School Board Meeting Date May 18, 2016 Part 1

Director Harris?

Here.

Director Peters?

Here.

Director Pinkham?

Here.

If everyone would please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

At this time we would like to recognize the state athletic champions in our district.

I will first turn to Dr. Nyland for his remarks.

All right.

Well, as we do, we like to have the opportunity to recognize our athletes and others.

Tonight we're doing athletes and on June 3rd we'll do a lot of our other staff that we want to recognize.

We are privileged to have many of our athletic teams that have done well at the state level either academically or academically and athletically.

And so I'd like to introduce Eric McCurdy district athletic director to help us recognize our coaches and our athletes.

Thank you very much, superintendent, board directors.

We're very thankful to come up for the third annual recognition of our athletic state champions.

In our first year, Dr. Nahn has allowed us to recognize our academic state champions as well.

A couple of thank yous, Threes to Hell, Anya, Tom Redman, Tina Christensen, have really made this come true, also communications.

I also would like to thank Pat McCarthy.

Pat McCarthy is our newest athletic assistant, came from Sammamish High.

He's our district two rep and also on the WI executive board.

So Pat's the big fella in the back.

I want to recognize him as well.

There's nine districts in the state of Washington and Pat is representing District 2 and that goes from Ballard and Roosevelt, East to Sammamish, Issaquah, Bothell and since the time that I've been here in Seattle I know of three individuals that are on the WIA Hall of, Wall of Fame.

Those three that I know of are Ron Howard who did an exceptional job at Seattle U as a basketball player and actually Aki Kurosu the assistant principal now got drafted by the Dallas Cowboys and also the Seattle Seahawks played for them.

Clarence Acocks who was the music director at Garfield is on that wall and also Ms. Barb Tortoise.

Ms. Barb Tortoise is the longest tenured Seattle Public School District Athletic Director of 23 years.

she is the only athletic director male or female in the state of Washington that is on the NIAAA NFHS Hall of Fame, a national honor.

May the 4th we also announced a new member to the WIA Hall or Wall of Fame, Mr. Greg Beshear and I will let Dr. Herndon introduce him.

Good evening, Philip Herndon, Associate Superintendent of Facilities and Operations and I have had the pleasure over the last few years, even before overseeing the athletic department, getting to know Mr. Brashear who is just an outstanding individual.

His credentials for being an outstanding athletic coach speak for themselves, but as good a coach he is, he is an even better man and it has been fantastic to get to know him.

are bringing him here tonight to give him that recognition.

He was actually in the 2015 class for the WIA induction but they did that ceremony this year, both the 15 and 16 classes.

He has had a 30-year track coach career here in Seattle Public Schools for Garfield High School.

His girls teams have won eight state championships including five consecutive championships between 1981 and 85. He was the 2001 King County Coach of the Year, was inducted into the Washington State Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame in 2003 and remains a track and field enthusiast today.

He really enjoys his work.

I have rarely seen people who love being around the sport for as long as they have and really enjoy the enthusiasm.

And he's also been asked to be the, and he doesn't know this but I'm telling him right now along with everybody else in the room, Greg will be the City of Seattle liaison for the WIAA Hall of Fame as well.

So with that I want to bring up Mr. Greg Brashear so he can get back to a track meet actually later today.

So Mr. Brashear.

Thank you very much.

It's much appreciated.

My teams were special to me.

And we accomplished a lot of things, but we did these things together.

We worked hard to make sure that the kids got the most out of their potential.

And a lot of them have gone on to do wonderful things after high school.

I have one little lady that was always too short to run the 400, as far as I was concerned.

She just didn't have the legs for it.

She won the state, she won the metro championship in the 400. She also told me when she graduated that she was going to become a cop.

And so I said, okay.

So she goes to Eastern and takes her, gets her degree in criminal justice.

And then I see her some years afterwards and I said, are you a cop yet?

And she said, no, because she's only about that tall.

She said, I'm in the FBI and I'm an FBI agent.

So she's an agent for the FBI.

She's been there for 14 years, and I just saw her the other day.

And those stories are the kinds of things that we had over the years, and I just really appreciate this acknowledgement, and I'm working right now because I'm one of the managers of the district track meet, so I had to leave, and now I'm headed back.

So thank you very much for this.

Thank you Greg.

As we continue with our program, our first team up will be the Ballard Unified Basketball Team.

They are three time the back to back to back state champion.

When we started our unified program it was for students with and without intellectual disabilities.

We started this program four years ago.

We had about 100 student athletes.

We now have over 750 and we never expected to win state.

We didn't put the program together for that.

We've since won 12 state championships, seven in basketball, five in soccer, and this team is just a phenomenal team.

So Principal Kevin Winekoop, Assistant Principal Jim Slade, Athletic Director Kerry Burr, and then of course Coach Laurie.

Thank you for having us.

I would like to quickly introduce this team and I would just like to say that this is only about a quarter of the kids who are involved in our program.

This year we had 32 kids involved.

We had 15 athletes and 17 partners which was a lot of kids but we made it work.

I started this and this is Margaret Tookie, she is a freshman, this is her first year playing as a partner.

She came in the second year of practice with her foot in a boot and she said, I know practice has already started and I know you've got too many kids and I know I have a broken foot but I'd really like to be a part of this.

I'll do anything.

And so we made her manager and she got the boot off her foot and she actually we put her on the state on one of the teams that played to go to state and she's been a great addition to the team.

Nevin Shinner our three point guy Rudy one of our two, we call them the twin towers, a freshman so we may be back here for a few more years.

This is Edgar, this guy is a rebounder let me tell you.

Sean is our point guard, he is aging out this year we are going to definitely miss him.

This is Joe.

Joe was the guy during the championship game when we were having trouble with one of the One of the players on the other team, he was hitting everything he threw up.

Joe was like, Lori, put me in.

Just put me in.

I got this.

And he did.

He got it.

And we won.

Jolie is a two-time state champion, and she's as fierce as anybody can be out on the basketball court.

Standing behind is Steve, one of the assistant coaches.

Dagmar, our other assistant coach, is not able to be here tonight.

I also want to mention that Sean is a two-time state champion, and Edgar.

is a three-time state championship.

And so he's been with us all three years.

So Ballard has a great program.

I'm super proud to be the head coach.

And the first year we came here, I rather smugly said, as a coach, I just have to say, I'll be back next year.

So I think I've grown up a little.

I'm not going to be so smug.

But I do really hope we'll be here again next year.

Thank you.

I would like to invite the team forward and have my colleagues and Dr. Nyland join us so we can award them with a certificate and take a photo.

Yes and we will do that for each team as well.

The next team is the Cleveland High Cross Country Academic State Champions with a 3.91.

Principal George Breland, Athletic Director Tim Bursey, Coach Hosea.

I'm filling in for Coach Phillips.

He's at that district track meet right now.

So we're tremendously proud of our athletes, especially when they do excellent work in the classroom.

I'm going to have one of the team members come up and announce his voice.

Hello.

My name's Han Ekelberg.

I'll go ahead and introduce some of the teammates I have.

We have Gerald, Jack.

Richard, Tong, and Andy.

Thank you for the award, and we gladly accept it.

Thank you.

Mr. Breeland, you can stay up there.

You have another team, your Cleveland boys golf team with a 3.886.

Coach Ryan.

And I also want to note here that the girls team would have won state.

They did not have enough student athletes to qualify, but technically they won state as well.

Hi again.

This is my boys team and like they said I would have had dual academic champions if I just had a couple more girls but super proud of them.

So starting on the right here we've got Chris Wilhelm, Brandon Tini, Jay Kent, Megan Seifong, Brent Wong and Sunshine Raymond Chin.

Next team up, Ingram Girls Soccer, Academic State Champions with a 3.89, Principal Martin Floh, Assistant Principal John Houston, Athletic Director Tracy Huffer, and Coach Topher.

First off, thanks for having us here.

Very, very, very honored and excited.

This is my second year at Ingram, so being able to do this is a big thrill.

So the girls were amazing this year.

We had a really, really amazing year with the first winning record in over seven years and first playoff berth as well.

We had eight girls receive all Metro honors.

But most importantly, as you know, 3.89 GPA, girls soccer, state champs.

So really, really excited about these girls.

And really helped to continue our efforts to create excellence on the field, but also in the classroom.

I always talk to the girls about being student athletes.

So really puts that emphasis on that part of it.

And I just couldn't be more proud.

The exciting part is that we are only graduating four this year so hoping to be back again next year with the same crop of misfits.

But lastly I want to recognize Emma Lull, Marissa London and senior Corinne Berger who is also one of our captains who were kind enough to be down here today.

A few others were at district track meets so thank you very much.

yes and the last team that I wanted to publicly recognize the Rainier Beach boys basketball team I do not see a representative from Rainier Beach here But Coach Mike Bethea is a winningest coach for state championships in the state of Washington history.

And they won state in a very great league this year.

Our league is rated number two or three in the nation.

And so we're very excited about what Coach Mike and Rainier Beach Boys have done as well.

So thank you.

Thank you, director.

Thank you to all our athletes, our coaches, and Eric McCurdy.

We are now going to switch over to the student presentations for the evening.

And tonight we have two presentations, one from West Woodland Elementary School and one from Martin Luther King Jr.

Elementary.

First, I would like to welcome the West Woodland Wildcat Choir forward.

This choir is comprised of third, fourth, and fifth graders and is directed by Donna Broadland.

This year, the Wildcat Choir has had the opportunity to perform at the Seattle Center for Winterfest and Wurligate.

They have performed the national anthem at two UW events and participated in the Northwest Showcase of choirs at Ballard High School.

So I'd like to welcome the choir.

And directors, please take a seat in the audience so we can enjoy the performance as audience members.

Let me entertain you.

Let me make you smile.

do a few tricks, some old tricks and some new tricks.

I'm very versatile.

And if you're real good, I'll make you feel good.

I want your spirits to climb.

Just let me

Let's be entertaining.

Let's be entertaining.

And if you really Help.

Help.

Help.

Help.

Help.

Help.

Help.

Help.

finishing the haze I've opened up the door.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down.

And I do appreciate you getting down.

Help me get my feet back on the ground.

Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me.

For the rhythm of life is a powerful beat, puts a tingle in your fingers and a tingle in your feet.

Rhythm on the inside, rhythm on the street, for the rhythm of life is a powerful beat.

For the rhythm of life is a powerful beat, puts a tingle in your fingers and a tingle in your feet.

Rhythm on the inside, rhythm on the street, for the rhythm of life is a powerful beat.

To feel the rhythm of life To feel the powerful beat To feel the tingle in your fingers To feel the tingle in your feet To feel the rhythm of life To feel the powerful beat To feel the tingle in your fingers To feel the tingle in your feet To feel the powerful beat To feel the tingle in your feet

Rhythm on the inside, rhythm on the street.

Rhythm of life is a powerful beat.

Rhythm of life is a powerful beat.

It puts a tingle in your fingers and a tingle in your feet.

Rhythm on the inside, rhythm on the street.

Rhythm of life is a powerful beat.

Rhythm of life is a powerful beat.

It puts a tingle in your fingers and a tingle in your feet.

Rhythm on the inside, rhythm on the street.

Rhythm on the inside.

Rhythm on the inside.

Rhythm on the inside.

Rhythm on the inside.

You can't stop the beat, ever since we first saw the light.

You know I'm proud that we can take it on a Saturday night.

You know I'm trying to take it to the end, but it's all on the line too late.

You can't stop the motion of the music of the sun in the sky.

You may wonder if you're one of us, but I'm never a sun.

And if you try to hold me down, you're gonna spit in your eye and say, you can't You can't stop the beat You can't stop the beat

Thank you very much.

That was a wonderful performance.

So before you all go I'm going to ask each one of you to introduce yourself.

So just tell us all your first name and what grade you're in and you can pass the mic along.

My name is Melinda and I'm in third grade.

My name is Kim and I'm in third grade.

And I'm in third grade.

Claire and I'm in third grade.

My name is Ada and I'm in fourth grade.

My name is Kate and I'm in third grade.

My name is Ellie and I'm in third grade.

My name is Beck and I'm in fourth grade.

My name is Stella and I'm in third grade.

My name is Lillian and I'm in third grade.

My name is Jordan and I'm in first grade.

Third grade.

My name is Natalie and I'm in fourth grade.

My name is Akima and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Nicola and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Elise and I'm in fourth grade.

My name is Claire and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Samantha and I'm in third grade.

My name is Lucinda, and I'm in third grade.

My name is Lana, and I'm in fourth grade.

My name is Vineeth, and I'm in third grade.

My name is Sean, and I'm in third grade.

My name is Gianna, and I'm in fourth grade.

My name is Sophie, and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Lauren, and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Catherine, and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Montay, and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Ani, and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Willa, and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Tosh and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is Logan and I'm in fifth grade.

And my name is Tom and I'm in also fifth grade.

Thank you all very much.

And director Donna Broadland.

Thank you.

So you guys can go out that way.

So as they are exiting I want to introduce our next performers.

So our next group is coming to us from the Martin Luther King Junior School.

It's their choir with their choir director Jamal White.

I'd like to invite them to come up and perform with us next.

They're going to perform their rendition of the MLK school song Now is the Time.

and Sing, Sing, Sing.

These songs represent a message of community, love and friendship, which is a consistent theme for MLK Elementary.

Let's welcome the kids to the stage.

We come to school to get ready to be S-C-O-L.

and don't ask responsibly, manage your self-safety.

We are the future.

We are the dream keepers.

Smart and strong.

Doing our best to succeed as we go along.

We are the future.

We are the dream keepers.

Smart and strong.

Doing our best to succeed as we go along.

We are the future.

We are the dream keepers.

Sing, sing, sing, sing.

Everybody starts to sing like dee, dee, dee, ba, ba, ba, da.

Now you're singing with a swing.

When the music goes around, everybody goes to town.

But here's one thing that you should know.

Sing it high and sing it low.

Oh, sing, sing, sing, sing.

Everybody starts to sing like dee, dee, dee, ba, ba, ba, da.

When the music goes around.

Everybody goes around.

But here's one thing that you should know.

Sing it high and sing it low.

Oh, sing, sing, sing, sing.

Everybody start to sing.

Let's dee, dee, dee, ba, ba, ba, da.

Now.

We got other songs.

We do, we do.

Do, do, do, ba, ba, do, do, do, ba, ba, do, do, pa, do, do, pa, do, do, do.

Dee, da, da.

Dee, da, do, ba, ba, ba, do, ba, ba.

Do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba.

Do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba.

Do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba, do, ba.

Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba Tuba

Do ba, do ba, do ba, do ba, do ba, do ba.

Do ba, do ba, do ba, do ba, do ba, do ba.

Do ba, do ba, do ba, do ba, do ba, do ba.

Ba-doo-doo-doo, ba-doo-doo, ba-doo-doo, ba-doo-doo-doo.

Ba-doo-doo-doo, ba-doo-doo, ba-doo-doo, ba-doo-doo, ba-doo-doo-doo.

Dee-da-da-da, dee-da-da-da-ba-ba, ba-doo-ba-ba.

Wow that was wonderfully energetic.

Thank you all very much and to Director White as well.

So before you go I'd like to ask each of you to introduce yourself by telling us your first name and what grade you're in and you can pass the microphone along.

My name is Angel and I'm in third grade.

My name is Nava and I'm in third grade.

My name is Wajima and I'm in third grade.

My name is Nava and I'm in third grade.

My name is Saeed and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is and I'm in fifth grade.

My name is and I'm in the fifth grade.

My name is and I'm in the fifth grade.

My name is and I'm in the fifth grade.

My name is and I'm in the fifth grade.

My name is and I'm in the fourth grade.

Thank you all very much.

Before we go, who have we got on drums?

My name is Justin Maggard.

I'm an ELL teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr.

Proud to be backing up these great singers.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you for coming.

Okay.

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

Thank you.

Well, great start for tonight, to have the opportunity to recognize our athletes and our student performers here.

Current issues, Smarter Balanced Assessment is underway.

Since we met last, we've received further notification from OSPI that we need to have a plan to increase our participation rate to 95% which I believe that we're on track to do as I've been visiting schools I've been asking how they're doing.

and we still have our challenges but by and large elementary schools particularly report that things are going much better than they did last year.

I think part of that is well many things I think teachers and many of our students have experienced it once before.

Technology has purchased some additional computers for us and then they also helped rotate computers from elementary to elementary.

So it's a matter of a few weeks now rather than many weeks or in some cases months that were tied up before.

Nutrition Services has contracted with an outside review to come in and talk to us about some things that we might do to increase participation.

And I have asked Assistant Superintendent Peggy McEvoy to give us a few highlights from that report.

Thank you very much superintendent.

Actually I'm going to update you on two reviews that we have had.

As the board knows we have been looking at our trend which is a 2% reduction in participation rates over the last several years.

So the department historically has been making many variations, completing student and staff focus groups and doing customer service surveys.

This year the department under the leadership of Teresa Fields has completed two external program reviews.

One was self-initiated which the superintendent spoke about and one was a mandatory compliance review by OSPI.

Each of these took weeks and months of staff time and we completed the OSPI review and had our exit conference on Monday so I'll be reporting on both of those.

I want to give a high level summary of what we have learned so far.

First I want to acknowledge that the officials from both reviews commented on the professionalism, hard work and the skills of the nutrition service staff.

In each of the reviews school staff were identified as being personable, easy to work with and good with students.

The central support staff were identified as being organized, thorough and professional.

All staff were identified as having great pride in their work and I also want to highlight that both program reviews made special mention about Teresa's exceptional leadership and Teresa is in the back here and will be presenting also a little later today to the board.

The prismatic review was self-initiated as the superintendent stated and we asked them to focus on four goals.

Review of the management structure and the service delivery model.

Review of best practice for organizational development including looking at career ladders and professional development.

Reviewing the current menu, supply chain and production schedules with a focus on creating a climate of customer service and satisfaction.

And then review and analysis of our current equipment to make sure that we are purchasing the right capital equipment as we start to invest in the future.

So this report was finalized several weeks ago and has become public as of this week.

So public is available as of today to find it on the nutrition services website.

To meet the study goals the consultants reviewed the department district nutrition policies, hosted multiple focus groups and made site visits to 33 schools.

The report includes 30 recommendations focusing on identifying strategies to increase participation rates and increase compliance with all of the new USDA standards.

As we discussed with the board at the operations committee we were asked how we compared with other districts given the 30 recommendations.

And so I posed that question to our consultant and I just want to read an excerpt of what she said to us.

It's impossible question to truly answer this question when we tailor the scope of every project to the needs of the client.

Your study included all of nutrition services but focused on specific areas based on your RFP.

Other food services projects have different foci and challenges at the moment so we have different recommendations.

Comparing numbers of recommendations in various reports would be apples to apples.

So I want you to know that we did not leave Seattle feeling that the district was wholly deficient.

There's a joke among consultants that sometimes the most honest report you can write for a client begins with, and I quote, first burn it to the ground and then start over.

That was emphatically not our assessment of Seattle.

The district has a great foundation and lots of potential.

Yes the program has a number of areas in need of some improvement and it can be painful to have someone from the outside point those out.

But it's better to know what needs to be worked on than not.

The program needs support in implementing a number of our recommendations and then it will be well on its way.

In comparison to the other big districts that we have reviewed, Seattle is both among the best and in good position to do great things.

That report is on the website for the public to review.

As far as the OSPI administrative review, this compliance review included 14 administrative areas and site visits to 13 different schools.

At the exit conference the review official stated this was a good review and everyone did well.

The exit conference summary sheet identified that there was no negative findings related to administering the USDA free and reduced lunch program and no fiscal impact, excuse me, no fiscal action needs to be taken.

meal service will require a small correction related to two menu items, that's how often we serve French fries and are our graham crackers actually big enough.

And the department was also highlighted for its food safety handling and its compliance plan related to that, the implementation of our professional development standards, the wellness policy that the board just recently approved and are Smart Snack compliance.

Thank you.

While you're there why don't you continue with the report on the Fair Start program.

I would love to do that.

So we have had an opportunity to develop a wonderful partnership with Fair Start through our interagency program.

In 2013 I was invited by Fair Start to be part of their strategic planning initiative and when I met with those focus groups I heard a passion and some insight that is unusual for many of our nonprofit organizations.

They really wanted to expand and they had a deep commitment to our homeless and our disadvantaged population.

They had started serving students but their focus was primarily on adults.

So at that strategic planning I said wouldn't it be wonderful if we had more of a partnership with students and lo and behold they said the same thing back at us.

So we started having conversations with them and decided that our work probably would be best fit with the interagency program and I introduced Karin Andrews to Megan Karch and Molly Hancock who are the CEO and COO and they'll be up to speak in a moment about what that partnership might look like over a year ago and this year we launched it.

We started the pilot in the fall and it's well on its way and we have a two minute clip that we would love to show you.

This was produced by our communications department to support this program.

Mm hmm.

And then it's a little.

pretty much bite-sized pieces.

What the program does for students is that it teaches them specific job skills.

They apply for the job.

They have to fill an application.

They're learning the skills one needs to work in a professional food preparation place.

Food service is a great industry to get into while you're still a student.

Flexible hours.

Good pay when you're still young.

and what we're doing is giving people a pathway to other careers.

I am pretty thankful to be a part of this program.

I felt like I learned a lot of skills that I didn't know before coming here, like chiffonade.

I didn't know what a chiffonade was.

I feel like I could get into the catering business.

I would like to cater like big dishes for like maybe people that are hosting events, like maybe like weddings, parties.

Yeah, just like making prepping meals for really nice events.

We train them, and the hope is that that builds skills and confidence so they can go out and succeed on their own.

Some of our students are homeless, and they don't have opportunities to even cook for themselves.

Without those skills, the chance of them sort of being able to live economically and in a satisfying way on their own, even in their own home, it can be a challenge.

It's such a high quality program.

Everything Fair Start does is of such top quality.

We're seeing the changes in our students as they develop confidence and have this success.

The power of these, of a high quality program like this that is really connects with young people, gives them the personal guidance and attention is, it's amazing.

and it is amazing.

Michael Talley and I had the opportunity also to go to their circle of impact coming out party, whatever that was, where we were able to visit the site with all of the people who have donated to make this possible.

We got to see students and walk around and interview them and just see the excitement in the students eyes and the staff about how fulfilling this work is and we are very, very proud of this program.

I want to thank Michael Tolley for his support as we moved this forward and certainly the superintendent.

We could not have done this without everybody's support and with that I'd like to introduce Karen Andrews to talk about some specifics.

Hi everybody.

I'm Karin Andrews, I'm the principal at Interagency.

I don't know some of you yet.

Hopefully you'll have a chance to come out and see our school.

I wanted to start by just giving a little bit of context of our school.

So far this year we've served more than 1,000 high school students who have not necessarily gotten what they need at traditional high schools and we have 12 different locations across town.

most of our students have tremendous barriers and have faced tremendous amount of trauma in their lives thus far and what this program does, what Fair Start, the job skills training program does is it allows students, it's a strategy that we use to engage students that were really struggling with finding that way to get them to see that school is connected, high school is connected to their lives and that they can make They can be something meaningful, make a living wage in their future and that it's connected to school and that that is connected to school.

And we have served about 60 students this year so far.

We have a summer program coming up where we will serve about 20 or so more students.

The students in that program will make $15 an hour in the summer and they are all students who have finished the program this school year who are eligible for that.

so it's employment and actually the other thing you need to know about this program is the end of eight weeks they earn a full credit and they also each week that they attend school in the mornings and do the program in the afternoon they earn $100 a week so they can earn $800 as well.

So they are getting a resume, making money, staying connected to school and learning these job skills.

And the partnership really works.

Megan, come on up here.

This is Megan Cart.

She's the CEO of Fair Start.

And we have a number of other job skills training programs.

This one is by far the smoothest and easiest because our mission and vision and beliefs about our students are the same and our mission and vision about what the world should look like really crosses over beautifully.

So the last little bit of data that I want to share is that of the 60 students who have participated, on average their academic performance and their attendance rates have doubled.

So that's really pretty remarkable statistics thus far.

Well, thank you, Karin.

Thank you, Superintendent and the board for allowing Fair Start to come and talk a little bit about this program because this is an incredibly exciting program for us to be doing.

And some have asked why we do it.

Why did we start considering doing it?

And it really started with a strategic plan, as Peggy said, a few years ago where we were looking at some statistics.

And those statistics showed that 20,000 youth in this area were either between the ages of 16 and 24, either not going to school and they weren't unemployed.

and we found that rather startling and we thought that we should do something more than what we were currently doing and we started a search and talked to I think every single youth provider in King County including the interagency school both Peggy and Karen And we were so impressed with what the Seattle Interagency School was doing.

We were so impressed with their values and frankly so impressed with their leadership that we knew it was going to be an excellent partnership.

And that's what it has been.

This is our first year in operation and it is a program that is really designed around two things.

It is what we believe is also what the Seattle Interagency School believes which is we should never give up on any kids.

We should never give up on any youth and we should be trying again and again and again and we should meet youth where they are at and that is what this program is designed to do and it is designed to meet them because as Karin said it is a program really designed that is these children are not making it within our traditional high school setting so it is a nontraditional type program within the school.

but it really is set around engagement.

So when Karin shared with me some statistics about these types of programs within her school that was really one of the things that really won it for us was the fact that we could keep kids in school.

And then of course we are serving the hardest to serve.

We are serving youth that are homeless, we are serving youth that are supporting their families and jobs are extremely important for them but we frankly really want to have them have a job and stay in school.

So it's been incredibly a great program.

I want to thank Peggy's work on this.

I really want to thank Karin because her leadership has really, frankly, sealed the deal for us in terms of the partnership.

So thank you very much.

Do you guys have questions?

Do you have any questions for us?

Not a question just a comment.

To both of you but in particular to Megan, I had the opportunity to sit in at a United Way board meeting last month I believe to actually eat some of the food that was provided by students and to hear your presentation to the United Way board as well and in both situations, in both occasions I think you have done a wonderful job of articulating the common ground between our mission and the organization's mission and why there is a unique match and I want to appreciate you and your board and your organization for the work that you are doing to help our students move forward.

So thank you for that.

Well thank you very much and I would be remiss if we aren't thanking Molly Hancock who really took the lead in this so thank you Molly.

I have a question.

Is this going to be an ongoing program for interagency?

We sure hope so.

So kids will be able to work there during school year and also during summer time?

Yeah it's an eight week cycle so kids do it for eight weeks they can earn $800 and a credit and they also go to school in the mornings at their site then another group starts and so we're able to serve they actually have a four week crossover so we start eight then we start eight four weeks later and then one finishes another one starts so we have an opportunity for leadership for the for every cohort as well and then those that finish the program then are eligible to work for other you know to work at other restaurants etc and also to work in the fair start summer program okay so it's a limited i mean it's an eight-week program and then they can go on with it another way thank you is there any more uh questions comments from any board directors

Moving on to other issues, we reported recently that we had a problem with a tri-pay agreement for our substitutes that had been signed without proper authorizations.

staff and our attorney have worked with the board and we're in the process of having the board engage an outside agency to do a review of how that situation came to be and what corrections we can make going forward.

In terms of Garfield and the choir teacher there, we're continuing to work toward a settlement.

We've been exchanging proposals back and forth with our attorneys, hopeful that we get that resolved soon.

The Seattle Times reported recently on the opportunity gap.

They reported on a Stanford study from 2009 to 2012 caught us a little bit by surprise but certainly fits with the theme for the mayor's education summit around closing the opportunity gap and certainly part of our top goals for the last two years we did have Eric Anderson in our research department research where we are today and And we identified basically the same three messages that we've been communicating, and that is with regard to our African American students, we're at or maybe a little bit below what the state averages are.

For our white students, we're actually two grades ahead of the state average, which means that, yes, we do indeed have the largest opportunity gap in the state.

And then thirdly, when we look at the schools that have the largest number of African American students, particularly at the middle level where we've had concerted effort, three of our middle schools are among the How do I say this?

The schools in the state that have the largest number of African-American students and they're the three top performing schools in the state.

So we do know that with support from the city, support from the Nesholm Foundation, great leadership in those schools, we had Mia Williams here recently recognizing the work at Aukey.

Aki Danny and Mercer are among the leaders statewide outperforming the state in terms of african-american achievement so some lessons to be learned there that we continue to look at and try to figure out how we can apply those elsewhere so yeah still a lot of work to be done in that in that area the mayor's summit I guess I'm not quite sure how to describe that they had a summit activity on the 30th of April and many attended a sellout crowd of about 500 people and then they had 20 focus groups community meetings and then they also had an online presence where people could send in their interests and concerns so Altogether, more than 2,000 people have had an opportunity to weigh in and provide suggestions.

The advisory committee is kind of the, that's where the work is at this particular point in time, about 30 to 40 people throughout the community that have been meeting every other week.

And now we'll move toward how to sort that information into priorities and projects with specific dollar amounts attached.

So I think somewhere else in my comments, I'll skip to that now, wherever that is, that I think the mayor, together with the school board, have done a good job of putting a spotlight on an area that we as a district really need to work on and as a result of that we aren't counting any sources of funding yet from the city but the city has certainly raised the profile and we've had other foundations contacting us and expressing interest in how they can help close the opportunity gap.

So we're busy at work finalizing a proposal for the Wallace Foundation by the end of this month and for the Casey Foundation by the end of June.

We do have a task force that's just getting started on international schools.

trying to figure out what the future of international schools are we're certainly proud of those schools they've had wide recognition throughout the nation we have sister schools internationally and we're providing great opportunities for many of our students We also know that we can't always find the teachers that we need to staff those schools and we also know that we haven't raised up all the pathways that we had hoped that we would.

So Michelle Aoki and the task force will look at some of those issues and try to help us figure out what's kind of the right path forward for that program.

I guess I should hasten to add there's no kind of fear or anticipation that we're doing away with the program.

It's simply how to look at the program and make sure that we are doing as good a job as we can to support and sustain a program that has had some good success.

As part of our bargaining with SEA there were two items that were a little bit more into the future and items that we said we needed more time to talk about.

One was the 24 credit requirement.

Right now we're on a two year waiver from the implementation of the state requirements.

however the clock is ticking and the students entering school in the year 2017 will have to meet the 24 credit requirement.

Right now that's a challenge and if you falter anywhere along the way that has pretty dire consequences.

Right now you can only easily earn 24 credits and if you miss one under a 24 credit requirement you would be behind and no longer on track to graduate.

The 24 credit task force is recommending a trimester schedule at the high school level with a five period day, which would mean that students had an opportunity to earn 30 credits during their four years in high school.

And so they would have some leeway then, both to take electives, do some other things that might make the difference for them in terms of staying in school and also have a little bit of grace if they missed one of the required classes and needed to take it again.

Parallel to that, in our bargaining with SEA, we noted the fact that our elementary day was about 20 minutes shorter than average across the state.

something that went back to, I think, double levy failures in the 70s, and we agreed that we would rectify that in the 2017-18 school year.

So that parallels this change to 24 credits at the high school.

Both of those issues will need to be bargained, and then some of them obviously have community impacts that we'll want to engage the community around.

Next week on May 25th we'll be having a budget session.

I guess our budget going forward is pretty much a status quo budget, trying to continue the things that are underway.

We have three major pressures on us, well four I guess.

We're under a limit statewide.

The state legislature puts an upper lid on how much we can collect in taxes.

and actually lowered that a bit this year.

And then we have a need to provide adequately for local salaries, which the legislature has not been able to do.

Uh, and then, uh, special education and ELL, uh, both have an increasing cost each year.

That's more than what the state provides.

So that means that even though our revenues might go up somewhat, uh, our obligations go up even faster.

And so, uh, we're trying to figure out how we, uh, balance the budget, uh, and keep going forward with good programs for students, uh, recognizing that each year we have to tighten the belt a bit, uh, further.

Boundaries and enrollment, Dr. Herndon and the enrollment planning team met with the John Rogers and Olympic Hills communities last week continuing to look at what do the demographics look like when Cedar Park opens a year from now and how we balance that enrollment and maybe balance it a little bit better demographically.

trying to figure out how to meet that challenge because when you move a boundary it moves on both sides of the boundary in that you add or take away students from one school and then there's a counteracting piece that has to be met as well so trying to figure out what that looks like also underway the City Parks Department and the Seattle Public Schools are working together on implementing in essence the bell times work that has been completed by Seattle Public Schools this year for implementation next year.

With high schools starting and ending later in the day that means that we need access to either our facilities or in some cases city facilities later into the school well it's not the school day it's into the evening and that means that then the parks department can't lease out those facilities for other community uses during that time so we're trying to figure out how to make all of that work recognizing that we've got many cases a lot of competition for a very scarce commodity School visits are running hard to try to get to all of the rest of them as we finish out the year 98 schools and my goal is to get to every one of them every year I think I made it to about 95 percent last year and when we get to this time of the year I'm on track to do 100 percent but Kind of like that 24 credits if anybody misses either on my end or on the school end it's kind of like OK we'll catch you next year.

Montlake Elementary will have their arts teacher here I believe at our next board meeting she was elementary art teacher of the year and doing incredible stuff and had a presentation by the kids from Montlake at SAM.

Lowell has a world languages hotline that I think went live in the last few days since I was there where they're taking in phone calls from nine languages and then making sure that they get their school newsletter translated back into those nine languages and broadcast that back out to parents.

Nova had the opportunity to congratulate personally Mark Perry on his recognition as the Foster Award winner for the year.

and he was quick to turn that right around and say that they took five out of ten state awards in the spoken word contest and they're sending three of the top five state winners to the Kennedy Center for a national competition.

Alki, I noted that I saw reading goals everywhere and they proceeded to tell me that their librarian is just over the top in making sure that everybody reads.

I think they set a goal of a million pages last year.

This year they met their goal for two million pages, well ahead of schedule.

She refuses to take no for an answer.

They give recognition for 100% participation.

She meets with the kids at lunch, gives them a place to read, does whatever needed to make sure that they get to meet their goals.

And at Lafayette they were doing incredible things in terms of a positivity school-wide campaign where they did a character value of the month.

kids get them on a little tag around their lanyard, big posters up in the gym, student posters throughout the building and a lot of student buy in.

On the front page of the second section of the Sunday Times the newspaper reported on gender-neutral bathrooms and President Obama has been in the news as has forget where it is I think it's North Carolina has been in the news for compliance with federal law more than half of our high schools already have gender-neutral restroom facilities for LGBT students and were on the way for others.

Nathan Hale in West Seattle announced just in the last few days that they had moved forward in that area.

So we put that into our procedures a number of years ago and we do get fairly regular phone calls from schools to the legal department asking what can we do, what should we do, and how might we go about making sure that our students are safe.

We did a fair start.

Viaduct, thank you to our staff throughout the district.

The viaduct closure went well.

It did not have the impact that we feared on our bus routes.

I think we continued to be about 96, 97, 98% on time during that time period.

I guess we're now told that there will be some movie filming along 99 and so once more we'll have to see what that means and how we can continue to engage with parents so that they know about any delays.

I was at Thornton Creek this week, and they were celebrating in that one of their six teams for the Global Reading Challenge took Seattle-wide honors.

And the head of the city library will be at the school soon to recognize the Book Thieves team from Thornton Creek.

And they're sending three fifth grade students to the National Archery Tournament in Kentucky.

They placed third in the state.

Didn't know that we had one, but they've done well in that.

Ballard, as we know, just continues to do well in journalism, and in this case, filmmaking.

earned 13 high school awards of excellence nominations this year, more than twice the number of any other school or organization in a five state region.

And if you visit there, they've run out of wall space in the library and just outside of the film classroom there to display all of their awards.

We recognized Greg Beshear here earlier.

Congratulations to Porter Jones for winning the Ella Fitzgerald Outstanding Soloist Award at the Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival in New York.

Congratulations to our 30 winners at the Naramore and there's still time to see their work on display at the Seattle Art Museum.

I mentioned the Wallace Grant and finally staffing changes.

So Stacy Howard, who's been here taking our pictures today and in other board meetings and has been our spokesman publicly, is leaving us.

She's going to be the public relations manager for the Washington State Fair.

So I suspect we'll be hearing her voice as the Washington State Fair comes to the fore as we end summer and start into the school year.

She's been with us since 2014 and has done really good work for us and we'll definitely miss Stacy.

And I'd like to mention that Nika Lemons has recently joined us here at Seattle Public Schools.

We've been looking for a project manager to keep 10 different gap closing initiatives on track and well communicated, well staffed, and moving toward the outcome of closing the opportunity gaps for us.

She comes to us with great experience, and we're delighted to have her join us.

That concludes my comments.

Thank you, Superintendent Nyland.

It's now 536 so we're going to go into our public testimony.

The rules for public testimony are on the screen and I would ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

I would note that the board does not take public comments on issues related to personnel or individually named staff.

I would also like to note that each speaker has a two minute speaking time.

So we don't have no student comments tonight so we are going to actually go into our consent portion of tonight's agenda.

Do I have a motion for the consent agenda?

Yes I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second the motion.

Are those in favor?

Is there any questions or any items to be removed out of the consent agenda?

Okay.

Can we, all those who approve, can we make a motion?

Yes.

Okay, can we make a motion for all those in favor of, to approve the consent agenda?

Aye.

Opposed?

Okay, the consent agenda has passed.

We are now going into the public testimony.

So when the two minutes have ended, please conclude your remarks.

And I will call three names.

Chris Jenkins, Jill Wakefield, and Anastasia Samuelson.

My name is Chris Jackins, Box 84063, Seattle 98124. On the contract to Bassetti Architects for Lincoln High School, six points.

Number one, there is a Bassetti employee currently on the Landmarks Board.

Number two, Bassetti Architects stated that such landmarks board members recuse themselves from projects related to their firm's work.

Number three, recusal does not fix the situation as there is a potential for a quid pro quo among landmarks board members, namely you will okay my project and I will okay yours.

Number four, on another project a Landmarks Board member stated that the Landmarks Board had faith in the district's Bassetti architect, wink wink, because they were well acquainted with the architect, the architect simultaneously being the Landmarks Board president.

Number five, Bassetti and the district staff don't see a problem.

Does the board see a problem?

Number six, Bassetti exercised poor judgment in the past and has not changed.

Please vote no on this contract.

On the interest-free loan from the community schools fund, the loan should not be interest-free.

This is money from the district's idiotic selling off of schools.

That money should be kept whole toward buying schools back.

On the resolution on testing please explain why the words opt out rights were removed from the title of the resolution.

On the unauthorized payments made to substitutes do such payments constitute a gift of public funds and if so does this violate state law.

On Loyal Heights the playground would shrink by 30 percent please halt this project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, my name is Jill Wakefield, I serve as Chancellor of the Seattle Community College District, the Seattle Colleges and first of all I want to thank all of you for what you do, for caring about our city and our kids and our community and as I leave, I'm leaving after 40 years.

I've worked in our district for 40 years so I leave, I just had a couple of comments and I thought it was important to address the board and one is that I hope you'll continue to work with the community colleges.

It's a relationship that makes us all stronger.

But what I really wanted to talk to you a little bit about is that I am, after the 40 years I've spent in the Seattle College District, in that time about 20,000 Seattle Public Schools have come to the Seattle Community Colleges.

and we have been very proud to initiate the 13th year.

Our goal has been to, my goal is to get free college universal access to all of the graduates of Seattle Public Schools.

I think working together that we could truly close the opportunity gap and I had the chance to talk to you a little bit about that, our commitment to provide free college access and thank you Superintendent Nyland and the board for listening to me before.

But I was asked as I leave, I was asked a little bit earlier today about what keeps me up at night and it is the faces of thousands of students who come to our colleges and don't make it, who drop out.

About 70% come to our colleges and they are not ready for college.

And I am going to say this twice is we know that going to college is a good thing but when you graduate it will change your life.

students come to our doors excited, your graduates, they have worked hard in high school and junior high and elementary school.

They took the hard classes, they did everything their teachers and their counselors told them.

They assumed they were college ready and then they come to us because we have no way of assessing whether they are or not and they find out that they are not, 70% find out that they are not and they end up dropping out.

They assume they are ready, they aren't.

One of the things that we are doing you are talking about is the Smarter Balance that lets students know the great thing about it, it lets graduates know where they are in terms of being college students.

Please can you wrap up your comments please?

If you get a three or four, you are ready to start college with no remediation.

Two, you have your senior year to fix it.

When students come ready, when they pass this they will know they are ready, they will come to our doors, we will double, triple our completion rates, we will hit the social equity gap and students and our whole city will be more successful.

Thank you very much.

It has been an honor to serve and work with you.

Thank you.

Anastasia Samuelson.

Good evening, thank you for your service on the board and I want to commend you on your work on the resolution 2015-16-15.

I'm really thankful that the document is coming for full review and I think that it's excellent.

I want to just mention a few things if you want to increase participation rates in testing a few things to consider is to decouple tests from the stakes which I know you don't have a lot of control over this but from funding from the levy from families and education, the families and education levy, we need to decouple that.

We need to not use them as gatekeepers to HCC programs and not have them, perhaps even entertain the idea of not have them be graduation requirements.

I know that is touchy but it's something to consider.

Also to increase participation rates it might be worth considering having educators design the tests.

Of all of the educators that signed off on the SBAC there were no, not one early childhood educator on that panel.

That's despicable when we are testing students in third grade.

Also to encourage and allow teachers to speak about the exams with families and students, this is about trust, this is about relationships, you've heard that from the community.

And also to inform parents of testing schedules, why their students are being tested, what the tests are going to be like, how much time it's going to take, informing the public will also increase participation rates if that's a goal.

I also sincerely ask you to consider in the future when students opt out, They need to be in their own category of having opted out.

They don't need to be grouped in with the students who have taken the exam and failed.

Those numbers of opt outs should not be included in failures bringing a school's score down.

that's just a very simple decoupling that could occur.

Also the SBAC and the PARCC exams are too early to be able to tell if scores of three or four are going to increase graduation rates or success in college.

We know the highest indicator of success in college are grades.

So we can look at those.

We know that from research.

Also I just want to tell you the final paragraph be it further resolved the Seattle school board will collaborate with state regulatory agencies, families and educators to identify a summative assessment framework which maximizes educational benefits, increases community trust and meets state and federal compliance mandates is a fantastic paragraph.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

ISNR IG, Brand Barnes, Savannah Jamerson.

Go ahead.

Hi, I go by Esgie and I stand here before you today to talk about my experiences at Ida B. Wells Middle College.

I attended in September, I was there for about two months before the entire program became dismantled.

I became uninterested along with many other students.

A little back story as to why I'm here today.

I was born in Turkey.

My parents decided to move to Seattle, the United States in general, so that my sister and I could get a good education.

I'm here and I'm looking for a good education.

I had that opportunity but it got taken away from me.

The frustrating part about this is that from the surface everything seems to appear okay with middle college but what's actually happening is that the entire program, the entire curriculum has been destroyed.

students like myself are running around like headless chickens.

I currently don't know what to do with myself.

I am looking at different options.

I might consider getting a GED.

I have tried going to my local public high school.

I have tried Running Start but nothing excited me the way that middle college did, particularly the Ida B. Wells curriculum.

So I would like to know why this is happening and why if the goal is to close the achievement gap why is this being taken away from us because it is proven to be a very successful program.

I know because I was very engaged in this school.

Students like myself were on the goal, on the road to be successful scholars and that had been taken away from us.

I thank you for your time and I would like you to consider what I am saying as well as the other students and we have been here before.

Thank you.

Brand Barnes.

Hello.

I am also here to speak about Wells School and the similar alternative programs and amending policies to allow board oversight of programs site closure and placement.

You have all or at least many of you have heard from myself or my peers and many of you have expressed support for these programs so I know that you morally agree that education must be more inclusive and culturally competent so that we can close this education gap and end the school to prison pipeline.

You must also agree pragmatically with the success of Wells School and sister programs as demonstrated by the numerous testimonies we have already given.

But just as a reminder of the power of these alternative programs possess, I graduated from Wells School for Social Justice in 2009 and expect to graduate in three weeks from Seattle Pacific University with a double bachelor's in history and sociology.

I will continue my education at a master's in history program in Denmark this coming fall.

At this transition point in my life I look back and attribute this success to my experience at Wells.

It's hard to imagine going to school much less going to graduate school without Wells.

My time there fostered the respect for education and sense of personal agency that has carried me throughout my life ever since.

But most importantly it showed me what it truly means to engage in my own reality and the reality of others.

to actively love and to challenge inequalities that limit people's expressions of their humanity.

I would personally describe this process as liberating us from unknowingly repeating cycles of tragedy that are far too common in disadvantaged communities.

Wells School prepared me both as a white man and as a human being to consciously navigate and engage in topics of social change that are pressingly relevant today But I know this board, if you had the oversight power that we're asking for today, you would not have shut down Wells School or gutted Wells School and shut down the High Point location.

So I would love you to consider amending these policies and so that opportunities like the ones that I have been given are available to all young minds despite class, sex, gender or race, thank you.

Thank you.

Savannah Jamerson.

My name is Savannah Jamerson and I would like to cede my time to Olisa Enrico.

Hello.

I am asking you to authorize the Board oversight of program oversight closure and placement decisions.

I cannot express in two minutes the magnitude that this curriculum at middle college did for me.

I graduated from Seattle Central Middle College High School in 1997. I was on the road to death.

I was on the road to jail.

I did not care.

I wasn't always that way.

In elementary school I was considered gifted, IPP, APP, advanced placement.

I could have graduated early had I cared but I didn't care anymore because the school system, the regular system failed me.

I did not see myself.

I did not want to be there.

By fifth grade I was done.

I didn't feel you had, not you personally, but the system had anything to offer me.

Middle college saved my life, the college environment, the curriculum.

I saw myself.

I loved myself.

I wanted to learn.

I was reignited.

Since then, not only did I graduate high school, but I went on to get a bachelors of fine arts magna cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University.

I got a masters of fine arts, straight A's all the way through.

I was not only prepared for college, I was over prepared for university.

I then went on, I am a teacher, I teach my students in the same vein that I was taught at middle college.

I use the same books the same curriculum and they too are often considered trash, throwaway.

But with me, with the middle college curriculum, they again want to learn and see themselves as valuable and viable human beings in this society.

I am a contributing member to this society and citizen to our community because of middle college high school.

Please don't allow another closure like this one.

Take responsibility and vote to amend.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rosalind Seale, Alexa Rae Burke, and Recolio Rigor.

Rosalind Shea.

Hi, I'm Rosalind Shea, and I cede my time to Michael Renaissance Moynihan.

Throughout my adolescence, I was in and out of juvenile as a result of my participation in gangs, which included drug and alcohol addiction, being a dropout from high school.

If it would not have been for the High Point branch of the middle college program, I perhaps would not be standing before you today.

At that time that I sobered up and left the gang, I was fortunate enough to be admitted into the program where I met Alonzo, who instantly became like an older brother to me.

I'd never felt like and, in fact, never really fit in at traditional high schools.

However, I was welcomed in with open arms and caring arms.

Alonzo instantly took a liking to me and told me that the beginning of my story reminded him of Malcolm X, a person I'd heard of but really had no idea about.

He gave me his copy of Malcolm X's autobiography and suggested that I read it.

I did.

And it changed my life forever.

Until that moment, I never really believed that school or college was for me.

But here was this man, a terrific gangster and hustler from the early 20th century who pretty much taught himself everything and earned a few degrees while he was locked up in prison.

And in addition to that story, I had a person who was supportive and truly believed in me and likened me into this incredible man.

And so I also began to believe that I could make a positive difference in the lives of the people that were around me.

I just left an awards ceremony at the University of Washington History Department, and I was granted a leadership award for applying history and structural analysis coupled with research to make positive and effective changes in institutions and people's lives.

None of this would have ever been possible without my going to middle college all those years ago.

There is something very special and unique about the pedagogy of Middle College.

First, in my own experience, which has been confirmed by countless other testimonies, the teachers there really care and are capable of investing the time with each student to express and make sure that it is felt that they care.

Second, my experience with the standard education was that I was told that I have the First Amendment right of free speech, but no one ever taught me how to use it.

At Middle College, I learned how and why to use my voice.

More importantly, I learned how to be a conscious and active citizen in the United States.

This is a matter of teaching and a subject of lessons that we have as a society and we cannot afford to lose, not if we desire to continue to evolve as an efficient and effective population.

Please vote to amend.

Thank you.

Alexa Rae Burke.

Hello my name is Alexa Rae Marie Burke and I am here to express support in amending policy number H01, F21 and 2200 in order to authorize board oversight of program or site closure and placement decisions.

I am a graduate of Ida B. Wells School, a middle college program at the University of Washington whose teachers were abruptly put on leave and the program removed from its original social justice anti-racist and successful curriculum.

This is a program that has been built upon and directly supported by the Office of Minority Affairs for 17 years.

Prior to this another middle college school High Point was closed.

These schools were wildly successful by all standards.

Personally, this educational experience inspired me to continue my education.

I'll be receiving my bachelor's of history from SPU.

and this fall I'm going, I'm off to pursue my master's degree at Aarhus University in Denmark with full scholarship.

My passion for education goes beyond personal success or advancement.

My peers from Wells are engaged beyond making money.

We are artists, we are social workers, we are teachers, we are professors, we are lawyers, we are business owners, we are public service advocates, but you've heard our stories for months, years perhaps.

In fact, many of you have expressed a sincere desire to have some say in the closures and displacements.

I understand you are heavily limited by the various bureaucratic frameworks which press upon your every decision at every turn.

but it is also my belief that if the board had this authority on decisions regarding programs, it is most likely that Middle College at High Point would not have been closed nor Ida B. Wells teachers pushed out and the curriculum totally ignored as a clear factor in its success.

Amend policy number H01F212200.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Riley Urigor, former teacher at IW Wells.

This unilateral top to bottom approach to decision making when closing or disrupting programs that are powerful for the district's underrepresented students of color is at the core of what has become of Wells School at the University of Washington and High Point Middle College.

Neither conversation or a well-meaning assessment was ever brought up with the major stakeholders of Wells School.

especially the parents, the students, or the host university, when it was decided that major changes were to be made to the school.

At that time, the parents were totally uninformed about what was happening to a school that was flourishing with students actively engaged with education, a school with a solid history of students graduating and pursuing degrees in university.

Now it is different.

What will become of these students who have decided to leave?

Who can they hold accountable for the lost opportunities in all the 18 years that Wells School has collaborated with the university's various departments?

For example, just last year, we lost the chance to go to Brazil to share the model of the school when this disruption happened.

Students were left off being part of an Arctic study grant designed to co-study with the university's honors program because the science curriculum was abruptly changed.

There were great opportunities for students to dialogue with graduate students in education, environmental studies, ethnic studies, international studies, law and arts.

All these are gone.

All gone because someone decided that online education partnership with a private-based institution was better.

And there was no discussion, no talk about transition or eventuality at all.

Who is accountable indeed?

This policy that will allow the school board to look into decisions like this will not only cut unnecessarily costly backtracking and tarnish public relations, it will allow to happen conversation about serving struggling students with a unique opportunity to succeed.

Please amend this policy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Eloisa Cardona.

I cede my time to a former student of the Ida B. Wells Middle College High School.

Hello, my name is Jameel Owens.

Early on in high school I learned that my learning style didn't fit Ballard High School which had big classrooms and no depth in subject matter.

And they really didn't turn me off and it really turned me off I almost dropped out because I was failing all my classes.

At the end of the second year my high school end of my second year in my high school my mother pulled me from Ballard High School and I decided to attend the Ida B. Wells Middle College at the University of Washington.

Attending the middle college was the best decision I made in all of my high school years.

It was one of the best opportunities I have been given and I feel blessed to even attend the middle college as now they are trying to completely get rid of the school.

I felt that the Ida B. Wells school gave me the best chance to graduate and go to college.

When I attended class I I actually felt interested in what we learned and wanted to go back instead of skipping class or being uninterested.

The classrooms were smaller giving me less distractions and making me want to participate more in the class discussion.

I love both teachers Mr. Rigaud and Ms. Cardella as the content for both classes had me interested as for both years felt challenging as either class wasn't a walk in the park.

Ms. Carter helped me a lot with my writing skills and helped me become the good writer today just like my parents.

In my senior year she helped me decide what college I should attend and she had me realize with the position I was in in the middle college with my grades I had a chance to go to University of Washington or even Evergreen State College in Olympia something I didn't see possible at the rate I was going at Ballard High School.

Mr. O'Gore himself I have to thank for catching my attention when he started teaching us about clean and renewable energy as that is what my degree will be in when I graduate this fall quarter.

If it wasn't for the Minner College I don't know where I would be today as it helped mold me into the person I am today.

I hope that other kids in high school have the opportunity to attend middle college just as I did to reap the benefits from not only the environment it is setting but also the people and school itself.

We are not the same.

We come from different backgrounds and upbringings so we shouldn't be forced to learn the same way and be spoon fed only what the school board wants us to learn.

Save the middle college, high school and keep hope alive.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Robert Famigliano.

It is against school board policy to retaliate for filing a complaint of harassment yet a principal is doing just that to one of your teachers.

This teacher of 20 years recently testified to you that the harassment complaint against her principal wasn't taken seriously and it still had been processed after four months.

Well now the principal has retaliated by significantly changing her job for next year.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says quote, the law forbids retaliation when it comes to any aspect of employment including job assignments unquote.

The principal has assigned her to a very difficult job for next year, half music specialist and half reading specialist.

She does not have the reading specialist category required by district procedures and SEA says she cannot be placed in the job yet HR department refuses to enforce their procedures.

Here is the back story.

The teacher angered her principal last May and he wrongly switched her to a comprehensive evaluation system and demanded she meet with him over the summer.

Now this principal has a history of intimidating and forcing out excellent teachers and true to his colors he found her unsatisfactory by January and insisted she go on an improvement plan immediately.

It was against her contract and he eventually capitulated but this terrorizing was no mistake and his emails prove it.

The teacher performs above her school average in both math and reading year after year according to MAP scores.

She has always received positive evaluation and is well regarded by parents but none of that is important when you cross a retaliatory principle and a culture of lawlessness.

I am concerned this teacher and others are taking their skills elsewhere despite HR's goal of retaining experienced teachers.

Where does the buck stop for the failure to follow school board policies?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sally Soriano.

Frank Swart.

Kathleen Ains.

And Laura Gramer.

Hello my name is Frank Swart and I'm here to request that the Loyal Heights Elementary project be redesigned.

I'm glad to inform you that making design changes at this time need not delay the construction timing.

Also you should know that the community has been involved all along and that we have repeatedly expressed our concerns over the scale of the design.

There are three of us commenting here today, but between 200 to 300 attendees at recent community meetings expressed near unanimous disapproval of the current design and size.

I'm sure the district listened, but the response has been underwhelming to say the least.

Let me be clear.

We are excited about expanding the school, but believe that the now $44 million price tag is too high and unnecessary for the district's needs.

Although Ballard is growing quickly, the Loyal Heights area is not.

Our land use zoning precludes any development that would significantly increase our population base.

We therefore suggest a smaller expansion with the savings used to enhance schools and neighborhoods that are expected to grow.

The district has declared Loyal Heights Elementary a neighborhood walking school.

We have a student population of 425, and it's actually going to decrease by 5% over the next five years.

To justify building a school for 660, The district created an unusual new lobe in the attendance boundary stretching up to 1.8 miles from the school and will incur costs to bus students past three other schools on the way to their new neighborhood walking school.

These travel distances are far from ideal for the new families and will create a traffic and parking burden for our neighbors.

Finally, and most importantly, the proposed building footprint will overwhelm the 2.75 acre property.

The tiny remaining playground space will hinder both active recess play and the vital after school socializing that has helped create a strong community, a community that almost unanimously opposes the current plans.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Kathleen Eads, I'm the librarian at Greenlink.

The library equity team is asking for the board support of dependable funding and leadership of our school libraries.

Together with my colleagues, we created the library equity team to find a solution to the chaos of funding and management that has led to the current inequities within our school libraries.

We are asking for three things.

One, a manager of libraries that effectively works for and advocates for libraries at the district level.

For too long, our librarians have held the fiscal weight of both fundraising and accountability at the building level with very minimal managerial support or guidance at the district level.

This burden, in addition to directly affecting our most highly impacted schools, allows the district to drop fiscal and ethical responsibility.

Two, full-time teacher librarians.

An overwhelming amount of research proves the direct correlation between full-time teacher librarians and student academic success at any school.

Three, equitable funding of library materials that will create equitable collections at every school.

This is our most dire need.

The current neglect of resources is systematic oppression by the district.

We recently proposed $10 per student per year for each and every student.

Dr. Nyland rejected this modest proposal.

Members of the board, please consider the impact of the district that has the fifth biggest achievement gap in the country.

making deliberate steps to provide all students equal opportunities in the heart of our schools.

It is not the job of parents to decide which students get to thrive.

Teacher librarians are ready with solutions.

Please join our efforts by closing this opportunity gap with dependable funding of our school libraries.

Thank you.

Laura Kramer, Miranda Russler, and Mike Giancola.

Hello and good evening.

Thank you for hearing me tonight.

Okay.

I'm going to hold on to this.

Maybe not.

I would like to expand on what I was talking about two weeks ago about having staff that's on the deaf hard of hearing team and people who make the decision and how they're not, the lack of understanding about deaf education really negatively impacts the deaf students.

It infuriates me when hearing people who don't have deaf and hard of hearing background education or and they have not lived in my shoes make decisions how I'm going to learn in school, how my kids are going to learn in school.

People need to understand that hearing aids, cochlear implants are only tools, they are not a cure that oh my god they become hearing.

It doesn't work that way.

Children are supposed to be going to school to learn.

They need to go to school where they can have 100% access to information.

It can't always be about the ear and the lip.

That's not communication.

Communication involves reading comprehension, being able to write things out.

There's many different ways.

We just can't limit to this.

I have said this time and again.

I don't want my son to go to school having to worry and try to listen when he should focusing on learning the material.

He's already mainstream in the world.

I mean this is the world that we live in.

So I'm asking you when you have a transition team, when babies are transitioning out of our early intervention and you have a transition team, you have to have people on the team that understand deafness issue.

And the other thing that I would like to bring up is the 504s.

This is something I've been bringing time and again.

Families have said this over and over.

They want critical mass.

The school is not making it easy for them to have a parent, be able to sign up their children, go to school with their children that are deaf children, that are like their children with the same age.

I think we all know this, that when someone goes to school and communication is hard, they become isolated.

And we know that isolation leads to depression.

We need to stop this vicious cycle.

I would like you to do the right thing.

put the right people in the position, do the right thing for the deaf students.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm going to go back and call Sally Seriano who I just noticed came in.

Thank you.

I would like to thank directors Patu and Peters for their proposal to give greater school board oversight to program and closure recommendations.

Seattle school teachers have often put years of hard work into program development.

Then they can be faced with the whim of administrators who make their program disappear.

These teachers, students and parents can be left without recourse.

In 2011, I was able to attend an alumni meeting of the Ida B. Wells School for Social Justice.

Five former students discussed why they had decided to pursue high school teaching careers.

They said soon after they started college, they discovered that in their classroom discussions from the curriculum they had received at the Ida B. Wells School, that allowed them to develop solid critical thinking skills.

These critical thinking skills stood out in stark contrast to the lack of skills held by their fellow college classmates.

They then realized the importance for all students of the vigorous, meaningful, and transformative public education they had received at the Ida B. Wells School.

The recent hollowing out of the Ida B. Wells School and the closure of Middle College at High Point put underserved students of color and other marginalized students in limbo.

I agree wholeheartedly with this board action proposal that the public expects the board to weigh in and exercise oversight on important issues and we do hold you, the board, accountable.

Please grant yourself this important oversight authority which will only strengthen public education even more.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Miranda Russler.

Hi, my name is Miranda Russler.

I'm a school psychologist and a tenure professional.

and tell you our story.

My husband and I have three daughters, this is our oldest, Linden, she's three and she's deaf.

She's received continuous early intervention services since she was a baby including exposure to American Sign Language.

Transitioning out of the birth to three and into the initial evaluation process with Seattle there was no professionals who had any experience supporting DHH students other than the audiologist and they were new to the setting.

That was an inappropriate team and a point that I brought up at the community meetings that were held this fall and summer.

That group concluded that Lyndon was not eligible for special education.

We requested that a functional listening evaluation be conducted that measures how this student can comprehend in noise and with distance.

Under ideal listening conditions she was comprehending at 70%.

When noise and distance were a factor she was down to 30% accuracy.

We are told since the test didn't really go for her age, she was six and a half weeks from being three at the time which is the age of the test, that it was probably just because she wasn't listening.

So that could be it, or she could be deaf and not hearing.

We have had a total of six meetings to discuss eligibility and placement.

A deaf psychologist was added to the team however we feel his input was largely ignored.

We have experienced inappropriate conclusions and recommendations with little progress to date.

She deserves full access to instruction, group discussions, incidental learning and social communication.

The profession knows early childhood learning does not only occur via direct teacher interface.

Lyndon will not have full access to the language utilizing hearing aids and amplification.

She needs ASL.

She has a right to access the full learning environment so that she can meet her full potential and not just catch bits and pieces.

Just making it through is not good enough.

I had some points about what I think you should do.

I'll catch you next time.

Thank you.

Mike Dinkola.

My name is Mike Giancola 8314 Jones Avenue NW.

I am here today to share my concerns for the Loyal Heights Elementary rebuild project.

The current plan is too large for the community and we could save money by redesigning the school for the three classroom education specification or by more strictly adhering to the four classroom model.

The current size as Frank mentioned earlier is around 425 students but the predictions by the school district is that it will decline to around 406 by 2020. Why did the school board choose this location, the smallest location in the district for a 660 student building?

I do know some of the extra capacity is coming from the expanded zones as Frank mentioned earlier.

However the new students will be bussed in or will be dropped off by their parents creating extra traffic around the school.

What is currently a local school filled with walkers and bikers is going to become a mega school with busy and dangerous street crossings.

I recognize the school board may have other reasons for choosing Loyal Heights as the four classroom model.

However, the proposed design far exceeds even the four classroom model by containing at least 12 extra rooms.

There are rooms on the design listed as flex, computer, music, art for example.

However, none of these programs are even funded by the school district.

Why are we using taxpayer money to build rooms at the expense of outdoor play space that the kids could use?

The Loyal Heights Playground is a great resource for children and families in the area.

The new design reduces the play space by at least 30%.

The public has been very active trying to get the school board to revisit the plan with no success.

Please consider the community.

Please consider the cost.

The school is too large.

I beg the school board to redesign to the three-classroom model or to properly adhere to the four-classroom model.

Either decision will be a win-win for the district and the community.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Tonya Krasulis.

Greg Sishos.

I'm Tonya and thank you for letting me present.

I wanted to present.

Could you please get close to the mic so we can hear you.

Thank you.

I wanted to present how it is that the enrollment wait list for over 5,000 Seattle public school students are left hanging this year.

The school choice process starts when schools stage open houses, they have visitor days at their schools.

Some students shadow students at the schools that interest them.

This is all work for school choice.

Students in lottery are then chosen but only placed if the first person on the waitlist coincides with the first person on the desired school's waitlist for a swap.

So for example the first person on Ingram's waitlist if they are wanting to attend Franklin, the first person on Franklin's list wants to attend Ingram then the wait list moves and those two students get their choice.

The first students are the only ones that are considered.

This leaves the probability of a move to be that of a miracle.

In the interest of fairness, enrollment has set up an impossible bypass for school choice wait list and I would propose say taking the first ten names on all the wait lists at all the schools and accepting them into their school of choice, see how those students swap with others on the list and further proceed as needed and schools may get a few extra students or not.

Schools, the Seattle schools are full, yes I hear this all the time and a few additional students here and there will happen.

They could proceed further with this approach accepting parts of the list and getting the students where they want to be, that's the reason for the school choice process to even exist.

There are many requests to the school board that require money but you have departments devoted to making school choice happen.

Funding school improvement is not a factor for these wait lists.

They could at least.

Can you please conclude your comments?

They could at least possibly call people to make sure that they still want to be on the list and as a courtesy just say that no one is going to move on the list because people are vigilantly waiting and wanting to get back within their 24 hour limit to make it sure that they don't miss their chance.

I do have more to say and I will hand out everything that I have to say to you afterwards.

Thank you.

Hi I'm Craig Seescholes and thank you all for the time for public comments.

I wonder how many board members did any of you get out to school libraries during library month?

I want to congratulate Superintendent Nyland for getting to schools and I want to encourage people to get to school libraries because they are dynamic places of opportunity.

Superintendent Nyland's comments about the three middle schools closing the opportunity gap highlights for me they all have full time librarians and they are all part of a collaboration project between Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Public Library.

We want this opportunity for all our students.

Did you know for example that the Whistlet study and a study done based on 2014 data showed that high poverty schools across the state graduate students at twice the rate of schools without teacher librarians so that it was a correlational effect But in the 2016 study of which 87% of Seattle schools have now provided data to OSPI and that survey closes on Monday, so we are trying to mop up the last schools.

The Seattle schools have the opportunity for a full battery of equity analysis of school library and information technology programs.

I work with that survey and I'm happy to help the district work with it as well.

Libraries are about opportunity and I'm thrilled that Executive Director Vela is part of the Title I ESSA team for OSPI because school libraries are explicitly included in the opportunity for Title I funding from the federal government.

school libraries are also in Title IV opportunities in ESSA.

So I want the district and the board to be able to track on that federal resource stream as well as we are looking and working at the state level.

So thank you all again for supporting school libraries and our students through school libraries.

Thank you.

Cecilia McCormick.

Like many of the speakers, I am very pleased that the board seeks to regain control over program placement and site closures.

However, I'm dismayed that special education programs are to be an exception.

Please revise the language in F21 to remove that exception.

Staff misspeaks when it tells the board that SPED as practiced by the district is a service.

No. individualized education plans describe the services.

Now staff claims it must retain control of where SPED happens so that time sensitive decisions can be made for a child's needs.

No, IEPs cannot be changed without the IEP team's concurrence.

Over the years staff has tried to blur the lines between SPED programs and services first by just putting a ratio on a separate form then by dropping any reference to ratios or service or program.

This affords staff maximum latitude to assign our kids anywhere.

Not because the child's needs changed but to maximize space utilization and minimize costs.

All for naught because according to next year's budget, SPED enrollment is projected to drop 5% but the CBA boost costs 17%.

I've heard concerns expressed from the days that this district must move toward a more inclusive model for different learners.

The proposed policy language moves us away from that and retains the existing model that kids with disabilities are a space and cost problem that must be managed and kept separate.

Why else does Arbor Heights have SPED in a separate wing with the kindergarten and childcare or in Laurel Heights, the SPED classrooms are by the office and the kindergartens, they share a play card.

Finally the proposed policy would allow more old van assholes, you know the empty building where developmental preschools were moved while the spaces they used to occupy were handed to levy and in the case of Dearborn Park City preschools, Don't buy into this double speak.

If spent as a service, then bring the service to the child.

If spent as separate classrooms or facilities.

Please conclude your remark.

I'm almost done.

Thank you.

Then bring your informed leadership vision and understanding of where our kids are being kept separate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This prays the end to our public testimony.

And now we're into the board comments.

Director Harris.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone that showed up to tell their truths tonight.

Special shout out to my community and Middle College High School and Ida B. Wells and High Point.

Also thank you to Mr. Brashears, the Ballard Unified folks, Ingram, Cleveland Unified, West Woodland, and the Martin Luther King Jr. choirs.

And also let's include in all of those groups the parents, and their school communities.

They didn't get matching t-shirts by accident and people are carpooling to get people from here to there, practices, etc.

It takes a lot of hand-holding and bigger circles.

I was lucky enough to have a cellar to attic tour of the new Genesee Hill School and I am here to tell you it is awesome.

It is beyond awesome.

It is a beautiful facility and having spent a good piece of my child's life at the old Genesee Hill School where things didn't work and people got injured.

It's a sweet thing.

The other really sweet thing about this is that we saved heritage trees, that it's got all kinds of green HVAC systems, et cetera, so that this is a school 50 years from now that we won't be burning additional fossil fuels to continue.

The fellows at the building site itself, those that have been working on this school for the last year plus and remember we had up to 90 people at that site at one point.

They didn't bring any of the suits from downtown to show the director around.

They left us on our own and I can't tell you how impressed I am and for those of you all that know me I don't impress easy.

So way to go on that.

was lucky enough to attend the city year banquet.

Those are the red jacket young people who are out helping in our schools.

It was extraordinary listening to their stories from the heart.

Incredibly well organized and we are really lucky to have them as partners and very pleased by that.

Thank you to our legal department.

A couple of weeks ago we got a bad surprise about the tri-pay.

And let me assure you that folks stood up, got counted and were doing the right thing with a minimum of crazy to go with it.

And thank you as well to our superintendent and our deputy superintendent that agreed that having an independent investigation to address this head on, to embrace it and to move on, get the information.

That's a really beautiful thing and I'd like to thank the folks on this board, my colleagues.

I'm really proud of that so stay tuned for that information and again thanks to legal and especially Null.

Meetings, June 11, 3 to 4.30, Saturday, High Point.

That's Southwest Raymond and Southwest 35th Avenue.

And July 16th at the Southwest Library at Trenton and 35th.

Thanks ever so much.

Anybody else want to go?

Director Peters.

So thank you all for coming out tonight and that also includes the two student groups we had at the beginning who performed for us, the Martin Luther King Jr.

Elementary Choir and the West Woodland Elementary Choir, another example of how important the arts are to a complete education.

To the well following up from that I also want to send out congratulations to all the students who participated in the Essentially Ellington competition in New York and that included Garfield students and Roosevelt students and while none of our schools came away with the top prizes I think it was really an impressive accomplishment to be able to participate and I know there were some individual students who did come away with recognition so good for all of you.

To our representatives from middle college including graduates, what an impressive story you tell us about the value of a curriculum that engages students and keeps them engaged well beyond school and into their next years and into their next careers.

That's an example of the district doing something right.

So when we hear that a curriculum leaves students with solid critical thinking skills, we need to value whatever it is that's being done in those classrooms.

When we hear quotes like nothing excited me the way middle college did, that's incredibly valuable, potent.

you know approach to learning and that's something that we should be replicating not weakening.

So I know the story itself is complicated there's many parts to it but the essence is something great was going on in middle college and so we need to restore that and we need to reinforce it and we need to also bring that approach to other students elsewhere in the district.

I have a couple of questions about that still.

I mean we are still looking into various aspects of it.

I would like to know if we did indeed lose opportunities at the I.W.

Wells school in UW for an Arctic study grant, opportunity for students to go to Brazil.

I mean if we are losing opportunities as we transition to other approaches I think we have to take a look at that.

So I would be interested in knowing more about what exactly happened because There are losses that happen when we make transitions, there are definitely losses that happen in the richness of our materials and our experience when we standardize education.

So I had another couple of questions on other issues that I'd like to address to staff and hopefully we can hear back either in the Friday memo or another appropriate manner.

One of them has to do with our libraries and how we fund them.

This has been brought to us a couple of times now in recent meetings and I'd like to better understand how we do fund them.

and whether there are some federal funds that we have been tapping or could be tapping more to shore up especially our schools that don't have the funds at the local level to keep their libraries as rich as they should be.

And then I also have a question about wait lists.

This has been a topic that has come up a lot in the meetings lately and also in some of my community meetings.

I'd be interested to know to what extent our wait list do move every year, like what percentage move and how exactly that mechanism works because it's sounding a little unclear and I'd like to be able to reassure families that we try to move people into the schools they want to be in as much as we possibly can.

So to the one of our community members who spoke to us about the deaf and hard of hearing program, you ran out of time before you could give us your ideas.

Please send us your ideas.

Send us your, all of you, send us whatever speeches you gave us tonight and any other ideas.

You can always follow up that way with us.

I think that's all I have for tonight.

I do want to say that I'm planning to have another community meeting.

It's tentatively scheduled for June 11th at the Queen Anne Library but I do need to confirm that.

Thank you.

I do want to join my colleagues in thanking all those who chose to testify today.

It was a rich tapestry of testimony that we heard today and I want to especially appreciate all of you that took time out of your days to share your thoughts with us.

also want to thank both the West Woodland and MLK Elementary School choirs for their presentations and particularly the scat singing that we heard as the last song.

As a huge fan of jazz I know that scat singing is not the easiest thing to do and they are on the road to being professional singers if they choose that course.

I also want to thank Greg Brashear and Eric McCurdy and all the student athletes that were here today for their leadership and their hard work and in making sure that that phrase student athlete actually means something.

We don't want our students to only be athletes and we hope that they will express themselves in a myriad of different ways including athletics if they so choose.

So it's great to see excellence in both realms here today.

For my colleagues on the board I had a very interesting meeting today with Lisa Love who works for the district and Ronald Boy who we all know very well.

and they had just returned from a conference where the primary subject matter was around gender neutral bathrooms and it was a national conference and they shared with me that the language of our policies are actually looked at as a national model.

but they also reflected to me that we are behind the curve given recent conversations and directives that have come from the federal government.

And so they are beginning work on revamping our policies and I encourage them to be as forward thinking as possible.

And I guess I just want to issue a warning, a friendly warning that information and changes in our policy I think are forthcoming as a result of what was shared with me.

In many ways we are at risk of litigation currently and so that in and of itself beyond the fact that many of our schools are not currently configured to accommodate the gender neutral guidelines that have been presented.

So I thank them personally and I thank them on behalf of the board for their leadership and I want to let all of us know that we should be expecting to see some interesting language and I think it will spur some rich conversations in our community about that issue.

And I'll end my comments by apologizing.

I had a community meeting scheduled for July, or for June, actually, and received a phone call from my brother who is getting married on the week that I had planned for my community meeting, so I'm going to have to reschedule that.

I have a July the 16th meeting scheduled and an August the 20th meeting, all scheduled from 10 o'clock to 1130, both at the Douglas Truth Library at 23rd and Yesler.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham.

Thank you and good evening.

I want to definitely give a shout out to Greg Brashear and the things that he's done for students.

You know that education, extracurricular activities are very important that help our students.

One of the reasons they continue to go to school is what we can provide them to enrich themselves not only academically but through competition and learning how to be a good sports.

And it's great to see that we're winning the academic awards and not just the championship awards in the sports that we, our students are seeing that there is a balance that they can achieve.

So congratulations to all the teams.

Thank you to the elementary choirs, Wes Woodland and Martin Luther King Jr.

Both of them were just amazing and I'll have to go back and watch it again just to hear them sing especially being a Beatles fan so good to hear Beatles music.

And the fair start program at interagency, good job, keep it up.

It's giving these students something one where they can see themselves and believe in themselves keep students going to schools.

So if we can replicate that at other schools what programs are going to make the students believe in themselves and for our educators to show that yes I believe in you is a very good push to keep our students in schools.

So Karen and Megan thank you for the job that you are doing there.

definitely want to acknowledge the middle college students, very well spoken tonight.

You graduated, you completed the degree showing that those schools did you right.

So as a person that wants to also see Indian Heritage come back, what they did for students there that we I see a need for what we need to keep these schools going that provide the students that aren't thriving in the standard schools but they still have this potential untapped potential that we can have educators get out through our schools like middle college.

I do want to hopefully see that this is like the fourth, fifth time that we have come to hear about that there is some need for the deaf and hard of hearing program to get some community input from the right people.

So let's see what we can do to make sure that the people that need to be there to share their concerns are heard.

Thank you to the Loyal Heights community.

They did host a meeting on Friday that I was able to make along with their director Burke and that you know I am listening.

I just want to let you know that I do see some needs that you know we want to make sure that I hate to see us decreasing any class or play space, I am sorry, play space for our schools that we are not doing that and whatever we can do to address those I'll see how much, I'll definitely do as much as I can to support.

Also I will go ahead I think I said I might have to cancel one of my community meetings so I'm just going to have to go ahead and commit myself.

I will have a community meeting on June 4th as originally planned at Broadview library.

I will be coming from our board retreat so it's going to be starting at 4 o'clock.

So 4 o'clock at the Broadview library June 4th will be my next community meeting.

And before I kind of sign off Also, something that I do every year at this time, not because it's the Mount St. Helens anniversary, but it's also my college roommate's birthday.

So if he's watching, he's this many years old, and that's 52. Happy birthday.

One of the nice things about going near the end of the rotation is I can thank everyone on the dais for sharing such great comments and just say I second that.

So I'll quickly touch on a couple of points that people have already touched on.

I want to show appreciation for Greg Brashear, the passion, commitment and the impact he's made on our kids.

the student athletes and coaches.

I think it's really exciting to see the synergistic relationship between the academics and sports.

The entertainment tonight, the West Woodland Wildcats and the MLK choir was also excellent, inspiring and greatly appreciated a great way to start the day.

I wanted to put a special note of thanks out as well for Stacy Howard as mentioned by Superintendent Nyland she's done some amazing things for helping our district really highlight some of the amazing things that are going on and there is a huge amount of positive.

and I'm going to transition at the risk of sounding like a suck up on this I just want to give kudos to Superintendent Nyland I was reading through his weekly update and school reports for this week and I just thought to myself man this guy's thorough so I wanted to just say thank you for you know the time and attention that you put into the communication to the board because there was really a lot of moving pieces in this system and so that info is really greatly appreciated and I just wanted to acknowledge that publicly.

For the people who came and gave testimony as always it's really moving to hear those stories and you know I really appreciate the perspectives that you bring because a lot of those are things that we don't have to start with and we really need that input in our decision making.

The middle college testimony is always super powerful and as I think about how we structure our instructional programs and hearing what we have lost in that school and what those the value that it brought to those students it does make me a little bit sad and I feel like we should figure out how to get that back how to infuse that into more of our student experiences.

I want to thank also the Loyal Heights community for meeting with me and Director Pinkham and for thoughtfully sharing your concerns and the testimony today.

I think the you know as Director Pinkham mentioned your concerns are heard and I think you make some really strong points about the challenges that we've got ourselves into with the school of that size and the facility the lot size and the assignment paths.

So again this isn't something that is easy to change but I want to just acknowledge as well that you are heard and I'll try to contribute in any way that's beneficial.

I want to also reinforce what Director Peters mentioned about library resources.

We've had consistent public testimony around library resources and library staff and equity in our libraries.

As kind of an instructional materials geek this is near and dear to my heart so I really want to figure out as we look at our budgets, as we look at our priorities, Are we properly addressing these things?

Are we properly funding them?

Are they falling through the cracks?

And then I want to wrap up with sort of a general comment about conformity in our district values.

Standardization is something that can really bring a lot of value and there's a lot of benefits for common established standards and guidelines but it's equally important that we don't let standardization become the goal.

really it's a standardization is a method to capture institutional knowledge and I think we have to treat it as such that it's a building block.

And I especially think about that in terms of our educational programs, our standards and in our buildings, our educational specifications.

So some of the examples are the social justice curriculum is not part of common core standards explicitly but we're hearing great value in that work and so are we limited to these educational standards or can we build on it.

Similarly the educational specification and this is a question for our facilities folks this discussion that Director Blanford brought up about gender neutral restrooms has that been captured in our educational specification you know we don't want to be limited when we are looking at these new facilities and we want to be able to capture things like that.

So I just want to reaffirm that there are guidelines but we don't want to be overly prescriptive on how we do our work and we have to always try to put the needs of our students before the rigidity of our standards.

My next community meeting is coming up Saturday, May 28th from 10 to 12 p.m.

at Greenwood Public Library.

Thank you.

I want to say thank you to Wes Woodland and MLK Junior Elementary for the wonderful choir music that they performed for us tonight.

It was just amazing how they performed.

and actually kind of motivated us into our meeting tonight.

I also would like to say thank you to all of you who have come and addressed your various issues.

We appreciate you taking the time to come and let us know your thoughts.

And really, we appreciate you actually letting us know sometimes We have so many issues that we go through that sometimes we tend to forget or leave one out, but when you come and let us know, it brings us back to the reality that there's still issues out there that we need to look at and hopefully to be able to take care of.

Also, As I have mentioned at the last board meeting, it makes me pause when I hear all the young people who have testified about the changes in their lives because they could not handle regular schools so they ended up at middle college.

How they were motivated to continue with their lives in a successful direction.

Middle college programs were created for these very students who have testified throughout our many board meetings and very impressed and touched by the many comments and testimony that they have made about the success that they have.

And I also refer back to the original teachers who have actually started these programs, who made such a success and impression on many of these kids.

Throughout our board meetings, we continue on to hear the success, how these kids thought that their life ended and thought that no one cared, And then when they went into middle college, the whole outside or inside of what they thought wouldn't be became a reality.

When I think about that, I realize what the district actually originally, why these programs were created for these very kids.

And then when we see that these programs are no longer in existence, it also take a pause in terms of why is this happening.

As we're looking at closing the achievement gap, and be able to provide equity for all our kids.

These are very programs that actually provide those opportunities to many of our kids of color.

Because they're being very successful, you know, when they go to these programs, they began to open up and began to see a world that they never expected to see.

So it really, bothers me that these programs are not continue on in our system which is something that I believe that we need to really look at this and be able to put back programs that have been very successful for our kids.

If you want to close the achievement gap we need to bring programs that are going to help our kids become successful, not only in the present, but also and continue on in the next level of their life.

So I'm hoping that we can be able to salvage what's left of middle college and hopefully to put it back on track so we can be able to see success continue on.

I also would like to...

congratulate the state champion teams.

I'm real sorry I wasn't here, but thank you for the job well done.

I think it's great that we have so many champion athletes in our school systems that at least every year we take some state title.

So we thank you to the coaches and the activity coordinator who actually are in charge of making sure that our kids are actually able to compete that the best they can and be able to come back with state champions.

I also wanted to congratulate.

It's kind of sad to see Stacey Howard leave.

She's done a wonderful job since she's been here, and it's going to be hard to replace her.

But thank you, Stacey, for all the work that you have done and success in your next endeavors.

And that is the end of our comments.

And now we're going to.

take a 10 minute break and then we can come back and continue our, we convene.