seattle focused or or just the option to take that class take that lesson take it outside.

There's and then we also have since time immemorial and all kinds of different things that exist throughout the district that could be used on an individual place basis or even if we had like a general framework for you know the history of your school the history of your school building and the land that it's on.

We also talked about creating maybe One possibility could be a set of sort of grade level standards.

So you know second graders would focus on salmon.

Third graders would focus on you know I don't know wastewater or watershed.

That type of thing that could have a kind of floor of common guidance and access but allow individual schools to and individual teachers to to experience that in a different way if that makes sense.

Yeah that makes a ton of sense.

One other thing that I would just add and these are my like you know teacher wheels turning at this moment is that it would be cool if you know as we continue to grow this out if there were pathways where outdoor education also led to CTE opportunities.

I see that there's probably a lot of a lot of what's the word I'm looking for.

Opportunity to build on because like what really hit me Shay is what you said earlier.

Yeah, vocational is what you said earlier is that you literally did not you had to create a whole organization to make up for everything that the schools did not teach you human being trying to navigate through this world and seeing an opportunity to where specifically even if we talk about the watershed.

If there's education that starts there in kindergarten and we have that true longevity that actually ends up inspiring that love for the outdoors and that particular field of work through a CTE program that leads to a good paying job that to me is what holistic outdoor place-based education the potential of that could be.

And I would love to see you know as this continues to develop some opportunities to build those types of things in.

And I'll stop talking because I could be here all day and we'll pass on to the next director.

But thank y'all for humoring me.

I really appreciate it.

I look forward to working with y'all in the future on getting this done.

So let's get Director Harrison here before other panelists respond to those.

Lots of questions.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate you calling me out President Hampson.

One of the things that strikes me is this whole balance between a system of schools and a school system.

And we already have a great deal of salmon education but those are privileged schools that have reached out and done the salmon fry and released them.

And the West Seattle Island District 6 Longfellow Creek I also notice and am beyond wedded to the Fort Lawton issues.

Discovery Park issues that are very complicated with federal government.

Blah blah blah.

We need to have our own Islandwood at Discovery Park.

So instead of the 5th graders and PTSA's raising several tens of thousands of dollars we send our yellow buses across the city and have an extraordinarily positive depthful program that is reachable by yellow buses when they work when we have enough drivers blah blah blah but We don't have to raise $50,000 to go to Camp Orkila or Islandwood.

This is in fact an equity issue.

The other issue is that at the same time we're talking about this we're also ratcheting back alternative schools and that's kind of an oxymoron between universalism where this is working and schools that admittedly have a great deal of privilege but we have to use targeted universalism and make that applicable to all 104 schools.

There are some great programs in this city.

Are they inequitable.

Absolutely they are.

Do we have a physical plant in Discovery Park with the Fort Lawton issues going on to do this.

We absolutely do.

But we have to come together and decide that's what we want and put our money where our mouths are.

And more importantly we need to designate somebody at the JSCEE whatever it's called these days and and put somebody in charge with it with an action plan.

to spread the good word.

And and until we do that and put our money where our mouth is I don't see us going forward with this extraordinarily important futuristic way to change the way we educate our children.

And and my background is Camp Orkila is working with kids on the ground.

But let's be real.

We don't do that across the board.

And until we put our money where our mouths are and put central staff in charge of finding the money finding the grants and and working on curricula that we can use target universalism to make happen it's it's happy talk.

And I don't mean to be a cynical old woman And I want this to happen more than anybody and his second cousin.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

So we need to start wrapping up here.

Director Rankin oh I see Director Rivera-Smith has her hand up as well.

I can be very quickly.

I just wanted to echo Director Harris's comments that all this wonderful work and and recommendations you know can be for nothing if we don't prioritize it in our budget work.

So I'm looking forward to that discussion when it's time for that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Rankin and team do you want to select somebody to have any.

Lisa did you just re-raise your hand.

Nope.

Sorry I'll put it down.

Okay.

To get us wrapped up.

Well I just I want to state that that's exactly what these recommendations are is are that the reopening resolution that we approved as a board was directing the district to prioritize this and to do this and to bring these things in.

And so this set of recommendations includes where we see the district should start.

One of which is putting resources to make it sustainable and equitable and across the district.

In the upcoming levy we have proposed there's proposed money dedicated in there for some outdoor classrooms.

In budgeting that we approved in June there was some money indicated for a central staff person to oversee this.

We do have we have all these So this this is really our charge as a task force and our report back to you back to the full board and to the superintendent who was not the superintendent when we first directed this.

So this is really our charge to the district and and everybody is we all agreed that this was a priority and we want to see it happen.

So so now let's do it.

Jason do you want to give a final thought before we cede our time.

Yeah if you don't mind I'd like to respond to respond to Ms. Harris's comment because and I'm the last person to say that you know a destination camp experience is you know is bad.

I think it's fantastic.

I think having a pinnacle peak experience at a Seattle-based camp would be absolutely spectacular.

But I think it misses how I see place-based and environmental education having evolved over the last 20 years.

I began work at Island Wood in 2003 when it was called the Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center and all props out to them.

They do a great job.

But quite frankly I think their most effective curriculum and programming since has been their community waters curriculum which has kids working directly with their schools and around in their neighborhoods.

I think there is a lot of place-based and environmental education that is incredibly powerful that teaches kids how to value where they live and allows them ownership over the place that they go to school and the neighborhoods that they call home.

And this is also outdoor and environmental education.

So I don't think we can ignore that.

And I think it's something which could happen now and sooner.

And that's actually I think that's something which is a sentiment of the task force as well.

Director Rankin.

Can I make one comment.

Final thought.

Final thought because we got to give our time back.

Okay okay sorry sorry.

Yeah I just I just want to add that this is totally totally the case and like that I feel like we all agree in principle but like the task force really thought through of how can we start implementing it right away and address it in equity right away.

Just to make this universal standard put funding out there and then just have an equity model moving forward that empowers students and community groups and educators to just make it happen now.

So I feel like we're trying to do that thinking and there's already a million models and our education already exists.

It's just it's just very inequitable and it's not systemic.

That's all.

Thank you.

Sorry.

I see a yellow hand up but I can't see where it is coming from.

It's Sabrina.

It's Sabrina.

It's Sabrina.

I'm good.

We can go ahead.

You can wrap up Liza.

Okay.

Thank you all so very much.

And we I think our next conversation related to this my my sort of comment slash question is how do we reframe this in the context of student outcomes focused governance.

I think it would be really powerful if we could make that shift and connect it to the rest of the work that we're doing would be really amazing.

So would love to have that conversation.

Okay.

Thank you all for all of your time and everybody else's patience and seeing where we've we've come and for all of your hard work.

And let's move on at this point to I'm going to take us to our public testimony and we'll come back to committee reports and board comments.

So.

Okay.

So we're going to be taking public testimony today as stated on the agenda.

For speakers watching through SPS-TV please call in now to ensure you are on the phone line when your name is called.

Board Procedure 1430BP provides the rules for testimony and I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

First testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list.

which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website.

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones and only one person should speak at a time.

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called.

The total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers and time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins.

In order to maximize opportunities for others to address the board each speaker is allowed only one speaking slot per person per meeting.

If a speaker cedes time to a latter speaker on the testimony a later speaker on the testimony list or waiting list the person to whom time was ceded will not be called to provide testimony again later in the meeting as there is only one speaking slot per person.

Those who do not wish to have time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or wait list.

Finally the majority of the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Thank you President Hampson.

Speakers please remain muted until your name is called to provide testimony.

When your name is called please be sure you unmute on the device you are calling from and also press star-6 to unmute yourself on the conference call line.

Each speaker will have a 2-minute speaking time and a chime will sound when your time is exhausted and the next speaker will then be called.

The first speaker on today's list is Mia Dabney.

Hello can you guys hear me.

Yes we can hear you Mia.

Perfect.

Hello my name is Mia Dabney.

I'm currently a senior at Cleveland High School and I'm currently ASB President and President of the NAACP Youth Council.

The demographics at Cleveland have had an increasing change since I was a freshman.

The change in demographics in our school has decreased the BIPOC population incredibly.

The change is obvious by the increase of White population.

It's even more noticeable by just walking around the halls.

Cleveland is known as a school that has created programs and systems to specifically help BIPOC students have opportunities for success.

Currently our school's waitlist is predominantly students of color.

This is extremely problematic because Cleveland is known to be a place where students of color are seen and understood.

Cleveland has been very successful about in.

increasing the graduation rate of students of color.

Cleveland has also created opportunities that have positively impacted my friends and classmates.

The decision making process with the GeoZone should be more transparent with the community.

The gentrification of the South End has we the gentrification the South End has been facing started long before we could see it.

As a community we should be making strategic plans to ensure students of color have access to all the resources at Cleveland High School.

Thank you and we'll see you soon.

Next for testimony is Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins.

Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the minutes of the September 9th board meeting.

Six points.

Number one the final action item on that agenda was a motion pursuant to District Policy 5207. Number two neither the language of the motion nor the accompanying documents were made available to the public before or after the meeting.

The board waived the requirements of Policy 1420 for timely posting of the information.

Number three so there would have been no way for the public to know the nature of the proposed action.

Number four apparently an harassment complaint had been filed by district staff members and upheld against two school board members.

Number five.

Waiving timely notice to the public does not override the board's obligations to provide information to the public related to board actions.

Number six.

The board's secrecy could cause the public to wonder what other information is being suppressed.

On the board agenda.

Three points.

Number one the board is continuing to deliberately vote on the consent agenda prior to allowing public comment.

I appreciate Director Rivera-Smith speaking to this issue at the September 9th board meeting.

Number two the public was allowed to provide in-person testimony at the August 25th meeting but not at today's meeting.

Again please explain why.

The board oversees in-person education.

The board should be ready to face in-person testimony.

Number three for the third board meeting in a row today's meeting agenda did not include a flag salute.

Board meetings generally start with a flag salute per state law.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Sabrina Burr.

Sabrina Burr.

Go ahead Sabrina it looks like you're unmuted.

My name is Sabrina Burr and right now we're in unprecedented times and we cannot do business as usual.

Our teachers and building leaders are exhausted and the clog in the Seattle Public Schools pipeline for communication still persists.

And what strategy do we have for what strategy do we have for addressing the over a thousand students who are missing and no one knows why.

And from what I see no one is looking or reaching out.

Our current family engagement system is broken.

And I want to talk about 14-day quarantines and COVID.

How are we addressing learning losses and missed assignments.

We have both educators and students who are confused and this has to be addressed.

We are working hard at keeping schools open but how are we truly protecting the lives of students and their family members.

Just one student being exposed in a Southeast school has her her siblings and her entire family with COVID.

Their after-school program a home with elderly adults.

All elderly adults now are COVID-positive and a grandfather is now fighting for his life.

This is one family in that classroom.

How do we know what families are experiencing and how it is impacting families and how are we capturing this information at the district.

And how are we using qualitative data to help drive the scenarios so that we can do better at serving our families.

The other thing that needs to be addressed immediately I keep hearing over and over again we have middle school students coughing on each other saying I have COVID.

This needs to be addressed at all buildings immediately.

This is a teachable opportunity to keep kids safe.

And families need to be engaged in this process so that we have clear messaging from both school and home.

We must keep our kids safe.

A dead kid can't learn.

The next speaker is Maki Park.

Maki Park.

My name is Maki Park.

I'm co-president of the PTA at Dearborn Park International School and the mother of two SPS students.

I was here speaking to you at the previous board meeting when I and several other parents spoke out imploring SPS leadership to consider improved COVID safety policies including regular weekly testing a more accessible remote option and outdoor lunch.

Since the last meeting we've seen increased uptake in weekly screening testing being implemented across several major districts including those like New York City that are far larger and far more logistically complex than Seattle as well as smaller neighboring districts like North Shore.

Why is SPS unable to manage to implement these same policies as others have done in response to community demand from parents and teachers alike.

I noted two things in looking at today's agenda.

The first is a total disconnect between the issues raised by so many community members at the previous meeting and the issues that you all are discussing today.

The second is the lack of parents speaking out about these same issues today despite the fact that the district has done nothing to address the concerns that were raised in the last meeting.

These two observations are closely linked.

In no way have the community's concerns around SPS's inaction around the new realities of the Delta variant subsided.

Rather the lack of testimony at this meeting on this issue is a realistic response to the district's silence and lack of responsiveness.

Through its silence and inaction SPS is effectively creating a culture of learned helplessness among the families and communities it serves.

Discouraging parent engagement and showing that SPS does not value community voice as it claims to.

This is not the way a district should be operating especially at a time when parents are most in need of confidence and assurance that the institutions that care for our children are doing so with the community's best interests at heart.

If you are already working on instituting the policies that we've asked for please tell us.

If you think it's impossible to put these policies in place please tell us why this is the case and why you are unable to prioritize the health and safety of our children and teachers in this way.

Many parents have the impression that their emails their calls and their testimonies are being sent into a void and asking you to please do better.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Joseph Sawaya.

Joseph Sawaya.

Go ahead Joseph.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am Joe Sawaya and I recently retired as a teacher for the from the Seattle schools and I was part of the group that proposed the Clean Schools Resolution that you all graciously passed.

Let's ensure that the levy funds clean schools.

Specifically, we ask that the levy include retro-commissioning to encourage efficient purchasing, electrical replacements when buying space or water, heating equipment, and also funds building decarbonization.

The rest of my testimony will be via music.

It is unconstable to not decarbonize, to fail to green our schools, you know it's just unwise.

We've got a clean schools plan, let's fund it, yes we can, invest in clean Green schools to ensure we've got it.

Thank you very much.

Let's make sure our levy funds clean green schools.

Let's ensure we've got the tools.

Please invest in green schools, clean schools for the levy.

Thank you.

The next speaker on today's testimony list is Rosemary Sweeney.

Rosemary Sweeney.

Rosemary Sweeney.

If you're on the line you may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Rosemary Sweeney.

Okay moving to the next speaker on the list.

Janice White.

Janice White.

Good afternoon.

At the last meeting of the Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee staff gave a presentation about how students will be identified for advanced learning and high cap services.

The department will not hold any in-person or remote testing this year but instead will rely on historical data and additional parent and teacher information.

According to the Advanced Learning website testing by private evaluators will only be accepted on appeals.

However according to School Beat no private testing will be allowed at all this year including for appeals.

This conflicting information on the district website needs to be clarified for families.

At the committee meeting Director Harris asked about 2E or twice exceptional students and how the new identification process will affect them.

2E students are eligible for advanced learning and also have a learning disability.

The learning disability often masks the student's ability to learn at an advanced level making 2E students difficult to identify and to serve.

Ms. Berry the Director of Advanced Learning responded to Director Harris but I didn't hear a direct answer to the question.

And that concerns me and the special education PTSA.

2E students are known to fly under the radar.

They are tough to identify.

Many teachers have not received the training needed to recognize their potential.

Sometimes testing administered by an individual trained to accommodate for the disability needs is necessary to demonstrate that the student is capable of performing at a high academic level.

Often the 2E student's disability or boredom might cause the student to tune out and perform at a lower level during class as well as have behavior issues.

We are concerned that under the district's new procedures which appear to disallow any testing many 2E students will not be identified and offered access to advanced learning or high cap services.

We hope the school board will follow up on this issue and ask for a more clear explanation of how the district is going to ensure that 2E students are identified and not passed over for advanced learning.

Thank you very much.

Next on today's testimony list Karla Sugitani.

Karla Sugitani.

Is that you Karla.

Hi yes.

Hi my name is Carla Sigitani.

I'm the parent of a middle schooler.

I'm concerned that Seattle schools are requiring students to wear masks outdoors which is beyond what the state requires.

Please remove this requirement immediately.

There's no reason to mask outdoors.

It does not slow down the transmission of COVID.

It does slow down and get in the way of smiling and crying and flirting and smirking.

and fighting with your friends and telling secrets.

It gets in the way of running as fast as you can and playing in the rain.

It does not do anything to slow down COVID.

It's just wrong to have this rule.

So please remove this outdoor masking rule.

Thank you.

Next is Albert J. Wong.

Albert J. Wong.

Hello.

Go ahead Albert.

Hello.

I'm my name's Albert and I'm a parent of a child in first grade.

So I'm an SPS graduate from the Horizon Program and I was one of the few non-White students in my class and many have noted this has had a has a bad effect on people's self-esteem.

However when I read Denise Juneau's Action Report from May it sort of enraged me because I think it really showed that I don't think you understand a program.

Did you notice that when you read that you go eight pages in and never once did you actually mention the experience of the child?

What you've actually managed to do is you've managed to talk about the system, but you've lost track of the humans and the kids.

Instead, we've had discussions about buzzwords like gifted and highly capable.

People talk about things like teacher, like saying all kids are highly capable or, you know, talking about the teacher is not actually having any training.

And this is sort of ridiculous because it's not the point.

It is true.

All kids are capable, but some kids, are reading at 5th grade levels in kindergarten.

Some kids are doing multiplication.

And we don't talk about that but instead we talk in high-level hand-wavy terms.

And I think with that you've sort of taken part of a program you didn't understand.

So like for me I graduated from Horizon a long time ago and it was sort of bad for me in a way that people talked about but it was also really good.

Like it was really evident to me that no one talked about bullying inside anywhere in that discussion.

If you talk to any parent I have of kids who have gone through some of these programs it's like one of the first things to talk about is being socially mismatched at your prior school.

I myself was like beat up on the playground and it wasn't just for the kids it was also for the teachers.

A teacher treated me as a problem.

And I think I heard this from a previous parent just now about 2E students not just 2E students that have that issue.

Like if you are challenging a teacher by asking them things that are beyond what the class level you're disrupting the class it's not going to necessarily endear you.

And you will disengage.

So I'm just really confused at how you managed to actually make a change to this program.

While pretty much completely forgetting to ask to talk to the students.

So thank you.

Next is Jana Parker.

Jana Parker.

Jana Parker if you're on the line please press star-6 to unmute.

Go ahead Jana.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Hello.

Oh hi.

I'm a parent of two twice-exceptional students which means highly capable with disabilities.

Our demonstrator returned to SPS after three years in another district which he attended as a child of an employee after SPS failed him.

He has many great strengths including math and music and he is still on the way of recovery from the trauma caused by lack of understanding of needs of twice exceptional and neurodiverse students.

He was not identified as a student with disability until he was in fourth grade and falling apart losing interest in learning because he was not supported in areas he required individualized help or challenged in areas he excelled in.

He was passing as an average and his mental health suffered.

Being bullied.

and not protected in school made everything worse and forced him out.

We emailed SPS on August 13th and due to health concerns and his severe anxiety he requires remote access to classes.

In response staff has been repeating things like quote it is the responsibility of the parent to enroll their students to to a virtual academy unquote rather than providing our son with access to instruction in his school.

We finally resorted to enroll re-enrolling him in Seattle on August 27th despite district staff telling us not to.

He has still not been even in one class.

For our 10th grader virtual real-time instruction is a necessity.

It is not a choice.

It has been working for him better than in-person instruction ever was for the past 18 months.

We ask SPS to respect what he is clearly communicating and that he is not feeling comfortable to attend school in person during COVID and that he will not be going into school building where he was attacked repeatedly and then blamed by staff for his disability just because he passes for typically developing child and he is able and forced to mask his disability to match the majority.

If you were in the special education PTSA general membership meeting last night you would hear similar stories of other neurodiverse students.

We are asking for remote access to instruction and opportunity any non-disabled students without health issues have to learn.

Our children need to stay safe and feel safe and we need our educators to be supported in meeting them where they are.

Thank you.

Next is Matsuko Pollard.

Matsuko Pollard.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

My name is Mitsuko Pollard.

Mother of a kindergartner and a third grader at McDonald International School.

We are in Japanese immersion program.

Recently one of the ELL instruct instructional assistant left the program.

I'm here today to promote hiring of a Japanese-speaking instructional assistant at McDonald ELL.

My kids are receiving ELL service.

All the 3 years my daughter has received ELL ELL service.

There was a lack of communication between the office and the parents due to lack of Japanese-speaking instructor in ELL.

So here's the current data.

There are a total of 100 students in ELL.

44 from Spanish and 56 from Japanese.

We have 12 Spanish classes total of 303 students.

Out of 303 students receiving 44 students needing ELL service that is 13 percent of Spanish students.

On the other hand we have 8 classes total of 151 students in Japanese.

Out of 151 students 56 students needing ELL service.

That is 37 percent of kids needing ELL in Japanese.

So 13 percent Spanish versus 37 Japanese.

Now we currently have 3 Spanish-speaking ELL instructors and they are waiting to hire one more Spanish or Somali-speaking IA.

We heard that the SPS only wants to hire Spanish or Somali-speaking IA and cannot hire Japanese-speaking IA.

As you can tell by the numbers Japanese-speaking children are needing ELL services at much higher rates at McDonald's.

We need a Japanese-speaking IA.

And please do not forget that for every student needing ELL service there are parents who are also not necessarily proficient in English as their native language is Japanese.

So please work with HR or the district.

Please consider hiring a Japanese-speaking IA for McDonald's.

Thank you very much for your time.

And one more try.

Rosemary Sweeney.

Are you on the line now.

Rosemary Sweeney.

Please press star-6 if you are on the line.

President Hampson that concludes today's testimony list.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Okay so we're going to quickly go through committee reports.

Let's see has the Operations Committee I don't we don't have Director DeWolf to give an Operations Committee update so we'll we'll save that for next time.

Executive Committee met on September 15th.

And we have our next meeting we're actually have a special meeting coming up on October 4th which will be a special meeting to approve the RFP for the firm that we would work with the request for proposal for the firm that we would work with for the superintendent hiring process.

So that's coming up and then our regular meeting on October 13th.

And those are always at 8 a.m.

During this last session we did a brief update on our progress with student outcomes focused governance.

Talked about that superintendent process search and timeline and heard the ITAC Information Technology Advisory Committee annual reports.

Did a brief conversation and update on direction for the superintendent and board evaluations and then had an update on our board procedure very important board procedure and policy around student school board student representatives and which is critical work that we continue to make progress on.

But I believe we're at a place where we believe we'll be able to get them on board by next academic year.

But we want to make sure that as we bring on school board members that we are doing everything we can to create a welcoming environment for those those students.

And then the next the other committee meeting which I actually chaired in lieu of Director Hersey was for Audit and Finance and that was on the 14th.

And we have our next meeting coming up on December I'm sorry on Apologies we actually had a I pulled up we had a we also on Tuesday December 14th we had a quarterly audit meeting where we went over our progress with the Moss Adams implementation plan that's for enterprise risk assessment and enterprise-wide internal audit process as well as an ethics office update.

That next quarterly meeting for internal audit is on December 7th 2021. And then the actual Audit and Finance Committee meeting which was on Monday the 13th.

And the next meeting for Audit and Finance will be on October 11th 2021. And the primary report was from human resources on non-discrimination and affirmative action.

We had an excellent report from our HR department on those items and the progress that we've made in increasing the number of staff of color in Seattle Public Schools at an as if I'm not mistaken at an increasing rate.

And Otherwise just had monthly financial reports.

So again as we start to head into budgeting season which yes is coming up now.

I can say that a hundred times and it would still surprise people in Spring that we have actually we start the budgeting process and have and start working on it now and have meetings coming up very soon.

So for folks that are interested in that please pay attention.

And at some time in the future I know we'll have another application out for our second public advisor position.

And then Director Rankin is your hand up.

Yeah it is.

Oh did you want to give a brief SSC&I.

No I actually since Zachary's or Director DeWolf isn't here I just wanted to remind folks on behalf of operations that there are community levy presentations.

One was yesterday and there's another one tomorrow.

So for folks that are interested in learning more about how our district is financed and what is planned to be put on the ballot in February for our next levy that you can tune into that meeting tomorrow or find a recording of it I think online.

Yeah.

Tomorrow's meeting is at 630 p.m.

And we'll we'll be the link should be on the actually an email went out to all families in Seattle Public Schools and then otherwise it's at the Seattle Schools slash about slash levy is where other input can be given.

And sorry did you mention the the task force applications.

I was going to do that.

I had my hand up because yeah thank you.

I was going to mention that we are currently taking applications for the Clean Energy Task Force.

You can find it online.

The deadline is October 8th.

Okay.

So if I didn't miss anything else or I tried to get through that very quickly so we can get to our business.

So our action items.

And the first action item is approve contracting services with Columbia Safety LLC to perform COVID-19 contract contact tracing for Seattle Public Schools.

May I have a motion for this item.

Please.

Can I get a motion for this item.

Did we lose Director Director Rivera-Smith are you prepared to make the motion.

Yeah I can go.

I'm sorry.

I'll go.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with Columbia Safety LLC for a total not to exceed $1.5 million including Washington sales tax in the form attached to the board action report with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the contract.

immediate action in the best interest of the district.

Can y'all hear me now.

Yes we can.

You may second if you'd like.

Sorry second.

I don't know what's going on.

If I go out again I'm here.

Okay.

This item has been moved by Director Rivera-Smith and seconded by Vice President Hersey.

Assistant Deputy Superintendent Carri Campbell I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes thank you.

Good evening.

Carri Campbell Assistant Deputy Superintendent I'm presenting for introduction and action Approval of Contracting Services with Columbia Safety LLC.

Approval of this BAR would authorize the superintendent to execute a contract not to exceed $1.5 million to support the district's COVID-19 Contact Tracing Program.

This item did not go through committee due to the emergency nature of this request and the need to immediately increase our workforce.

Contact tracing the investigation and notification of individuals who have come into close contact with someone with confirmed COVID-19 is a critical and required step in stopping the spread of the disease.

Seattle Public Schools as Dr. Jones mentioned currently has a team of four dedicated contact tracing nurses who work centrally and conduct case investigation determine the district's response often in partnership with public health and support close contact notifications and directives so directions on what to do as a close contact.

The contract with Columbia Safety LLC would provide needed support for notifying close contacts.

Columbia Safety will work at the direction of our experienced contact tracing team.

Columbia Safety is uniquely positioned to support us in these efforts and came recommended by Health Commons Project.

Health Commons Project is an operating partner for the Washington Department of Health's Learn to Return Program.

Columbia Safety will provide up to 12 staff to support the close contact notification process.

These staff have already conducted contact tracing or have worked at a testing or vaccination site.

They are well-versed in all things COVID-19 and will be able to support our families as they navigate navigate challenging information.

The Columbia Safety Team will work remotely from 8 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

Monday through Sunday to match the current operating hours of the SPS contact tracing team.

If approved the contract will run through June 30th 2022 and is structured to support increases and decreases of COVID-19 transmission in our community and in turn cases identified in our school buildings.

Thank you for the opportunity to bring this request forward.

And I'm ready to answer any questions from the school board directors.

Okay.

School board directors.

Which of you have questions.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you Carrie for that information.

Can you repeat if there was a number of the contract tracers that will be high that will be supplied for this.

So up to 12. That's what I thought I heard.

And do we have confidence and assurance that they'll be able to provide that number.

Yes.

Great.

Well I just this is I think very welcome.

We definitely have been hearing the calls from community about the you know the delays in receiving reports and information from their school and the confusion regarding do they stay home do they not.

Even staff are confused.

So this is definitely a welcome.

So no further questions.

Thank you.

Apologies I was muted.

Director Harris.

Thank you so much.

I missed the closed session last week but I was updated by my colleague Director Rivera-Smith.

Could you.

Assistant Superintendent Campbell talk about what this really means in plain language in terms of combined COVID testing response dates etc.

I I think that this is important to do.

I am in favor of it but the legalistic language that you just read off doesn't really tell us what exactly is going on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So contact tracing is one of our strongest mitigation strategies.

So when there is a confirmed case let's just take a classroom for an example.

There is a confirmed case of COVID-19 in one of our classrooms one of our students or a staff member.

Our central nursing team begins an investigation process and that includes collecting seating charts If it happens to be a student fall figuring out where that student has been throughout the day and then determining who are close contacts of that confirmed individual.

So a close contact in a classroom setting is within 3 feet and vaccination status mask wearing all of those factors play into determining the next steps with those that close contact.

We are required per DOH to notify close contacts.

That is also a very strong way to mitigate spread within our classrooms.

What we're missing right now is a robust workforce to do all of the notification of individuals that have had close contact with that confirmed individual.

So one student.

or example could interface with many many other students and adults throughout the day.

So first there is an investigation component.

Our nurses will continue to do that investigation.

But then there is the notification of all of those individuals that have been in with close contact and close contact is defined by the Department of Health not by Seattle Public Schools.

That is what we're contracting for so that we make sure that any child or staff member who's been in close contact is getting immediate notification and they're giving given direction on what to do next.

So a follow-up question then would be does this also include screening of individual classrooms and notification.

So it would not do you mean testing screening testing of individual classrooms.

Screening testing or whether or not we do the swabs and all in one classroom and then we backfill.

I'm just trying to understand in very plain easy to understand language because so much of the language surrounding the Delta variant especially is complicated and difficult to understand.

Thank you.

So if I was a confirmed case and you were my close contact Director Harris so you're within 3 you're unvaccinated and you are getting a phone call from and an email from Columbia Safety to let you know that you're a close contact you would be encouraged to get a COVID test whether through our diagnostic testing through Seattle Public Schools or our community space I believe within 3 to 5 days of exposure.

So that's how testing is connected to close contacts.

What you're asking about is the relationship between screening testing which we are not ruling out at this time.

We are in conversation with Seattle Education Association and Health Commons Project on the viability of screening testing.

To do screening testing It does impact contact tracing.

So screening testing is take a classroom and on a weekly basis you have a pool test.

And that means that the teacher or the test observer is in the room and each child is swabbing their nose and they're putting it into a pool test.

And if that comes back positive you have something called a reflex test.

which means that every individual student now in that space is tested.

Related to that if we get the positive so let's say we we figure out who the positive is out of that classroom that initial pool test.

Now we have to do contact investigation of all the close contacts and the notification for all of those close contacts so that they too can quarantine if they were unvaccinated.

So screening testing is connected.

It's not the same thing as contact tracing but it results in more contact tracing as we identify more cases.

Does that make sense.

So we are not voting tonight on screening testing.

Only contract testing.

Is that correct Madam.

You would be approving authorization of the superintendent to have a contract for contact tracing the notification to close contacts yes but it is they are related they are not the same.

Thank you so much.

So we can look forward depending on more investigation and and more resources identified to a screening program potentially at our next legislative meeting.

Is that correct.

I can't make promises.

We're in discussion with our labor partners but work is underway behind the scenes in order to set the program up quickly if we come to agreement.

Okay I just think that that really helps our constituents to know that we are paying attention to their concerns.

I appreciate your clarification immensely.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

I wanted to circle back sort of on what Dr. Harris was saying but also is will Columbia be providing revamping writing their own notifications for families.

I'm hearing that the notifications are very unclear.

Is that something that's evolving or that Columbia will be working on.

Thank you for that question.

So the communications team and Coordinated Health have been working with PASS to based on the experience of our families and the experience of our school leaders who are the direct communicator with confirmed cases and students who need to quarantine to already revise those letters.

So letters have are revised.

I saw translated versions today.

And Columbia Safety will be using those letters that have been generated out of those conversations with our school leaders and staff to deploy to families.

Great.

Thank you.

That's so good to find out.

No further questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

Thanks.

I just Want to confirm double-check.

This is basically expanding the capacity of the current team that we have.

It's not adding.

These people are not going into buildings and having more contact with students.

This is really a forensic sort of team.

Is that.

So this is an expansion.

So contact tracing has two phases.

First is investigation of the case.

and all the people that have close contact.

Our nurses are still going to do that investigation because they have the relationship with school leaders and school staff.

And it's a really intimate relationship as you're working through where where students have gone or staff have gone throughout the day.

Columbia Safety will be doing those notifications.

We'll be providing resources.

We'll be providing education to those close contacts and then closing the loop with our nursing team.

So they are an extension of the work but our nurses will continue to do the primary investigation with our school leaders and staff.

Okay.

So I this seems important and fully support and I also just you know there are so many different unions and groups of people in various labor conversations out in in our country right now facing just getting really close to burnout.

People are everybody's working such long hours.

So I am happy to hear that we can increase the capacity of our nursing team by contracting with this service because those the hours and the time that that team of 4 has been putting in sounds not super sustainable.

Okay.

Any other questions from directors.

Okay.

Ms. Wilson-Jones can we call for the vote.

Vice President Hersey aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Dury aye Director Harris aye Director Hampson aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Okay we will now move to the sorry.

Oh thank you.

Thank you.

We will now move to the introduction item on today's agenda which is Introduction Item Number 1 BTA IV BEX V Award Construction Contract P5 167 Bid Number B092101 to an unknown entity for the North Queen Anne School Upgrades Project in approval of budget transfer from the Building Excellence V Program Contingency.

This came through operations on September 9th and is recommended for approval.

And I believe you will be briefing us Chief Podesta.

Sorry Assistant Superintendent Podesta.

Thank you Fred Podesta Assistant Superintendent for Operations.

This project provides a number of upgrades to the North Queen Anne School Building which is where the Cascade Parent Partnership is housed.

It fully replaces exterior doors and windows.

It is a replacement of the thermal envelope of the building which is a fancy way of saying insulation.

It makes major seismic improvements and is a full replacement of the heating ventilation and air conditioning systems.

And it will be an installation of a new fire suppression system and electrical upgrades as well.

The this building was constructed in 1914 had some additions done in the 20s.

The school was closed as a operating Seattle Public Schools school in 1980 and was leased to the Northwest Center for many years in the 80's.

The Cascade Parent Partnership was relocated there.

The decision was made in 2014 and there's there have not been many improvements to the building since the lease time just allowing for minimal occupation of the program when it was put in place.

This action also involves a budget transfer of contingency funds from BEX V. When this work was originally contemplated it was not budgeted to expecting the city's regulatory department to designate the project as a substantial alteration given that it was originally scoped to be repaired to some doors and windows and upgrades to systems not you know a lot of construction work.

But this which does increase the scope you know are these will be much more comprehensive seismic improvements and these will be replacements of building systems not just upgrades.

It still represents a good investment in the building and so we'd still recommend going forward even though the scope is not as originally planned.

And this is why we have contingency funds in our levy programs is to handle these adjustments to project scope.

It'll make the building that much more sustainable.

The bids are ongoing right now and we will bring Assuming we are successful in our bidding process we'll bring this back to the board for action likely on the October 20th meeting.

And the amounts and names will be filled in then and we'll correct the timeline as well.

And happy to take any questions directors may have.

Okay.

Questions from directors.

I don't have a question but I do have a comment if I can.

I wanted to just make a connection here between items like this and then the calls we're hearing from community about having a funding for the clean energy resolution in the upcoming levy.

I think it's great to show that so many of the previous levy allocations are funding things like window replacements HVAC upgrades.

envelope work that that is already helping to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

And so proud of the district for the work that we've already done and definitely looking forward to getting more done.

So thank you Chief Podesta.

Sorry Assistant Superintendent Podesta.

Thank you for those comments Director Rivera-Smith.

That is true.

All our all our investments work towards more energy efficiency and use of cleaner energy.

Do other directors have questions for Assistant Superintendent Podesta.

Okay.

Hearing none.

As always thank you for this important work to keep our students in physical spaces and places.

Okay so we will now move to the board comments section of the agenda.

Starting first with Director Hersey.

Making sure y'all can hear me before I begin.

We can.

Okay fantastic.

I will keep my comments very brief.

Thank you to the D7 group that consistently meets now on a bi-weekly basis.

If you are interested in joining that group we would be more than happy to have you.

Please just reach out to me and I will get you connected in the most appropriate way.

I want to also acknowledge that there are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers right now and that is That that is causing a lot of concern and anxiety for families.

And I do not want to give the impression that we are not listening.

That we are not acting on these things feverishly.

But there is a process that is in line for us to lift these things up in an appropriate way.

And we will be communicating out what those changes and what these programs will look like in due time.

And with that said I'm going to pass it on to the next director but I want folks to know that your your calls your pleas your emails they are not going nowhere.

We are working to figure these things out.

Okay.

Director Dury.

No comments.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Thanks.

Slow on the uptake.

I apologize.

Couple of things I want to circle back to.

Ubaldton Foster the Sakachi teacher who is the Puget Sound Educational District Teacher of the Year and I couldn't be more pleased.

But I want to talk a little bit about her background at Middle College High School and her advocacy for keeping Middle College High School at High Point Neighborhood House.

Back in the old days and I would suggest back in the bad old days the teachers at Middle College High School at Neighborhood House at High Point who had a very productive impactful program after having been evicted from South Seattle College because the school board excuse me the school district not the school board chose not to pay one dime of rent after six years.

They were teaching their classes as well they should and saving lives.

And Middle College High School is an extraordinary program and I encourage people to look it up and its history.

But those teachers were interrupted by folks coming in to measure the furniture to see how many trucks it would take to move their furniture out when Middle College High School at High Point would cease to exist.

No notice whatsoever.

And those that have a historical bent can go back to the videotaped hearings and hear Ms. Boo Balkan Foster's compassion testimony from her heart and ethical as all heck.

And I my recollection is that she testified by saying this is not my story to tell.

But let me tell you what I've done at Middle College High School.

This was before Sikachi.

and is a testament to her caring and concern and the extraordinary work that our Seattle School District teachers do every day.

And she is a rock star at best.

And I recall seeing something whether it be via SPS official communication or via social media that she hoped she wouldn't win because it would take her out of her classroom.

That's that's the best and the brightest of this district and I applaud her.

Second she gave big props to Gail Morris the manager of Native American Education.

And for five years some of us have been asking for Gail Morris to be a director.

That means money.

That means status.

That means org charts.

And it still hasn't happened yet.

And I would suggest to you that it needs to happen.

And there are those that would say I'm in the weeds asking for this to happen but I do so unapologetically.

Second issue.

Concord Elementary in South Park adjacent to the West Seattle Island given our lack of a bridge.

is a Title 1 school and is having extraordinarily difficult issues with respect to buses.

And it is well-known that many students in South Park transport up to West Seattle and there is no Metro bus system to assist them whether it be to other schools Denny International Middle School Chief Sealth International Middle School Boren Pre-K-8 STEM.

Last I heard we the district made promises to Concord that they would have bus service and as a Title 1 school and their geographic problems would be highly prioritized and From what I hear from community and I am hearing a great deal from community that is not happening and I would like to see a fix and I appreciate constituents reaching out to me.

Third outdoor lunches.

This is a school-based decision and I'm having some difficulty with that because there are principals that do not want to deal with outdoor lunches tents etc. and or do not have PTSA assistance and funding for tents etc. or the volunteer contingent to keep an eye on our students.

But this goes way back to the baseline of are we a school system or are we a system of schools.

And I am hearing a great deal from constituents about the lack of traction with some principals on outdoor lunches.

And and if we are relying and or requiring PTSA funding for those tents then that is the very definition of inequity and I hope we address that.

I will repeat again with respect to outdoor education.

I believe we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to do an outdoor education facility at Fort Lawton and that we can take our school buses to the extent that we have drivers for said school buses and have outdoor education at Discovery Park Fort Lawton and and we're we're at a precipice again of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I hope we do not let it pass by.

Last I'm going to respond directly to Mr. Jackin's criticisms of not having a flag excuse me flag salute.

If everything is important then nothing is important.

And I hope that we pick our battles more carefully.

And it is certainly something that I struggle with.

And And I hope that we focus on the things that are truly the most important because we do not have enough resources and we do not have enough time.

Thank you so much.

Write me.

Call me.

Fax me.

I hope to have a community meeting in-person 6 feet adjacent and with food.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi thank you.

I'm a little torn.

I always like to respond to public testimony as much as I can but I know we need to keep it keep it brief.

I have other things I want to share on.

But real fast I want to just thank our student speaker Mia Dabney.

Thank you.

It's good to always share space with you.

And I support your calls for transparency and decision-making.

I cannot wait to have students our representatives on our board.

And it sounds like that will be a little longer wait than expected but it's going to happen.

Thank you for your work in making that happen.

And other speakers I forgive me for not going through you but I did I did want to share just some information that earlier this month I emailed and spoke with Superintendent Jones on two related items.

One was to ask what steps Seattle Public Schools will be taking in recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month which began Wednesday September 15th and runs through Friday October 15th.

Hispanic Heritage Month or as it's called nationally you'll find it on the SPS website as Latinx History Month Heritage Month sorry recognizes and celebrates the contributions that Americans who trace their roots to Spain Mexico Central America South America and the Spanish-speaking regions nations of the Caribbean have made to American society and culture.

So I wanted to know that SPS would take meaningful steps to ensure all our schools and educators have the resources and opportunities to celebrate and recognize this important month.

As someone whose family originated in Mexico and in parts of what today is Texas and came up through California as field workers and laborers I never saw my culture truly recognized or celebrated until I was probably in high school and college.

So our SPS students deserve those opportunities in all grades not just this month but woven throughout their curriculum and experiences in our buildings and I'm excited and hopeful about the work that our new Ethnic Studies Program Manager Alexander Ray is doing in that department including Ethnic Studies Capacity Building throughout the district and implementing Ethnic Studies in our middle schools this school year.

So thank you for that work.

The second item that I shared with Dr. Jones was my my belief that our district has really needs to engage in a real conversation with community about the terms we use to identify are students of Mexican-Central American-South American-Caribbean-Spain origins.

The term Hispanic for many good reasons is not embraced by many of the very people who the term was meant to identify historically.

But as we forge ahead even with the best of intentions with newer more inclusive terms like Latinx we must first really do the community engagement necessary to know which terms and identifiers these students themselves want to use for them.

For myself I prefer Chicana or Mexican-American But there's a lot of different identifiers and they all have significance to those that there are using them.

So I'm happy to share that Superintendent Jones was very receptive to my inquiries and he community events and more that they can use and share throughout the month.

Likewise you'll be exploring along with Assistant Superintendent of Equity Partnerships and Engagement James Bush an engagement plan to uncover what those most appropriate identifiers would be for our Brown students and staff instead of trying to decide for them.

Because I think obviously as we did hear from community that engagement is critical.

So in closing though I will say that while we have yet to have those conversations those discussions the goal this month and every month of uplifting And the contributions of our vibrant Hispanic Latinx community members can't shouldn't and won't wait.

So thank you to all of our educators and administrators who are making that happen for our students now.

Director Rankin.

I I am like I think so many of us totally completely exhausted.

I've hit that.

point again as I as I did last year where I kind of bolt upright at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning because my brain kind of won't won't turn off about various things that are that are going on.

And sort of because of that or or connected to that related to outdoor education I I want to really emphasize that That may feel like oh my gosh that now this other thing is now coming on and everything feels like one more thing.

But I think what's what's really critical is that because we are so exhausted everything different and new seems overwhelming and like another thing piling on.

I'm concerned that we're going to let that get in the way of us making the shifts that we know students need need from us.

And and my hope is that as that work and other work progresses that the central offices and staff become for everyone what I what I see happening what I know is happening which is that we the central offices should really be a source of support and resource for our schools.

not not the source of more more things for no apparent reason.

And I feel that shift happening and I wanted to say it out loud because I want people who may not feel it yet to know that that's the intention and that's the priority of all of us is to expand capacity to be be the support that educators need as they're in buildings with our students.

And for us not to let exhaustion and jadedness put up barriers to us making changes that I believe will support better outcomes for students and support all of us in building capacity and relationship and taking some of the individual burden away and and replacing that with support from all directions.

So I say that as somebody who is individually exhausted.

But I just I wanted to state that because it can seem you know different things get the arts are marginalized in the same way like oh well that's just an extra nice to have or outdoor education is an extra nice to have if it feels disjointed.

And our focus on student outcomes and targeted universalism and meeting students where they are and trying to embody the values and teachings of folks like Boo who was just here being honored.

If we put those pieces together I really believe and hope that we can lift some of the burden of the individual exhaustion and and put the energy back around our kids in a more holistic way.

And so I'm just grateful for everyone's plodding through and give yourself give yourself a break.

Take a deep breath.

It's the first day of fall.

It's a season of change.

Take a deep breath I guess six feet away from some from other people.

And I don't know I wish everyone good rest as we continue on through these unprecedented times and hope that they can be precedented again soon enough but also that we will have learned and be approaching those times from a different perspective for a better future for all of our kids.

So thanks.

Okay.

Director DeWolf is not with us tonight and we will see him back at our next meeting in October.

And I just want to say thank you to Superintendent Jones and his and senior staff for working on some really major pivoting in the midst of this and grinding through what is become really a public health undertaking for our educational institutions.

in ways that are that are really not don't feel great and are because they take so much away from the reason that we're all here which is to create the opportunities for students to reach their potential to get to the place where they leave knowing and being able to do the things that they need to know and need to be able to do so that they can be successful on their own terms and their lives.

It's I had the opportunity to spend time both in schools and in central office today and had an offer to tour the our behavioral health coordinated sorry coordinated health team that is so heavily involved in the contract contact tracing and I'm really grateful that that staff is looking to give them some relief The idea of us standing up a public health response as an as an educational institution is pretty it's thankless to say the least.

And and so I want to express my thanks to them and my thanks to every teacher and administrator out there.

It is I'm seeing how hard everybody is working.

how much more there is to keep track of and and quite literally trace in these in these times.

And and then of course first and really foremost ultimately our students who I think we recognize are also under an incredible amount of stress and wanting so much to have the freedom of their childhood back.

and yet are still very constrained within their environments.

And how intense and anxiety-producing and everything that that feels.

And so my gratitude to to everyone for just getting through every day.

And and then on you know for everyone that's having to deal with so many other layers of things on top of that including severe sickness illness and death in in families as is associated with disease and that is still hitting very close to home for many people in the state of Washington and this country.

And we're not we're not there yet.

So with that just holding everyone close in my thoughts and in my heart and your willingness to be here and be part of this work to stay focused on the task of providing an education to our children even when it means doing things that are so completely outside the scope of what we're what we came into this and believe we're tasked with doing.

So and with that would just encourage folks to please put appropriate pressure on our and have conversations with with other elected officials about the ways in which that they can push into educational environments as opposed to us sort of having to claw out.

We really need support from state and county and you know city around public health.

And in particular my biggest ask is that we really see a much larger campaign around vaccinations.

It cannot be on the shoulders of Seattle Public Schools or any school district in this state to get to a place of vaccination.

No we we we we are not in California and I think there's there's some some legal ground that that that makes me very nervous if we didn't have a state-level approval for vaccine authority.

I think it's it's something that the state of Washington has developed over a very long period of time you know since the 60's and 70's and we want there to be a mandated level of vaccine requirement at the state level so that we have that that state level of health right.

That means that we don't necessarily have that authority at the local level to.

to require a mandate for students.

And so and yet as I know that the most recent data point that I got statewide for students that are that are 12 to 18 were only at 50 percent statewide and that doesn't break out public school students.

And I believe I've been looking for this data from public health agencies if anybody knows where they can get their hands on it please let me know.

My assumption would be that public students public school students are going to have a lower vaccination rate than than students or than overall students in Washington State.

And therefore it is absolutely critical that we build the kind of relationships and communication channels in our communities that help those that are either vaccine-hesitant or have other and things that might be preventing them from getting to the point of having of being comfortable with them and their children getting vaccinated so we can get those 12-year-olds to 18-year-olds up to a vaccination level or we're never it's going to be really hard to get out of this entirely.

And it looks like we're on the cusp of having the the younger children have access to the vaccine and so that will be an incredibly opportune time for us to have the outreach that will then help us also grab some of those 12- to 18-year-olds so that we can keep our students safer in schools.

And yes we are still seeing spread.

We are still seeing cases.

And if you spend any time in school seeing what what student behavior is you know most the vast majority of kids are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing.

But it's a really hard thing to to not be interacting with each other and to be to socially distance from each other to have your masks on all the time.

The more that we encourage it the safer our students are and the more they can stay in school.

And I can't say that enough is that the ultimate outcome that we want to see is that our students are actually in school and therefore are learning.

But they can't do that if they're quarantining and they can't do that if if they're getting exposed.

And the more we mask and the more we vaccinate And we need every school district in this country needs all community agencies and entities on board with trying to improve our vaccination rate.

I know we can do much better in Washington State.

I know we can.

And we need everybody pounding on every door.

I'm making calls and inquiries every day to talk to folks about how do we advocate for more push-in to get our kids vaccinated.

So that's my big plea because our job is education.

We're not we are not a public health entity and we appreciate all of your your concerns and your worries because they are real.

And we are doing everything we can.

I'm again just going to go back to where I started.

I'm so grateful to our staff.

They are you know what Superintendent Jones spoke about at the top of the meeting is exactly what we need out of our leadership.

They're doing everything they can to pivot.

We just approved something that's going to help them bring in more resources to do better contact tracing so that they're the close contact knowledge is provided to families earlier.

And it's it's deep work when when they have to get a hold of families and make sure that they know across buildings you know how what the exposure may have been.

So it's this is not simple work that they're standing up and and at the end of the day we we need we really need to get to a place where they can again focus on on education and the really important things ahead of us.

And we as a board I want folks to know that we are we are not we're not turning away from our strategic plan.

We're not turning away from our goals and guardrails.

We are pushing ahead because that is at the end of the day in spite of whatever emergency comes to us in spite of whatever crisis there might be we're still responsible for making sure that our students get the education that they deserve and that they leave these like leave our our walls or our spaces even our outdoor spaces knowing how to do and and having the skills that they need to achieve the success that they that they dream of.

With that as there is no further business to come before the board this regular board meeting is adjourned at 657 p.m.

Thanks everyone.

Stay masked and stay safe.

Good night all.