Seattle School Board Meeting March 24, 2021

This is Director Hampson.

I am now calling the March 24th 2021 Regular Board Meeting to order at 330 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Director DeWolf.

President.

Director Harris.

Present.

Director Hersey.

Director Hersey.

Director Hersey I can see you see you there.

Yeah.

Switching over from Zim's from Zim's from Teams to Zoom.

Can you hear me now.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

And Director Hampson.

Here.

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

As we begin this meeting I would also like to welcome Emmanuel Donaldson.

and Trayvon Mitchell who are joining us today as the student representatives from the Student Leadership Council for the Office of African-American Male Achievement.

We will be hearing from them later on in the meeting as well as fellow Student Leadership Council member August P. Diggs who will be leading off our testimony list.

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.

The first item of business on today's agenda is the appointment of School Board Director for the unexpired term for District 4. I want to thank candidates Erin Dury Laura Marie Rivera and Eric Sousa for your participation in this appointment process and interest in serving on the board.

The Executive Committee discussed the process that will be used for this action item during the committee's February 10th meeting and determined that the process will be as follows.

First each director will have an opportunity to speak to the one candidate they are recommending.

We will move alphabetically by last name beginning with Director DeWolf.

Once each director has stated their recommendation staff will conduct a roll call vote.

This vote will be taken in reverse alphabetical order beginning by last name beginning with Director Rivera-Smith.

If one candidate receives 4 votes then that candidate will be appointed as the Director for District 4 having secured the required majority.

If no candidate receives 4 votes I will make a new motion to put before the board those candidates that received the most votes in the prior round of voting or in the event of a tie.

We will re-vote on the sorry in the event of a tie we will re-vote on the full slate of candidates without a new motion.

We will continue voting in rounds until one candidate receives the required 4-vote majority.

The order in which directors vote will reverse with each round.

We will now begin with a motion and a second to place the 3 candidates before by by a second.

a motion and then a second to that motion to place the three candidates before the board for voting.

I now move that the board take up for consideration and debate the candidacies of the three candidates for the unexpired term for the Director for District 4 Erin Dury Laura Marie Rivera and Eric Sousa to be followed by a vote of the directors.

We will now start with Director DeWolf speaking to their one recommended candidate.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

Can you hear me okay.

Yes it's not loud but I can hear you.

Thank you.

Just want to make sure.

I know my Wi-Fi in my house is wonky sometimes.

I also want to just to give my gratitude to The candidates who signed up and the candidates who remain.

You know as I watched the our youth-led forum a week ago now and and then watched the forum put on by the Seattle Council PTSA you know one thing I just felt was at the end of the day the fact that you candidates came forward put your name forward is a huge deal.

And I I don't want to let the moment go without sharing my extreme and immense gratitude I have for you because signing up to be part of this work knowing that it's all volunteer knowing that comes with a lot of work a lot of sacrifice.

I really appreciate it that you continue to stay in this and to volunteer your time and your talents and your efforts with Seattle Public Schools.

So I just want to make sure you all know that that is a huge deal.

At least to me.

So in watching the forums I was really compelled by a lot of our candidates but I think the candidates stuck out to me most both based on their answers and also their grasp of the issues that I care deeply about when it comes to systemic systemic transformation racial equity centering students operational needs And just an overall understanding of the district and our current work and our current values and our and our pursuits particularly as this board the candidate that I would like to put forward or recommend or support tonight is Erin Dury.

So to the all to all the others I greatly greatly greatly appreciate you as I said.

So I'll turn it back over to you President Hampson.

Thank you.

And then we are going in alphabetical order by last name which has me coming up next.

And I will just echo Director DeWolf in stating my tremendous appreciation for those that put your your your foot forward your your mind and your heart forward to to consider doing this work.

None of us actually ran for office or or made this commitment in the in the height of a pandemic.

And yet you've all done that.

And I think that that shows at this very very difficult time in education in general an incredible amount of dedication and heart and bravery.

And so thank you to Each of you that remains today but also thank you to those that participated prior to this particularly to Mark Perry who just recently withdrew his candidacy.

He his participation in the forums and in the process was greatly appreciated.

But also to those who considered and then and then pulled out early it's I don't want anybody to have any shame about having considered it and then decided that it wasn't for you at this time.

commitment.

And so to those of you that are that are still standing I really appreciate having spent time with each of you.

And as I said the level of commitment that it takes to put your yourself and your and that of your families forward at this time I think is to be commended.

And I've had the opportunity to speak with each one of you to see you in in the forums to watch your videos and look at your backgrounds.

And while you each have very strong qualifications and characteristics in terms of the the balance and the direction that we're headed as a board particularly with some strong background in budgeting and change management I'm going to say that that I will be putting my support behind Erin Dury at this time.

I was particularly impressed with her areas of expertise and believe in particular with her familiarity with the students that are in foster care through her CASA experience that she's got a great deal of understanding about students that exist at the margins of our systems.

And that's a really critical level of experience that I would like to see us have on the board.

And with that I will turn it over to Director Harris.

I'm sorry I'm coming first because my two colleagues that spoke before me said many of the things that I wish to have said so I will not repeat them.

I will say however that the fact that Erin Dury comes from an option alternative school is very important to me.

I will say that her CAFA background and my background in the legal community makes that especially relevant and personal to me.

The community outreach and change management is especially important to me as well as is my conversation with Mark Perry who had my vote previous to his withdrawing for personal reasons and he has every right to those personal reasons and I respect him even more now.

We're recognizing what an enormous commitment this happy job is.

And he said he's going to continue to help us and I'm thrilled beyond that.

And to everyone that put their hat in the ring whether they withdrew or not huge thanks and gratitude.

We know where you live and we will find a spot for you to continue to help us if you are not appointed the director.

But but my vote will.

enthusiastically go for Aaron Gurree.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

Thank you very much.

As many of you know oh that is my teaching camera.

Give me a second to get that figured out.

I'll figure it out on the next one.

But as many of you know I was sitting in this seat a little over a year ago and I it is not lost on me how much time energy commitment and just frankly passion and all the anxiety as well around putting yourself forward in a way that is very public and in times can be very divided and divisive.

And that is no small feat.

I think as we enter a period of transition both in our leadership and into physical buildings Having folks that are interested in jumping aboard this this steaming bullet train is just very heartening.

I think that as I think about everything that I've learned and everything that I needed to know in this role I'm really excited about Candidate Dury for for a number of reasons that have already been stated here tonight.

I think that the ability of all candidates who put their name forward to hit the ground running would be there.

But with the special attention and focus as Director Hampson has already mentioned to students who live and students who frankly thrive in the margins of our society and what it's going to take for us to take those students and their experiences and put them at the forefront as we continue to figure our way out through this pandemic.

I'm really excited about her candidacy for so many reasons but the style of leadership and those lived experiences that are shared between so many of our students are going to be critical as we make sure that we reopen in an equitable way.

So I'm very excited to put my support behind Candidate Dury and I'll pass to the next director.

Okay.

Director Rankin.

Hi thank you.

Yeah I also want to express my my gratitude and appreciation to everybody who put their names in the hat.

I felt really fortunate during the process that we had a lot of really good options.

That was really comforting and honestly a little bit surprising going into this knowing the circumstances that We're all facing right now in the challenging situation and the fact that you know the 4 and the 4 who ended up being in it till close to the end and now 3 that stuck with it would would all serve our board and serve our students really well.

I really appreciated Mark Perry's experience as a principal and a building leader.

And given that we are a relatively young board That in particular just life experience also and and being within several several systems as a as a leader was was really appealing.

So I do hope that he will continue to engage with us and support the work of the board.

And let's see what who's next.

Eric Souza the enthusiasm and willingness to dive right in and start digging into issues was also so appreciated.

And for Laura Marie your care and and concern and and wanting every student to succeed is so evident and that that also that moves me a lot and means a lot to me.

And so in the end where we are I'm I'm also recommending Erin Dury for this seat due to as as other directors have noted in thinking about where there are where there are overlaps where there are gaps in skill set or or less less represented skills within the board that could be filled by one of these folks.

Who I saw filling those particularly with budgeting and systems change and non-profit experience was in Erin.

And so and in addition to her focus on students who have been marginalized and need need our full attention.

So I'm also recommending Erin Dury for this seat.

And Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi thank you.

So likewise I first and foremost want to thank all 8 candidates who stepped up to be considered for this role.

In the beginning there was 8. So including so those who stepped down even I respect their decisions and the foresight they had to make that decision.

So then there were 3. And I had the pleasure of speaking with each candidate to learn more about them and to share a little bit about this job.

They each impressed me with their dedication to service And they're sort of outsider insights that we unfortunately lose when we take a seat on this board.

We become accustomed to operating from an insider position.

Personally I think some of my best moments are when I'm able to recapture what it's like to sit in the audience unburdened by the politics and the reticence and solely focus on the issues and with the critical questions and insights that are really needed in this district.

They each have that and they each you know we're going to bring that to this job.

So which candidate is best brings that for District 4 and for our district as a whole.

I don't know that any of us can truly know the answer to that in this short timeline.

This was a really quick process and it's a timeline established by state law.

So that's how that's why it was such a quick turnaround here.

But I do take solace that we're going the voters will have a say in this coming up soon here this summer and in the fall.

So they will get to decide who will fill this position in the long run.

But as it's our duty to appoint someone to this role starting tonight and for the next 8 months and while I think we'd be lucky to have any of the 3 as Director Rankin mentioned the qualities of each candidate that they would bring to this role I I feel confident in selecting candidate Erin Dury for this position.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will you call for the vote.

Yes and it's just going to take me a moment to get that all on the screen properly.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Dury.

Director Rankin.

Dury.

Excuse me.

Dury.

Director Hersey.

Director Harris.

Ms. Erin Dury.

Director Hampson.

Dury.

Director DeWolf.

Dury.

The vote is 6 votes for Erin Dury for the appointment.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

And while I scroll the newly appointed Director for District 4 is Erin Dury.

Congratulations and welcome to the school board.

The newly appointed Director will now immediately take the oath of office with Superintendent Juneau afterwards After which our new board director will then have the opportunity to give a few remarks.

Is Erin on.

Ms. Dury.

Okay.

Congratulations.

And we're going to take the oath off so it's on the screen.

If you want to raise your hand you can.

I your name.

I Erin Dury.

Do do hereby solemnly swear.

Do hereby solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of Washington.

And the Constitution of the State of Washington.

Promote the interests of education.

Promote the interests of education.

And will faithfully discharge the duties of Director of Seattle School District Number 1.

And will faithfully discharge the duties of Director of Seattle School District Number 1.

King County State of Washington.

King County State of Washington.

To the best of my ability.

To the best of my ability.

Welcome Director Deary.

Thank you.

Should I speak now or is there a transition.

or forever hold your peace.

Yeah.

I'm not very quick to the trigger but yes I now invite Director Dury to offer a few brief remarks.

Thank you.

And I want to say thank you to all who participated in the forums in the process of this appointment.

In particular the NAACP Youth Council and the Seattle Council PTSA for hosting the community forums.

And to all the directors for your thought process and words this evening.

I am honored and grateful to serve District 4 and the Seattle Public Schools.

I recognize the privilege and position of power this appointment has and know that true service will be shown through action and centering community voice particularly those who historically and currently do not have the access to have their voice heard.

I know there is a lot of work to do and reconstruction to happen.

I look forward to working within the community particularly those most affected by the decisions of the board and the district.

We have an opportunity to reimagine education and center the urgency of that new vision.

I am ready to do the work and I am here in service.

Thank you.

Apologies for the delay.

Again congratulations Director Dury.

We welcome you as a member of the school board and welcome your participation as we move throughout tonight's agenda.

This is how we do it.

You get voted in and and you you start voting yourself.

So I'm now going to turn it over to Superintendent Juneau for her comments.

Thank you.

Superintendent Juneau you sound very far away if there's any way you could get.

Okay.

I am super far away.

It's a little better now.

Just across town.

I got it.

I got it.

Is it a little better.

It's a little better.

Yeah.

Okay.

So thank you President Hampson.

Hello directors.

First congratulations Director Dury.

You are joining Seattle Public Schools at a very interesting and critical time.

But thank you for raising your hand to join leadership as we continue to tackle so many challenges.

And we also get to celebrate successes now and again.

It is a great organization filled with great people and look forward to working with you.

Also want to welcome our young Kings Lemanuel Trayvon and August.

It's always good to hear from you and to learn from you.

Thanks for joining the board meeting this evening.

Last week Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Education Association came to a tentative agreement that supports a safe return to school buildings for all preschool K-12 special education intensive service pathways and all kindergarten to fifth grade students.

As a reminder the tentative agreement must be approved by SEA and their members began voting already and their voting will end on Friday.

And as you know the bar on this tentative agreement is on tonight's agenda for your approval as well Board of Directors.

If approved I look forward to welcoming back preschool students and students enrolled in elementary special education intensive service pathways on Monday March 29th and middle and high school students enrolled in intensive service pathways and all other K-5 general education students on April 5th.

We are continuing to work with SEA to come to an agreement to bring middle and high school students back to classrooms including 6th through 8th grade students attending K-8 schools.

Last Friday kindergarten through 5th grade families received an enrollment survey and an opportunity to choose between half-day in-person learning or 100 percent remote.

Just a reminder to our families we're making a big last push that the deadline for returning the survey is today 1159 p.m.

Today Wednesday March 24th.

We know this is an important personal decision for families and students and there really are no easy choices.

There are no right or wrong choices.

And we also recognize that this is a quick turnaround.

The governor's order to immediately bring back all pre-K 5 by April Fifth significantly impacted our timelines.

We had been working in partnership with SEA to thoughtfully bring back students who need in-person learning preschool and intensive service pathway students.

First followed by other students in a phased approach.

SPS is the largest district in the state and we are now working to respond as quickly and as nimbly as possible.

Much of our final planning is dependent on survey results.

including teacher assignments and your students individual schedule.

We need to know how many students are returning to each classroom as soon as possible in order to match teachers students and our space in our buildings.

One thing that may not have been super clear during yesterday's virtual town hall was the question about whether you can switch to remote or hybrid later in the year.

So just for clarity once you make a decision regarding the learning model that meets your child's need You will need to remain in that same model through the end of the year.

So no changing.

Throughout this pandemic the health and safety of our students staff and families continues to be our top priority.

We have followed local state and federal health guidelines in our planning.

We have inspected and repaired all HVAC systems and buildings to make sure we're meeting air quality and ventilation requirements in each classroom.

And in fact the board has a bar tonight to buy HEPA filters for schools that need it.

Before we return to buildings staff will be placing door signage to show when rooms were last checked and when the next maintenance might be scheduled.

Occupancy of classrooms with appropriate distancing and that the room meets public health guidelines.

Building walkthroughs have been happening.

They continue to happen all across our district to make sure our buildings meet the rigorous health and safety standards necessary.

We've also distributed personal protective equipment or PPE for staff and students across the district.

If you would like to view what preparations are done or are in progress for your school building check out the building readiness charts on our website.

I also want to thank our partners at the City of Seattle University of Washington Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Seattle Indian Health Board.

Around a thousand thousand of our staff members have been vaccinated at clinics that were prioritized for SPS staff thanks to their partnership.

This is a big step forward towards protecting the health of our staff students and community and thousands more staff have been vaccinated through other health providers as well.

So thank you to everybody involved with that.

Second I want to provide transparency around child care in our buildings.

At this time we cannot guarantee that child care will be available in our elementary school buildings.

We know that child care is a critical support for many families particularly as you decide whether you choose for your child to return to in-person or to stay remote.

However with a safe return to in-person learning following public health guidance for small cohorts and physical distancing there may be changes to child care.

This will depend again on how many families choose to send their child back to in-person.

But we continue to work closely with our child care partners to limit those impacts.

and we'll share more information as soon as we can.

Third we've received a lot of questions about where students will eat meals and snacks during the school day.

Our pre-K through 5th grade students will be learning on a half-day schedule or they will be learning remotely.

Meals will still be available Monday through Friday by bus routes and meal sites across our districts as they have been.

And students attending in-person will also have access to grab-and-go lunches.

Students will not eat meals in the classroom except for preschool and Head Start which is a federal and state requirement.

Finally I know that many families are concerned about how their students will get to and from school.

And while at this time we cannot guarantee transportation options for families to return to in-person we will continue to work with our partners for student to increase the number of routes available.

The governor's March 15th order in addition to the half-day in-person instructional model agreed to with the Seattle Education Association did not leave the transportation team enough time to rebuild routes and our bus contracted to hire and train the drivers that we all need.

To serve students at the same standards as before the pandemic and to follow additional bargain agreements we would need around 400 buses.

And as of March 18th about half the number of required bus drivers were available.

We recognize and we're deeply concerned about the inequities created for our students and families during our pandemic response especially those furthest from educational justice.

To initially address this and keep school start and end times consistent buses were prioritized for students that we are legally obligated to provide transportation for and those most vulnerable.

We know these efforts did not go far enough for students who need it most.

That's why we're increasing transportation for as many students as possible.

But this will require a change to elementary and K-8 school start and end times.

That's also on the agenda today.

And if approved by the school board elementary and K-8 schools will start at 8 a.m.

for students in remote and hybrid in-person learning starting March 29th.

This 30-minute adjustment will allow more students to participate in in-person learning and to access transportation.

We're asking everyone to adjust just a little so that we can serve more students that need and want in-person learning.

It's been over a year since we had to close our buildings and I along with many of our students family and staff are eager to safely reopen our doors to be reunited with friends classmates teachers and students in person.

In addition to our return to buildings this spring staff are working and the board is working really diligently as well on plans for summer school and next fall.

And we all look forward to sharing more information on that soon.

And then finally as a quick look at public comment tonight shows that there are concerns from educators and community members about potential dual-language staffing cuts and dual-language Spanish course cuts at Mercer International Middle School.

I appreciate the advocacy that our community keeps bringing to to our attention and so thank you for being here.

Please know that despite the funding challenges that Mercer and Seattle Public Schools face we remain committed to ensuring that students at Mercer have access to a dual-language Spanish program.

The curriculum assessment and instruction team including Dr. Thad Williams has been working regularly with Principal Waters and the staff at Mercer to figure out the best way forward for this program.

Specifically we understand that a dual-language best practice is to offer two courses in the language.

For example a Spanish literacy course and social studies in Spanish at each grade level.

SPS staff is working with Mercer administration to problem-solve different approaches to ensure we are able to follow more closely this dual-language best practice both in the short term and the long term.

With respect to the long term we're also excited to start working with the Mercer community to develop criteria that ensure the dual-language program is prioritizing our English learner families.

In addition to being consistent with our goals for racial equity and focus on students of color furthest from educational justice We believe this approach can also help us provide more sustainable funding for this program.

Regardless of the details there will be a dual-language Spanish program at Mercer in 2021-22 and it will include a focus on Spanish literacy and opportunities for students to continue developing Spanish language and literacy.

We'll continue to work across all of our schools to improve our system-wide approach to dual-language programming to provide more predictability.

Just wanted to clear that up so people hear it directly from me.

So thank you President Hampson and Board of Directors.

Thank you so much Superintendent Juneau for that thorough set of comments.

And so I know we have student comments and I believe we are hearing believe Trayvon was not able to join us but we are going to hear from LeManuel Donaldson a junior at Rainier Beach High School.

Trayvon Mitchell was going to join us.

He's a sophomore at Cleveland High School and I hope he'll be able to join us possibly the next time.

So these are students from our African-American Male Achievement Student Leadership Council.

And with that I will turn it over to you LeManuel.

Hi my name is LeMayor Donaldson.

I attend Rainier Beach High School where I'm a proud Viking.

I currently serve in the AAMA and the Student Leadership Council and I'm also a leading member in the PLUS program.

Today I'll be talking about the Student Leadership Council and all the doors is open for me.

I chose to be a part of the PLUS program and the Student Leadership Council because inequities aren't adding up in our education system.

There has been a huge disproportionality in our resources and outcomes.

In 2017 only 40 percent of Black 3rd graders were proficient in math.

In the same year 78 White 3rd graders were proficient in math.

Why is the gap so big.

We know there is no such thing as broken children only broken systems.

Why do we continue to blame the children when the obvious problem is the system.

Why is the system struggling.

More importantly what can we do to fix the system.

Lao Tzu once stated that if you do not change the direction you are going you may end up where we are headed.

Without groups like AAMA and the Student Leadership Council we were headed toward a dark era of generational oppression.

SOC gives us a voice and uncovers the truth.

Prior to me joining the PLUS program the name was Secondary Learning Secondary Libertary Pedagogies.

Needless to say it doesn't add up to students.

We changed it to PLUS because it all has to add up to students first.

Our voice matters.

My voice matters.

When we come together great things can happen.

I'm so proud to be a part of a group that has changed the systemic racism.

Thank you.

Thank you so very much for those comments.

And please feel free to stay and continue to be part of the meeting and make comments at any time.

We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda.

I would.

We will be taking public testimony by teleconference today as stated on the agenda.

For any 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 list 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 meeting.

If a speaker cedes time to 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 waitlist.

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 will read off the testimony speakers.

Thank you President Hampson.

A quick logistical note.

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

When your name is called please be sure you have unmuted on the device you are calling from and also press star-6 to unmute 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 testimony list is August P. Diggs.

Good afternoon.

My name is August Diggs.

I'm an 8th grader at Denny International Middle School and a proud member of the Student Leadership Council of the AAMA.

Today I will be discussing growth prospect process and change.

First I just want to thank you all for having me and thank you all for being a part of this growth and change.

You are affecting my life and the future generation positively.

Sadly Black lives haven't always mattered in Seattle Public Schools.

According to Seattle Public Schools outcome data table there were 11.4 percent of African-American males getting suspended compared to the 2.3 percent of white males in 2014. That's five times the amount.

This table is cool and all but in my eyes I see everyone is equal.

But the sad truth is there is implicit bias systemic racism and oppression which is why I'm proud to be a part of this Student Leadership Council.

We're fighting to change this.

We've been a part of the grading policy reform return to school schedule models and disciplinary action panels and so much more.

In the end I want to feel important.

I want teachers to support us in our dreams.

To educate us in the classroom and be our friends outside of it.

To call us in the classroom instead of kicking us out.

To treat us like people instead of instead of continuing this racism.

I'm honored to be a part of this movement.

Remember nothing about us without us.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much Mr. Diggs and again thank you to Mr. Donaldson as well for both of your inspiring words.

Ms. Wilson-Jones the next speaker please.

Next is Dahlia Gomez.

Dahlia Gomez.

Hi.

Go ahead we can hear you.

Okay go ahead.

Hi my name is Dahlia Gomez.

I'm a 6th grade student at Mercer International Middle School.

I want to talk to you today because my school has decided to make cuts to the Spanish Immersion Program next year.

The Spanish Immersion Program is important to me and my family and to a lot of other kids and their families.

Having this program is important to me because it is a way for me to be able to practice and learn in my native language.

To be around people who are a part of my culture and to be with people people that also have the same love for the program as I do.

If my school decides to go through with the cuts to the program it will deny native speakers the opportunity to keep practicing and learning in their native language.

If the school makes cuts to the program it will mean would mean that I would not get as much practice speaking Spanish my dad's preferred language.

This would mean that it would make it harder for me to communicate with him and other members of my family who only speak Spanish.

In the future I hope to be fully bilingual so I can pass on my Mexican heritage and be able to one day give back to my community by being able to help others who prefer or only speak Spanish.

Making cuts to the program would hurt me and other students.

I wish Marcia Mercer would have taken into consideration how this would affect the students and families in the Spanish immersion program.

I hope you take this matter seriously and reconsider making these cuts to the Spanish immersion program.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you Dahlia.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Samuel Ivan Mendoza-Gilbert.

Samuel Ivan Mendoza-Gilbert.

Can you hear me.

Yes we can hear you.

Okay thank you.

Hello my name is Samuel.

I am a 6th grader at Mercer International School and I have a few points to make.

It has come to my attention that the school will be cutting some of the Spanish immersion classes.

This worries me a lot because as a Latinx student Spanish is part of my identity.

If I can't speak Spanish or only know 6th grade level of Spanish that's like not having part of my identity with me.

I I identify with Spanish I don't just speak it and it is the language of my ancestors.

Another thing that worries me is that If we can't take the stamp test when we were when we are in 6th grade and can only take it in 7th and 8th how are we supposed to learn more Spanish in 7th and 8th to be able to pass the stamp test.

Passing the test to be able to get high school credit in middle school is very important is very important to me since I want to study engineering and get a degree in mechanical engineering.

It is also important to other kids in my grade I am sure so that they can get a good job in the future.

I have also been studying Spanish in Seattle Public Schools since kindergarten and when I was studying Spanish for these 6 years I expected that I would be able to continue studying it through middle school.

In fact that is the reason I came to Mercer.

Being in the Spanish immersion class is felt like that the school was supporting my identity as a Latin as a Latinx student.

Thank you for listening and I hope you will consider the points I've made.

Thank you Samuel.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Chris Jackins.

Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins.

Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the 6 action items 2 points.

Number 1. I wish to thank Superintendent Denise Juneau for her work for Seattle Public Schools.

Also welcome to the new board director.

Number two when the report on the agreement with the SEA was posted last Friday the report did not discuss the effects on in-person learning.

On the resolution for funding Kimball Northgate and Viewlands the district wants to demolish these schools and shrink their play areas.

Please vote no.

On board policy 6220 and three school projects.

Four points.

Number one.

At West Woodland $1 million to get extra new furniture.

Number two at Rainier Beach $500,000 to add a sub-consultant.

Number three at Rising Star a $500,000 change order for work that has already been performed.

Number four big contractors seem to know that the current board is handing out free money.

Number five but it gets worse.

Board review is currently required for amounts above $250,000 but the board is proposing to up the amount to $500,000 and further reduce board oversight.

Please vote no.

On the Hearst Jones yearbook contract I encouraged a local small minority and women owned business to apply and they were ignored.

Please vote no.

On Jane Addams field lighting a retired city surface water expert testified that the project was in danger water quality in Thornton Creek.

Please vote no.

On the GCCM contract for Rainier Beach the project would demolish the school.

Please vote no.

Also I understand that voters have filed charges to recall the school board from office.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next on the testimony list is Todd Sawicki.

Todd Sawicki.

Todd Salicki if you're on the line you may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Moving to the next speaker.

Manuela Slye.

Manuela Slye.

Hello can you hear me.

Oh sorry did I hear.

Todd you hear me.

This is Todd Salicki.

Sorry I'm back.

Okay.

I was having difficulty unmuting.

Thank you.

So let's go to Todd and then Manuela.

Thank you for your patience.

We'll come to you next.

My name is Todd Sawicki.

I'm a resident of Director Rivera-Smith's district and a parent of a Robert Eagle Staff Middle School student.

I'm responding to recent comments from Director Rankin talking about in-person study hall model for reopenings grades 6 through 12. Is that a joke.

Is this board actively trying to work with the administration to create an in-person learning environment that is so flawed that students and families just quit the district.

It's fine to propose different ideas but where is the discussion and consideration in this body to share and determine recommendations from the administration.

Where is the active questioning from this board in a public and televised forum so all families can witness the models with their pros and cons.

How has the Remote Learning Task Force not meeting regularly to discuss this and what will happen on April 19th through the middle of the year and of course next year.

If this administration is actively working discussing this topic where is the evidence of this and why is the board not requiring presentations and discussion.

And now of course what is the model for grades 6-12 in the fall.

How is this not a repeated topic.

I've read through the February remote learning report which is buried in a link at the March 6th retreat agenda and there seems to be no specifics on how students are performing.

Instead the report notes the committee's frustration and concern and lack of responsiveness and support from the administration.

Why is the board unable to call this out and demand a response from the administration.

Families have to make a choice next year now given private school enrollment windows.

Otherwise we'll be left scrambling in August again this year wondering if Seattle Public Schools is the right choice for their families.

I can say this if Seattle Public Schools does not offer a 5-day-a-week in-person synchronous school learning instruction model for next fall to grades 6-12 then this family will be forced to remove our student from SPS.

We want to stay in SPS but the inability of this board to provide an adequate model for those students who cannot or won't learn well remotely is a reality and it seems like close to half the families in the SPS agree.

The board has failed to ensure the school administration provides adequate educational models for all students.

Since in-person schooling has been in state by federal and state public authorities for a month safety is not the issue unless this board the administration don't believe in science and data.

To date this board does not require the administration to provide in-person models for those students who cannot or will not be served or will fail to remember and promote education.

Whether they have disabilities whether they require parental supervision.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Manuela Slye.

Manuela Slye.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

My name is Manuela Slye.

I'm President of Seattle Council PTSA and a parent of a student at Seattle West Seattle High School.

First of all congratulations Director Erin Dury.

It has been my honor and privilege to work with you in Seattle Council and I look forward to future collaboration.

Regarding incoming Superintendent Brent Jones I'm pleased to see the starting date has been updated to May 1st to ensure a smooth transition.

Seattle Council PTSA stands ready to support Dr. Jones.

We face forward.

Regarding community concerns about the dual immersion pathway in the South End I cede the rest of my time to former Mercer student KCL Seja.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Hi my name is Hesiel Ceja and I went to Mercer Middle School.

I was given the chance to be part of the Spanish Immersion Program for over 7 years.

This program helped me better my understanding of the Spanish language and helped me be able to speak with my family members in Mexico and El Salvador and solidified my identity and heritage.

I was able to be in class with very diverse students.

I learned about the Spanish culture around Latino students as well as Black White and Asian people.

It helped me learn and inspired and motivated me to perfect my Spanish.

This program opened many opportunities for me and would likely do the same to other students.

I'm in high school now and I believe being bilingual will open up doors for my future.

Please continue the Spanish immersion program for South Seattle students.

Canceling would be a big mistake.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Robin Reid.

Robin Reid.

Hello.

My name is Robin Reid.

I am the parent of a 6th grader.

I am asking that the board and the district begin preparations now to offer the option of full-time in-person instruction for all students in September.

This is doable.

How do we know?

Well, for one thing, school districts large and small all over the country are doing it.

A new survey reports that half the country's public schools are already open full time.

All public schools in Massachusetts, including Boston, are resuming full time in-person classes next month.

Locally, Lake Washington School District says they'll offer full time in-person instruction this fall.

And we can do it safely.

Studies show that when students and teachers wear masks COVID transmission in schools is very low considerably lower than in the community at large.

For another thing with universal masking and with the CDC's new evidence-based science-backed guidelines we can plan a distance of 3 feet between students rather than 6 feet.

This is true for elementary aged students under all conditions and for middle and high school students except when community transmission is very high.

For reference right now in King County it is not.

We have the guidelines.

The time to plan is now.

Director Hampson last week you wrote on Twitter there is no reopening task force.

I was speechless.

How is it that we've been out of schools for a year and we're not making plans to go back.

How is it that stakeholders in every school haven't been having focused conversations all year about classroom setups and lunch and bathrooms and all the things we have to figure out.

This should be the district's priority right now.

This is where the work is.

The CDC states quote K-12 schools should be the last settings to close after all other prevention measures in the community have been employed and the first to reopen when they can do so safely.

Resuming in-person instruction is critical for supporting students like my son who are struggling with remote learning.

But it's going to take planning to get there and SPS needs to engage now in that planning.

They need to engage families and teachers and principals now to be ready for the fall.

We've seen the scramble that followed Governor Inslee's order.

Let's not repeat that in the run-up to full-time in-person learning.

Thank you.

Here's Wilson-Jones.

Next is Sabrina Burr.

Sabrina Burr.

Sabrina Burr.

Sabrina if you're on the line you may need to press star-6.

Moving to the next speaker.

Brian Terry.

Brian Terry.

Brian Terry.

Moving to the next speaker.

Noah Zeichner.

Hi can you hear me.

Yes.

Is this Noah.

It is.

Go ahead please.

Good after.

Good afternoon.

My name is Noah Zeichner.

I teach Spanish and Social Studies at Ingram High School and I co-lead the International Schools Leadership Team which is comprised of teachers representing the 10 international schools in the district.

Before Ingram I taught at Chief Sealth International High School for 13 years.

At Chief Sealth I played a leadership role in establishing the Spanish Immersion Program.

I served on the International Schools Dual Language Immersion Task Force which completed its work in June 2018. And I was also part of the SEA-SPS Dual Language Immersion Committee that was established as part of the last collective bargaining agreement.

I'm speaking to you today because I'm very concerned that Mercer's Spanish Immersion Program is in grave danger.

Next fall 40 Spanish dual language students from Beacon Hill and Dearborn Park will arrive to Mercer.

It will arrive to discover that the current 6th grade dual-language teacher was displaced.

It will learn that the 6th grade Spanish Immersion Social Studies class has been cut.

It will learn that their new principal might eliminate the Spanish Immersion program altogether before they graduate from middle school.

Furthermore there is only one section of Spanish Language Arts that will be offered next year for these 40 students.

Seattle Public Schools made a commitment to Beacon Hill and Dearborn Park dual-language students parents and teachers that these students will move on to a robust middle school immersion program with literacy and social studies classes.

Additionally there are many Spanish-speaking ELL students at Mercer not currently in the program who should and could have access to dual-language courses.

But this is not just about broken commitments.

Research especially the extensive studies by Thomas and Collier consistently shows that dual-language students begin making big academic gains in both languages after 5 or 6 years of a well-implemented DLI program.

In other words the greatest benefits of dual-language show up in middle school.

Please do not allow a principal to unilaterally cut this middle school program without staff or community input.

District leadership must find a way to invest in dual-language immersion long-term.

Our bilingual students and families deserve it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones I think Sabrina Burr is on the line but was having trouble getting unmuted.

I don't know if she's on phone or on.

There we go.

Thank you.

Please go ahead Sabrina.

Sorry.

Okay.

My name is Sabrina Burr.

I am a Cleveland High School parent.

I've also served with Seattle Council PTSA for over a decade.

First of all I would really like to take this time to thank every last one of our school board members for their service especially through this very trying time giving of your time and from your family and from the many important things for your life.

And I know that everyone has opinions.

Yesterday after I saw one of the black males at Seattle Public Schools failed I watched the court fail.

Then I found out on the recall from Emily Turkins Jennifer Crow and Beverly Goodman.

And I know that this costs the district money and I know that this puts more hardship on you.

Six months into Denise Juneau's superintendency I said she did not have the skills for the act.

Many people think that the school board has power that they don't have.

And I think that people need to understand what the power is the school board has.

What state laws that they must abide by.

And so I want to thank Superintendent Juneau but she's made this period far harder than it needs to be.

And I welcome welcome Dr. Jones to the leadership.

And I ask everyone to give this man a chance.

He was a strategic person for Seattle Public Schools and he knows the district well.

Stop thinking about what you need and think about what our children need.

All of them.

The governor's call to back to school because of mental health was racist as heck because Black students have been feeling that far beyond.

Now there's not enough mental health beds for White students.

And so we need to pull together because the truth is Seattle Public Schools is a family.

for all students not just the ones with most privilege and those who are parents who are allowed as voices.

The one thing I do want to ask for Seattle Public Schools we're returning to school for some students after we've been off.

Give them the best practices on what they need to do to restore bedtime and all of those things to set our students up for success.

Again to the school board I thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you do.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next for testimony is Liz Ann Olsen.

Liz Ann Olsen.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Hello.

Can you hear me.

We can hear you.

Yes we can hear you.

Or Liz.

Hello.

I'm Liz Olsen.

I teach dual language U.S. history and literacy in Spanish at Denny's.

I'm also here to talk as many others about the dual-language cuts at Mercer.

I have worked in the middle school dual-language Spanish immersion program in Seattle since 2006. I began at Hamilton when that program was in its second year and taught there for five years.

I then moved to Denny and worked with them as their program was developing as it has focused on following the national research supporting dual-language immersion as the top ELL strategy.

As has been typical more than 95 percent of my students identify as Latinx.

42 percent of my current students are identified as ELL and the vast majority are currently ELL Level 4. The demographic is very similar in the Mercer Spanish DL program.

Dual Language is not a boutique enrichment program but rather a critical strategy to support our ELL students maximize the strengths they already have and treat them as the assets they are to our society.

From what I understand from Superintendent Juneau's statement earlier It sounds like Mercer dual-language students might only have one literacy period of Spanish instead of the research-based minimum of two periods in Spanish at the secondary level.

This is an unacceptable cut to a program that is designed to close the opportunity gap for our ELL and Latinx students.

The program at Denny has two periods for our students.

The cuts proposed by the current Mercer principal reduce the program to just one period.

This is the same way that she dismantled the dual-language program at Hamilton.

Almost all of the Mercer students impacted by this action are heritage Spanish speakers whose Spanish is reinforced at home and are more likely to become bilingual teachers doctors and more.

Instead of cutting FTE and offering only one section to the incoming 46th graders Mercer administration could align with Denny as we have done and recruit from the 72 Spanish-speaking ELL students currently at Mercer to fill the program.

This current situation also demonstrates why students should have access to DLL programs based on their language and not on school boundaries.

This decision was made without including students staff and families.

The cuts widen the opportunity gap in the community we have promised to serve.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next is Cassandra Garcia-Stokes.

Cassandra Garcia-Stokes.

Can you hear me now.

Yes.

Hello.

All right.

I want to start out by shouting out to my former student Heysiel.

Hola Heysiel.

Me gusto escuchar de ti.

Gracias por venir y hablar.

And then I want to say that I am the 7th and 8th grade Spanish dual-language teacher at Mercer and I want to take a moment to acknowledge all the committed educators students and families that are supporting the Mercer dual-language program.

I thank you for your support.

But I also want to notice the voices that are not here.

80 percent of my students come from Spanish-speaking families.

Their voices were not given a chance to be heard when cuts were made to our program and I hope that when you hear my voice you consider the voices that I represent.

Seattle Public Schools made a commitment to offer Spanish at Mercer.

An immersion program must have the two periods as mentioned before to be an effective program.

Also many of my students are heritage speakers ELL ELL exited and our program honors their language ability their culture and provides opportunity to work on biliteracy skills in my opinion.

This cut should not happen.

And I also support a literacy period and a social studies period especially social studies.

I mean they're both important but social studies is such an excellent avenue to strengthen the biliteracy skills of our students.

I also want to share some successes of our program because I I feel like there's a lot of talk about what's not working but things are working.

Since I have been at Mercer 95 percent of students reach the language proficiency of intermediate low or mid which is the district benchmark for 8th grade.

and some students even exceed it.

Our students are currently writing poetry with the Jack Straw Cultural Center in Spanish and have touched on themes of racial injustice sexism stereotypes and dreams for their future.

I see kids doing amazing things in my classroom and I ask the school board and the district leadership to support Mercer's Dual Language Immersion Program and prevent the program from being at risk in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Tammy Becker-Gomez.

Tammy Becker-Gomez.

Can you hear me.

Yes we can hear you.

Hi my name is Tammy Becker-Gomez and I am the parent of a 6th and 8th grade Latinx students at Mercer Middle School in the Spanish Dual Immersion Program.

I'm here to speak out against the proposed reduction to the Spanish Immersion Program at Mercer.

Mercer Middle School's Continuous Improvement Plan claims that Mercer will focus on ensuring racial equity access address the needs of students of color allocate resources strategically through a racial equity framework create culturally responsive environments and work in partnership with families and communities who represent students of color who are furthest from educational justice.

But as we all know actions speak louder than words and inaction speaks even louder.

Seattle Public Schools and Mercer must demonstrate through action that they are committed to these goals.

Cuts to the dual immersion program are counter to these stated goals.

There has been no partnership.

The school told parents nothing.

No email no robocall and certainly not information translated into Spanish the preferred language of the majority of families in the program.

No one asked for input or sought to understand the perspective of families and students.

They just took a red pen to the budget where it suited them.

And in so doing their actions said they do not value Latinx families students or their education.

If the goal is allocating resources strategically through a racial equity framework they would fund and support programs like Dual Immersion that are proven to close the achievement and opportunity gap for students of color.

In short SPS must put their money where their mouth is.

There are no changes in the works for the Mandarin Immersion Program.

Yet this is a priority issue.

Priorities are reflected by where resources are allocated.

If the goal is to create culturally responsive environments SPS has to support one of its most culturally responsive programs.

Dual immersion allows heritage speakers not only to feel welcome and included at school but it places value on their cultural identity.

Principal Waters referred to the dual immersion program as a boutique program.

There is nothing boutique about providing a culturally and linguistically responsive program to students of color.

If the goal is to ensure racial equity in our educational system and address the needs of students of color who are furthest from educational justice appropriate funding will be given to the Spanish dual immersion program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Erin Gilbert.

Erin Gilbert.

Erin Gilbert.

Hello.

Can you hear me.

We can hear you.

Thanks.

Okay.

Hi.

I'm the parent of a 6th grader in the Spanish dual language program at Mercer who will be directly impacted if the proposed cuts are implemented.

I've also taught English and Intercultural Communication at local community colleges as well as Spanish and English courses at the University of Washington.

So I speak to you as a parent community member and educator and I'm here today to highlight the crucial role that the Spanish Dual Language Program plays in the lives of students particularly Latinx students like my son here in our communities in South Seattle and in the long-term educational outcomes for students who are farthest from educational justice.

strategic plan documents a commitment to eliminating opportunity gaps to ensure access and provide excellence in education for every student.

Actions that support this goal include creating healthy supportive culturally responsive environments and that is what dual-language classrooms do particularly for the Latinx and Spanish-speaking English language learners in our school community.

The most recent assessment data available from SPS available online on the assessment summary demographic dashboard reveals the profound opportunity gap faced by Hispanic and Latinx students at Mercer Middle School.

When research has shown us time and time again that dual-language programs provide exactly the kind of culturally responsive educational environment that affirms multilingual students and families and is essential to the educational achievement of students who are farthest from educational justice it doesn't make sense to close those programs.

In fact next year in addition to another sizable cohort of students who will arrive from Beacon Hill and Dearborn Park there will already be a large community of Spanish-speaking ELL students at Mercer who would benefit from dual language Spanish language arts and social science classes.

Right now there is such a pressing need for these classes that if anything more classes should be added.

If that need is not apparent it is due to the lack of communication between the school and families of students who are already in the program or are eligible to join.

In fact at the beginning of this year many families were stunned to discover that their students kids who had been in the Spanish dual-language program since kindergarten were suddenly excluded from dual-language classes.

Oh thank thank thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Gretchen Sloan.

Gretchen Sloan.

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

Gretchen Sloan.

Are you there Gretchen.

Gretchen if your phone number ends in 2-5 you may need oh you may need to press star-6 again.

Are you there Gretchen.

Please make sure you're also unmuted on your phone.

Oh we can hear you.

Yes we can hear you.

All right.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Gretchen Sloan.

Thank you to all who have put in the arduous work to build the DLI program from the ground up.

I'm speaking both as a Mercer parent of a 6th and 8th grader in the dual immersion program at Mercer and also as a high school Spanish and ELL educator at Garfield High School.

Thank you to the board for allowing us the space to have our voices heard regarding regarding the sizable significance the dual language program brings to our schools and to our communities.

Unfortunately over many years in SPS I've seen our Latinx students time and time again shy away from taking Spanish classes in high school due to their lack of confidence in reading and writing in their native language because so many have not have been given the opportunity to acquire those skills.

However we had just begun to see the outcomes of the first group of students who had progressed to dual language immersion in Seattle Public Elementary and Middle Schools.

What we had previously witnessed was starting to take a turn for the better.

More Native as well as non-Native speakers enrolling in higher level Spanish courses and succeeding.

Since heritage speakers make up a considerable considerable percentage of the Mercer International School program school and community dual language immersion is a pragmatic way to honor those students heritage cultures and bilingual skills.

The program is an excellent way to inclusively close the already disproportionate academic gap and to provide the opportunity to become fully literate in both languages.

In addition this helps to pave the way for all future advantages that bilingual proficiency has to offer especially in today's increasingly global community and economy.

Thank you again for having us today.

Thank you.

Next is Kelly Rowland.

Kelly Rowland.

Can you hear me yes.

Yes we can hear you.

Okay.

My name is Kelly Rolon.

I teach Spanish at Rainier Beach High School.

Rainier Beach was chosen by a previous board to be the DLI pathway for high school in the South End.

This decision was made after a community survey where families and involved parties unanimously voted to have the pathway at Cleveland or Franklin.

But this is not what I'm here to speak about today.

So today I wear my parent hat.

I currently have an 8th grade at Mercer in the DLA program and a 5th grader at Hawthorne Hawthorne Elementary.

We are a bilingual family and my children are heritage speakers.

Because DLA elementary schools are neighborhood schools in the South End we were unable to secure a spot for our children at Beacon International or Dearborn.

However upon entering 6th grade at Mercer my older child was given the stamp test and invited into the program.

This year exiting the program my child has said She has increased confidence in her ability to communicate with her family in South America and increased pride in her multicultural identity.

We were excited for our younger child to have this same experience.

However current boundary changers will send her to Aki.

I have petitioned to Cindy Waters and to enrollment but have had little success and frankly little confidence in their desire to support the program.

I filled out the school choice form.

There is no box for us to indicate that our child is a heritage speaker.

You can only indicate that your child is in the heritage speaker if you wish to go to McDonald or Hamilton.

Why are North End Auction Schools and South End Neighborhood Schools for the DLI program.

This is marginalizing heritage speakers in the South End.

I'm frustrated.

SPS needs to step up and leadership needs to step on this.

Support this program in the South End.

Make it equitable for heritage-speaking families to participate in this program.

Maintaining an address-only policy is unequitable and ultimately detrimental to the longevity of this program.

We cannot have different sets of rules for the same programs in this district.

Make it equitable.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

The next speaker is Mary Lanza.

Mary Lanza.

Mary Lonza if you are on the line you need to press star-6 to unmute your phone.

Mary Lonza please press star-6 if you're on the line.

Okay moving to the next speaker.

Carrie Taylor.

Carrie Taylor.

Carrie Taylor.

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

Moving to the next speaker.

Christy Shapkot.

Christy Shapkot.

Hi can you hear me.

This is Christy Shapkot.

Yes we can hear you.

Oh okay great.

Yesterday I was dismayed to see an email from the Spanish immersion teacher at our middle school.

She informed us that Mercer Middle School is phasing out one of the two periods currently offered in Spanish beginning next year.

There were no discussions and no community outreach about this.

In a year that has felt much like the movie Groundhog Day so too does having to rise to the occasion of contacting school officials and urging them not to make yet another drastic change to the immersion program in the South End.

How can you call it an immersion program when the students would have only one of seven periods devoted to engaging in Spanish.

How is this fair to students who have invested so much time and energy in learning Spanish throughout their elementary and now middle school years.

Don't South End students deserve the same quality immersion program as students in other parts of the city.

I implore you to keep the immersion program as is.

Please continue to offer students two classes in Spanish so that they can continue to have a full and well-rounded immersion experience.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I want to take one more pass through in case anyone was having trouble unmuting.

Brian Terry.

Brian Terry are you on the line.

Brian Terry.

I'm not seeing the phone number that you gave us.

How about Mary Lanza.

Mary Lanza.

Okay moving to the final speaker then.

Carrie Taylor.

Carrie Taylor.

It looks like I think I see Carrie Taylor's phone number.

Oh sorry is somebody unmuted who I called previously.

Yeah this is Mary Lanza.

Can you hear me.

Yes we can hear you Mary.

Go ahead.

Oh great.

Thank you.

Sorry for the tech problem.

So my name is Mary Lanza.

I am the World Language Department Head at Mercer International Middle School.

I'm a National Board Certified Teacher.

I currently teach 6th grade Intro to World Language at Mercer and 8th grade Spanish 1B.

I'm talking on behalf of the elimination of the dual language courses at Mercer Because this has a direct impact on the World Language Department the the elimination of the 6th grade there will be an elimination of the 6th grade Spanish and Chinese world language intro classes at Mercer next year.

Over the years we have seen the number of 7th and 8th graders in both Spanish and Chinese courses increase.

We attribute this to the early exposure in the World Language Elective Program at Mercer.

Without these 6th grade classes there's a chance that fewer students will enroll in 7th grade classes.

World Language Credit is a high school requirement and we have had great success at Mercer in getting students enrolled in these high school credit courses.

The other courses that will be eliminated are the Dual Language Spanish Immersion classes in grades 6 and 7. This will have a direct impact on the world language teachers at Mercer.

There will be a reduction of the Spanish teachers at Mercer from 3 down to 2. The expectation will be that these 2 Spanish teachers will be teaching all the immersion and all the world language classes.

The projected numbers for these Spanish courses will be one Spanish teacher will be teaching 192 students in a day.

This is the result of the elimination of the dual-language social studies classes which will permit one teacher to teach both the dual-language literacy 6th and 7th grade classes plus four 8th grade world language Spanish classes.

This totals over 192 students in one day.

Please consider how Mercer can receive funds to specifically fund the immersion program at Mercer.

so that we can provide enough courses for both our immersion and world language students.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I want to try Carrie Taylor one more time.

Carrie Taylor please press star-6 to unmute your phone.

Are you there Carrie.

You may need to unmute on your the device you're calling from as well.

Oh please try star-6 one more time Carrie.

Okay it looks like you're unmuted if you want to speak.

President Hampson I think we might be having some tech issues.

I can see a phone number that for our final speaker but I am not able to hear them.

It looks like they are unmuted on the conference call line.

Okay.

And that's Christine.

That's Carrie Taylor.

Oh I'm sorry Carrie.

So just one more time.

Can you hear me now.

We can hear you.

Yes.

Can you hear me now.

Yes.

Go ahead.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, please go ahead and speak.

Okay, perfect.

Sorry about that.

That's okay.

Go ahead, please.

Sorry about that.

Yes.

Okay, so very quickly.

This is not my first time going through a Spanish immersion program.

We're also in a Spanish immersion program in California.

And my experience with that program as I said to one of the to keep it short as I said to one of the principals when we left is that we were never never able to talk to the district about making the program better because we spent all of our time fighting to make sure that the program just didn't get worse.

When we moved here to Seattle 18 months ago we were able to find a spot at Dearborn because we were in the boundary which was wonderful and we've loved the school and we've loved the community.

My my oldest graduated last year in what would have been the first Spanish cohort from Dearborn last year.

So we're super happy about that.

But in the 18 months since we arrived there has been a boundary change at Dearborn a boundary change at Mercer and now it looks as though we're dismantling the Spanish program at Mercer.

And I'm not going to elaborate why that's a bad idea because many people before me have done so.

But I do have a few questions.

Once again we're asking you after 18 months not to make it worse or not to make it worse even if we're not going to make it better.

My question was answered actually whether it was all middles or just us.

But if it's us why are we losing Spanish at a school that has actual native Spanish speakers and many students that that are furthest from educational justice as opposed to any of the other programs that we were cut My understanding from the community is that they have been kind of constantly having to defend the program since it's been opened.

And what I found out this evening that I didn't know before was the boutique comment from our principal.

And if this is a principal that has a history of undermining dual-language programs at Hamilton and has this attitude towards dual-language why was this particular principal put in charge of a school that has not one but two dual-language programs.

like a supportive move from SPS.

Anyways thank you very much for finally allowing me to speak and I hope you all have a good evening.

Thank you for continuing to try.

Glad we got you on.

Thank you.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

Absolutely.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Vice President Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

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

Seeing none all those — I'm sorry.

Did somebody speak up.

No.

Okay.

Hearing none all those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Any abstentions.

The consent agenda has passed unanimously.

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

We'll hear briefly now from the chairs of each of the board's four committees.

The chairs will also lead off the discussion for each of our action and introduction items later in the agenda.

So comments for those items can be made at that time.

We'll also return to general board comments at the end of the agenda.

Let's start with Audit and Finance with Director Hersey.

Are you ready to provide a committee.

Yeah absolutely.

Okay.

Not too much to report from our last committee meeting.

The highlight of the meeting though was that we were officially joined by our new public advisor Mr. Ben Thompson.

He comes to us from the county bringing a wealth of experience in many facets and I am really excited to have him on board.

He joined us for our first meeting this past Monday March the 15th and already dove in feet first with answering and asking many pertinent questions to the dealings of the district.

So we were just really thankful and excited to have him in our ranks in this capacity and super excited for what expertise he will continue to bring to the table.

The next meeting that we will be having for Audit and Finance is on April the 5th and following that will be May the 10th.

And I will save any other additional comments on specific items for the rest of the reports when we move to the action items.

Thank you so much.

And for those of you who are interested in joining us for our committee meetings they start bright and early sharp at 7 a.m.

and we hope to see you at the next one if you are so inclined.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And then Operations Committee Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

I wanted to mine will be a quick update because we have a lot of my item excuse me the Operations Committee items on our agenda tonight.

In fact we have 16 items.

And just our our next committee meeting is actually next Thursday so that'll be April 1st at 8 a.m.

and folks can obviously join those meetings or public meetings.

We have a bunch of BARs coming through mostly on BEX III and one I wanted to call out was a replacement of some fleet vehicles.

That's probably the only thing that's kind of sticks out.

And then we'll also be hearing an update on the student and community workforce agreement.

So that will be happening at our April 1st meeting.

And as I said I have 16 items tonight for introduction so I will just wait to make comments on those.

Thank you so much.

Okay and Director Rankin for the Student Support Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee.

Thank you.

Yeah we had our committee meeting last week our March committee meeting and it was a packed agenda.

We had a an update.

It's great to connect with folks from TAF.

TAF at Washington and looking forward to continuing that.

That'll be a quarterly update that comes to to our committee.

We are we talked about dyslexia screeners that process is going forward and if you haven't seen emails out there and you're wondering where things are at with dyslexia screeners some CAI folks are doing a really nice job of explaining some of that to community.

They've got a PowerPoint and are are are virtually going around the district meeting with different groups to go through what that will look like for students who as that rolls out who will be benefiting from that.

So just explaining a little bit about that process.

The probably the most the most positive thing since the last two weeks is I think at our last board meeting I shared that we had been able to select the committee or select the task force membership for the outdoor community learning and we had our kickoff meeting last week where we were all able to see each other virtually and and introduce get introduced and acquainted and begin this work.

And I'm very very very just looking forward to that.

carrying us through the spring and into the fall.

We have an amazing group of educators and community members parents community organizations and with a really really dedicated focus on on students centering students student need and thinking about how to support how to support them and possibilities that are coming out of COVID but also that can carry us through how students engage with education into the future.

So I'm looking forward to continuing that work and they just have a lot of great wisdom to share with us and I'm really grateful.

Okay.

Thank you Director Rankin.

And I will report on the Executive Committee which just occurred on March 17th.

The next committee meeting will be on April 8th.

Those start at 8 a.m.

And the committee is made up of myself and Director Hersey and Director Rivera-Smith.

For those that aren't familiar the Executive Committee is where we set the agendas for our legislative sessions such as the one today.

We have that initial review is the minutes is usually our first item of approval.

So if folks are interested in knowing what's coming up you want to pay attention to the Executive Committee meetings.

And the special attention items that we had this past week included content management system update.

We do hear a lot about the extent to which certain systems that we have are not are not working.

And this is one of those examples where we are aware of some of the extent that to which our web system web content management system doesn't work well for us as a system.

And so on top of everything else that that staff are lifting up that work does continue and continues in to a great degree and so we got a great update on that including the prospect assuming that that we have fiscal capacity to have multilingual parts of the site and that was that was some pretty exciting presentations by Chief Carrie Campbell.

And we always look forward to hearing that because and I know we're all going to feel really good about that ultimate implementation.

And then We talked about our next steps from our board retreat with respect to planning for 2021-22 school year.

We do have that report due to or that plan due to the Superintendent of Public Instruction on June 1st and have quite a few follow-up meetings on that coming forward.

and talked about our superintendent hiring process.

We are about to bring on an interim superintendent and move that date up.

And at the same time we will we'll be starting to do a long-term approach towards our permanent superintendent hiring processes that also still needs to happen and expect that to be a very long and involved community-driven process.

And then we also followed up on our Status of Third Director for School Board Appointment Process which has now been completed.

Welcome again Director Dury.

And then our usual updates for government relations which there has been a lot to update us on with respect to what's happening in the state legislature with the at the federal level checking in on our board goals around leadership.

We have some really important trainings coming up for the entire board and thank you to directors for giving lots of your time to participate in those leadership and best practices trainings and work coming up.

And I think especially as we go through these transition and thank you to staff also who are in many cases stepping up to participate in those with us.

And with that we will move on.

As I said April 8th is the next meeting at 8 o'clock.

And we will move on to action items.

The first action item on the agenda is Amendment Number 2 to the 2020-21 City of Seattle FFVP Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program Agreement.

This came through operations on March 11th for approval.

May I have a motion for this item.

Director Hersey.

Director Rivera-Smith can you move that item.

Yeah.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to accept the January 2020 through August 2021 City of Seattle grant to expand the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program Grant Funding Amendment to include an additional $715,402.06 for a total of up to $1,288,927.06.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Is there a second.

Second.

This item has been moved by Director Rivera-Smith and seconded by Director DeWolf.

This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today.

Chief Operations Officer Podesta I believe you will be giving the staff briefing.

Yes.

Thank you President Hampson.

Seattle Public Schools partners with the City of Seattle on the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program grant to provide fresh vegetables and fruit and snacks to as part of student meals in 20 targeted schools during our regular operations.

During the past year we're this school year where we've been mostly in a remote learning model as directors are aware we've introduced many new products and ways of distributing meals and and food to families and students through a variety of mechanisms which has really increased the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables we've been able to make available to our students.

So really appreciate the support from the city to increase the size of the grant to continue to provide this level of service through the rest of the school year and as part of the summer program as that begins to take shape.

And the city has been a great partner and this will increase the distribution again because of the nature of the way we're distributing meals.

This is really available district-wide and there are new products so there is an opportunity to distribute more fresh produce and to get financial support from the city to do so.

Happy to take any questions directors might have.

Okay and I'll start with Chief Chair of the Operations Committee Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

We had a good discussion in our committee meeting about this and we sent this up to the board for approval.

So I don't have any questions for you at this time Chief Podesta but would be happy to also take questions from directors if they have them for either you or myself.

But I'm looking forward to supporting this.

Okay and let's start from the bottom of the order alphabetically by first name which is with Director Rankin.

No questions for me at this time.

Thanks.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

This seems pretty cut and dry.

I don't think anybody can disapprove of having fresh fruits and vegetables in our schools.

I guess my only question would be Chief Podesta are there any are there any unintended consequences from this that should be noted.

Anything at all that we should be aware of.

Not really.

I mean there we'll be able to provide produce in different manners in different packaging now that it's not just always kind of a snack.

It is it allows students to have access to these foods in their home which is where a lot of learning has been going on this year.

I guess I will add since it is Introduction in Action that we've asked for that because of course the sooner we get the funding the sooner The benefits of this can be made available for the remainder of this school year and through the summer.

It's a fairly significant increase to the overall size.

Thank you for that.

No further questions.

Hey just checking in.

Can y'all hear me now.

Yes now we can hear you.

Oh great.

Sorry I don't know it's my microphone but I am here.

Okay.

Thank you.

And now we will go to Director Harris

It's my pleasure to support this and it's my also squad school nutrition teams and Fred Vodesta's team making this happen.

When folks are economically disadvantaged and they certainly have been in this pandemic year and I think that our meal services and meal service delivery are the stunningly most important great thing that we have done in this last year.

And to make sure that fruits and vegetables are both expanded and encouraged is is awesome.

And I thank the city for those funds.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And now we go actually to Director Dury.

I have no questions at this time.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Hersey.

None for me at this time.

Thank you.

Excited about this.

Okay.

I don't have any questions.

So with that I think we can call for the vote.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Director Rankin.

Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Dury aye Director DeWolf Director DeWolf aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Hampson This motion has passed unanimously.

We will now move to Action Item Number 2. Renewal of Master State Elevator Maintenance and Repair Contract.

This came through operations on March 11th and is recommended for approval.

Director DeWolf.

Do you need a motion.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Yes we have a motion for this item.

It's all good.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute the elevator conveyance maintenance and repair contract with LTCH in the amount of $290,000 with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent to implement the contract.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

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

This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today.

Chief Podesta I believe you'll be briefing us.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

We need to have an elevator maintenance contract obviously for practical purposes.

We have many elevators throughout the more than 100 buildings operated by Seattle Public Schools.

This is also a fairly prescribed process in state regular in state regulations where required by the Department of Labor and Industries to have a certain structure of contract and then also required to select from a roster developed by the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services.

These contracts are the roster is split up geographically across the state.

We've chosen for our area vendor that we've had that holds our current contract so is familiar with our particular equipment in our buildings and then also offered the most advantageous pricing.

So this is really a renewal of an existing contract that will cover us for the next period.

Happy to take any questions.

Director DeWolf.

Thanks President Hampson.

This as Chief Podesta was mentioning this one's pretty straightforward.

This is a contract for basically our routine maintenance of elevators lifts and conveyances in the district.

So this is mostly just straightforward requirement.

And I'm happy to support this and thanks for the work I'm bringing this forward Chief Podesta.

So I'll turn it back over to you President Hampson.

Thank you.

Questions from you Director Hersey.

No questions for me at this time.

Thank you.

Director Dury.

No questions.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Couple of questions for Chief Podesta if I might.

Why is this intro and action at the same time.

And did we send out another RFP.

And my comment is that our first duty is not to educate our children.

And I appreciate elevator maintenance.

Thank you.

I'll be honest.

Thank you for the questions Director Harris.

I'll be honest that we are just bumping up against a deadline as we are reopening buildings.

Our facility operations folks who manage these relationships are just pulled every which way from Sunday and we're just a little slow getting this into the process.

which is why we're trying to get this approved before any current contracting expires.

The competitive process for this is actually managed by the state.

The Washington Department of Enterprise Services and that gives us a roster to choose from.

We made an internal selection again based on pricing and qualifications mostly being that they're in our geographic area of the roster.

offered the best pricing and has a good track record providing service to the district and is familiar with our particular equipment.

I guess then that I would follow up with a request to senior staff that if it's intro and action you can tell us why it is intro and action so we don't have to push back and question.

Thank you.

Certainly.

Thank you.

Director I can't remember Director Rankin no sorry Director Rivera-Smith.

That's okay.

I actually don't have any questions or comments right now.

Thank you for.

Thank you.

I got caught up on the S-Z and the names.

Director Rankin.

I know Lisa Liza Rankin Rivera.

Easy to easily mix up.

I I don't have any questions.

I being trapped in an elevator is one of my irrational fears along with being lost in space and being trapped in elevators more life could happen.

So maintenance is a good thing.

Great.

Yeah.

Well we can add to the things we now know about Director Rankin and and I will add to that my belief that the elevator and escalator companies have a there's a conspiracy to keep all of those not working particularly well so that their maintenance contracts are are well-supported.

But that said I have no particularly articulate or specific questions on this needed action at this time.

So thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Aye.

Director Dury aye Director DeWolf aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Rankin aye Director Hampson aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

We will now move to Action Item Number 3 Establishing May 1st 2021 as the start date for Interim Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones and authorizing the execution of a mutual early separation agreement with Superintendent Denise Juneau.

May I have a motion for this item.

Absolutely.

I moved at the school board A.

Established May 1st 2021 as the start date for Dr. Brent Jones as interim superintendent for the district on the terms and conditions contained in the interim superintendent's employee agreement dated March 1st 2021. B.

Authorized Dr. Jones to employ Superintendent Juneau as an hourly employee between May 1st 2021 and June 30th 2021 at per diem rate.

set in her April 25th 2018 employment agreement and C authorize the board president and chief legal counsel to execute the mutual early separation agreement as attached to this board action report with Superintendent Juneau.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

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

This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today.

This item did not go to committee and I will be introducing the item.

And I will also ask Chief Narver to provide some additional context after I've finished my comments.

I more than comments I want to express my gratitude to Superintendent Juneau and to incoming Interim Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones.

for their flexibility and openness and collegiality in working through this process to ensure a smooth transition.

The timing of this transition.

It's a really difficult time to be going through this transition and I really couldn't be more more grateful for their their willingness to come to a mutual agreement.

about what worked for all parties involved and is in the best interest of the of the school district.

So my gratitude to them and that this is happening with with really very little cost to the district and we certainly have Superintendent Juneau to thank for that.

So I want to then pass it off to Chief Narver if you have anything to add to that before I go to questions.

I'd be happy to.

Good afternoon.

Greg Narver Chief Legal Counsel.

Welcome to Director Dury.

I look forward to working with a fellow Salmon Bay parent.

Also on the line is Deputy Chief Legal Counsel John Cerqui who worked on this matter as well.

On February 24th the board approved the hiring of Dr. Brent Jones as interim superintendent and approved the terms of his employment agreement.

At that time the anticipated start date for Dr. Jones was July 1st but as it happens he is available to start work on May 1st and Superintendent Juneau has agreed to this early transition.

The terms of that are set forth in the BAR and in the attached agreement.

This is up for intro and action and I'll answer the question why Dr. Jones just he needs to know if he's starting on May 1st and so that he can plan for that transition and be ready to take the reins of the superintendent's job on that date.

That's that about sums it up.

But Mr. Cerqui and I would be happy to answer any questions if there are any about the terms of the agreement or the the change to Dr. Jones's start date.

Okay we'll start with Director Rankin for questions comments.

My question is is not about the start date but about the hourly.

Is that just like on an as-needed basis kind of for consultation as the beyond the transition period.

Correct.

That's that's exactly for that consultation on helping on the helping on the transition.

And does the board need to I mean approval of this would allow that to happen at at the behest of Dr. Jones and Superintendent Juneau as however that becomes necessary.

It's a pre-authorization for this limited period of time for Dr. Jones to engage Dr. Superintendent Juneau as a as a consultant on an as-needed basis.

Correct.

Okay.

I don't have any other questions.

Thanks.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

No questions per se.

I do want to join in thanking Superintendent Juneau for her three years of service on our in our district and all the energy and passion she put into there.

And I also welcome Dr. Jones.

Thank you.

And Director Harris.

Thank you.

No questions but comments if I could please.

I think it's important to mention that we retain third party counsel former State Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge to assist us in that to avoid any appearance of any conflicts of interest.

I think it's important to mention that the article that came out in the Seattle Times suggested that Superintendent Juneau is going to get $300,000 which if she wanted to push back she might have gotten that if we had entered into a very adversarial relationship.

And we did not.

That is not what this BAR says.

And I appreciate Superintendent Juneau's elegance frankly in not pushing litigation or any other issues.

And my hope is is that the 15 days that's included in this BAR for collaboration between Superintendent Juneau and Dr. Brent Jones is is rich and powerful and an elegant handoff.

And as I have said before I promise Dr. Brent Jones my very best efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Dury I'm sorry Director Dury.

I have no questions at this at this time.

Just this quick comment.

I also want to thank Superintendent Juneau and Dr. Jones for engaging in this process and allowing a longer runway to get Dr. Jones in place for a successful summer and school upcoming school year.

Director Hersey.

No comments from or excuse me no questions from me.

Just again thanking Superintendent Juneau for her work and service to the district up until this point.

I think this move is going to be critical for us to give as much runway and as much opportunity for Dr. Jones to orient himself to the role in order to make sure that we are not only setting ourselves up for success during our last few weeks of school this year but also more importantly planning for you know the services that we plan on offering during the summer as well as a strong start in the fall of next year.

So I'm just super excited that this is moving forward.

I'm incredibly thankful for all of the parties involved.

This is no easy feat.

A transition takes a ton of time.

And the fact that things have been going so well so far between Superintendent Juneau and Dr. Jones is a clear sign that we are headed in the right direction.

So again thanks all around.

Excited to move this forward.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

Just want to reiterate gratitude to Superintendent Juneau and I really appreciate the thoughtfulness around making sure this transition is really thoughtful.

I guess I'm overusing that word but I really do appreciate that we rolled this back to May 1st.

I think it'll really set Dr. Brent Jones up really well for the upcoming school year.

So grateful to see this.

Thank you for your work on this President Hampson and Chief Counsel Narver.

I know a lot of work we don't see on on the dais and so we appreciate all the work that you put in behind the scenes.

Thank you for that.

And John Cerqui as well.

And and Phil Talmadge and the folks that supported Superintendent Juneau on her side and definitely a gratitude to her attorney as well.

So with that Ms. Wilson-Jones will you call for the vote.

Director Dury aye Director DeWolf aye Director Harris Director Hersey aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

We will now move to Action Item Number 4. Approval of Addendum to the August 2020 Memorandum of Understanding.

between otherwise known as an MOU between the Seattle School District Number 1 and Seattle Education Association.

May I have a motion for this item.

Absolutely.

I move that the school board approve the addendum to the August 2020 MOU as attached to this board action report which will become effective upon ratification by SEA on March 26th 2021. I further move that the school board waive the provision of policy number 14-20 that board action reports and relevant supplementary information will be posted to the district's website at least three days in advance of board meetings.

This action authorizes the superintendent to take all necessary steps to implement the district's responsibilities detailed in the addendum.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

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

This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today.

This item did not go to committee.

Chief Human Resources Officer Dr. Clover Codd I believe you will be giving the staff briefing.

Yes thank you.

Good evening.

So what you have before you is an addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding that was agreed to with the Seattle Education Association and approved by you in August of 2020. This addendum outlines a phased-in approach to restoring in-person services for preschool through 5th grade students and for pre-K through 12th grade students receiving services through special education intensive service pathways.

The addendum contains provisions in the following main areas.

Informed decision-making and supported communication.

Health and safety.

Instructional Model for the PK-5 and PK-12 Special Education Intensive Service Pathways.

Leads and Accommodations.

Workload and Educator Expectations and Evaluation.

The fiscal impact to this board action report is approximately 5.8 million dollars.

We did do two different racial equity analysis throughout bargaining with SEA this past winter.

One on our proposals and one on the budget.

Staff have already actually started working under the terms of this agreement this past Monday March 22nd with the three days of training that are needed in order to prepare staff to support students who will be returning on March 29th.

And with that I think I will open it up for questions.

Thank you.

Let let's go starting with Director Hersey from the top of the order.

Thank you very much.

The only question I have is that just for the public's sake could we give a little bit of what could potentially happen if SEA does not ratify the agreement.

I've gotten that question several times over the past couple of weeks.

And just from the district's perspective it would be good to provide some road mapping in the event that that were to occur just so that our constituents have as much information as possible.

Sure.

So if SEA were not able to get the votes in order to ratify this agreement which we understand we will have that information by Friday evening the bargaining teams would go back to the negotiations table.

We would continue to bargain in good faith of course so that we can get to a new tentative agreement that would then be brought back to the membership for a vote.

If that were to happen we would not be able to start school on Monday the 29th for the students outlined in this board action report.

And that would be pushed off to April 5th which would then be under the governor's executive order.

So we are hopeful that this will pass.

The vote I believe started yesterday and runs through Friday.

And we will let you and the public know as soon as we have any more information about that.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Director Harris I'm sorry Director Dury.

Hi.

Given how new I am and how much depth and process this this decision has I do have lots of questions but I feel that this might not be the time to take them up and will be abstaining from this vote.

Thank you Director Dury.

Did you have any questions you wanted to ask.

Not at this time.

Okay thanks.

Director Harris.

First let me start by thanking all of our teachers who are beyond heroes in my book and thanking both sets of bargaining committees both from SPS and from SEA I do have a concern about the fact that we're taking apparently four nurses away from school duties to work on administrative issues.

But I also understand that there was in fact an SEA nurse representative at the bargaining table.

And social media being what it is I don't know the veracity of what is being printed out there.

But I would suggest that we don't have enough nurses.

Our prototypical model is not funded and that comes to the fore right now right here.

And I hope we all communicate better in the future and certainly hope we all communicate better in the future for MOUs for 6th through 12th MOUs that are being bargained as we speak.

But huge gratitude to the folks that gave up their weekend.

They gave up their nights.

They have been working around the clock to make this happen.

And there is no way that everyone will be satisfied but it's my hope that we can move past this and do an even better job on 6-12 and we can get started the day that that one is signed hopefully on next fall's contract.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Harris.

And I believe Chief Berge would like to speak to the four additional nurses that we actually have provided.

There's some misinformation on social media.

Chief Berge.

Hi.

Good evening everyone.

So I'll just give you a little bit of background.

You know a lot of the staffing has been confusing this year because we did come into the year overstaffed.

So let me just say this.

We hired a new manager position which was a new position specifically for COVID.

That was Carrie Nicholson's position.

Many of you are familiar with her work.

So we did add a position there for overall COVID work and nurse in particular health and science nursing.

We were overstaffed by two FTE this year.

Those positions weren't eliminated.

We're carrying those this year and we've committed to carrying them next year as well even with the lower enrollment projection.

And then Dr. Petrosa's team had done some additional substitute nursing commitments.

So additional staffing of about 3 FTE were garnered through those some dollars that she had available to hire some additional substitute nurses.

Nurses aren't easy to find right.

They're not easy for us to find.

But we did provide some additional supports.

Anything else.

Director.

Harris in response to that.

No thank you.

Okay.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

I I. This has been a I know okay first I'll just say thank you.

I know it's been it's been a long process here both for our SPS negotiators and the SEA negotiators and it's had to be expedited to an extent because of the governor's orders.

So thank you for all the work done there.

I know that no plan is perfect so there's going to be a lot of questioning and criticism of this MOU so we're going to have to stand strong in that.

I know that educators are still voting on it and so we'll all wait their decision to on this.

But I and I will just I think I'll just ask it's more of an explication and question but in the summary Chief Codd has here that under steps to address disproportionate school closure impacts that when the district COVID-Central team concludes a school has or will be more heavily impacted by school closures additional and appropriate plan of support will be provided and applied.

And wondering again I hope that that would happen before the school actually opens so that those things can be in place.

And I guess just my question is is that the is that the plan.

That's my understanding Director Rivera-Smith.

I mean a lot of this outlines that what we will have to do and those are our intentions and so exactly how we will be responding when we do the racial equity analysis has not been determined just that we will.

Thank you.

Is there a specific tool being developed for these for these schools or are we using the one that we have that already.

We actually have a racial equity analysis tool during COVID that the SPS team had been working on.

Somebody else on this call either Chief Scarlett or Chief Pedroza might be able to speak more to that tool but that is the tool that we'll be using and have used throughout this this bargaining process.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Yeah I don't have any other questions or comments right now.

Thank you so much.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I I don't have questions but I have comments.

The just to reiterate for folks listening the timing seems seems funny that we're approving this before it's been been ratified and just to I guess re-emphasize that it's it's if ratified it's approved and that the voting is still open until Friday and that just has to do with the way that the timing worked out with the order and how quickly things can move through the full board and the full membership and all of that.

Something that I want to or something that I have noticed in relationship to this item that I want us to think about in relationship to the future is that there's a lot of misunderstanding about what a bargaining agreement means and how how this works and where the different decision making points are.

And so so I will just say that I I really hope that between this process and the process for fall we'll have more opportunity to discuss as a full as a full district community where our different levers of influence are and how you know that this is this is protection for for teachers.

This is work job job protection worksite protection and benefits.

But because of the timing of all these various decisions there's a lot of instructional model kind of tied up in that.

And as one of our public comment speakers noted you know deciding the instructional model and thinking about what we want school looks like school to look like in the fall really does need to be that full community discussion.

And we don't have you know the luxury of a huge amount of time but there will be time between between the kind of closing out on these agreements for the remainder of this school year and going into discussions about fall that I'm just really looking forward to us kind of all coming back to that as educators as families as students as staff and board and getting out of the sort of adversarial viewpoint and coming back together around the needs of students as a as a community that is separate from the very necessary agreement between the the district and the union in in to provide labor production.

So yeah.

I guess that that is all for me.

Director Rankin I might just add if I may Director President Hampson.

So one of the reasons why this the timing of this is just less than ideal I guess I'll say is that staff who are going to be educating the students who show up on Monday the 29th they actually started working under these agreements on this Monday March 22nd.

So two days ago.

So they kind of.

in good faith been working under what's already been outlined in the tentative agreement.

So timing is definitely not ideal.

We do understand that if it does not pass this Friday we will need to go back to the bargaining table and figure out what we need to do to get to a yes.

And the other thing I'll just say to you know to you all in the public is that for 100 years we've had one instructional model in public education.

And then all of a sudden we were forced because of a worldwide pandemic to change that model.

And our educators did heroic work to try to figure out and I mean our principals our support staff our nutrition services staff our teachers our everybody really under very unusual and extreme circumstances had to figure out a different kind of a model a different way of educating.

And this MOU and the addendum to the MOU is still part of that.

We bargained in a pandemic.

We're still trying to figure out what does a hybrid model of instruction look like in a pandemic.

There was no roadmap for this.

Nobody had it figured out.

I do believe that whatever we come up with in the fall will be much better.

But I'm very proud of the work that our educators and our school leaders and our central office team have done over the past year.

to bring us to this point.

And I also want to thank the bargaining teams because they put in hundreds of hours to try to get to this point.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

I meant to add my gratitude to both bargaining teams or multiple bargaining teams for all the time and effort in super high pressure situations.

So thanks to everybody for putting in that work.

Okay so just a couple comments from me.

I do want to state I don't see we have a shockingly small audience actually it appears so maybe folks are will be watching later that this is the culmination of a lot of work and it is the culmination of work that was headed in one direction and then had to had to I do see your hand Director DeWolf because I may have skipped you.

Is that what you're saying.

I skipped you.

I'm sorry.

Yeah I keep messing up on your order because of the whole Ops thing.

So I will come back to you after I make my comments.

That this the board is is has closed session discussions about bargaining with with staff as we go through the process and so we we have This is one of the few areas where we do have discussions because of the nature of bargaining that is in closed session with staff on an ongoing basis and staff has done a great job keeping us apprised throughout this.

And the closeness to which we were with our originally proposed in-person return which did not had all students through 5th grade returning did not have all 6-12 students returning for this year.

That shift was a massive one.

And so it's amazing that we were able to get to an agreement.

And and I know that that this members of this board were very grateful when we were able to get to that moment.

So there's not a lot that is new under the sun with what we're seeing here today.

The timing as folks have said is difficult.

There are many things in this agreement that any one of us as a staff board educator parent student can take issue with and and yet it is it is the ability to get to this agreement that allows us to move forward which is obviously critical at this time for K-5.

So there's no There's nothing for us to sort of you know dive in deeply to because that's all been determined and we need to honor the place that the bargaining teams got to.

Honor their contributions.

Honor their work.

It was incredibly difficult for them to get to this place.

We are known as a district that has processes on top of processes and processes to discuss those processes.

And and so we do that that creates a longer process and I would like that we could move to a place where where we don't have that and that that lengthy sets of processes and that will take breaking down of silos and creating better communication.

And I believe that we're all committed to to moving in that direction.

But we are who we are in this moment in time and so coming to this place is is really a huge accomplishment.

And with that I will be supporting this wholeheartedly and I hope folks in the community are able to make peace with it and and and and flex in the ways that we all need to to make sure that this happens for our kids.

And I we're all super excited about kids coming back on on Monday the 29th.

And now I will turn to Director DeWolf to let him add a final comment.

Oh one last thing.

Chief Codd could you please state that the the fiscal cost and this is something that I want to see in a press release.

when we approve this that how much is this costing us.

5.8 million so $5,875,465 as an approximation put out by our budget Chief Berge.

And that goes toward if you could just give me a short list of the top items.

So I believe it's 7 days of COVID leaves.

We've got extra time for.

professional development for substitutes.

Chief Berge you did the analysis.

You might have the Excel spreadsheet in front of you.

I do.

Another 7 days is a big part of it.

Yeah.

So we had substitutes training for substitutes.

We had the building safety team stipend.

We have the the well we have MERV filters but we didn't include that.

We did have to order another bunch of HEPA air filters for this.

There's more translations and comm support.

And then there's also the benefits that we put in.

So Chief Codd talked about the 7 days of emergency circumstance paid leave.

And then we also have quarantine leave.

And so we did estimates on a certain percentage of SEA needing to access those benefits.

Thank you.

And I just want to note that these agreements were made and these costs are driven out and the the that dollar amount arrived in spite of having absolutely no assurance that that we would have support from the state or that the governor would ultimately be allowing monies from the feds to come through.

We we have seen the state already supplant both enrollment stabilization dollars and transportation dollars.

And so that they managed to get to this point in spite of not knowing that we were going to have support from the state to actually pay for the things for which we were bargaining is a is a huge task.

And it's not a dynamic that I would hope I would ever see this state repeat again where they withhold funds as a stick approach to to getting us to an agreement which makes it I believe much more difficult for you all to bargain when you don't even know if you can pay for the things that you're trying to provide to our educators.

Okay.

Director DeWolf thank you for that summary.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

Appreciate having a moment here.

I wanted to just quickly ask Dr. Codd if you could just share and one of the big sticking points was around kind of our our school facilities and I know if you could just briefly remind folks the process that you went through to bring in kind of a cohort of folks to do walkthroughs just to clarify kind of one of the issues I think was out in the news for a bit about one of the sticking points but the process that you went through.

Sure.

And actually Chief Podesta and Chief Berge would probably have more details around that but we did ask Labor and Industries to come in and walk through our buildings jointly with leaders from Seattle Education Association and leaders from the central office in Seattle Public Schools to look at the health and safety protocols and guidelines that we have in place.

Look at some of our HVAC to make sure that people felt more confident when we said we had things in place and we're meeting the health and safety guidelines.

We wanted to be able to bring more confidence to our labor partners.

And our public in being able to say that by having an external organization come in and sort of verify if you will that what we were saying is is actually what we were doing.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I think that was one of the biggest sticking points and so appreciate the work to bring it pull that together to bring some assurance and some comfort to our educators.

I know it's a scary thing to think about coming back after a long year of COVID.

We were in our homes.

We were locked down.

We were in quarantine.

So you know a lot of these activities that we want to think are normal you know we have to adjust our thinking around that and so I really just want to give you gratitude big ups to you and SPS and SEA on the bargaining teams on this.

And just as a small note, I think, to our community, we've been getting notes about one of the conversations we're going to have about start times and transportation in this MOU and the current instructional model.

And we are still sick of this pandemic.

The cases are up 30 percent here in Seattle, 18 percent in King County.

Variants are still out there.

Not everybody's getting vaccinated.

And I don't know how many people really want to get vaccinated.

I myself do support it.

So I think the idea, to go back to normal, I just want to help people understand, I hope people understand, That normal is not something we're necessarily working towards.

Right now I think we're just working towards finding some some ways to to to bring back experiences that we had where whether it's in person or online.

But at the end of the day this looks and feels different and we have to be comfortable.

We have to be resilient.

We have to be flexible and agile to difference.

Things are going to feel weird.

And I'm going to honestly I'm just going to call on all of us adults to stop projecting our stress and our anxiety onto to our young people.

And for young people I just want to say this.

You are already enough.

You are already valued.

You are already loved.

You are more than a grade.

You're more than a test score.

You're more than grades or GPAs or S.

You are not behind.

You have not fallen down.

You don't have learning loss.

You aren't less than.

You're perfect as you are.

This is not a horse race.

So I appreciate the work that's gone into this.

I'm excited to.

We you know take this opportunity to do something different with our education system by this hybrid model and bringing back students in person.

I I hope and I trust that we'll be able to do it safely and I appreciate all the work that's gone into this.

This is not an easy conversation.

This is not easy bargaining.

This is not an easy issue and I just really ask our community to hold close to yourself.

that this is a conversation and a topic that we're all going through together at the same time as you.

And so just to come together and understand this stuff is with grace and we hear you and we feel you and we understand where you're coming from.

And I'll just end with that.

But thank you to all the work that's gone into this.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

We really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Okay.

Some inspiring words.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will you call for the vote.

Director DeWolf aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Dury abstain Director Hampson aye Motion has passed by a vote of 6 yes to 1 abstention.

Okay the excitement continues.

We will now move to Action Item Number 5. Approval of a revised of revised bell times for elementary and K-8 schools for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year.

May I have a motion for this item.

Absolutely.

I move that the school board approve the revised bell times for elementary and K-8 schools listed in the background section of this board action report.

These changes will take effect on March 29 2021 and will remain in effect for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

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

This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today.

This item did not go to committee.

Chief Podesta I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes.

Thank you President Hampson.

So school bell times and for anyone listening or is not familiar exactly with that term really just means the start and end of the school day at a particular school building.

are adopted established annually by the board when the board adopts our transportation service standards which describes which students are eligible for district-provided transportation.

And in recent years the district has operated with a two-tiered system of bell times wherein many schools have a start of their day at 755 have had a start of their day at 755 And many others at 855 and then a few at 845 actually.

And this split between these tiers is not perfectly uniform but it's largely that elementary schools start at the 7 have started the 755-hour and secondary schools at the 855-hour.

And the point of this and why it's they're established with the transportation service standards are this allows us to make efficient use of our transportation resources in particular our yellow bus fleet.

This allows a set of buses to provide transportation to school in the morning and have students arrive in time for a 7-55 start time and the same set of buses be turned around to provide transportation to another set of students at other schools.

at 855. As we went into the and this system was originally adopted by the board in March of last year for this coming school system somewhat along our normal standards was then revised once it was we moved to a remote model still with a two-tier system but with the times closer together an 8 o'clock start time for elementary schools and a 9 o'clock start time for secondary schools thinking that this would be easier for schools to manage and for families to manage if they had students in in both types of schools that the school was closer together and the overall school day would overlap you know into you know more succinct time frame.

Now that we're trying to welcome more students back into our buildings we really need to return to our usual practice of having an hour between the bell times as we try to transport more students to our schools so we can make the same use of that fleet.

Because if we bring back more students as per the governor's order we are going to need to use the complete fleet of yellow school buses we have and that only worked on any year because of the multiple-tiered bell times.

So we've had discussions also that right now we are ramping up transportation and we have driver shortages and we have some capacity issues.

But even if we were full-forced we would need to do this because this is this is the underlying basis for the system.

So this action Again moves the elementary bell times starts them earlier the start of the day and the end of the school day both are half an hour earlier than we had in the remote model.

So elementary schools and K-8 schools start at 8 a.m.

and end at 230 and makes no changes to the secondary bell times at this time that they would still have a 9 o'clock start.

And that gives us the separation.

that we need that so we can make more efficient use of the yellow school buses that are available to us.

Implementing this in by March 29th as we think through welcoming students with in intensive special education pathways preschool students Head Start students and and others.

We'll need this in place now and this efficiency we are still in the middle of routing all these students so it's hard to give exact numbers.

We expect this to yield at least 40 buses into the pool to allow us just to meet the the transportation needs that we'll have on March 29th and on April 5th for again special education pathways preschool McKinney-Vento students with a 504 accommodation and our first priority of students that we're transporting and we're legally obligated to transport.

And we're hoping as we continue to run the system efficiently as we bring more yellow school buses online perhaps we can offer more transportation.

But even to meet the obligations that we've already got in place we need to have more time to again between start times and end times for bringing students to school and transporting students from school back to home.

So that's you know we're really just returning to our normal practice and modeling.

Again we it's around it's the top of the hour as opposed to 755 and 855 but Basically this returns roughly to the model that we've had for in-person instruction for the past several years.

A few years ago the district actually went from a 3-tier system to a 2-tier system and this returns us to that.

And you know will make make us able to meet the transportation obligations that we have right now over the next couple of weeks.

So I'd be happy to entertain any questions directors have.

We'll start with you Director DeWolf.

Thank you Chief Podesta.

I think my question is just around the student benefit.

Can you describe more about the student benefit.

Again I think this you know it.

allows us to provide transportation in this case as with the resources we have per our transportation service standards and to those that we're legally obligated to.

There are frankly only so many yellow school buses available to us.

And if each bus can only make one serve one school you know one route a day you know we would need to practically double the bus fleet to serve all students.

Last year when while students were still in buildings we fielded 205 buses per day to serve special services students.

And that's about where we are now.

We have a few more available to us than that but We again just to meet the transportation needs of students we need to frankly recycle of us each day that it can make it can transport two cents of students.

But we just with the equipment and the staffing we have we can't get students to 105 schools all at the same time is what it comes down to.

So you need to split those destinations in half so we And you need some time in between that to serve the other set of routes.

It's really just managing kind of the peak load of our resources.

Okay thank you so much Chief Podesta that's very helpful.

My only other question not a question more just a comment.

You know last month we passed our 100 percent clean energy resolution so just always always want to put up a flag or promote electric school buses whenever we talk about school buses.

So just doing my due diligence due diligence to remind us of that.

So thank you.

I I appreciate that.

I think even you know depending on capacity and utilization even a diesel school bus can be have a lower carbon footprint than the equivalent number of students each being transported in a single occupancy vehicle.

So there there's some efficiency to be gained by We essentially operate a little transit system and we all know that transit systems can create energy efficiencies.

But but we certainly agree we would like our buses themselves to be cleaner than they are.

Anything else Director DeWolf.

That's it.

Thank you.

Okay.

So let's go now with Director Rankin.

I feel like no matter what order you go in I'm always surprised when it's my turn.

So yeah this really we've had some people ask you know why couldn't we move the afternoon block later.

And I hope it's understood that it's not the time between the morning block and the afternoon block that it's actually the time between the two bell times in the morning.

And this is the same issue that we have with transportation have had before.

You may notice that my committee is the only is the one that still meets at 430 in the afternoon and other committees meet at 7 o'clock 8 o'clock in the morning that I'm not a morning person.

And you know people have different kind of sleep sleep patterns.

Mine and one of my kids happens to not sync with the most of the rest of the world.

That being said you know even though my my initial response was like oh no another change.

It really is critical that in the context of what we're being directed to provide by the governor that the accessibility for more students is is the critical thing and I know there are a lot of people asking questions about working families and the half-day schedule and the bell times and all of that.

And as Director Hampson said earlier in relation to the tentative agreement there was a lot of planning that had been done in terms of the broad safety protocols and procedures transportation protocols and procedures on the on the on the big scale.

But to actually operationalize different pieces of that plan the board directive was a roll up by groups.

And what is very different about having to shift to respond to the governor's order to bring everybody back at the same time is that first student laid off drivers in October when it was clear that remote was going to be the primary excuse me the primary educational model for the fall.

So we have to and those drivers all couldn't sit around until you know there's another job available for them.

So the amount of time that it takes to train to find hire and train drivers and to build these routes based upon responses from families is is why there's not clear answers right now for families if you are going to have transportation or not.

I just I hope that that's that's understood.

And also in terms of working families again that we don't have a lot of great options but we have to make choices every step of the way along this.

And we're trying to make the best that we can.

So given that that is leading to the change in the bell times I want to add too that we are having a broader discussion about transportation that was scheduled to happen anyway to re-look at how we can serve more students and fit within the budget because as with other things the state does not actually cover the cost of transportation fully.

But can I.

So just to ask a question in terms of moving the times later Can somebody I guess just quickly respond to why or it's I mean it's really that the 8 o'clock time is basically a return to what we had what we had before as opposed to creating a new timing structure.

Is that accurate.

I would say there were three factors and I would invite any of my colleagues to chime in if there are other things that should be considered that.

It seemed logical to return to our practice of roughly 8 o'clock and 9 you know 9 o'clock to to be kind of where the bell times have traditionally been.

Moving the secondary bell times would have added another variable into bargaining that's going on right now about the secondary model that you know isn't wasn't crystal clear how that was going to end up.

And then the district is and I think many families are very appreciative trying to bring back athletics as much as possible and you know shifting the ending bell times for secondary schools later in the day would create yet another hurdle for that.

And so those were three things.

But I think primarily it was we're Trying to come back to school the way we operated and that's what this looks like is there's a tier at 8 roughly 8 o'clock and there's a tier at roughly at 9 o'clock.

That's that's the way we traditionally operated.

So returning to that made some sense.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

We had heard from a lot of community asking why we did not or if we did consider moving secondary up an hour to make that hour time between the two.

So thank you for covering that.

I will just explain for everybody listening that you know this this item's coming to us as you can see on the BAR so it didn't go to committee And interaction items are kind of difficult because they the disadvantage to them is that we don't have time for more conversations or engagement on them.

Typically items go into a committee where they're discussed possibly for more than a month.

Then they move into to the full board for introduction and then a few weeks later for action.

So this is definitely a condensed timeframe because it is that we are needing to do that.

So I'm just explaining to people how Unfortunately because of the interaction nature of this one we didn't get a chance to speak with more communities about any kind of implications that this will have.

But I I know that it was still you know there's a lot of thought gone into it and thank you Chief Podesta again for explaining the the implications that would have been had we moved secondary.

It is an adjustment that members are going to be asked to make and that's hard.

That's always hard.

So we definitely sympathize with that.

I likewise am not a morning person Director Rankin so I I appreciate that you have not moved your meetings to 7 a.m.

And I but my kids actually are morning people so hopefully the adjustment won't be too hard for them if they do return in person.

We haven't even made a decision yet.

So thank you for the work on this and for I don't have any other questions.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Several questions and a few comments.

Chief Podesta you mentioned a hundred hello.

Chief Podesta you mentioned a hundred and five schools at the same time.

That's we're not talking about high schools.

They have worker passes correct.

They there are a lot of high school students that do have ORCA passes.

We do provide special education transportation to nearly to many many schools.

So there is some transportation typically to practically every school.

Okay I understand that but it feels misleading and inflated to me to say 105 schools at the same time.

Next question would be.

After we have met our legal obligations for students needing special ed services McKinney-Vento et cetera we're hoping to expand bus services to other schools.

Do we have a work plan and a tiering system for which schools would be allowed to transportation by moving these bell times.

That was not addressed in the BAR that I can find.

At this point the this bell time will allow us to reach the efficiencies needed with the fleet that we have to serve that first priority of students of special education McKinney-Vento 504 accommodations.

So we would need again I need to be clear that we have two issues.

We have a shortage of drivers but the reason when we have a full complement of drivers we have a two-tier bell time is that we need this again for transportation for all schools.

Maybe not a lot of buses but right now special ed is primarily what we're transporting and so we need this tier just to serve that.

that set of students.

Once we get this taken care of we have some students that some schools that West Woodland Elementary for school for instance has been relocated to John Marshall creating you know exacerbating a transportation issue just for that school.

So we're working to find a solution for those students in particular.

We've just made a.

a move as the board is aware of Licton Springs and created you know special transportation issues for those students.

So those are high on our list and we're looking at tier using the equity tiers to see as we add this with adding Tier 1 schools be an appropriate way of prioritizing.

We are so focused now.

Again you know Governor's order was established on March 15th.

Our educational model for the first set of students was finalized just last week so we are fully focused on allocating the resources we do have to meet that first set of students.

And and then recruiting and bringing on more drivers so we can add between the tiers which creates some efficiencies and moving the bell times.

And then more drivers are coming online which had been the plan Because again the district's plan prior to this was to serve the students we were talking about in March 29th.

And we have that basically covered.

That plan did was built around a full day not AM and PM cohorts.

So right now we're rebuilding routes to cover that.

We'll understand then you know what the excess capacity is and then how how many additional drivers we've been able to bring in on board and train into the system.

And then we'll again start prioritizing what further general education transportation we can provide.

I you know it is probably still likely going to be fairly limited and we need the survey data that is coming back from families both information that was finalized last night for intensive service pathways and then the others to have real numbers to know what our capacity is to add.

But again more specific to your question you know the particular transportation is we've issues we've created at the particular schools by moving students and then Tier 1 schools was our first thought of a way to start looking at priorities.

Okay my next question.

I have a couple of more.

And I apologize for this but this is very vague to me.

Do we not make money on transportation for highly capable critical West Seattle students.

Thurgood Marshall.

I'm I'm sorry Director Harris can you repeat the question.

It's it's been my understanding

that we make money.

Okay hold on sorry.

I'm doing the best I can.

Go ahead.

It's my understanding that transporting HCC students under the state budget stars or whatever the heck it is we call it now we actually are reimbursed in full and I'm using West Seattle students that are transported to Thurgood Marshall as an example.

Is that not correct.

As well we are reimbursed by the state for yellow bus transportation based on how many destinations and how many students we serve.

So it is a bit complicated of a complicated model.

So adding destinations and students.

category sir.

Not to my knowledge.

Maybe if there is something I'm missing if Chief Berge is on the call and wants to speak to.

I am not aware of special funding related to HCC but I don't know again if Chief Berge could speak to that.

No special funding for HCC.

Not not for transportation.

Nope.

Okay.

Now I've been misinformed.

Next question is in terms of our communication to the surveys could we advise parents that they would not have necessarily transportation which I'm hearing from a great number of working families that would elect to stay remote if In fact they didn't have transportation guaranteed to go back to the hybrid model.

Did we ask that specific question because I think that's a deal breaker for a great many families.

My understanding is our survey instrument made it clear that for the survey for general education students that transportation was could not be guaranteed and was very limited.

Okay because Social Security has to adjust otherwise.

My last question is what is our relationship with First Student right now and how much are they assisting us with rehiring former drivers and putting the word out for new drivers.

Our relationship with First Student has gone up and down.

I think our relationship is good.

You know we talked to the board about you know the date that we would start paying drivers again when there was still some uncertainty about when transportation services would start.

They their income is based on a services delivered per bus.

So they're 100 percent motivated to bring more drivers back as quickly as they can per their driver's collective bargaining agreement.

You know it it takes time every year to do this.

And in this you know drivers have made choices.

And as we get later into the year we're recruiting drivers for a fairly short window that gets shorter as time progresses.

It's you know recruiting in the fall for 10 months of work is different than recruiting in the spring for two and a half months of work.

So I think they are in heaven and earth and they did.

They they brought 220 drivers back this spring and that meets our needs for our first set of students we need to transport and they're doing what they can.

We are looking at other providers and other sources but I believe our relationship is good and they're working in good faith to to bring drivers back.

Very glad to hear.

Thank you.

I'm probably going to abstain on this motion because it's so vague as far as hearing and as far as the communication to families.

And it and it hurts me because I've been watching transportation for 10 years very very closely.

And who knew we were going to have a worldwide pandemic and a governor and a state superintendent that really didn't care what the operationalized cost would be both in terms of dollars and in terms of human capital.

Thank you very much.

So if I can just clarify Director Harris this BAR as I understand it is only about bell times and those other items are by approving bell times we're not necessarily approving or not approving anything associated with tiering.

I understand that.

President Hampson but to me they are absolutely intrinsically linked and I don't think that I have enough information in terms of next steps to be able to vote in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Director Dury.

I have no questions at this time.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

Hi thank you.

I just want to say for all the parents out there that are super concerned about this I see you and I hear you.

As a second grade teacher it's a struggle getting my 8-year-olds to fully wake up and be present at 9 a.m.

and so this is going to be a significant change.

And unfortunately it's going to be one of those things that just comes along as we try to reopen our buildings and as we push forward to that goal with our educators.

There's going to be some change that is necessary to make this effective for everybody.

My only question is in your professional opinion Chief Podesta is this a change that you see us continuing to implement into the fall potentially as well.

I would expect so.

Again this is really a return to the structure that we've had I think for at least the last three or four years roughly since we've moved to a two bell time system unless we want to you know open up the but there you know between transportation managing school buildings and athletics and other after-school activities.

There's only so much overall flexibility that we have.

No I totally understand that.

And I think that my only request in my next question would be have we and I probably know the answer to this given the speed at which everything is moving.

But are we in the process or are we planning to do a robust equity analysis of this.

So that we can have adequate data when we need to make this decision again on how well or not well this worked out for our families but especially our Black families during this you know spring as we head to the fall.

I think we you know we had the work session a few weeks ago about transportation in general and the constraints and having to look again and it's kind of the same question how we can use our resources.

our financial resources and our transportation resources more judiciously and equity analysis would be built into that.

And as you can see bell times and scheduling have big impacts on on the resource and service levels that transportation can provide.

And so since we're expecting all that analysis to be focused on an equity lens to make sure that in any changes we make.

So I think we it's it will be front and center that this this slice of it how bell times and transportation costs work and then transportation services in general.

The Transportation Department you know the the pandemic interrupted this but was had already started to kick off a procedure to look at the whole transportation service standards from the perspective of equity.

And again bell times are really just in some respects an appendage to the transportation service standards.

So I think yes we're we're definitely on a path to do an equity equity analysis and understand how transportation its relationship to school schedules affect Black students and students furthest from educational justice.

That's really appreciated.

Could we get whenever the intersection is appropriate whether it be Friday memo or at our next transportation work session which I'm sure will be coming up in a matter of weeks.

Could we get an update or just an alert when that work has begun so that we can track it.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

That's all for me.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

I think I don't have any Well I guess the only question I have is what our anticipated assessment date is and maybe that's what Director Hersey is already asking for is when do we know what availability we're going to have based on the survey information we receive which is due tonight in case anybody has not filled out their their survey.

I I would expect us to have an understanding of this early next week that too we need the overall you know what is the level of students returning to in-person instruction and then what is the potential split of A.M.

and P.M.

cohorts because that essentially creates another school from the perspective of transportation now that's two school days in one.

So that is a you know a big consumer of resources And then as we've talked about earlier in this meeting secondary bargaining around the secondary model is still going on and so how those transportation needs are met at middle middle schools and and other high schools that do use transportation now.

But I think we'll start to get some picture of this early next week and then also know how many additional resources we're able to bring online.

Do we have any well before I forget I want to note something that I don't believe has been said or if it if it was I apologize and I missed it but that this is based on one student per bench unless they're from the same family.

And that is part of the TA.

So that also goes to capacity.

So were we to in the future have direct guidance that said otherwise we might be able to move to a different model but for now the TA dictates one student per bench.

That's correct.

Do you know that the percent by which that would increase that additional students per bench would increase our capacity.

Is it just like a doubling or a third or 25 percent.

It it is not.

The theoretical capacity on a full bus is either 30 you know is either a triple or or double capacity for the bus.

You know given that our again based on our routing patterns and even with two tiers the uniformity of bell times our buses typically are are across the system operating at half capacity so.

There will be some points where the the physical distancing on buses actually makes a big difference.

It not it's not enormous.

But again we actually need the real numbers of which students to which schools and which cohort to know.

So where are how many overloaded buses.

If we could relax those parameters if we determine that's safe that will certainly save us you know save resources at the margin.

It is not a wholesale game changer we don't think.

And then the I think I just want to note that we have we implemented based on need for sleep for secondary children had shifted to the bell time schedule that we have now.

We did have 3 years ago 2 years ago I can't keep track now but when we were some schools started at 930 some schools started at 8 o'clock.

We had 3 belt 3 schedules which provided a lot more flexibility.

And I know that we have data coming in that is that is potentially we missed a year of data this last year right.

We might be able to gain a little bit this year but I think it's probably going to be not not particularly good data with respect to attendance.

I believe that there's some critical things we're going to need to be looking at in terms of what bell times actually work in different communities as well as the different age groups and that we do have this earlier bell time on the K-5 side to allow for a later bell time on the secondary side which we know to be really really necessary for those secondary students.

So so I just want to make that make you know kind of remind folks of that as well.

And I had another question but I or I've I've lost it.

So I think we've spent enough time on this and I'm I'm want to just state for the record that the the timing and the rush and the way in which that that we've been forced to bring all kids back at once has in fact created inequities and that this is one of the few ways few tools that we have accessible to to try to insert some more equity back into the equation.

And that reminds me of my last question.

Any luck with King County Metro if they can help us out at all.

And if you don't have to answer that now we can I can get it in a Friday memo.

Yes we have had some discussions and they are making connections for us with some of their resources.

And both on the elementary side at least for discussion purposes and then also helping us think about the secondary model which is much more reliant on transportation and what their operating parameters are going to be and helping us think about challenges we might have if midday transportation is required.

So it's it's there have been constructive conversations so far.

We don't you know they haven't yielded huge benefits yet but we're we're just starting that discussion.

Okay great.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will you please call for the vote.

Yes just a moment.

My computer has momentarily frozen but I expect it to load in a second here.

Director Harris.

Director Harris abstains.

Director Hersey aye Director Rankin Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Dury aye Director DeWolf aye Director Hampson aye.

This motion has passed with a vote of 6 yes and 1 abstention.

Okay.

We will now move to Action Item Number 6. Approval to procure HEPA filters for in-person instruction.

May I have a motion for this item.

Absolutely.

I move that the school board approve the procurement of HEPA filters with any modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent to complete the procurement.

I further move that the school board waive provision in Policy Number 14-20 that board action reports will be posted to the district's website at least three days in advance of board meetings.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

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

This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today.

This item did not go to committee.

Chief Podesta I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes.

Thank you President Hampson.

As been discussed many times with the board are there is a there Our safety plans related to COVID for buildings really rely on increasing ventilation and we are trying to achieve a standard across our whole system of 25 cubic feet per minute per occupant in a building to bring fresh air into buildings.

And we've been working hard to make sure our all HVAC systems are working as designed and balanced in classroom in our 4,000 classrooms and other spaces to achieve this standard.

There are vagaries of any particular building where in a particular space not so much classrooms but other spaces as well where it's difficult for us to achieve that 25 cubic feet per minute of fresh air per person in the room.

Our solution to that are the standalone HEPA filters very fine filters which which clean the air in the room rather relying solely on fresh air from the ventilation system.

We procured 350 of these filters and placed them at spot locations in buildings as we were getting ready for our previous return to in-person learning around the March time frame.

We immediately made another order with the governor's order because again we're just increasing the occupancy of our buildings.

We were bringing more grade vans.

We wanted to make sure that we might have more spaces and more people in spaces.

And so that led to the second order of 500 units.

And we've been deliberating over the past few days as the CDC has announced guidance that Perhaps physical distancing guidelines would be relaxed instead of 6 feet of physical distancing between occupants of a room to 3 feet for perhaps elementary grade bands or others.

Again that would increase the occupancy in buildings and in rooms.

And our goal is still to provide a certain amount of fresh air per occupant.

And so that might create more spaces where it's difficult to achieve that with the ventilation system that's built into the building.

So we want to augment it potentially augment it with the standalone HEPA filters which are you know are a small plug-in device not that small actually perhaps the size of a two-drawer file cabinet where needed and wanted to have those available.

We still you know we are still conforming with the the 6-foot guideline and are still thinking through if occupancy were to or we were allowed to raise occupancy of buildings.

You know how many of these devices do we need.

They obviously consume you know the more we deploy the more energy we're consuming.

It's another kind of maintenance and management obligation.

So we're looking for as many solutions as we can.

To the point of the late introduction of this BAR we were really have been are still planning for what is the best solution if if we can raise the occupancy in our buildings.

And so that's why we're asking to have this authority you know to buy to procure these devices as quickly as needed.

They're also fairly highly in demand in the market right now.

So we want to kind of have the capacity in hand but these are very late-breaking decisions with the governor's order and the potential for perhaps being to occupy buildings more densely is why we've added this to the agenda so late in the game.

But that's that's basically the thinking behind this and I'd be happy to take any questions.

Okay Director DeWolf start with you.

I don't have any questions.

Chief Podesta thank you for putting this together so quickly.

I read the BAR and I appreciate your background.

I think this obviously it just seems like a really important necessary step particularly as we're bringing students back.

So I'm looking forward to supporting this.

Thank you for the background.

Director Hersey.

No questions for me.

Thank you.

Director Dury.

No questions for me.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

No questions and happy to support this.

Anything to keep our folks healthy is okay by me.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Sorry for that delay.

Yes thank you.

I'm very happy to see this come before us.

I have a question though Chief Podesta.

I'm wondering so this is for this is for the purchase that we've already done of the portable HEPA filters and then for some additional ones in case we need to in case our our we change from the 6 to 3 feet distance.

Are these though because I have HEPA filters in my home actually and I know they need to be replaced.

So is this also includes replacement of the actual filters.

And how long first of all how long are the ones that are in their last and then is there going to be a separate order then for replacement filters.

Not of the unit but of the filter itself.

We are procuring filters as a stock of filters as we procure the units and we'll need to monitor the in the kind of the lifespan the operating time of each you know once we understand how buildings are occupied and how many hours a day the filters are are being used.

Those replacement filters you know compared to the initial purchase are relatively modest.

I'd be surprised unless we have some omnibus procurement of lots of things related to COVID or HVAC that you would see the purchase of the of the filter that gets installed.

This is the the basic device is what will be above the procurement threshold.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I I guess I wanted to confirm that this will be on like an as-needed basis.

You're talking about it mostly to mitigate an increase of airflow capacity as there are more people in the buildings.

That's correct.

So where and who and at what point would it be determined.

I guess whose responsibility is it to determine hey we actually need to bring in one of these units in this space based on air movement and then do like how are people clear on you know how to get that unit in place.

Because these aren't a default.

These aren't going to be in every classroom.

It's an as-needed thing to to further increase airflow where where the where necessary.

Yes.

So facility operations staff our HVAC staff and who have also enlisted consultants to help because just the workload of the 4,000 classrooms are are balancing systems and monitoring both ventilation throughput and carbon dioxide parts per million in the rooms and we'll continue to do that on a regular basis.

And then as rooms are chosen and staffing is laid out and we know which students we'll continue to monitor once the once the buildings are occupied Given that we've added a lot of grade bands with the governor's orders it's just a lot more people more quickly.

So we just wanted to make sure we had equipment on staff but that that'll be what operating buildings is about as we return and welcome more students back to school.

Okay.

Yeah I just I want people to understand that you know if they don't see one of these in their classroom that doesn't mean that they're missing something.

It's it's provide it's it's layered.

There's you know all of the HVAC systems have been updated and have merged 13 filters where where they can.

And then there's lots of if if that doesn't improve airflow then we and then we also have this strategy and if that doesn't then we also have this strategy.

So I I I'm hoping that people understand and feel comfortable with the fact that the these systems are being checked periodically and that it's not a matter of throwing everything at everyone.

but responding to the actual situation and same same as with PPE.

Responding to the actual situation and meeting the need.

We're we're working with school leaders you know so they understand how to place work orders or if they have questions.

You know the initial audit and review of HVAC systems has been provided to school leaders so they understand the analysis that's done so far.

And then we'll all have a lot of learning when students are in buildings.

Not everything is going to get laid out or people won't occupy the building exactly like we expected.

So we'll need to adjust.

Yep.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith you have a follow-up question.

I do.

Thank you.

Yes.

So I know the interaction nature of this item doesn't allow us to ask for additional documentation necessarily, but it being as a large portion of this item is for items that were already purchased.

I just noticed that there is no There's no invoice or paperwork for that purchase that's already happened on this BAR.

So I'm wondering just for transparency reasons Chief Podesta if you could supply us with that I guess invite a memo or via email just for again for transparency that we see that you know that's already been purchased there.

Certainly we could we can provide that.

Thank you.

Okay let's see Director DeWolf you already went.

So and this is just to clarify this is you're asking for an approval authority level because one part of this authority has not actually been utilized yet but you foresee utilizing it in the in the coming weeks correct.

Potentially.

We we made an initial order in January that was below the threshold the procurement threshold and then immediately reacted to the governor's order and placed an order for another 500 units that we are by with this BAR kind of acting asking for retroactive authority for the order that was placed.

And then would like to have the contingent authority going forward if we have considerably more occupancy in buildings.

We were we've been thinking about the potential of the 3-foot physical distancing guideline is what has led us to that.

And so if we move to that in a big way or make other changes particularly as we see the secondary educational model we think it'd be good to have that flexibility.

But to date we've ordered 850 units and would like to have the capacity to have order perhaps another 800. Great.

Okay.

That's it from me.

So if there are no other questions I would like to ask Director I'm sorry.

Sorry.

I'm sorry President Hampson.

I actually do have one one more question and I promise it's short.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I am wondering about programs and schools that are in buildings that are not SPS buildings like the center school in inside of Seattle Center.

How how does that I mean I I I assume and hope that principals are all still looped into the same you know that that principal is the COVID site manager the same way but are are we running into any issues of like overlap of responsibility or or holes where responsibility falls through and it's not our building.

We've included those buildings in our walk-through process that we're doing now and then there are different arrangements with different landlords if you will.

And so we're working with them you know on whatever basis makes sense in that building to try to achieve the same standards that we have in our own building.

The occupancy typically of those buildings whether it's interagency or the center school are a bit different.

But so far so good.

We're still working through some of those issues.

Okay and I imagine we're following in those spaces the same sort of we were talking about stickers on you know knowing the different things for different rooms.

We'll follow those even in structures that are not our whole building.

To the extent it makes sense.

Again some of those programs are a lot different than some of our other schools.

But yes trying to uphold as many of those standards as we can.

Thank you.

Okay.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Director Hersey aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Dury aye Director DeWolf aye Director Harris aye Director Hampson aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Okay.

So let me just we're now about to move to introduction items.

I know that this has been a pretty long Board meeting and I don't want to hold things up but if directors need a 5-minute recess.

Yes please.

Yes please.

Okay so.

5 is perfect.

Okay if we can recess at 658 Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I mean what did I just say.

If we can recess and then reconvene at 658 please.

Promptly.

the successful partnership between Seattle Public Schools and the City of Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning to continue funding and to expand preschool classrooms and SPS.

I'm reminded of right now maybe in this time March 2014 as a principal of South Shore Pre-K-8 school I had the opportunity with former Early Learning Director and now Executive Director of Curriculum Assessment and Instruction Cashel Toner to attend a 3-city tour of Boston Washington D.C.

and Jersey City to attend a preschool study mission trip and visit some of the finest preschool models in the country.

Six years ago we began this innovative program by funding 3 preschool classrooms.

This year we're poised to continue supporting our current 29 classrooms and expand to 5 new sites for a total of 34 classrooms.

This means.

$9,178,000 in investment.

89 teaching positions funded by this partnership.

Under the leadership of the Early Learning Department this program has expanded the opportunities for research-based and inclusive all-day preschool program throughout the city and district.

Currently we are serving 544 students overall and will serve 644 students next year.

90 of these students have IEPs and participate in our SPP Seattle Preschool Plus and Head Start Plus programs.

Seattle Public Schools and DEEL share a commitment to high-quality early learning and to expanding access to inclusive programming.

Each year our preschool programs ensure our youngest learners are more ready for kindergarten by consistently meeting and exceeding on our whole-child assessments and providing foundational opportunities to support their education and future.

You will notice the bar indicates $7.6 million dollars.

Indeed our overall expansion budget will be $9.1 million dollars due to an increase in per-pupil funding.

For the April 7th board meeting the changes will be posted.

Now let's talk specifically about this $9.1 million dollar investment and what it will fund.

It will fund the continuation of 29 currently funded classrooms and add 5 new classrooms.

4 Head Start Seattle Preschool Plus and 1 Seattle Preschool Plus.

4 Head Start expansion sites serving predominantly students furthest from educational justice from Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Wing Luke Cascadia and Northgate Elementary.

These programs will become full-day programs from the previous day model.

In response to overall lack of SPS preschool opportunities in the central region we plan to open one new SPP program in the Magnolia Elementary School's newly renovated building wing.

With the with it it holds the potential to expand in the future to additional developmental preschool preschool classrooms.

In alignment with our Seattle Excellence Strategic Plan Early Learning's expansion priorities include increasing opportunities in our 13 focus schools our Title 1 schools Head Start full-day programming and inclusive special education opportunities throughout the district to ensure access to safe warm and engaging high-quality early learning environments that develop the talent identity voice and agency of our students furthest from educational justice with the focus on African-American boys.

This year our SPP and Head Start SPP classrooms enrolled 249 students of color furthest from educational justice which made up 50 percent of overall enrollment with 12 students served in our McKinney-Vento services.

We have Mr. DeWayne Chappell who is the very fine director of the Department of Education and Early Learning here.

And so DeWayne Mr. Chappell I'd love to invite you to have any comments.

Yes.

Thank you Dr. Scarlett.

Good evening to you.

Good evening school board and and superintendent.

So you know I'm aware I am grateful for this partnership.

We are grateful for this partnership with Seattle Public Schools on preschool.

Super excited to expand to a total of as Dr. Scarlett mentioned 34 Seattle Public School SPP classrooms for the 2021-22 school year.

Seattle Public Schools is our largest partner with Seattle Preschool Program in our Seattle Preschool Program network and they represent you guys represent about a quarter of all of our Seattle Preschool Program classrooms.

So super thankful for this.

We're also appreciative of the district's work to make remote learning as meaningful and engaging as possible or for families this year.

The Seattle Preschool Program Plus continues to be something that we're extremely or very proud of.

And again this partnership is really is really a bright spot for our FEPP as Board President Hampson mentioned earlier our FEPP levy investments.

We also know that the focus on students' furthersome educational justice has been your priority.

I know that there are several points throughout this educational pipeline where our students' furthersome educational justice and our African-American students are lost.

And these points really present an opportunity to continue with our investments in African-American children and youth and those furthest from educational justice.

And as Dr. Scarlett just mentioned, these first years or the first opportunity is in the early years.

I just cannot say more than, or should I say there's so much I could say, but we all know that the access to high quality preschool is key to ensuring that our scholars are equipped to spread their brilliance as they blossom throughout their educational journey.

And all of that to say I'll stop there is that I'm just extremely excited excited for our partnership on behalf of our scholars.

So I'll pause and just to let you know that I do we do have Monica Liang-Agyei she's our Early Learning Division Director on as well.

Thank you so much.

And I'm going to turn this over to Director Rankin who's the head of our Student Services Curriculum and Instruction to start off our board questions and comments.

Thank you.

So are we going to go through are we going to talk about the promise part today or are we focusing on the preschool part today.

This is preschool.

Oh funding for preschool services right there.

Sorry.

Yep.

Thank you.

I know this is a you know I remember when this was first being voted on and enacted for the first time in Seattle and access to high-quality preschool is such an important such an important thing to provide for For future academic success for for support for working families support for just you know I don't want to say kindergarten readiness but help just helping kids socialize and the early development stuff.

So I don't have any questions at this time.

I do have well it could be a question but I don't think there's an answer to it right now so I'll make it as a comment which is that I really look forward to the day that I hope comes soon.

where we don't have SPP and SPP Plus where all children are welcome and served at any and all preschool sites regardless of ability or disability.

And my apologies Director Rankin.

This actually came through A&F.

So I started with Director Hersey so I'll go to him next.

I was I was wondering I'm like how does she not know that.

So my apologies.

That's okay.

I mean I I know what this is obviously but I was surprised to be called out to go first because I was like this didn't come through me.

Because you had just taken a bite.

Okay Director Hersey you're half Vice President Hersey excuse me.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

I actually don't have any questions on this item so we can move on to the next director.

I'm just super excited to continue the partnership with DEEL and thankful for your time here with us tonight Brother Chappelle and just excited to continue to work together and get these things done in the interest of our kids.

Okay.

So let's go now to Director Dury.

I have no questions.

Thank you.

Okay.

And then to Director Harris.

Thank you.

Greetings Dwayne.

It's good to hear your happy voice and and collaboration.

SPP Plus what's the ratio of the new programs between SPP and SPP Plus.

Thank you Board.

Harris good to hear your voice as well.