School Board Meeting May 9, 2018 Pt. 2

The rules for public testimony are on the screen and I implore you I beg you I ask you to follow said rules.

One doesn't like to gavel down folks giving testimony because we need your testimony.

Two minutes.

It goes by very very quickly with 30 seconds left you'll see the yellow light.

When the red light comes on please conclude your remarks.

We do not take comments on individually named staff.

You will be ruled out of order.

I'd also like to remind you that you need to spend the majority of your time testifying on the topics that you signed up for.

And with that.

Would you please read the top three people on the front of the list and then if you could stand back and we can roll through this and keep our board directors moving.

Thank you so much.

First up for public testimony we have Naj Ali followed by Josiah Bamu and Joanne Pinkman.

Naj?

Josiah?

I was wondering.

I'm Josiah Bamu.

I'm Northern Arapaho.

I'm a student.

This is a letter from my mother to the Seattle School District in support of a native focused academy.

She writes I'm submitting this letter on behalf of myself and my family who are enrolled tribal members of the Northern Arapaho tribe.

I would like to encourage Seattle School District to restore Indian heritage schools.

Most recently my family has been affected by the lack of native culture and values in the Seattle public schools.

My niece who I've taken care of since age 8 years old left and attended Chumawa Indian school located in Salem Oregon.

She left because she could not thrive socially while attending Seattle Public Schools for years.

I encouraged her to apply herself in school social events sports counseling and mentorships but she continued to withdraw which she had evident in her social skills.

She had no friends during her entire sixth and seventh grade year.

The friends that she had in eighth grade year were a few of another Native American students she had met in the meantime while attending Native American events.

Since I could see her that she had struggled socially I asked her one day why it was so hard for her.

She stated that she had felt like she did not belong and I asked her why she had felt that way.

So she began to tell them most of the students who attended her school spoke different languages.

and that they each spoke and that they each had their own culture who looks like them, dresses like them and those same students identified them with each other and on the other hand she was one out of a handful of Native American students who attended her school.

She always had decent grades.

I could see her applying herself to her daily homework, school assignments and I could see the sense of disappointment when it came to friends, social events or attending school itself.

This is why I made the decision to send her to an all native boarding school.

If I had a closer option as an Indian heritage school I would send her and keep her home.

This is why it is important Seattle Public Schools to recognize that the Native American students need a place where they feel like they belong a place where they thrive socially and academically and not a school three hours away.

My hope is that this letter is that you restore Indian heritage school a school for Native American students who feel overlooked and feel that they don't belong will have a good quality school to attend.

Ethnic studies now.

Joanne.

After Joanne we will have Anisa Rodan followed by Ali Shin and Marlo Barrington.

Dear Seattle school board members and superintendent Nyland.

My name is Joanne Sears Pinkham.

I'm Ojibwe and I'm in the seventh grade.

I'm a student at Hazel Wolf and my father is director Scott Pinkham.

Hi dad.

I'm here to support.

I'm in here of support of a native focus option high school for the for the past three years.

I have provided testimony of the district to asking asking that the American Indian Heritage School be reopened.

As you know, that never happened.

And that is why I'm here again today.

The reason why I started coming to testify was because the school district provides it prides itself on being inclusive.

They claim that every student matters yet the district continues to ignore me.

They ignore my sister Molly who at one point pushed herself to the edge of suicide.

Yes my sister complicated contemplated suicide.

I'm so thankful that she got help and is doing extremely well in a native focused college.

She made the president's and dean's list for the past two years.

She's also awarded the TSU scholarship for academic excellence for the past February.

Superintendent has gone to great lengths to see it to that native focus high school remains closed.

The schools the school district has pushed native students out and ignored them.

You know this because this district collected data that shows Seattle schools have failed native students like my sister and I.

many students and many students here tonight.

You know that the push out rate is 50 percent higher than any other student.

And you know that those numbers are far higher than nationally than the national average.

Yet you choose to ignore them.

My sister and I helped campaign for our dad to be elected to the school board because of the mistreated mistreatment by our teachers and principals.

Some of them are incredibly horrible And then I wonder why they choose to teach.

Is it to ruin Native students lives.

Is it to see other is it to see some students are mistreated.

I know that 70 years ago my grandmother went to boarding school where she was treated the same way.

We're in the 21st century.

The schools teachers and some board members are and superintendent continues to mistreat students.

It is unbearable.

Oh ethnic ethnic studies now.

Vanessa Anissa I'm sorry.

Can I start whenever.

OK.

OK.

Sorry.

Hello my name is Anisa Roydad.

I'm a student at Ballard High School.

Ethnic studies has been on the board's radar for a while.

You've passed resolutions in support of ethnic studies but that is not enough.

Parents teachers and students want ethnic studies now.

As I'm sure you're familiar with research conducted on ethnic studies courses shows they are beneficial to students of color and white students socially and academically.

They increase student engagement achievement and foster more positive learning and more positive attitudes towards learning.

Personally I've never had an ethnic studies course which is part of the problem.

Anyway but up until my world history class this year I hadn't learned about places outside of the U.S. save learning about ancient Egypt in the third grade.

I am Pakistani and this year was the first year Pakistan was even mentioned in one of my social studies classes.

It was the first year Islam was addressed outside of the context of Islamic terrorism and talked about in terms of its actual religious doctrines and its accomplishments.

So many different ethnicities are overlooked and or portrayed in terms of Europeans.

This creates narrow and misinformed views of other people and damages students confidence about their own culture.

If the school board is serious about ethnic studies action needs to be taken.

A timeline needs to be established for ethnic studies that the studies development group the ethnic studies curriculum development group needs to be supported and ethnic studies needs to be added as a graduation requirement.

Thank you for your time.

Hi throughout my time in high school I've been privileged enough to have teachers who went above and beyond to teach history that was true complete and relevant.

This is no thanks to this district but thanks to incredible teachers that spend countless hours working to build lessons and curriculum that is not Eurocentric and it is comprehensive.

Were it not for a ninth grade language arts teacher that built her own race in America unit our school would have no anti-racist club that makes it's making serious strides on the issues of race and equity our school faces.

She taught it in a way that created a safe classroom environment where students felt empowered to gauge engage in a discussion and as a result they took action on the issues they learned about.

Were it not for the teachers that teach my humanities block I would not have been taught to read and analyze with a critical eye and to always check my sources.

The ethnic studies curriculum must be built with the help and guidance of teachers who understand the challenges of teaching topics that are seen as controversial.

In order to be confident in teaching this curriculum teachers need to know that they will be backed up and teachers must be trained in facilitating conversations about issues of race in order to prevent students of color from being tokenized and forced to speak for their entire community.

The current plan to embed ethnic studies into all curriculums K through 12 seems great on the surface.

However there is no clear transparent timeline and at the high school level an independent ethnic studies as a graduation requirement would allow students to dive in depth into the history struggles and triumphs of all cultures.

Ethnic studies would give students the knowledge that they need to understand the systems of racism and oppression that our country is built on and the skills to dismantle them.

History is story stories create humanity and humanity creates compassion.

It is my belief that compassion is what will change the world.

So how do we expect students to become meaningful productive members of society when there are pages missing from our history books and stories missing from our curriculum.

Sounds like you guys are doing a lot of work on ethics studies.

We don't hear about any of that.

So if you want it to seem like you're doing work then you need to go to the students and say this is what we're doing because we don't have hours to dig through public record and figure that out.

We're not hearing about that at all.

Thank you.

Oh please reinstate a native centered high school.

Can I ask you which schools the teachers that you mentioned that put together curriculum that mattered to you which schools they taught at?

Thank you.

Marlowe.

After Marlowe we will have Chris Jackins followed by Vicki Pinkham and Thomas Spear.

I would like to cede my time to Sue Stahl.

Hello I'm Suze Stahl I taught at Ballard High School for 10 years and I'm now an instructor and content coach in the University of Washington secondary teacher education program.

I also teach a course called race race culture and identity in the classroom at UW Bothell mainly populated by juniors and seniors who are pursuing their elementary teaching certification.

Ethnic studies is very much on the minds of people who are training to be teachers.

Graduate and undergraduate students in my education classes are keenly aware of the need for this curriculum at all levels and are eager to learn when and how they will be trained to teach it.

I have a peripheral I have been a peripheral observer as dozens of students and SPS teachers have mobilized to demand mandatory ethnic studies at all grade levels in SPS.

I appreciate that there has been some progress.

I understand you passed a resolution and that a task force is working on creating pilot curriculum and figuring out how to embed it into all courses and that there is now a timeline.

I learned that about five minutes ago.

Thank you.

Such a timeline will cement the institutional commitment of Seattle Public Schools to creating a meaningful district wide ethnic studies program.

I agree with other speakers that a distinct year long class that is a graduation requirement is necessary for high school students to learn the core concepts as well as the nuances of this complex topic.

Students of color at all grade levels have experienced barriers to their own education due to lack of representation in school curriculum.

There is growing awareness among their white counterparts of the need to learn about other cultures in order to be fully educated.

Some of these students are here in this room right now and they have been working tirelessly to demonstrate how important this is for them and for their siblings and for all students attending our schools.

These students report spending upwards of 12 hours per month lobbying for this curriculum.

They are not paid for this time and it's time that they could be spending on schoolwork or at jobs.

I'm grateful to them for pressuring SPS staff to do what they are paid to do and recognizing and honoring the urgency of this issue.

Thank you.

My name is Chris Jackins.

Box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4 on the personnel report.

Does an after the fact vote on out of endorsement assignments comply with state law.

On deaf and hard of hearing issues two points.

Number one at the superintendent candidate public forum on March 29th there was not an interpreter for deaf and hard of hearing attendees.

Number two I ask that the district allocate an on call interpreter.

On the guiding principles for the BEX V capital levy three points.

Number one at a BEX V public meeting I noted public opposition to the loss of playground space and I noted that the district plans to demolish a school building at Wing Luke that the district paid six million dollars to construct only 12 years ago.

I have previously provided documents to the district on these issues.

Number two in response district staff told attendees at the public meeting that the Wing Luke example was not true and that neighborhoods were not unhappy about losing playground space.

Number three it is not clear that the proposed guiding principles address such issues.

On the expansion of Native American educational programming three points.

Number one please support an amendment to establish a school in the tradition of the district's previous Indian heritage high school.

Number two the incoming superintendent has indicated a familiarity with such schools.

Number three the district is projecting a substantial budget surplus for next year.

This is the time to make a down payment toward establishing such a school.

Please vote yes on that sort of amendment.

Thank you very much.

My name is Vicki Pinkham.

I'm Tlingit I'm from the Chakwishkaton clan of Angoon Alaska.

I'm here today to also read for him a statement from Herb LeBeau.

He's a Cheyenne River Sioux parent from the Seattle Public High School student here in the city.

He's unable to make it tonight to this meeting but he'd like to address the school board.

There are several as you know there are several schools in the city that focus on STEM APP and IB courses.

The district claims that Lincoln Springs is a native focused school.

However it is a marginalized institution.

The school has only 125 seats for students and does not have space to grow.

Lincoln Springs is on the verge of being pushed out and it would be and it could be speculated that the school plans to close this school.

the school district would plan to close the school.

The district is preparing to install and block the native murals that they that were fought for to put back on the school at Robert Eagle Staff by putting in portables located at the former American Indian Heritage High School.

For the better part of 10 years the native community has provided testimony to the district.

Several thousand signatures were gathered.

Asking that the American Indian High School be reopened.

Former superintendents made promises to reopen the school and that has not happened.

The school district prides itself on being inclusive and claims that every student matters.

Seattle Public School has failed to effectively support native learners and Seattle Public Schools own data shows this.

The native dropout rate is 40 to 50 percent higher than its peers.

And those numbers are even higher on a national level.

The native focus school can offer more than increased graduation rates for American Indians and Alaska natives.

It can educate an entire community.

It can stop the ignorance it can stop the blinding marginalizing of high school dropout rates for American Indians.

This could be your legacy.

This could be something that you could stop.

And I would venture to say that from what I've seen I don't think that you're going to be strong enough man enough to do this.

And that's unfortunate because my children matter so much so that my husband is on this board.

He wants to make a difference.

We all want to make a difference.

We all want to say that this is important to our children that it should not happen to your children.

And if it did wouldn't you be standing here also tonight saying that we want something better.

We deserve something better.

I implore you to listen to the voices here tonight.

to listen to the things that have been said the past 10 years and actually move and do something not just for the non-natives but for every person of color that is coming up through this system.

Please please do do not be as ignorant as our president as the people that he's put in place.

And I just I asked you.

Would you want your children to contemplate suicide.

I when I first heard her say that on graduation night I was stunned.

We're college educated Indians.

We're the first in our families to come forward and say we want this to stop.

We've got principles in place in this city that I have to wonder what's wrong with them.

Like my daughter said what is wrong with them.

That 70 years ago my mother went to boarding school and was mistreated that my children are being mistreated.

It's unacceptable.

You're going to be remembered.

I would hope and pray that you are going to be remembered for something good.

Please listen to the kids now and don't let another 70 years go by.

Thank you.

Thomas after Thomas we will have Sarah Sense Wilson followed by Diamond and Amandayo Ogura.

Hello.

Yes.

My name is Tom Spear.

My ancestral name is Lacolasse.

I'm Duwamish Tribe Chief Seattle's one of Chief Seattle's descendants from his daughter Princess Angeline.

Tonight I've been asked to represent my colleague Robin Wilson who's Coeur d'Alene and teaches in our school system.

Robin wrote Dear school board members I'd like to speak on the topic of restoring Indian Heritage High School a much needed safe place of academics culture and socio emotional learning for our indigenous children and their families.

Our indigenous students have continued to experience the highest dropout rates and the lowest graduation rates compared to any other racial or ethnic group in Seattle public schools.

This appalling trend.

is seen nationwide except in those instances where communities have stepped up to fight these inequities.

For example the Pendleton Oregon school districts Nikiyaawii community school a native focus school in Oregon has a graduation rate that is increased to almost 84 percent.

When will Seattle Public Schools step up.

A school specifically designed to support cultural knowledge while promoting positive tribal identity within an inclusive academically rigorous environment is what our school district needs to address inequities that other district alternative option schools have done for their marginalized ethnic groups.

Please consider opening a native centered high school that will address the unique needs of our indigenous population.

Sincerely Robin Wilson.

I have a second statement here it's very brief from Elizabeth Cook Lynn of Crow Creek.

She says.

Native populations in America are not ethnic populations.

They are not minority populations, neither immigrant nor tourist nor people of color.

They are indigenous peoples of this continent.

They are the landlords with very special political and cultural status in the realm of American identity and citizenship.

Since 1924, they have possessed dual citizenship, both tribal and United States, and are the only population that has not been required to deny their previous national citizenship in order to possess United States citizenship.

They are known and documented as citizens by their tribal nations.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Sarah Sent Wilson and I'd like and I'm Oglala Sioux and I'm chairperson for UNEA volunteer.

I want to first just thank the board for having the wisdom to hire a new superintendent of such stature and esteem.

So I want to thank you all for seeing that there needs to be a different vision in a different direction for the school board for the school district.

The as you all know Superintendent Nyland and leadership created an analysis on Indian education and from that analysis there was a report with recommendations.

The recommendations specifically state that they do not support having a native focused school which if you read the analysis carefully you will see numerous inaccuracies.

misguided information and very biased information throughout that entire analysis.

And I would be happy to sit with all of you or any of you to go over that.

I think it's very important that when you're given a report that it's accurate and that decisions are made based on the accuracy.

So I'm letting you know that there is a lot of information in there that's that's misleading and misguided.

As a lot of you know throughout the last 10 years we've we've provided the district with a proposal and that proposal is a multistage move towards reestablishing a native focused school and we could call it whatever you want.

I understand that there's a number of parent advisory committee people who have a.

disliking for the idea of an Indian heritage school.

So if we want to call it an academy if we want to call it whatever but but we do need a native focused school and we have broad based support.

So the few people that you're listening to they do not represent the majority of supporters.

You guys have seen us year after year after year bringing Whether we're doing a rally whether we're doing other testimony and support and sending you letters it has broad based support.

So for you guys to ignore those voices that is so disrespectful.

It's so disrespectful.

And to say that the parent advisory committee represents all two thousand nine hundred some native students.

That is that's a false misleading effort and you're playing.

a power play by allowing that to happen.

So we have support from Red Eagle Soaring.

We have support from the Seattle Canoes.

We have support from the King County Native American leadership.

We have support from United Indians of all tribes.

We have support from the NAACP.

Seattle branch we have support from the Washington Indian Civil Rights Commission Learn 28 and the list goes on and on and on.

OK.

So these are all very credible organizations and people that support this work to establish a native school.

And I think that that is being invalidated and you guys are not hearing us for whatever reason year after year after year.

And I keep hearing about well we need data we need data the data is there.

Pay attention and let's move.

We can't afford to have our kids end up in juvie anymore on the streets or in addiction in institutions.

This is a desperate place that we're in right now.

As you guys know the gentrification that's happening in the poverty levels and what's happening to our families.

We work directly with our families daily.

OK.

We are we we connect with all of our kids and we're seeing them what's happening to them day in day out and their struggle.

And you guys are denying that you're denying their voice you're denying the help that they need and it hurts it hurts the spirit of our community.

So it's not going to happen with this superintendent.

And so we are we're welcoming and ushering in a new era and we're excited at the hopefulness of the new leadership on the board and we're hopeful that things are going to change.

And you know as the president of the board you need to listen to.

Because you have been here now.

You've heard us year after year.

Would you guys please back Scott Pinkham.

Yeah it's a risk.

What isn't.

But with when you have cooperation and collaboration and partnership with all these these groups and community and families you can move mountains.

But you're not allowing that to happen.

So again I just thank you for your time.

I appreciate it and I want to thank all of the students and the families and the parents that made it down here tonight to support this.

Thank you.

My name is Diamond Lestinkoff I am Alu and I go to Middle College High School.

I am presenting the resolution in support of native focused option high school the Urban Native Education Alliance Native Warrior Athletics in Seattle Clear Sky Leadership Council Native High School resolution 2018. Whereas we the members of the Urban Native Education Alliance Clear Sky Native Youth Council and Native Warriors Athletics invoke the blessings of the creator and all our efforts and purpose to preserve Native cultural values and promote the health safety and well-being of all Native people do hereby establish and submit the following resolution and Whereas we strive to dismantle the systemic racism and denial of support experienced by Native students in Seattle Public Schools educational communities.

And whereas Native students experience systemic racism cultural exclusion invisibility lack of culturally competent and relevant instruction and multiple institutional barriers to accessing resources support and opportunities for success.

And whereas Native students and all other students of color are fundamentally deserving of educational equity dignity and respect.

And whereas native learners report alarming rates of bullying and lack of inclusion within culturally intolerant hostile school environments and whereas native native learners enrolled in SPS is undercounted.

However SPS data indicates student enrollment at two thousand nine hundred and ten And whereas Clear Sky serves over 56 native SPS families and our data indicates all 56 families representing 86 native learners endorse and fully support a native focused option high school.

And whereas a quality education is the birthright of every native student under treaty law federal law and Washington state law.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Amadanio Joseph Oguara.

I'm a Northgate Middle College high school senior and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Colville Nation.

Continuing off of this resolution.

Whereas 31.5 percent of native learners are identified for special education programs score 30 to 40 percent lower on state standardized testing than their white peers and only achieve a 48 point 40 48 percent on time graduation rate.

According to Seattle Public Schools own data and 74 percent of native learners qualify for free and reduced school lunches.

And whereas SPS currently lacks any formative alternative high school for successfully and effectively addressing native student dropout and graduation rates a persistent acute and chronic educational crisis.

And whereas Indian Heritage High School under the leadership of Principal Robert Eagle Staff had an exceptional and well-documented graduation rate 100 percent from 1994 to 1996 matriculation and is recognized as a national model of public school funded success in serving urban native learners.

And whereas Seattle Public Schools leadership promised to revitalize Indian heritage collaborate and take part in authentic engagement for cooperative partnerships for supporting native learners and.

Now therefore it be resolved that UNEA NWA and Clear Sky Leadership Council stand in support of restoring a native focus indigenous pedagogy Indian heritage model option high school in Seattle Public Schools and be it further resolved that UNEA NWA and clear sky leadership plan aligns with Seattle Public Schools policy 4 to 70 the lead partners policy and that they could take the lead to ensure that compliance with the SPS strategic strategic plan 2013 2018 goals would ensure educational excellence and equity for every student improve systems district wide to support academic outcomes and meet students need and strength in school and family and community engagement.

And I am very much for supporting and expanding ethnic studies.

Due to that I have not learned much about my own native culture here in Washington state.

There was nothing on Native American history not even that of the Native American tribes here in Washington state.

It's like it never happened.

And any learning that we did do on Native American tribes was about their interactions with settlers and colonists.

Very Eurocentric perspective indeed as it always has been.

Thank you.

Next up for public testimony we have Aiden Carroll followed by Brian Terry and Pamela Goodhart.

Hello my name is Aiden Carroll and I'm going to read two letters from supporters who couldn't be here.

One is from Mike Tooley the executive director of United Indians of All Tribes Foundation.

He says to make concern I fully support community efforts toward establishing a native focused high school within the Seattle public school system.

I believe that with careful planning and investment improved Native American academic achievements will result.

There are easily over 50 native identified teachers within the SPS that could provide solid and culturally appropriate teaching practices to the targeted student population.

Establishing a native focused school would not only support Native American students within the SPS but also communities from all walks of life.

Please consider providing a physical site for a native focused school.

Sincerely Mike Tooley executive director of United Indians.

Second, I have a letter from Mel R. Sheldon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Tulalip Tribes.

And this is a letter that he wrote to Dr. Nyland last November.

Dear Dr. Nyland, as you are aware, the Tulalip Tribes has an interest in the public education of Tulalip youth and other Native American youth in the state of Washington.

For this reason we respectively request that you and the Seattle Public School District board schedule a planning meeting for the development of an Indian heritage high school in support of the Urban Native Education Alliance and its efforts to improve the Seattle public school system for Native American youth.

We believe this meeting will be a positive step toward showing Native American students and their parents that the Seattle Public School District is serious in assisting their Native American students achieve success in their education.

Further moreover as the former Marysville school district superintendent and involved with the establishment of Tulalip Heritage High School located on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

We believe you understand the importance of creating a curriculum and environment that supports Native American culture and identity.

Again we urge you to call a planning meeting to address the education of your native students.

Lastly as a partner with the Marysville school district over the years we may be available to offer input of some of the challenges and successes of the Tulalip heritage high school as you further this process if requested.

Sincerely Mel R. Sheldon chairman of the board of directors of the Tulalip tribes.

Thank you.

And I support ethnic studies because I went through Seattle schools as well and could have used more of that.

Brian Terry.

Good evening.

Thank you for supporting equity in advanced learning.

In our schools today a white student is 20 times more likely than a black student to be identified as highly capable.

This leads to highly segregated classrooms that send a clear message to all of our students.

White students are more capable and more deserving.

This inequitable model stems from an outdated belief that underprivileged highly capable students are either much less common or less deserving of special support than their privileged peers.

To end this inequity will require taking the time to properly understand highly capable underprivileged students.

What are their circumstances and what are their needs?

How can we change our programs to find and serve them?

More importantly we need to look at why we have neglected these students for more than three decades.

It is time for change.

By disrupting the status quo and unbiasing both the process and the service model we can deliver a racially diverse program that supports students from all backgrounds.

This will send a powerful new message to all of our students.

All of you are capable and deserving.

Thank you.

After Pamela we will have India Carlson followed by Robin Schwartz and Lexie Rilf.

Good evening.

My name is Pam Goddard and I am requesting that the Seattle Public Schools take actionable steps to advance a commitment establishing a native focused option high school.

In January of this year I became the guardian of an Alaska native student who wanted to be closer to family while finishing high school and also have opportunities to pursue the arts.

It never occurred to me that Seattle would not have a native focused high school.

I thought for sure the Indian heritage school or some form of it still existed after countless false calls to the local high schools teachers and the Saddle School District.

We finally decided to pursue three small schools middle college high school the center school and Nova none of which had the resources to help a young native student navigate the complexities of a large public school system.

If it had not been for Robin Wilson at the Northgate Middle College High School we never would have found Clear Sky Native Warriors basketball and the Urban Native Education Alliance.

And these three programs have been a lifesaver.

You know the numbers.

You heard them here tonight.

Something is wrong with the system despite Seattle Public Schools attempt to address these issues.

I believe these students deserve a learning environment that is supportive of their cultural heritage lived experience and traditions.

The current Seattle Public School system is not conducive to native learners unique academic and cultural needs.

Reopening native a native focused high school and creating an option school that is open to all students is long overdue.

This would be a necessary step for Seattle Public Schools to implement policy that will close the achievement gaps for native students.

Thank you.

Robyn.

After Robyn we will have Lexi Ralph and Camille Hainan.

Thank you.

I'm Robin Schwartz from Concord International School.

Concord's dual language program began 11 years ago as a gap closing measure for our community which is 64 percent Latino 56 percent ELL and 77.5 percent free and reduced lunch students.

This year's rollout of an English only literacy curriculum is a barrier for our DL model necessitating the translation of all non literacy subjects including no resources for Spanish literacy and with little guidance for this new framework.

Our teachers have had an overwhelming workload adapting to the loss of Spanish literacy.

The burden has fallen most heavily on teachers who are women of color and on our most vulnerable students.

The purchase of a literacy curriculum that does not consider our model is an oversight by the district and a missed opportunity to use the race and equity lens.

We have waited all year for a meaningful response to our concerns while convening a dual language task force after many hours of discussion and research including meetings with doctors Kinoshita Aoki Aramaki Zavala board director Harris and parents community and staff.

We co-designed an action plan to purchase the American Reading Company curriculum which offers Spanish literacy.

We are requesting a reimbursement from the district.

To ensure its timely arrival we are purchasing the curriculum now with our free and reduced lunch teaching funds earmarked for supplies and other needed equipment.

The DL task force has presented our request to the district.

I am here today to ask for the board's support.

Simply put.

We a Title 1 school with majority children of immigrants children of color and children living in poverty are purchasing our own gap closing curriculum with our free and reduced lunch funds.

This is in opposition to strategy 1 in the SPS strategic plan parts A and B from the district's ensuring educational and racial equity policy and board governance priority 1 eliminate opportunity gaps.

We ask that the board please support our request for reimbursement from the district.

Hi I'm Lexi Ralph I'm the PTSA president from Eagle Staff Middle School and I'm here to talk about the capacity issues that we have now that our brand new school is at capacity this year.

We're adding 100 students next year and probably 100 the year after that and the actions that we need to proceed with in order to make this a better situation for everybody involved.

So I have four requests today for you.

The first request is please provide updated capacity calculations so we can understand the scale of the solution that we need to have in place.

This thousand student number has been floating around that magic number is wrong because you've given a third of the school to Licton Springs which leaves two thirds of the school for Eagle Staff.

That's only about 670 students capacity.

So we're over capacity this year as a result.

So even though Licton Springs is only about 70 percent full we can't assume their extra capacity is available for us given the current space allocations.

So 700 would be a better goalpost at this point.

We're keeping that in our minds but better calculations would be very helpful.

Request number two is please provide something in writing that the portables are really a temporary solution and not a permanent temporary solution.

Parents and staff are definitely a little bit stressed out about that.

And certainly the fact that they're in front of the murals is another issue.

Hopefully one year maximum two at the most.

So that's also for some accountabilities that we do progress to a solution we can all live with.

Request number three have a long term plan in place by this fall not right before open enrollment.

Whatever we need to do whether it's boundaries or changing pathways please have it in place by fall so everybody can plan accordingly.

And request number four please allow grandfathering this time around.

It's been very turbulent for the eighth graders.

Those are four requests.

Thank you very much.

Hi my name is Camille Heinen and I'm the mother of a sixth grader at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and a fourth grader who is a future Raven.

As an observer in last week's capacity meeting I learned that the plan for fall of 2018 is to add three to four portables for Eagle Staff.

These portables are being placed in a location that students use on a daily basis to get fresh air.

Get a little exercise during their lunch break.

Additionally these portables will be blocking the murals that the district relocated from the demolished building during construction.

And I'm pretty sure that cost a bit of money to do that.

So it's it's frankly a little embarrassing that the district's capacity projections were so clearly off after one year of opening that the portables are necessary.

But this is where we are.

Obviously it's hard to make changes to alleviate the overcapacity issue this fall.

But I'm asking you to make some decisions that will impact 2019 and beyond.

First of all like Lexi I'd like you to commit to getting rid of the portables after one year of use.

Portables are not a good long term solution and they shouldn't be used as such.

Secondly I'm asking that you use data driven decisions to come up with a plan to address the capacity issues long term.

That could be adjusting the allocation of the two schools that are within the building or it could be difference in the student assignment plan.

We would like this to be communicated to families by the end of the year by the fall so that they can make plans before open enrollment hits the first part of 2019. Lastly if boundaries do change please consider grandfathering for our rising eighth graders.

We've heard from families like Lexi said that it's been tough for those that had to move this year.

Thank you for your time.

This concludes a public testimony list this evening.

OK we are back to board comments.

Who would like to go next.

Board comments.

Director DeWolf.

Director Geary.

Playing hot potato here.

Thank you as always for everybody coming out to speak to us.

We appreciate your input.

Thank you to our Stevens Elementary.

Since I'm going first after so much that I figure like I'm going to do the broad thank yous and then everybody can go yes and add their two bits.

I feel like it's important to start out with a thank you to the Stevens elementary choir clearly and their teacher who focused their songs definitely on sending a very positive message to their community.

Very upbeat bright welcoming.

So I thank them all for for their contribution to their school and to our board meeting.

Thank you as well to our Rainier Beach students.

I think you guys get the award for showing up and participating in this process.

We talk a lot about a student advisory board and that's something that we've actually put on.

I've asked to be put on the agenda for our next exec so we're going to move forward with that.

But you guys have been our de facto student advisory showing up so often and championing for Rainier Beach.

I really appreciate it and I will miss you.

when you're when you're not here as much next year but you're going to be busy doing great things.

And congratulations on going to Cornish.

My niece graduated there from there last year and I was so impressed.

I mean I think you'll just find it so lovely to be around people who share your creative passion and get to expand your vision and share with them.

I went to their.

shows at the end of the year where I got to see everybody's art and I was just overwhelmed with how beautiful it was and how beautiful the people were in terms of expressing themselves just in their being as you are today.

So I hope you have a great career and I think you'll be very happy there.

And engineering, awesome for you too, Jean.

I was so happy to hear it because I think maybe that's your first step to becoming an architect, which I think you may enjoy one day.

Certainly you're passionate.

The BEX oversight committee has been appreciated and welcomed by all of us.

I've made a lot of different visits and meetings since our last I was went to the special ed PTSA meeting to share what was going on and I just continue to encourage us all to break down the barriers and to figure out ways to continue to communicate across all the different groups of people because I think you hear everybody sharing the same interest and wanting our schools to change so that people feel safe and included in every school.

And that will continue to be something I will work for.

They were very interested to hear about the technology task force.

And so I again implore those in charge of putting that together to be sure to include people who have Voices around assistive and adaptive technology because I think that needs to be an important part of how we go forward.

Director DeWolf and I had the great pleasure to visit Nova with principal Dr. Mark Perry and I think we both just loved that vision of a school where clearly every student there Just you could almost walk in and feel like at some point they exhaled the way I did when I walked into that environment.

It is so colorful and welcoming and clearly a place where students and their ideas are on the pedestal and shaping every day in that school.

They talked about being hidden under an invisibility cloak because people don't seem to know that Nova is there and what a wonderful environment that celebrates the individuals.

So if anybody out there is looking to visit a school that is so inspiring and you think your students individuality individuality will.

be put first and that's something that is important to them.

I would encourage you to go see that school.

It was for me it was just lovely.

I loved every minute that I was in that building with Director Patu and I visited Emerson Elementary and thank you to Principal Erin Rasmussen for sharing the good news about Emerson and I'll let Director Patu talk about some of that.

But one of the things that she shared that I thought was Just something I want to give a big thank you to the Pacific Science Center because they not only invite the Emerson Elementary School and provide them an opportunity for a field trip but they tailor the field trips specifically to the grade level that is coming to them.

And so I just think that that willingness to participate to offer something so individualized for our kids is wonderful and I encourage and thank I encourage further types of coordination between our community partners and thank them for taking the time and effort to reach out to Emerson Elementary and provide something that was clearly appreciated by the administration there.

Also jumped by South Lake High School and visited with principal Laura Davis Brown for a little bit and got to see it is her dream to turn South Lake into an art centered school as well down in near Rainier in Rainier Beach and watching her move.

What they want to focus on is the music production for their kids so that their kids can have experience in music production.

And so I'm hoping to find somebody out there in the greater community who would love to help support them in that because they will need some additional resources and supplies and moving that dream forward for their kids.

But I think it would be really exciting for that community to have a focus within their school that is obviously something that's important to a lot of kids and that they can relate to.

Thornton Creek Elementary.

We heard from several of our parents last board meeting but since then I've had a chance to meet with their new their incoming principal Jonathan Gaspar and was really impressed with his enthusiasm.

And I know having gone to Thornton Creek and hearing about their meeting last night that that community is welcoming their new principal and so I appreciate everybody from Thornton Creek making that effort to be welcoming to him.

I think that.

While John Minor has been such a great principal for that school for decades.

I think it's exciting to have some somebody new come in and provide some new energy around the work that the district is doing.

So thank you to Thornton Creek for making principal Gaspar welcome.

All right.

And again I'm holding my community meetings most Tuesday mornings I post either the night before early in the morning on my Facebook page if it's going to be there.

So all you need to do is check.

It's from 8 to 9 30 at Zoka on Blakely.

It's a coffee shop and welcoming people there.

One of the people who came to visit me was one of the people from the northeast.

Little League I think it is Northeast Seattle Little League Association.

I never remember what it's all for.

And they made an ask for us to consider replacing their ability to provide a storage bin on school fields for the softball and baseball teams.

So I'm passing that along.

I understand that that was stopped.

Do it in an audit but that it's something that I think we should think about.

And I say this now because I wonder if throughout the city other baseball leagues are facing the same thing and would also like to see some type of practical revision to our policy.

We know the parks allow that.

And so I'm wondering if we at the schools can and that's something that I want to hear if that's an issue.

throughout our district to all the folks that showed up in support of an Indian heritage high school.

We need to hear more.

I understand that this has been definitely something that director Pinkham has put foremost.

Again I as one have hesitation to start pulling people out of our schools and putting them in one place when I think it's so much more important that we continue to look for ways to make sure that everybody's voice is heard and everybody's culture is respected in our schools.

And by making any group not there I I I hesitate one on everybody's ability to get to the school in order for them or having to choose between that which is offered for their identity safety versus what is offered in a comprehensive setting.

And also those voices being absent then from our comprehensive high schools because I understand that our comprehensive high schools are not safe places for everybody.

But I don't think the solution is withdrawing from them because that doesn't change the comprehensive environment.

And so it doesn't allow everybody to learn and struggle with the safety of the other individuals around them.

That is my perspective.

I'm not wet in it I'm not said that I wouldn't be open to another view or vision but it is something that I have a hard time with.

So I will say it I know it's known I've said it before this isn't anything new and ethnic studies.

Yes it should have been years ago and I will continue to push it forward the best I can.

both in terms of an individual individualized classes.

I know Nova for one has a couple of those classes going where they have focused on ethnic studies in different ways.

But I also think that we continue to need to be.

Constantly vigilant in making sure that it is embedded up through elementary school because I think even by high school why should it be necessary to go through a class then when you should have been exposed all the way through your career.

OK.

Please come and talk to me at my community meetings if you have things to share.

Director DeWolf.

Yes thank you.

President Harris this is very loud.

Thank you.

I just want to do some quick things before I get into some of the meat stuff.

So just again thanks to the Vietnamese Friendship Association for your 40 years of service.

I was really grateful to visit Seattle World School this morning and I know they're one of the critical partners there so I really appreciate their service and their commitment to our students and.

I also was really grateful.

You can see down there I was gifted some art from some of our students from Seattle World School and was really grateful again just to be there and with those students and so really proudly displaying that here.

Also want to thank the Stevens Elementary Choir 5. My my community when I was in high school not too long ago was my choir family.

I was in three choirs in high school so I am absolutely excited to see our folks coming out and singing.

I was definitely one of the folks dancing in the front row.

Also wanted to thank Nova High School Ellie and then also principal Mark Perry for having us on Friday last week.

And I do just want to report for the record that the burrito bar is back.

So thank you to the folks at 609 and all the leaders and everybody advocating at Nova.

That's a big deal if you don't know about that I just want to be very clear that's really exciting for our Nova students was also really excited and grateful to attend the Alliance for Education's luncheon today and just to celebrate the Seattle teacher residency program.

Again if you don't know about this this is one of the partnerships we have with Alliance for Education UW and Seattle Education Association building a pipeline for teachers of color to be teachers in our school and it's a really incredible program and I know that We pitch in some support as much as we can with our scarce resources but really proud to be a partner in that.

And then I just wanted to also mention the teachers that made a difference in my life because this is an opportunity.

It is teacher appreciation week.

So Mrs. Lutz Mrs. Lineweber Mrs. Meredith Mrs. Ringgold Mrs. Schrader Mrs. Fennessy my choir teacher Mrs. Schillok and Mr. Mickelson all from Meade school district in Spokane.

I am visiting Daniel Begley on Friday with books.

Finally have this scheduled.

Thank you to the folks here for helping me schedule all that and then also doing a visit to Washington Middle School also dropping off a book donation to their library and then also visiting their food pantry.

So looking forward to that on Monday and then next week we'll be visiting Middle College at Seattle U and a couple of other random things.

C 89 5 I.

I think I talk about this every time I don't know how or why but they just had their spring fund drive and this is one of the programs of Seattle Public Schools it's a CTE program.

I'm really excited about it.

I am a nerd and love.

I listen to it all the time though.

So they did not reach their goal.

So I'm just encouraging folks to visit their website C895.org if you feel so inclined or have the ability to donate please do.

It's a.

really incredible program for our students.

And I'd learned this is just another I would say interesting fact that Lady Gaga did get her start at CUNY 9 5. It's recorded.

It's pretty it's at least known there but I just wanted to be very clear that we had a stake in in that fame monster.

Her 10 percent too.

We could use it.

I also want to draw attention a couple weeks ago OSPI released a report about student homelessness in our district and I just wanted to read a line from the song that our students sang this morning or not this morning.

This earlier today from the song don't laugh at me and it's the lyrics are I'm the beggar on the corner.

You've passed me on the street and I wouldn't be out here begging if I had enough to eat and don't think I don't notice that our eyes never meet.

I this is one of the most important issues for me and my role here on the board amongst many of the other issues that come across our emails.

But there are one hundred and twenty five unsheltered students that are students in Seattle Public Schools.

This is a moral crime.

And if we do not get our act together to do something about this just be just know that every night that we get to go to sleep in our homes and 125 of our students are outside in cars.

And this is just a travesty and I hope that we can come together on some solutions around this.

708 of those are unaccompanied minors and 404 of the 4280 students that are experiencing homelessness 400 of them that's about 10 percent are native students.

So just to really drive the point home that this is actually a racial justice issue as well.

I wanted to share this news and I tried to make sure that Leslie and Betty heard me before I announced this but we do have confirmation on May 19th at 12 p.m.

at the Hing Hay Park community room.

We're hosting a trifecta community meeting with some interpreters and organizing with our friends down at the SCIPTA for interpreters there and getting some families out.

So just an opportunity to make sure.

And I want to be clear about something.

I was on social media a while ago and somebody had mentioned that my community meeting that I wanted to hold in the international district with families that needed interpreters was not real community.

And again this is maybe just one person on social media but but.

That is also my community.

And if they don't look like you that's that's not a big deal.

Right.

Every single person in my district is part of my community and these folks particularly are often invisible and don't have their voices heard.

So that's why we're organizing this one.

And then the last exciting news I wanted to share.

I did get confirmation today from Mark Perry at Nova High School.

that on June 1st at 8 a.m.

we will be hosting a press event media event.

Leslie and Dr. Nyland also these are pending.

in my out outbox emails to you about an event on June 1st at Nova High School at 8 a.m.

will be raising it's a pride and trans pride flag raising event at Nova High School just to celebrate and center the experiences and stories of our of our LGBTQ and queer students.

So hosting an event there and then we'll also be flying the rainbow and trans pride flag here at the John Stanford Center.

for June as well which is pride month.

And then lastly because I know I've taken up a ton of time I apologize.

I I I appreciate particularly all of our native students as a native student myself.

The only way that I was able to find community and feel visible in when I was in public schools was an organization called the Native Project in Spokane an after school program in a summer program and a spring leadership camp for native youth.

So I understand how important this issue is not only to the folks over here but just to our communities our native communities.

Two points that I want to really reiterate.

Native people are not people of color.

Native people are sovereign nations.

We are our own independent and tribal nations.

The second thing I want to just mention is that I do not want to make invisible the incredible work that we do with scarce resources that your state gives to us and I want to make sure that we elevate the fact that Gail Morris does an incredible job for native education in our district.

And yes we do.

We are not where we need to be.

And please understand that the folks that came and spoke about the Indian Heritage High School are right.

We're not serving all of our students well but I do not want to let be it invisible the fact that Gail Morris does an incredible job serving the native students in our district as well as she can with the scarce resources she has.

So so yes we could do better and we're doing as well as we can.

And I just want to really thank you Gail for your work on that.

Director Patu.

I want to say thank you to everyone who actually have come tonight and testify and share with us not only your opinion but also your thoughts.

We appreciate you.

Thank you also to the Stevens Elementary School choir for such a great performance.

I really really enjoyed their performance.

Those kids really sang their little hearts out.

And it's performance like that that actually that we need on the board on a regular basis to get us moving.

So I appreciate that from the Stephen elementary school choir.

Thank you to all the teachers for their great work in our schools for this is a teacher's week.

I appreciate every one of them because without them we wouldn't have.

educators in our school to educate our children and everything that they have to put up with.

And I appreciate all that they do for our kids.

Also happy Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Sometime you know being in America so long you forget that who you really are and when they're celebrating Pacific Islander month I have to sit back and I said oh wait a minute I'm Pacific Islander and you know remember that my dad always says You never forget where you come from.

So you always have to remember your culture and make sure that that even your kids do not forget.

So I appreciate the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month to remind us of who we are and what contribution that we've actually have contribute to this country.

Thank you to the Vietnamese Friendship Association for your continued support and partnership with our district.

And congratulations to Emerson Elementary School.

We had a great visit yesterday and it was really amazing to see the academic work that has been happening at Emerson.

I know a year ago I was a little concerned because of the changeover in terms of the leadership of that school.

But now after we have actually visited This week I'm really very impressed with what's happening at that school in terms of looking at the scores of a lot of our students at Emerson and they're definitely making a difference in the academics of a lot of students at that school.

And I appreciate the administration that's actually that's running that school and making sure that our kids are actually getting the education that they need which is a wonderful thing.

So congratulations Emerson and all the administration and the staff that actually makes that happen.

And also for the parents and community that supports that school.

I would also like to say thank you to Gian and Essence for continue to coming to the board and keeping us really in terms of keeping us accountable and knowledgeable in terms of what Rainier Beach needs.

And I know that for years we've been talking about getting Rainier Beach to be renovated.

And even though we're on the BEX V right now For how long I don't know.

I'm going to have to keep an eye on that because every year I put it on there and every year it comes off.

So this year I told them that I told the students I'm going to be watching BEX V this year to make sure that Rainier Beach actually gets its renovation when the time comes.

So hopefully that Rainier Beach will be getting a new school in the new years to come.

And it's something that we've been working on for years.

So we're keeping an eye out to make sure that the district does not diss us again that we will be able to get our new buildings for Rainier Beach High School is the only high school that has not been renovated.

So it's time we get our renovation and we're going to make sure that happens.

It's also I would like to.

It's really have been as I think about how long I've been on the board.

My kids were just telling me mom you've been on the district.

You've been on the board for too long.

And because my birthday is coming up and I'm not going to say how I'm getting there.

And I realized and said yeah I've been there for a long time and they said don't you think it's time to quit.

I said no not time yet.

I still got three more years left and hopefully as the years go by it'll get more exciting.

I'm not as excited right now but I think that you know as every year every month becomes a new month and a new year to be excited about new things that's happening and we're getting a new superintendent.

And I'm just looking forward to a lot of great things happening at the district as we continue on our journey with all the board directors up here.

And I believe that as people would ask me well how's the new all the board.

And I what I tell every one of them is that we have a board directors sitting on this board that have hearts for kids and want to make sure that every student in Seattle Public School gets its excellent education and to make sure that we're here to help support that.

So I'm really proud of the board that I sit on right now because I'm an oldie but goodies.

I've been the longest board director sitting on here right now and I've been through it all.

But you know what it's a great experience and it's really a blessing to be here and help make changes so we can actually provide the excellent education that all our students in Seattle Public Schools deserve.

So thank you for continue to come and support us even though sometimes you want to throw rocks at us but that's OK.

We're here because of the kids and we make mistakes but I think that together we can really be able to make a difference in the lives of all our students here in Seattle Public School.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

I think I want to start first by thanking all of the teachers.

Again they've got a lot of appreciation these last couple of weeks and we kind of have two weeks because it's supposed to be the first full week of May but.

It got split some schools are celebrating last week and this week and I'm really grateful that teachers are getting a lot of treats and appreciation because they do a really hard job and they love our students today at the luncheon we attended.

The speaker Hermine if I'm saying that correctly who teaches at Lowell was so inspiring to hear the love the love that our teachers put into our students every day.

So thank you each and every one of you.

Six thousand of them that we have.

Is that the right number.

So thank you.

The other thing that's really important for our kids to have a great education is really great facilities buildings like where you go to school that environment matters and matters a lot which is where a lot of my brain has been in terms of working to help plan around the capacity of our buildings.

We've got some challenges we're looking at next year.

Some of our high schools are going to be incredibly overloaded.

Ballard is looking at over 2000 students as an example.

And in order to solve these challenges we've got to lock arms and work together because I believe that every student in this district deserves a great educational environment.

And so we're working on the next BEX levy coming up and we've got a couple of bars in front of us tonight that I'm looking forward to hopefully passing around our guiding principles.

for the BEX levy as well as task force support in our planning around that.

And I am visiting Ballard next week as well.

I'm looking forward to meeting with the librarians there and some other folks.

And I think oh I have a community meeting this Saturday.

So Mother's Day is Sunday but Saturday — Magnolia library at one o'clock one to three.

So thank you.

Thank you to our student guests.

If you all would like to speak Jian and Essence to what you heard during public testimony you're welcome to do so now.

So for the I just had a question regarding the American the Native American heritage school.

So I well first I was wondering why it was closed.

And it's just an open question.

And what makes it different from other high schools like is it just that or are other students as well able to be able to go to that high school or is it just specifically Native Americans.

We don't have enough time in this meeting to go over the last 20 years but I would suggest that our director of Indian education Gail Morris can you wave please.

If you could see her during the break that would be helpful.

Also there's a white paper out there on the website and I believe that directors Pinkham and DeWolf would be more than happy to speak to you as well.

And I appreciate the question.

We just don't have the time.

And may I also ask further questions later on.

OK.

Absolutely.

Essence would you like to address any of the issues that you heard from public testimony.

Oh no.

My questions are there.

I'll ask them afterwards.

OK.

Terrific.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham you had some more comments after public testimony sir please.

Yeah again Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ I want to thank everyone that came here and present their comments and concerns that are hitting our community now.

And again if you don't come here and share those voices and share your what what you see as an issue for you you won't.

You won't see results.

And I know sometimes it's frustrating.

I've been here before I keep on saying this just like the native students that came here.

We've been asking for this for a while.

Ethnic studies.

Yes it is time because yes I remember going through my high school years and stuff and it was all Eurocentric.

Christopher Columbus discovered America the great expansion the manifest destiny and it really marginalized indigenous people that are here you know like Wait wasn't there someone here that Columbus didn't discover it.

Maybe we discovered Columbus because apparently he was lost.

He thought he was going to India.

And he didn't name that things until I actually hit college and you start learning stuff and University of Washington have an American Indian studies.

It does now and it allows you know the students that have come excuse me let me back up.

Students that have presented in here in the past talked about I never knew that there is such thing as ethnic studies until he got to college.

You know why do they have to wait until then.

You know let's let's get the ethnic studies definitely rolling and helping our students out to know that there's more than one perspective out there.

And as Director Geary said her fear is that a Native focused high school may take away the voice.

But right now their voices aren't being heard.

And do we keep on asking and saying so well we're not being being heard and we've been trying to get that.

And we have a program now down at Chief Sealth and Denny Shkwache.

Did I pronounce it right?

Not not even close.

She's a no.

And but that's just one school that we have it and we have staff with our Huchoosedah program that are trying to help out the best that they can.

But we got students spread across all 100 schools and it is tough.

And this is a program and service and if our students that need it can't get access to it that's one way to say well maybe a native option school would help.

You know so students that do need it can get access to those that opt to not attend.

You know they don't they don't they can opt out because there are native students out there that feel no I want to go to this school I want to go to Ballard I want to go to Roosevelt.

But I've come across more students that say I need a school where I can feel safe.

And this isn't a school that as John has asked that wouldn't just be for native students.

No it wouldn't.

You know no no sorry you're not native you can't come.

But I see it as a school that would be native focused in the sense that as I mentioned before we focus on community.

How can we welcome everyone.

You know how did the pilgrims survive when they first got here.

It was the natives that welcomed them and say hey here's how you can survive the harsh summer.

How do Lewis and Clark make it to the coast.

Tribes helped them out.

You know hey here's some new people amongst us.

Let's help them out.

So there is I feel within that native community.

a sense of welcome.

You come sit at a table have something to eat.

You're our guests here we're guests on Duwamish land right now.

And let's acknowledge that.

And that's you know put my glasses on my listening to my daughter and my wife speak brought tears to my eyes.

So now I get kind of choked up again.

So the reason I want to support this not as an amendment but I want to see it as its own bar so it can be properly vetted so we can look into you know hopefully address some issues that other board members may have and also not to take away from the current bar and expansion of Native American services.

But note that there is still much more I think that we can do to help our native students and it isn't again just helping the native students it will help all students because as Director DeWolf mentioned Tom Spears mentioned with a letter that we're not ethnic identifies we're not a racial category we're sovereign nations.

We're a political identity.

So by having this as a separate bar I feel that that I'll better acknowledge what I'm asking for.

Acknowledge that Seattle our schools are in Duwamish Coast Salish land allows our community to learn the history of this place because knowing the history from a native perspective of these traditional lands is needed.

Identity safety for first people of this land and inclusiveness of people from all backgrounds.

Inherit High School did not have 100 percent graduation rate.

But they did have 100 percent of their seniors that started a couple of years did graduate.

All the students that started the school finished two years in a row and when you're 100 percent of them went on to higher education.

So the success there and for when we say yes they didn't have a great graduation rate but a lot of the students that went to Indian Heritage School would have failed out of the school they were at in the first place.

So any one of those that they are able to finish.

was a success.

Yes they didn't graduate 100 percent of them that came there prior before their senior year.

But anyone that they did was a success.

Focus on getting education mentioned before that will better the community rather than industry.

And they'll still I think better industry in the long run because we're going to bring broader perspectives to industry.

You know we need broader perspectives in technology broader perspectives in government action right now to let people know we are here.

We're a diverse community.

We need everyone's voice to make ourselves better.

New high school.

As an option school it can allow families to opt in to attend not saying it's a territory school that's where you have to go but as an option school allows parents that choice and I hope it then becomes a beacon to other schools.

Look at what can happen when we have a school that's more open to community having that native focus acknowledging the land that we're on.

It's going to say something I think very mighty for the Seattle schools.

So that's what I want to share and.

As I go from here I'll be talking to other directors here to see who wants to help support me on moving this bar forward.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

Director Burke you had comments.

I already said my piece but I just wanted to put a quick add on I want to thank everyone for their testimony and I believe my colleagues have have gone in detail on that and as eloquent as I could offer.

So I thank them for that.

But I just want to really emphasize before I sat here I sat there and I stood behind that podium and addressed directors and kind of felt the nerves.

and thought to myself are they listening?

Do they care?

Am I wasting my time?

And I just want to tell you you're not.

It's not a waste of time.

Your stories have a lot of meaning for me and what I hear from my colleagues as well is that it's it's it's emotional.

So I just wanted to restate that and you know that my gratitude for you taking the time and sharing your stories and thoughts and suggestions and detailed lists with us to help us do a better job of what we do.

And then in my initial comments I neglected to thank Essence John.

We're going to miss you.

You have you've helped shape the dynamic you know just like I was talking about the public testimony the.

Some of the work that you've done the messaging you've done the rest of the rest of your team there.

You know congratulations and at Cornish that's going to be awesome.

University of Washington that's going to be awesome.

I got my engineering degree from UW so it's it worked for me.

You'll be giving him an internship will you?

The possibilities are endless.

So I think we'll we'll your your your legacy is safe with us and I hope that you'll continue to visit us and tell us how how Seattle schools helped or where we left gaps as you move forward because we want all kids to succeed.

OK.

Last but not least I echo the thank yous and enhance them from my colleagues.

The student performances are a bright light and they give us the fuel to move forward.

And I think at some point this board is going to sing back.

Game on.

Game on.

And I understand that Director DeWolf with his choral background will be happy to coach and conduct.

Gian and Essence thanks very much for being here but mostly thank you for your commitment to your fellow students and for social justice and speaking up and getting counted.

It's it's terribly important and y'all are extraordinary role models and we thank you.

May 28th Delridge library 3 to 5 and we're to 3 of 3 so we're serving lasagna.

And I invite you.

I invite staff.

It's rowdy.

It's good.

It's thoughtful.

And you know we can have a couple of other board members join us as well.

Be lovely to see you tomorrow night's scholarship awards.

It is awe inspiring what our students have been through where they're going how they got here.

And I triple dog dare you not to lose a lot of tears on this because it's it's from the heart and it's extraordinary.

The scholarship committee is is frankly the most fun I have as a board director sitting on that committee with the retired teachers and community members.

It's it's a blast.

Naramore art show.

It's at Seattle Art Museum.

Our students talent is is awe inspiring and amazing and I encourage you to see that.

I want to say thank you especially to the folks at Concord that came to testify tonight.

Dr. Zavella and your team and your teachers and your community Robin Hillary.

It's been a long year.

But you guys have fought hard.

You've come up with thoughtful solutions.

Your research paper is most impressive and it is absolutely an equity issue.

And to be continued whether or not we can backfill that money.

No one has said no yet.

And as far as I'm concerned until they say no it's still game on.

To the folks at Roxhill that I met with this morning the naming convention will be Roxhill Elementary at E.C.

Hughes and Tara Patrick amazing principal and Helen Young.

Good good meeting thoughtful meeting again remind folks that tomorrow is the deadline for the information technology advisory committee.

If you care about things like money if you care about things like online or blended learning get your applications in.

This is the kind of committee that will help inform decisions that will push us for the next 20 years and they're absolutely equity decisions.

The advanced learning task force applications are up.

Encourage folks to put their time and their effort where their concerns are.

We are still working on the Moss Adams audit.

We hope to have that done before the end of June and to any administrative staff that haven't returned the phone calls.

I now have the list.

And I'll be coming for you.

It's terribly important that we do that right.

And it's a question of transparency trust and learning ways that we can get better at what we do and terribly important giving the levies coming up especially with the city's big levy in November families and education levy.

If you care about these things.

The Seattle Channel has all of those hearings with the city council all of the mayor's pronouncements and it's a big ask.

And then four months later we're going to have BEX V and our operations levy and contrary to fake news that McCleary solved all of our problems.

Contrary to the fact that Seattle homeowners and the middle class have all the money in the world to spend on property taxes which are the most inequitable kinds of taxes.

It's it's going to matter that we all as my colleague Director Mack said lock elbows and make this happen.

We have a capacity crisis.

The operations levy is up to 20 percent of our general fund and that's a disaster waiting to happen.

So so we need to get busy get organized and get loud.

At the work session a couple of things.

came to light one that option schools or as I like to call them alternative schools have the longest wait lists.

And when we talk about replicating good practices I would suggest that that might be a place to look.

Second we found out that a number of our alternative learning experience ALE schools are still called quote unquote service schools in our student assignment plan.

And frankly I find the term offensive.

I find it labeling and I wonder why we wonder that our enrollment is down in places like Middle College High School Nova Southlake Interagency.

They are not necessarily just quote unquote just safety net schools.

They are continuously enrolled option schools.

And again if we set the table for a preconceived result why are we in fact surprised.

And I'm told by senior staff that we're going to change that that it is not going to take a Harris resolution to do so.

And it it distresses me greatly.

Teachers that made a difference in my life because as I'm sure you're surprised I was an outlier student.

Mrs. Cook realized that I like to read and I lived at the library so she gave me progressively harder books and she let me sit in the corner and read and she inspired me and she pushed me and I had a visual communications teacher Sten Nord back in Silver Spring Maryland when I was a fish out of water because I'm a Seattle native and I did not fit culturally or otherwise.

who gave me the gift of photography gave me the gift of visual arts.

I can still run a multilith 1260 if they even still make them and letterpress.

And this was a teacher when I moved back here offered to fly me back for a college scholarship on his own dime.

And it's teachers like that.

that make sure our kids live to see another day and believe in themselves when they don't believe in themselves and to every teacher in our district and everywhere else I salute you and I am inspired by you.

It's an honor and a pleasure to serve with these folks and with the folks who work for this district.

It's important work.

Sometimes it really sucks but we're doing our best.

And when you send criticism our way please make it constructive criticism.

Thank you.

Mr. General Counsel and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Codd if you could come address.

The consent calendar consent agenda issue with respect to personnel items that were brought up during public testimony.

I'd be grateful.

And then after we take that vote we're taking a 15 minute break.

OK.

Sure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So the teacher qualification report is actually the first report that OSPI has developed since no child left behind legislation ended.

They are fully aware that it is a flawed report.

They are making refinements to the report.

They send us this report mid year.

What is listed in front of you are teachers who are not new to the district.

These are teachers we've had.

They're fully certified.

They may be out of endorsement.

For example a language arts teacher is teaching reading has a language arts endorsement doesn't have a reading endorsement.

A teacher who's teaching physics has a chemistry biology science endorsement is working on their physics endorsement.

Those are all listed in the personnel report.

But additionally you will see ELL teachers who are working in an inclusion setting that show as out of endorsement because OSPI does not differentiate between ELL or general ed.

You also see teachers who have substitute certificates which qualifies you to teach any subject K-12 but OSPI has a backlog.

They have not uploaded those sub certificates so they show it's out of endorsements.

I'll turn it over to Noel to explain the legal ramifications of this which I don't think are.

Yeah Noel Treat general counsel.

So the issue of course is that we are now getting board approval for these out of certified subject teachers.

They're certified but they're not they don't have the endorsement for the subject matter they might be teaching now.

As Clover indicated we get the report from OSPI late that tells us that in some scenarios.

The contrary to what was stated I think the this is this comes up in a OSPI regulation not in a state statute.

It is up to OSPI whether we're in compliance or not.

The regulation is not entirely clear as to when the board has to approve and if it if if it can be retroactive or not.

But to date it appears that OSPI historically has been fine with retroactive approval given the status of the reporting that goes on.

So I don't see a legal problem with approving the personnel report under this scenario.

The other alternative it is when we receive this report from OSPI mid year we could remove the teachers from the classroom fill it with substitutes until we can come to the board meeting get them approved on the personnel report and then put those teachers back in the classroom.

I don't know that that's in the best interest of our students or the families that we serve.

But that would be one alternative.

Director Mack you had a question ma'am.

Yeah I'm sorry I just kind of going back to the very vast tax of what this is of what we're talking about.

Endorsements are like certification if I understand it correctly.

They're not certification but they're you get an endorsement because you have focused on a certain area certain area subject area.

And so that information gets reported from the teachers to OSPI and then they turn around and report it back to the district.

Yes they do.

And and what may happen is a teacher who is teaching chemistry last year the principal has put them in the master schedule to teach physics this year.

They're working on their physics endorsement.

They don't yet have it.

We have no way of knowing that they're now teaching physics versus chemistry until after the fact.

There's no way we could get ahead of this ahead of time.

It's OK for them to be teaching physics without the physics endorsement.

We just must report them out.

They're fully certified teachers.

I'm trying to personally understand why there's even a rule around it.

And so to me it well kind of makes sense to me though that you know if we are having teachers doing teaching subjects that they're not endorsed in that it would be good to know that.

So it sounds like that's the intent behind the regulation.

It's to make you aware.

And but they but when the teachers report this to OSPI they're not reporting it to the district.

So we don't get that information at the same time.

Yes and no.

This is an old report left over from No Child Left Behind where it was an absolute requirement to report on out of endorsement teachers.

So this is somewhat of a legacy report that they're now refining to adjust to the Every Student Succeeds Act.

There are many problems with this report.

Again the only alternative I see is to receive the report from OSPI remove the teachers get approval put them back which could be maybe a two week turnaround.

I personally don't think that's a great option.

I'm just more I'm more interested in how many out of endorsement teachers do we have and is a better strategy to ensure that when we know that these are out of endorsement teachers that they are a working on the endorsement or it's a funky thing where they really have that qualification it's just they don't have the endorsement.

Yeah.

So in the personnel report we've listed every single one that is out of endorsement we put notes behind it what the reason is and some of them are just data entry.

Course codes don't match up with our course codes with OSPI course codes.

So it's all.

We also track each one of these.

We contact each teacher.

If you're teaching physics this year you must get your physics endorsement if you're going to teach it next year.

So we're fully aware of each one of these out of endorsement teachers and we're working with OSPI to also clean up the data.

So how many.

What's the percentage of our teaching population that is out of endorsement at this stage.

According to the report it would be 10 percent because 400 teachers about we have about 4000. But again out of those 400 many of them they're not actually out of endorsed teachers.

The data is incorrect.

OK great.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf.

I'll just say if you just kind of read through them.

For example there's a teacher from Garfield CTE teacher with multiple related endorsements and is seeking computer science it's a hard position to fill.

So there's just some nuance I think too to these.

Director Pinkham.

So so you're saying we'd have to get the report from OSPI.

So I think why are we finding out first when you say we know but then if it says in here that Local vote of the local school board.

So how come we're not hearing about it.

So teachers apply for certification endorsements through SPI.

They don't apply through Seattle Public Schools.

So there's a lag between the time a teacher gets their endorsement reports it to OSPI OSPI reports it back to us.

When we hire new teachers we don't actually hire them into any position that they don't already have an endorsement in so that you know that's a hard fast rule.

We don't allow you to be hired into something you're not endorsed in.

But we would have no way of knowing that a principal decided to have Mr. DeWolf teach physics this school year and they taught chemistry last year.

We wouldn't know that at the start of the school year.

We will know it mid midway through the school year.

So that's what we're dealing with here.

So is there a way then for us to find out from the principals and hey I'm going to have Mr. DeWolf teach physics even though he's endorsed for chemistry.

Why do we have to wait until the report goes to OSPI for it to get back to us?

So is there a better way for us to track this?

I guess I'm trying to get to.

I'm not aware and I also don't feel fully capable of answering these questions on the spot from the dais to be quite honest.

I would need to talk with our Department of Technology services.

This is a power school issue.

This is a reporting issue.

This is one bureaucracy talking to another bureaucracy.

And so I just I really don't feel comfortable answering these questions and in an intelligent way.

And I guess I would just add our understanding is OSPI is well aware that these that this board approval does come retroactively at times they have to our knowledge never raised that as a compliance concern.

And I I don't see any legal risk given the way the rules are written about retroactively approving these endorsements.

One question and one comment.

One legal risk.

It's my recollection that this particular issue caused us a great deal of harm and harm to the University of Washington middle college high school program when we had a teacher that was quote unquote teaching out of endorsement area but doing so with the assistance of a professor at the University of Washington and we recently settled a grievance on that fact.

So I beg to differ.

personal knowledge.

Second if we don't approve the personnel report this evening in a moment or not what is the ramification.

Pray tell.

If you if these have come before you if you do not approve them we will go back to H.R.

tomorrow.

We will send a letter to these teachers saying they are not approved to be teaching in the classroom.

We will remove them.

We will find substitutes to replace them and remember a substitute can teach any course with a substitute certificate.

They're not endorsed in the subject areas.

And then once we figure out a way to get them approved or fixed we would then put them back in the classroom.

I really don't see another way around this.

And I appreciate that but I think it's my job to bring up worst case scenarios.

Jean did you wish to ask a question or comment.

Yeah I just wanted to share an experience preferably not to remove teachers halfway through the year because we've had a personal experience from this year.

where we've had a math teacher who was teaching an IB class and I'm guessing this is what happened to him was that he was out of endorsement and so he was take so he didn't.

So he it was an IB math class and he was taken out of it.

I'm guessing because he was out of endorsement and we've had substitutes.

And so students that learned the way that he was with his teaching style their learning was disrupted and so there.

Well I'm guessing their math exams which they took this week would be lower because they didn't like just this whole substitute thing it's not going to work out is what I'm saying.

Thank you very much.

Question.

Is it possible that we can get a report on this say within the next 30 days as a follow up if we were to vote to accept this personnel report.

Of course.

That's a yes.

Yes of course.

Thank you.

OK.

May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second the motion.

All those in favor of the consent agenda which includes the personnel report as written please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed signify by saying no.

The consent agenda and the personnel report has been passed with promise we'll get a 30 day report.

We are going to take a break for 15 minutes.

Be back here at 735. Thank you very much.

I love you.