School Board Meeting November 20, 2019 Part 2

Okay next up would be Chandler Charles.

Thomas Raymond Spear.

Michelle Lundwear.

Brian Terry.

Good evening.

Studies have found remarkable benefits of integrated classrooms for black students.

They complete more years of education have significantly higher rates of both high school and college graduation.

As adults.

African-American to experience integrated classrooms have higher wages and measurably improved health.

One study found the benefit of spending 12 years in integrated classrooms was large enough to completely overcome the black white educational attainment gap.

While our segregated highly capable service model works for many families in the program.

It comes at a great cost to those outside.

Separate is not equal.

Desegregation attempts have always been met by opposition from those who benefit from the segregation.

We must not let these families stand in the way of serving our students equitably.

Please bring TAF to Washington Middle School and show our students that we believe in all of them.

Thank you.

Next three speakers up are.

Astina DeBonte.

Oh sorry excuse me.

Aiden Carroll.

Astina DeBonte.

And Tanya Davis.

Clear Sky Native Youth Council and Urban Native Education Alliance programs this year served 158 unique students, three 8th grade graduates and four 12th graduates included.

38 children participated in the Natives on the Rise mentorship program.

There were 167 167 volunteers and 23 mentors and the mentorship was only January to June because that hasn't been able to continue this fall.

I also just want to reiterate.

That.

As a point of contact with.

Lakeland Springs and Eagle Staff.

I received no request for a meeting and one of the main reasons for the termination was that we had repeatedly declined requests for a meeting.

No one else.

Has received that either.

And I would like to yield the rest of my time to Kay Fidler.

Call the cops now.

So.

In relation to.

The.

Urban Native Education Alliance.

Indian education.

And Clear Sky.

What is that relationship.

You know it's it's three very unique programs but it really is our community our native community and different neighborhoods in this city have representatives on that school board and you go back to you know West Seattle there's a school board person has a meeting.

I'm a real anomaly in West Seattle let me tell you.

And I'm one of the few people left there that hasn't been a victim of the economic ethnic cleansing that's occurred greatly in West Seattle.

Somebody fix this thing.

And so I don't have a representative a neighborhood representative up here.

If I go to that West Seattle meeting I'm that old Indian lady that lives on the corner with the big dogs and had a teepee in her backyard.

Right.

I'm not taken seriously and I'm the only one there to speak about Native issues and it's it's like a barrier you're not going to get across.

And so I really appreciate people like Scott Pinkham and Director Burke who heard me speaking angrily one day and didn't get intimidated just kept listening until I was ready to not speak angrily.

And you heard what I said.

And Scott Pinkham who could hear what I was saying even though my granddaughter and his daughter were on a basketball court on opposing teams.

We sat and talked and you know it isn't about agreeing.

I don't know why everybody is so afraid of conflict.

Conflict is not a bad thing.

Conflict is growth.

Conflict is only bad when you're not moving towards resolution.

And so what we need in this district is a whole bunch of conflict resolution training.

And that's what the relationship between all these programs.

And maybe if y'all went and got some conflict resolution training you would have room in your brain to remember things.

See I was one of the elders.

Who was standing there.

When Seattle Public Schools said if you guys quit protesting.

When we move you out of the Delridge building.

Up to Wilson and Pacific.

You'll never have to move again.

And the elders before me told me when they got moved out of Marshall.

That's what they said about Delridge.

And then.

When they moved us out of Wilson Pacific they said don't worry.

We're going to put a space in that building for the native community.

It's even going to have a locking storage area.

And I said you know don't give that key to Sarah Wilson because I'm not going to go beg her for a key to the storage area.

See her and I we've had conflict.

Our family's been having conflict for generations.

My older sister and her mother had to make a truce between our families.

So this is not new.

What's.

What's bad is that we don't have that conflict resolution.

And I think because of that.

Y'all can't remember your promises.

You know like George Washington made a bunch of promises.

Abraham Lincoln.

When he hung all those natives on Christmas Day right.

The Dakota 38 plus 2. Right.

So it isn't just the promises that your predecessors on the school board made.

We've been listening to promises for a long time.

And I know it's difficult here because there's like five hundred and some different tribes represented in this one city.

And so it's hard.

Scott's from a way different tribe than me.

And Director Burke is like from a way different tribe.

Right.

But if we can communicate.

And overcome conflict.

Then I just think that that would be a good thing for the rest of this district to do.

But it would mean investing.

Because you promised the Native community that we would have access to that building.

And when I want to have a powwow up there.

Now I can't do that.

When I want to have a community gathering of Native people up there to celebrate our graduates.

I can't do that.

Because you threw us out.

How dare you do that to us.

Who do you think you are.

To throw us out in the street.

Aren't we homeless enough.

So.

Don't invite me to your school district community meeting.

You come to my door.

Don't tell me go to West Seattle.

Don't tell me go up north.

I don't belong there I don't fit in.

You come to my meeting.

You be the minority.

Because Dr. Nyland did that when he made me mad.

He didn't send me an email to apologize.

He got off the chair.

He drove to South Seattle.

He went in a room with a whole lot of Indians.

That's when we were allowed to meet in school district buildings right.

And he came there every month for culture night and he sat down with the thousands of Native parents who were not represented in UNEA.

or the Indian education program.

You know none of these programs really represent the majority of us.

But you know who does represent us.

The children.

And that's what Clear Sky was.

And you threw our babies out in the road.

And I am not going to forgive that.

And I'm not going to forget that.

I have been coming here.

For close to 40 years.

So I don't know if you all watched that video that was produced by the Indian education program on why Native American students in Seattle do not graduate.

None of you did.

Most of you aren't even old enough.

Mike Tooley made that video.

20 30 years ago.

Back then we were already having difficulty back then we were already making videos back then we were already getting thrown out of the buildings.

But you are the first school board who locked the whole kit and caboodle of the community out.

That promise was made not to Clear Sky not to UNEA.

You think I'd stand for that.

I promised made to one group.

No.

This is all of us it was made to.

That promise was made to the native community and y'all broke that.

So you're going to keep hearing from me.

Migwetch.

Hello.

Austina Devante Northwest Gifted Child Association.

Last week I was here and I spoke with you all about equitable identification practices.

This time I'm going to focus on what the law says about highly capable services.

My goal here is education and helping you understand this very complex problem.

The law says the legislature finds that for highly capable students access to accelerated learning and enhanced instruction is access to a basic education.

The statement lays out several clear tests that we can use to assess whether highly capable services are meeting state law or not.

In particular.

Accelerated learning and enhanced instruction.

Accelerated means that learning is occurring at a faster pace and at a higher grade level.

Note that accelerated learning does not mean greater volume of the same standards.

It's moving students forward to new standards they have not yet mastered.

The study for mathematically precocious youth demonstrates that acceleration is the single most important indicator of success for highly capable students even decades into their adulthood.

Learning reminds us that highly capable students should be actually learning something at school Enhanced should refer to the depth and complexity of curriculum offered to highly capable students.

By the way it's not about enrichment or creative thinking exercises.

Everybody deserves enrichment and creative thinking.

It's about depth and complexity that highly capable students need.

Instruction means that highly capable students need to be receiving direct instruction from their teacher and not be asked to fill their time with independent projects or independent study of the next level textbook.

The last word is and and reminds us that we must legally provide both accelerated learning and enhanced instruction not either or.

It's not enough to only provide enhancements to the grade level curriculum.

The curriculum also must be accelerated.

It's not enough to provide accelerated curriculum for the student to self-study.

Instruction must also be provided.

Putting it all together.

It's unrealistic to ask an individual teacher to deliver this level of services for highly capable students in the context of a heterogeneous classroom especially with today's class sizes.

At absolute minimum teachers need the support of a co-teacher or highly trained instructional aid as well as a very well indexed library of accelerated curriculum materials to draw from.

That level of staffing is just not realistic in all district schools.

Districts who are attempting to ask their teachers to do this are running into contractual and bargaining issues with their associations and are having to pull back.

As a school board your job is to hold the district accountable to state law.

OSPI is watching Seattle with great interest right now.

Next up will be Tanya Davis Yvette Dinesh and Alex Zimmerman.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm learning a lot about this school board process and I'm here to talk with you about the the policy that you have to self-evaluate yourself as a board.

And I would like to give you some feedback as I thank you very much for all of your service and hours of hard work.

But as someone who's learning a lot about this process I'm also finding that your goals around community and collaboration, it's very, very hard to have a sense of what each of you are doing and when you will be doing it.

And I would really ask that as you look forward into the next year, as we have new people sitting on our board, that it's considered how you're actually listening to the community.

As we stand here tonight, I'm certainly feeling even more grounded in that need.

There are a lot of voices that do not feel heard that do not feel that it's easy to approach.

It's an intimidating process.

The Web site is very hard to figure out.

It's very hard just to get time to testify and it's not always an inconvenient time for most families with small children in school.

So I just ask that you please just take a moment to really when you're grading yourselves on that.

I just want to let you know that I really sincerely see how much work that you all do.

But it would be really helpful if you had a visible scorecard that really made it very clear what your goals are Beyond also to just your lofty stretch goals, but also the day-to-day goals that you have to manage a very large budget and to make sure the fiduciary responsibility of the very very lean budget that our school district has when we desperately need teachers and nurses and psychologists and supports for special ed and really a lot more work needs to be done obviously around equity.

It hurts my heart when I look and see the equity on the scorecard and we really ask ourselves I did not see any efforts made to reach out for to.

Anyone especially people of color around the highly capable testing and things like that So I ask that when you do your work and reflect forward that you bring that forward for this next board to be able to be more transparent to build trust and to let us know where you'll be so that it's easier to reach you and to consider that your website user experience is very very disparate and hard to understand and We really want to end this fight club culture of that you have to know to know how so that everyone can be included.

And I really appreciate very much your time and your work and I wish you Jill a very nice trip and a nice time abroad.

And I thank you very much Director Burke and Pinkham most especially I thank you too for what you've done to represent a very very underrepresented group of people.

I am of Native heritage myself and it means great to me.

Thank you.

Good evening all my name is Yvette Dinesh and I'm a proud graduate of the Seattle Public School systems.

Just a little bit that I grew up in the 1950s and by the time I graduated from Franklin High School I was an honor student in math and English and already had eight years of French and six years of Spanish.

So I know that and this is before civil rights.

So I know it can be done to educate our brownskid kids.

With that in mind.

I'm focusing particularly on Rainier Beach High School because it's come to my attention that the IB program there is still needing two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

They have a GoFundMe page that so far has raised five thousand four hundred and fifty two dollars of the two hundred fifty two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

My concern is is that.

And it still sticks in my craw.

That this school system has a billion dollar budget.

We cannot find the money to fund the IB program at Rainier Beach High School and the data is there that it's been highly successful.

And it hurts my feelings that they're always having to scrap and scrape and bake.

OK, what does this have to do with social justice, which has been around since 1848 and was started by a Jesuit priest?

And it is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privilege within a society.

It is the fair and just relation between the individual and society.

This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity and social privileges.

This has been around since 1848 we're still talking about what is social justice.

Time to quit talking and start doing.

And I got to give Superintendent Juneau props for the opinion piece you wrote in the Seattle Times.

I read the whole thing because I felt that you're trying to get to a point and the point was that you came here because of the illusion of progressive values and that you're disappointed.

That things are not moving forward and I appreciate your honesty.

We can do better people.

Think about it.

Thank you.

Commie Nazi fascist, you know what it means, is exactly who you are.

And I come to this meeting for last couple year every day, but as I listen here, it's very interesting.

Racism, racism, racism.

You programming and brainwash people about something what is absolutely not supposed to be belong in school, but they have this.

Why?

Because divide and control this exactly what is you doing.

For this Seattle right now, number one fascist city in America.

because you're controlling everything.

Is this exactly what has happened?

What makes me totally sick, you know what I mean, because first I come from system what is absolutely identical like you have right now, Soviet Union communists with KGB principle.

Seattle prosecute me right now too.

King Country Council together with sheriff prosecute me because I have different opinion.

What is I want to explain to you guys?

Don't forget I'm a Jew.

It's probably one nation in this planet, what is for the last few thousand years, have absolutely every moment of pain.

So when somebody come to care and talk about racism and everything, I look like a big boy to small children.

You understand what I'm talking?

Because I'm a Jew.

So I spend in school 20 years.

Yeah, and I start somebody.

So you need little bit change what is brainwash, what is you have, and stop with your programming fascism about this.

Because school have only one program.

Give maximum information so people can change their life and make life better.

That's it.

Why are you talking about racism in everything.

You're supposed to be teach student.

You're supposed to be give them direction.

You know what does mean.

Go to college or go to university and be somebody.

It is easy in America.

I don't understand where is a problem.

Why so many people coming talking about racism racism racism.

Stand up America.

excuse me the next speaker will be next speakers will be Dr. Carol Simmons and Chandler Charles Chandler sorry Thomas Raymond Spear.

I apologize.

Good evening.

You have heard from speakers tonight Sharing the concern and pleading with you to reverse the decision that was made regarding the harm that the Seattle Public School District has done to Native students by severing the partnership with UNEA Clear Sky and evicting this successful program from the sacred site of Licton Springs.

I know most of you personally.

And no, you are not cruel people.

Therefore, why are you not insisting, directing that the decision of this injustice be reversed?

The letter of termination and eviction sent to UNEA from Seattle Public Schools acknowledges and thanks UNEA for the work they have done to support native youth and families in the Seattle area.

It states that UNEA has quote created spaces that are welcoming and culturally responsive to all young people unquote.

and concludes with the statement of quote again we value the work of UNEA unquote.

It is not too late to reverse this decision.

It was unjustified and unfair based upon mistaken information that was just plain wrong.

Whether you step down from the board or remain on the board you do not want to leave as your legacy a decision that will perpetuate and support unjustifiable decisions.

That negatively affect the success of Navy students.

Instead be true to your values.

Of justice.

Fairness.

Honesty transparency and dedication to the success for all students.

Reverse the decision and let a decision of justice.

Become your legacy.

Thank you.

Thomas Raymond Spear.

After Thomas Raymond Spear going back to those who were stuck in traffic Chandler Charles.

Oh sorry Alexander Landwehr Chandler Charles and Michelle Landwehr.

Good evening.

Regarding Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and Licton Springs K through 8. During the last two school years students participating in Urban Native Education Alliance UNEA had a unique educational opportunity not otherwise available through Seattle Public Schools.

Several students at both Eagle Staff and Licton K through 8 took part in student centered training and education focusing on the last known Duwamish tribe Qaxahli holy place Licton Springs Park located north of the schools.

Students learned that this place Leekteed Licton Springs is a site sacred to the Duwamish and other Puget Sound First Nations since time immemorial.

UNEA brought in elders from nearby tribes Duwamish, Snoqualmie and Muckleshoot descended from Duwamish doctors Dr. Zaccuse and Chief Lake John renowned for healing at Licton Springs.

The elders shared oral history about traditional healing and important spiritual traditions using the iron oxide pig pigment Leekteed red paint in Puget Sound's Lushootseed language that still flows from the Licton Springs today.

Eagle Staff and and Licton K-8 students learned that this place Leekteed Licton Springs is a sacred holy place a focal point of spiritual power that cannot be removed or replicated anywhere elsewhere excuse me.

Students learned that the iron oxide pigment Leekteed is a sacrament.

necessary for religious practices of the Duwamish and other Puget Sound First Nations.

UNEA brought in social media specialists who taught students the skills needed for advocacy to preserve and protect this last known Duwamish holy place.

The skills students gained included resolution writing videography experience and public speaking for advocacy.

The students own writings and film narratives about Licton Springs became part I have a 63 page application for protecting the park submitted to the city of Seattle's historic landmarks preservation board create.

Created by UNEA in partnerships with Seattle Public Library Licton Springs Community Council and other allies the city's landmarks preservation board has recently approved this historic landmark designation for Licton Springs Park.

Once again UNEA's Clear Sky Native Youth Council is an incubator for First Nations future leadership.

Thank you.

That concludes the list of those who have signed up for public testimony.

Do we still have openings for the 20 speakers.

There are there are four remaining openings.

OK going once.

One sentence Mr. Simmons one.

I stand at the moment.

Over the past 15 years or so the decisions of the Seattle School Board and administration including unfortunately some of your own or absence of decisions in your case have succeeded in removing the very last of the Native American programs and students from the Licton Springs site which is very sacred to their culture and their history.

That's all.

Thank you.

Are you coming forward to testify.

Thank you.

Hi I'm Star Naia.

I'm a national international motivational inspirational speaker.

I've been working with UNEA for about a decade now and I've witnessed miraculous amazing things coming out of that community.

I've been here a part of the community for a long time and when everything went down with Robert Eagle Staff School and UNEA getting kicked out we were heartbroken and we fought for everything that we were worth because we deserve it.

This has.

really traumatized our kids and it's ripped our community apart.

And as a national international speaker I've never seen anything like it.

I live here in Seattle now and I am shook to my core to witness what has happened to our program to witness what has happened to our kids.

And I can just tell you how disappointed that I am.

And when I talk about what's happened here across the country, my advocates and my people that I speak with across the country looking for advice to see what we can do, they can't actually believe it either.

They can't understand how this has happened to this established organization for 12 years, not 10, 12, 12 years.

and witnessing the hundreds if not thousands of kids that I've seen over the past decade and what this program has done for them has made me come and volunteer my time as well as get an honorarium sometimes but it has made my life so much richer.

And I take what I've learned from these kids here in Seattle, and I take it out into the country.

Because these kids have put up with a lot.

And this organization, UNEA, has put up with a lot.

And I'm just stepping up unprepared.

I don't have anything prepared.

But I am heartbroken.

I can tell you right now, one of the events that I hosted, I personally watched eyes that were in that school making sure that we were doing everything that they wanted us to do and they even came up to us.

Marnie came up to me and suggested that we move the feeding line a different way because it wasn't pleasing her.

You're going to tell us how to feed our kids.

We're native indigenous peoples we know exactly how to feed our kids.

But she was watching and making sure that we were doing everything to the way that she was watching us always.

In all of the years that I was there, she never got off our backs.

And as a national international speaker, I can tell you that and bear witness to that.

And I've never said it until now.

Thank you.

OK that concludes public testimony.

Thank you ever so much for being here telling us your truth learning us up.

I'm going back to Gabriella and I'd like board directors if they have questions for her to speak now.

Director Pinkham.

Of course I got to ask as a staff member at the University of Washington what are your post high school plans.

Well my post high school plan I most definitely do plan on going to South Seattle especially since it's free for the first two years at a bunch of schools down a bunch of high schools down in the South.

And I most I think it's really beneficial especially for me just because it's it helps myself and my family a lot since it's free for the first two years.

And I wouldn't I personally don't want to spend money applying since.

I don't have the free reduced lunch so I would have to pay to apply to these colleges.

And I think it's more efficient for me to at least do two years of free community college and transfer over to any Washington State high school or Washington State College.

I'd want to go to.

And I'll channel Director Pinkham Go Dawgs University of Washington Huskies.

Other directors director Geary.

I don't know if you have ever had the pleasure of attending any of Mr. Campbell's classes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I met him this weekend.

He's a cyclist and he was at a race in the park and we were talking about Cleveland and we were having a little mutual love fest because Cleveland is one of my favorite.

schools in our system for all the things that you've said.

And I have to say he had such pride in talking about the school and about the leadership and about the students and he honestly said that he just couldn't imagine working anywhere else in our district.

And so I just wanted to share that with you because it seems like there's a lot of Cleveland love going on.

And thank you.

Your words were wonderful and good luck in everything you do.

Thank you.

Director Burke.

Thank you for joining us and for sharing your perspective.

I was wondering if I could put you on the spot a little bit.

You had mentioned that there are you know that essentially the two focus areas at Cleveland and in your experience your personal experience what what elements of your education have really put joy in your heart that you really have enjoyed the subjects or the subject matter or the the topic.

This is hard.

Well I really enjoy working in humanities a lot.

As one of my classmates Justin mentioned the ethnic studies that we're going to be learning.

I'm also really excited about this because right now we're learning about government right now and I learned so much within the last like two months at Cleveland High School and it amazes me because.

In the 80 minutes that we have in class we are able to go through a lesson and understand every talking point.

We understand every detail.

But if I were to really choose something that brings so much joy is music class.

I was here last couple of weeks ago playing in the drum line here for Cleveland High School.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The music industry at Cleveland is. big it's it's huge and our director Miss Malarkey she's one of the fewest directors that's a female that teaches percussion.

So especially since the drumline community grew drastically over the years.

It brings so much joy to my heart just because I grew to have passion for that class.

I literally was thrown in that class my sophomore year and had no idea how to drum.

I had no idea how to hit a drum.

I didn't even know like it was it's crazy how something that you didn't know could be like something Just something like that could grow to be a part of you.

And I didn't know.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And I just have so much passion for that class just because I grew to love it and to continue.

And I I for sure want to continue to do it after high school as well.

So yeah.

Director DeWolf please.

Yes.

Thank you.

First of all thanks for your service on your ASB.

Really appreciate serving your school in that way.

So my curiosity is particularly as we think about the word safety which is a really broad term I think.

You know in April we really are thoughtful about sexual assault awareness month and that type of safety.

So my question is is there anything we can do in your perspective at the board level to impact making you feel safe.

And I mean in that broad sense of that term particularly as a student in one of our schools.

Well since safety is really a big thing especially in high school there's a lot of us probably 900 students there at Cleveland.

I personally feel as if our safety the safety at our school is most definitely like it just feels like there's not like I could go into school and not have to worry about much because I feel like we.

I don't know.

I just think if I were to say something about having safety be a top priority maybe.

I don't know because we do a lot of drills of course being able to help prepare us for the things that maybe might occur or.

some of the natural occurrences that could happen.

And I feel like Cleveland High School is most definitely at the top like making sure that we know what to do in situations like these are being able to know like what our escape route is or how to you know go in the corner of a classroom or something like that just.

And I feel like really.

are their top priorities to keep us safe.

And I most definitely feel like they're doing a great job at it because I could walk into Cleveland high school not worrying about anything but myself and my education and my friends and I feel like their Cleveland staff is doing an incredible job at it.

And I'm I can't really speak for any of the other schools at.

Like the district has different district high schools here in Seattle as well.

But in my perspective Cleveland High School most definitely feels safe and at home to me.

So yeah I'm not really sure if that answered your question but.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Should you wish to stay again when we are asking staff about resolutions.

Board action reports.

You are welcome to put your hand up and ask said questions.

And that's coming from a Cleveland Eagles graduate.

OK.

We have reached.

Roman 6 a consent agenda.

You have a motion for the consent agenda please.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

of the consent agenda has been moved and seconded.

Did directors have any items they would like to remove from said consent agenda.

Seeing none.

All board directors wishing to approve consent agenda please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

That's a done duck.

Somebody stole one of them so it's not in a row but it's kind of like the carpets.

There's one stitch to show that loving hands made it OK.

We're at item Roman 8 board comments and director DeWolf would you like to lead us off with respect to the board self-evaluation narrative.

that is part of the package here.

Thank you President Harris.

Yes I want to be really thoughtful that Director Harris and I spent some time over the last few weeks soliciting feedback from directors individually to get a sense of how folks both anecdotally with examples and just you know using the what we outlined in on January 23rd which would have been Can't remember the name of the bar but it was the bar where we approved our goals on January 23rd 2019. So a little less than a year ago but this board 2019 self-evaluation has been posted under board comments for tonight's meetings.

You can see that we spent the November 13th work session kind of just diving into a little bit more details about the board self-evaluation.

I have I have a couple of comments too and after discussing the self-evaluation with the board and feedback received from directors so I really appreciate you all participating.

We incorporated everything into that final self-evaluation which we did post on tonight's agenda.

So I'll kind of quickly go over this and then if anybody has anything to say please let me let me know particularly you President Harris if I don't see anybody over this part of my eyes which is everybody.

So we had three goals that we approved unanimously on January 23rd 2019 and those are racial equity training board collaboration and governance and I'll talk about what that means and then board community engagement.

As far as our board racial equity training we committed to hosting basically I would call it more of a series of trainings we started in March 2019. It was probably I would say really exciting to be at that March 2019 racial equity training.

And I just want to at least elevate the fact that we dove into some really critical and important pieces of the conversation when we think about racial equity training we talked about historical roots of race and oppression both institutional and structural racism.

And one thing that was really important was the intersection of race and public education.

And I just want to let at least elevate something and then we mentioned this after the training in March but one of the students that was observing that day and as all these meetings are public at the end we asked for people's feedback and the student said I don't always know what the board does.

And as a student of color I don't often feel a sense of hope in my school or our district but witnessing our board participate in this racial equity training and really dive into the work brought me hope for the first time in a long time.

So I feel really good about at least elevating what our goal was which was to participate in racial equity training as a board.

That goal is completed and I hope that we continue to figure out ways that we can kind of dive into this work for the next year for our board goals.

The second goal was board government collaboration and governance and I wasn't able to be here on the 13th.

But one thing that I do want to elevate particularly just from my perspective.

was per our board goal for number two we were to review and discuss board series 1000 and then the other thing we were supposed to do was engage in a process to identify gaps.

So what you'll see noted here is that we it says that we have not completed that as of November 13th but I think at least in my interpretation per the goal we actually did review and discuss and identify gaps.

But this was I'll even let Director Burke if you have anything more to say about this goal.

We spent a lot of our meetings particular executive committee meetings going over kind of a collaboration between superintendent as well as the board to identify ways that we can strengthen policy board series 1000 policies.

I feel really good about what we've gotten.

I know that we have a lot of work to do in that at least I would imagine the coming year to kind of lift off from that platform.

So if there's anything you want to add particular on goal number two.

I'll just be super brief that I think that from the time that we created the goal.

which was let's be systematic about going through the thousand series policies and sort of compiling a list that would form a work plan for next year.

I think in that sort of pure policy governance sense we didn't really do that.

We pivoted on how are we building trust.

How are we building a sense of community on the board and how are we doing that in parallel with what the superintendent is doing through her reorganization and staff collaboration and what are the channels.

So.

Well I I would concur that we haven't met the goal as written.

We have done a lot of work on other areas and I think that that's reflected in the narrative.

Thank you for that.

And I'm really grateful for everyone for helping kind of lean into that work because it's it's sort of working on ourselves rather than working on the work that we really want to do.

It's important.

Thank you Director Burke.

And then the last one was our board community engagement.

We had specific goal to host two off site work sessions out in the community.

We held our first one in March at Garfield High School it was focused on BEX V and the budget.

And you know while we're still kind of figuring out some of the technical issues with hosting those work sessions off site.

I was really glad that we were able to do that so quickly and our next one is actually in December I believe on the 3rd at Lincoln High School and so we'll have a work session out there.

I think.

One of the things I heard on the campaign trail people ask was to get out into the community.

So I feel like we were able to pursue kind of that idea.

The thing that we need to be thoughtful about is kind of the issue of costs staff time and the bandwidth to host these off site.

Particularly this year we held a lot of forums for our District 7 appointment process so I know this year we felt like we were doing a lot out there.

I hope that we at least personally this is a personal note is I hope that we think about community engagement For our next board goal and how maybe to build off of this what I think is very successful to move some of our work sessions out into our community.

I saw a lot of folks at the Garfield work session that I didn't often see at these meetings so I was grateful for that.

But I think we can get creative about making sure that we're actually out in community.

Maybe it's something that we don't even know yet but we'll be talking about those board goals relatively soon.

That's all.

OK and for the directors elect welcome aboard.

I hope you have good sneaks because you'll be running flat out running and policy work is very much the board's job and there are a whole lot of competing priorities for same.

And I'd like to think that we are handing you Some good work product that needs to be enhanced.

Now we're at board director comments who would like to go next.

Board comments and then we're going to take a break.

So you can make them fast and then you get dinner.

Okay, I'll take this, except for the part about making them fast.

So, I'll try to be kind of brief, but it won't really work out that way.

So, some exciting stuff.

The business part, starting with the business part.

The CTE forum that Superintendent Juneau had mentioned.

Thank you to the superintendent and Diane DeBacker and Caleb Perkins for their effort and the staff's effort in putting that together.

Since my time starting on the board I've attended so many events and thought wow we should do this.

And so for us to actually do host an event about something that's that we're committed to doing and that's in support of students is amazing.

I just want to say Superintendent Juneau warmed up the crowd.

with her introduction and you know her her stand up comedy was hot and you had to be there to get what that really means.

But she shared our strategic plan.

She shared some strategies about how we're focusing on students farthest from educational justice especially our African-American males and really kind of set the tone.

There were about 80 attendees and it was really cool.

They had their table groups conversations student speakers and it culminated in these little QR codes that people could scan with their phone and it would take them to a sign up.

And we got I'm not sure what the number is right now but dozens of people signed up to directly support student experiences.

We have names commitments.

For people that are willing to do field trips guest speakers be mentors offer internships and summer jobs through their companies.

And so this is so amazing.

It was really really cool.

I was just I was giddy throughout the afternoon.

My board president is not chopped liver but I'll get to her later.

Try to be brief.

As she said at the meeting you're all here because you care.

So it's the same thing.

I don't want to think I wasn't listening.

We last week we had a student community workforce student and community workforce agreement task force.

meeting and Director DeWolf phoned in are one of our our frequent critics and also frequent partner.

Monty Anderson was representing the skilled trades shared some really great information about how labor assignment works in practice.

When you think of oh this is a job that uses union labor.

What does that really mean.

So it's really interesting for me thinking that I kind of knew what was going on and I realized I really didn't.

And then Richard Best shared about our BEX V projects and the calendar and how that's going to intersect with the community workforce agreement.

Just yesterday I had a chance to drop in on the advanced learning task force I wanted to share with them my gratitude.

Also crossing paths with Director DeWolf again.

I was really sharing with them how grateful I was for their work, the year and a half they've spent together, focusing on the clarity of services, and recognizing that they, as a body as well, have diverse perspectives and some divisions in opinion.

But what they have the advantage of is a year and a half of working together doing the work doing joint research evaluating these things together and having the conversations and taking on the conflicts that we heard in public testimony.

So I challenged them to come together as a group so that we can come together as a city on this topic and we'll see how that goes.

I'm super excited about that.

Welcome and congratulations to our directors elect.

And I want to specifically thank Lisa Rivera Smith for saying yeah Rick I'd like to be your successor or follow do some of these things and this sounds like a lot of fun and it is truly truly.

So this is the sappy part.

So it's really hard to step down from this amazing and occasionally heart wrenching role as a school board director and I assure you as the people here know that is not thankless.

It's actually pretty cool.

So there's there's a lot of work that's left unfinished and I was trying to be brief on the list because I don't want to intimidate people.

But I want to encourage the current the future board to really lean into understanding the existing district data dashboards and developing new ones that matter.

measure what matters you'll make an impact and build those transparent measures build those things into policy structure with the A02 work which was started and then is going to going to develop from that.

I mentioned the advanced learning navigate a path to an equitable advanced learning services consistent predictable.

That's our model.

And then my greatest personal disappointment is that as a director I came into this as a math activist and in four years I have not been able to make a meaningful impact meaningful systemic impact on math in Seattle Public Schools.

I can say with humility and a little bit of embarrassment me a lot of embarrassment we're creating our achievement gaps in our elementary school grades in math.

Our kids are not coming in.

with achievement gaps.

We're creating them in elementary grades and we have not been able to identify the levers to pull and make that shift in elementary school that will allow those kids to take on the higher math in the middle schools and high schools.

So thank you.

So that gets me to thank yous and I've got to start with my family.

They were they were foolish enough to encourage me to do this four years ago.

And so special thanks to Linko my wife and basically everybody who stood by me emotionally and kept me grounded for the last four years.

The there's a lot of folks on staff that I also want to thank but the list is too long.

So many conversations and you all have been part of them so you know.

But thank you.

You're.

To my colleagues.

Excuse me.

Yeah.

OK we're good.

President Harris we're going to go with first names Leslie strong and principle centered leadership.

You've taken more hits more more of your share of undeserved criticism for staying true to your values true to your principles trust transparency putting the interests of kids before adults.

You're an inspiration to me.

I wasn't ready for this.

So Scott relentless attention to detail super thoughtful genuine care for the families with special support for our native communities not just inside SPS but throughout your work with UNEA and Clear Sky unapologetic consistent.

Thank you so much for everything you've taught me.

Jill we've served together on C&I a bunch.

We've we've worked really closely on a lot of policy work a lot of challenging issues structural materials adoptions sometimes contentious things like electronic personal electronic devices.

Thanks for always trying to find a path through take us to a place that's better and further along even if it's not perfect even if it's not amazing.

better Eden you have a relentless and critical policy based perspective that helps keep all of us on a governance game.

You've got this uncanny ability you can you can work at a strategic level and you can drill into the details and you can play both of those hands.

So thanks for your leadership your attention to long term capacity planning.

Zachary so your consistent drive to put student voice in the center especially our students far as from educational justice to use our newer phrase.

But when I think about before we came to that terminology it was just which of the students we haven't heard from which of the students we're not hearing from.

How do I find those students.

How do I talk to them personally.

How do I bring them to the board.

That was not.

It was not not noticed.

It was definitely noticed.

So thank you for that.

And you also have a wicked sense of humor.

So I am going to bestow on you the burden of being the humor sidekick for our superintendent.

Fortunately you have a guide.

The book.

Brandon.

One of my great regrets is to not have the opportunity to work with you more on SPS issues in our time together.

You've absolutely confirmed for me that we made the right decision.

You you've got it going on.

So keep doing that and your leadership will shine on this board as well.

And then Director Patu I miss your experience voice and insight.

You are remembered.

So that's that's the sappy part.

So thoughts to share with the future board.

So you have this book.

So half of my thoughts I can I can set aside because they're in here.

But you you provide support for the district.

You make us a better district.

You improve our image and our PR when you celebrate our successes.

You provide good governance continuous improvement when you take critical views.

You all have to find a way to do both and you have to do them authentically.

You would disagree with your colleagues.

Guaranteed.

I have.

They're all amazing.

Don't personalize it.

Even if you want to pick up the phone.

Call them up.

Talk it through.

Meet for coffee.

It's worth it.

There's never enough time when you plan your agendas or your work sessions or your meetings or whatever.

So ask yourself is this what we really need to be doing.

Is this the highest value.

Is this what's moving the district moving kids.

It's OK to say no.

Take care of yourselves.

Recognize the difference between stress and pressure.

Pressure helps you perform helps you raise your game.

Stress is bad for you.

Don't let pressure turn into stress.

Leave time for yourself and family.

You choose whether pressure becomes stress and bring your diversity and perspectives together into focus guidance for our superintendent.

We hired a strong leader.

We did it intentionally and with the support and governance from a strong board Seattle Public Schools will continue to be a force to be reckoned.

Thank you all.

Who's next.

Director Geary.

Thank you.

I don't come with prepared lists like Director Burke did.

I guess I rarely do.

But in terms of identifying the unique gifts and voices that each of you bring to the table it is amazing how everybody does bring that unique voice and how we do work together.

And that I can see those people coming in.

You will bring your own unique voices and I could not agree with Director Burke more in that you have to continue to lean in and talk to your fellow directors and look for the ways to make sure that you're hearing the voices of their constituents in their concerns so that we can get to some place that will be the best for our whole city.

You know this has just been so it's been such an amazing four years because I've learned so much even in the tedium.

You know who thought that Beck's oversight would be one of the most meaningful parts of my tenure.

But it really was to just again see a group of people who volunteer their time their very very valuable time on a monthly basis to make sure that our district is doing the best it can.

with all the money and trust that has been put in our care by our voting public.

And I could go through every single department every single committee that I've sat on every person.

You each have voices that are so important and each is unique and it's been my honor to hear them and synthesize them into the work and the decision making that I do and I'll carry all those voices with me into the future.

And many of you all continue to have relationships with because I feel so much more powerful having been an education advocate before this job.

I am just I feel like a super person now knowing the ins and outs and knowing the personalities and really coming at it with the belief that there is so much care and so much love if not always you know not perfect.

It's not going to be perfect and people aren't always going to appreciate all the hard work or how you approach it.

But I know in your hearts that so many of you care and want to see the needle move for our kids because we do continue to have.

I mean if we if we are unhappy about you know if Director Burke is unhappy about math I'm just happy about our data dashboard period.

You know not to see that change is so hard.

It is so hard every day to feel that we have kids out there who are giving up on education because that's all that means to me.

And so while we have different approaches and how we want to get to that problem and as I hear Director Burke's list it's not my list and I'm sure every one of us has a different list.

So thank you for running for board because the list of what any one of us hopes is not the same as the director sitting next to you necessarily.

And that list does become daunting.

But I had it in the version of what I'm going to continue to look for and I hope that I will be called in to help with in any way I can.

And what I want to see grow and flourish as I continue to watch Seattle Public Schools.

So I hope to see the further development embodiment and dispersion of ethnic studies throughout our system because as we heard tonight from our students from Cleveland it is an amazing experience.

And it will keep our kids involved in their education be it science or math if they hear and see themselves in the education.

So that since time immemorial and a greater incorporation of our native history our native values our native geography and getting back to the land and figuring out ways that we can embed that in our education to appreciate and care for the land.

that we are on the water that flows around us and the air we breathe.

I think that there could be no better time than to try and figure out ways to more deeply embed that in our science curriculum.

And so I hope to see that happen because I know our students are craving that type of holistic solution.

They hear and see things in the news.

They look at what's around them.

And the world is so scary to them now.

They're being told that we're in an extinction event, that our world's ending.

And if we can give them a way to connect back with the land and feel that they are, changing that and making it better and healing the crimes of the previous generations that will give them hope and it will give us all hope.

So I hope to see that.

I hope to see that we have more inclusive environments.

I am so proud of the preschool work and that we have developed those inclusive preschools.

I hope that empowers our parents in those classrooms to insist upon inclusive kindergarten classrooms and then inclusive first grade classrooms and that we really really meaningfully take this opportunity to roll up a system that is inclusive and I will do everything that I can on my part to help with that from the outside to make our families feel hope to rebuild trust because that's my background and I hope to go back into it.

And I just really I think that will be great.

I and I'll talk a little bit more how I can do that personally.

I look forward to seeing student voice grow and I hear that all the time.

You know we called out Director DeWolf and we called out Superintendent Juneau's work in that area.

But I know all of the directors that are on the board and are coming on in also value that.

And so I'd like to see more of that within the decision making within the planning of our buildings within our priorities because if we celebrate them then we will give the younger students models to become.

and they will achieve and strive to be those voices who have power within their world.

So I think we need to center them and really make it very very visible.

And then I hope to see the anti-racism policy come to fruition.

I knew when I started it and when I was working with.

Chandra Hampson on that that it was only going to be a starting point because it will be something that will need a lot of student voice.

It will need a lot of community engagement definitions will need to be hammered out and that will be a lot of work.

But I think just in that work we will move the whole body of work forward because it will force the conversations.

So that is my, those are my lists of things that I will be watching and hoping to see grow and become more settled.

There's some of them that I'm sorry, like STI, why isn't that done?

Ethnic studies, but we had to work on the policy work first because that's where we ground ourselves.

So in the future I've got seven months and then I'll be gone from Seattle for two years but we'll return.

We'll stay in touch.

And in those seven months I really want to work with district staff and with families to figure out a way to better embed unified and partnership activities for our families with children with disabilities to partner in activities within their school communities with typically developing peers.

It is a.

strategy for success and for creating hope and happiness for kids in their schools when they have activities in the sense of belonging and they're making friends.

So that is something that has existed well had a structure in our district.

It has slowly fallen apart.

I am amazed.

that more of our families don't know about it.

So I'm going to try and spend the next seven months working on a way to better embed that and get community partners around that.

So if anybody is listening to this and wants to work with me on that please reach out to me.

I was at this bed PTSA last night and asked them and already have a few names.

I know the staff members Concie Pedroza who are going to help me with that.

So I'm not going away.

It's just what's really exciting about this and then I'll wrap it up.

Is that.

Sitting on the board you have to do everything and you speak as one of seven and you bring in your desires but they're always being tested against these other people and we're being reminded that we have to act in a certain way and we have a fiduciary duty.

But now I get to go back out and focus just on the things that I'm passionate about with all these connections and all this knowledge and all these friends.

So.

Thank you to the public and to the faces that have shown up over and over to keep us in check.

Mr. Jackins as well.

I so appreciate your voices and everybody who's come to testify.

And thank you to all of our staff.

I will miss you all as Clover Codd said I hate saying goodbyes.

So I tend to just make them very squishy and just keep showing up until it's not really goodbye.

So thank you.

And I'll be watching you all and you're all my friends and I Just stay in touch with me.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Harris.

First.

First as a citizen of the Chippewa Cree Nation of Rockville Montana I want to recognize that we are on stolen indigenous land.

I'm grateful to live work and serve in a city that is the ancestral homeland to the Duwamish people Muckleshoot Nation and Suquamish Nation.

We acknowledge them as custodians of this land since time immemorial as guests and in many of our cases settlers on this land we extend our deepest gratitude and respect to their ancestors and elders past present and future.

I first want to share my gratitude to our staff the board and our community members for continuing to deeply engage with each other in the participation and hopefully ultimate goal of identifying recommendations for our district to adopt a student and community workforce agreement.

We had as Rick was mentioned Director Burke was mentioning we had our last meeting last Wednesday on November 13th and our next one is on December 4th.

You can find the information online.

We'd love to have you come and be a part of that.

Also grateful to our resource conservation specialists for their really great presentation last week at our ops committee committee meeting about the green resolution.

I'm looking forward to working with director elect Lisa Smith on this issue.

Grateful also to have met with the Seattle Council parent teacher S.

Students Association President Manuel Slye on ways to increase participation and improve our community engagement with communities and families often left out of these conversations.

Last night I attended one of the final few advanced learning task force meetings and I again just really grateful as Director Burke was saying to that group of engaged and passionate education advocates for toiling over the incredibly challenging task of providing recommendations about our advanced learning here at SPS.

As the tribal nations liaison I was grateful to attend the 30th annual Centennial Accord.

Actually that would have been almost two weeks ago now which is the annual gathering of the 29 federally recognized tribes of Washington and the state of Washington represented by the governor.

For the first day which would have been November 6 we held a tribal leaders Congress on education that I will share out materials with the board.

As well as schedule a follow up meeting with Native Education Program Manager Gail Morris to just at least synthesize what I heard at that meeting.

And because it's National Native American Heritage Month I asked Native Education Program Manager Gail to provide an update about the Native Education Program.

So I just want to provide some clarity about the work that we are doing as a district because it is deeply important and oftentimes it.

can sometimes seem like we're not doing anything but we're doing a lot here as SPS.

So we receive funding from Title 1 Title 3 Title 6 LAP Human Services Department of City Seattle and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe Charitable Fund.

We have we have Native American programs.

Gail Morris provides oversight for the Native American Native Education Department.

We have four certified teachers.

Both two are at Shikachi one at Nathan Hale and Jade Adams and Boo who is at Chief Sealth International.

We have four para educators we have family support workers we have re-entry intervention coordinators.

Some of our legal partners are the Parent Advisory Committee for Title 6 and our president is Emma Madison Crowe and Muckleshoot Indian Tribe between the Seattle Public Schools and Muckleshoot Indian Tribe we're currently working on an MOU as they are the treaty tribe of Seattle.

We also need them for as our tribal partner for the Title 6 formula grant since time immemorial curriculum and Title 1 district wide.

A couple of our other community partners are the Cowlitz Tribal Health and Chief Seattle Club and some of the community based organizations that we refer many families students and SPS employees to our Seattle Indian Health Board Seattle Indian Center Mother Nation snag production United Indians of All Tribes UNEA Red Eagle Soaring Indigenous Roots some of the after school programs that we provide.

Currently we have one at Sandpoint Elementary and we will start one in January 2020 at Highland Park.

We've also increased our partnerships with the Native Native American Youth Academy leadership There's too many academies in that Native American Youth Leadership Academy high school students meet with Title 6 and tribal students in the Puget Sound area at Chief Leschi Tribal School University of Washington.

We've also increased our teaching so the native education summer high school credit retrieval retrieval is in our native education resource room at Meany Middle School.

We also provide a summer literacy culture camp in our native ed resource room at Meany Middle School which also brings me to the fact that we have a library and it will it is online will be fully operational should be right now actually I think.

And the Huchoosedah has cataloged the Huchoosedah collection of Native American books and materials located at Meany Middle School.

So that's really exciting.

Thank you to the leadership of Director Pinkham.

We've provided five language through our Native American language adoption Southern Lushootseed Haida Navajo Nez Perce and Lakota and the parent advisory committee meets the second Thursday of every month at Meany Middle School.

We have culture nights the first and third Tuesday of every month at Meany Middle School and our community holiday gathering.

is on December 17th 2019. And as far as since time immemorial professional development as of October 17th we had 38 middle school teachers trained and obviously that work is ongoing.

I also attended yesterday's Seattle Central Greenway Safe Routes Walk which was a community walk of folks from parents staff City of Seattle reps and we met at Bailey Gatzert and we walked the route around Bailey Gatzert to identify recommendations for improvement.

So I look forward to working with council members Sawant Muscat and Gonzalez on ways to improve safety for our students getting to and from Bailey Gatzert and yet Yessir Terrace.

And.

Finally as is my customary practice I'd like to read a couple of passages from our student Azure's book You Failed Us which is actually available at Elliott Bay books and last week they were interviewed by one of the gems in our community Marcus Harrison Green and can be heard on KOW so I'm going to read a couple passages there.

I know that President Harris loves when I do this.

And this is from the chapter about difference.

Feeling different shouldn't be bad.

Differences should be acknowledged without exploiting or demeaning them.

It's no secret that different races and ethnicities have physical and cultural differences and students of color contribute so much if we feel comfortable expressing it.

When whiteness is seen as the norm it becomes an impossible standard that people of color are pressured by society to reach.

Instead of loving who I am I spent many of my years of my life trying to be white.

It did more than manifest self-hate.

It made me feel like I needed to be accepted by white people to have any worth so my actions prioritize that.

And the last thing.

When a student of color walks into a classroom of only other white students they immediately become the representative for their entire race or ethnicity which comes from a societal idea that all non-white people are the same as everybody else in their same race or ethnic group.

Imagine being expected to carry all that weight every day.

It often feels like if we make a mistake it will be reflected on to everyone else who looks like us.

Therefore it can feel like we are not allowed to make mistakes ask for help or anything else that might cause people to look down on not just us but everyone from our background.

Just a couple of announcements.

Next week I think I'll be attending the King County Legislative Forum for the Developmental Disabilities with Director Geary and then Center School is hosting a financial aid help night tomorrow actually on Friday from 4 to 5. And then just as a final note I know that I've definitely taken up some time here.

I am so incredibly proud to have served with Director Geary and Director Burke and Director Pinkham.

I really do hope our community recognizes at least some portion of the incredible incredibly difficult task that you've just completed which is governing.

We didn't always agree but we work together always.

And so thank you for your service.

I'm truly honored to have been able to serve in some way with you and I look forward to working together in the future whether you're in this time zone or nine hours away.

Thank you.

Next up Director Mack.

Good evening.

I am going to actually be brief.

First we have our community meeting December 7th 1 to 2 30 and I say we Director DeWolf and I are going to be hosting it together.

And are you coming as well.

Fabulous.

So there will be three of us.

Yeah I'm excited about that.

I also do want to give a shout out to the Lawton students that came out to sing today.

Ms. Cooper and the mention of of music education tonight multiple times over and the importance of it.

What I was actually really struck by was not only the the talent and the enjoyment of it but our music teachers and other specialty teachers in our schools have continuity with students over time and that's really important as well.

So I actually want to point out that an important aspect of our music education it's not just a one class and you're done.

There's there's a long range importance there.

I wanted to point out just really quickly that I'm not sure if they're still in the audience.

We've been talking for a really long time.

But the question of grandfathering just to point out that it is staff's proposal and there's no amendments on the table to remove it.

So that's where it stands but we'll have more conversation when it gets there.

But if you read the BAR it says that grandfathering is in there so.

And lastly.

The vote hasn't been taken yet so you may want to stick around but yeah.

Thank you.

I guess I also do want to respond to that that the you know I I continue to really appreciate the people that stand up and speak and speak their truth and bring issues to us and try to make this district a better place.

Thank you for doing that.

Continue to come and talk to us and we will continue to do better.

I'd lastly.

I don't have anything prepared and I don't even have any real words to express my gratitude to Director Geary goes our relationship goes from prior to coming out of the board.

Director Burke and Director Pinkham.

I will leave let silence be the words that I don't have.

But I am so incredibly gratitude grateful for you.

I will miss you dearly.

I'm looking forward to the future but change is hard.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Hersey you're up.

Hello.

Great.

I will try to be brief.

Yeah, I know, right?

So first off, I got to start what will likely be my long tour of schools, considering that I represent 21, if I'm not mistaken.

Last week, we had student-led conferences in Federal Way.

And we get a half day on Friday, if you're lucky.

And so I spent the second half of the day, after meeting with my own scholars down there, meeting with the students and the school community over at South Shore K-8.

I am a personal huge fan of the K-8 model.

Thank you.

Pre K-8.

And I'm a huge fan of that model because as an educator being able to see so many children A in one place running so smoothly and efficiently just made my heart sing.

But then also being able to go into classrooms and see the diverse array of learning that is happening under one roof.

But then immediately after seeing entire families four or five children deep coming together and playing before they got ready to get on the bus.

There was literally a leaf fight right outside off of Rainier Avenue.

So that was a really special moment for me because being able to step out of my classroom and into another learning environment especially here in Seattle it's powerful it's incredibly powerful.

But the most powerful piece of that day other than walking around with Principal Hendrickson and seeing all of the various work that's happening was getting to be a part of the ACE program that is housed at South Shore.

And that is a program for the development and mentorship of young African-American men and other boys of color and other men of color I should say.

And.

As a black man in Seattle there are not as many of us as my hometown in Mississippi.

But walking into that classroom immediately I was greeted with handshakes.

There was no introduction.

There was no fanfare.

They didn't even know who I was.

But every single one of the some odd 30 students immediately got up introduced themselves and shook their hand.

Just because they saw another person who looked like them walk into the room.

That sense of community that is being built within our schools is powerful.

It transcends culture.

It transcends age.

It transcends identity in so many ways.

And I want to see more of that happening in places where it needs to be.

So again thank you to Principal Hendrickson for accepting my very last minute self-invitation to your school and I look forward to visiting the next school when I have the opportunity to do so.

We're going to grind out to the other 20 when we can.

I do also want to bring some attention to a meeting that is in the works being developed by district and community partners around CPI and for those of you who might not be as up on the lingo CPI is basically when we the unfortunate instances when we have to restrain students when they may become a danger to themselves or others.

There was an incident that happened I won't go into details earlier in the month but we as a response to that incident I think that is going to be a great opportunity to share information and learning about what is restraint.

Who is capable of using it.

How do we know as a community you know when those types of things take place in our classrooms and our schools.

And I think that we look at these unfortunate opportunities To come together and build understanding as a community.

It's incredibly important and it also helps us build understanding of one another and the policies that we use within our schools and when our communities have more information our communities feel safer.

And I'm really excited about the about the opportunity to help build that safety.

Now I'm going to get to my very hopefully brief thank you's to the colleagues even though I've only been working with you for a very short time.

Looking in a lot of folks like to say that this is a thankless job.

It is it is no no I'm saying what you said it is.

And as a new person sitting in this seat so many people don't see.

the real work that goes into a lot of this.

They don't see the conversations sometimes for hours on the phone.

They don't see the hugs and the handshakes.

They don't see the real work that it takes not to necessarily lead but to govern and to get things done.

And I've only been here for a few short weeks but from my perspective as a young person stepping into this role the examples that Director Geary Director Pinkham and Director Burke have set in so many ways I don't know of a better foundation I could have walking into this role.

Watching you work independently and together has been One of the best learning experiences I've had in my life and I look forward to the work that you will continue to do in your own rights and respects and hopefully look forward to the work that you will help me do in the future because it really honestly takes a village.

A diverse array of people with a diverse array of perspectives who at the end of the day want to see our kids succeed.

And oftentimes with the conversations that happen outside of this room.

Those aims and those ideals and those human aspects of this job get forgotten.

And it's when those aspects get forgotten that we stop seeing each other.

We stop.

hearing each other but most importantly we start to miss the beautiful aspects of what we do.

And I can say again in my short time that it has been an honor and a privilege and a highlight to step into this role the way that I did and to get to work and to learn from you for the short time that I had you as colleagues.

But hopefully I look forward to a lifetime of continuing to learn from you in order to get it done for our kids.

So thank you very much.

I appreciate your service and I know I speak for many when I say you will all be sorely missed.

Director Harris.

You're up.

Warning this will not be brief.

Welcome and good evening.

Good evening.

I am Blackspot in the distance.

I am Nespers.

My English name is Scott Pinkham.

To Duwamish and Coast Salish tribes this area I say Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

Thank you for allowing us to be here.

My wife Vicki for her love and being there to support me.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

Thank you.

I love you.

It was my Kamatsa paternal grandfather who gave him my Nimiipuu name Sumamook.

The name translates roughly to black spot in the distance.

My Kamatsa passed on from this life to the next when I was young so I never got the chance to hear the story of my name.

Only that it was about a boy who ran away from home.

I find myself now believing that my Kamatsa wanted me to have my own story.

I was born and raised on the Ackerman Reservation in Central Washington attended Wapato public schools although I did not grow up on the Nespers reservation I fondly recall trips back to the Palouse and our tribes usual and accustomed places trips to the home of my maternal grandparents Lyman and Clara Scott and Lak'at and Katsa and the cabin where my paternal grandparents Alexis Pinkham and Blackie LeBurke Kamatsa and Allot allotments were located.

hunting and fishing trips to take me back throughout the tri-state area of Washington Oregon and Idaho.

But by the time I reached high school I found myself passing on those trips to stay in school.

I was concentrating more on my education and relied more on the memories of the lands of my ancestors.

As I neared graduating from the University of Washington my dad was not settled in his reminders to join him again on those trips.

Gifts from him including a fishing pole and a rifle in my last year in college.

My dad has called me back to connect with the land after I complete my education he had hoped for for all his children.

I find myself making it back to the rez only once or twice these years.

Do I miss it.

Yes.

Do I feel out of place where I'm raising our children.

Yes and no.

Do I feel at home in Seattle.

Yes I do consider Seattle my home.

This land of the Duwamish has a lot to teach us and I've learned that I have a lot to share in return.

Each of us here today possesses knowledge but how well we communicate in English is too often considered a measure of intelligence.

I see myself admiring those who speak their other languages in particular the language of their ancestors as that is where their knowledge lies.

I do not have such a privilege and just recently have been trying to learn my own language.

I was raised speaking English learning my three R's the reading writing arithmetic.

Neither of my parents spoke Nimiipuu tempt but my Kamatsa paternal grandfather did.

He is one of our tribe's medicine men.

Old Man Spider was a translation of his Nimiipuu name.

With such a name I wasn't surprised to me that my favorite superhero and still is is Spider-Man.

Both my parents worked for Indian agencies.

My dad.

for the Wapato Irrigation Project and my mom for the Acme Indian Agency.

They wanted the children to have a better to pass on an even better life to the grandchildren great grandchildren and the generations yet to come.

As the youngest of five children I had the privilege of my elder siblings helped me out.

I'd also be teased by my siblings for being the baby of the family.

I had to tell them yes I am the baby and always will be.

But that is because once my parents perfected having children they stopped.

Living and working in Seattle has brought awareness that as a country we are not there yet.

Where or what there is may be achieved may never be achieved as it consistently changes.

But for the underrepresented and marginalized communities I see the aspirations of thriving to get there a journey worth traveling.

Education of and about Native Americans has been the subject of many reports and research.

The colonizers of this land thought they knew best what they saw as uncivilized barbaric yet spiritual people of the North American continent.

In my perspective their attempts to escape their own religious persecution brought about brought upon the natives of this land a spiritual battle.

For us it is not easy to separate our spiritual mental and physical well-being.

I hope to one day see the expression of one's spirituality as true freedom of expression.

But sadly it can often be excuse me can often be suppressed in the government separation of church and state.

Even the U.S. would use religion to civilize the Native Americans by killing the Indian and saving the man.

In the words of Ryan Wedkirn they used to say the only good Indian is a dead Indian.

Well it must be no good at being Indian.

Excuse me.

We are still here.

Alive not dead.

And what has not died need not be reborn.

I thought I was going to get through this without getting emotional.

We have not assimilated.

We have adapted.

We have not been conquered.

We signed treaties.

Our cultural survival was impacted by the loss of language and spirituality.

When practicing our traditions some have become reluctant to share due to cultural appropriations appropriations that belittle the Native identity and is shared with the larger society at the cost of pride and being Native or our youth.

Our youth who see us represented as mascots and have their identity challenged because non-Indians perceive them as not being Indian enough.

Our Seattle Public Schools has not been immune to this such cultural appropriation.

Strives have been made with the changing of the mascot of West Seattle High School.

Training for the adoption of a since time immemorial.

The addition of our native languages to our curriculum.

Welcome signs that include Southern Lushootseed.

The acknowledgement of the Duwamish and the naming of Robert Eagle Staff Middle School.

But there have always been some but there also been some step backwards with the closure of Indian Heritage High School the experience of a native community based organization UNEA and the relocation of possible loss of its native focus for Licton Springs K through 8. And I add that Licton Springs K through 8 was placed at Robert Eagle Staff by a prior board.

It was done through board adoption.

More must be done to acknowledge the First Peoples of this land.

That is why I am supportive of reopening a native focus public school in Seattle similar to the now closed Indian Heritage High School a school that we better will be better for all of us similar to the services provided by Shaquachieb Denny Chief Sealth Jane Adams and Nathan Hale schools.

But those are all neighborhood attendance area schools limiting access.

We do have schools that serve other cultures and have set-asides for them.

These are schools with dual language programs that have set-asides for heritage speakers.

My hope is that with the adoption of native languages we work with the first peoples of this land and help Licton Springs be a native focused school that offers southern Lushootseed language at all grade levels and with set-asides for the indigenous peoples similar to heritage speakers.

And who will stand up and raise the voice and knowledge held within the indigenous languages of this land.

Wait listen and look around you.

You can see a movement.

You can see a rustling.

The seventh generation is here.

We see more natives are running for elected positions and not just in their own sovereign tribal governments but the local and federal levels to recover what was lost.

They bring a wide range of views of perspectives showing the diversity of tribal nations represented just here in Seattle.

There is no one voice.

We see newer generations wanting to speak those languages again and raise their native voice.

History books are rewritten because Columbus did not discover us.

We found them lost on our shores.

The U.S. manifest destiny was not just a western expansion was also an eastern invasion.

The greater society needs a knowledge that comes along with the language of our our ancestors spoke.

The earth and all living entities upon it need the indigenous knowledge of the land's original peoples.

That core language is within the languages the spirituality and our stories.

That is why there is a continual need for programs such as Huchoosta the Department of Racial Equity Advancement policy 0030 the race and equity teams that we have in our schools.

I have been working to achieve similar goals for such programs the majority of my life.

At the start the journey was seen more as an individual one about how do I fit in.

What is my role.

How do people see me.

Along the journey I left my birthplace I left my family but my essence of being Native being Nimiipuu as and always will be there.

I journeyed to places for a reason.

found my life mate my wife Vicki started a family with our daughters Molly and Joanne.

Raising our daughters in a major metropolitan city was such as Seattle has not been easy and being an urban native is not an identity.

It's an experience.

What we do with that experience is a challenge.

Do we blend in in order to survive.

Does blending in mean to be silent.

Does it take stealth to survive in an urban setting.

It is no longer about me.

My me became an us.

That us is my family my relatives and all the people on this place called Turtle Island.

There is no them because it is up to all of us to make a difference and to stand up so all voices are not only heard but respected.

It is up to us to have not only a culture competent but a culture responsive society.

As a first elected as a first native elected Seattle school board I feel I've given the voice to the marginalized communities and thank those who voted for me.

This also brings me back to my Kamatsa my paternal grandfather Old Man Spider.

My father told me he was honored by the state of Idaho as a first native to serve on a school board in Idaho.

I followed in his footsteps.

And I can hear my grandfather calling saying Samoan but not as my name but as a message to my E and my ancestors while I'll be watching.

That no matter how far I may be away from the lands of my ancestors or.

As more and more generations pass I am Nimiipuu to the new and continued board members and each of you here today.

Do not forget where you came from.

Make your community better better because society needs you.

Society needs us.

In closing my thank yous go to Hanyuat the creator.

My wife Vicki and our children Molly and Joanne my parents Alvin and June my older siblings Al Jamie Linda Michelle and all our relatives to my in-laws our ancestors and all the generations before us that had the foresight to see that our culture was able to survive and adapt under what Al Gore would have termed inconvenient conditions and to the South school board fellow members.

Thank you Jill.

And just one more to probably say about what I've learned from you probably just be the word unified.

You're always looking out for those instead those that often get lost.

But what about this group.

Thank you for that.

Brandon thank you for joining us.

I won't refer to you as a replacement for Betty but your voice is here that we need that was lacking on this one we're looking at the experience of our African-American males.

Not that you speak for all of them but we need your voice.

Rick Burke again one word or two however you want to say it.

Woodshop.

Yeah.

Thank you for your input and all that you provided and the time that we had here.

President Harris for me it's three words with what you've had here.

Listen to what you're what you've done but you always kind of use that term bring it on.

You're ready to take on what we need to address and let's do it.

Let's take care of it.

Director Mack.

Your work with operations and making sure that the Seattle school is running and going in the right directions.

I admire and look forward to seeing what more you can do to make this a better school district.

Director DeWolf as a second native elected to the Seattle school board and Chandra Hampton The third we're going strong here we're setting the momentum.

Let's keep it going.

Let's make sure our voices are heard.

Sometimes we don't agree on what is right for our native people but we got it as Kaye Fidler shared here today we got to get our voices together and the voice that you brought for the homeless.

I appreciate it as well.

Thank you.

Superintendent Juneau again we got to raise that native voice.

I appreciate that you're here and encourage you to yes reach out.

You know Kaye Fidler has been a voice has been here for a number of generations or not.

Sorry Kaye don't want to put your age up there but that she's here.

She's been here.

She knows what's happened.

She know the promises that have been made.

She's a good resource.

Please connect with her.

To the central office and staff around the room and those that are here.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ thank you big time.

You know I've learned a lot from you as well.

Chris Jackins.

If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here.

Sarah Sands Wilson.

I was able to give her a hug before she left.

Thank her for her work in the Urban Native Education Alliance.

Mention Katie Fidler what she's done.

Former board members Betty Patu with her connections to community.

Thank her.

And the two board members that we got to meet before we they departed Sue Peters Stephon Blanford.

Thank you for your guidance.

And I recall one of my first board meetings here and we had a vote and I was alone nay vote and Sue Peters leaned over to me.

That's OK Scott.

You don't always have to agree.

And I kind of juggled with her.

I don't think I didn't think I needed your permission to disagree.

To the care and service of Carol and Jim Simmons.

Thank you for what you provided.

And to all those who work in the name of equity and diversity.

And last but not least to the newest and future generations.

Again you are the leaders of tomorrow.

Make your voices heard.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ Thank you.

Oh boy.

Community meeting Saturday Southwest library 3 to 5 35th Avenue and Southwest Henderson streets two out of three chance of getting lasagna.

The CTE gathering yesterday was beyond.

I want to say it was worth the four year wait but I wouldn't be speaking truthfully.

But it was a hell of a kickoff and the energy was awesome.

Caleb Perkins and your entire team making that happen has been an extreme goal of mine.

And as I like to tease my brother in arms Mr. Burke I was talking CTE before you were running and I was the first girl in woodshop.

in the Seattle Public Schools because my mama a Republican threatened to sue them because I already knew how to sew a couple of other issues and then I'll go through my thank yous and folks this is really hard really really hard.

My next community meeting I will attempt to make on December 21st.

It'll be at a library.

I rotate them.

I'll try for three to five as well.

Third Saturday of the month.

I've taken some hits regarding the vaping lawsuit.

Please let me be very clear here.

This is a contingent fee agreement.

If we don't get a settlement or a judgment the school district is not out money.

Yes we have a very capable attorney general and a very capable King County prosecutor but they don't represent us.

And if we get damages those damages flow back to the district and anybody here that thinks we have enough money Game on as they say and we need that money.

We need it for assisting nurses issues.

So lighten up on that if you would please folks.

And if you have questions my email my phone number it's listed and Lord knows you all use it and I'm pleased that you do because you learn me up.

I wanted to go back to.

the board evaluation document.

Goal 1 race and equity training.

And I want to personally thank Drs.

Pedroza and Scarlett and most importantly their teams for assisting us to be relevant and authentic and helping us to walk our talk and learning us up.

learning us up in a safe space without some of the quite frankly very ugly polarity that we are seeing on a daily basis.

The more that we can have constructive and respectful conflict as a way to work through issues a la Ms. Fidler I couldn't agree with her more.

Conflict is not a bad thing.

And if in fact we are supposed to be role models for our 53000 students then let's keep that up.

I absolutely believe that the incoming board directors elect will continue that and that we will continue to model that kind of leadership.

If we're asking for every person in the district who is employed by the district to undertake race and equity training We need to do so and we've got the assurances from our very capable and talented staff that they will make themselves available for us to continue that.

And I'm I'm very excited to do that again.

The norms are on my desk at home.

They're on my desk at work and I've got more stretch marks in this job than I did have in the kit.

And and that's a good thing and it is really a privilege to be able to do this kind of work with such extraordinary people.

And I use the word team very advisedly because if there's anything that I'm most proud of in the last four years on this board is that the board has worked consistently to be a team and to be respectful towards each other in common goals.

And again we don't have to agree.

Moreover you don't want us to agree because that would not in fact be representative.

I think we've got a pretty good collective sense of humor and we welcome the corny sense of humor to our superintendent.

Might be what got you hired but but it really is an honor and a privilege.

And you know if you want to incur my ire what you say is that this is a thankless job and I take them all on and it's actually kind of a good time because then they can't shut me up about all the good things that we are witness to that we get to leave our Fingerprints on and anybody that's ever attended our scholarship celebrations you can't leave without losing it because what we do actually really matters and how many folks can say that on a daily basis.

Does it take a price.

It does.

And a big thank you to all of our families that pay that price.

Because we're not there a lot of the time and a big thank you to employers who give us space and especially to my small team who I thought were going to be my last piece of resistance because I didn't go looking for this job.

I figured they'd say no can't do it.

And instead they said Yo Harris it's your turn.

You love this work.

Make it happen.

We'll work around it.

And and that's.

That's a very big deal for a small firm.

And I thank them immensely for that.

And my colleagues at work who do some business on text over the phone when we're dealing with an emergency and we're in a meeting this board did Yeoman's work and prioritizing high needs schools and setting up our levy ask this board and the staff did an extraordinary job working with schools first to make that happen.

And I think it's fair to say it was a bumpy ride.

Boy didn't we prove that correct.

And I'm beyond proud of that.

Regrets.

Ethnic studies is not where I'd like to see it.

We're working on it.

We don't have a civics curriculum.

UNEA is a big regret and becoming more so when I see emails that are being daylighted via public disclosure that we have not been able to get beyond the TAF HCC impasse at Washington Middle School but we're still working on that.

So don't give up hope yet.

Unified and ultimate very participatory scenarios have not been elevated or funded nor are their trainers part of the contract to prevent traumatic brain injury and a big piece of my legal casework is traumatic brain injury.

So I take it darn seriously and I take Title 9 and gender inclusion in sports.

Very seriously I was lucky enough.

Believe it or not.

I know it's funny now to grow up as an athlete a competitive athlete and it taught me a great deal about teamwork.

The city of Seattle still has no goal for the number of preschool plus classrooms for inclusion and if you don't have a goal how the heck are you going to get there.

And what the city of Seattle did with respect to charter school funding extraordinarily disappointing especially how hard we work to make sure that that got passed kind of breaks those trust issues.

We're not doing a good job yet in terms of engagement and communication.

And it's extraordinarily frustrating and devastating to read what is happening in our district in the newspaper or to see it on social media.

We're getting better but we are so not there.

The blindsiding is it's problematic.

Our budgeting issues we all agree we don't have enough money but we need to make it a heck of a lot more transparent.

When we're moving people divisions around reorganizing.

I appreciate the keeping the central staff reduction in force and escrow.

I think that was a terribly responsible thing to do.

But again it's not transparent as we move all the pieces around and the personal pieces.

I had a nickel for every heartfelt conversation I've had with each and every one of you.

I would have won a heck of a lot more than a lotto.

If I had a nickel for everything I've learned from each and every one of you I'd be living in Tahiti at this point.

It's been a privilege.

It's been an honor.

We know where you live and you don't get off that easy.

You're stuck with us for life.

And on that note we're going to take a 15 minute break.

You know chair's privilege.

Yes let's do that because of the maple folks.

Action item number one.

This is the no no.

We're taking a 15-minute break.

Thank you all for your patience.