Seattle School Board Special Meeting August 11, 2021

I am now calling the board special meeting to order at 4 31 p.m.

Please note that this meeting is being recorded.

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

We're holding today's meeting in a hybrid format with directors staff and members of the public here in person with remote access also available via SPS-TV and YouTube streaming consistent with the Governor's proclamation on open public meetings.

For the record I'll note that Directors Hersey Rivera-Smith and Harris As well as my and Dury are here in person.

And Directors DeWolf and Director Rankin.

Is she live.

I'm here.

Are here via Teams or joining remotely.

Superintendent Jones is also present.

Because we also have some joining us remotely I'll remind everyone on the phone or Teams to please remain muted when you are not speaking.

There will not be a public comment opportunity today.

Also for those in person please mute your microphone when you are not speaking.

We have new health protocols in place since we last met here in the auditorium.

Masks and physical distancing will be required throughout the meeting.

First on the agenda for the special meeting this evening is the Fall Planning Update.

We will then have the introduction of the BAR for our Student Outcomes Focus Governance Goals and Guardrails followed by a work session on BTA V and that will be chaired by Director DeWolf.

I also want to take a brief moment to congratulate Roosevelt High School alum Nevin Harrison.

Nevin Harrison won the gold medal in the women's 200-meter canoe sprint at the Tokyo Olympics.

This was a new event and thrilling to watch.

I watched it.

Congratulations Nevin.

Could not be more proud.

I will now hand it over to staff for the presentation on fall planning.

Thank you.

I saw that canoe event and Nevin's abs must be incredible.

Nonetheless Superintendent Board comments I just want to be really brief and then I'll hand it over to some colleagues for some updates.

Let us be reminded that we're 20 days away from the start of school.

180 days of excellence.

And this summer I had some really inspiring visits to schools.

There was a lot of learning going on.

Engaged students.

And one thing that we haven't really noted is that the site coordinators have been amazing.

So next next summer if we get a chance to go out and see what's happening at these schools multiple programs happening all at once while they've been challenged with with COVID and distancing and all that but still there was fantastic learning going on.

I think there's a opportunity in front of us with Governor Newsom who has said in California that we're going to have VAX mandates for their K-12.

I'm also duly considering that as we go forward.

I know there's discussions at the state level for maybe having that as a mandate from the governor but it hasn't made that proclamation yet.

But we're researching it and taking it very seriously internally.

So I just want to.

the board to know that we are really considering doing a doing a mandate.

So part of my comments I want to have a update for return to school with Drs.

Pritchett and and Carrie Campbell.

And then we'll have an update on the virtual option.

And then we have a update on the Bitter Lake encampment since those are pretty hot items right now.

So without further ado I want to turn it over to Carrie Campbell and Sarah Pritchett.

Thank you so much Superintendent Jones.

And can everyone hear me okay.

Great.

So good afternoon or I guess we're moving into evening.

Dr. Pritchett and I have been asked to provide a brief update on our return to school plans and then provide time for you to ask questions of us.

So we're going to share some key progress specific to health protocols risks and then of course leave time for questions.

As a reminder the Office of Strategy Deployment and Responsiveness SDR as we call it for short because it's a it's an easier thing to roll off the tongue.

We were established in June and our goal is really to bring coherence and alignment to our strategic work and specifically to focus on our fall return and 180 days of excellence as most of our students come back to school in-person and full-time.

I want to remind the public our colleagues and the board that we are legally mandated to provide in-person full-time for every student who wants to come back on September 1st.

So that's just a good thing to remember as we're working through continually changing context and as we see the Delta variant increase is that there are constraints that we're working with and we don't make decisions independent of the state and OSPI.

So in addition to this mandate as mentioned we follow the requirements and guidance of the Department of Health Labor and Industries and then our local public health agency Public Health Seattle and King County.

And as mentioned the context continues to change and so simply said there are no simple answers and lots of considerations that need to be made as we return to school.

Since the last time that we presented a lot of progress has been made.

I really want to thank Dr. Jones and I really want to thank Deputy Gannon and our incredible school leaders who've advised us over these last two months as we've had to make some hard decisions and make sure that we're providing the great the best high-quality learning environment where students thrive as we re-enter and a safe learning environment.

So first I'm going to address our health protocols and then Dr. Pritchett's going to talk about some risks and some things that we're working through.

So health protocols these are still being bargained with SEA but what I'm going to talk about represents the most recent DOH guidance and that is what we're planning towards.

The good news is that we know what works.

We know what works to keep our classrooms healthy.

Universal masking.

regular handwashing daily cleaning physical distancing contact tracing and communication that goes with contact tracing and strong ventilation and air quality.

Together these layered preventative strategies have helped keep our students and our staff healthy.

We have not seen a widespread outbreak.

Early identification and contact tracing last year helped prevent the virus from spreading in our schools and our workspaces and I think that's something to really be celebrated.

Our families our students and our staff did an incredible job and those protocols and that way of working together will continue this next year.

We're also partnering so a new preventative strategy is school-based COVID-19 testing.

So we're partnering with the Health Commons Project to implement testing at all of our schools in Seattle Public Schools.

We're lifting this additional strategy to prevent in-school transmission.

Also address the reduction of loss of instructional time when a student who's symptomatic but may not have COVID has to quarantine.

Sometimes it's really hard to get a test.

So we want to reduce the barriers to getting a COVID test so they can return to school as soon as possible.

And then bolstering as I mentioned inadequate community access to testing.

The testing will be available to our staff and students when diagnostic testing is needed.

So that's when staff or students show symptoms or they're they've had close exposure to someone who has COVID.

We've selected a PCR test.

So that's a highly reliable test and you can get results within 48 to 72 hours.

It is self-administered.

So if you've had a COVID test and it was kind of a brain tickler this one is This is low nasal test.

Most students I would say probably second grade and above can actually self-administer.

The way that it will look is if a child has symptoms they need to move to the protected healthcare room.

When a parent or caregiver comes to pick them up they will be asked if they need to administer if it's the parent they can administer for the little ones.

are our youngest students.

If it's an older student they can administer themselves.

The other awesome thing about the testing program is that we will offer it to the parent or caregiver that's picking up.

So again really trying to reduce barriers to testing and keep our our communities safe.

We are taking a slow to go fast approach.

So beginning with an effective yet simple testing program that I just described.

and intending to scale to provide more expansive screen testing which is different than diagnostic testing.

You're actually testing sub-populations of students larger groups.

It could be full classrooms.

It could be a whole school.

And prioritizing those students who may have more challenges with mask wearing or might be more vulnerable.

So preschool students students who have an IEP and are getting specialized service where mask wearing is challenging etc.

Testing is 100 percent voluntary.

Parents caregivers do not need to participate but again the intention is to really reduce barriers to access.

And then to support this new prevention strategy because there's always questions about well who's going to supervise.

Who's going to operationalize.

Centrally we are providing hourly supervision funding.

That funding will be used to supervise supervise the COVID health protected room that we had last year testing and then also provide support around lunch supervision.

So Dr. Pritchett's going to describe this more in detail but in order to maximize physical distancing during lunch we are going to be spread out through buildings using many many spaces so we are deploying additional supports to schools so that that doesn't overburden our current staff.

And I think let's see oh a couple more things.

All of these health protocols have been introduced to school leaders multiple times.

Dr. Pedroza has done a phenomenal job of bringing school leaders together every Wednesday for an 11 o'clock meeting where we really go through the planning and people get to ask live questions.

The information is being rolled up into an operational handbook that will be provided out to school leaders next week with information and diagrams on how they set up their school spaces so that they'll be ready centrally we're ordering all of the required PPE including Higher PPE required by labor and industries dependent on the job functions.

Furniture has already started to be set up based on the guidance that we have from DOH.

And then HVAC reviews and school reporting et cetera.

And so this now leads us into the next big topic topic something you've probably heard families have questions about which is lunch.

So I'm going to ask Dr. Pritchett to talk about lunch plans.

Okay thank you Carrie.

As many of you may be aware the new DOH guidance continues physical distancing of 3 feet or more between students in the classroom setting to the degree possible and reasonable that allows for full-time in-person learning for students.

In common spaces the guidance is now maximum distance between students to the degree possible.

For lunches we are working to physically distance students as much as possible.

When students are eating and drinking And at the high school level provide as much flexibility as possible to reduce the number of students on campus for lunch.

All schools have worked to develop and refine their individual school lunch plans.

And at the high school middle school elementary and K-8 levels each school lunch plan reflects the unique building layout.

High schools have been encouraged to encouraged to extend off-campus lunch for all students.

Within each of these plans students will be eating lunch as Carrie stated earlier in the cafeterias in classrooms in gyms in common spaces throughout the building and at 17 of our schools in outdoor tents.

In addition to physical distancing we'll be teaching into health-related protocols.

Our goal is that students have their masks off for the least amount of time possible.

So if you think if you've ever been on a plane or you've used a water bottle while wearing a mask the practice will look similar.

We will be teaching and reminding students to promptly replace their masks when they're finished eating or drinking.

We are also requiring indoor or quieter lunches to prevent transmission.

Outdoor airflow will be increased when and where possible and it will be done in where it can be done safely.

Handwashing the using of hand sanitizers will occur before and after lunch after using the restrooms and playing outside.

Transportation has also been an area of concern for families because of because of the disruption last school year.

As a reminder transportation will be offered to all students that qualify in the coming school year.

SDR or our office has been working closely with the Transportation Department to monitor risks.

There can there continues to be a labor shortage and this also applies to our Nutrition Services Department.

We know that we we will know the scope of the risk after we send bus routes to First Student this week.

Transportation has been working with First Student to promote driver positions.

And there's been an increase in applications that we've seen in the past couple of weeks.

They are also working on temporary alternatives to fill gaps in the first weeks of school.

So regarding communications information will go out to school leaders this Friday about district transportation and routes.

Next week an update will go out to families in School Beat.

And transportation is sending direct communication to families that qualify for the service.

Transportation will also be providing a direct phone number for families and a Let's Talk page to streamline responses for families has been launched.

Of course wellness continues to be a priority focus for Superintendent Jones.

Last week all school leaders participated in the School Leaders Institute otherwise known as SLI.

The first three days were focused on student outcomes for literacy math and college and career readiness.

The last two days were focused on school readiness and creating conditions and systems for students to thrive.

I just have to say that we have had such positive feedback from school leaders who attended the SLI last week.

Just an outpouring of thanks and just encouraged by the messages that came out.

CA&I had a large part of the SLI last week and they were phenomenal under Dr. Scarlett's leadership.

Just a phenomenal message.

We really have had encouragement from school leaders excitement from school leaders.

So we're happy about that.

And I'll turn it back over to Carrie.

Thank you Dr. Pritchett.

And then finally we just want to close with I know that you're getting emails.

We're getting them emails too.

And as a parent of a Seattle Public school student the Delta variant is concerning.

And so I just want to talk about how decisions are made about shifting instructional models and then contingency planning.

So if there is an infectious disease outbreak so anything COVID-19 or other types of infectious disease Seattle Public Schools follows the authority of Public Health Seattle King County.

Public Health provides guidance to our experienced team of central nurses and lead staff about decisions to close quarantine and collaborates with the district on our response to outbreaks.

And as a reminder we have not had widespread outbreaks because of our strong health and safety protocols.

If a school does need to close Seattle Public Schools will work in partnership with Public Health to communicate directly to the school leader to the staff and to the families.

We will continue to inform families whenever there is a confirmed case in a student's classroom or if their student has been exposed to COVID-19 in a variety of settings.

So that includes the bus the common areas athletics.

We make sure that families are aware and that they know because it helps One the parent support their child and their their family.

It also helps with the mitigation and spread of COVID in our community.

There have been a lot of questions around what's the threshold for shifting to a 100 percent remote model.

So while the district superintendent has the authority under state law to close a school or schools on a temporary emergency basis including epidemics and also things like snow days.

The ultimate authority to shift to a 100 percent remote model lies with the state.

So changes a mandate or proclamation would need to come from the governor and there would actually need to be a policy change from OSPI.

Right now as I mentioned we are legally mandated to provide in-person full-time learning for any student that wants to participate.

So I just think this is good information for all of us to carry with the general public as they see the Delta variant and the transmission increase and wonder what our pivot response is going to be.

We actually take direction from health professionals and from professionals at the state level.

And then lastly closing I just think it's also really important for us to continue to collectively carry the message that we have been able to curb the transmission of COVID-19 in our school buildings and we will continue to do whatever we need to to keep our staff and our students healthy as they return September 1. We're also going to continue to support vaccination clinics.

So we vaccinated close to 5,000 students last year 12 years and older.

We vaccinated with the support of many medical providers and community partners thousands of our staff.

And we will continue to roll out and inform families and staff when vaccination clinics are available in our weekly newsletter.

And if and when we get the So go ahead for vaccination for young people 11 and younger.

We will lift sites on school campuses again for vaccination to reduce barriers to those opportunities for families who choose that approach for their child and family.

So I know this is a lot of information really fast and we may not have covered everything you're looking for but at this time if we have a couple minutes Dr. Jones we're ready to take questions.

Okay so let me see do either of our directors Rankin or DeWolf who are on Teams have questions they would like to pose at this time.

Let's start with Director DeWolf.

None here.

Thank you.

And thank you for this really great presentation Carrie.

And Sarah.

Director Rankin.

Yeah I have two quick questions.

And and also thank you so much.

It's really great to hear.

very straightforwardly while the plans have been being put in place and and kind of hear that confidence as we go into another uncertain feeling in the beginning of the school year.

So thank you very much.

The two questions I had were with the testing that's done at school.

If a student goes to the health room and then has a test in that 48 hours while there is not a result Do they what's our approach to that.

Do we require that a student stay home while we're waiting for results.

And how do they access what's happening at school or what's what's what's the deal.

That's a great question.

So if they are symptomatic and are awaiting a test and this direction comes from our central nursing team they do need to quarantine until we get a negative test back.

But with allergies and the flu and all kinds of things there are a lot of students who come back with negative COVID tests.

We want to reduce the amount of time that they are quarantining at home waiting for a test result.

So that's I think the answer to your first part of the question.

Second part what do they do while they're waiting.

That the instructional model or how they are continuing their learning while quarantining at home is part of the bargaining with SEA at this time.

Okay.

Thank you.

And then my other question is I was really excited to hear popped in there from Dr. Pritchett about the 17 schools with the outdoor tents for lunch.

I was going to ask about outdoor spaces.

So I'm wondering is that number are we going to see that number grow or is that opt-in by school or how are those sites determined.

And also will those spaces be available for class time as well.

So we had schools do initial planning.

School leaders turned in their lunch plans and based on those lunch plans and we reviewed them individually and then worked with directors of schools to also go through if there were questions on plans.

And out of the 104 plans that were turned in there were 17 schools that requested tents.

And again it depends on the site.

You have some schools that have a lot more common space and in different spaces where they're able to have students eat inside and then and again we had the 17 schools who chose to do tents.

We may see as we get into school where we need to make some adjustments because again we've made the best laid plans and when students return we may need to monitor and adjust.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Any other questions here on the floor.

Let's start with Director Hersey.

Hello.

I wanted to loop back to the potential for a vaccine mandate.

It's based on our research put forth.

Do we know if that is going to need to be something that we bargain at the table yet.

Yeah.

The answer is yes and we've we've talked to SEA leadership.

Sure.

About the contours of where we want to go and so far there's been a favorable reception to it but there's elements of it that we need to bargain.

Okay what do we have an anticipated timeline on that.

For the health and safety protocols we're working on that now with SEA.

Right.

And then if there's anything at post implementation of a vaccination mandate we'll start to bargain on those.

Okay perfect.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Thank you.

This morning driving to work I almost crashed my car when I heard that Seattle Public Schools will not have enough transportation.

And perhaps I missed the memo.

Just a mere board member.

And how am I supposed to answer those questions pray tell.

So I can work with Chief Podesta to get more information to the board.

What we know is there is a potential driver shortage.

I think Sarah Dr. Pritchett mentioned that.

They are actively recruiting looking at alternative options for students to try to get students to school in the fall.

And I think like other essential staff just it's a recruitment issue and so They are working very diligently.

Right now that information is going to go to school leaders on Friday.

So just to prepare school leaders to to support families.

A direct communication is going from transportation to families that qualify.

Setting the expectation just letting them know about the problem including a link that if you want to drive for first for if you want to drive and transport SPS students there are jobs available.

They're actually using it as a recruitment.

And then we will follow up in School Beat next week just giving some additional information.

But again we don't know the full scope of problem until we send to our contractor the routes this week.

Follow-up please.

At what point in the communication loop.

I think we can hear you.

Asks at what point in the communication loop should board members expect to be informed as opposed to crashing your car on the way to work.

So it's unfortunate you heard it through news media because we are just working on the internal communication plan with school leaders right now.

So I apologize and that's something that we need to kind of figure out why there was a gap in communication.

That information right now is just being determined.

So I'll need to check with the communications team on who asked the question how the information was shared because we do want to make sure that the board knows first.

Yep.

Okay we're going to go to Director Rivera-Smith and then we'll go to Director Dury.

Hello.

I want to go back to also let me go through my notes sorry.

The for the can you recount can you say again the name of the partner for the testing.

I didn't catch it.

Oh yeah it's the Health Commons Project.

Commons.

Project okay.

And then those are the so they're not going to be rapid tests.

They're going to be a 48-72 hour wait for those you said.

Will students need like older students need parents permission before doing it or can they choose to do it themselves.

So right now we're really trying to make the program as simple as possible.

Parents will be able to give permission when they come to pick their child up from school.

So a child is symptomatic in class.

They get moved to the protected healthcare room when the phone call is made to the parent or guardian.

to come pick up the child they can give consent when they arrive.

Okay.

So so no tests will be happening until a parent gets.

Oh no.

Yeah.

And then for lunchtimes Ms. Patuji said that there'd be lunch off-campus lunches will be extended.

Does that mean lunchtime.

Extended possibly on some schools.

No.

What we were talking about it that some high schools have had a past practice of not allowing 9th grade students to be off campus.

So we're encouraging them to extend off-campus privileges to 9th through 12th grade.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

That's all for now.

Thank you.

Director Dury.

It is working.

Where can parents and the and folks see the lunch plans for the for the individual schools.

Right now they've been turned into us internally.

Our communication to principals will include that they need to share with families what the lunch plan is as they send out their welcome back letters.

So we'll be sure to include that to make sure that they send those out or talk about the plans with families.

Very quickly do we have any numbers as to the percentage of our students we believe are vaccinated and that are eligible.

I don't.

I just have the Seattle vaccination rates if you want to know those for youth.

Sure.

Not SPS.

So it's for 12 to 19 years old.

The rate is 67 to 71 percent depending on the areas of the city.

So there's a range.

The 67-71.

And timelines for when families can expect certain types of information such as bus routes and schedules and is in class schedules.

And I'll just just as a reminder now that we are doing testing to make ask everyone to get in the practice of confirming whether you're talking about academic testing versus COVID testing when when we all speak because people will get very confused very quickly.

So and and in not good ways.

The yeah because I assume that the timelines for many things are a bit delayed and I think we're the parents now know the clock is ticking and to the extent that we're getting timelines out to families about when to expect which information I think would give them a sense of calm right now.

Just a request from me personally as a SPS parent.

Yeah so are you talking about specific student schedules like the class schedule and the bus.

Well I mean we have kids that are transitioning to high school.

Kids that are transitioning to middle.

Their orientation.

Their just all the little nits and nats.

And then I think one follow-up question about that relative to transportation is with ORCA cards and getting those renewed or getting them again or getting them period and the extent to which we are utilizing any kind of opt-out scenario for students that don't need that can manage with Metro and what those bus systems are going to look like.

And because I think that's that's probably what a lot of us are getting getting questions about.

We just need to know where to send them.

So help us way find for you on those.

We will.

Thank you.

We'll follow up on those.

Okay and with that we need to move on.

So let me turn it back to the Superintendent.

Okay I'd like to invite Musical Chairs here Dr. Pedroza up to give us a quick update on the virtual option.

And then we'll follow up with that with Deputy Gannon on the Bitter Lake situation.

Good afternoon everybody.

Just a quick update on the Virtual Option Pilot Program.

Just wanted to share just recapping some of the information just to clarify.

In terms of enrollment when we did the initial requests for our K-12 it was about 309 students that had enrolled as of August 2nd 2021. I just want to share that it was across the entire K-12 system the 300-ish students and across all programming in Seattle Public Schools.

So just want to share it.

So there was a few students in EL a few students McKinney-Vento's you know just and then all the various other programming that we had across the district.

So I wanted to share that.

directly after we did send a communication directly to the 612 families letting them know that the options that they had and why we were not going to continue on with the 612 option.

That was approximately 155 students.

And then the next day we sent out a course of communication direct one-to-one communication from the various departments and supports including our customer service our ombuds office our EL department our admissions office as well as special education and our McKinney-Vento department all set out to call.

The update as of today is that every family has been contacted.

Our special education McKinney-Vento ELL families all 100 percent of them have been contacted with a personal phone call and we've talked to them directly but they haven't had somebody.

Of the remaining families we have about 40 families that we have not been able to contact.

I'm not from lack of trying so that you know either phone's not working either that wasn't the guardian ghost number so that's something we're working through.

They've tried to do emails and such but we're still committed to continue to do that outreach for those remaining 40 families.

So just wanted to let you know that's where we're at.

And then we're going to follow through with a different set of type of communication to reach those families.

For enrollment as of this week we are near 300 students which was our original goal.

for K-5 for the K-5 we call it the VOP programming.

And we are working on an enrollment appeal process for the families.

And then the one thing I want to share with everyone here because this question has come up and we met with the customer service people who are contacting families.

We are making sure that any families that actually had a choice enrollment or an option school enrollment after this year will have the option to go back to their choice school.

So that is something we're putting in place to make sure we're communicating with that with all of the families.

And also the final thing I will add is the secondary thing is just this is something for all community to know.

We understand that for families who really want to stay in Seattle Public Schools and just I just want to say this to everybody.

If you have a student that actually has a new maybe they've been newly diagnosed with anxiety or something 504 options is an option to get some remote access opportunities.

And so I just want to let people know that 504 people who've never had a 504 plan before may not know that.

But if you know of somebody that within the last year and a half that has you know been depression or some new health conditions or needs some social emotional guidance and they don't have to have a full diagnosis it's just that you are aware of that.

So that is an option.

And we're letting the people who are making the phone calls know to triage that a little bit with the families.

But I want to make that out public now that that is an option for our families.

We have a few cases of those students their 504 plans are supporting those students who might need some either videos or online access and in that way.

So that's another option for families who want to remain in the district.

So just wanted to put that out there.

Are there any questions.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you Chief Pedroza.

I was wondering about the I've heard from a few families about I've heard from families who are concerned about their 6th graders who are not old enough to be vaccinated and you know they're obviously wondering can we open it up to 6th graders still or is there any other.

We just talked about it ourselves.

So there's two things to consider just two problems that we need to deal with the problem of practice.

6th graders who are 11 and then the other one we just came up and learned about today 12th graders who are enrolled in Seattle Promise.

So that is those are two things we need to work through.

So a 12th grader who's enrolled in Seattle Promise if they disenroll from our system right that affects their Seattle Promise.

So want to be really transparent that those are some things two things that we need to problem solve.

And so we are going to be discussing and talking about a course of action for next steps on that and we'll communicate that.

But yes those are the two things that we need to deal with and I don't have an answer for that today but it is on our radar and we'll work on going through it.

We've got the enrollment option thing figured out but those are the two things that we're aware of.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

Thank you for all the work that's gone into this.

I know that a lot of families were really disappointed but also after receiving a lot of calls a lot of families have felt a sense of relief.

So happy to see progress there.

You mentioned during your remarks Dr. Pedroza that Through a 504 and I'm also assuming an IEP students would have access to some services.

Could you give us a little bit more detail around like what does some services look like.

Well I'll just share one.

We have a student with a severe autoimmune system.

They have a 504 plan and we are actually working with the teachers to do videotaping of the classrooms to upload to have the student have access.

Make sure everything's online on Schoology.

Basically access to all of the coursework throughout their day.

So that's an example of what we can do.

504 and the IEP process does support some type of making sure that those accommodations are in place and their legal mandates.

And so I just want to share that we already have plans in place for some of our students to do that.

Awesome.

One quick follow up.

Just.

highlighting the fact that, you know, for us sitting at the John Stanford Center, like we know the systems that we built work, but as you know better than probably a lot of us who sit up at the dais, Those don't all excuse me those don't always play out for families the way that we intend.

So I'm wondering what is the communication line in terms of ensuring that if a student did take advantage of that option and was not getting all of the care and attention that they need and are legally obligated to what does that look like for families to respond.

Yeah the one thing I encourage every family to do and this is something that's really important is families have the right to actually a meeting to address that right away through a process.

Whether it's an IEP team meeting or a 504 evaluation meeting there's always that option.

In fact I just want to share with families you can have a meeting once a month if you do to sort of make sure that we get some of these services in place and honored.

So but that's the time is to bring all the people together around the table to discuss the best course of action to move forward.

And then sometimes it's about clarifying with the school staff or the families exactly what is what we are able to do.

to serve the student.

Really quick.

Sorry.

Another one.

Could you tell me.

Could you tell me a little bit about so you also mentioned that you did not necessarily need a full diagnosis from a practitioner.

What do you mean.

So there has to be for example there has to be a suspect of a disability.

There has to be a suspect.

So for example I may not wear glasses right.

But my eyes may be compromised.

My eyesight may be compromised or.

There may be somebody that is suspected of having maybe depression and systems of depression.

So that would also qualify for families to be considered for a 504 plan.

Where would that note need to come from.

Does it need to come from a physician or can it come from the parent.

It can come from the parent or the teacher.

Director Hersey mic please.

You're getting a little far from me.

Sorry.

Yeah.

So it can come from it can come from anybody.

It can come from a caretaker.

It can come from a teacher.

It can come from the parent.

It can come from the student.

So student can advocate for themselves as well.

I do want to add one more thing just really quickly.

I do want to share that the people that we talked to have expressed that you know there are a few people just in terms of the type of conversations they're having with folks that there are a few people that are they said that they've been doing pretty well and then people are pretty adamant that they want the online option and there's but there's a there's a few things that we're still working through but for the most part people seem pretty positive about the interactions that they're having with families.

Is Director Harris.

Thank you.

A couple of my questions were answered just now.

Thanks.

Does this also address makeup services from last year and from summer.

So I'll just those are recovery services.

So we'll talk about recovery services and recovery services and there'll be an update sorry at the next committee meeting the SSC&I committee meeting about recovery services.

Recovery services are in place for over the next two years.

They can happen at any time that the team decides and the team includes the parent.

throughout the year.

So recovery services are in addition to the IEP services during the school day.

They could happen for example if I decided for my child as an example that I wanted him to have that the whole team decided that we wanted him to have his recovery services in the after school or in the morning before school.

then that's the plan to do that.

So if something did not happen in the summer or if we didn't complete something in the summer we have two years to continue to provide services over the summer or through the entire year.

But yes those are going to continue.

Thank you.

One more question.

You sent out a memo to us.

Thank you for keeping us informed very much.

And you listed a number of online schools.

Yes.

Are any of those online schools charter schools and if so which ones.

You know what I believe I don't know.

I don't have the list of the charter schools but those are the list of state-approved schools that are online options but I can find out.

I don't know the list.

I don't have that list.

You would just let the entire board not just myself.

Yeah no I'll let everyone.

I actually have to follow up with another email a couple of student situations but yes.

Absolutely.

And I think that information is readily available on the OSPI site as well.

Director Dury.

Especially for the K-5 students who are choosing to stay remote because they are unvaccinated.

If a vaccination is available to them and they're able to get it are they able to return to in-classroom services during the school year.

Good question.

I didn't address I don't thought I addressed that but we are working on an appeal process to so we know we recognize that there'll be some families that want to go back to their homeschool or actually want to go remote.

So we're actually working through a process to have for in place for families.

But it's I don't know if it's going to be as easy as I want to go back because there's some things that we are working on an appeal process for that.

And is that a PO process both ways then.

Yes.

Okay.

It's a both way process.

Okay.

One last question.

It is Seattle after all.

One last question to follow up question Director Rivera-Smith if you can make it very quick.

a bit about the appeals process and ask you messaging was kind of some parents felt it was discouraging so they didn't apply and now learning that there are variances for why you can get into it they might want to consider it.

So the appeals process would be their channel for that.

Yeah we're going to put something on the website around that.

We're actually pretty close to 300 but we are putting something on the website to address and to outline the process.

Thank you.

Yep.

Okay so offline at another time.

I'd also like to hear about accommodations.

Thank you so much for that explanation around students with 504 plans who have experienced who are in a new place or existing place around with anxiety depression and other things that might have might require them to need to be doing some remote schooling.

And so at a future date I'd love to hear about how we accommodate students who are getting into getting some amount of counseling and those appointments needing to be during school days.

I think we're well aware.

of how few and far between those opportunities are and we want them to be able to take advantage of them when they can get them.

And so how do we accommodate that within their school schedules.

And we have a wellness plan that I'll be happy to share with you in the future.

Great.

Absolutely.

But offline because we need to move on let's go ahead and go to Deputy Superintendent Gannon around Bitter Lake.

Thank you Dr. Pedroza.

Good afternoon directors.

I wanted to provide a brief update on our efforts at the Bitter Lake encampment.

I want to begin by emphasizing that all of what I will describe is aimed aimed at the goal of returning the Bitter Lake property to its historical use and removing the encampment.

We continue to approach this challenge with compassion and patience but these are temporary steps I'm about to describe while more permanent shelter options are developed.

The district's position remains that those in this encampment are trespassers who have to leave and soon hopefully but we also recognize that it is not realistic or productive for SPS to try to sweep them out immediately.

Chief Podesta and I have been making regular visits to the encampment to interact with Anything Helps the organization that we have a contract with their volunteer team as led by Mike Mathias.

The Anything Helps team has been on the ground at Bitter Lake since early July.

They're providing a range of services including helping residents access the services they need, housing assistance, medical appointments, etc. and also securing for them everyday needs such as food and water, ID and transportation.

The Anything Helps team has built a rapport and a relationship with nearly every resident of the camp.

This helps not only in getting a reasonably accurate general census count but also to understand the many needs present in that population.

The Anything Helps team is also assisting in general cleanliness of the camp.

Everything from trash removal to storage consolidation and keeping the common areas clean and accessible.

To date Anything Helps has expended funds received through donations.

Anything helps and Mr. Mathias estimate that the current population of the Bitter Lake encampment is roughly 75 to 80 tents with 65 to 70 residents.

They've also helped secure shelter or stable housing for at least 15 former residents and maybe a handful more.

The camp has also experienced an influx likely due to the closure of other camps in the area.

Anything helps and Mr. Mathias have also made contact with many local community members to listen to their concerns and to try and act on some of those concerns.

And I will say that in my estimation this has helped ease tension within the community a great deal.

For any of though any of you who have visited or recently seen the site the district has erected a fence along the main path that leads to the Broadview Thompson School.

This is intended to create a physical and visual barrier potentially enabling the gate to the playground and school area to be opened at the beginning and end of each school day.

We have not made that determination.

We're in contact with the principal and really beginning to assess whether that's a viable option.

The district is also preparing to enter into a contract for security and conflict mediation services at the property.

This is intended to provide additional resource to Anything Helps.

to keep the overall area safe to de-escalate issues as they arise and before they require outside intervention while also assuring that there is additional staffing present during the busy times at the camp and as the school opens.

The district is in active conversations with King County's Department of Community and Human Services.

As some of you may know the county recently announced the purchase of a North End Hotel to provide shelter to those experiencing chronic homelessness.

Fifteen of those spots have been set aside specifically for the Bitter Lake encampment.

So we are working with the county to figure out how to make the connection between the residents and those rooms.

The district and anything else have also been an active conversation with Public Health Seattle King County.

Public health teams have been on-site conducting outreach and some preliminary health assessments and are working to assure that as residents are placed into shelter or permanent housing there is continuity of health service.

The district held a community meeting on July 15th to lay out our tentative plan.

We answered questions and we received a great deal of feedback.

We intend to host a follow-up meeting later this month before the school year begins.

And as I said earlier we have been in regular well we have been in frequent contact with Principal Blish and continue to support the school community's needs in the weeks ahead.

So that's my short update but I'm also happy to answer any questions that I can at this point.

As we are behind any burning questions on the matter.

Director Harris.

I have two.

What are the costs of the additional security conflict resolution presently that you're anticipating.

And second I noticed you didn't mention the City of Seattle.

Where are we with them if anywhere.

Director Harris I have the security contract as a proposal.

I don't remember off the top of my head the exact figure but I'm happy to provide that to you.

We have not yet entered that contract.

It's still in the evaluation phase but I'm happy to follow up directly.

And I will artfully dodge your question and say that King County has been a very active and helpful partner and we continue to work directly with them and express our gratitude for their resource.

Okay.

And I would just like to say kids that's how you demonstrate your humanity and your community.

And I could not be more grateful to our operations staff Chief Podesta Deputy Superintendent Gannon Superintendent Jones our all of our any names that you would like to mention please do so now because I am profoundly grateful for not that we are spending educational time and dollars on this but that we are demonstrating to our community how we take care of one another in a good way.

Okay.

Do we need a break.

There's some right back there.

So we will take a really brief recess and be back at 530. to start on Student Outcomes Focused Governance.

work about student outcomes focused governance at the March board retreat.

Prior to that, I have had the very, very good fortune and hard work of being involved in the Council of Great City Schools Chair Cohort which is directly related to training around student outcomes focused governance.

And as a brief explanation of what this work is this governance structure is intended to help align board actions and activities.

to the vision our community has for our students.

It is intended to help us be more effective leaders by clarifying crystallizing the role and work of the board in upholding the vision and values of the community and the superintendent in implementing those vision and values all in the service of improved outcomes for Seattle Public Schools students.

And today the goals and guardrails we as a board have been working on along with staff will be introduced.

I wanted to just provide a bit more background.

This board has set some really strong goals as a board for the year to become very clear on how we operate under best practices and good governance.

And that has been the Student Outcomes Focused Governance has been one of the primary tasks that we've undertaken in that regard as well as the work that we did over this past month in July with the Harvard Accelerating Board Capacity Institute.

And our focus on good governance not only represents the vision and values of community and doing so well and with fidelity but is expressly focused on holding the superintendent accountable for implementing that vision and values with fidelity and doing so with clarity and consistency with respect to monitoring.

And the what I find most exciting about this work is it really is taking our existing strategic plan and the goals therein and and turning those goals into truly actionable implementable goals with accompanying guardrails and the staff interim goals and guardrails which will be presented to to us today.

The the work that is the Student Outcomes Focused Governance Model really came out of an idea that very few school boards throughout the country We're investing a meaningful amount of time in working towards those things that correlate with improvements and outcomes for students and rather are involved and focused on adult behaviors and inputs.

And so this is a pretty major shift and it's a heavy amount of work and I want to express my gratitude to staff for uplifting this with us as a board.

I think it's some of the most important work that we will ever do in Seattle Public Schools and I think it builds on decades of work that many people who have come before us have tried to push toward.

And I sincerely hope that many who have been here and are still here will see us in this way realizing the goals that we have set out for ourselves which are very lofty and yet we are watching her our colleagues across the country they're catching up with us.

And and we have a lot to learn from some of them.

There's some school districts around the country that are really doing this well and it's been a joy to be in space with them and learn from them.

in some of the most intense times that any school directors any school leaders school administrators have ever faced.

And so we have good work ahead of us.

And today as we look at this we're also joined by A.J.

Crabill from the Council of Great City Schools with whom I have been overjoyed to be able to work.

And A.J.

are you there with us.

Yes ma'am.

Did did I get it right.

Is there anything you want to add before I hand it over to staff.

You absolutely nailed it.

It's there aren't magic bullets out here.

There's just.

doing the work to serve children in a way that's consistent with the vision and values of the community.

Figuring out what you did that could be improved upon.

Making that improvement and doing the work again and just repeating that cycle over and over constantly just being a little bit stronger a little bit more focused on the unique needs of each student we face.

And the more the board behaves in that way the easier it is for staff to be focused in that way as well.

And so just excited by the work that y'all have been doing and eager to be supportive however I can be.

Fantastic.

Over to you Superintendent Jones.

Thank you President Hampson.

I really appreciate your remarks and I'm overjoyed to be part of this cohort that will get us to that model that we've been aspiring to be to for a while now.

And you're right it's been.

Many many groups that have come before us that have really tried to get focused on this this governance model and I think we're there.

And thank you for letting us indulge you in some of the things that aren't necessarily related to goals and guardrails as we presented to you before this session of the of the this board meeting.

But those are necessary and we're going to learn how to take care of all those things that are very meaningful and relevant and timely and even crisis-oriented and still stay focused on our goals and guardrails.

And so thank you for being on this journey with us.

And AJ thank you for being our coach.

We appreciate you and I'm hoping that you will keep your your pencil sharp and your critique on point for us as we as we grow and develop into these goals and guardrails.

So without further ado I know we're short on time so we'll try to be efficient yet effective.

And I have a partner to my left Dr. Scarlett who will co-present the goals and guardrails.

Pretty much I'll talk about the guardrails and Keisha will talk about the goals.

So this should be a reflection of what you all stood up over the last I don't know we've been on this for five months I'll walk us through the timeline but this should be a comprehensive reflection of what you all have stood up as the community's values and visions.

So without further ado Julia is going to be the VJ video jockey on moving us through the slides.

So the outcome today is to formally introduce revised goals and guardrails and these are aligned to Seattle Excellence our strategic plan And this is to support the student outcome-focused governance.

We're looking for this to be approved on August 25th.

And the other piece that we want to make sure that we have as an outcome is an explanation of the measures of evidence of learning.

And so the agenda is two-part.

Review the top-line goals and guardrails and review the interim goals and guardrails.

So we remain open for feedback.

We have two weeks to mature whatever your feedback is and to operationalize that into goals and guardrails for you all to approve on August 25th.

And again AJ stay with us and in the interim we'll make those adjustments as you find things that need improvement.

Next slide.

Just to ground us.

This is a glossary of the terms that we've used over the last Five months together.

Goals.

Guardrails.

Outcomes.

Outputs.

Interim goals and interim guardrails.

And the board role is to uphold the community values and vision and monitor progress.

The superintendent and staff role is to operationalize the values and vision.

And if we're on the same page on this I can proceed.

If we're not we need to stop and pause and talk about our various respective roles.

Okay next slide please.

So as I mentioned we started this this journey in March in a retreat.

That's when we introduced we were introduced to student outcome focused governance.

I think Director Hampson and others were introduced to this through the Council for Great City Schools and and now it's manifesting in us kicking that off in March.

In March and May March through May we have work sessions to start to discuss the goals and guardrails what the nature of those are and how they manifest.

In June we had a retreat where we really dove deeply into what these may look like and how they may be constructed.

And then in July we continued that work and now we're at the August board meeting.

And this is where we've we're kind of putting some finishing work on the goals and guardrails and then we're going to have a portfolio of measures to to go along with that.

And then as we move into September we'll have listening sessions.

We'll have some shifts in practice.

How we how we allocate our time.

We'll talk about the interim assessments and the needs for those.

And then we'll talk about the strategy of alignment between the board central office and school buildings.

So this is a milestone today to introduce what we believe to be refined goals and guardrails.

Next slide please.

So Dr. Scarlett is going to kind of introduce these what we're calling top-line goals.

I'll come back with introducing the top-line guardrails and then we'll have some more discussion around the interim goals and then the interim guardrails.

So Director Hampson I want you to be able to interject questions from the from the board members along the way as you see fit.

But without further ado Dr. Scarlett.

Excuse just one moment Dr. Scarlett I'm sorry.

As you have questions if you could please give me a get my my attention and I will call on you for questions as we go along.

So please don't interrupt but let me know that you have a question.

Thank you.

Sorry President Hampson.

This is Director Rankin interrupting.

What what is the kind of best way to signify from remote if we have a question.

Send me a text.

Okay.

Thanks.

I know we're not supposed to do that AJ but this is just to give me a heads up.

All right.

Good evening.

Thank you so much.

I feel like we'd be remiss as not to thank Julia Worth for all the work the tireless work of helping us get prepared for this time.

So thank you so much Julia.

So just as I get a chance to get started and Dr. Jones said the word manifest so I brought my Black Space Manifesto right here and I want to channel a few things as we spend this time with you together.

A few principles within that.

One of them is to cultivate wealth which is abundance.

The time talent and treasure that we have available to us both within the institution within our directors within our students and families and our staff.

To promote excellence which is to allow excellence to build influence that creates opportunities for present and future generations.

And then lastly another principle out of those 14 that I want to to manifest in this is manifest the future which is to imagine and design a future into existence right now because our kids can't wait.

All right.

So let's move to the next slide.

Thank you.

All right.

So top-line graduation CCR goal.

So we have a top-line goal here.

The percentage of Black boys and teens in each cohort or class who graduate and successfully complete at least one advanced course will increase from 52 percent in June 2019 to 62 percent in 2024. This readiness criterion is one that is most strongly correlated with post-secondary success and one on which we can make progress in the short-term and long-term in a student's successful completion of one or more advanced courses.

I was a middle school principal.

I don't think I need to project my voice.

It just really seems loud.

I've never had trouble projecting my voice.

So one great example this is Rainier Beach IB High School.

Mr. Chappelle even years ago had successfully mandated for all of their IB to have IB courses for all of their students and that's been going on for several years.

My daughter who was a class of 2016 she did the entire diploma and then my other daughter who graduated in 2020 just did IB courses but it was something that they mandated there.

So we do have precedence for that.

Do they do it also.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

All right.

So next slide.

The next slide 7th grade math goal.

You'll see here that we have the percentage of Black boys and teens in 7th grade who achieve proficiency are higher on the 7th grade Smarter Balanced Assessment and math will decrease from 23 percent in June 2019 to 45 percent in June 2024 and to 70 percent in 2026. So essentially doubling over 3 years and reaching the target at 70 percent in 5 years.

So please note that we did a shift in the timeline.

You see beyond sort of that orange area in year 3 to include year 4 and year 5. So as we shift the timeline beyond 23 spring 23-24 we're looking even beyond the end of the strategic plan term to have continuous projected growth as we have a stronger K-5 math system.

And so part of this is the implementation of a K-5 adoption for mathematics that will increase the strength of our math system.

Next slide.

Next top line goal is third grade reading.

The percentage of Black boys who achieve English language arts proficiency or higher on the third grade Smarter Balanced Assessment will increase from 28 percent in June 2019 to 70 percent in 2024. And so you'll see what our different measures are that we have projected for that all the way through year five.

Next slide.

And I'll give it to Dr. Jones to give the top line guardrails.

So do we want to stop and ask see if there's questions or comments or proceed.

Sorry Director Dury.

That's like a probably high level question but is with the conversations.

Thank you everybody.

With the conversation happening around the SBA in particular is there an opportunity this may be an AJ question actually for us to evolve or change the assessment that we use in the goal as we get better assessment tools.

Everybody check their mics please.

So do we want to address that now because that's addressed extensively in other points in the presentation.

Do we want to talk about that now or can we address that later.

I mean I have a few notes here.

It was if the question came up I want to talk about it.

Okay please go ahead.

Okay.

So you know the SBA does give us an opportunity to know how well the SPS system is serving.

students in narrow domains of reading and mathematics on both.

So we are using the SBA as our tagline measure.

Maybe if you could you turn off your turn off your like dueling.

Okay.

And so and also you know one of the concerns that we're continuing to address is making sure the SBA is really used in a way that emphasizes student learning and achievement rather than deficit-based like achievement gaps between students of color and like White students.

And so we're far past that narrative in the district.

We're not using that narrative.

So but we do believe that maintaining SBA as a top line measure for this goal sends an important message to our broader system that SPS is committed to following through on the goals and objectives that we set in 2019. And so consistency and focus are essential for success in a system as large as SPS.

So as a state-mandated assessment the SBA is and will continue to be the basis for other forms of state and public accountability.

So we will use it for internal accountability to support our ongoing alignment as we work continuously to improve our complex system.

And so we're using it as the top line measure for systemic accountability but it is far from the only data point.

So as we move into the presentation and talk about the interim measures and the possibility of the interim assessments we can talk about how we'll have a broader sort of portfolio of measures that help to support and give what Dr. Williams always says triangulated data around our students.

Yeah.

Okay please continue.

Okay so top line guardrails I'd like to think that these are less complex than the than the goals and so we're going to be a little cleaner in terms of how these are represented.

So just for the construction of this we originally had three guardrails.

But some of the guardrails were two-part guardrails so we broke them out into five.

And according to AJ our limit is five and so if you see something and you want to be creative you have to negotiate with AJ to add another guardrail.

Okay so first guardrail.

This this guardrail is about how the superintendent will not allow district initiatives to go forth without engaging students of color furthest from educational justice and their families.

Originally this guardrail had students of color furthest from educational justice and their families and then the greater community.

This has been refined down to students of color and educational from educational justice and their families.

So this is a fundamental change.

in this guardrail and so I want the board to understand that and to and to approve that if that's what they if you're okay with that specificity.

If not I think that's some direction you need to give back to staff around go back and reconstruct it with the original thrust in there but wanted to point that out.

So when we get to the question and comment period you'll make a note of this one.

The second guardrail the superintendent will not allow implementation or adoption of any programming that does not prioritize education on racial equity.

This is our consistent commitment to to racial equity policy 0030 and all the other things that we've developed over over time.

And so this we're going to make sure that the superintendent cannot implement anything that we consider to be significant without racial equity being being first and foremost.

Third third guardrail.

This guardrail the superintendent will not allow building central office and educational leaders to isolate or excuse themselves from the district-wide vision values and anti-racism initiatives.

This one in the plainer language is leaders are invested in anti-racism.

I believe that was the intent of what the board was talking about as they constructed this guardrail.

Number four.

Superintendent will not allow the use of disciplinary actions as a substitute for culturally responsive behavior social emotional supports for students and those with that with those with and without disabilities.

Years ago 2015 Board Member Harry M. Morris led a moratorium on elementary suspensions and expulsions.

This is carrying forth the spirit of that we are going to think through what can we do to create the conditions for students to thrive before we use punishment or discipline but rather try to create welcoming environments to to mitigate that.

So this one is about alternatives to punishment being culturally responsive and using the tools that we have in our social emotional learning toolkit.

Number five please.

This one is about the superintendent not allowing any district department or school building to provide an unwelcoming environment with our departments schools and classrooms.

Again coming from the spirit of policy 0030 we've talked about creating welcoming environments.

You've heard me talking about creating the conditions for students to thrive.

This one is really about each classroom each building our entire district having a welcoming environment.

So hopefully these five guardrails are reflective of what you all have said are the values of the community.

And if they're not then we we go back and we we work them a little bit.

So that's those are your goals.

and guardrails at the top line.

And then the next section of this presentation we'll talk about the interim measures for how do we how do we really look at those.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

I'm going to start with number three.

That's right.

The superintendent will not allow building central office or educator leaders to isolate or excuse themselves from district-wide vision values and anti-racism initiatives.

I'm I'm thinking I'm feeling like this this doesn't really specify educators by the wording.

I'm not sure if maybe that was intentional or not but I thought I think our intention is to include them in this.

So I would maybe suggest it be not allow building leaders central office or educators to isolate or excuse themselves from digital wide vision.

I feel like if we're not specific in that it leaves wiggle room and then lack of the ability to hold accountable the educators who aren't following through with that.

So that's my suggestion on that one.

I would and I guess on this my next one was on just to pretend we'll not allow well do you have anything you want to say to that person on that one for sure.

The number three was constructed really to focus specifically on leaders and that is leaders' responsibility to hold folks accountable throughout their building to create the conditions for accountability.

If we also include that educators with that those are the folks on the on the on the front lines if you will.

We've constructed these so that we're really talking about those responsible for for leading buildings and or departments.

And so it's a fundamental change which is acceptable.

But if you want if we I would ask the board what where do you all want to go in terms of including educators.

And is are there other staff that we would include in that as well.

Yeah and this is AJ I would just clarify that obviously the golden guardrails belong to the board so whatever direction you all want to go as we reach a place of finalizing these that is your call.

That's no one else can make that decision but the board.

What the administration has attempted to do is take what you all have shared with them and try to execute on that.

And in the context of the district's operations.

And so if as the administration has tried to offer an interpretation of how to implement your goals and guardrails it doesn't match with the board's expectations then this is most certainly the time to lift that up.

But I would request that you all do so formally and by suggesting yes I recommend we make this specific change.

in language and then leave it open to board you know your colleagues as to whether or not that modification works for them as well.

Whether or not that modification that you put forward is consistent with the board as a whole's understanding of the community's vision and values.

So let's just do a quick check in a note for the presentation.

There's a period missing at the end of that sentence.

And I'll just go first and quickly say I certainly theoretically I'm not opposed.

I fully understand where you're coming from on that Director Rivera-Smith.

However I also or I should say at the same time I also think it's important that these guardrails are focused on what the superintendent can actually affect.

And when we get into educators then we get into the collective bargaining agreement and that is a different area.

So that's my initial thinking but I remain open.

Director Hersey you had raised your pen.

Director Rankin's going to go next then Director Harris and we'll hear from Director Dury after that.

So I think that I am leaning toward Director Rivera-Smith's position and I'm thinking but what I would like to hear is given the collective bargaining piece are there any concerns that you foresee immediately with making that change.

What if that seems difficult can you give us a little bit about why.

Historically we have not comprehensively held people accountable to the behaviors associated with this the spirit of this.

So we would have to put some measures into place to do that.

And I think we we should and can.

I mean our policy supports that.

So we just don't we're not experienced with getting it down to that to that level.

And so I think there's an opportune time but we it's it's going to take a little work.

AJ is that given what Dr. Jones just shared is there any resource or support that the Council for Great City Schools can provide for us in context to any districts that are doing that part really well.

Also knowing full well that we're going to be heading into a full open bargaining year very soon.

This seems like the opportune.

Yeah.

This seems like the opportune time to really get clear about what our definition of accountability is especially in terms of contract language.

Yes we can certainly reach out to other districts across the country.

Pull together.

a sense of what they're doing in a particular area and then share that back out with you all.

So you all just need to preferably if the board chair could synthesize what the request is and email it to me and then I will take that and reach out to other districts to put together a report for you regarding what they're doing.

I will highlight.

If the board.

Just to clarify to the extent that the board puts expectations regarding staff behavior whether leadership staff or frontline staff behavior in your guardrails then what you are effectively doing is prohibiting your bargaining team from coming back with anything that is inconsistent with those.

And so if they feel like there is something that's not consistent with the plain language made available in the guardrails then you are effectively barring them from coming back with anything that doesn't match up with that.

I'm not telling you that as a caution.

I'm clarifying the power that the board wields and what it means to wield it.

And so if that is your intention I think it's it's a powerful way to voice the community's vision and values.

But I certainly would not want you to use that potency without being very clear that that's what you're doing.

Thank you Adrian for that.

I think that's kind of where we're at right.

So like as long as I've been on the board everything I've heard from community everything I've heard from senior staff accountability right.

And I feel as though I'm caught in this rock and a hard place knowing that you know We have a lot of work to do in a very short amount of time that we've been blessed to have Dr. Jones with us.

But at the same time if we're going to do this I really want to get as far as we can without leaving anything on the table in terms of what is it going to take to reform our system.

Right.

And I know that you know we as leaders can say X Y and Z about what we want.

and what our aspirations and our vision is.

But until we find a way to hold every single person in the system accountable especially those in the classroom to these goals I worry that it's going to be even more difficult to reach those aspirational numbers that we set for.

So that's just my two cents.

But yeah that's where I'm at.

Okay and just to clarify it's all fantastic conversation.

I want to make sure we hear from everybody and keep moving.

We won't solve this tonight.

It sounds like we have really clear direction and then we'll all check in with Superintendent Jones about what we both heard.

Director Harris.

Director Rankin.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

I actually support it as written.

For me the the superintendent the accountability for staff lies or for building-level staff lies with no first lies with the the monitoring and accountability from the superintendent to other supervisory roles.

So if the superintendent is ensuring that building central office and educator leaders are upholding and not isolating or excusing themselves from district-wide vision values and anti-racism racism initiatives.

For me that means that in order to do that they have to hold their own staff and their own buildings accountable as well.

And in terms of like conversations with bargaining other leaders in order to participate and not isolate themselves would be entering bargaining spaces discussions with staff etc. from this perspective.

So I'm I don't know I'm yeah I'm afraid of going into areas that the superintendent can't actually directly impact and I want to keep it focused on this higher level and then the accountability coming from coming at all levels ultimately because the superintendent is holding leaders accountable.

I hope that makes sense.

Thank you Director Rankin.

I could not agree more that we need to add educators and staff in here.

As far as I'm concerned the classroom teachers are the leaders in the district.

And and this concept that we have a top-down model fries my bacon quite frankly.

And if we do not give the superintendent and school leaders and senior staff the tools with which to do their job then you don't have accountability.

And we all can put together the parade of horribles of frontline staff boots on the ground that have pooched it and harmed our children.

It has to be added in there.

And a couple of questions.

Did we collaborate with SEA and PATH on these goals.

Did we share them with them.

Did we discuss with them these goals and what the implications of those would be.

And it would seem to me that if we have staff that we are paying that are harming our children then we've got to quit lifting up the rug and sweeping under it and actually give the superintendent and the legal staff and the HR staff the tools with which to do their jobs.

Very strongly support this.

I want to push back a little bit about Harry and Martin Morris' assistance.

Are we talking about number one or are we.

Excuse me.

We're talking about all of them but we're going to stay focused on feedback on the action on the goals and guardrails.

I appreciate that but the superintendent brought up information and I think I have something to add.

When Harry and Martin Morris put forth that very very courageous resolution and the board passed it.

We all are aware that Superintendent Nyland sent his resignation in the next day and then withdrew it.

So things haven't changed that much here is is my point there.

The other question that I have.

May I.

No Director Harris we're we're responding to Director Rivera-Smith's suggestion on this particular.

So are we now limited just to that question.

That's what I said that I would ask for everybody's input on that one question.

Thank you.

So if you've done that.

I'd like an opportunity to address the others.

Thank you.

We'll move on.

Okay.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

I concur with Director Rankin on on this question.

I don't agree with Director Rivera-Smith or Director Harris.

Thank you.

Director Dury do you want to weigh in.

I think it should include everybody just I mean this is the guardrails are explicit to state the values of the community and I can't think of something that I can't I can't imagine an area where we would exclude anyone from that.

And so I think that we need to be very clear that this is system-wide and I support the change.

Okay so we've had a chance to hear from everybody about that.

AJ unless you think that we need to come to a conclusion on that I'd like to keep us moving.

Director Hampson can I add one comment because I helped Dr. Jones on this language just briefly.

Sure.

So just the term educator leaders we weren't specifically thinking about.

So we believe everyone in the context of education are leaders.

That includes the custodian.

It includes the para-educator right.

There are so many people that have leadership in their schools and so we use the education educator leader component to encompass all of the leaders within the school context that work and support children.

And if you even talk to even our union partners when they talk about their SEOPs and they talk about them as educators within the whole context of educators.

And so I just wanted to clarify.

that that was what we were talking about in terms of the context of schools and anyone that supports students.

A leadership manifests in different ways.

So we wanted to to encompass leaders and make sure that everyone in the system that supports kids see themselves as leaders in support of students.

So that's why we chose that language.

Just wanted to clarify that.

That's incredibly helpful.

So then the recommended change doesn't change the essence of it.

It's just because the essence was to include educators as you're saying.

I know I think I thought is that what I heard.

So a couple of things.

The if you look at the interim guardrails they're more specific to leaders.

And so the way we've constructed the interim guardrails it calls out leaders.

Now interim guardrails can't call out everything but that's where we are going to measure the impact.

We can however still we still have this interpretation that's broad that we can make more specific.

But the way the interim guardrails are are crafted they're talking about holding leadership accountable.

So just want to make sure that that's clear.

Thank you.

I would like to make it more specific.

So I do hold my recommendation.

Okay.

I'm going to remind everybody that there have been many many opportunities to give input on these guardrails.

So A we're not going to change puppy to small dog.

B where we have some clarity or some misunderstanding in terms of intent versus impact and with this language I think we need to talk about it a bit more offline and hopefully come to an agreement prior to our next prior to approval.

And then if we can keep the rest of the comments as concise as possible.

Any additional comments about these so that we can move on to the interim goals and guardrails because that's really where the rubber meets the road.

And that's where the staff have done a tremendous amount of work.

Director Rivera-Smith you had one more.

I did.

I'll actually it was more of a question that I don't need to go into now but just to put an end cap on my previous one.

I don't know if the word hold was the wrong word to use there.

I do I do still recommend the change.

I think that because it doesn't change the essence anyways it's I think it's worth having that language change in there to show that to not leave the interpretation to not leave it to be misinterpreted.

I can't speak.

And leave too much wiggle room there.

So that's all for me.

Thanks.

But did you have another.

I did but it's more of a question that's not.

It's okay.

All right.

So Director Harris did you have another question or comment.

Did on both 1 and 2. I feel strongly that we need to add the greater community back in.

I appreciate the emphasis on students of color furthest from educational justice and their families.

However the folks that fund our schools are the greater community and You know the more we have the greater community helping us the better off we are.

And we've got you know levies coming up.

Number two Dr. Jones referred to policy 0030 and I'm curious as to what the status is of anti-racism policy 0040. Haven't heard anything in a long time.

Okay we're not going to go off topic so that latter question won't be responded to.

Now will it be responded to in the future.

Will that will happen in the future.

So your your question on number one was there another question or do you want to get that response your.

I'm happy to have the conversation start regarding the greater community voters accountability money.

So and before you respond to that Dr. Jones if I may.

I think one of the things that that.

that I appreciated in the in the staff input on this when the question was asked to all of us is that while the what we do is to represent the vision and values of community that doesn't necessarily mean that the community decides how that gets implemented.

And I think that that's pretty critical and I think we waste I know that we waste a tremendous amount of time chasing our own tail trying to accomplish a notion of community engagement that in fact is really far from what our students need in order to successfully know and be able to do the things that they need to know and be able to do when they leave Seattle Public Schools.

So that that's my reason for supporting that.

Now Dr. Jones go ahead.

So the construction of this is also pretty much consistent at least in Brent's interpretation of the Seattle Excellence Plan.

So it's it's recognizing the specificity of that.

And so this is kind of similar to the last guardrail that we just talked about.

Are we talking about abroad.

Are we talking about targeted.

It's certainly not missed on me that we need to talk to community as a whole.

This was really trying to articulate which community are we really trying to focus on.

So from a board perspective I'm seeking actually your guidance around do we really want to be focused on this students of color furthest from educational justice in families or that and broader community.

It's really an articulation of where do we want to put our emphasis.

And so we can spread it wider and that's a more resource intensive which is fine or we can we can have a more targeted approach.

And so kind of put it back to the board around where are you seeing what's your guidance to us around where do you want to see the emphasis.

Director Rankin.

Thanks.

I just I support.

This one also as written because it's a guardrail it's not a goal.

So it doesn't say that the superintendent will only engage students of color furthest from educational justice and their families but it's the opposite.

I think you know our standard our baseline is oh yeah we did community engagement of course yeah we talked to the community and la la la la.

But this says okay before you move an initiative forward did you make sure that you engage students of color furthest from educational justice and their families specifically.

And so I don't think it's to the exclusion of the broader community.

It's just it's it's kind of demonstrating targeted universalism that the the typical way of doing is doesn't go deep enough and we specifically have to not allow initiatives to go forward without specifically engaging students of color furthest from educational justice and their families.

And if we haven't done that in stakeholder engagement then we are not done with engagement.

I concur.

I think that was Director DeWolf.

Okay.

Director Harris I think we can move off of that and you had other comments questions on other guardrails.

Okay if there are no other comments questions or concerns about guardrails then we will move on.

Dr. Jones.

Okay so we are going to transition to the interim goals and then interim guardrails.

And I have a feeling that we're going to spend a little time on interim goals to talk about some of the Well here's the trailer.

We're going to talk about assessments.

And so I think that's where we're going to spend the majority of our time.

So being realistic I think that's where we need to maybe just say that the balance of our time will be spent there.

Is that all right.

Yes.

Okay.

Dr. Scarlett.

Right.

So you can move to the next slide.

So this slide right here is our current assessment status.

You'll notice that in the column we have all three of the goals in the first column.

And then the next column is the top line measure.

The interim in 21-22 and then interims in 22-23 and beyond.

So the green checks indicate the measures and tools that we already have.

So you can see they go all the way across the top line measures and also across the bottom row for CCER.

The boxes indicate the need to identify and adopt.

So there are two areas that we'll get into.

that we really want to spend time and engage and build political will around these areas of really the interim assessments and the interim assessments that we would use for both of these goal areas as well.

And then predictive of a really great and collaborative process.

The blue checks indicate the new tools that will be adopted as we move in 22-23 and beyond.

You can move to the next slide.

And the next one.

So we'll move into college and career readiness and talk a little bit about our interim goals within that.

So annual progress for future graduating classes ninth grade.

So by June 2024 the percentage of Black boys and teens will earn will who earned a passing grade in at least 4 on track and 2 additional credits by the end of 9th grade will increase from 42 percent to 65 percent.

You can see the measures for African-American males and also for students furthest away from educational justice.

We actually do have baseline and continuous data for these so that's great that even amid COVID pandemic that we have continuous data in that.

And then you can see by year 5 what we've made predictions on.

So So I will move to the next one.

Next slide.

Thank you.

Again annual progress for the future graduating classes in 10th grade.

So by June 20-24 the percentage of Black boys and teens who earn a passing grade and at least 8 on track and 4 additional credits by the end of 10th grade will increase from 36 percent to 60 percent.

And so there's the same setup that we have there as far as the group the baseline data all the way to year 5. Next slide.

So we do have a plan for the identification and adoption of interims for the 3rd grade literacy and 7th grade math and those are those empty boxes that were in the in the graphic preceding this one.

So this is what we do know we want for interims by 2023. We need to have a predictive.

and desired student outcomes that really inform teaching and learning.

both anti-racist and culturally responsive practice that can be administered multiple times of the year and that allow for system-wide progress monitoring with a fidelity of implementation so we get away from different schools having their own sort of spreadsheets and how do we have systemic tools to be able to look at this data system-wide.

So at a process level thinking about stakeholder engagement collaborative with SEA in past.

We do have some successful models from the past as far as like our PAR process that I was heavily involved with the implementation of.

Looking at the early literacy assessment process using family information sessions.

We already have an SEA and SPS joint committee so we're already well within this partnership.

And just making sure that we have assessment that meets the criteria and the need for for interns as well.

Next slide.

So this is pretty much a recap of the one that I shared before.

So we have the top line measures.

You know they're SBA so yes across that column.

We know that the interims in 2021 we need to identify and adopt them and spend really time engaging with that like I shared before.

For 3rd grade literacy for 7th grade mathematics And CCR we already have those passing grades on on-track courses in 9th and 10th grade.

And then again the interims in 2022-23 and beyond.

So again we will have adopted interim assessments for both 3rd grade literacy 7th grade mathematics.

We'll continue with looking at the passing grades on on-track courses for 9th and 10th grade.

And they'll be part of the overall portfolio measures that we'll describe in even more detail on this next slide.

So let's can we go back two slides please Julia.

Right there.

I want the board to really be locked in on this.

This is this is important here when we talk about interims that's been a a challenging topic for years and years and years.

So really just don't want to run past this.

I want to I want to be really clear on what we need to have in place in order to have the right construct for goals for for for measuring.

And so I invite AJ maybe to kind of take us back to what your coaching was for us around interim assessments because I don't want to.

Again run past this without making sure the board is really clear on what question we have to answer regarding interim assessments.

Yeah what's really important is all of this work is trying to identify how do as a board we help create a culture of continuous improvement.

In order for a continuous improvement to occur you have to State what your expectations are up front.

This is where as a board you identify the vision and values of the community and codify them as a set of goals and guardrails.

And then you have to identify how you will measure progress relative to those priorities.

That's what this conversation this evening is about interim goals and interim guardrails.

Then you actually have to do the work and measure did we using the interim goals and the interim guardrails did we make the progress we intended.

And then based on what we learned from that what adjustments do we make.

What worked.

What didn't work.

How do we continue to deploy what worked and make adjustments to spread that elsewhere.

How do we step away from things that didn't work or modify them to a place of workability.

And then implement again and then measure again and adjust and and so on and so forth.

The cycle continues.

That cycle however only works if you have data that you can rely on throughout the year that gives you a sense of are we making progress in the direction of our goals.

Because your goals focus on the district at large you really need data that is common across the district and that is administered multiple times per year that is predictive of the goals that you've described.

Right now my understanding is you don't have a lot of data that meets those criteria.

So this idea of creating a continuous improvement cycle of constantly looking at what did we deploy for our scholars and then did it work did it not work how do we improve and then deploy again.

The board isn't in a position right now to participate in the creation of that cycle as part of your work as a board.

Certainly teachers have sufficient data to engage in that work at the classroom level because they have access to formative assessments to allow them to do so.

But if you want to have that conversation at the level of the district you're going to need some type of interim assessments that are common across the school system that are administered multiple times per year and that are appropriate to give you insights into whether or not you're actually accomplishing the things that you've described in your goals.

Because you all don't have that this is a larger conversation for you all than it is for most other school districts.

Most of the districts that I interact with already have something of that nature.

And it's a matter of making those tools better, making them more appropriate to the needs of the students, more appropriate to the needs of the teachers and principals and so on and so forth.

It's a matter of perfecting those tools.

But they have something in place and now they are, they're growing the efficacy of it.

You all are in a different place.

You just simply don't have those tools.

And so what your administration is speaking to here is putting those in place.

As I understand it this is a conversation that has been had previously and where ultimately the board has chosen not to do so.

Now the conversation comes back to if you want to be a part of creating this culture of continuous improvement in your governance work you're going to need to make a decision how you will have access what data you're going to be trusting to get you there.

And if you want to pursue this you're going to have to have the difficult conversation about deploying interim assessments that are common across the school system.

Let me pause for a second and just check in with maybe just one or two board members just to make sure I'm not speaking entirely to myself.

What are you hearing me say.

I just want to hear just maybe one or two folks just to see if I am articulating myself accurately.

What are you hearing me say in this conversation about interim goals.

I'm going to call on Director Rankin because she asked to speak.

I don't know what she was going to say but now she gets to answer this question.

I mean what what I'm hearing you say AJ is what I have observed which is We have a you know we've had over the past I don't know 5-6 years I've seen I don't know how many articles about the opportunity gap and you know outcomes for White students outcomes for Black students in Seattle Public Schools.

And I there's lots of good intent and will to change that.

And a lot of sort of admiring the problem and not moving on.

Okay we actually need to do something differently and how do we know what we think we know.

And when we look at the when we look at graduation rates when we look at reading proficiency rates what do we actually need to change as a district to achieve different outcomes.

And we can't We can't improve we can't improve without having a measurement for improvement or or it's just based on I don't know what it would be based on.

Yes.

That is precisely what I'm saying.

So I'm glad you heard that because that's exactly that's exactly what I was intending to communicate.

Is it possible to hear from one other board members.

Just kind of what are you hearing me say.

Again I just want to make sure that we have clarity on this issue before before diving further into it.

Any other board member want to share.

What are you hearing me say in this conversation about interim interim goals.

Did I turn that on.

Okay.

What I'm hearing is that we have an opportunity to put the second guardrail into practice immediately.

Which is that the superintendent will not allow implementation or adoption of any programming that does not prioritize educational and racial equity.

And that we haven't in our assessment process elevated that.

And this is our opportunity to dive right in and do it.

All right.

Superintendent I feel like I've been heard on this issue.

Back to you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Julie I'm going to ask you to skip to slide 48 please.

Before you do that can I make a comment.

Oh okay.

I just wanted to I always think it's important to provide context particularly in light of the fact that we do have community listening and staff listening and possibly even students listening and I think often we do.

I do not believe that this board has actually tied itself and its governance and its cycle of governance to continuous improvement.

Not not necessarily because of any ill intent.

I think there have actually been attempts.

I don't think that we've had an appropriate framework to do so.

And even as we have I feel as though we need to have a neon sign that says we understand that our current assessments are not doing what we would like them to do.

But that is not an excuse to not create that cycle of monitoring and improvement that we need in order to model good governance that demands that we have that even as the out the metrics by which we measure outcomes are evolving to better serve to actually serve students furthest from educational justice that we are still leading with the demand that we are holding accountable our systems to making sure that those students are served because we can't be without metrics.

And so I think it's really important that we don't wait as a board for some ideal metric that may never come.

I think that may be why we are where we are today is this idea that well but the you know the system's broken.

Well yeah but you can't fix it because the system's broken.

And that's that's not a good response.

This is us saying no we need to fix it even as other elements of the system still remain not effectual particularly for Black males particularly for other students furthest from educational justice.

We must push forward.

Go ahead Dr. Jones.

Sorry to go on a tangent.

Director Harris had her hand up but what I wanted to do was go to I think it's slide 48 but it might be 52. Okay.

And just give some insight as to what it will take in general at a high level.

for us to get those interims established.

And it's going to be a change management process.

It's going to be a stakeholder engagement process.

It's going to be a research process all in serving us getting to this place where Director Hampson just talked about.

So it's going to take some time to do it.

But if if the board is behind this idea of having specific specific interims then this is the work that we'll need to do to to get there.

Questions back to the board.

Are we in on the interim assessments because that's the architecture of these of these goals.

And so I just didn't want to wanted to highlight that and wanted to really emphasize what it's going to take for us to make this work.

Director Rankin did you want to make your comment in response to that.

I would actually.

Thank you so much.

I I kind of wanted to say I know assessment is such a loaded word for a lot of people and standardized is also loaded.

So I want to be super clear that our students are being assessed all the time in a lot of different ways.

And what my hope is so Superintendent Jones maybe you can affirm for me if this is the case.

My hope and understanding of what we're talking about is not all of a sudden we're going to have all these new assessments and kids are going to be tested all the time and everyone's going to get out their one-to-one laptops and you know log in on everything all the time.

We're actually talking about we already do a lot of assessments that turn out to not be super useful.

And because we don't have common assessments it really doesn't give us information about what's happening in our district and if we're making progress on meeting the needs of students particularly students from furthest from educational justice.

So I'm I'm I guess asking for confirmation and then suggesting that we sort of center in how we talk about this that this isn't about now all we do is testing and there's no more time for teaching.

That this is actually about with the hope that assessments can be less You know that like the two weeks where you can't use the library and everybody's stressing out about a big assessment is a waste of everybody's time and energy and doesn't really tell us what we need to know.

So what we want is for the assessments that we know happen all the time to actually be more consistent more useful and give central offices and us as a board and the broader community actual information that's meaningful about how we're doing as a district and how we're meeting the needs of students.

Did I I don't I'm not even sure that I specifically asked a question but does that make sense.

Yes Director Rankin from my vantage point.

And when we're talking about interims I asked that same question.

I was curious because I know that there this has been talked about a lot and interims are really 90 minutes total of administration for for the year.

Could be two hours but it's that's so we're not taking away valuable instructional time.

And then there's a portfolio of assessments that we'll do and I think perhaps Dr. Scarlett and some other folks that are on the line can can speak to that.

But the spirit of what you talked about the intent of it is yes we're we're in concert on that.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Apologies Dr. Scott.

Did you want to respond to that first.

In the back of your slides my numbers are different than yours so I don't know the exact page.

But we do have the portfolio measures that you're able to see across the different goal areas.

And you notice that they'll be balanced.

So if you were to look at the like 7th grade math portfolio measures we're measuring both at the indicator level So looking at what type of assessments we can use for mathematical skills.

Also there are perception indicators also.

So this goes to what Director Dury was speaking about.

So one example would be qualitative data from students and possibly families about the degree to which African-American male students and students of color furthest from educational justice identify as capable mathematicians see themselves reflected positively in math curriculum and feel valued and welcomed.

in a math classroom.

So that really directly correlates to their identity development as mathematicians as well.

And then again also looking at teacher efficacy about educator and teacher excuse me school leader quality of professional development and coaching support and curriculum assessment resources that help that continuous improvement cycle.

So at every dimension that we're identifying both in mathematical skills both in identity development the environments the students are learning in but also teacher efficacy and how they're building their practices and their mindsets and beliefs.

We look at all those different dimensions.

So that's part of that balanced portfolio that we'll be building this next year.

Go ahead Director Harris.

Thank you.

I think I'm very very much on the record of being outraged by SBA and the Pearson Company and how we got SBA because of our Department of Education.

friends and corporate education deform.

So the idea of using SBA interim assessments distresses me no end.

They're culturally inappropriate.

Many of the questions that have been asked on the SBA are racist.

And I appreciate it's 90 minutes or two hours But how often are we doing that.

The devil's in the details and I couldn't agree with you more.

We've wrestled with this issue for years and years and years.

I agree that we need to have consistent data.

So we're talking about apples and oranges.

But the data that we have is based on not good tests.

And I also wonder how expensive all these fine things are and We're using Envision and we haven't adopted Envision.

You know DEFL's really in the details and I want to know what teachers and principals say about these things.

And I'll go back to my question.

How much of this have we shared with our labor partners.

The folks that are in charge of implementing.

Joint SPS and SEA Assessment Committee.

They work on the assessment calendar so you can imagine these conversations are abound within that context within that.

And so we list the SBA interim assessments as just an example but it also reads to be developed the status of this.

So that we'd have a comprehensive MAP portfolio that's to be determined but may include a new set of diagnostic and benchmark tools or existing tools such as Envision benchmark assessments One thing that we heard from from our educators both those who and school leaders that both who are part of the CCC and we've had a research and evaluation study that's gone along with CCC the entire time.

We have one that's gone along with that is that there are actually really great assessment tools that are part of that.

One of the issues are is they're not system they're not system wide.

We don't have the technology infrastructure yet.

We've been working on a technology project for CCC to use their actual curricular assessments but we can't have these individual spreadsheets right.

All these teachers trying to put things in spreadsheets.

Yeah yeah and so that's the technology infrastructure that we're building.

We're super super close for CCC and that'll be instructive for other curricular assessments that we're developing as well.

So that's what that the time that we need to be able to actually build this infrastructure so that we can have sort of these easy more turnkey approaches for assessment in the system that are system wide and that we can actually see what the data looks like and progress monitor both at the building level across grade bands and at the district level as well.

So I just want to do a quick check-in if that's okay Dr. Jones or if that's consistent with where we're headed in terms of we have Director Hersey had to switch to remote access but Director Rivera-Smith Director Dury Director DeWolf in terms of this move to use the teams that we have to spend the next year finding a reasonable set of interims that it is believed will truly be impactful in the way that we need it to be to be predictive of the outcomes that we seek.

Are you in line with this plan.

I think the district did a really great job and I support the plan that they've proposed.

So thank you Dr. Scarlett and Dr. Jones.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

Go ahead Director Rivera-Smith.

Likewise I I understand the convention we're in.

We need to be able to look at our families and let them know that we're we're not we're not just stopping at can't be done.

That we need to really try and work through this and take the time it needs to get there and and support our students along the way.

I know we're not just letting that be what it is.

I don't know anyone who loves it or likes it or thinks it's it's it's quality.

So but in knowing that we can be there for our students and teachers to give the extra supports or just any kind of extra attention it needs to mitigate the badness there.

Thank you.

Any Director Hersey I don't know if you are able to speak.

Director Dury did you want to add anything or do you feel like you've already.

I just think that makes a lot of sense and especially considering the math adoption that we're looking at right now that would I'm assuming go in collaboration with each other.

Dr. Jones and Dr. Scarlett do you feel confident in what you've heard from directors with respect to where we are on this.

Yes however I would love to hear a summary statement if a board member would choose to kind of bring that together to just to make sure we have the right understanding.

Well what I heard by and large is that despite our the bad taste that state mandated standardized assessments leave with us that we are very much in support of using this next year to develop or find the appropriate consistent suite of interim assessments that will create the efficacy we're looking for.

Is that inconsistent with anything that I don't know if I captured Director Harris's.

I would just say with a deadline.

Yes I'm seeing that as include that's this year.

Anybody on the phone on the on Teams feel differently.

I concur.

Thank you.

I have one more question of something I didn't see addressed around disability and where maybe there's not an answer for this right now but I want to make sure that within these different assessments that students who qualify for different supports and services you know we need to make sure that we can assure their access to those any services that they need are in place when they are taking assessments.

And then the other thing I had with watching with progress monitoring as the years go by of of the hopeful increase of students meeting grade level or areas of proficiency.

How are we or I want to see I guess information that tracks with students with IEP's because Let's just say that if we great in a few years reach 70 percent proficiency in math but the 30 percent who are not reaching proficiency or include all the students with IEP's that would be a you know not successful to me.

So that's just an area I would like more information about how we're assessing within this I guess or making sure that we're aware of that.

in all of this.

Julia escalated or elevated an email from you about inclusive practices and really wanting us to dig into that.

And so we have a meeting coming up on the 19th.

Dr. Pedroza and myself Erin Romanek to talk about inclusive curriculum assessment and instruction and what does inclusive practice look like across that.

And so we'll have an update for you.

of that you know sort of conversation and what the plan is on that.

We've gotten a lot of feedback around I've gotten feedback from special education educators who often feel left out of the core curriculum and feel left out of like the adoption piece of that and already has come up around the mathematics adoption and how do we ensure that the curriculum the instruction and the assessment are all inclusive as well.

Stay tuned we have more.

Awesome.

Thank you Dr. Scarlett.

Board President Hampson in respect of time I want to offer board members the opportunity for 2x2's if you'd like to have that between now and the next in August 25th.

So but I would.

Yeah I think we're anytime that that's feasible we should do that.

And I would just ask right now that for directors that are prepared with questions on the interim goals the interim guardrails if you can let us know those questions now.

Is anybody prepared with questions on the interim guardrails.

Director Harris you put yours out.

No I'm no I'm talking about the interims that are on the subsequent pages.

And if not then we will have those discussions in two-by-twos.

Directors Rankin and DeWolf.

None here but I would be I would love to do a two-by-two.

Okay.

And again these are the interim guardrails are intended to be correct me if I'm stating this wrong AJ predictive of the top line guardrails.

Okay.

Thank you so very much Dr. Scarlett and Dr. Jones and Mr. Crabill that concludes our discussion on Student Outcomes Focused Governance Goals and Guardrails and we will now move into our work session on BTA V. I'm going to BTA V BTA V. I'm going to briefly hand this over to Director DeWolf Chair of the Operations Committee and then he's going to turn it back over to me when he needs to step off.

You just want to turn it over to me.

Okay.

No I was just saying you'll all you'll have to do is adjourn.

Okay.

So I'm not handing this over.

Does do y'all need a break.

Good.

No.

Okay.

So let's move over to the BTA V work session.

And I'm going to hand it over to staff to begin once you get yourself situated.

Somebody emailed me.

Hang on.

Hang on.

I'm trying to get up.

Sorry what.

This is Tina.

I'm trying to get it to come up.

Oh no no that's fine.

I'm just actually asking for talking points but I'll manage.

Director DeWolf if you could just shoot those over to me.

President Hampson all you're doing all we have to do is turn this over to staff for the BTA V work session and then take questions at the end and then just adjourn.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Over to you.

Am I starting with.

Starting with you Chief Operations Officer Fred Podesta.

Take it away.

Thank you very much directors for your time today.

We have a presentation about the BTA V levy development and I'm going to be joined in this presentation by Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge.

Executive Director of Technology Carlos Dovais and Director of Capital Projects and Planning Richard Best.

If we could advance the slides please.

And one more.

We really I will try to have this introduction be as brief as possible.

We really want to present some information today today and get a little bit of feedback from directors.

We want to describe the proposed levy package that staff are recommending.

Talk about the the ultimate size of the levy and potential options for rates of the levy and where we want feedback tonight if we can get it is the methodology that we use to prioritize projects and candidates for the levy just to see if you want to make sure directors understand our methodology give us feedback about it.

I can't if we could go one more slide please.

I can't emphasize enough that ETA levies building buildings technology academics and athletics are to large degree maintenance levies.

These are opportunities for the district to observe the value of its capital investments.

And so they're what you're not the building portion of it it's really going to focus on building systems and putting investments into systems building systems across Our district there will be some construction again their athletics is a component of the levy and as we've talked many times in this setting the district is at the point we're at a point in time where we really have to recapitalize and invest in Memorial Stadium which is a system-wide district-wide asset.

There are a few other minor construction projects And then technology requires acceleration of investment that the district had always planned.

As you're well aware we plan to distribute much more technology to the students over time but that was accelerated given the conditions around the pandemic.

And so this levy recognizes that and includes an increase in funding over the last levy to allow for the support of the much greater distribution of technology that occurred in the past year.

And so with that we could advance the slides and I will turn it over to Mr. Best to give talk about the capital construction component.

And again thank you for your time.

I appreciate it.

Thank you Board President Hampson and members of the board.

I just want to draw your attention as we talk about the Building Technology and Academics Levy to Board Policy 6901. This policy was revised in June of 2020 and it does require that the board review the scoring and relative ranking of both projects be presented to the school board and receive your approval as part of the levy planning process.

I will also note that in our March 2021 work session we did review the proposed scoring method for projects.

We are here tonight to give you a first glimpse at the scoring method.

Thought that was important prior to going out to the public in September for some community engagement so that you were not caught unaware.

And just wanted to topics that we'll be discussing.

So next slide Tina.

The board guiding principles are a document that we referenced.

These were approved by you in March of 2021 and I'm going to give some brief examples of projects that have been included in the BTA V capital levy for each of the board principles that you have articulated here to ensure educational racial equity we've looked at the board's priority schools.

We are recommending early learning improvements at John Muir Elementary School.

This is one of the district's priority schools and again will help put students on a pathway to reading at grade level by 3rd grade.

We have gymnasium improvements proposed for Seattle World School.

That is a K-12 or excuse me that is a 6-12 school where the gym is woefully undersized for that age of students.

It's also in very poor condition.

And then we have gymnasium improvements also being proposed at McDonald International Elementary School.

That building is a metal post building.

It is very difficult environment in which to teach in and especially when we have inclement weather.

So most of the winter with wind noise rain noise you could just interrupts very much the educational program at that school.

In addition, we're looking at safety and security and accessibility measures and part of the security measures we're looking at is creating secure entry vestibules.

Continuing that work at our elementary schools and middle schools.

We're looking at implementing ADA improvements.

We put an allowance in for that across the district and then we're implementing also proposing to implement an ADA study district-wide.

Capacity management and flexibility has been always included in both the BEX and BTA levies and it's really to address the district's growing enrollment and at the various schools throughout Seattle Public Schools.

So I will note since I have arrived in 2014 we've added over 100 portables to Seattle Public Schools both as a function of K-3 class size reduction and then also enrollment growth.

Building conditions ensuring the preservation of our assets.

That is what the building systems repairs and replacement category is all about is making sure that we're repairing our roofs.

Repairing our envelopes.

Making an investment in our HVAC systems.

Those three systems I think are critical to the educational program and educational outcome for our students.

I always say to my staff nothing diverts the attention from a classroom teacher like a roof leak in that classroom.

And so in addition I'll note that the classroom is too hot.

Classroom is too cold.

That too diverts the student's attention.

So we've got investments proposed for the building envelope and for HVAC systems and other systems throughout the district.

Environmental sustainability and climate resilience.

I do want to highlight that the district does take energy usage very seriously.

Our we have three resource conservation managers who My team and our facilities operation team are constantly in contact with about our energy use and BTA IV we funded for retro-commissioning agents.

With those levy dollars we're asking that that continue with BTA V. We believe it's consistent with the board's resolution 2020-2021-18.

concerning energy use and also just optimizing the HVAC systems within our existing buildings.

And we have set aside dollars for the study that is contemplated in Resolution 2020-21 concerning energy usage and to develop an implementation plan so we hit the board's established goal of 2040 for not utilizing fossil fuels.

So and then lastly Carlos is going to speak tonight about the technology improvements that are being funded in BTA V. So next slide please Tina.

So what you have being proposed for capacity and condition projects is John Muir Elementary School which is a pre-K-5 elementary school.

We are looking at proposing an early learning center be created there of four classrooms in total.

This was a project that we submitted to OSPI for distressed school grant consideration in 2020. We did receive this grant.

What we did not receive is is all the funding that we identified.

So we're asking the board to approve the additional funding that's needed as part of the BTA V capital levy.

In addition we're looking at replacing the the gymnasiums at both Seattle and McDonald International Elementary School.

Seattle World School and McDonald International Elementary School.

Next slide.

Thank you Tina.

That's the correct slide.

On the proposed scoring method.

What we are proposing is using something similar to our BEX V capital levy in which we used a nominalization scale on a 5 points 1 to 5. The raw scores are adjusted to a common 1 to 5 scale.

Then the lowest scores are a 1 and the highest scores are a 5 for each proposed measure.

I will note that there is one error on the scale that you have in front of you.

The McDonald Elementary gym replacement it notes a 1 under the building condition score.

That building condition score was actually for the entire building and the gym building is actually a separate structure.

We had a separate score for that and fortunately the entire building got utilized so that will be changed the next time that you see that.

But you can see from looking at this going across the top we have a building condition score.

Then we have an educational assessment score.

A building utilization score in relationship to the right size of the school.

Both John Muir and McDonald Elementary are overhoused meaning that we are utilizing portables on those sites and so that's why their score is higher than Seattle World School.

Percentage of cost and matching funds is a new category that we have added and we're proposing a 10 percent weight be placed on that.

And then the equity index score which we utilize with the BEX V capital levy We're proposing reducing the weight of that score to 30 percent from 40 percent to create the new categories but then these weights would be consistent in those first three categories as they were in the BEX V capital levy.

And then on the building systems repairs and replacements We are utilizing the 2020 condition assessment scores that were prepared by Cezanne the facilities condition consultant that we hired.

A score of 5 is unsatisfactory.

They used the OSPI scoring system on the facilities condition.

A score of 5 is unsatisfactory.

So we gave it a priority 1. A score of 4 is poor.

And we gave that a priority 2 and a score of 3 is fair and we gave that a priority 3. We've reviewed the recommended building systems replacement projects and repair projects with our facilities operations staff so we've included their comments in this recommendation.

So we know our facilities operations staff know our our buildings the greatest.

Our facilities condition assessment consultant has not spent the time and doesn't have the knowledge base or institutional knowledge of our facilities as well as our staff.

So I always believe it's important to include their voice in the development of this list.

And then we did use the board guiding principles in evaluating these recommended projects as well.

So with that I'll pause for any questions.

Director Harris.

Thank you.

I'm on slide 9 and thanks ever so much for putting numbers on the slide it helps immensely.

I'm distressed to see the equity index score deducted by 10 percent.

I think that might be contrary to the stated principles of equity et cetera and I'm wondering if we could take three points off of each of these other 20 percenters and then give back nine points to the equity index.

I.

One of the things I truly believe in my heart of hearts in BEX V the fact that we stopped and we did the equity tiering and we got to say we're actually putting our values and our money where our mouth is made a difference in that being passed.

And and to back it down by 10 points boy that hurts my heart.

And I'm wondering if taking the 3 points off of each of the 20 could could bring it back up.

Thank you.

Any other directors.

Director Rankin Director DeWolf I think it's just Director Rankin.

I'm here I'm I'm trying to I'm really interested in what Director Harris was asking but I'm not sure that I understand where what points are being referred to.

Because I agree that the I mean I remember being part of as a community member the previous process where the equity tiering was sort of restructured and it made some really impactful changes.

about addressing projects.

And so can is there a concise way somebody can maybe.

I just wasn't following.

I'm not understanding what the concern was.

I don't know if I'm not looking at the right thing but I want would like to know more.

Is Director Rivera-Smith is your question related.

Yes I was just going to support Director Harris's suggestion there.

I also was surprised that that was coming down from 40 and I wonder if there's some math we can do to give it back some points which I think was what Director Harris was suggesting.

Could you maybe go into the relevance of the matching funds and why that came off of the.

Well we have we we have received matching funds for the John Muir Elementary School Early Learning Education and we thought we should draw that to the board's attention.

We thought we should also give that some weight.

Without including that project in BTA V we do not have funds to implement that work and we do think it's important to work to get that implemented based upon the strategic goals priorities of Having kids read at grade level by third grade.

Knowing the data that supports early learning and being being successful in creating that academic outcome for our students.

So we wanted to ensure that that project was included in the BTA V capital levy.

You said that was for McDonald.

For no for John Muir Elementary School.

Oh John Muir.

Okay.

So and funds matching funds use or lose matching funds.

Well they're not use or lose but they need to be utilized in a relatively quick time frame and we've made that because we made that request to OSPI as part of a distress school grant.

They just did not fund the entire grant amount that we requested Director Hampson.

Go ahead Director Harris.

What's Director Harris I'm sorry can you keep your mask on.

Thank you.

What's the spread between the distressed schools grant and the estimated cost.

What's the spread between that.

And if we're talking about early learning any chance whatsoever we can get the money from the city.

I haven't explored getting money from the city.

The spread is we got about a third of what we requested from OSPI and the distressed school grant.

We roughly asked for $3 million and we got $700,000 Director Harris.

Mike please.

Director Harris said do we have round numbers I believe.

Director Rankin does that.

Well can I add to.

Yes please.

What Director Rankin what Director Harris was proposing was revising the weighting score at the top of this slide so that in lieu of 20 percent for the building condition the school learning environment and the right size capacity.

Reduce those to 17 percent.

Take 1 percent off the matching funds and then leave the equity index at 40 percent.

That's what I heard your proposal Director Hampson.

Thank you.

Okay I was like where's the 40. I don't.

But was it was the equity index score was 40 percent of the weighting before not.

And and the BEX V lower.

the BEX V capital levy equity was scored at 40 percent.

It was weighted at 40 percent of the overall score.

Okay now I get it.

Thanks.

Director Hampson because of the board policy can I get a thumbs up on Director Harris a proposal.

To make that shift.

I mean do you.

Yes.

Is there support for that.

Is that what you're saying.

I'm hearing support from the board on that.

Chief Legal Counsel Narver is not in the room.

So.

I'm not sure if I do or not.

I feel like I need more information or building condition score is I mean the building condition is pretty important.

And learning environment.

I don't yeah.

Director Harris I mean yes Director Harris you got to use your mic even according to Ellie when you're making snarky remarks.

That was her specific that was her specific example.

I would not feel comfortable doing thumbs up thumbs down.

No no no we're not going to do that.

But I just want to make sure that.

You feel you've heard from all the directors.

And so I think maybe checking in with directors two by two might be a better way to go about that.

With with an alternative suggestion that maintains the equity.

I'm not I would be in favor of something like an equity tiebreaker that kind of notion.

And moved.

Chief Podesta.

I would suggest in these conversations we'll compare the we'll present directors with the different weightings.

I believe there were more there were fewer categories in BEX V. It still weighted the highest of any of the parameters here and so I'm not sure what the net effect of that will be.

But I think that was the intent of staff if we're going to grade more things reserve kind of the relative weight.

But and so but we'll I think that'd be the easiest way to get to the bottom of this is what does it make an actual difference.

Right.

Okay.

Thank you.

And let's keep moving.

So with the BTA B portion of the BTA V is really about building needs.

Next slide please.

Tina.

And the and the building if you look to this document here with 11 by 17 that you have you can see that we've proposed the capacity condition projects at the top which highlights the elementary schools the secondary school and then Memorial Stadium and the costs associated with those.

We have included a line item for property acquisition and infrastructure.

We started this category in our BTA IV capital levy and continued it with BTA V and or BEX V and then are recommending we continue allocating funds for BTA V as well.

Building systems repairs and replacements you can see there are many different categories in which we are proposing building system repairs and replacements.

Playground equipment is one that Director Harris brought to us as we were planning BEX V that we included in BTA V as well.

The recurring equipment and planning costs.

These are things that we include in every levy for maintenance equipment, grounds equipment, food service, placement of lunchroom tables.

A couple of new categories is the electric electrification of the vehicle fleet.

Again this is consistent with the energy resolution that you passed last year.

And then you can see short intermediate capacity and portable management and the move the move BEX VI levy planning costs are also included in this category.

We have identified some one-off projects.

These are projects that Our levy-specific and included in this list is ADA improvements at Cleveland High School to get from the high school to the new field that we constructed as part of BTA IV.

Central Kitchen improvements here at the John Stanford Center.

Funding for the retro-commissioning agents that we talked about.

Garfield Superblock improvements.

The Garfield Superblock improvements were was a commitment that both the City of Seattle and Seattle Public Schools made at the time Garfield High School was constructed.

Seattle Public Schools has implemented the improvements at Garfield High School and we also implemented the improvements of the Superblock when we implemented The addition at Horace Mann School.

But there is additional work that needs to be done at the community center.

Seattle Parks and Recreation is leading that effort.

They have reached out to us for a contribution to implementation of those of their three phases of improvements.

This would be money set aside for phases 1 and 3. of the Garfield Superblock and then the security entry vestibule that I talked about previously and the ADA improvements.

Final categories here include major preventative and critical maintenance.

Again major preventative maintenance has been in the levy since BTA III.

It was a component of BEX IV BTA IV BEX V. This levy we would be adding critical maintenance thanks to the work of Joel Lembergy and our state legislature.

Management and staffing debt service.

BTA V will pay off the loan on the John Stanford Center.

And then the last two categories are really just project escalation as we develop the implementation plan.

for this work and a 3 percent program contingency on the building component of BTA V. So open it up for questions.

The building component of BTA V. The B. Director Harris.

Let me ask first if it's an appropriate question if I might.

Would questions about Memorial Stadium be appropriate at this time.

Yes.

Okay.

Sixty two million dollars.

And in the materials and in the polling data we were advised that the polling question did not include ADA issues and earthquake issues.

And now it's listed as repair and renovate as opposed to new stadium.

And I'm concerned by that.

That is a left turn.

from what folks have been working on for several years and I'm curious as to the thinking behind it.

Thank you.

There would be repairs required.

Director Harris we are not proposing on the east walls of the existing stadium replacing but we would be proposing repairing the memorial wall at Memorial Stadium.

We are proposing and have costed out the demolition of the existing stands and the rebuilding of new stands at Memorial Stadium for housing 5,000 students or 5,000 participants in that activity.

The current stadium holds approximately 12,000 fans so we would be greatly reducing the size of Memorial Stadium.

with an additional 3,000 fans able to sit on the field you know at the existing Memorial Stadium.

We know there are conversations that need to be had yet because Memorial Stadium could be deemed a landmark by the City of Seattle.

We have not gone through the landmark designation process.

And so are trying to be careful not to be presumptuous in saying that Memorial Stadium would be replaced.

But we definitely the proposal here is to replace the existing stands at Memorial Stadium.

Leave the field.

replace the field lights so that they are LED and then leave the memorial wall in its existing location and make improvements to that memorial wall and make ADA improvements with all of the improvements that we're making here at this facility.

We have a lot of process yet to go through with this project with one of the significant next steps should the board decide to include this project with this levy would be to then begin a conversation with the City of Seattle about the landmark status of that facility.

And those are long conversations as you all know concerning Rainier Beach High School Mercer Middle School.

Those are year-long conversations.

Questions and concerns offline.

Thank you.

Director Rankin Director Rivera-Smith Director Dury.

Anybody.

Yeah I have a question I'll just tag along with Director Harris's questions about Memorial Stadium.

I know that often with school buildings and I know it's we're talking about totally different types of structures but there have been some buildings that you know people are interested in rebuilding and that in terms of cost it can often be much more costly to renovate rather than rebuild even though sometimes people think it's the opposite.

So I am wondering about that with regards to Memorial Stadium.

And then also the timing about how we deal with the timing between what needs to be approved to go into the levy package to go on to go to voters and the landmarking process and what space we have to change course I guess.

or alter alter the trajectory once it's been approved.

I mean how specific do we have to get.

Yeah.

Have we missed the window.

Do we have time to do this.

You would not be we would not be able to get through a landmarking process between now and the time we'd be voting on this measure.

Yeah.

And I would say because of the costs associated with landmarking process.

We have not in the past implemented the landmarking process until the board has approved the projects to be on the capital levy and the voters have approved the projects to be on the capital levy.

So for example in BEX V Mercer Middle School was a project.

We just completed the landmarking process for Mercer Middle School.

We've just completed the landmarking process for Rainier Beach High School.

Northgate Elementary School Kimball Viewlands were all completed after the levies were approved for the BEX V. All the landmarking processes were implemented afterwards.

And that has been consistent with what we did in BEX IV, BEX III, BEX II.

First the board approved the list of projects.

Then the voters approved the list of projects.

And then we went out and sought consultants to help us with the landmarks process with the City of Seattle.

Director Harris is left.

Okay.

Director Rankin does that answer your question.

It does.

I guess I'm still thinking about the window for pursuing rebuilding versus renovating.

Or if that is is a done conversation.

No that's not a done conversation.

We believe the funds allocated here would allow the district either to renovate or to rebuild.

Okay so we could think about that independent of the landmarking process because the landmarking process would be the next step if depending on what's approved is that right.

The landmarking process would be your next step.

Okay thanks.

Did you have a question Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

I was just going to clarify well is the BTA V will it pay off the John Stanford loan.

You said pay off so it will be done with it after that one.

Okay.

And I had some questions regarding solar panels where they could fit into all this but I can take that offline too because I'm French.

I didn't see it listed on any of these.

I. I did see your email on solar panels Director Rivera-Smith and I would note that what we would like to respond back is that we first develop the implementation plan that that gets us to the board's resolution of 2040. Develop the implementation plan and then look at solutions of solar panels would definitely be part of that solution.

I understand.

Thank you.

I just have one question.

Do we know Chief Podesta if the $3 million dollars did I get that right.

Yes.

No.

Sorry it's $20 million dollars for central kitchen improvements.

Is that correct.

Correct.

Okay.

I didn't draw a straight line and I thought it was $3 million.

And so my question was going to be is $3 million enough to significantly reduce the percentage of calories our kids get from processed foods in our school lunches.

But I'm guessing $20 million probably does have that impact.

And that's the intent.

Is that correct.

Yes.

This would allow for a significant modernization of the kitchen and better control of the menu from the central kitchen and continue the move towards more scratch cooking and more complete and responsive diet to the needs of our students.

So yes this would be huge for to the benefit of our nutrition program.

Thank you very much and I'm extremely excited to see that in there.

Okay is there anything else from directors or dwindling directors.

Please take it away Steph.

Oh sorry one last question.

Did I miss it or is there a blank version versus a alphabetical version of the individual schools.

If not that's okay.

It's in alphabetical order.

Alphabetical right now.

Okay.

But we could create a rank.

Okay.

That's fine.

Thank you.

Thank you President Hampson and directors for having me here tonight.

And first of all let me thank my two directors and ITAC that did a hell of an effort putting.

Appreciate that.

Slide.

These are our guiding principles that we developed with the help of the Executive Committee.

Apologies could you get a little pull the mic closer.

Thank you.

Is that better.

The guiding principles that we use to develop these numbers with essence you know to have our priorities and inclusivity across and really come out with the tools necessary for students and educators to provide for the academic goals.

Slide.

This is a refresher.

The technology categories we mainly deal with three major areas.

The student learning support which pretty much provides for the instruct the instructional software.

The procurement of student laptops and associated staff.

Some of the digital equity program that we just established last year is in there.

Also the the digital equity I'm sorry the digital technologies that we have at the schools as well that gets paid out of that.

The infrastructure and security basically the cybersecurity the the day-to-day running the lights for the data center pretty much any equipment related to the infrastructure associated cybersecurity the associated hardware and software.

And the district systems and data is pretty much where our bulk of our software and infrastructure running for operations is.

You know the HR systems.

The accounting system.

SAP.

The enterprise resource.

The our LMS systems.

You know the students software that we use for the academic.

Slide please.

This is Really quick representation of how we go about the engineer process within the DOTS.

You know ensuring that we have and build and maintain a robust infrastructure that supports our school community engagements and the staff so we can provide you know at the end you know the best tools for for students learning and support.

Slide.

This slide showed pretty much a comparison that how important that our levies are for for for technology especially this levy.

We have about 85 percent of the funding come from this levy while around it goes up and down around 10 to 15 percent from the general fund.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Yes.

Slide please.

So so in essence we got in fact you know 85 percent of the technology is funded by capital levies.

That is about 124-225 FTE's are funding are funded from here as well.

The capital levy funds annual technology operations is on a 3-year cycle.

We run up front you know the 3 years.

And basically for projects and equipment and You've seen it in the past year because of the significant increase in technology costs and the digital transformation we had last year by implementing the one-to-one across the entire district.

That drove a lot of infrastructure needs as far as increasing the bandwidth about licenses.

So it was a domino effect in the past year.

And the table that we have right there is the adopted budget that we have.

So just to have you an idea where we have been in past levies and where we are in spending.

Slide please.

So the staff recommendation after looking into the our work breakdown structure of every area all the way down to you know from operations all the way down to the nuts and bolts you know switches and fiber.

Those three major buckets areas we come out with about $226 million dollars covering all three areas.

The table on the right gives you a better idea for how does that break down as far as software staffing and the the must-pays internally for each area.

Slide please.

Now if we break down this tells the story about the student learning and what the must-pays are excluding the FTE's and the software.

This is plenty of the projects.

You can see the student devices is about thirty eight million dollars.

That's a one-to-one.

And that covers pretty much for the technical refresh that we got every four years happening.

Teacher devices and presentations as as well as for principals and management devices that staff computers that we all utilize.

The improvements on the classroom as far as AV replacements we have some old technology we're starting to put systems that are a little bit smarter that they can be digitally logically managed from computers.

So a little bit of enhancement on the classroom as well.

Of point right here the SPS-TV has not been upgraded in about 12 years.

So we concentrated we identified this this this need.

About $81,000 of that if we put a priority one and two but I will say we need to do some investment in this area.

About $81,000 is nice to have but I think the requests are they have weight.

Also the the student leaders you know the stipend is just what the ed techs they help out in the classroom with technology.

The digital equity support that's the the new the new program that we established last year with with a grant and is being instrumental to reaching out to to the to communities and families and really understanding what the digital equity issues are out there in the field.

It's been very very successful program.

Of note we brought these numbers to ITAC to weigh in on their feedback as well and do some equity analysis from their point of view.

And they they marked this one as a must must keep must must pay.

Very they're very interested in this program.

You know they're they're the voice of the community so they think that this program is very important.

And then the our digital cohort as well.

Slide please.

Infrastructure you know how I said this is just mainly the backbone of how we keep you know the lives running for IT.

Cybersecurity the data center anything on land or ES it's pretty much equipment maintenance.

The telecom and hotspots you know we we're being issuing those for the past years we want to make sure that that continues there for for students and families that need that service.

The facilities and security that's a lot of our cameras that we have out on to help our security guys you know secure our sites.

This one the Rainier Beach Data Center this is to finalize a contingency of operations site on the south.

Right now if something happens here at the data center we lose power here or we lose power on Marshall I believe we have the data center.

They lose services.

So what our intent is to with the collaboration of capital we started a program to study data center being built up in Rainier Beach so they can provide a service so whenever there's a cut-off services here they have they can have access to to the services that they need independently to the rest of the district.

And then power and power is a one and two.

We got about nine hundred to a million dollars that we think it is a must keep just for the maintenance of generators that backs up our systems.

The remaining priority two I think it is Important that we keep building on that backups on those sites and the different schools and put the power to back up the IT systems that they require.

So there is no no stopping in academics in those schools during those times.

The Electronic Management Archive is you know is well known.

We have records and paper you know years and years you know right in the back and we're trying to you know Right now we spend about a million dollars just to keep manual processes going and that's what we're reflecting on priority one.

We would like to automate all of that so we can reduce that bill and that's why we're asking for the extra million there to to get a couple of developments and just get a system of record that will help us with that archiving into a digital media so.

Slide please.

And finally is the the district systems.

This the backbone of our operations as with all our our business our HR our you know supporting the front office supporting operations.

Some of the pedestrian chief pedestrians transportation security you know There are some systems that are delayed in there.

Digital transformation that we started that's as far for for the enterprise SAP.

We're looking into upgrading that system.

The data warehouse and reporting.

Project project management is a one and two.

Over the past couple of years we've been struggling with with project managers IT project managers leading projects we've been taking people that should be doing work you know developers and kind of like parse their time to do also the project management and that's hindering you know our development.

So we thought we have about allocated about a million in there.

Yeah about a million right now to for for a couple folks that have been helping us get through this times.

But I think it is important that we can formalize that as a PMO office for IT and that's why we asking the the additional funding to really streamline you know the development internally to our systems and do it properly.

As to the systems that's pretty much you know the support and develop the developers behind like the Schoology and Passback and all of the system LMS's that those are the people that supports on that.

And then the student climate data this another project that we have in Idaho.

Slide please.

Now this is it this gives you a better idea for within those buckets how many people we have working on each functional areas.

We don't to tell you the truth we don't have much and the little bit that we have asked to increase is an attempt to fill that gap you know for past years that we haven't had.

There's I mean this past year there's been a lot of sacrifice you know due to to the contingent reparations that we did with COVID-19 and trying to get the technology out.

And we got we had a taste for how low on personnel we actually had to support you know what is it 101 schools over 60,000 you know users with that amount of people it is reflected right there.

So our ask I think I'll write on this slide.

Slide please.

And this is a breakdown of what the licenses and maintenance the software piece of this that I showed at the beginning looks like.

And I put a comparison across the years of other levies what we have spent.

There was a reduction I thought there was some consolidation of software platforms which aligns with what some of what the families were saying last year some of that feedback to standardize on fewer platforms.

So we're starting to to look at systems that might be able to normalize and consolidate to achieve some of these savings.

And we look at it in some of those areas in the infrastructure and the district.

But then because of the increase of the digital transformation we had last year the student learning support actually went up a little bit.

You know looking from the bigger picture From BEX V to BTA IV it was an increase of about you know half a million dollars.

So I think it's I think we're in track you know where we are right now with all the technology we have in place you know softwares and licenses.

That increase doesn't seem as big as I was expecting.

Slide please.

And this is just like a give you a bigger bigger picture where those licenses and maintenance lay in by functional area.

Some of those areas have two or three pieces of software.

What we did we identified about 82 pieces of software across the entire district that supports operations and the academics as well.

I will say I intend this so I look in the future and start looking at where we can standardize and normalize that software because I think My personal opinion professional opinion I think that's a lot.

And I think we we have to do that analysis.

We owe it to the district.

Next.

So back again you know our focus you know based on the guiding principles developed this this list you know within this this three area with the priorities of racially equity tools.

The annual maintenance you know to keep the lights running basically.

The data privacy and user experience that's that's how that has been huge over the past year trying to put the systems in place that protect you know the privacy of our kids.

We did a lot of work you know you guys heard on YouTube and all the things that we did last year trying to to protect you know those those those those kids.

And then also the user experience of the past year we did a lot of work on enhancing the system so it will become easier for teachers and the students on how to how do we use that.

That we have to we have seen into the future what kind of investments we can continue that work.

And then you know refreshing the computers.

You know we have huge investment over the past year.

We need to continue that investment you know with tech refresh every I believe it's every 4 year we have it.

that we've replaced computers.

Slide please.

And then again you know we're going to be sharing you know the stories when we go out with engagement.

That's where we are right now in engagement.

Rich you're going to talk about it later.

How are we collaborating and how are we going to bring that these news to the to the community.

Trying to get some feedback in the priorities that we have put forth.

Validate those against what we thought.

You know we met with the chiefs.

We met with different departments.

We saw what what is needed.

And now we're going to go to the community and get their feedback on that.

And how I said we've been working fairly close with ITAC bringing this breakdown of numbers and getting their their the feedback as far as equity and how the community think we should go and what direction and what's important that we should fence within this funding needs.

And then that's going to be identified on the tech plan for implementation as we move forward once it gets approved by the board you know the levy.

And with that take some questions.

Director Rankin do you have any questions.

I I don't I just thank you so much for how thorough that was and I am in great agreement that a lot of those that those needs that I was sort of laughing to myself about everything being priority one and they really are.

These things will be meaningful meaningful differences for kids in classrooms.

So thanks so much for all your work.

Other directors.

Director Harris.

Thanks.

I'm looking at slide 30. And when you talked about student climate data for two million dollars you said that's another project we have.

That doesn't help me understand what we're talking about.

Can I get my director to.

Of course.

And I have one more question.

I'm Judy Jager Director of Information Systems and Business Intelligence.

So to speak to the student climate data project that's going to be a joint effort between research and evaluation and the business intelligence team.

So the research team has had a separate platform for student climate data and so the intent is to partner and collaborate and bring that data on board into Atlas Data Warehouse and provide a suite of reports.

So the funds are to help bring in consultants and other resources to help finish out that work.

Welcome.

Thank you very much.

The other question I had is on number 33 and I and I think CFO Berge might be able to help me on this one.

We spent some real money and time and a board resolution to implement homeroom and we're Then we found out fairly recently that we're not using Homeroom anymore and that's never been explained.

So I appreciate that we had to pass a resolution to get the program but then when it disappears how does the board stay in touch with that.

It has bad memories of the HR docketing system that disappeared and we weren't told about.

I'll have to get back to you with more specifics.

I know that Homeroom has not evolved to be what we thought it was going to be when we first purchased it.

Sometimes that happens.

There are certain promises that are made by vendors.

We do our due diligence.

That happens.

But when it's not evolving to meet our needs we have to cut back.

And we need to move to a different product that will meet our needs.

So instead of continuing to invest in that we will be moving to a different platform and Carlos and I can get staff to provide more details to you.

For the whole board please.

Thank you so much.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi thank you.

I so I have a question.

So it was previously mentioned about some polling we did and in that polling we found that our families are very or not beyond our families Seattle in general are really interested in seeing us expand and develop our STEM our STEM teaching schooling programs etc.

The only thing I see in all of this is this $94,000 for STEM school software.

And I wish Dr. Scarlett was still here because I know this isn't just you guys.

But I'm just wondering if there's places to build more since that's what the people who were trying to get to approve this levy are interested in.

I'd like to see somewhere that's built in a little more if there's room for that.

And again I know that's not solely your your say or your your call there but I just wanted to get that out there that because I felt it's all IDC in here and maybe I'm wrong there's somewhere else in here that STEM is supported.

technology and we're funding it in here but I don't want to see so far so.

I'll just say really quick that we one of the processes that we did go through is making sure that we reached out to CAI and talked about the curriculum that they needed and the software that they needed.

So this is coming directly from that group so we can get more information from them.

Thank you.

I have a follow-on question that might Maybe we'll we'll cover that as well.

If you put on a timeline whether it's business systems internally in terms of our delivery of education whether it's STEM related or having a remote option I mean a virtual option what are we calling it VOP.

Like I think Dr. Scarlett said that we were approximately 15 years behind and we heard Mr. Crabill speak to that with respect to not having interim assessments built into our processes for evaluation of what kind of outcomes we're producing for students.

Where are we now.

I know we've had I'm aware that there's a backlog of under-investment in technology.

If we were to get to this place that I think our that is a value as Dr. Rivera-Smith stated for this community where how many years would that take us and how far do you think this levy investment would get us based on what's proposed here.

And if you can't if you don't have to answer that now I'm just I do think it's really helpful.

for boards who are governing to approve expenses to see where we are in the in the progression of things.

I don't know that we've when you put things in that context it it makes it easier to understand why we need to make certain decisions and certain investments sooner rather than later.

It is hard to to answer that question and what how long would it take because you know technology changes constantly.

But I will my opinion I think I will have to go back to my ask about the PMO office.

Those are the guys that can exactly determine the timeline manage the milestones the text in between you know everything to develop and based on engineer processes I think that education needs to be brought out to you guys.

As far as what happens in between and how that stands.

Usually it is not a what we did last year.

We just gave 50,000 computers in what three months.

It doesn't happen that way.

And as a matter of fact it caused a lot of issues as far as the back-end infrastructure and software that we were trying to keep up you know with providing all the remote options and every other tool that we put out there.

because they had a lot of dependencies in other systems.

And when we had this engineer process in place, those things get caught, you know, and they analyze and then we put mitigations in place.

Well, last year, the mitigation in place was just trying to keep up with everything, right?

So I would say it is a hard question to answer as far as how long would it take.

But I think that the most important question is how do we manage these things more efficiently as we move forward in some of these areas that I have identified that they're missing.

They're just basic you know industry standards.

It would be like like the PMO office.

You know we need someone that really manage these projects to success.

I don't know would that answer the question but I think that's I think that's the direction we should focus in as far as how do we manage the investments to a successful end.

Yeah I what you said makes complete sense and at the same time I think it's something we should keep talking about in terms of insisting that we continue to make those investments.

And let me add to the second piece of that.

How do we how do you guys know about all this stuff.

I think we should build those processes as we build new new programs in place.

How do we I don't know we need to establish a process with the board and staff.

As far as the IT you know reference to IT how do how do we keep you informed of where those those those programs are you know laying out.

I think that that process is not in place.

I think we should start looking into putting that.

So you guys don't get blindsided when things happen.

And you guys better understanding oh this program is taking this long because you know there might be some other dependencies you know that are stopping it from getting to where it is at.

Or it just it is developing just fine.

It just takes time and those are I think that's the the the the opportunities that we have to to get everybody in the same sheet of music.

The other question.

Thank you for all of that.

The other question I had in terms of digital equity support that is something I think we all heard that during this past year.

as a big stumbling block for for families.

And I and my only question about that is is that enough of an investment.

I don't believe that we are not going to need to continue to invest in remote learning in the use of technology in one-to-one And our families are going to need to continue to be involved in their students' use of technology.

And that that will need to grow.

And so that's that's my only question about that is if that's enough money.

And then the other piece of that is whether or not how far out might we be from being able to have students just remote into a given classroom.

You know I think there's a there was an ad that kept running during the Olympics where a kid is remote and he's like physically represented from his hospital bed.

And but and at the same time that kept me thinking you know what as we're having these hard conversations about who can have a remote option.

when that need is there how far out are we from being able to have any kid be able to go remote into a classroom that is actually live.

Yeah the simulcast.

We actually.

Yes thank you.

I also couldn't think of that.

Everybody was talking about simulcasting and bargaining and then suddenly it left.

Yeah we actually had had a pilot you know and improving some technologies you know to bring into the classroom so we can allow just for that.

Nancy.

I think teachers were doing it already as as optional.

So part of what we need to do is work with our labor partners.

Yeah.

On implementing that as a strategy particularly at the secondary level to increase course offering.

Okay.

Yes absolutely that last part.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anybody else.

Okay.

Thank you so very much Carlos and JoLynn.

So to review the academics and athletics component of the BTA levy.

Next slide Tina.

I just note that the identified facility needs included in this category are special education program modifications.

We work with our special education staff and department to identify the needs of special of special needs students from a facility standpoint that implement those at our schools to meet their their needs.

Program placement.

We've included dollars for program placement.

This is new educational programs that Schools of Continuous Improvement may be proposing.

In addition I will note during this time frame we will be implementing the shuffle related to attendance areas for the highly capable cohort.

And so we recognize there are probably going to be some facilities modifications that are required as we implement that attendance area shuffle.

So we've included dollars for that on an allowance basis.

Athletic field replacement field lights and new to this budget we are also looking at replacing athletic equipment.

One of the needs that Pat McCarty who is our District Athletic Director has identified is The need to replace outdated athletic equipment either because it's reached the end of its useful life or it's no longer safe.

And so he doesn't have a budget allocation for that so we're giving one-time expenditures for that equipment and the cost of that equipment we're including it in the BTA V capital levy.

I will also note that the field lights some of you have heard me say this before but the field lights were actually a response to the environmental impact statement that we did for the high school build time changes that we would be providing field lights at our secondary schools.

We have provided field lights at all of our high schools at this time.

We're implementing field lights at middle schools as we speak.

This will conclude the implementation of those field lights at the middle schools.

Outdoor classrooms the board has mentioned that at the previous work session so we have allocated an allowance for outdoor classrooms.

And then we had one of our planning staff members implement an inventory of the condition of the arts equipment and the science classroom equipment throughout the district.

And we've got some identified special costs for replacement of some of that equipment throughout the district.

Next slide Tina.

So when you look at potential costs JoLynn, I, Linda Sebring and others have had conversations.

concerning levy rates and what the recommendation would be we'd be recommending Priority 1 at a levy rate of 46 cents per thousand.

And you can see the projects that would be included in this document here and all the various categories.

The previous levy rate It was 43 cents per thousand.

And we've also provided rates at project lists for 50 and 55 cents per thousand.

JoLynn I don't know if you want to add to that.

With that I'll turn it over to JoLynn to talk about levy rates.

All right.

This is where we'll get to really tiny print.

Well first we just want to show some perspective on where we have spent dollars in the BACS BTA capital levy.

So this is just information for you to review.

And you can see that the largest percentage has been spent in the southeast which does represent our highest area of poverty.

Next slide.

So on this we want to we wanted to show how this has grown over time.

And what we're hoping to show is that it's grown over time but the rates really are remaining stable and that's related to assessed valuation.

So you can see I'll just look at BEX IV where we had about $600-700 million dollars and in 2019 the board approved a BEX V package of $1.4 billion dollars.

So to give that some context for BTA IV came in at $475 million.

We're recommending a package of $700 and sixty-five million dollars.

So not quite doubling it.

And you can see that BEX IV more than doubled last time.

So just you can see how that's grown over time.

Next slide.

On this slide we're really showing what our assessed value in total.

So this is the EP&O or the operations levy and both of the capital levies BEX and BTA.

You can see that Seattle comes in with the lowest rate in 2021 with $1.84 per thousand compared to the highest district Highline at $4.50.

So we're lucky to have assessed valuation at the level that we do.

We are the only district to.

relies on capital levies to fund all of our building.

Other districts do have to pass bonds and we are able to provide the lowest rate per thousand still to our constituents.

Next slide please.

So this is the really detailed slide.

I'm just going to orient you to the what's on the slide.

So there's the levy year and we have two things on here.

We kind of look at what the rates are.

for both the operations BEX and BTA.

The yellow is what we're proposing tonight.

That is the BTA piece of the levy.

But we also want to talk a little bit about the operations levy the EP&O levy which would be renewed as well.

So remember there's two levies that would be on the ballot in 2022. That would be the operations levy.

That levy we're currently authorized by the legislature.

Seattle is the only district that is allowed to collect $3,500 per pupil.

Everyone else is capped at something lower than that mostly $3,000 per pupil.

We do are recommending asking for the maximum.

So in that operations column starting in 2023 that would be the $3,500 per student being levied.

And that would equal in 2023 a rate of 73 cents.

Now in another slide we'll show in a moment part of what we always include in our operations levy calculations is enrollment growth because you have to have enough voter capacity approved to collect if your enrollment increases.

So we need to have an amount that includes an enrollment escalator.

In case our enrollment increases over the life of this levy we don't have to go back out to the voters.

We can continue to collect.

We only collect the maximum allowed based on the law and the and the enrollment we have at the time.

But we do ask the voters for additional capacity for both enrollment increase and then we have a $500 per pupil legislative change.

Levy law has changed a lot over the last few years.

We don't want to be left behind.

If in fact the legislature makes a change in the levy collection rates we want to go ahead and be able to collect that.

We have been very successful.

Our voters have been very supportive of that in the past.

So the other thing I'll point out on this slide is we are looking at a rate of 46 cents per thousand for the BTA 4 BTA 5 levy excuse me.

We asked the voters six years ago for a $0.43 per 1,000 rate.

So we're asking for $0.03 per 1,000 increase in the rate.

The one-to-one movement to technology is really the driving force behind that.

There's other information on here.

I'm going to let you ask questions as we move along.

But there is a cost analysis just showing some of the difference between what we're asking the voters for if they owned an $800,000 home.

We use Zillow to do some estimates.

We would be asking for an increase of about $12.40 a month is what is teed up between the two levies.

So I just want to talk about that.

Next slide.

So this just shows of the total rates that we're being charged.

So in 2021 we're at a total of $1.84 per thousand.

Now again when we go out for these rates We make certain assumptions about assessed valuation.

We're fairly conservative so if assessed valuation comes in better the rate per thousand decreases or is lower than what we estimated.

And that's what you're seeing as far as the 2021 rate.

So right now voters are paying a total of a $1.20 or $1.84.

We would be asking in the 2023 estimated tax collections current law would be about $1.92.

With the operations levy capacity we're asking for two dollars and three cents.

All right.

Next slide and I'll go to questions.

Oh sorry I thought you said next slide.

There is another slide.

Okay question.

But it was a question slide.

Yes.

Director Harris.

Thank you for making this complicated stuff.

Understandable.

Hugely appreciated.

And you know how much I like pictures and graphs.

And when we sell this to the voters I hope we focus on that.

And I think we did a heck of a job in BEX V. It was stunning.

I have a question for Richard and or Dr. Pedroza.

about the athletics because I understand that we have some very exciting news coming with respect to inclusive athletics on a three-year plan that's not completely faked yet but I think it's very important we talk about that if we're asking for money from voters and we haven't been inclusive in the past.

Back with her first.

I didn't blindside her.

I was going to say and aren't you all glad I stayed with this too.

Okay.

Just really quickly just to give some context for those of you.

We've been working on a so the athletic department's been working on a three-year plan to expand expand unified sports.

All of this was in coordination and partnership with the Special Olympics.

That was prior to COVID.

I know the plan has been vetted through many many things and that's been one of the goals is I think how do we provide more unified opportunities for all of our schools.

So there is a plan in place.

We're working on some grant funding seed funding right now.

But eventually there's if we talk about expansion it's going to have an impact on the athletic program.

at some point but there are there are some we do have some seed money to start.

And then we've been in conversations about also thinking about other ways to fundraise.

But it is a conversation piece so I would love to talk to you guys about that eventually at some point.

But I'm excited to think about expanding unified sports in our middle and high schools.

So that's where we're at.

Thank you Dr. Pedroza.

Anything else Director Harris.

Okay other directors questions.

Thank you.

Mr. Best you spoke about the athletic field lighting that we're going to expand that to all middle and high schools to have athletic lighting field lighting correct.

So my question is just kind of take from there is like my district has both a middle and high school with no athletic fields period.

Are we, is there anywhere in this to work on that?

We've had conversations about this before, but is money for possible field development for them in here somewhere or is that somewhere else?

For which high school.

Lincoln High School and Hamilton Middle School.

Yes.

We have included money for a potential field for Lincoln High School and Hamilton International Middle School.

Director Rivera-Smith we're in conversations with Seattle Parks and Recreation as to potentially what site that would be at this moment in time.

Where is that at.

Just so I can I so I can eye it.

Where is that at in here.

That is I think the one sheet that is missing from this package was on fields and field lighting.

It's the only sheet that's missing but it was missing.

So I I can get you a copy of that.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Okay.

And go ahead and send it to the home board.

Okay.

Director Rankin you have questions.

Yeah.

I thank you for all of this information as Director Harris said making it understandable.

I can't pass up the opportunity just to say that this is such a silly way to fund education and schools.

It's very silly.

It's a ton a ton of work and guessing on a whole bunch of things that change.

And yeah I just as a broader society it does not seem like we care that much about children.

I so with property values being assessed for the collection I mean I'm going to assume that housing values are going to come down.

How do we.

You were talking about putting in or thinking about mitigations in terms of enrollment fluctuations or if enrollment goes up that we would need well yeah about enrollment changes.

But what about I mean It's probably not going to happen very soon but what if what if housing prices just crash then what happens for values.

Right.

So the rate per thousand so what the voters approve is a total collection amount.

The rate per thousand is what varies depending upon what your what the assessed valuation is.

But you still collect the total amount.

So the rate.

I see.

Could go up or down.

But you the voters are authorizing a total collection amount in total.

Thank you.

Not a rate per thousand.

We talk about it that way as a talking point to make it you know to give transparency.

That's helpful.

Thank you.

And then in the past I know that the district has asked for the maximum allowed and been granted that by voters and then the legislature has not allowed the district to collect that full amount.

Is that can you talk about that a little bit and the impact on this levy.

Certainly.

So last time we asked for about $4,000 per student and that would have equated to our previous amount per per pupil that we had been collecting.

Obviously we could not collect that amount.

So we've lowered that down.

I mean we put in the legislature moved it up to $3,500 after that happened.

So we did get more in a legislative change right.

So that did help us.

We do have a $500 per pupil.

change in here booked in case there's legislative action.

So if there's legislative action we would be able to collect it.

So we are asking voters to authorize a higher amount.

If the legislature were to change that policy then we could collect it.

If they do not change the policy we do not collect it.

Okay.

I think I'm confused about the $500.

That is the

capacity that we've built in to the rate per thousand.

Meaning it would be asked and authorized but not necessarily collected.

Correct.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Thank you.

I have one question but Ellie do you need me to pause.

Okay.

Do we have any idea where our rate sits relative to the cost of the building.

Meaning over time have we been levying enough to keep up with the increases in cost or prices whether it's buildings or technology.

I'll take a stab at it from the building standpoint Director Hampson then I'll let Carlos or JoLynn take a stab at it from technology standpoint.

This is an important question that you're asking.

We have approximately 10 million square feet.

Our construction costs today are roughly $500 per square foot and soft costs on top of that are approximately $250 a square foot.

Can you say that one more time.

Okay.

We have approximately 10 million square feet.

Construction costs are $500 a square foot and soft costs are $250 a square foot.

If you multiply those together you get a total of $7.5 billion dollars.

OSPI recommends in their asset preservation program having school districts allocating 2 percent for asset renewal.

That does not include maintenance costs on an annual basis.

It does not include grounds costs on an annual basis.

It does not include custodial costs or utility costs.

So the number would be $150 million that Seattle Public Schools should be allocating for facilities improvements building improvements.

This year's capital budget was in the neighborhood of $350 million that you all approved.

And so we are gaining ground.

But I will also highlight that we lost ground in the 80's.

We lost ground in the 90's.

And so we're catching up to where and we do have an extensive backlog.

Right.

Of facilities improvements that are needed.

And I know Director Harris and Director Wolf who both participate in those conversations on BEX V are very aware of that.

So.

Yeah and I know particularly with respect to things like ADA and I appreciate hearing about that forthcoming audit.

Okay.

Did you want to respond from a technology basis.

But so thank you for that very thorough response.

I think from a technology basis we are we are I mean we made that leap to one to one which is where we were really behind from maybe other districts.

So we've made that leap.

And remember the technology cycle only runs the first three years of each levy.

So it's a much shortened shorter time frame where we can keep up better.

There's not a way to really fall behind unless we decide we're not replacing computers every four years we're going to go to five years or something like that.

So we're able to keep up more timely I would say.

And there isn't any projected massive increase in cost and unlike Director Rankin I do not think our assessment I mean our assessed values are going to be going down.

I think they're going to continue to increase but she and I can have.

I mean as a as a total part of our budget IT costs are going to increase just like in your personal life where.

Right.

Your your tech stuff continues to increase as a component of your total cost.

We're going to still see that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

that it's a 3 percent increase every year.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

I think that's it.

Right.

Okay.

We have a quick couple of quick last slides.

Oh sorry.

Training engagement and communications.

Sorry sorry yes I saw that.

So I do want to highlight to the school board that both Capital Projects and and Technology and JoLynn's office will be out engaged in community meetings in the month of September.

We have five community meetings that are planned.

We're looking at those potentially being both an in-person and and remote virtual meeting so a hybrid style.

We've made We'll be going to all five geographical regions within Seattle Public Schools and then bring that information back as to what we heard to a school board work session the latter part of September.

In addition we have met with James Bush and Kirk Mead to talk about the relationship with our community partners and what the information is that we should be providing them.

They made some great recommendations so we're working on that.

with that and then go to Fred for talking about next steps.

So we will continue to refine the estimates of projects and refine the list.

We'll take into account the feedback we heard tonight about our prioritization methodology and continue to pursue these levy rate options the way Richard and Noel JoLynn laid out.

We'll also start work on an implementation plan by which we can kind of sequence projects and give the directors a better understanding of what the actual construction and other projects would look like.

We'll have another opportunity next month for a work session like this to share the refinement as we're working for and then try to see understand that we have consensus among directors about the levy rate option and the final project list.

And then going to the last slide please or second to last slide.

The dates for all this to finalize this will be going to the operant the capital levy goes to the Operations Committee in October.

The EP&O levy will go to Audit and Finance also in October.

And we'll introduce the BAR with the actual package on October 20th and have a public comment session on the 25th and bring this to a vote on November 3rd so we can meet our deadlines to get this on the ballot in February.

And again that As you've heard tonight most of this is about you know preserving investments we've already made.

I think our big choices are kind of about the scale and picking you know where the line is on a list because these investments are about you know not going backwards sustaining what we have and so are not kind of the big lumps of choices that we have in BEX levies so that the dynamics of this are a bit different.

And really appreciate your time.

We've been here half an hour after the air conditioning went off.

So hopefully we'll all be sensitive to that.

And thank you.

Okay.

Unless directors have anything else.

Director Rivera-Smith has a question.

Super quick question.

For the five community meetings to come in September I was hoping you can let us know directors know the ones are happening in our district areas so that we can attend if possible.

Thank you.

We'll let the whole board know about all five.

Thank you.

Okay as there is no further business on the agenda with my apologies for the late ending this meeting stands adjourned at 829 p.m.

Please get home safely.