Seattle School Board Meeting May 19, 2021

May 19th 2021 Regular Board Meeting to order at 330 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Apologies.

Director DeWolf.

Present.

Director Dury.

Present.

Director Harris.

Director Harris.

I will come back around for Director Harris.

It looks like it looks like she is there but muted.

Vice President Hersey.

Here.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

President Hampson.

Here.

And one more call for Director Harris.

Well I see that she is joined in Teams but is muted presently.

Okay.

Hopefully she'll get that figured out shortly.

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

As we begin this meeting I would also like to welcome Center School student Maddie Tanabe who will be providing student comments later in the meeting as well as fellow Center School student Nid Lefkof who will be leading off our public testimony list.

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

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

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

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

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

Take it away Dr. Jones.

Good afternoon board president board members and public who's watching.

I'm in my middle of my third week.

It's been a whirlwind and I remain honored to be here serving the families and students of Seattle.

I need to build up my stamina a bit but I'm very energized to be doing the work that we're doing.

We've hit the ground running and collectively we're very focused on finishing this year out strong and having a tremendous fall return.

To keep our adults in the system continuing to do the high quality work on behalf of students we have to be in good communication and collaborate with our partners.

And so I've had the opportunity to meet with SEA leadership past leadership the Seattle Council PTSA and some of our other external partners such as King County Equity Now.

DEEL City of Seattle.

And one that I was really excited about yesterday the Kingmakers program that we have here where Dr. Williams Dr. Mia Williams won the Founders Award.

So we have a lot of really good partnerships working right now.

And one of our great partnerships with the City of Seattle as you know we've opened up vaccination sites and 1,500 over 1,500 of our students have had vaccinations in the last two days.

So that's a that's great that we've provided that access.

Last week I provided clarity about our intent to come back full-time in-person and having things like the vaccination sites have been really helpful in us doing that.

So hopefully that clarity removed any ambiguity around our intent for the fall.

Related to that my team is pouring energy and brilliance into getting the OSPI Academic Student and Well-Being Recovery Plan prepped and ready for the June 1st submittal which you will be hearing about this afternoon.

Families should also be assured that we're pouring everything again into the reopening for fall and we're really doing a good job of capturing everything that we've learned over this past year.

So also I remain really excited about the student-focused governance work governance work.

We're going to be focusing on reading math and college college and career as well as our social-emotional learning goals.

And we're doing a lot of work in preparation to be responsive to that.

Another activity that we're invested in we're lining up the ESSER dollars the stimulus dollars that we receive.

for investments that both support our needs at Seattle Public Schools and they align with the spirit and guidance of the ESSER dollars that were given to us by the Council for Great City Schools.

So we're investing our time and effort into the right things.

We're continuing to create the conditions so that students can thrive.

And for the near term I really want to focus on enhancing our responsiveness for families schools and students.

increasing our wellness and having a collective well-being for both our students and adults that are serving students.

And then really get focused on meeting our learning outcomes again in literacy math college and career readiness.

So again I'm glad to be here today.

Looking forward to hearing the wisdom and guidance from our student panel members today.

Maddie and Ned and please share with us.

So thank you.

Thank you President Hampson and have a good afternoon.

Thank you Superintendent Jones.

Again I would like to welcome Central School student Maddie Tanabe.

Maddie is a junior at the Central School and currently serves as the Co-Chief Officer of Associated Student Body.

Maddie also works at the Wing Luke Museum in the Chinatown International District and enjoys reading painting and playing volleyball.

Take it away Maddie.

Thank you so much.

Hi everyone.

I hope you're having a great day so far.

My name is Maddie and I use she her pronouns.

By attending school at the center school for three years and counting I have been given opportunity after opportunity to develop leadership skills that I had never dreamed of before.

I had never expected to receive so much support and acceptance especially following a very introverted middle school experience.

I am proud to serve a community that has given me so much love.

So naturally I'm very passionate about making sure that every other student at my school gets that same experience.

If you don't know much about the Center School or TCS we're a small option school located in Seattle Center right by the Space Needle.

Deeper than that we're a diverse group of artists thinkers and creators from all over Seattle and I can say with confidence that we've created one of the most unique and supportive school communities in SPS.

I am so happy and grateful to be here representing our students at the end of this very long school year.

Just like all other high schools we have been struggling with online learning but both our staff and students have risen to the challenges and adapted accordingly.

With the goal of returning to in-person learning next year we've been doing our part getting vaccinated and staying masked.

Both virtually and in-person our students and staff have continued to stay positive and ensure that we are going to get through this year.

One of the unique things about TCS that we like to boast about is the fact that every student made a conscious decision to attend since it's alternative high school.

We have an extremely strong LGBTQ plus community and inclusive school culture that focuses on acceptance.

Something that you may not see as prominently as other schools.

Unfortunately with half of our schools doing hybrid and the other half still entirely online there is a disconnect between us that hasn't been there before.

It's difficult for students of all grade levels to connect with staff and one another so we are tentatively excited for next year when everyone will potentially be able to return safely after being vaccinated.

However we still face challenges that other schools do not.

As an alternative high school budget cuts have been extremely difficult on our staff especially.

It's disheartening to see my teachers have their classes cut And as an artist myself I believe our high-quality visual and performing arts programs are something to be invested in not cut from.

I am confident that we will be able to work with the district moving forward to take a critical look at how option high schools are funded in order to continue our traditionally strong arts programs.

As we move forward as a school and district community I truly believe that we can begin to rebuild and recover from the trials and tribulations of the 2020-2021 school year.

We completely understand how rough it's been on everyone in the district and are glad that you're still hearing our voices because the decisions that you're making will affect us directly.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here and for listening to my thoughts.

Thank you so much Maddie.

And feel free to pipe up at other points during the meeting if you are If you stick around and are interested in asking questions on any of the things that are that we're considering today we're more than happy to have you continue your participation.

And I'm just waiting for my just a note.

Ms. Wilson-Jones I'm trying to keep my computer from restarting some of its programs and I seem to be failing so if for some reason there is a shutdown Director Vice President Hersey can take over until I'm able to get back on.

Okay.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

I move for approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

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

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

This motion passes unanimously.

And apologies I should have also noted at the beginning before we took the vote for the consent agenda that Director Harris did in fact join us.

a little bit earlier or well she has been here and is now as you probably heard able to be heard audibly.

Okay we've now reached the public testimony portion.

of the agenda but it is not yet 345. I would ask if any committee chairs would like to give their board committee reports now in lieu of taking a recess to keep the meeting going and we will then begin testimony right at 345 and come back to committee reports.

Let me start with Audit and Finance.

Hello.

I was still getting my notes together but there are not that many reports.

We had a very productive meeting.

For our previous meeting nothing too significant to report back out.

I believe our next meeting is actually coming up here very shortly.

Let me get that date for y'all.

I believe it is.

I will double back when I have that actual date.

But yeah no significant updates.

Looking forward to the next meeting and we can pass on to the next committee chair.

Student Services Curriculum and Instruction.

Sure.

Yeah we had our May committee meeting last week.

And oh of of the most note and I think interest to to folks and something that I'm actually really excited about is one of our special attention items was K-5 math.

We have We'll have an opportunity the opportunity to explore K-5 math curriculum as the current adopted curriculum contract is expiring.

One of the recent something we talked about and one of the things I am the most excited about is with the changes to Policy 2190 and Advanced Learning or Highly Capable rather.

looking for looking at a new curriculum that better supports homeschool differentiation and supports educators in meeting the needs of students in their classroom with a variety of challenges and supports is something I think the current curriculum isn't particularly resourced to do.

So that's something that's exciting about changing or this opportunity that we have to approach math in a new and in a different way and support some of our other policy changes.

So that is something that is will be ongoing.

We just had the first conversation in committee.

We also talked about students student rights and responsibilities document for next year which will be coming to the full board next month.

And I but I believe the the BAR will be coming through committee one more time in June.

And those were probably the kind of hot hot button items.

So we're already talking about a fairly packed June curriculum agenda.

Some things still moving around but check it out when it's posted and always feel free to listen in or send us questions.

Good stuff.

Okay thank you Director Rankin.

Director DeWolf did you have have you had a recent meeting that you would like to give a quick update on for Operations Committee.

Yeah thank you so much President Hampson.

So many of the items in fact all 7 of our items on the Operations Committee are going to be on today's introduction so I will not go into those just to say that all of them were for approval.

We also had some really good discussions around 6220 and the impact of that new policy decision that we approved around procurement and the the the dollar limit that helps us determine whether that comes to our committee.

And the final thing I'll say just for clarification folks will see an item sent on our action items.

We communicated with the district about the implementation task force for the 100 percent clean and renewable energy.

resolution that we passed earlier this year.

The date we had intended was January 31st 2023 and the information got lost in translation as we were trying to update that resolution over email the day of and so just wanted to clarify that's why we're seeing the IM today is because it was off by a year.

It would be it would be it would not be feasible to think that we could have an implementation task force recommendations by next January 23rd.

31st of 2022. So we're just fixing that.

So didn't want folks to be surprised but we're fixing an error.

The intention was 2023 so so folks aren't surprised.

Thank you so much President Hampson.

Absolutely.

And the executive committee met on the 12th and we remained focused on the critical work that we're doing consistent with our board goals in particular around leadership development and best practices.

We've been pushing directors pretty hard on those things and getting some really good work as a result of that.

Reaching deeper into relationships both here within the state and with Council of Great City Schools and then really focusing our work with each other and with staff around best practices.

And then we'll be doing some work specifically around communication and healing.

Particularly coming up with this next board retreat on the 5th which was something we discussed during our agenda and then starting some deeper work on pacing and prioritization of board policies focusing policy work on balancing of maintenance process improvement and high high-risk slash impact project areas.

So I think as a whole we felt as an executive committee pretty good about our progress.

on our board goals and feel that they are remaining relevant as we in particular are focused on our student outcomes focus governance work in transition.

And our next meeting is on June 9th which is coming up.

We were graced by the presence of our biggest labor partner Seattle Education Association.

It was really great to have Jennifer Matter and UT Hawkins join us outside of I guess we have Some technical issues and need to recess.

So let me just say that the this must be related to our SPS-TV.

So I'm just going to announce that the board is now moving into a closed session and we will hopefully be back here within a relatively short period of time.

So we are now recessed.

Thank you.

I need to go back and redo some some voting that was not captured by SPS-TV.

Ms. Wilson-Jones can we just do a quick roll call before we do that so I know we have everyone.

Is that okay.

Yes I'd be happy to call the roll for directors.

Just getting back to the right document.

Director DeWolf.

Director Harris.

Thank you.

Vice President Hersey.

Here.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

President Hampson.

Here.

Okay.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

I move for approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

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

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

Hearing none.

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

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

This motion passes unanimously.

Apologies to the public for the delay due to technical difficulties.

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

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

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

I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

First testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting agenda posting on the school board website.

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

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

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

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

The speaker cedes time to a later speaker on the testimony or waiting list.

The person to whom time was ceded will not be called to provide testimony again later in the meeting as there is only one speaking slot per person.

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

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones will read off the testimony speakers.

Thank you President Hampson.

A quick logistical note.

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

When your name is called please be sure you have unmuted on your phone and also press star-6 to unmute on the conference call line.

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

The first speaker on today's testimony list is Nid Lefkoff.

Nid Lefkoff.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Good afternoon everyone.

My name is Nid Lefkoff and I am a junior at the Center School.

I come representing as a Co-Chief Officer of RISB.

I'm so honored to be here and will be and so honored to bring forth Center School topics.

Jumping right into it.

Center School urges the school board to reconsider how alternative and option schools are funded.

My time at Center School has been absolutely incredible due to our community and educators.

But because of the traditional funding model that is applied to neighborhood schools I have had to see so many of our programs and teachers be forced away because this model disadvantages us.

Ever since my freshman year when I first learned about how our funding system works I have always seen the need for change.

Through my years at Center I have actively seen it become increasingly difficult to work around these budget cuts these budget cuts and still offer all the courses and credits students need to graduate.

If the Center School is going to continue to thrive in Seattle Public Schools changes are desperately needed.

As a small arts-focused school with a strong LGBTQ plus community with a remarkable inclusive school culture SPS needs to support TCS and other alternative schools appropriately with funding tailored to our school to our small schools.

Secondly we at Center School want to remind the school board to always be thinking about how to ensure teachers are following student 504s and IEPs.

These plans are incredibly important for students education especially now in this transition from online into in-person.

All of these things can happen with your support and action.

I have found an incredible community here at Center and I hope students will continue to have the same amazing and welcoming welcoming experience far into the future.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

And Ms. Wilson-Jones.

The next speaker on today's list is Chris Jackins.

Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins.

Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On correcting a quote clerical error unquote in the clean energy resolution delaying the implementation plan for a year seems more substantial than a clerical error.

On the recovery plan the plan should emphasize restoring transportation.

On the Satterberg grant the report does not provide absolute percentages and it does not show comparisons to non-targeted schools.

On the Wi-Fi upgrade the report states that this sort of purchase is quote key to disrupting legacies of racism unquote.

Do you really believe that.

How about buying books instead.

On the Rainier Beach educational specifications does the district plan to demolish the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Center.

On the West Seattle Elementary parcel exchange.

Six points.

Number one the district was clearly aware of the land swap issue when it omitted it from environmental review.

Number two the property to be received by the district is encumbered by a condition.

It must be kept open to the public for recreation.

Number three this condition would appear to affect the property value.

Was the appraiser aware of this condition.

How does it affect school security.

Number four the appraisal was to be made public by April 23rd.

Number five the district is now refusing to make the appraisal public until after the land swap is approved.

Number six this makes you look crooked.

Please vote no.

On school board elections the deadline to sign up to run for the board is this Friday.

Members of the public should contact King County Elections.

Thank you.

Next for public testimony is Sonia Pitts.

Sonia Pitts.

And I believe that Sonia maybe is not able to join us.

One more try.

Sonia Pitts.

Okay moving into the next speaker on today's list.

Carri Syvertson.

Carri Syvertson.

Hello.

Can you hear me.

We can.

Hi.

My name is Carri Syvertson and I am one of two lead school social workers within Seattle Public Schools.

And I recently spoke with Representative Lisa Rivera-Smith about the social work proposal that we brought forward as a department from the district to be considered for the ARP ESSER funds COVID relief funds.

And I just want to thank her publicly for her time It really made me realize that Seattle School Board members really take the time to consider and learn about the needs of our students.

Schools across Washington State have previously identified the need for mental health services for students and the impact of when that need is not met.

COVID-19 further exacerbated and exposed the realities that students and staff were previously facing.

And it highlighted the vulnerability and impact on children to depression isolation suicidal ideation and anxiety that may have been masked previously by privileged activities and socialization.

We're asking an overly taxed and overburdened system that lacks a vital link between schools families mental health and well-being to respond to these latest mental health and behavioral health concerns.

And we as a department have put together a 7-page proposal about why and rationale behind having school social workers assigned to each SPS building.

Buildings is a sustainable way to provide prevention and intervention support and services to address this mental health crisis.

I'd just like to quickly end on the need for student outcomes and why it's so critical we have these bodies and buildings to support our students.

And I received this note from a student last year when I returned to the building and she said this year hit a lot in store for me when stuff got kind of messed up.

You were there for me and you helped me so much.

You heard what I was saying like really heard it and I could tell you really cared and weren't pretending to.

You were a big reason why I haven't cut myself at school because of the tools you gave me that really helped work.

The calming past being one of them.

I always feel like I can be truthful to you and not have to hide things and that's because of all the times I got to see you over the years.

Thank you.

I just wanted to give a glimpse from a student's perspective about our impact not only at the tier 3 level but universally we can impact systems and connect with community resources and provide mental health school-based mental health services in the building.

Thank you so much.

Circling back one more time.

It is Sonia Pitts.

I think she is trying to call back in.

So if we're able to just give a moment given our technical issues.

Not a problem.

Hi this is Carrie.

Were you needing me again.

Sorry I'm just having difficulty.

Apologies for the confusion.

We are just waiting on the next speaker Carrie.

We move to Sonia Pitts.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Thanks.

And Sonia are you on the line.

President Hampson I know she was going to try to call in is my understanding but it does not look like she has called in yet.

Okay and is that our last public testimony.

That will be our final speaker on today's list.

Okay.

So if she comes while I'm still before we recess into Executive Session I can pause if you see her number.

You have her number identified.

Yes I'll let you know if we see her join.

Okay.

So To discuss with legal we are now going to recess into executive session to discuss with.

Sorry.

President Hampson I believe it's Sonia are you on the line.

Is that Sonia.

Yes I'm on the line.

Hi there.

Sonia and President Hampson if it's okay with you Sonia can go ahead with her testimony now.

Yep.

Go ahead Sonia.

Thank you so much.

And I just want to say I really appreciate you calling a couple of times to let me know what had happened and to let me get back into the meeting.

So what I want to say is brief.

Our household over the last 24 hours has received three phone calls and two emails to tell us that we can change our mind about whether our children spend the last three weeks of term doing remote or in-person school and we've got two weeks to decide.

In contrast this.

89-page proposed $92 million plan to address student well-being and recovery was posted on Facebook yesterday the day before public testimony was due.

And then just today a new updated version was made available with a bunch of red lines added.

As Superintendent Jones has rightly emphasized the need for a meaningful collaboration between teachers administrators parents and students.

But I've got to say this doesn't feel very collaborative.

You know parents are super concerned.

The mental health crisis among our children continues as does significant learning deficit.

And I think parents deserve the opportunity to have an open dialogue with SPS and to know that our voice really matters to you and that our opinions are heard and considered.

And this doesn't feel like that is happening.

SPS is obliged to seek public comment and it just There would have been more proactive ways of doing that for this.

So I I guess what I'd say is I really hope that SPS partners more closely as Superintendent Jones has requested with parents as this well-being and recovery plan is further developed and particularly as the plan for a return to school developed.

Thank you.

President Hampson that concludes today's testimony.

Okay thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

We are now going to we will now recess the regular board meeting into an executive session to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency litigation and or potential litigation as allowed under RCW 42.30.1101I.

The session is scheduled for approximately 30 minutes with an anticipated anticipated end time of 5.04 p.m.

following the executive session the board will then.

Nope that's not going to happen.

We already did the closed session so it will last for approximately 30 minutes.

So I will return to this remote meeting to make announcements should the executive session run past the scheduled end time to announce the conclusion of the executive session beginning of the closed session.

Sorry to announce the conclusion of the executive session.

and to resume the public portion of the regular board meeting at the conclusion of the Executive Session.

Sorry I'm just making adjustments because we've already had our closed session while we were addressing issues with SPS-TV.

Directors you've been provided separate call-in and Teams meeting information for our Executive Session.

Please now leave this Teams meeting and join me in the private meeting for the Executive Session.

you

our board session here at 513 a regular session.

And we just I just needed to I think we actually made it through the vast majority of our committee reports so that will take us to our action items.

And so the first is Action Item Number 1. Motion to correct a clerical error in Resolution 2020-21-18 Transitioning Seattle Public Schools to 100 Percent Clean Energy and Renew Clean and Renewable Energy approved by the board February 10th 2021. May I have a motion for this item.

Absolutely.

Trying to get my talking points up here.

Almost there.

Give me one second.

Thank you for your patience.

Here we go.

Okay.

I motion to correct a clerical error in Resolution 2020-21-18 Transitioning Seattle Public Schools to 100 Percent Clean and Renewable Energy approved by the board February 10th 2021. Okay.

And so the motion is I move that the school board and then Resolution 2021-21-18 18 approved by the board February 10th 2021 to correct a clerical error in the date by which the implementation plan accountability process for meeting the goals of the resolution shall be presented to the board.

The correct date is January 31st 2023 rather than January 31st 2022. The corrected resolution will be recirculated for signatures for those directors who voted on the original resolution approved February 10, 2021 attested to by Interim Superintendent Dr. Britton Jones and posted to the school board website.

Second.

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

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

Chief Legal Counsel Greg Narver I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes thank you President Hampson.

Greg Narver Chief Legal Counsel.

The presentation I had prepared was pretty well covered by Director DeWolf earlier.

This was this is simply to correct a mistake on a date.

The as Director DeWolf one of the co-sponsors of this resolution explained the date for reporting to the board.

was originally going to be September 2022. It was decided that was not enough time and so the intent was to push this deadline back four months to allow four months of extra time.

We got the change in the month right but the year didn't get changed and so in fact the date that was in the resolution as voted by the board made it eight months earlier.

And it is just simply a clerical error.

The intended-upon vote was to make that deadline January 2023. So that's what this that's what this item does.

All we will just take a vote of the board tonight to correct that error and then a corrected resolution will be circulated for signature.

And that's that's it unless there are questions.

Okay and now to directors for any comments or questions on the item before we move to the vote.

Starting with Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

No questions here but just to confirm.

Thank you to Ellie and Greg.

You're cutting out quite a bit.

Okay I'm just going to assume that's it.

I can come back around to you if you had want to restate that.

Director Hersey.

No questions for me.

Director Dury.

No questions.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

No questions.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi no questions.

I just wanted to explain a little more about it does sound like it's really far away to say well it's supposed to be 2023. We wanted the task force to have as much time as they could have to work on the amplification plan Given COVID and the re-entry of school we knew that that was not going to happen in the in the initial one year period that we initially dreamed we would have when we were still working on this policy.

We wanted to give ample time up to two years so.

It is a far ways out but we have to come we feel like we should allow staff and the forthcoming task force to work on this.

So just explain it for people who are wondering why it's so far away.

Well that's that's sort of what we're going to need and we understand that.

So hope everybody can too.

Thank you for your patience.

And Director Rankin.

I'm good.

Thanks.

No questions from me.

Director DeWolf did you want to try to restate what you said prior.

Sorry.

I was just mentioning thank you to Greg and Ellie for allowing us to make the revision.

It was simply a clerical error and I appreciate us being able to revise this to the original intent which was to give this group the necessary time to do the implementation planning for the district.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones roll call please.

Director Vice President Hersey.

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

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you.

We will now move to Introduction Item Number 1. Approval of Resolution 2020-21-24 Approving Seattle Public Schools Academic and Student Well-Being Recovery Plan for Submission to OSPI on June 1st 2021. This item was not reviewed in committee and is being introduced today with action scheduled during a board special meeting on May 26th in order to meet the submission deadline.

I will hand it over now to Superintendent Jones to begin today's briefing.

Thank you Board President and board members.

I'm grateful to have our new and highly capable super the Deputy Superintendent Rob Gannon introduce the OSPI Student Well-Being and Recovery Plan.

He will provide the context for how we are not just submitting a plan but we're operationalizing the plan to align with our student outcome focus work as well as key other initiatives such as our fall return.

So Rob please proceed.

Thank you Dr. Jones and good late afternoon President Hampson members of the board.

Again for the record I am Rob Gannon the Deputy Superintendent here at Seattle Public Schools.

As Dr. Jones alluded I am going to give an overview introduction of our plan and then as well turn to my talented colleagues to discuss some of the underlying detail that we are putting forward to the board for consideration.

You will see a number of things in our report today and you will see that we are attempting to very carefully crosswalk what the report itself requires as a state document tied to receiving federal funds and mapping to the things that we as a district are intending to do consistent with our strategic plan and consistent with the goals and the guardrails work under student outcomes focused government.

I will attempt to be brief and defer to my colleagues to give some of the details and also reserve time at the end to answer your questions as they may come up.

So as I mentioned first our obligation is to fulfill a federal and state requirement in order to receive federal funds.

So what we are seeking is approval from the board to submit our recovery plan to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

thereby allowing us to receive federal funds available through the American Recovery Act and the specific education-focused element of that the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

You will commonly hear this referred to as ESSER.

I think that is well-known to many but it is now the shorthand that we are using within the district.

This is a comprehensive plan.

It is a recovery plan that meets state-level guidance and direction.

So we are one of 295 school districts complying with this element.

And that of course ranges from large and small and north to south east to west.

And so you will see that it doesn't exactly fit into what what or how we might proceed in in announcing a plan and elaborating on it but we are committed to making sure that people understand what we're doing why we're doing and how it is tied to our focus on delivering the best possible services to students and families with the support of educators and building leaders.

Next slide if I could please.

I've mentioned some of this already.

We are in the process of.

Submitting this plan and it meets the requirements of OSPI.

We are answering the questions that they have asked of us.

In addition OSPI has presented to all districts throughout the state a request to respond to six major themes.

We have oriented our plan and our response accordingly.

But as I mentioned we are working very carefully to map those to what is important here in the district so that there is clear compliance that there is clear compatibility but we are not losing the essence and focus of what is important to this district to its leadership and to the communities we all seek to serve and represent.

Chief among them is the strategic plan Seattle Excellence and the work here is well underway.

So there is an essence there is an element to this that we are forward-looking and building towards the year ahead.

But we are also drawing on the expertise that has already been applied by our many talented staff.

We are already and have been all along drawing on community engagement listening to families in short in short statement because we learned a lot over the past year and we are now trying to activate it and apply it in the coming months.

And this document is our attempt to support that and meet the expectations of the state agency.

Next slide please.

As we have soft announced and then as Dr. Jones more formally announced last week we are building towards an instructional model for academic year 2021-22 that meets all of the state requirements.

But in addition we have been very forward in saying we will be in-person five full days of instruction at all of our 104 schools come the fall.

We believe that that is clearly where the core of instruction can happen.

Where the engagement between teacher and student is most effective.

And it is also where our organizational resources our people our buildings such that they are are ready to go and do that work.

We recognize that there is additionally a lot of work that we want to accomplish.

But we are laser-focused and aiming to a full return in the fall.

We know that what we have learned is is based on a lot of good research which includes academic research but also in our engagement with families with educators and with students.

We know that there is more engagement to do.

So a point of emphasis here and my colleagues will speak to it more specifically later.

We do not consider Our engagement thus far to be sufficient.

We consider our engagement thus far to be informative and the starting point for many conversations to come over the summer months but also to continue into the full academic year that is to come.

Under Dr. Jones' leadership I think we are activating or reactivating an ethic that has long existed in the district to listen to community and act on their needs.

Our specific focus is to be very clear about how we are engaging family.

How we are serving those farthest from the educational justice that they rightly deserve.

And making sure that we we work to bring those services to the fore in very real terms and move from planning to actual activation and delivery.

Of course we are developing virtual options who which will continue to serve some students who would stay in a fully remote environment.

We are working to figure out how to make that a viable option given the direction and the work ahead of us in the summer months.

And we are also keen to understand how we can best support the students that are making those choices.

and how we can recognize some of their driving concerns that lead them to say I prefer the virtual over the in-person instruction in the fall.

If I can have the next slide please.

I've alluded to this but I want to give very specific reference to it.

This is the driving document for what we are approaching within this OSPI plan.

for the work ahead for the return to fall and for building the best possible academic year in the year to come.

Student outcomes is at the top of our list.

We are working in coordination with all of our building leaders and many partners to fulfill what the board and our strategic plan has already articulated.

That we are aiming to deliver early literacy and numeracy to improve our rates of graduation and to be ever and always focused on social and emotional learning and creating classroom environments that give everyone the opportunity to thrive.

We are never going to lose sight of our values of being square with our community and engaging with them in a continuous motion that draws on their feedback and their expertise and allows us to enter into a continuous improvement cycle with them as one of the key voices informing our approach.

And we will do so in means and methods that is culturally responsive and attacks the structures of racism that have been built into our system.

And we will work very consciously deliberately to undermine them and replace them with structures that better support our students and our families and the instructors that are doing critical work.

Next slide please.

This is intended just as a service and a reminder that we have submitted plans prior to this one and the board has taken action for the 2020-21 year in August.

There was an update to that in December of 2020 and in February and also in February of 2021 the board gave clear support and direction for the Outdoor Education Task Force.

Renewed its encouragement and requirement to be a partnership with the city and community-based organizations.

And also reiterated our focus on serving those students furthest from educational justice.

Next slide please.

So here I will give just a quick voice to the themes that are that reside in the OSPI plan and then I will invite our colleague my colleague Dr. Keisha Scarlett our Chief Academic Officer to dive into those in greater detail with you to give a view of the underlying programs and approaches family-informed and rich in detail as we bring all of these into a sense of coordination and collaboration.

But again to be specific the themes that are required by OSPI that the elements that we need to address in order to put forward this plan and receive the federal funds are to address student and family voice.

Student well-being.

Professional learning.

Recovery and acceleration.

Diagnostic access assessment tools.

Community partnership.

So I want to just make this final point that the difference between their words and our words is in many ways not material.

The core of our work is rooted deeply in the strategic plan Seattle Excellence and rooted deeply in the way we want to engage with our families and instructors and students to understand how to be successful in delivering the right outcomes for Seattle Public Schools.

So with that I'll invite Dr. Scarlett to pick it up from here.

You'll also hear from Dr. Constance Pedroza.

and later from Chief James Bush and then I'll offer one or two concluding remarks and we'll be happy to take your questions.

And of course should questions come up in the midst of the presentation from my colleagues we will do our best to answer them and be be clear in what we intend to do.

I turn it over now to Dr. Scarlett.

Thank you Deputy Superintendent Gannon.

So my name is Dr. Keisha Scarlett I'm Chief Academic Officer.

So we're now going to pivot to the findings from our data and data engagements that have informed our planning for the fall.

Given the board's helpful feedback during the past presentations of the plans for OSPI we want to lead with the information we have gathered from a variety of conversations and data gathering efforts both qualitative and quantitative and really focused on our students and families furthest from educational justice.

The following slides provide a sampling of some of the data and engagement informing our planning for 2020-2021 and 2022 school year.

So this first slide slides 12 under the theme of student and family voice.

These are findings from the Research Practice Partnership report that I shared with you all in the previous board retreat.

Centering Black Families and Justice-Focused Educators During Pandemic Remote Schooling Study.

And this is part of a research practice partnership between Seattle Education Association SPS and University College of Education researchers.

And so you'll notice that there are 5 recommendations on the slide.

One around safety and well-being.

Another one around community-specific data collection.

Culturally responsive instruction.

Alignment and collaboration across initiatives.

And also leveraging BIPOC district and community expertise.

Thank you.

Next slide.

Next also with respect to the theme of student and family voice we have findings from the Listen and Learn Focus Group series with Black families and students done by our Office of African-American Male Achievement.

The students and families have called for improvements in these areas that are listed in the slide.

You'll see school environments.

Instruction that centers Black education and identity affirmation.

and also educator relationships.

Next slide please.

For student well-being the Fall 2020 Remote Learning Survey revealed what is on this slide.

Students and families across all grade levels combined from grades 3 through 12 wanted more opportunities to be social with other students.

Middle and high school students had strong concerns about excessive workload.

And the top elementary concern expressed was was a desire for more peer-to-peer collaborative learning opportunities.

Thank you.

Next slide.

So slide 15. Thank you.

We also have quantitative data that we have analyzed such as the survey on the return to school this spring.

So you'll notice we want to make a priority of talking with families and students who chose to stay fully remote this spring so that we can understand what we need to do to ensure that returning to school in-person in the fall addresses their needs and interests and their values and priorities.

Moreover we should note that with this data we assume that the reasons for choosing to stay remote were multiple and varied including concerns about equitable access to transportation the need to provide child care for siblings and the other reasons that families chose to remain remote this spring.

Thank you.

Slide 16. We also have data from the Spring 2020 Digital Learning Educators Report in which educators highlight the need to prioritize the areas on this slide.

So these would be investments in supportive and understanding teacher-student relationships.

Explicit instruction on how to use technology tools.

And culturally responsive remote instruction support.

Next slide.

Finally we have a wealth of quantitative data including this data on student engagement in teams.

Again we need to consider all the sources of data in determining the best way forward prioritizing our direct conversations with families and students of color furthest from educational justice.

All of this engagement and data are explained in greater detail in the Board Action Report and also in the attachments that we enclosed.

Next slide.

And now we transition to some specific initiatives and plans we've developed in response to this data and engagement.

I will now transition to my colleague Dr. Pedroza to begin to share these plans and initiatives organized by the OSPI themes noting that we have expanded on some of these themes to ensure that they align with our values and the goals and the strategic plan.

Thank you Dr. Pedroza.

Thank you Dr. Skowroot.

I'm going to pick up.

where Dr. Scarlett left off.

And so we're going to address one of the themes student and family voice.

And I just want to reiterate what Deputy Superintendent Gannon had stated earlier in that we will continue to engage with our families and community members as we continue to do this work.

And so I'll just go through some of the pieces around engagement that have happened and some initiatives that have actually been underway so far in accessing student and family voice.

The African-American Male Achievement Office did Listen and Learns and they focused strategically with Black families and on student engagement.

In addition we've had community forums by affinity groups to hear families of students with IEP's and students from furthest from educational justice about their experiences with remote learning and in-person learning and services.

And I'll just share an example of what that looks like moving forward.

For example we are now launching the spring sessions to begin next week.

And one of the targeted questions that we're going to be asking families is to give us feedback on what they want to see in terms of training and supports for parents moving into summer and fall.

And we'll also be providing some information as well.

Another theme for multilingual families of student engagement opportunities through community-based organizations.

English Language Learner Department hosted meetings and school-based community meetings.

Family information sessions regarding the upcoming early literacy assessments are actually currently happening.

And then spring and fall surveys on remote and in-person learning.

Next slide please.

The other theme of student well-being.

And so this is something that I know that's very near and dear to our hearts.

Everywhere we go we hear from all stakeholder groups the the the need to really address well-being not just from the student perspective but from the staff perspective.

And I just want to share that we are ready to launch Seattle Public Schools that we are developing a comprehensive plan for well-being for all students and a theme a culture of care moving into in-person for all students in the fall.

We're also going to be launching some of those components this summer.

And then components of this plan will include Tier 1 supports Monthly Community Circles Restorative Practices Social Emotional Trauma Informed Lessons and or supports incorporated into daily instruction.

Processes to identify students in crisis and access appropriate acute and long-term supports.

Strengthening of partners with our community-based organizations and I'm going to speak specifically to in addition to that our health our health clinics and culturally relevant agencies with a specific emphasis on social emotional and mental health.

And then evaluation of supports using Seattle Public Schools racial equity analysis tool making sure that we're being very culturally responsive especially in thinking about how we support students and families with social emotional and mental health and wellness our wellness campaign moving forward.

Next slide please.

And then the third theme professional learning.

I'm going to I believe I'm passing this on to Dr. Scarlett.

Dr. Scarlett am I continuing this professional learning.

I'll continue.

Do you want me to continue Dr. Scarlett.

No I'm fine.

Sorry.

Okay great.

I'll pass this on to Dr. Scarlett.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Pedroza.

On this next slide we'll highlight some of the many ways we are supporting professional learning to meet our overall goals for student outcomes including those on the slide.

So require participation of all certificated K-3 students in the science or excuse me K-3 teachers in the science of reading training.

Additionally continued support for recent curricular adoptions.

Training on the culture of care practices.

And also support for initiatives on culturally responsive instruction.

Next slide.

And now we pivot to a theme OSPI calls recovery and acceleration.

While we believe that much of the conversation on recovery acceleration and learning loss should be reframed to avoid deficit mindsets and to refocus on each student's learning trajectory and learning path we also want to ensure that we are not conflating these discussions with many other discussions on acceleration in the district which focus too narrowly on students in our highly capable program.

Instead This part of the plan enables us to highlight a number of areas of work that we are proud of which we've listed on this slide.

Our work with implementing MTSS into our continuous school improvement plans.

Focus on foundational literacy skills.

Our pre-K through 21 students with IEP supports.

Efforts to expand access to core instruction for our multilingual students.

And also our efforts to decolonize social studies through Since Time Immemorial American Indian Studies Black Studies and also Ethnic Studies.

Thank you.

Next slide.

In addition we want to expand on the theme of recovery and acceleration to include the work we're doing across our 13 priority schools and also college and career readiness work.

Our 13 priority schools where more than 50 percent of our districts K-3 African-American male boys attend.

And also our college and career readiness work particularly the board-approved partnerships with equal opportunity schools to expand access for students of color furthest from educational justice to advanced coursework.

Next slide.

You'll notice there are recovery services and plans.

for special education students.

And Dr. Pedroza are you going to speak about that a little bit.

Yes I'm just going to talk about this briefly with everybody.

So the special education team in compliance with OSPI's guidance they are actually have developed some recovery services and our service recovery service plan for students receiving special education services will which will include some tutoring including small group remote in-person and individual tutoring.

Summer of Learning Opportunities.

Two years of expanded ESY Summer Programming.

Extended breaks.

Instructions during school breaks.

And then contracted services.

And then additional professional training supports materials and additional staffing hours for supports and coaching of our teams.

And so I just want to share that we have developed those plans.

We will get those posted on the website and we will be sharing with our school teams next steps moving forward and with our families through the community forums as well.

Thank you Dr. Pedroza.

And so next slide 25. The OSPI plan has also enabled us to revisit and share our plans with respect to assessments and to expand the definition of what we mean by diagnostics as we determine what students most need as they return to full-time in-person learning.

This includes our annual assessment calendar which is currently being reviewed by our joint SPS and SEA committee and will be previewed at our June 8th SSC&I committee meeting.

There are also other examples of assessments included in this calendar on this slide.

We also have the SIFs and M-Class DIBLs which is dynamic dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills to support early literacy.

And then also our school improvement plans also rely on the thoughtful use of these assessments.

I'm going to transition this to Chief Bush to speak about the diagnostics.

Thank you Dr. Scarlett and Pedroza.

So not talking about diagnostics but I'll talk about community partnerships.

So I'm James Bush Chief of Equity Partnerships and Engagement.

And I've shared this before but as as you all know We have a long history at SPS working directly with our community partners to ensure that we're providing whole-day services to make sure that kids are having the before and after school and other out-of-school time supports to make sure that they're successful in our in our school buildings.

Currently we partner with over 450 different organizations the City of Seattle King County Public Health and others to make sure that kids and families have the supports and services they need to be successful.

As we have previously discussed we've also been working really closely with our child care providers.

Our system has 68 elementary and K-8 providers that historically operate in our buildings.

Currently we have 44 programs operating in our buildings.

And as we transition to all day full day five days a week we're going to have to make sure that we're partnering with all of them to make sure that the kids and families have what they need to be able to access school and remove as many barriers as possible.

And we remain committed to working with all of those partners both our out-of-school time partners King County Public Health and the school-based health clinics and and the City of Seattle to make sure that we're leveraging all the resources we can to support our our babies.

Next slide please.

And this slide and it's been referenced before like through the rest of the presentation OSPI requires that we use a racial equity analysis to apply make about our decisions and to actually kind of track our efforts kind of moving forward.

This is very much aligned to our work with Policy 0030 which requires that we apply the Racial Equity Analysis Tool to all of our investments.

And for this year given COVID we actually adapted the Racial Equity Tool to kind of meet our current needs.

And we've been training staff across our system to use our new COVID-19 racial racial equity analysis tool to inform our planning.

And as we move forward with all of these investments that we're talking about now.

And that is it for me.

I'm passing it to back to Deputy Superintendent Gannon.

Deputy Superintendent Gannon would you mind if I moved us back to slide 26. I accidentally mismarked it on my on my guide as Chief Bush so I just want to make sure that we go through this one also around diagnostic assessment tools.

So thank you.

So we also want to expand.

So moving back to diagnostic assessments to include new college and career readiness reports to inform schools on student credit earning and pathway completion and other examples on this slide.

The 9th grade success tracker to ensure schools are supporting 9th graders toward post-secondary readiness.

Improved grading guidance and reports to help students help schools promote equity-minded grading practices and will be included in also our goals 4 and 5 dashboard.

Additionally social emotional skills in the new elementary report card.

And then school climate survey to establish baseline for assessing school connectedness belonging and engagement.

So now I'll turn it back over to Deputy Superintendent Gannon.

Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Scarlett.

Thank you Chief Bush.

Thank you Dr. Pedroza.

And special thanks to Dr. Scarlett for not asking me or James to speak to that last slide on diagnostics.

I want to speak just briefly to our next steps and then turn it over to the board to inquire with questions with with me or any of my colleagues.

We've laid out a couple of next steps here.

So as I mentioned we need to submit this plan timely to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction by June 1st and a requirement of that is board action.

So we are hopeful that you will take this under consideration and take action at the special session next week.

The first phase then really continues on into the summer months.

Executing on what is contained in this plan In addition to our plans for a safe and healthy reopening of our schools.

In addition to advancing the work that is already embedded in our strategic plan.

In addition to carrying out the leadership and direction of of Dr. Jones.

In addition to engaging with our labor partners.

There are many in additions that sit out in front of us.

So I want to make clear that we will have a very busy summer and we are activating structures to assure that We are well-coordinated and reach our near-term goals.

Phase 2 carries us through November of 2021 where we will begin to review and analyze student data.

Reflect and build on what we have learned even in this next phase and begin to assess and adjust how our longer term planning and recovery efforts can be aligned with other documents and how we can continue to report out on our progress.

Phase 3 moves us through April of 22 where we continue on the improvement strike cycles looking to double down on our strategies and interventions that have been implemented in the early phases.

A continuous review of data so that our check and improve cycle is is very much alive.

And then looking at what this will mean for longer-term strategies whether embedded in the strategic plan because we have already identified them or because of new learnings that have come up over the course of the year.

How do we really embed these improvements and carry them into successful academic years in many many of the years ahead while still making use of available federal funds that should be available for that effort.

Two quick additional notions not represented here in the slide but just to assure you that we are looking to bring forward an outline of how we intend to expand the next phase of the federal dollars the ESSER funds.

So that should be part of our presentation to you in the special session next week.

And to head this off we have intentionally not spoken in our slides to any of the health and safety components which is also a critical set of concerns as we enter into the fall.

Those are not required elements of this OSPI plan but they are things that the board has already reviewed and taken action on and things that we are continually engaging to understand what safety means for our students and our faculty and our families.

What well-being means when we open up our schools.

What well-being means when we engage young learners in the educational endeavor.

So we have colleagues that are available on the call tonight to speak to any health and safety components of our already existing plans but I just wanted to make clear that we have not spoken to that in detail in our presentation.

in short because it's not a required element of this this report to LSPI.

And with that I will conclude my remarks and happy to either entertain questions or direct them to any of my colleagues who are no doubt better situated to answer and speak to the details.

Thank you members of the board.

I turn it back to you President Hampson.

Thank you all.

And I'm going to start first with Director Hersey.

First off thank you all so much.

I think that I'm definitely going to need some time to digest all of the wonderful information that y'all have presented here and look forward to having conversations with you all either individually or in a group at the further opportunity.

My only question would be as we move forward how are we going to plan on like sharing this plan out with community in like I know that if I'm listening sitting here listening and I am just like trying to make sense of everything that our families are going to want an executive summary version a one-pager something like that that's going to give them the nitty gritty of like okay what is this going to look like for my kid in my classroom.

And I'm just wondering have we put any thought into what the communication strategy is going to be like for our families for this one.

So Director Hersey if I might I'll give a overarching comment and I'll turn to to Director Chief Bush who can add some additional detail.

The short answer is yes we have given that some thought Yes we are turning our next-step attentions to how do we present this to families and to curious observers of the district so that it is as simple and straightforward as possible.

How do we use that as a platform for engagement to gather feedback.

How do we use it as a platform to engage our labor partners.

A lot of our effort frankly has been getting to this day so that we can meet all the requirements of the OSPI report.

and get it timely submitted so that we can now turn to the other things that are so core and fundamental to the district services.

But Chief Chief Bush if you want to add some additional detail or any of my other colleagues I invite you to do that.

I think you covered it well.

I think our goal is like coming up with a comprehensive plan for return to school and the use of these funds is is rolled up as one of the things that needs to snap into that plan.

Carrie Campbell our Public Affairs Chief is working we're working really closely and hope to have a more refined version of that to share to share soon.

But kind of at the core of the plan is how are we sharing with our internal stakeholders that's our staff.

How are we sharing the information with our community-based partners.

How are we sharing it with our families.

And how are we sharing with our with our with our babies in the schools.

And anytime we go out in the community we also want to make sure that it's two-way and kind of sharing as much information as we can about what the plan is.

But also learn from them what their hopes and dreams are for what we need to do moving forward.

So please stay tuned.

Thank you.

Director Hersey I would I would just add that we have set up a Let's Talk channel as a means of immediate engagement so that we can begin gathering feedback from families as as soon as this evening to harvest their questions and begin iterating with them and feeding it into our next phase of planning.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Director Dury.

Yeah thanks.

I'm going to ditto what Director Vice President Hersey said about the communication plan.

I want to also I heard you speak to it I think a little bit just be clear though on what our engagement involvement with building leadership and teachers is since they will be of course the ones actually doing the work to have a lot of this happen.

And so I just wanted to hear a little bit about what the plan was for communication and explicitly involvement with those folks is.

I can speak to that a little bit.

So what we've instituted are every Wednesday we've had it for a number of weeks but we pivoted a little bit more focused on this plan.

So every Wednesday at noon we have open office hours with our school leaders that's open for all school leaders to join in.

Dr. Perkins our Executive Director of College and Career Readiness did a great sort of initial high-level presentation to school leaders just to share a little bit about the plan.

Also about just what's happening with the board and the process for the hopefully the adoption of this plan or voting on this plan as well.

And so This will be at the top of the agenda item for Wednesday for us to do like a deeper dive into the different components.

So with our school leaders.

So there is a plan around that.

I want to maybe ask one of my colleagues Chief Bush do you have any feedback about the educator discussion beyond our partnering with SEA.

Because our SEA partners are our key partners and being able to share some of this information across their component.

Do you have any other feedback about that.

So I don't have anything specific to that.

We do have as topics come up we are working with them to talk about like child care and other other things that are really important for us to make sure that we as we plan and how we pivot.

And the other work with the with our partners with SEA the partnership committee they're being briefed in the partnership committee as well as soon as we have information to share.

That's another place another outlet where they're going to be able to get information as as we start moving things forward.

Thank you.

That's it.

That's all for me.

Thanks.

Director Harris.

Can you hear me.

Yes I can.

I just.

Yes I can hear you.

I was just going to briefly.

Go ahead Director Harris.

So sorry.

Mentioned yesterday in our 3 I guess 2 by 2 not 3 by 3. My hope is is that we can do.

some community outreach in a graphic fashion.

Put our deadlines down and work back and supplement with work plans and and get the good information out there.

I would also add regarding Let's Talk I'm not sure I have ever seen the results of Let's Talk as a board member and I sure would be very interested in receiving those results.

Last.

I appreciate immensely the staff very good hard work and meeting the somewhat outrageous deadline and mandate from OSPI and the federal government.

I think we're on our way but I think we need to backfill with a really strong somewhat simple communications outreach plan.

And Mr. Gannon it's good to see you and I welcome you and I look forward to working with you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Before we go to Director Rivera-Smith I was just going to ask.

So I first of all just to take a moment to thank Ms. Wilson-Jones and the Communications Department Chief Campbell for actually setting up that Let's Talk opportunity at my request and then Director Rankin for for taking that ball when I when I was unable to follow up on that.

And I'm wondering if there's at some point in this discussion we could get that on to the screen maybe at the very end Ellie if it's not possible then maybe just get confirmation from communication that it's going out to families in School Beat or some other manner.

And so you can answer that somewhere in the flow of the next questions as I turn this over to Director Rivera-Smith for her questions.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Hi.

Thank you for that.

It is a lot to digest.

Thank you for sharing that.

I really I really wish that this was a two-way conversation with community because because I heard the public testimony speaker who who mentioned all the calls we've been getting lately and and not much time opportunities for feedback on this.

But knowing that this is an introductory item I trust and I welcome that we'll be receiving some feedback from citizens and families in the next week I guess because we do vote on this next Wednesday I believe correct.

That's the meeting to vote.

That's correct.

Correct.

So you know I want to make sure that people are understanding this.

As Erwin said having that one-page kind of synopsis would be really awesome.

I think I mentioned this at our at our two-by-twos also.

And I just want you know just to know that this is understood and that it's serving people's needs.

So aside from emails and from the Let's Talk which was just mentioned are there any other I'm not clear I know this is sort of covered a little bit but are there any other planned engagement opportunities or Q&A's before next Wednesday.

I can step in if that's okay Mr. Gannon.

So what so one of the things we're looking at doing and I don't have the timing all down for all these things so we're moving really really fast but doing Facebook Live where we talk about some of the stuff with community.

And so and you guys have all I'm sure have been a part of some of those public-facing kind of engagements online where items like the graphics and all of those tools and resources would be the things that we would be sharing.

And and can I digress a little bit back to the previous question a little bit about SEA engagement or our our educator workforce engagement.

We are also considering doing or really contemplating I think we're pretty close to being nailing it down.

We have the Wednesdays where we have an opportunity to actually work with our workforce and actually communicate directly using the technology we have available to us in more direct ways than we have historically which is an amazing opportunity for us.

As we are in a universe where we have a lot of technology a lot of access to technology how do we maximize and use that to make sure we're getting the word out in all of our platforms.

Thank you for that.

Was there some I don't know if somebody else was going to say something.

Hi.

Carrie Campbell Chief Public Affairs Officer.

So just to add on to what Chief Bush shared.

We will host a Facebook Live Town Hall next week.

Tuesday is currently what we have it scheduled for tentatively so that staff can have a two-way conversation.

It is through it is through Facebook Live so it's not exactly like this but it will give an opportunity for families to go deeper and ask questions about the plan.

In addition President Hampson asked for someone to address the Let's Talk.

So Let's Talk is the link is open.

through the 26th and so we can compile that data and provide it to the board in advance the information that we've gotten before board vote.

So that will be distributed has been distributed through social media.

We will post it.

I think it's in the BAR but we can actually distribute it actively starting tomorrow through the vote next week.

Thank you.

That would be wonderful.

I think just given those opportunities again I feel like it's a lot of just making sure just we want people to understand what this is about and then any sort of any kind of valuable feedback we can get from that which is of course important because you know we're looking through it.

It's a long document but it's got you know I think this is a really impressive plan that has been drawn up and I also I guess I'll just draw attention to because I can see it I don't know if you can't show it on the screen I'm not sure but I think it's on the PDF it's page 24 which is page 13 of the template.

And yes this is the you know strategic supports for students and to select the students and it's like all of them are selected.

So I think it's really important just to stress to people that every student is going to be receiving some well-being supports and we're committed to doing that in a culturally responsive manner.

So I am really proud that we've made that commitment and that is what our plan is going forward.

Again no other questions I guess tonight.

I do look forward to whatever feedback we receive and opportunities for people to be engaged with that.

No more questions.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

Thanks.

Thank you staff for the work that it took to put this together so that people can hopefully understand a little bit more about what's what's happening.

And yeah the the the tight timeline doesn't offer a lot of opportunity for feedback but I just want to kind of take this moment to re-emphasize that this is you know those six areas are required by by OSPI and this is really I'm thinking of this as the beginning of this process not the end of the process.

This isn't a baked We have all the answers submitted to OSPI and everybody's taking the summer off kind of thing.

This is really in the immediate to commit to OSPI that our planning will meet the requirements that they've set out.

And I you know the the Let's Talk feature is is it's great for if people are feeling like there's something really missing or you know something that that they feel wasn't wasn't considered that should be in kind of the bigger bucket idea.

I would really like us to just sort of playing off what other people have already said.

The the strategy for going forward for helping people understand what this actually means for their students in the classroom next year.

And where where and when there are opportunities are to provide feedback on that.

I think this I just I don't want people to get too caught up and committed.

I mean the general public too caught up and committed to wanting this to provide details that it's not intended to provide.

At the same time like once more of that implementation and more kind of details and and real tangible experience that their students are going to have.

As those are forming I do want to make sure that people understand when those opportunities are to give feedback or or engage around how that's being implemented.

I hope that makes sense.

So as soon as is available sort of a framework of what that might look like.

Maybe maybe a timeline maybe some key points where decisions have to be made.

And I also understand that this is iterative and ongoing and we may not have those definite points but as as as much as we can help people understand when when decisions are being made that really will have an impact of their what their student will experience in the in the classroom I think if we can figure out a way to share out that strategy for things for people to look for that would be great.

I am also I'm a little bit concerned about the internal communication about this.

And I would just say I hope that we can use this as an opportunity in how we communicate this out.

This is an opportunity for maybe the district to streamline how communicate how information goes from central offices to building leaders to educators.

Not not streamline but really define kind of the basics of how that chain of information works because ultimately when we get to the fall we really want to make sure that all buildings have the information that they need and feel supported in moving forward with this work and serving students.

And that is where In the past things have sort of unraveled that we've got you know most people have the information but there's some holes.

So any way that we can use this as an opportunity to kind of address that information stream I think would be something we should take advantage of.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf.

Oh I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Deputy Superintendent Gannon was just going to affirm many of the important points that Director Lysa or Director Rankin put into her comments.

Yes we want this to be iterative meaning over and over we want to be out engaging with families.

Learning more.

Out engaging with building leaders.

Figuring out how to put this into motion.

Out engaging with the instructional faculty and others to figure out how we can support their best delivery of instruction.

and making making the most of every day that is available between now and September 1st.

That is our critical first phase.

Internally we are looking at ways to stand up a a structure that will keep things as coordinated as we are possibly capable of doing and then even more so.

And I know having spoken to Dr. Jones that he wants to see this become the defining characteristic not just of how we reopen in the fall but how we redefine and rebrand the way that we engage with all of the families that we serve across this this large district.

And making it simple and accessible so that it doesn't require digesting a 40-page BAR report and a 30-page slideshow.

I understand that as well.

I've spoken to plenty of of working families and busy moms and hectic pulling their hair out dads saying I need to know the straightforward answers.

So we are we are keeping that right in the forefront of how we go about engagement and explaining our approach.

We did want to get this out early and say as we reorient and point this this big ship and all its many extended elements that we are We are sharing the planning process as we ourselves go through that planning process rather than hold and then reveal hold and then reveal.

So that's that's that's what's really trying to support all of our efforts is share more learn more iterate and and improve as we go along but doing it starting on day one today with with families.

So I hope that is responsive and affirming.

It's an awesome challenge we're we're trying to take on right now.

That's really great to hear.

Thank you.

Deputy Superintendent again and if I may add I just want to also add that every week whether it's our high school level meetings or middle school level meetings with our school leaders or our weekly meetings for planning with our fall reopening group with school leaders the summer reopening groups we still end up talking about the fall.

We have meetings every single week with our school leaders.

And so the things that we have the Things that we've detailed in this report are not new information.

We have school leaders that are involved as part of our joint assessment committee across all of these different dimensions as well.

So I just there are a number of different areas that we are trying to leverage our time with school leaders to be able to communicate our best thinking about this and get their feedback and have it reflected.

Their feedback comes in questions in the chat.

bring back all those questions in the chat try and be responsive and then also use this data to help us to have reminders across the multiple dimensions of this plan.

So this is not necessarily new information.

And I also want to highlight our school leaders roles as our number one ambassadors toward families about the information in this plan and us thinking about ways to be able to support our school leaders to help with getting the message out to families.

As much as we try to differentiate the level of communication we'll never know more about our students and families than our school leaders and our educators in those buildings as well.

So that is an important part of our engagement plan is really deeply engaging with our school leaders so they know the different details because they're the ones who are most in communication with students and families.

Okay.

So over to Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

I have a few questions.

And great to finally get to meet and interact with you Deputy Superintendent Gannon.

I'm excited you're here.

Yes.

So I'll just say that.

We certainly — we've been in dire need of an operational leader in that regard and a Deputy Superintendent.

My first question is just around last year when we approved the OSPI plan we in our resolution had also created a return to in-person I can't remember if the what we landed on but a task force to month-by-month monitor and evaluate how we were doing with our throughout the school year.

Did we take any lessons or did we take any learnings from that.

I know we spent a considerable amount of money a considerable considerable amount of money on the facilitation of that.

I'm going to ask maybe Chief Campbell if you could take that one on because both Rob and I weren't here.

So if there's some clarity that you could provide that would be wonderful.

If not we'll get back to Director DeWolf with that information.

I'll need to we'll need to come back with that information.

I apologize.

Okay.

Next question is I saw in the presentation the you did make a mention of the Outdoor Education Task Force so what types of learnings Did we learn from that.

Are we learning from that.

And how is that informing this work.

The outdoor and I will actually rely on Director Rankin also to chime in on this because she is an active part of the Outdoor Learning Task Force.

The Outdoor Learning Task Force is convening They've just recently really built a cadence beyond folks getting to know each other to think about what their priorities are within that.

We are paying a lot of attention to the thoughts and sentiments.

We're trying to shift from sort of the maybe programmatic features of like what could happen during outdoor learning to sort of the structural pieces of what needs to happen in a system for us to really think about outdoor and community learning.

as a system and so that is one of the big shifts that I've noticed in the conversations and how I'm being briefed about the conversations as well.

But the outdoor and community learning is an active part of our planning for next year in the fall.

And Director Rankin I'm going to have to give it to you because you spent a lot of time with that group of folks as far as the task force.

So we're just getting started Director DeWolf but Director Rankin do you have anything you'd like to add.

I'll just add that yeah they it's it's an awesome resource.

I'm so excited and thank you to all all of us on the board for approving that.

You know the the timeline as as it was as the work was supported or prioritized got moved a few times but we we have been able to get a regular schedule and meet And we have formed the work into sort of two parts.

One part is sort of the shorter term within current policy and current practices.

What are things what are recommendations that the task force can make to the district for ways to increase opportunities for outdoor learning.

And then and so we should see see that from them next month.

And then and then they will take a July hiatus and then start up again in August.

And when they start up again in August they'll be focusing on potential changes in instructional model that influence sort of throughout the the longevity of the district.

So kind of two parts.

So they've been talking to the the handful of folks who did take a have a go at outdoor learning this year.

We've had some teachers come in and speak to the task force and they've given some some recommendations have come up already just in conversation but they are going to Making that shift towards broader policy as a board task force rather than operationally as a superintendent task force was it was an interesting shift.

But yeah so we will be seeing.

Anyway I'll wrap this up.

Next month we should be getting some a set of sort of recommendations from them for for next year and then we'll dive into sort of longer term longer term changes or potential recommendations.

Thank you.

Okay.

My next question is around the recovery and acceleration and I appreciate Dr. Scarlett and really the conversations we've had about moving away from deficit.

So I really really genuinely appreciate that.

Thank you.

On the on page 22 there under as part of that theme that I won't mention to perpetuate that deficit framing.

On page 22 at the bottom it says decolonizing social studies.

And I'm curious about how we are characterizing ethnic studies in this regard.

How are we adding that to this thing as a part of I guess I want to just understand why it's listed there kind of given our slow start on that.

Yeah.

So you know I want to reiterate that even though we are still working to get this momentum within an ethnic studies program there are ethnic studies courses that are being taught across the school district.

And we do have plans to deeply engage with our secondary school leaders and educators starting and our content managers across the different content in order to really look at what ethnic studies look like and what does it look like to decolonize our instruction across social studies across ELA as well.

And so.

The Ethnic Studies Program is part of that effort.

Those educators who are already doing that work are the first folks that we're calling on to really be leaders in this effort as well as us lifting up our Black Studies courses.

in the district and as well as the work with our American Indian studies as far as with the Since Time Immemorial.

So these it's really a braided methodology.

I know we spoke probably a lot at length at the board work session and we look forward to the next time to be able to share about how that work is growing and moving beyond that.

And that's part of the work that we're doing with Dr. Goldie Muhammad and Cultivating Genius.

across all the content managers even physical education and arts and mathematics as part of our decolonizing efforts.

And that is us shifting the canon of the literature the authors the people that we you know have our students really explore and investigate.

And also for them to be able to have positive identity development as a salient protective factor for themselves within the content.

And then also ways for them to think about the social political context that they are living in both historically and as we move into the future so that our young people can really activate and move into actions as part of being citizens of our broader communities.

Thank you so much Dr. Scott.

Just a quick follow up.

Given the phrasing around decolonizing social studies feels systemic.

Do you have a sense about how many students are participating in ethnic studies.

Because if you know I would I would hope it's a larger number because that would seem more system-wide.

Yeah.

So we have to be on a growth trajectory for this.

So it would be my desire in the next few years that all of our students have you know opportunities to participate in ethnic studies.

Also American Indian studies and Black studies as well.

And so I don't have a definite number.

What I do have is where the courses are being taught right now and there could be some estimates.

And so I'll work with our our special or sorry our social studies folks and Dr. Perkins to get maybe an actual number of how many students.

But I do not want to pretend right now that this is a systemic effort.

There are policy drivers that help to lift this up and also professional learning that is planned that will help catalyze this work And also I want to remind you about this us re-situating or situating ethnic studies through Manal Al-Ansi our Director of our Department of Racial Equity Advancement and also Director of Integrated Studies about our racial equity teams that we have racial equity teams that are continuing to grow across us.

And ethnic studies is one of the top priorities that even the racial equity teams want to be able to focus on.

So that is part of our acceleration effort of us really spreading this across our systemic efforts when we think that now we have 50 racial equity teams and we'll still continue to grow up the skill across that.

So they're a really key driver for this effort as far as systemic change for us to really see the systemic impact of that as well.

Okay.

Thank you.

I would love to get that data by our meeting next week.

So thank you so much.

My final two questions maybe for Deputy Superintendent Gannon.

I've heard a lot of folks tonight talk about kind of this plan but I was curious if you could put in Layman's term what this plan is for our our our audience but also what this plan isn't because I think a lot of people are putting a lot of they're projecting a lot of what they think this is.

They think it's the full plan for the year.

They think it's a full they think it's I think it's something bigger than it is.

So if you can clarify for folks what this is and isn't in really simple terms for folks because I think there's some miscommunication about what Actually this thing is that we recently got from OSPI.

Director DeWolf thank you for that question.

I will do my best.

I will say that this is a required plan that must be submitted to OSPI.

So that is the first thing.

The second thing is by submitting this plan we are able by submitting a compliant plan we are able to draw the federal dollars into the district and make use of them.

That's the bureaucratic answer and I think it's appropriate.

The lay answer is it is also our starting point.

It is the collected harvest of all of our best ideas fitted to themes that aren't of our making but nonetheless express what we are intending to do.

Intending to do because there are many good ideas that now need to be organized and implemented.

And so it is.

The next step of planning that I think is so critical and so essential because we are going to to Director Rankin's terms translate it into something that is understandable and translatable to and what happens on September 1st and what can my student expect and how do I pursue options.

We have just over 100 days until school starts and I think it is essential that we make use of every one of them to answer your question just as as you stated it.

What is the what is the plan.

We are building that.

We are developing that.

We are preparing to share that with with the district as a whole.

Right.

All its many component lives that are so touched by what we do.

So it sounds like a bit of a dodge but there is much more to come.

And we are turning our attention to that starting tomorrow having having presented this to all of you for your consideration and action potentially next week.

Director DeWolf if I could just go back to one of your your comments as well.

You I think you were referring to the Remote Learning Task Force.

I can speak about that.

Yeah the Remote Learning I can speak about that.

I have some update information about that Superintendent.

Yeah.

So so yesterday actually members of the Remote Learning Task Force completed the survey.

And we had open office hours with them.

We've not really formatted the input or feedback but here's just some high-level feedback that might be interesting for us.

Their feedback included ensuring the voices of students and families and community that is included in our district plans moving forward so that's super consistent with our other feedback.

Having consistency and commitment to full-time in-person classroom instruction.

I'm wondering what our plans are to offer remote options next year.

and making sure that's done so with African-American student needs being at the center of the planning.

The importance of proper COVID-19 safety protocols as we open up next school year.

Having more family engagement before the school year starts and various ways for families to continue to engage and have access to needed resources and us really working to find out what those resources are that families really need.

Being able to create viable and honest mechanisms for students to be heard.

and involved in the planning for returning to schools.

Listening to our issues creating action plans with students and families and the broader school community and setting up transparent methods to hold everyone accountable.

They want us to be bold and innovative and don't fear what students are saying about their previous and online school experiences.

Listen and change as a result of that.

Be sure to involve our students and teachers in a process that seriously examines what is taught how it is taught and how it is assessed.

And again students are not the problem when we continue to see and normalize inequitable results.

And then the last two areas are being staying committed to this reopening plan and really staying the course on that and drive it for it to really change and drive what school is going to be a new this better version of schools that Dr. Jones speaks about.

And then they actually believe the SPS did well with consistent parent communication through various methods.

I'm considering all the different shifts that needed to happen this year.

So that was the feedback that we got from the learning task force.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

I really appreciate that.

Those were my final questions.

Sorry to grill everybody.

Appreciate you.

Okay.

So I just want to announce that the Let's Talk link is on the school board page.

And just as a nod to how this is all happening in real time that was literally just popped in there as we speak.

So thank you again for for making that happen.

I want to emphasize just how short the turnaround time on this entire process is based on when we got the actual template and requirements from OSPI to when it's due on June 1st.

And so we're trying to make sure that we fulfill all of the legal requirements as well as the feedback requirements.

And so hopefully this is is one layer of that.

So thank you for standing that up.

Again it's on the school board website.

So no need to link to it here.

Anybody who's listening or watching can just go to that site.

I don't have any additional questions.

Thanks so much to staff for engaging with us directly leading up to this.

And I know we have you know bits of refinement as we head into next week and look forward to seeing what comes out of of any concerns from from families and appreciate the strong effort to keep it all very contextual relative to our student outcomes focus and our strategic plan and focus on students furthest from educational justice.

And with that I'm going to take us to the next item on the agenda.

We have updating Board Procedure Number 3520BP to increase student meal prices for the 20-21 2021-22 school year This came through Audit and Finance on May 10th for approval.

Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge I believe you'll be briefing us.

Yes good evening directors.

The purpose of this BAR is to bring forward an increase in the paid so the paid meal charges which is per Board Policy 3520. This change in pricing is to comply with federal school lunch and school breakfast programs which require the average prices for paid meals to not be lower than the federal reimbursement rates.

This required change in pricing is 20 cents per meal but past practice is to align this to the nearest 25-cent increment.

So included in the BAR you can see rates from neighboring districts which generally are also in 25-cent increments.

The last rate increase was in the 2015-16 school year.

That would conclude my remarks.

I'd be happy to take any questions.

Okay I'm going to go first to Chair of Audit and Finance Vice President Hersey.

We had a robust conversation about this in committee so I don't have any additional questions and for the sake of time we'll go ahead and pass it to the next director.

Director Dury.

I was able to ask my questions in committee as well.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

No questions at this time.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

No questions.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

I do have a question.

This is for paid meals mostly meaning oh wait student meal prices.

Does this include adult.

I know there's a separate adult meal prices.

There are additional adult meal prices.

They are not within the board procedure.

We are increasing those though as well.

Okay.

So my question is about the increase for paid student meal prices is that I know this is to reflect what's in existing board policy but is there more federal funding for reimbursing meal prices for covering all Wasn't there just recent legislation that will cover all meal prices.

So will there be any paid meals next year.

We don't think so.

But guessing what the federal government is going to do next year has been we haven't been very good at it.

So we're just we just want to make sure we're prepared.

Okay.

And we think this will carry us through next year and the year after at this point.

Okay.

Thanks.

Taking care of it while we make sure it's in front of the center.

Director DeWolf do you have any questions.

No questions at this time.

Just can you clarify if this was for okay never mind for approval.

Thank you.

Okay.

I am also on Audit and Finance.

Don't have any questions.

And I think this is some makes a lot of sense and needs to needs to be done.

So we'll move down to Introduction Item Number 3. Approval of the Satterberg Foundation Elementary Feeder School Grant.

This came through Student Services Curriculum and Instruction on May 11th and was presented for is presented for approval or is brought forward for approval.

Chief Academic Officer Dr. Keisha Scarlett I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes.

Keisha Scarlett.

Thank you.

So the Board Action Report supports accepting $950,000 from the Satterberg Foundation to target literacy at 10 Title 1 Southeast and Southwest elementary schools that feed into the Nesholm Aki Kurose Mercer and Denny and Mercer middle school pathways.

Our 10 Satterberg schools are for the Aki Kurose feeder pathway Emerson Dunlap Grant Graham Hill Martin Luther King Jr. and also Hawthorne.

For the Mercer feeder pattern we have Rising Star and for Denny feeder pattern we have Concord Highland Park Rocks Hill and Sanislo.

Our fourth full year of implementation in SPS was this year our 2020-21 school year.

This FAR will fund the fifth year of implementation for our 21-22 school year.

Goals in this grant are in complete alignment with our Seattle Excellence Strategic Plan Particularly our focus on third grade reading goal with a focus on our African-American boys and students furthest from educational justice.

Our Satterberg team of literacy coaches work directly with teachers and leaders to create structures and provide coaching to support our schools continuous school improvement plan goals through our targeted universalism approach.

All 10 school leaders and school teams are deeply committed to working together to learn and to share common systems and practices to achieve greater student outcome.

During our Student Support and Curriculum and Instruction Committee I just want to remind you that the committee was very excited for this funding and emphasized the following that they noticed in alignment with the grant of the goals of the district.

Direct implementation supports for teachers and schools.

Assessments beyond the SBA specifically around success criteria.

the cross-school collaboration structures that this grant provides and also the ongoing partnership with Nest Home and the Middle School Pathways.

So I'll end these opening comments and please you can ask any questions.

And I just want to remind us that we actually have Cashel Toner our Executive Director for Curriculum Assessment Instruction.

She's here as well to provide any clarifications.

Thank you.

Okay.

First to you Director Rankin as Chair of Student Services Curriculum and Instruction.

Thanks.

Yeah I don't really have anything to add beyond what Dr. Scarlett said.

One additional thing though is that along with what what she already mentioned some of our discussion was about how appreciative we are to the Satterberg Foundation and how great it is that this type of grant really supports the goals and the work of the district rather than as as some other grants out there in the world do sort of require a new stream of work or say you know we think you should do this and we'll pay for it.

This is really like we really want to support your success and be responsive to and elevate the needs that you've identified and the work that is happening in the district as opposed to sort of being a you know out of nowhere serving some other you know who knows.

So that's really wonderful.

And I'll just add to that with our with focus on on literacy and with the new dyslexia screeners and everyone participating in science of reading I I'm excited about approving this and and I also hope that we can Take the opportunity to really look at data and see you know what learnings we might be able to take that could even benefit other schools that that are not recipients of this grant just in terms of you know what what instructors are able to do because of this and how we might benefit from learnings from that for the whole district.

So it's pretty exciting.

Okay.

Director Hersey.

No questions for me.

Thank you.

Director Dury.

No questions.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Yes I am beyond grateful for this grant.

I would like to ping off of Director Rankin's comments regarding the learnings from this grant work and these 10 schools.

and replication of things that work.

And I would like to see some feedback as to what we have learned from this 4 years going on 5 years of this grant and what we have implemented in other schools.

Last now that we're going to go back to in-person meetings it is my sincere hope that we invite the Satterberg family down to applaud them And to thank them in person.

Thanks so very much.

And did I inadvertently skip Director Hersey.

No you're good.

Oh okay.

Director Rivera-Smith.

No questions.

Very thankful for this grant and for the good work it's doing.

Director DeWolf.

No questions.

Supported this in committee.

Thank you.

Okay and no questions for me.

Thank you so much for those presentations or for that presentation.

And we will move now to the next item on the agenda.

And just to let directors know to try to make our Ops grouping a little more efficient I'm going to ask for for questions.

So please either raise your hand or speak up if you're on the phone if you do have a question related to any of these operations.

items so that we can move a little bit more quickly.

So the first is Introduction Item Number 4. Approval of the contract with InterVision for Wi-Fi 6 upgrade in secondary school buildings.

This came through Ops on May 6 for approval.

Chief Berge I believe you'll be briefing us.

Yes this board action report would authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with InterVision for the installation and equipment for Wi-Fi 6 wireless upgrade network solution.

This is a planned project funded from BEX V. The original system was installed in 2014 and it is approaching both end-of-life and end-of-maintenance.

So no more upgrades are possible nor is it compatible with newer technology in the market.

This new system's life cycle is 5 to 8 years.

We had two questions in committee that we have amended the BAR for.

First Director Rivera-Smith had asked us to please include the list of schools that it would be impacting and that is included in the BAR in the background section.

And then Director DeWolf had asked us to have some more background included just really about why now why this what this is impacting.

And really this is the end-of-life for Y5-5 that's currently in place.

This will improve performance and we do have every school secondary school going back one-to-one.

So just like at your home network service this really is going to increase performance.

That concludes my remarks.

Thank you.

Thank you Director.

Sorry any questions or let me pass it to Director DeWolf and then I'll go for anything else to add Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

Thank you JoLynn for the update.

Really appreciate it.

I don't have any questions at this time.

We did support this with approval in committee and I appreciate the background and kind of just elevating that for our audience tonight that it is definitely a crucial need and given our one-to-one it would be really really helpful.

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

Okay.

Who has questions on this item.

Okay.

Going once going twice.

Hearing none I'm going to move to Introduction Item Number 5. which is BEX V coincidentally West Seattle Elementary School Walt Hundley Playfield Property Exchange with the City of Seattle Parks and Recreation Department.

This came through Ops on May 6th for approval.

Chief Operations Officer Fred Podesta I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes.

Thank you President Hampson.

This action allows for a property exchange between the district and the City of Seattle.

It's Parks and Recreation Department.

We've talked about this a few times because the board originally authorized and on January 27 adopted a resolution that sets this property disposition process in motion at the district.

It's important to note that This property exchange really maintains current uses between our respective governments that we have built West Seattle Elementary School on a portion of Seattle Parks property and are looking to expand it with a 12-classroom addition and the permitting process won't allow us to do that unless we actually own the underlying property.

The Walt Hunley Playfield property Walt Hunley Playfield is is actually built on on district property.

This happens at many sites where there's kind of an interlocking of property between the district and the city.

So this corrects that.

So we're operating you know the uses will be the same with the exception of the addition to the school.

So it really isn't changing how the property is used other than this is initiated by our capital project.

The district and the city attempted to do a lot line adjustment in the late 80's and didn't file the appropriate records.

And so that never took place.

We're actually correcting something that was found in research as our school addition project moved along.

And so the intent is to find you know to the size the two property exchanges.

So they're equal in value so there's no exchange of funds.

And again what happens on the ground other than the new classrooms we're building will stay the same.

This is just really changing the underlying ownership of property that we are that are adjacent to each other and that we're kind of joined at the hip often with the Parks Department.

And I'll be happy to take any questions you may have.

Director DeWolf would you like to add anything to that.

No thank you.

We we had this for approval in committee so turn it back to you.

Okay.

Directors if any of you have questions.

Yes go ahead Director Harris.

Thank you.

I'm wondering if you could address the comments that have been made in public testimony.

Certainly.

There was comments about the whether this was included in the State Environmental Policy Act review when the district issued its determination of non-significance.

It was not because again this is an administrative issue regards to who owns the property.

doesn't really change you know the built environment or doesn't really have any environmental issues.

Since the subject was raised we did create an addendum to our DNS but again this isn't truly an environmental issue it's a deed issue and to areas that are not really going to change.

There is a.

a covenant on the property that we're going to require that maintains it in recreational use.

That would be the intent anyway.

Part of the property that we will get is still going to be under a part of the play field which again is important to us anyway.

So that doesn't isn't really relevant to the value of the property again.

And we're also receiving property which is under a building that we have already constructed.

We need this property to do our addition but we also need it to own all the property on which the school is already built.

There was a discussion about the appraisal.

We have a request on the part of the city to keep the appraisal confidential as part of their land disposition process.

And we typically do too.

Appraisals are not shared when you're at a negotiating phase which we technically are.

Again our our goal is to create a neutral transaction where we're getting equal value and this is not property that either entity you know is is planning to leverage financially.

So and we'll be happy to release the appraisal when the transaction is complete which is typically ours and the city's common practice.

And since we're the party in need here we're honoring the city's request to stick to so that they can proceed per their regular land disposition process.

And I think we've disclosed what the value of property is in the BAR and we'll We'll publish the appraisal at the appropriate time.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Director DeWolf you have your hand up.

Yeah.

Just wanted to mention something that doesn't feel super appropriate given that some of the comments made from that commenter were not factual.

So I just want to be thoughtful that I don't necessarily as the person that leads operations feel it is it is necessary that our Chief Operations Officer answer every question from public comment particularly because not everything that is said is factual.

So I appreciate you spending your time and sharing your answers on the spot.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other comments questions from directors on enter item number 5. Hearing none let's move to intro item number 6. Green Lake Elementary acceptance of playground improvements gifts gift.

This came through operations on May 6 and was is presented for approval.

Chief Podesta.

Thank you.

This action would accept a gift from the Green Lake Elementary Parent Teacher Association.

The Green Lake Elementary playground was There was replacement to play equipment and an installation of ADA-accessible playground turf as part of a BEX V levy project that was completed in 2020. Funds have been raised in the as a self-help project by the Green Lake PTA to install a ADA pathway from the school to the playground.

There is a significant grade between the playground and the and the school building and so this work will create kind of a zigzagging ADA accessible path that will also which will reduce barriers and increase the amount of usable play space and will also add natural play spaces and tree plantings.

I'd also like to acknowledge the work of Colleen Weinstein our Self-Help Program Manager who is also here for this meeting.

if there are any questions about project particulars but this will be a good move to make this newly installed playground equipment accessible to everyone at the school and members of the community that use the space.

Thank you Chief Podesta.

Director DeWolf anything to add.

No questions.

Thank you.

Directors do we have questions on this.

Comments.

Concerns.

This is Director Rankin.

Let's let Director Harris go first and then we'll do Director Rankin.

Go ahead Director Harris.

My apologies.

Huge thanks very much.

Go ahead Leslie.

All I wanted to say was huge thanks for this.

Thank you.

Oh I'm sorry I missed that part.

Okay.

Well glad you got to say it again.

And then to Director Rankin.

Yeah I just wanted to note in particular that one of our district's medically fragile classrooms is at Green Lake.

And so I just want to thank and recognize the Green Lake Elementary PTA for recognizing that that need in their community and making sure that their gift was something that really was to the benefit of their whole school population.

You know medically fragile.

There's you know students of different mobility in in maybe in wheelchairs.

And I think just it's I got a little bit emotional at committee just that it's it's great to see a gift to the school really one that every single student can enjoy and benefit from.

So thank you to them for that.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

I want to just make short comments because this is a school in my district.

Great commentary.

And I know that there is sometimes we have a critical eye towards PTAs that raised large sums of money for their schools.

But I think it's worth pointing out that the great majority of the money raised for this was from grants and foundations.

It wasn't just a bunch of wealthy parents making this happen.

It was it was a really larger effort than that.

So I I really do like like other speakers appreciate that they put together their efforts to do this for the school and for the community there.

who are in the medical project community and just the Green Lake community as a whole will have access to this play field.

So anyways I just wanted to draw attention to that that this really was more than just some parents with deep pockets.

This was a greater effort than that.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other directors.

I have one question.

I guess it's sort of a two-part question.

The there there wasn't a racial equity analysis and I would like to hear about this in the context of how do we take something like this where a community of greater means is able to because means is not just about deep pockets in the parents but it's also about the ability to go out and even do those self-help projects having worked on those I know how incredibly time how much volunteer work goes into that and and it takes resources to get resources.

So my question is how in the context of the broader capital projects do we take this investment that is very localized and ensure that that there is a an equitable is is there like what I imagine is what about the schools you know with with the medically fragile population that has higher degree of of homeless students and students of color students furthest from educational justice and are we ready to jump in and make sure that they've got the same access.

That's the conversation that that I want to make sure gets had and maybe you had that in committee.

I would suggest to think along that lines that you know as we put in more capital dollars like in this case for playgrounds and other equipment that that typically had been more often leaned on self-help funds that as we do condition assessments and do needs assessments for that we will take that issue into account as part of levy planning and then I Perhaps an equity analysis of the self-help program overall could lead to some strategy about how you know we deliver equitable services given you know what communities are able to do and what the district is able to do.

So maybe a two-pronged front that you know as we do our levy planning and as we as we consider the future of self-help we we try to achieve that balance in equity.

Is it acceptable for me to say a few words on this matter.

I'm Colleen.

Yes Colleen please do.

I've not been with the district long.

I've been with the district since February of last year and I've been a parent volunteer myself working with self-help projects so I know how long some of these projects can take.

Part of this equity piece was addressed in BEX V. There has been created the Playground Redevelopment Fund which is a million dollars that is used to help address equity situations on Title 1 schools within the district.

So what happens in those cases is we have funds available for schools to redo their playground if they find themselves in a similar situation to Green Lake.

To date we've committed $550,000 to projects on sites such as Lowell Hawthorne Maple Highland Park Madrona and Viewlands to date.

I do agree that there is a piece missing in all of this.

The money is now available but if there's not a parent at those schools to initiate the project with self-help we don't know that they have that need.

So I agree that this is a point for future discussion.

Yeah because it puts us as a board in the position of saying oh yeah sure okay we'll take this inequitably allocated funding.

Because the outcome is is it's inequitable.

And we've got to find a way forward out of this.

And I would say you know a million dollars is great but when you look at the scale of this project it doesn't seem like much at all.

And so It's yeah it's for me it's a it's a very hard conversation and I you know I would appreciate some discussion in the in the BAR around the equity analysis including some of the things that you just noted so that we at least know where we're headed and what our commitment is.

You know does do playgrounds and playtime impact outcomes for students.

research says that they do.

And so you know that that that's something that that I think when we're saying yes to these things and of course why would we say no to such a fantastic project in the school community that has been so much work has been put into.

But it should trigger something else that allows the the other school communities to have a similar benefit an equitable benefit.

So I will leave it at that and look forward to a little more of that discussion in the in the next BAR.

And with that let's move on to Intro Item Number 7 BEX V Approval of the Site-Specific Educational Specifications for the Van Asselt School Addition Project.

This came through Ops on May 6 and is presented for approval.

Chief Podesta.

Thank you.

The Van Asselt project is a classroom addition and also some modernization of the historic building.

And educational specifications the district adopts general specifications for each school type and then as part of major capital projects also approves a site-specific educational specification which is a very high-level document that guides the design of buildings.

It is not the design itself but is more of a narrative and tabular document that describes the program needs at a high level to guide the project design and guide the project architects.

to in their in their modeling so they can design the building that we ultimately need to meet the program requirements at the given school.

Board approval is required of educational specifications as part of our state funding process.

Okay.

Director DeWolf.

Anything to add.

Other directors.

Okay hearing none I will move to Introduction Item Number 8 BEX V Approval of the Site-Specific Educational Specifications for the Rainier Beach High School Replacement Project.

This came through Ops on May 6th and is presented for approval.

Chief Podesta.

Thank you.

And this item is the Rainier Beach High School Replacement version of what I just described about the Van Asselt project.

In this case it's a full school replacement and the Educational specification again is a high-level document that describes all the program requirements to guide the design for the new high school and is once again required to accommodate the state funding that's included in that project.

Director DeWolf anything here.

Yes thanks President Hampson.

Just one one comment one question.

First question Fred if you can just clarify the community engagement or some how we gathered kind of feedback and input from community on this.

Just would like to help paint a picture for folks.

Yes we we the we've had a very robust community engagement process working with the school design advisory team and working with two school leaders and had many community meetings even during this time with remote access to these meetings but we've actually in some ways those have been able to increase participation.

Worked with school leaders to kind of get the program definition and the special needs of the school such as the skill center and other programs at the school and to continue to see growth to be able to support growth at the school and address issues that haven't been addressed for a long time.

We've been our design team has engaged engaged consultants in this case Monisha Harrell to help us engage with the community.

You know this is this project was really driven as the as the district considered the long-term future There was an enormous amount of community engagement and activism on the part of the school community to support these projects.

We wanted to honor that and make sure we understood both from design and school programming function and even with regard to our contracting process to make sure that we got widespread participation in the construction project itself so you know Building a brand-new compra replacing a comprehensive high school is an enormous deal.

And this Rainier Beach High School is such a cornerstone in this community.

that we worked very hard to make sure every step of the way people are comfortable with the design and are supportive of the design.

I attended a design presentation a couple of weeks ago and you know we got the community was very interested in and where this project is going and is very supportive of it.

Thank you Fred.

My follow-up questions are just if you can if you can just clarify or share my understanding is that the resolution we passed last year illustrating our commitment to the inclusion of our LGBTQ student staff and community.

I think part of those provisions impacted the site specs with respect to restrooms.

Can you clarify.

How this is inclusive.

Yes.

The the restroom design you know deconstructed you know how how restrooms are used and made sure that that We have gender-neutral identity-neutral restrooms supported both with single-use restrooms and community restrooms that and that can be reconfigured as time goes on as we understand how the rooms get used.

But yes that has completely been built into the design.

Thank you.

Final question is just we recently passed and obviously we had to fix a clerical error today around our 100 percent clean energy resolution.

Has that impacted positively the kind of the planning for this in regards to the 100 percent clean or prioritizing kind of clean energy upgrades.

Yes I mean the certainly the building systems all assume clean energy and you know are assuming the we have a very progressive building code and energy code in Seattle.

I think the design team has taken this you know anticipating the clean energy resolution.

It's also taking into account kind of passive systems and building materials as well to consider kind of the life cycle energy implications and climate change implications of construction materials and construction methods.

So yes I it was not lost.

on the project team you know where the board was going with both the Clean Energy Resolution and just our interest and the community's interest in making sure our designs support the climate goals of our community and our district.

So all that is being factored in.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Directors do you have questions comments or concerns.

Director Harris here.

I am thrilled that we are moving forward.

We are way late on making this happen for Rainier Beach High School and the community and hugely appreciate.

Thank you.

Other directors.

I just have one question which is the same question I had when we had the presentation which was fantastic and particularly with Monisha being there to talk about the community engagement that they're doing and the and then I was able to sit in on one of the next kind of opening presentations for all of this.

I'm concerned still about the specificity of the titles for special education that we are using in in educational specifications terminology that is not that is specific to a collective bargaining agreement.

And so I'm just wanting to know if there's been any follow-up on that conversation since I last brought it up.

I think you know again we use terms the site-specific educational specifications I think in kind of inherent terms from the general school type specifications.

So I think as we think through that process of how those are developed or can we just amend them but.

I know staff have taken note of the of the questions you raised and certainly as our kind of thoughts about special education programming are are changing now I think we're going to try to look to you know more general terms and terms that kind of reflect where the where the district is going and you know doesn't lock us into legacy terms that are are not going to be helpful.

And I will note that staff is very clear that these are and it's clear in the description that that they can be converted to general classrooms.

It's just that it sort of starts us off in this very deficit-based language that is exclusionary.

And.

And and I think that's that's really problematic.

And so to the extent that we can still be descriptive of the physical spaces and what they may be used for by the time it's all done and yet not be kind of contributing to that mindset I think is is important.

So I just wanted to to note that.

And yes they are they are flexible but And maybe maybe that's a policy issue for us.

I'm not sure.

Yeah.

I believe it's an artifact of the documents.

The the design itself and you know how these spaces are referenced in the actual building can easily be dealt with you know as as these projects proceed.

We'll work with our collaborators on ed specs in other divisions to clean this up in that process but again I think these are artifacts that are inside kind of base documents that people use to build the site-specific ones and we can clean that up.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Anything from anybody else.

Okay with that.

I'll just oh I'm just going to add we we had a similar discussion in committee and Mr. Best provided a lot of information but new information is that or what I'm hearing from Chief Podesta now is that it may just be a matter of recoding the form of the ed specs which would be great and easy to fix.

But just yeah agree that we don't want to codify in or we don't want to cement in our architecture things that are not you know we don't want to find ourselves in a place where somebody says well we have to do this because we have room for it.

instead of yeah yeah you get what I'm saying.

Yep.

Well that's also a historical record of I mean unfortunately an accurate one of where we are right now.

But yeah.

So okay so let's move now to Introduction Item Number 9. Approve BEX V Approval of the Value Engineering Report for the Van Asselt School Addition Project.

This came through Ops on May 6 for approval.

Chief Podesta.

Thank you.

Value Engineering Report is sort of a quality assurance step during project design where we solicit a second opinion of or from architects and engineers to review our project design and make a series of suggestions of places where they might suggest we could save costs.

And our project team and our design team then evaluate all those suggestions and If and accept those in cases where they would we agree with our value engineering consultant that the suggestions will either add value or reduce cost but also maintain the educational program goals that we have and meet our operating requirements because we want to truly consider lifecycle costs of a building not just construction costs.

In the case of this project the team incorporated 16 of the suggestions supplied by the consultant and which we expect to produce about a half million dollars in savings in construction costs.

Okay Director DeWolf.

No questions here.

Any other directors have comments questions or concerns on intro item number 5 number 9 number 9. Okay let's go to Introduction Item Number 10 BEX V School Construction Assistance Program and Distressed School Grant Approval of the Construction Reports for Kimball Northgate and Viewlands Elementary School Replacement Projects.

This came through Ops on May 6 and is presented for approval.

Chief Podesta.

And this is somewhat similar.

A constructability report is required as part part of the state funding process.

It's also a quality assurance process of design focused mostly on construction methods.

And where we get a review is a systematic review that is basically again a second opinion from an experienced builder to confirm the constructability of the architect's design based on their experience.

And again this is a process required because there's state funding in these three school replacement projects for Kimball Northgate and Buhlums Elementary.

Even though it is a state requirement on complex projects we we often do this as it's it's helpful to move from design to construction to have a construction expert and review designs and alert us to any flags that are going to make things difficult not necessarily just a cost issue as with the value engineering report.

And I'll be happy to take any questions.

Director DeWolf.

No questions here.

Thank you Fred.

Any other directors have questions comments or concerns.

Okay.

Thank you so much Chief Podesta and staff.

We've concluded the introduction items and now move to the board comments section of the agenda.

We are starting with Director Hersey.

Okay hello.

I will keep my comments very brief.

I just wanted to thank all of our educators as we get closer and closer to summer for all of the work that you've been putting in.

Thank you to all of the families that continue to join us at our D7 meetings.

If you have not had an opportunity to join us and you would like to please either reach out to me or you could also reach out to Seattle Council PTSA.

Our next meeting with D7 will be next Tuesday.

And as we begin to open things up we're going to be looking for new opportunities to continue to engage with families and make sure that we are hearing everything that we need to be hearing especially in District 7 in terms of ensuring that folks have access as we continue to think about like what does reopening look like on an individual basis.

So stay on the lookout for that.

Other than that.

We'll go ahead and pass to the next director.

Thank you so much and I hope everybody is well and taking care of themselves.

Director Dury.

Thanks.

I just want to really encourage people to take a look at the plan that we're submitting to OSPI and keep and keep in touch with what's moving on for the fall.

and get in touch with board members using less let's talk whatever means you have to get your comments and thoughts and concerns heard throughout that process.

Thanks.

Thank you Director Dury.

And now to Director Harris.

Thanks so much.

I will echo the comments but thanks to our educators our boots on the ground folks and our entire staff both at the John's the folks that mow our lawns that clean our buildings that assist with safety especially in COVID-19 times and to our ancillary folks like our first student drivers.

I still would like to see the governor call out the National Guard who have passed their security checks to drive our buses and My hope is is that First Student is doing all that they can to recruit new drivers over the summer so that we have transportation for those that need it.

I'm more than happy to hear from folks.

I am extraordinarily appreciative of all opinions whether I agree with them or not and happy to engage and I cannot wait to have in-person meetings and the moment that it is safe and our libraries can accommodate us we'll go back to the lasagna every three meetings time and in the interim I look forward to collaborating with any of the other board directors on Zoom meetings.

Thanks so very much.

And last I'm thrilled that we will have in-person graduations even though families and communities access to S.A.M. will be limited.

I I think it was a tragedy we couldn't do that last year and I am so so looking forward to this celebration.

Thanks so much.

Huge gratitude and it's an honor and a privilege to serve with you all.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

I wanted to give and I could have given earlier during the committee reports I wanted to give the Head Start early learning program update.

As our board's Head Start program liaison I have the pleasure of meeting monthly with our Head Start administrative team.

Technically it's part of their federal grant requirement but I like to think they'd meet with me anyways because they like sharing the good work they're doing and they would do it even if they weren't compelled.

It's always enjoyable to hear what's going on with Head Start and for those who don't know Head Start is a federally funded child development program for low-income children and their families.

The Head Start programs in Seattle Public Schools serve 3- and 4-year-old students offering full and half-day programs at many of our schools.

The overall goal of Head Start is to improve the social competence and school readiness through commitments to a supportive learning environment for children and families.

And so like the rest of our K-12 system Head Start is Head Start is planning for a full in-person full-time return to school in the fall.

for they have they generally have around 350 students.

The transition this spring to in-person has gone well and we got to remember for a lot of these students it was their first time stepping foot in a classroom so but the administrators report that the children are transitioning well and the program and they are comfortable with the classroom schedules and the routine so.

That's great.

Head Start teachers continue to undergo professional development.

They attended a pre-K literacy training just today and anti-bias trainings earlier this month.

Both of these trainings are part of an ongoing series.

Head Start also supports the student's health and oral care by tracking if students are on schedule with their routine doctor and dental exams.

Currently COVID has made that difficult for a lot of families to have those exams and so that is a place where the department is giving some extra attention to to make sure students are on track with those.

And another important aspect of Head Start is that it doesn't just serve the students but it serves the parents as well.

Parents have the opportunity to provide leadership and governance of the program via policy council and they also participate in parent center meetings which this month will focus on kindergarten transition.

Head Start enrolls year-round so please help spread the word that they're taking applications for this fall.

So aside from that report I wanted to give I wanted to also talk really quickly well I don't know how quickly but board directors attend a lot of conferences and webinars and trainings.

And today and yesterday I attended what I felt like was a really powerful conference that I had the privilege of attending.

It was an equity conference hosted by the Washington Association of School Administrators Washington Association the Washington State School Directors Association and the Association of Washington School Principals.

Lots of acronyms or abbreviations there but over two half days the conference featured amazing keynote speakers and headliners focusing on research-based high leverage core practices necessary for organizational growth and leadership for equity.

And it was really inspiring.

I covered a full spectrum of touch points on our path towards building an equitable anti-racist education system.

And I intentionally say building not rebuilding because you can't rebuild something that was never built.

And everything tells us that from the bottom up our public schools were built on and continue to build upon white supremacy.

And it's in everything.

It's in how we do or how we don't.

involve parents how we do or don't reflect our students' cultures in our curriculums.

How we do or don't involve student voice.

And speaking of students who really are the core of our work I want to share one analogy because it really stuck with me from the conference.

And it was like say there's a restaurant and when people stop going to the restaurant the restaurant doesn't say wow there's something wrong with our customers.

You know they look at their connection to their customers their product offerings and the needs of their customers.

So I would I'm afraid that if we were a restaurant we'd be going out of business because we don't do it enough.

And I know we're getting there.

We as a board will be modeling the inclusion of student voice as we are soon to appoint student representatives to our board so that we can speak with them not just for them and we can make our decisions alongside them.

So I have a lot more I could say and share about that and I do hope to forward some PDFs to the rest of the board members to share with you because it was really an amazing conference and hope to do more of that in the future.

That's all for my question my comments tonight.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I'm going to keep my time short and just mention something that's happening next week which is the 50th anniversary of the passage of Washington State House Bill 90 Education for All.

So May 25th.

is the 50th anniversary.

This bill was the first U.S. law to grant public education to people with disabilities.

Before this students with disabilities were either kept home or institutionalized.

And so the the idea and important work understanding that people with disabilities deserve access to public education.

Started here in Washington State with a group of of course mothers.

And the legacy of that work is is deep in a lot of our institutions in Seattle and in Washington.

And also somehow from the idea that people with disabilities students with disabilities deserve deserve and should access education.

It started here but then you know 50 years later we are we are not leading that in the country.

We are not leading the idea of inclusionary education in in out of all 50 countries Washington State is 44th in terms of students with disabilities learning in inclusive environments.

So we have a ton of.

ton of work to do and where that dovetails with our substantive plan in Seattle Public Schools is when you look at the demographics of students who receive special education services as compared to the the the whole of Seattle Public Schools students of color are overrepresented in the number of students with IEPs.

And even more alarming is that in our most restrictive educational spaces social emotional learning or SEL and other exclusionary environments that the disproportionality is even more.

So we are students of color with disabilities are the have the least access to general education and to being in schools with their peers.

And incidentally are also the students who are the I don't know recipients isn't the right word but the students who have the highest incidence of restraints.

So we have students of color experiencing a high level of restraint in in part due to exclusionary practices.

So next next week is the 50th anniversary of this really really important piece of legislation.

And I'm personally using it as a way to recommit recommit myself to honoring the legacy of that bill and working towards better and more inclusive education.

And if you are interested there is a free conversation event happening through Northwest Center happening online to will they'll be talking about the law examining the current state of special education in our state and talking about how we can continue as a as a community to make good on the promise of education for everybody.

So if you're interested please join me.

You can just go to Northwest Center nwcenter.org and find it on their website and register if you're interested.

And I believe that on that date Various other government organization entities will be also declaring that education for all day on May 25th.

So yeah.

And we'll keep on keeping on in terms of working to make that promise true.

So thanks.

Director DeWolf.

Director DeWolf.

Did we lose him.

We might have lost him.

I don't see him on here currently.

Okay.

I don't the only comment I have is to just let folks remind folks that there is the Let's Talk for the plan due to OSPI on June 1st on the board web page and I'll be resuming my community walks at 11 o'clock on Thursdays next week and we'll post that on my back of my Facebook page and or Twitter.

And with that there being no further business oh I just wanted to say a very huge welcome to Staff has joined us recently and thank you for for jumping in to what remains a constantly changing and very fast-paced environment within which to try to deliver a an evolved form of education to our deserving students and support for their families.

So thanks for for for being here with us.

And there be no further business to come before the board.

The regular board meeting is now adjourned at 735 p.m.

Thanks everyone.