SPEAKER_04

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are about to get started here in just a moment.

Y'all could wrap up your conversation.

Good afternoon, we will be calling the board meeting to order in a moment.

SPS-TV will begin broadcasting.

For those joining by phone, please remain muted until we reach the testimony period and your name is called.

This is President Hersey and now calling the December 14th 2022 regular board meeting to order at 4.17 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

SPEAKER_13

Director Cron-Baron.

Present.

All right.

I will now hand it

SPEAKER_28

Good evening, board members, President Hersey and public.

This is the last meeting of 2022 before winter break.

And as I reflect on the year, I'm very proud and excited and grateful for the exceptional work of our educators and staff.

It's been tremendous.

And at the same time, I'm troubled.

I'm troubled by the challenges that have been posed by community violence, particularly at Ingram and Rainier Beach.

Today our Rainier Beach community is dealing with a threat and as we speak my team and I are taking precautions to make the best safety choices for our students and staff.

We know there are no easy solutions but we have to stay diligent in our efforts to keep schools safe and open for students to actually learn.

Daily we're working on ways to mitigate harm for from our students and staff but this is this is a challenge that we have.

I know that this time of the year, over the last several years, we've seen some challenges, but this feels unprecedented, and we must come together.

I want to give kudos to the City of Seattle, Seattle SPD, for working with us and trying to be solution-oriented.

But again, there are no easy solutions.

So with that said, and an awkward transition here, but we do have something to celebrate from our board.

And our board was honored last week with the National School Board Associations, Council of Urban Boards of Education, School Board of Excellence, a national award.

And you can see that award right here.

and President Hersey was in attendance to accept the award on behalf of the board and I'm proud that I nominated this board because this board is very deserving by the policy work you do, by your champion, you being champions for the racial equity work that we do, for the social justice work that we do, and being courageous in really pushing for goals that are ambitious and really focused on where needs are greatest.

And so we have a brief video to highlight the work that was shown at the ceremony, and I'd like to show that.

But here's the award right here, so if you get a chance, come up and take a look at it.

Cue the video, please.

While we're waiting for the video, I want to ask maybe President Hersey to talk a little bit about what he experienced as he received the award on our behalf.

SPEAKER_04

So absolutely, as Dr. Jones stated, got to travel to the conference to accept the award.

And there was no short of, I would say, probably somewhere between 500, 700, maybe even 850 people in attendance during the ceremony.

And got an opportunity to say a few words and reflect on the work that this board particularly has done that you'll see highlighted so eloquently in the video in the moment.

And this was on the day before the conference ended.

And for the next 24 hours, I felt as though I was a celebrity in this conference.

I couldn't go two or three steps without folks coming up to me and saying, what a wonderful job we were doing, how we are setting a standard, how they wish that other districts could be taking place or, excuse me, taking part in some of the work that we are doing.

And I think particularly for us, who are trying to drive the district in the best direction possible, we see a lot of what is not working.

And there is a lot of that, don't get me wrong.

But when you put it into a national context, Seattle really is leading in many ways and it is not going unnoticed.

And so I just want to be, you know, one of What I think will be many folks to tell you, congratulations and thank you for all the work that y'all have been putting up here for free, away from your families.

And while it might not necessarily seem like you're making big strides and moves individually from your personal perspectives, The rest of the country is really looking to us for guidance.

And so many other districts of our size for guidance.

And I think that that is adequately reflected in the award that we received, but also in a call for us to be more participatory in organizations like CUBE, like NAPC, like CAPC, like so many others that are really really hungry for our presence in a multitude of ways.

And so just thank you to all the work that y'all have put in.

And I think the video is queued up.

And thanks for the opportunity.

SPEAKER_09

system in Washington.

Seattle Public Schools is the largest K-12 school system in Washington state with 50,000 students across 106 schools.

Our diverse student body represents 151 countries of origin with 147 languages or dialects being spoken in their homes.

More than 30 percent of students qualify for free and reduced lunch services.

Seattle Public Schools School Board is made up of seven elected directors that represent the community's ethnic and geographic diversity.

SPEAKER_05

SPS is committed to dismantling systemic racism and discrimination particularly for those who are furthest from educational justice.

SPEAKER_09

The district is among the first in the nation to acknowledge the failure of educational systems to serve students of color.

These students are furthest away from educational justice.

We are actively working to disrupt the legacies of racism and become an anti-racist educational system.

At the core of the strategic plan is the adoption of a targeted universalism approach.

SPEAKER_26

If we center our work and our budget decisions, centering our master schedule, our budget priorities, our building leadership team, our senate decisions on African American males, it's going to benefit every student.

SPEAKER_09

Actions speak louder than words.

And in 2021 after reflection the Seattle School Board began implementing a new governance model that focuses on student outcomes.

SPEAKER_24

Everything you build whether it be just the way you treat children and talk to children to the way of like the way that policies are made and just like going back and saying OK this is great.

How can we fix it.

OK.

These are the things that didn't go well.

How can we fix those.

SPEAKER_09

Graduation rates for all students have increased more than 10 percentage points over the last three years.

We expanded access to preschool, including Head Start and special needs programs.

established a new Department of Liberatory Education with a growing body of nearly a dozen courses.

The center of our work here at AMA is just to make sure that this educational system supports the brilliance and excellence of our young black boys and teens.

Since 2019 SPS has doubled the number of black boys and teens participating in advanced learning and highly capable services.

The district provides financial support to our students by covering the cost of AP exam fees and hosting no cost PSAT and SAT exams.

The Seattle Promise Program in partnership with the City of Seattle and Seattle Colleges guarantees free tuition and access to SPS graduates in three local Seattle colleges.

The number of SPS graduates enrolled in the colleges has more than tripled since 2018. 65 percent of enrollees are students of color and more than 30 percent are first generation college students.

SPS practices three levels of engagement with its community.

One way information consultation and collaboration.

For each of these the district provides translation or interpretation in the five most used non-English languages.

SPEAKER_28

It means building up students to soar both in and out of the classroom.

All of these things work in tandem to uplift our students.

especially those students of color who are furthest from educational justice.

So once again I want to have a warm thank you to our board and congratulations on receiving the CUBE National Award for Excellence.

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04

And one quick thing, I want to have everybody in the room give yourselves a round of applause, because we can sit up here all day and pat ourselves on the back.

But really, the work that is being done is mostly by folks who aren't even here.

And this is a team effort, right?

So to our educators, to our staff, to everyone in our buildings, our families, our parents, and most importantly, our students, this is a representation of the work that y'all put in every single day that we have the honor of working with y'all for.

I just want to say thank you to y'all and appreciate y'all's hard work, advocacy, however you show up for our district.

And this is really a proud moment for me that I hope that we can all share.

SPEAKER_28

Thank you.

So transitioning tonight, we'll have at our meeting, the board will be electing new officers.

Oh, one sec.

Sorry.

SPEAKER_04

We do have comments from our student, Director Cron-Baron.

Oh, those are included in your comments.

I'm so sorry.

I just wanted to make sure that we did not.

Miss our student, please forgive me.

Please take it away.

SPEAKER_28

Thank you President Hersey.

Tonight we will be electing new officers.

I want to again thank President Hersey, Vice President Hampson, and member-at-large Hervera-Smith for their dedication and leadership.

As shown in the video, we are able to achieve great things with a strong partnership with the board and the superintendent.

Another item that we're going to be talking about tonight is transportation and this partnership is also incredibly important as we navigate challenging decisions together.

We are in the midst of budget season here at central office and my staff are making recommendations on how to best deploy resources to support our schools and students.

This includes difficult discussions on how to reduce and shift in central office.

This board will also be hearing tonight about transportation services and some of the critical questions on how we transport students more effectively and more efficiently.

Lastly, around safety, as I alluded to in my opening remarks, this partnership extends outside of our districts and allows us to better support our students to be focused on safety.

Last week we were joined by Governor Inslee and Mayor Harrell at Ingraham High School to hear from our students about what they need in the in the wake of the tragic events there.

I look forward to their continued partnership to provide resources to our students.

Tonight's meeting will also include a progress monitoring session on seventh grade math, and this will be an opportunity for the board to dig into the data that was previewed in October.

And this is part of our regular cadence of discussion, discussing student outcomes as we implement student outcomes focused governance.

And that concludes my remarks.

Thank you, President Hersey.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you Superintendent Jones.

Without further ado we will now turn it over to Director Crone-Barone for her comments.

SPEAKER_23

Thank you President Hersey.

All right.

Well hello all here joining us today and joining us virtually.

For a quick update of something that my fellow student directors Nasira and Jenna have mentioned before there is a student board member newsletter in the works.

This will include updates from the board updates from our meetings that would otherwise be somewhat inaccessible to students.

Although posted online I know that some students just don't want to put in the extra work to find those things.

So our goal is to create a really open means of communication from what's going on policy wise in the district to our students because that's really important.

And again, to highlight, Nasira, Jenna, and I are working on finding tools and pathways to increase communication between the board and students.

Because at the end of the day, we all serve students, and transparency is really important and serves our community.

And not only serves our community, it strengthens our community.

And we need to be able to figure out how we are building bridges with our students.

for problem-solving rather than thinking about being on different sides because at the end of the day we are here to serve our students and as those in power it is really our job to remove those barriers to students and see how we can best serve them.

To highlight the power of student voice through the work of Ingraham students and Seattle Student Union we will now receive $4 million from the Seattle City Council for mental health supports and schools.

Can I get a round of applause for mental health supports and schools.

That is the power of student voice, y'all.

That is the stuff that students get done.

In weeks, mere weeks, students were able to achieve this massive accomplishment.

And further, Nasira, Jenna, and I want to partner and build on this momentum of advocacy around mental health supports for students and make sure, as a board, those are some of our top priorities.

because one of the most vital parts of student safety is student health, and one of the most vital parts of student health is student mental health.

With that, I wish everyone in our community a safe, happy, relaxing winter break.

Thank you, President Hersey.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Director Cron-Barone.

Yeah, big claps.

We should celebrate.

That is totally fine.

Okay, we have now come to the board comments section of the agenda.

I will open with updates on our implementation of the Ad Hoc Governance Committee recommendations and will then call for additional reports.

We have continued to refine the new question process which is meant to give us the student outcomes focused information needed to be more informed in our decision making.

We again received materials earlier for today's meeting and I have already received a number of e-mails from constituents that are incredibly excited to have those materials earlier and have been utilizing them to ask really thoughtful questions of board directors I'm sure in their individual capacities.

And with that added time, directors have submitted nearly 100 items for staff's review and response.

At the last meeting, directors gave feedback about posting questions and answers publicly to the agenda.

This is something that we've now accomplished with the Q&A posted as an informational item.

I've also heard multiple perspectives on what to include in the compiled materials.

I've heard concerns about focusing on who the questions have come from in alignment with student outcomes focused governance best practices, and I've also heard feedback about having complete information.

And we've got conflicting perspectives, and that is A-OK, and we know in our collaboration with boards across the country that this is common.

And so with that being said, this is an iterative process, which means that we will continue to refine and improve our process as we go, but continue to bring your concerns to me as they arise and we will do our best to make sure that they are aligned with our new governance structure and be moving forward in a direction that is best for children and getting the outcomes that we see for them.

We've had just two meetings.

Since accepting these recommendations from the Ad Hoc Governance Committee, and we've made leaps and are already in position to continue transforming our practices, and we have a lot of ground to cover in 2023. As I said before, our work to implement student outcomes focused governance best practices will continue to be iterative.

And we will continue to engage in discussion as a board to check in on what's working for us and where we may have gaps or unintended consequences.

So again, just a huge congratulations to this board for taking on such an immense amount of work.

Thank you to all the members of this board for the work that you do to push us forward together doing everything within our power as board directors to support student outcomes.

We have the board officer elections coming up tonight following approval of the consent agenda items.

Following that we will need board directors to reach out to whoever is elected as a board president to share your committee and liaison priorities for the next year.

As a reminder, assignments are annual with the exception of the legislative liaison, which Director Rankin will be continuing in that role for a second year per our policy.

The board president will need feedback on any requested changes to assignments, though we do have three or four standing committees currently suspended.

Finally, looking ahead to January and February, I want to remind directors of upcoming deadlines.

Please submit any agenda items, requests, or requests through the new online submission tool form as soon as possible and no later than December 27th for our next two regular board meetings.

Agenda setting will happen right after the beginning of the year and we'll need to receive the materials for January 18 Soon after so if you do not have the link and you want to Get something in the hopper for submission.

Just chat with board office staff and they'll make sure that it gets to you We will now move on to our other reports for tonight Do we have a BEX and BTA capital programs oversight committee report?

SPEAKER_15

Thank you President Hersey.

We did have our BEX PTA oversight committee meeting just last Friday December 9th.

Myself and Director Songwritz the board members representatives sit on that committee.

It's always super robust meetings.

These are the meetings where I remember going to them when I first sat on the board and everything was way over my head because it's so in-depth about the capital projects.

Everything from the budget update in great detail by Melissa Cohen.

to the project status reports given by Director Richard Best.

It's all very insightful.

I can't even summarize it in these comments, but I can just say that those are the things that are regularly gone over in those meetings.

And also we have expiring terms of certain committee members so that they are actually looking for new applicants to fill local positions on the BEXPTA Oversight Committee.

You can find the application for that online and we welcome any applications of people who are interested and have you know, some skills set to bring to that committee.

We'll be going over that, I believe, in the next few months to get those positions filled.

There was also an update from the Clean Energy Task Force, which is really exciting because they are a task force formed by our resolution that this board approved in 2021. And they've been working diligently since and for I believe about 13 months of meetings and now they are coming.

They had their last meeting actually yesterday and I had the opportunity to attend and thank them all for their service.

They will be bringing those recommendations of the implementation plan for the goal of Fossil Free by 2040 to our board in January or February for us to accept their recommendations, their implementation plan recommendation, and to move forward with that in the many ways that will come from it.

So that's a discussion we can all be having as we get towards that.

I'm excited to see the implementation plan they have put together.

Thank you to all the staff members who worked hard with them over the last year.

Also, Jen Lincoln, Fred Batesta, Richard Best, and so many others who have been walking alongside them to get that work done.

I'm personally very excited about this and look forward to any conversations you guys have as we get towards that to discuss the next steps.

And our next meeting is, when is it?

It doesn't say this on here.

Do you know when the next one is?

It'll be probably January.

That was in December obviously so I think it's the second Friday of the month usually.

We'll see.

Friday the 13th.

SPEAKER_21

830 a.m.

SPEAKER_15

and they're in person now too.

We do those ones in person so that's really nice.

SPEAKER_04

Great.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Do we have a report for the December 13 audit quarterly committee meeting?

SPEAKER_19

We do.

It was a good one.

Lots of content.

I'm sad to report that there was a team's issue and so it wasn't able to be recorded.

So my apologies if anyone.

There are extensive materials and we had.

pretty robust presentations by staff responsible for each of those audit areas which ran the gamut from an audit 2019 audit that was long overdue for audit response on transportation services, culinary services, the actual reconfiguration of the internal audit department itself, some work that's been going on for a long time in HR as well as some smaller audits such as Stipends which needed to be cleaned up.

So that is all represented in the agenda Though they're worse.

They're all board members.

I would encourage you to We move that to a time that we hope is better for everybody's schedule and I would encourage you to come Everyone is welcome.

I personally think it should be a committee of the entire board because it is such important work.

We talked a lot about the function of internal audit and what a rich opportunity it provides to support through this independent review the superintendent and his staff in assessing risk and then providing us that feedback about what risk really needs to be better mitigated through the audit process and thereby creating a truly high-value internal audit department so that we are addressing all of the highest risks associated with you know, our number one goal, which is to provide outcomes towards students of what might get in our in our way of that.

So appreciate everybody's time.

It was a long meeting, probably the longest audit meeting we've had.

It was a full two hours.

But we did have a big backlog of audit response presentations.

And there is there are a number of things that will still be followed up on at the next meeting, which is on March 7th.

At the same time which was 4 o'clock 4 15. And so I encourage folks who are interested in what our evolving high value internal audit function in Seattle Public Schools looks like and what that conversation looks like between the board and internal audit director the superintendent and then individual staff members that are responsible for providing those responses.

And there are some really important audits around student safety and in at least two different buckets currently scheduled to we have an RFP out for one of those and that's related to student safety as it pertains to the adults that are in the buildings and then superintendent is and staff are responsible for another audit any audit just for clarity any audit that whether it's determined that it needs to be done through OSPI, through the state auditor, through internal processes.

All of those come in by policy through internal audit so that there is a function that ensures that there is a management corrective action that is taken to make sure that those recommendations are addressed.

That's not something that Seattle Public Schools has done before.

So I'm really proud of the staff and the hard work of all the board members including our legal counsel in early days to make sure that this function was created in a much more robust fashion.

So please join us on March 7th.

And if anybody has questions that wasn't able to attend I do know that there they took more detailed notes than usual to make up for the lack of recording.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Awesome.

Thank you Director Hampson.

Do we have a report from our legislative liaison.

Take it away.

SPEAKER_16

Yes we do.

And I also I feel like Vice President Hampson undersold herself a little bit with that audit that I just have to take the opportunity to give some some props that having that having all audits come through there is a hugely positive shift in terms of practice and desiloing and the transportation audit that was done in 2019 is now we could see in the meeting yesterday the findings all being addressed, know what the schedule is and that's something that you know as far as I know hadn't come forward without this new mechanism and also there's an annual special education audit that OSPI does and that has historically been something that has come through and been the purview of the special education department under CAI, which is not a bad thing, obviously, but there was also that's not as easily accessible without this additional function and there's not as much accountability.

So now we have that now that all audits will come through.

We had a clear table and timeline of what audits had been out, where they were in timing.

And so I just you underscored your role in that a little bit.

So I wanted to give credit where it's due because it's, I think, really, really impactful and important.

Both for us to do our job as a board and for the public to understand what's going on.

OK so legislative session is going to be fast and furious.

I think there's going to be a ton of bills.

If you look online you can see the prefiling period is right now.

There are a lot of bills on the WA.Ledge.gov site that have been prefiled.

Some of them are not surprises.

Some of them are.

concerning for various reasons.

Some of them have nothing to do with our platform, so we won't be talking about them.

But just for anybody who's interested in advocacy stuff, there is some opportunity to get a little preview of what you may be wanting to look at by looking at those pre-filed bills.

I sent an email yesterday to directors, just last session.

It was a short session, but I Coordinated with directors based on legislative district where we all live to bring you know a director at least two meetings with legislators That was for the WASDA Washington State School Director Association day on the hill where they set up a bunch of meetings That was a virtual last year this year.

I will be in Olympia for WASDA day on the hill in person at the end of February So that specific opportunity won't be as easy to connect into with the online thing but The email that I sent to everybody is just a check-in on who wants to be kind of pressed into duty when appropriate, what areas you might be interested in, what existing relationships you might have.

I have a whole matrix of the committee roles and such of the various Seattle delegation who which director lives in which area relationships.

For the most part during session you know we've given our direction to the district via our adopted platform.

And so for the most part we will rely on our lobbyists to you know sign in follow those bills make make Seattle's voice known.

But there will be times where at.

maybe really important or helpful for a legislator to get an additional, you know, nudge or have a question answered by someone they know.

And in that case I want to be able to just like ping people and it's going to happen all really quickly.

The governor's budget dropped just a couple hours ago.

It does show, I haven't had a chance to look in detail, but it does show like some increase in spending for K-12 whether or not that's going to reflect spending on the things aligned with our priorities.

I'm not sure yet because I haven't a chance to look at it, but so that's a positive.

And again, the governor's budget is not the final budget, but it's, you know, it's an indication of what's going to, what we're going to see.

So, and I can't remember if I said before, really positive thing is there's a lot of alignment across the state and in the I don't know, six or seven legislative sessions that I have been involved in in one way or another.

I'm seeing more alignment between districts on priorities than I have seen before.

So I think that's really positive.

There's a lot of momentum and need and interest in addressing shortfalls in special education.

The transportation funding formula that really underserves Seattle underserves other districts as well.

A lot of districts are leaning into that pretty looking at that pretty hard as you know an area that's significant impact to their budget every year that we need the states to step in and address.

So yes oh so in addition to serving as the liaison for legislative issues for our board I also serve as a liaison to WASDA for legislation and then through that I've been asked to join a small group specifically on planning around special education advocacy so that's really great because it's a mix of it's a you know we're the largest district and then we've got like Spokane and Evergreen and some smaller districts and there's a lot that we have in common a lot of issues that we want to face together but there also are different challenges at play and as the largest district in the state I think it's really important that as we are advocating we're clear on not doing so at the expense of other districts.

And I think that's what I've heard from you all and what we feel like is important.

At the same time there's going to be some things that may negatively impact Seattle that might not impact others so it's obviously important to have our perspective in there.

WSSDA you know, in addition to our own legislative team and financial analysis as things go on, WASDA does a continuous, you know, evaluation of different bills and looks at how those impact all of their districts.

WASDA is not going to be in a position of throwing one district under a bus for another.

They're advocating for all districts together.

So that's, you know, I feel really glad to have the opportunity to both represent us but also to kind of lend the weight of the largest district to some smaller districts that have been facing considerable challenges and whose students they may be struggling to serve just because they don't have, you know, we have University of Washington, Children's Hospital, if we have Unique needs and more remote districts, you know Not only do they is the funding not ample to provide those services, but there's not there's not a provider or a expert necessarily right there for them to access so Anyway, it's you know in some ways Frustrating and sad because these things have gone on for so long but it's also exciting to have special education be at the forefront and have a lot of people talking about how important this is not only for the children who receive those services but for all of our students and the overall health of our system as a whole.

So please reply to email and let me know when you get a chance.

I think probably over the next couple of weeks, people are kind of taking a breath and pausing, so no pressure.

But January 9th is the first day of session, and it's just going to fly.

Somebody's guess was like 3,000 bills will drop.

I mean, a lot of them won't go anywhere.

But people were holding on to bills Remote and hybrid years just because that was a new thing to navigate and so now I don't know Floodgates may be opening we'll see and we've also gotten a lot of new people which is great So like some new perspectives or issues might be coming up, but I will You know stay focused on our platform and update you all as regularly as I can and we will be in weekly meetings with WASDA and other legislative reps and weekly meetings with our team.

Yes.

That's that's that.

It's going to be exciting.

As to see from from District 1 I just want to thank Mayor Harrell and Governor Inslee and their staff for the time and care they spent with our students and of course Superintendent Jones and staff here as well.

I had the opportunity to to be in the room and.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but the students that were there, I had already known several of them.

They're incredible student leaders.

Adults could learn a lot from them.

They were so well prepared, really knew what they were asking for.

At the same time, as impressive as they were and as driven and as leadership focused as they were, We can't leave this to kids to solve these problems.

It's kind of what I walked away with is like I really appreciated the support and the presence of leaders and what they asked me after the event was.

you know, okay, it was great to have our voices heard, but what are the adults going to do?

Because we're kids.

We're kids.

And so, yeah.

Something else really quickly I'll just note is that something that Governor Inslee said that I thought was really important was that this incident doesn't define them as a school and they still have every right to feel proud and happy about being a part of the Ingram community.

And I thought that was really powerful.

And it also made me think that tangentially connected that happened at Ingram and that's where things were catalyzed.

But as we know from your comments and you know there was at my own kids school there was an incident last week.

This our students are being impacted by violence everywhere and this presence was given and voice time was given at Ingram.

And Ingrid is not the only place this has happened and these are not the only students who are impacted by by violence.

And so I just I want to make sure that we're not only that we're elevating those voices but also connecting students to each other and being the adults who show up for for all of them because you know the students today at Rainier Beach didn't get the opportunity to talk to the governor for example.

So how do we how do we get you know how do we get them their voice heard and and make sure they know that you know it really matters what what they're dealing with every day.

And yes.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you for that robust update Director Rankin.

Are there any additional liaison reports that directors would like to offer or finally any additional board engagement for us to discuss tonight.

Or my directors that try to keep the updates if you can.

So any other announcements or things like that.

Go ahead Director Rankin then we'll go to Director Harris.

SPEAKER_16

I forgot one thing briefly which is that at tomorrow's CSEC meeting South.

Wait.

Southeast.

Yeah Southeast Seattle Education Coalition.

I was asked to come talk about student outcomes focused governance.

And so I asked President Hersey to come along.

And so we will be.

That's a I think that their meetings are open to everybody.

So that's a community meeting where we have some questions that were gathered ahead of time and we'll be meeting there virtually and sharing that.

SPEAKER_04

Director Harris take it away.

SPEAKER_20

January 21 2023. It's a Saturday.

We'll be doing a community meeting from 2 to 5. Do not know which library as yet.

The system is down but there will in fact be lasagna.

I am well not above bribery and I invite two of my fellow board directors to share in a good rowdy time and senior staff including the superintendent to show up to engage and to listen.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

So keep an eye on the board page.

Any other engagement announcements anything like that.

OK.

We will now move on to the public testimony portion of tonight's agenda.

We will begin taking public testimony by phone and in person as stated on the agenda.

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

I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

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

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones or step forward to the podium and only one person should speak at a time.

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the list of speakers name is called.

The total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers.

Time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins and the new speaker will not be called again later if they are on the testimony list or waiting list.

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

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

Finally, the board expects the same standard of civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects of itself.

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

SPEAKER_13

First speaker today is Sarah DaSilva Jackson.

SPEAKER_00

Hello my name is Sarah and I'm a junior at Middle College High School.

To start off I believe that we all know and acknowledge that no student is the same and we all learn differently.

Some of us are more visual learners and some of us learn better physically at Middle College.

The main goal is to earn credits for a high school diploma and to prepare for a higher education in a small caring environment.

I've spent three years at Middle College and I can say with confidence that my experience here has taught me the value of a small school education.

In a smaller school one of the biggest advantages is the sense of community.

Due to the smaller community students are able to form tight knit bonds with their fellow students and have an increased sense of community among both students and teachers.

Not only that but the strong community has allowed me to make potential lifelong friendships with not only students but also teachers.

This sense of community has allowed our school to create multiple different clubs that are all student led.

At Middle College there was always support available.

Thanks to the low teacher to student ratio students have always been able to get the help they need when they need it.

In bigger schools students are often afraid to ask questions in class.

However at Middle College because of how tight the community is students have a more comfortable time asking questions.

Without Middle College I wouldn't be the leader that I am today.

Before Middle College I was more of a person who was observant and would often be watching in the background.

However once I got settled into the environment at Middle College I came to find that there were other people who had the same passions and aspirations towards social justice as I do.

When I graduate I want to take the leadership that I gained from Middle College and use it to be able to get involved in my community more and understand their wants and needs.

So I can enter the world of politics and try and make a difference.

Middle College has made me realize that the importance of a small school education is the growth that it provides for students teachers and the community as a whole.

Small school education is something that's often overlooked but the community is still continuing to grow.

SPEAKER_13

The next speaker is Chris Jackins.

SPEAKER_01

My name is Chris Jackins, Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On proposed construction projects at Montlake, John Rogers, Alki and Madison.

Each project is too big for its site, loss of playground space, loss of trees, building height that is over city zoning code, distracting electronic changing image signs, parks department use that would eject neighborhood use, zero parking not even for ADA.

Please change these plans.

On amendments to school board policies five points.

Number one current language refers to public comment on items before the board.

The amendment proposes to drop the phrase on items before the board.

Number two a little history.

Some years ago the board had two sections of public comment one for general topics and one for items before the board.

Number three each public speaker was provided three minutes.

Now it is two minutes with only one public comment section.

Number four the documents cite to state law which states quote even when not required by law public agencies are encouraged to incorporate and accept public comment during their decision making process unquote.

Number five this might be something for the board to keep in mind the next time the board has a high profile process like hiring a superintendent on progress monitoring goals.

Two points number one on page 1 the report states that the seventh grade math goal is quote unlikely to be delivered unquote.

Number two on page 7 the district asked the board to support extending the timeline to meet the goals.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_13

The next speaker is Alex Simmerman however we do not yet have anybody who has called in for public testimony so I am going to move to the next speaker.

Cheryl Lynn Crowther Cheryl Lynn Crowther.

SPEAKER_12

Hello I'm Sherrilyn Crowther president of the Seattle Special Education Parent Teacher Student Student Association the PTSA.

And today I get to say thank you to the district.

On October 26th I asked on behalf of families for an organizational chart of the special education department.

While I called it a small action it is a big deal.

As I said then families don't know what they don't know.

They can't reach out to a regional special education supervisor if they don't know such a role exists.

The work done to create the org chart matters to family and I want to thank you.

If it's not already on the Seattle schools website and I couldn't find it please post it and share the link in the next communication to families.

That brings me to asking again for the district to post or post a link to our family guide to special education.

More than 30 PTAs and PTSAs across the district have hosted us for an introduction to the guide and the feedback is positive especially because the guide is in the top 10 languages spoken in homes of students with a disability.

Transparency matters.

And we see that in the Seattle Times and ProPublica investigation into one of the non-public agencies that is supposed to be the last hope for some students with disabilities.

The reporting reveals that the system is failing students.

The reporting also reveals the system is working as designed.

When accountability is the responsibility of 40 different school districts is it a surprise that accountability fails.

You can help this system change by helping families hold it accountable and post or link Seattle schools website to our guide on special education.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_13

The final speaker on today's list is Christy Robertson.

SPEAKER_11

My fifth grader gave me a fidget to help with being nervous.

My name is Christy Robertson.

I have two kids in Seattle Public Schools and I'm testifying for the first time today as open enrollment approaches to ask you to ask to act on behalf of some of our most vulnerable kids.

Those who struggle in traditional classrooms especially those who communicate this through challenging behaviors.

I'm asking for two changes that can happen now.

One, recognize schools in our district, many choice schools, that are successful with inclusion.

Two, remove the effective quota on disabled students at these schools.

The SPS community has thought a lot this past year about what it means to include disabled students.

My autistic 8th grader is living through the system while we think.

Most of his experiences around the district, none of us would wish on a child.

But this year he finally feels like an equal member of his school community.

What's the difference?

Almost everybody at the school, school admins, special ed and gen ed teachers and staff, and the rest of the school community authentically believe that all children belong in the classroom.

Relationships are built even with the tough kids.

Kids who feel belonging are more regulated and then they can learn.

We lucked out this year, but only because the school was under-enrolled.

For years we sat on access program wait lists for schools we hoped would be more welcoming.

Meanwhile, our child faced daily expectations he wasn't able to meet, followed by an onslaught of correction, punishment, ostracizing, and exclusion, until finally he simply refused to go.

It would not take changing the CBA or the program ratios to fix this.

Special ed teachers simply need to be assigned to option schools based on enrollment rather than capping program enrollment based on teachers.

I'll be working with our IEP team, school leaders, enrollment and special education to try for a spot at a high school that will sustain the sense of self and community my kid is finally experiencing.

But I don't want a spot just for my kid and neither do you.

All students deserve a school where they feel valued and seen.

Please act elevate and promote schools that do inclusion well and allow kids who need these schools to access them.

The kids are worth it.

SPEAKER_13

Hersey there are no more speakers waiting online so that concludes today's testimony list.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you Miss Wilson-Jones.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us this evening and sharing your comments with us.

It is greatly appreciated.

We cannot do our jobs without it.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda?

SPEAKER_19

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

SPEAKER_04

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

Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda this evening?

OK.

Seeing none.

May I have the roll call please.

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

SPEAKER_17

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_04

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed.

SPEAKER_20

Not opposed abstain.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

Yeah that's fine.

Abstentions and Director Harris abstains.

So thank you for that clarification.

OK this passes by a vote of 6 to 6 yays 0 nays and 1 abstention.

All right.

I will now turn the meeting over to Superintendent Jones who will preside over the election process as the secretary of the board because we are now moving into the election of the 2023 board officers.

Superintendent Jones please take it away.

SPEAKER_28

Thank you, President Hersey.

Before I open the floor for nominations, I would like to review the election process.

For each officer position, president, vice president, and member at large, I will take nominations from the board.

A second is not required for the nomination, but can be made.

After all the nominations are made for a position, there will be an opportunity for directors to provide comment before voting.

After comments have been concluded, the board will vote for each position in the order of the nominations were made.

By law and board policy, the voting will be conducted by a roll call vote.

The voting will conclude at the point when one nominee gets four or more votes.

After the president has been elected, we will move to the vice president and then the member at large.

In summary, for each position, there will be nominations, then discussion, then voting.

At the conclusion of the election process for all three positions, each new officer will have the opportunity to provide remarks.

Yes, please.

SPEAKER_16

I would like to ask a clarifying question before we start.

And I've asked this to staff before but I just wanted to ask it on the record for anybody else who's maybe benefit from the answer.

My question had been a member at large typically has been to elect the third member of the executive committee.

that committee is temporarily suspended.

So is the member, what is their expectation for the member at large, the member at large has a role during meetings, but I guess I just want to state or get confirmation because we're all really at large, so that the duties associated with member at large would be duties of the president in the event the president and vice president are not available.

And then duties within board meetings.

Is there anything else that I'm missing that I'm forgetting about.

SPEAKER_28

I think that's a tremendous question.

And Miss Wilson Jones if you have some clarification on that please.

SPEAKER_13

The one piece that I would add is that your current policy suspensions, which include your suspension of board committees, they are set to sunset on June 31st.

And so if the board were to not take action to more permanently revise your committee policy, those would sort of snap back into place and you would have your executive committee would continue to operate as it had in the past.

SPEAKER_28

Okay, cool.

Thank you.

Is that satisfactory?

And thank you.

All right.

Nominations are now in order for the Office of President.

Director Rankin.

SPEAKER_16

I would like to nominate our current president, Brenna Hersey.

SPEAKER_28

Are there other nominations for president?

Therefore, if there are no more nominations, I close the nomination for president.

Would any directors like to make any comments at this time?

SPEAKER_10

Thank you for your service.

SPEAKER_16

I'll just add that I'm happy to nominate President Hersey for both and to I am assuming his willingness to continue with the role.

That you know there's we got we got a lot of personalities up here and it's really important that we have someone leading our meetings who can you know find a way to see eye to eye with everybody and keep things moving.

And especially in light of the award that was received I think it's also really as I said I think last year it's really powerful to have two black men leading our district and I'm very very proud to serve with both of you.

SPEAKER_28

Thank you.

Miss Wilson Jones please call the roll for the vote for Director Hersey.

SPEAKER_13

Director Hampson.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

Director Rankin.

Aye.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Aye.

Director Sarju.

Aye.

Director Song-Moritz.

Aye.

President.

Director Hersey.

SPEAKER_04

I haven't heard Hersey with director in front of it for a minute.

Aye.

SPEAKER_13

The nomination of Director Hersey for presidency is approved unanimously.

SPEAKER_28

Wow.

Congratulations on your election as President Director Hersey.

Nominations are now in order for the Office of Vice President.

Are there nominations for Vice President?

SPEAKER_20

I nominate Vivian Song Moritz for vice president.

SPEAKER_28

Are there other nominations for vice president.

SPEAKER_04

I nominate director Liza Rankin.

SPEAKER_28

Are there other nominations for vice president.

If there are no more nominations, I close the nominations for vice president.

Would any directors like to make any comments at this time?

Director Harris.

SPEAKER_20

Thank you.

And I will preface this with having a thoughtful, elegant conversation with my friend and respected colleague, Director Rankin, this afternoon.

But I don't think it's a big secret that this board is somewhat polarized.

And I think that Director Song-Marit brings forth perhaps a more neutral perspective, and I think that's healthy.

I also think that having one of the first Asian women serving in leadership makes a whole lot of sense.

And I think that her Harvard MBA and her attention to detail and especially monetary and budget issues when we are looking at a cliff of over what are we up to now about one hundred and sixty million dollars two years from now.

And we don't really truly need or want the state taking over our school district.

and her intellect and her tenaciousness is sorely needed.

And that is no slight.

on the hard work that the good director Rankin is doing especially on legislative advocacy and issues for our children that need special services.

But in terms of balance and in terms of politics I put forth her name for election and I do so proudly.

SPEAKER_28

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

SPEAKER_15

I want to echo a lot of what Director Harris just said.

I'm really excited about the idea of Director Stong-Moretz serving as vice president.

I know it's only been a year on the board but has proven herself so adept and so just in touch with the community.

I don't know how you do it.

I want to steal your contact book because you have so many contacts in the community throughout.

The area even other you'll just talk about other other boards are talking to other directors from other districts And it's amazing the network you have and the insights that that brings I am excited to you know have such a to maintain our diversity of our top two that we have had this year and continue that would be amazing and I just appreciate Dr. Harris's nomination for her because I I think that in And I'm thinking about the board too in the long run.

I know that I hope I'm not spilling the beans.

I think Director Zong would make a fine president someday and I I would see this as a great opportunity to build up to that role because she is you know she's guaranteed to be here in a year and a year to assume that the rest of us who knows.

But I am thinking about the future of this board.

I like to look at the long term too and that respect and what that could mean for this board.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_28

Director Hersey.

SPEAKER_04

I think we're in a position to where we have an immense amount of potential in everyone on this board for any of these leadership positions.

I think that we'll see.

I think that why I'm excited about the potential for Director Rankin to serve in this vice presidency role is, you know, having served in this role under President Hampson and having now had the opportunity to serve as president, you know, these leadership positions are leadership positions in name and title only mostly.

But what I am really excited about for Director Rankin's leadership is having had the opportunity to work with her for the past Oh my god, it feels like forever, but three years.

I have seen her work expand boundaries, whether it comes from the work that we did together on isolation and restraint, whether it comes from supporting the transition of student outcomes-focused governance on the ad hoc committee, whether it has been chairing, you know, a number of committees, whether it has been not only being a parent in this district for a number of years, which I know that I can't speak to, I think that Director Rankin comes with a wealth of not only expertise in so many of the areas that we are focused on right now, that I think her leadership would help us really complete the cycle of what we're in.

That's not to say that Director Song-Moritz is not going to be a fantastic board director in some capacity of leadership and would do even my job handily whenever the opportunity presents itself to her.

What I will say is that in this season of the board, I am excited about Director Rankin's leadership in this capacity for all of the reasons that I just mentioned.

You know, it's just going to be an honor to serve with whoever matriculates into this spot.

So, Director Rankin, thank you for your willingness to put your name into the ring and same to Director Song-Moritz and we will let the voting proceed unless there's more comments.

SPEAKER_28

Are there other comments?

SPEAKER_19

Please.

I just want to note both about Director Rankin and now President Hersey.

In terms of collegial leadership one of the things I value the most and I believe is the thing that we are meant to value the most in our success with student outcomes is self-reflection and growth.

And you've both shown tremendous willingness, tremendous humility, vulnerability, and stick-to-itiveness.

I know people like to say grit, but I hate that term.

It's really about knowing that there is a level of self-sacrifice and that same humility necessary in order to do what's right by kids.

And it's really hard sometimes, and I've watched you both dig really, really deep.

And we've had really, really hard conversations.

And you allowed me to push you very hard in bringing on, in the midst of a pandemic, an entirely new governance model and are ready to charge ahead with it.

And I'm so excited.

that you are all excited and of course every time there's a legislative session I get excited to watch Liza get excited because she kicks ass with keeping us all up to date on what is what we need to be aware of the way in ways in which we really need to have the capacity to have our attention focused at the legislative level and stand up for kids there.

That is a big part of our responsibility.

So this is a big year and I think it's going to be really important to have her front and center with that VP title to get out there and work even harder for us.

So support your nomination.

SPEAKER_28

Any more comments by directors?

Ms. Wilson-Jones, please call the roll for the vote for Director Vivian Song-Moritz.

SPEAKER_13

Director Sarju.

SPEAKER_10

Abstain.

SPEAKER_04

Director.

So.

No I don't know.

So I do this cross my mind and I would like some clarification before we get too deep in it.

How would an abstention impact the outcome of a vote.

Like do we need to abstain or can we vote or do we have to vote nay.

SPEAKER_13

The board needs to get to four yes votes for a nomination on.

SPEAKER_04

Got it.

SPEAKER_13

Of your officers to move forward.

SPEAKER_04

Good to know.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_13

I had a mic here too I guess.

Got got mics to spare.

I'm going back to the roll call.

Director Song-Moritz.

Director Hampson.

Director Harris.

Director Rankin.

Director Rivera-Smith.

President Hersey.

The nomination of director song writes fails by a vote a vote of.

3 yes to.

To now to 2 abstentions.

SPEAKER_28

Miss Wilson Jones please call the roll for director Liz right.

Liza Rankin.

SPEAKER_13

Director song Moritz.

Director Hampson.

I. Director Harris.

Director Rankin.

Aye.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Nay.

Director Sarju.

Aye.

President Hersey.

SPEAKER_03

Aye.

SPEAKER_13

The nomination of Director Rankin is approved by a vote of 4 yes to 3 no.

SPEAKER_28

Congratulations on your election as Vice President and Director Rankin.

Nominations are now in order for the Office of Member-at-Large, who serves with the President and Vice President on the Executive Committee, and we had a clarification of that earlier.

Are there nominations for Member-at-Large?

SPEAKER_20

I nominate director Sung Moritz for the same reasons as I nominated her before.

And I just want to say that democracy is a good thing.

Standing up and getting counted is a good thing.

And as many of us know folks that serve on the school board with the exception maybe of Patty Murray who served in Shoreline couldn't get elected dog catcher later on.

But If you run for dog catcher you're not coming for my Luna.

SPEAKER_28

Other nominations for member at large please.

SPEAKER_19

I nominate director Sarju.

Am I giving my speech now or after?

SPEAKER_28

After.

If there are no more nominations, I close the nomination for member at large.

Would any directors like to make any comments at this time?

SPEAKER_16

Well, it is related to member at large, but since Director Harris and I very agreeably disagree at times, I don't think that this board is polarized.

And especially interacting with boards from around the state and around the country, like, oh my gosh.

I mean, the disagreements that we do have, we're so fortunate that they are what they are.

Because I mean, as we'll see in the legislative session, some of the bills that come up, There is some profound beliefs and viewpoints about children and education that I feel pretty sure would be unacceptable to everybody sitting up here.

That other school boards have people on them who hold both.

And so you know in addition to wanting to voice my support for Director Sardieu as a someone who ran for and came to this board specifically for and to serve black students and has held to that every step of the way.

And I think that's, you know, That to me is not a time that to me is not a time to equivocate or be I don't know neutral.

And I think neutral and camaraderie are not the same.

And we we do have a lot of really positive interactions between everybody up here and a lot of stuff that we very much agree on.

And I would argue that where we don't agree it's actually more to do with just personality.

And I'm including myself in that completely than about actual issues.

And so I just I don't know.

I kind of wanted to say that that I think you know being a Yeah.

I think picking.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You should go.

I don't.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19

Yeah.

Sorry.

Director Sargio is an extremely important voice on this board and one of.

the goals that I believe we are obligated as as a full board as directors to do in terms of and that we haven't quite gotten to yet but are I think are at the precipice of making some good progress on is making sure that our role is accessible and equitably accessible and I watch the varying degrees of ability to contribute and participate simply based on the inequity that is represented by the role.

It's not unique to school boards.

It is there are other elected positions that are similar.

But I have don't think I've met a stronger advocate for children than director Sarju who was so clear and passionate not just about moving to a more focused governance model so that we can spend our time together talking about outcomes for kids.

But so that people who have the same restrictions on their time as she does can also see that that this is a role that they can do as well and be here and represent their community in the way that she does day after day after day.

And particularly as we in 2023 is when we're going to have to start really thinking about the transition from this strategic plan focused on black males and start talking about when do we give black females a voice.

in that.

And personally I want Michelle to be one of Director Sargey to be one of the people at the head of that table as we start making that transition because she knows this community inside and out.

If you ever walk around town with her you're going to get stopped a lot.

because she knows what she says she's caught a lot of babies.

She has caught a lot of babies and she has been part of this community and advocating for kids the entirety of her of her family's time here.

So I'm really honored to even be able to to speak on behalf of my nomination for her.

SPEAKER_28

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_10

Um.

I'm not.

This This is not going to be speaking about myself, but I agree with Director Rankin that I do not think this board is told.

I know this board is not polarized because I have colleagues around the country who have been forced.

Out of their positions.

I know what polarization looks like, and it's For the public record, my abstention for vice president was exactly that.

I chose to vote abstain because I'm not against, and this is not a statement about any other board member.

If you know me, you know I vote transparently and I mean what I say.

So for the public record, that wasn't a crisis of conscience or wanting to look good or not wanting to hurt Director Song-Moritz's feelings by a nay vote.

I meant I'm abstaining.

And so I think that's important.

I think we have to model for our student board members what it looks like to move in this position with integrity and transparency.

And that's what I try to do.

I when I say I'm about kids, I'm about kids.

I got three years and a little less than 300 and some odd days to get things done for kids.

I'm not here for the showmanship.

I'm not here to build a popularity contest or to have people like me.

You know, in life, just because the decision doesn't go my way doesn't mean I haven't been heard.

And that's true on this board.

Every decision that's been made I haven't agreed with but that doesn't mean I haven't been heard.

And I think we have to begin to be transparent with the public.

We need to model for our young people.

I wish the two young people from Middle College were still here because I really wanted to speak with them about standing up for what matters.

That young person got up and stood up for what matters.

And she or they may have been.

I'm trying not to gender people because I have no idea what their pronouns are.

They may. have thought they were speaking for themselves, but they were actually speaking for people just like them.

SPEAKER_23

Because I do not get a vote when it comes to this I would like to take some time to voice my support in this case for this position for director Sarju.

And when I say that.

I just want to first of all state that I have an immense amount of respect and admiration for each and every person on this board.

And even if there are disagreements, I think that There is a way in which we all show each other that kind of respect and admiration.

And I really think it's pretty amazing.

So to add on to what Director Rankin and Director Hampson were saying, or I'm sorry, Vice President Rankin and Director Hampson were saying, I really don't think our board, and Director Sargio as well, I don't think our board is polarized at all.

I think that, in fact, our board is imperfectly working to show, to be a role model for how we get through disagreements and how we talk about problems and how we face conflict head on without having it be nasty.

And I know that that's something that I have to work on.

I know that I've made mistakes, and I'm imperfect, and I know that everybody is.

But I think that the willingness to put in that work is incredible.

And so I don't think our board is polarized.

I think our board is imperfectly beautiful.

And I think that director Sarju has in the brief time that I have known her has shown me just so many levels that she Loves her community.

She loves her constituents and She loves kids and at the end of the day.

This is about kids and I am a kid and I really truly feel that kind of that I talked about on my On my very first day being sworn in, I talked about those radical actions of love.

And I really, really see those from Director Sarju.

And I think that for myself, Director Sarju is a role model.

as well as almost like absolutely every director, every person in this room I see as a role model for myself.

But I think that Director Sarju has shown us how she will put in the work to show her love, to show her respect and admiration for the students and all the people in our community.

And I think that I'm excited and honored to be able to talk about, to speak for her, to speak in support of her, and whoever secures this position within the next few minutes, I am so excited to work with and I'm so excited to continue to work with you all.

SPEAKER_28

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any more comments?

Hearing, seeing none, Ms. Wilson-Jones, please call the roll for Director Vivian Song-Moritz.

SPEAKER_13

Director Harris.

Vice president Rankin.

I've seen.

Director Rivera Smith.

I. Director Sargent.

Abstain.

Director song Moritz.

I. Director Hampson.

Abstain.

President Hersey abstain.

The nomination of Director Summers does not pass by a vote of 3 yes and 4 abstentions.

SPEAKER_28

Ms. Wilson Jones please call the roll for excuse me.

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_20

Point of clarification and maybe we need legal on this.

Would it be appropriate.

to vote acclamation for the next candidate or do we have to have a roll call vote sir?

I'm sorry I did not hear you sir.

SPEAKER_28

This statute requires a roll call.

Ms. Wilson-Jones, please call the roll for Director Michelle Sarju.

SPEAKER_13

Director or Vice President Rankin.

Yes.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Aye.

Director Sarju.

Yes.

Director Song-Moritz.

Director Hampson.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

President Hersey.

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_13

The nomination of director Sarju is approved unanimously.

SPEAKER_28

Congratulations on your election as member at large director Sarju.

SPEAKER_05

One more thing.

SPEAKER_28

Mr. President, I would like to report that the officers for the Board of Directors for 2023 are President Hersey, Vice President Rankin, and Member-at-Large Sarju.

I would now like to invite our newly elected officers, beginning with the President, to offer any remarks that they would like to make.

SPEAKER_04

OK, well, all I can honestly say is thank you.

And I'm going to try incredibly hard to keep this super brief.

As I was considering what three years on this board looks like and what another three years is going to look like, I'm halfway through my term.

And when I started on this board, Director Harris was president.

And I remember having several conversations throughout the process in a completely public way, for all of you that might be listening, and really just getting an understanding for what this role is.

And that was in August of 2019. Six short months before all of our worlds changed forever.

And I've had the opportunity to watch three different presidents operate in different ways, and I take elements of all those things from you in different situations.

I've had the honor of serving under President Harris, President DeWolf, President Hampson.

And what I have wholly learned is that in this role, You're not going to get far with an iron fist.

You're not going to get far with trying to lead this board in a way that is centered in self as opposed to students.

And as I look at the next three years and my next year as president here, I want to continue to embody so many of the various leadership qualities that all of you, especially our student board directors, have shown me time and time again.

We got a lot of work ahead of us, but what I want you to think about is this moment when we were in last year.

And the reason I want you to think about it is because I was wearing this exact same outfit when I was elected president last year.

This is now my lucky president sweater.

My hair was a little bit shorter and it was a little less gray, but it's been one hell of a year.

And we have accomplished a great deal.

And when I say we, I'm not just talking about this board, I'm talking about everybody in this room, this entire district.

And it seems like the more that we accomplish, the more challenges present themselves.

And I know that we, as this board, everybody's name on this thing, as I talked to y'all a year ago, I asked y'all a question, are we going to make the commitments necessary to get this done?

Are we going to work together?

And y'all emphatically answered that question, yes.

And to some people, we might appear polarized.

I think for many of us, what we appear is working.

We're working on it.

We're getting it done.

We're getting national recognitions for what we are getting done.

And with that being said, that's what work looks like.

coming together, bringing a difference of opinions, and not being afraid to still support and like each other when those differences occur.

And so what I just want to say is thank y'all for heeding my call last year.

Are we prepared to make this district what we really want it to be?

And y'all have said yes in your own different ways.

But emphatically, yes.

And so as we look at this next year with this next leadership team and even years beyond, all I can say is that I'm incredibly excited, and I am incredibly hopeful for what we are going to be able to do.

And the progress that we have made in this short amount of time has been nothing short of extraordinary.

I'm excited to serve with the newly elected leadership, and I'm excited to serve with this entire board.

Because regardless if you're serving in the presidency, the vice presidency, member at large, liaison position, all of you bring such unique and valuable qualities to this space that if you weren't here would be absent and greatly missed.

So with that being said, I'm going to shut up and hand it to the new people that have been elected and hopefully somebody will take this from me next year.

And I will pass it over to newly elected Vice President Rankin.

Thank you all for the confidence in me, and I hope to continue to serve you with the same level of rigor that I have in the past 12 months.

SPEAKER_16

And I don't feel the need to make a lot of comments.

But I think I want to just reiterate what President Hersey said about well what he said in earlier comments about the you know if you look at our policy and in practice the role of the president vice president member at large is primarily to be elected to the executive board.

And the president, if you look in policy, the president's role is as the designated spokesperson who is authorized on behalf of all of us to speak on behalf of the board on issues that have come before the board and been voted on, and to run meetings.

And as important as those roles are, the president, vice president, nobody's votes all count the same.

And I guess I just want to kind of publicly make the commitment to you all that The goal that I have in this position and on the board for the rest of my term is to continue to embed best practices and how we operate and to model and hopefully through board superintendent relationship and the other things associated with deliverables 5 and 6 which you may be tired of me talking about to give us a framework to allow us all to put into practice what's aligned to best practice, and also codify it.

Because for whatever reason, we have decided that we're willing to do not only the work of the board, but the work of implementing best practices of board governance.

which is a lot and it's uncomfortable and messy and complex and a lot.

But the that we are willing to do this or maybe not so willing I don't know but once it's the vote of the board it's the vote of the board.

Is going to serve us now and also boards into the future to hopefully you know we have amazing students.

Some of the best teachers you will find anywhere in the country if not the world.

Dedicated administrators.

And if we can all continue to model our imperfect beauty as we grapple with these issues we can create this framework for new people to step into and follow and lead the district.

together into the place that we want it to be and into a place that truly reflects the vision and values of the community that we serve.

And so that's my commitment to you as vice president is to focus on supporting our president communicating with the rest of the board and staying focused on the things that I've committed to such as legislative liaison and the so far the deliverables associated with five and six.

Which again I'm totally open to any open and would like any feedback on those before we go into eventually readopting or reviewing and accepting those because that's really the foundational document for how we all want to work together.

And so it's important that everybody's voice is represented in there and that it's it's something we can all agree to.

So that's my my focus and commitment.

I don't have to be the vice president to be able to do that but I'm proud to be.

And yeah it's going to be a wild year.

SPEAKER_10

Harris beautifully imperfect.

If that wasn't some dropping of some serious wisdom, that has to be one of the most profound things that has been articulated this evening.

Thank you, Director Cron-Barone.

It is an honor and a privilege to serve alongside you.

I'm just blown away every time you open your mouth, and I literally mean that.

For the public I'm not sure exactly what member at large does other than probably meet early in the morning.

Huh.

SPEAKER_21

Say it again.

SPEAKER_10

Oh yeah.

No I know that.

But what time do you meet.

Oh, good.

OK, great.

So I don't have to get up early.

I'm a night owl.

So having 8 o'clock meetings is hard for me.

Yeah, so I think I can do that job.

I think I can do that adequately.

But more importantly, many of you know, if you live in King County, I work for your King County government.

And not only do I work for your King County government, I work for King County Public Health.

And if you've been paying attention for the last three years, we have been in a pandemic.

And your King County government has been the national leader in the pandemic response.

And that means we've all been working excessively.

And that includes me.

I have a very demanding job.

I'm on the leadership team at public health.

Luckily, I live alone because all I do is work.

And I want other people in the community to be able to see themselves in this position.

People who are not in the privileged position that I'm in.

Because it is a privilege to be in the position that I'm in.

That doesn't mean I have like white privilege.

I just have some privilege.

to be able to flex my schedule on occasion and serve in this position.

And what's important to me is that others be able to see themselves on the dais if they too want to accept this very large and can I even say not well compensated is that even accurately represent because we get a stipend.

But if you break it down we make less than minimum wage.

We make less than minimum wage in King County.

And that should not be the case.

We should be like Alaska.

You know, they get a monthly, the president gets $2,800 a month.

That's the president.

That is a demonstration of the value, the value of that position, a public servant position on the behalf of kids.

And so I hope that coming into 2023, my hope first is that we really emerge from this pandemic with it in our rearview mirror.

It wasn't in our rearview mirror this year.

Our children are still impacted by what happened the last couple of years.

We've now experienced what other schools have experienced in the nation with the loss of one of our students, actually the loss of two of our students, if we're being honest about it.

For the public, we have adopted this framework called Student Outcomes Focused Governance.

And you know what?

That's a fancy phrase for, we are going to focus on students.

Because some students in our district are not doing well and have never done well.

they should be able to do well in our public school system.

But because of structural foundations, like Sherrilyn Crowther says, this system's not broken.

It's working exactly the way it was designed to work.

And yes, we have a Department of African American Male Achievement.

That was a heroic effort on the part of many administrators in this room.

And they're barely scratching the surface.

Our problems are not solved.

Black male problems in this district are not solved because of that department.

We have a long way to go to make up for the 300 year marginalization of, well, 400 years for my native brothers and sisters.

We have a long way to go.

And so I hope that that we can really double down and ask ourselves at every juncture, is this going to impact whether or not our students are getting a high quality public school education?

There are some things, stroke of the pen, we're going to have to just decide on and vote on.

But those things that matter, like transportation, like bell times, we've got to double down.

And the question has to be in every single case, is this going to make a difference in outcomes for our students?

That's the question I'm asking myself, which is why I said earlier, sometimes these decisions I'm not in agreement with.

That doesn't mean I wasn't heard.

right?

It just didn't go my way, and I have to be okay with that.

And just keep advocating for 100% laser focus on all of our students, but particularly those who are not getting what they need in this district.

And so thank you.

I'm a little bit surprised and overwhelmed by the unanimous decision.

And I'm going to accept that even though it's just seconding the whatever.

I think that's what you do.

I have a feeling that on occasion it'll be a little bit more than that.

Like things are going to come up.

And I As I did in my campaign I made no promises but I made commitments and my commitment still stands.

I stand committed to serving the students in Seattle Public Schools.

This place that I call my home.

SPEAKER_28

I now turn the meeting over to our 2023 board president director President Brandon Hersey.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you Superintendent Jones.

All right.

Do we need to do the recess?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

My bad, y'all.

I'll give y'all a break.

How long y'all need?

Five minutes?

SPEAKER_10

Ten minutes?

How about ten?

SPEAKER_04

I should have just left it at five.

All right, the board stands recessed for the next 10 minutes.

Please promptly be back in your seats at 609 so that we can start at 610. Remember your integrity, and I better have pennies if y'all are late.

SPEAKER_03

I'm not mad about it.

I would now call the board meeting back to order.

We will now move on to the next item on the agenda which is introduction item which of which we only have one.

SPEAKER_04

which is approval of the 2022-23 superintendent evaluation instrument.

As the sponsor of this item, I will be introducing it tonight and we'll then open it up for discussion and take any questions along with Dr. Jones.

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Hold on.

I have my talking points right here.

Do we have the printed talking points for this one?

I'm not saying I'm...

Are you about that?

SPEAKER_04

Oh, perfect.

Yeah, this is working.

Yes, either way is fine.

OK, perfect.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience while we get a couple of little details sorted.

All right.

To sponsor this item, I'll be introducing it, as I mentioned before, and we'll open it up for discussion and take any questions along with Dr. Jones.

This tool reflects where we are in our transition to student outcomes-focused governance.

The tool includes metrics for all three of the academic goals, as well as metrics for two guardrails and two areas for student outcomes-focused governance implementation.

Once we've adopted the tool, we will schedule up to four executive session check-ins with the superintendent to discuss progress as indicated in policy 1630 and board procedure 1630 BP.

Evaluation of the superintendent, public process monitoring, excuse me, public progress monitoring sessions also cover the goal and guardrail metrics used in this tool.

The final evaluation of the superintendent will be posted publicly before the last board meeting of the year.

With that Dr. Jones and I are happy to take any questions.

And so we will go ahead and open it up at this time.

Do board directors have any questions about the superintendent evaluation tool.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you and I appreciate that a lot of questions we got to ask beforehand and got those back and those are available on the website.

So thank you for the responses there that came back for this item.

Separately of this, I wanted to just ask, is there opportunity, and even should there be opportunity for public input, like for engagement on the evaluation of the superintendent?

I know that people are going to ask that, and so I just kind of want to just, and again, I don't know, I'm not arguing one way or the other, I'm just trying to gauge what that would be, what that would look like, if that is something that's appropriate.

SPEAKER_03

Do you have an immediate response to that?

SPEAKER_28

Yes, I think it's possible, but I would love to have an iterative process with the board, a little back and forth around what that might look like.

Public process, it can be wide ranging, but I feel like we do get a lot of public input around what's happening, but to codify that some type of way, I'd be open to it with a dialogue with the board.

SPEAKER_19

I do.

So there is a 360 component to the SOFG model that would that would fold that in.

And then that's what we discussed that.

And that's the same for us as well.

360 review for both the board and the superintendent.

And then we discuss those with each other.

SPEAKER_15

Do you want to explain what that is for people.

I mean I've read about it but.

SPEAKER_19

Oh a 360 evaluation meaning that you used an impartial party to check in with various constituent groups and such as the community as well as staff.

So anybody that the superintendent or the board connects or intersects with has the opportunity to give feedback and then those things are discussed.

But in terms of the.

contract and the evaluation.

It's what we have agreed to and the public facing discussion is around specifically around the actual evaluation of the outcomes that Superintendent Jones is producing for students within the bounds of the guardrails and that evaluation.

But so the answer to your question I believe is yes.

And that the 360 approach is the best way to do it because otherwise you would be inappropriately subjecting a staff person to a public personnel evaluation which is not appropriate.

SPEAKER_15

Yeah.

And that's why I was not.

That's why I asked that.

And also so there's a lot.

This is very specific to the goals and guardrails.

Is there room is there any other areas in which we should also be you know because obviously we interact with the superintendent you know on one on one and communicate regularly.

Are there areas outside of this that he that we would look to for any type of evaluation or is this strictly like what's here is that's it.

It's like you know I'm not super dangerous but some of the superintendent could do be off doing you know we see them.

doing something nefarious, right?

That's not something we can even, this is not in here.

I know the contract, his contract has places for that too, but as far as the evaluation, this is strictly on his work as superintendent, and any sort of other nuanced something that we might want to bring into our conversation about his evaluation.

Is there a place for that?

SPEAKER_04

I would have to have a deeper conversation to get a full understanding of what you mean and then we can always report out through comments or something the result of that conversation.

Immediately, I do not believe so, which is like one of the components of student outcomes focused governance where we're trying to like get really clear about what is in the evaluation and what's not, right?

But I do hear your question is like, okay, how do we capture things that might not necessarily be in the evaluation?

And so I don't think that there is, based on my understanding of the framework, and correct me if I'm wrong, there's actually a session on this during the trip that we were in Orlando.

My group actually presented on it.

It was Houston's school district that did kind of like a narrative piece where folks could give whatever feedback they wanted.

And by folks, I meant board directors could give whatever feedback they wanted.

and attach it to the document, even though it wasn't necessarily included in the actual evaluation, they found that that to be more problematic than just sticking to the evaluation.

And we can talk more about making sure that that's actually what you meant, A.

And then, B, if not, how do we square that?

But on a first listen to what your question is, I don't think that we have a space to go outside of what we have included on the evaluation.

But excited to continue that conversation.

SPEAKER_20

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

Director Harris.

SPEAKER_20

Thank you.

Going back to our compilation of questions and answers for us to base our questions and eventually our votes.

Yeah.

Number 23. I believe it was Vice President Rankin that asked for it.

Three for the implementation implementation goals.

How is quote prompt being determined for interim 7.2 blah blah blah.

Keeps abreast quote significant quote.

I imagine there may be mutually defined in the superintendent board relationship policy and procedure.

The staff response was this will be addressed at introduction on December 14th.

I believe that's today.

How will that be addressed.

SPEAKER_28

Yes, so thank you.

So to quantify what prompt would be, I would say 24 to 48 hours.

And it could change given the magnitude of the situation, but to put a finer point on it, I'd say 24 to 48 hours.

To keep abreast would be of any item that could substantially impact student outcomes, or impact a policy, or a superintendent procedure.

And so those are the things that I would say to keep abreast on those issues.

SPEAKER_20

And do you have a sense of how we'll be kept abreast?

SPEAKER_28

Not at this time.

However, I do believe the questions are lending itself to one mechanism, but I think this is probably most in response to the type of questions that you all ask me via email or phone calls or things of that nature.

SPEAKER_04

I think I hear where you're coming from, Director Harris, and it's like figuring out a way to make sure that the way in which we are communicating with these things is predictable and consistent.

Would that be a fair characterization of what you're asking for?

SPEAKER_20

I think so.

And it's not new news certainly to the superintendent and yourself etc. that the communication from the superintendent I for one would like to have more of it.

I would like to be highlighting your hard work and the hard work of the staff.

And again I don't care what the hell you call it doesn't have to be the Friday memo but more communication is A high goal for myself and I suspect other board members but I don't speak for other board members.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

And so what would be an interesting conversation for you and I to have is like.

When we're making, or when I go back with Superintendent Jones to figure out what that looks like, getting some ideas about like, what would you like to see?

Is there a preference for written, phone calls, video messages, carrier pigeon?

We'll figure those pieces out, but it's heard loud and clear that there are, or rather there is a desire for there to be some structure around how we receive those communications, cadence, things like that.

SPEAKER_19

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_04

Director Rankin.

SPEAKER_19

the communication audits and process.

Perfect.

SPEAKER_16

Yeah.

And to add to that the reason I asked this and nudged in there the superintendent board relationship policy and procedure is that as we will discuss after break because I've requested some work session time for us as a full board to look at those because I know I've sent stuff out of email but it's hard to do that.

one directional.

You know one directionally when we can't all just discuss.

But so I guess this is my my ask or nudge related to this question is.

If you have the chance and want to look at any of the things that I've sent regarding that if you if individual directors have things that they would prefer or like to see send it to me and I'll compile them as we make recommendations on on that policy.

And then also codified you know getting that codified as a mutual agreement between the superintendent and the board.

in either that policy or, you know, accompanying procedure that can be changed by future boards and future suits for intendants if people have preferences in different ways.

But I think it's important for this item and also just in general for us all to know that we all get the same information in the same way at the same time.

It's not dependent on individual relationships or texting or whatever.

And that we know, you know, prompt could mean to one person within an hour.

You know and so like we need to define those and make sure that we all have that same agreement.

So any thoughts that you have on that just you know send it to me as you have them.

SPEAKER_04

You're training them.

Director Hampson.

SPEAKER_19

Unfortunately, I have some confusion related to the answers to questions around the change in language on guardrail 5. Did we actually vote to include a double negative as opposed to just stating it clearly?

I'm very confused about that.

I do recall the as defined in board policy 0 0 3 0 but it was then redlined.

This is question number 16.

SPEAKER_28

What I do remember is we didn't like unwelcome.

And so when we didn't like unwelcome, I think we put a not in there.

SPEAKER_19

So it kind of goes.

It's just the you know, the the commandments version of of setting the boundaries.

And so, yeah, I'm just.

SPEAKER_28

So for clarity purposes, if the board wants to make that clerical change, I'm certainly...

Well, if it's clerical, staff can make it, right?

SPEAKER_19

I mean, that's what I'm wondering.

Like, is that what we actually said?

Or was that because we kind of had a general agreement about this and then...

SPEAKER_28

Ms. Worf, do you have any clarity on this?

SPEAKER_19

I wasn't sure like when I'd have to go back and find the video and see, like, what did we actually say?

And I don't a double negative.

I don't think it reads well.

I think it's harder to understand.

So I would think that staff could make that change.

And if we.

Sometimes our environments are unwelcoming is the reality.

SPEAKER_25

Julia Worth, Director of Board Relations and Strategic Initiatives.

When the board added in the language around defined in board policy number 0030, unwelcoming is not defined in 0030. welcoming is defined.

And so in order to align with that language that the board desired for it to reference the definitions of 0030 as well as other policies, welcoming is defined, unwelcoming is not.

So we needed to change the word to be the definition of welcoming and then change the structure up top so that the schools are not providing, schools are not not providing welcoming environments.

SPEAKER_19

So it's against the rules of a guardrail to do that, to say to not not do something.

That's a no-no, because then you're just pretending that you're doing the opposite of what you're supposed to define it in terms of what you cannot do.

And so adding the UN to the front of welcoming, I mean, this just sounds like such a stereotypical bureaucratic moment right now.

I can't even.

I really feel like we can handle the risk of saying unwelcoming, I guess is what I'm saying in the guardrail, that there's some legal risk there that I think we can take on, given that it's in 0030 defined as welcoming, and that un then qualifies that as the opposite of that in some legal future where that is called to question, I guess is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_15

I agree, like, you know, getting rid of a double negative would probably be ideal.

But I get I think I understand what Julia is saying here.

If we said we'll not allow unwelcoming school environments, you can't then say as defined in board policy.

Because unwelcoming isn't defined.

So we have to then change the part that says as defined.

So I mean because yeah because I get what you were trying to achieve and you did.

But so to rectify this again we couldn't say unwelcoming as defined since that's not so it would just mean changing a little more than that.

SPEAKER_16

So the will not allow anyone to provide unwelcoming environments already for me sounded like a little bit of pushing again.

It already is a double negative but I think could you say You know, blah, blah, blah, unwelcoming, blah, blah, blah, parentheses, welcoming is defined in policy 0030.

SPEAKER_25

Yeah, I think we can make that clerical change if there's consensus on that.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

All right.

Yeah.

Seems like there's consensus.

OK.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Glad we could wordsmith that.

Any other questions on this item.

Yeah.

Go for it.

SPEAKER_16

I actually wanted to go back to Director Rivera-Smith's question just for clarification or just for understanding.

If you're asking about the you know public input or feedback.

Did you were you asking about it in terms of what criteria we're using or public input on what criteria we're using to evaluate or in terms of how the public would evaluate.

That's a good question.

The latter.

Oh, OK.

OK.

That's super helpful.

OK.

Yeah.

I was going to say, I feel like the evaluation tool is one of the main parts.

It's not like the primary part of our job as a board.

So we should be doing that based on what we were elected to do, vision and values, all the other things that do have public components.

And so that's really helpful clarification.

So you're talking about the public's perception or evaluation of the superintendent.

SPEAKER_15

Yeah as we go through the process of evaluating.

OK so that then that would be appropriately and where should.

Gotcha.

How could public input come into that.

Yes.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

All right.

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_04

Any other questions.

Great discussion.

Great questions.

Great work.

OK.

Well this is an item for introduction and so we'll see it in the new year.

OK.

So.

We also have a 60 minute progress monitoring session today on goals 2.1 and 2.2.

I will pass it over to Superintendent Jones now to begin the progress monitoring session.

Oh so we'll be relocating.

OK.

We will also be relocating to that setup.

Take your mic.

All right, so just as a precursor to tonight's progress monitoring session, I'd like to announce that we have AJ Crabill with us on the line.

He will be listening and providing feedback as necessary, more than likely to me, after the fact.

But if there's some glaring mistake that we make, AJ, please help.

With that being said, I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to Superintendent Jones and senior staff to lead us through the progress monitoring session.

Take it away.

SPEAKER_28

Thank you, President Hersey, and I have Drs.

Perkins and Scarlett with me today.

This is a complex memo, and I think they'll help us to do more learning and understand where we're going and what the possibilities are.

Before we get started, I would like to know, does everyone have their copy of the memo?

So it's electronic, and I know Director Cron-Berone may not have it teed up either.

So good evening everyone.

Tonight we engage in our next progress monitoring conversation as we take the next step in implementing our student outcome focused governance in Seattle Public Schools.

And we're grateful for the time that we have to discuss this important work that we're doing to promote our African American male students' achievement and their ability to succeed in mathematics, and ultimately gain access to the STEM-based pathways that we know are plentiful in the Seattle area, and frankly, across the world.

I want to note that we continue to be in a learning stance with progress monitoring, and I look forward to continuing to learn with you.

school board directors, and we are grateful to have A.J.

Craybill again with us this evening.

We'll follow the same sequence that we did for our review of the 7th grade math goal memo in late June.

We'll spend the first 10 minutes doing an independent close read of this important memo to refresh our memories and to ensure we are all coming into the discussion with the same information.

At the same time, I want to remind you that this goal is different than the other two goals and that we just started this this past summer to implement the strategies and interventions to improve outcomes.

And as you may notice, we've included in this latest memo demographic groups that the board inquires about frequently, such as multilingual students and students with IEPs.

So that's a new feature.

Once you've concluded your independent read, I will spend a few minutes providing some suggestions for questions for our conversations.

Any questions?

If not, let's go ahead and do an independent close read for five to ten minutes.

How close are we?

Are we ready to come back or need another minute or two?

SPEAKER_21

OK.

SPEAKER_04

Do we feel ready to begin directors?

Oh, Lisa needs more time.

I'm so sorry.

Please take all the time you need.

SPEAKER_28

All right, thank you for reorienting yourselves to the math memo.

And I know that you've all read it because you've sent in some really, really good questions.

So now that you've concluded reading the memo, I'll take a few minutes to orient us to the conversation on the data.

As a reminder, the percentage of African-American boys and teens reaching proficiency on the state Smarter Balance Assessment, SBA, in math seventh grade is our top line measure.

And if you recall, we chose this measure because it's correlated with access to and success in advanced coursework in math in high school and post-secondary success.

So remember, it's correlated to success in advanced coursework in math in high school and post-secondary success.

That said, we're developing a portfolio of measures to tell us how well we're doing on the intermediate outcomes that precede student learning.

measures like teacher knowledge and practice, and student and family sense of belonging and confidence.

So before we dig into the specific student outcome measures, let me briefly provide some reminders on the different assessments we're using for you and the public watching this discussion.

Number one, this memo has two new data points.

The Spring Smarter Balance Assessment, and fall measures of academic progress, we also call that MAP.

And that's an interim assessment and that results in MAP.

Two, the Smarter Balanced Assessment, which you are all familiar with, and this assesses 7th grade math standards and is our top line measure.

And third, the fall 22 administration of the math map assessment is the first data point that we have for 6th and 7th graders and will be sharing the projected testing proficiency at this time.

In the future, we will be able to begin to look at measures of growth using the map assessment data.

So turning back to the data in the memo, as you saw on the top of the first page, we are not on track to meet our target for 7th grade math goal.

So if you look at the first page, that's where we talked about where it's orange and orange is the interim metrics indicate results are unlikely to be delivered without significant changes.

We're off track to meet our 2023 strategic plan target for 35% of seventh grade African-American males to score proficient or above on the spring 2023 Math Smarter Balance Assessment.

Second, the board voted to approve the required administration of the Math Measure of Academic Progress, MAP, in part so that we would have a clear district-wide measure for determining progress towards our larger 7th grade math goal.

So if you look at figures 3 and 4, which are on page 5, on the 7th grade math interims, and figure 5 on page 5, these have both the 6th and 7th grade interims.

So thank you for the support for approving math.

So now we have interim measures that we're looking at.

Third point I want to make is the results of the fall 2022 measures of academic progress map interim assessment indicate that 19.1% of black boys in seventh grade are projected to score proficient or above in math on the spring 2023 seventh grade math smarter balance assessment.

You can see this in figure three, which is also on page four.

You're with me so far?

OK.

And to walk you through other data figures in the memo, I will note that figure one shows that in spring 2022, 24.4% of African American males in seventh grade in SPS score proficient or above in math on the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

So all the data points in these figures reflect new, more inclusive definitions of African American males and students of color for this educational justice.

These definitions, the updates include multiracial students and Middle Eastern North African students.

On page four in figure four, you can see the distribution of projected spring 2023 Smarter Balanced assessment proficiency levels.

Consistent with spring 2022 SBA data from figure two, there are high proportions of our students that are projected to test at level one and level two proficiency.

And there are higher proportions of our students with IEPs who did not test on the MAP assessment.

Figure five on page five shows the most recent data for each of our top line and interim measures for each of our student groups of focus.

And lastly, in figure six on page six, we have new data from our fall 22 administration of our student climate survey, where we see that a majority of our students expecting to do fairly well on any math class that I take.

This is consistent across all student groups.

So given the urgency to better support our students so they can realize their goals in math, I'm pleased to share that we have launched initiatives across five areas that are described in the memo.

So at this point, I will pause to see if there are any clarifying questions on the overall statement on our progress or lack thereof.

SPEAKER_03

Any questions, directors?

SPEAKER_19

Well, I have a question, but I think it's probably best covered in the next section in terms of strategies.

I mean, it relates to the data, but I think I can.

SPEAKER_28

Yes, if this is this forecasting, if this is about the six schools and versus the.

two point excuse me the two-thirds of our our students and what's going to happen with the other thirds we'll cover that in the next okay okay so let's spend a minute on why we're seeing these outcomes and what we can do about it as i shared in june in addition to the challenges of the last couple years our system has historically not provided math instruction that is research-based and meets the needs of every child in the classroom which is true of many districts across the country Moreover, we have just started to systematically invest in this strategy this spring.

We need to take a hard, detailed, and long-term look at the work that we're doing to build and strengthen our systems of instructional and operational excellence.

So as you know, this data has led us to take specific actions over the past several years and to launch particular strategies that you have endorsed.

In particular, I'm proud and grateful that you have approved our new K-5 math adoption, which has already been enormously helpful in getting us on track to meet our targets.

So when it comes to middle school math and supporting our black youth, we believe that we know what needs to be done in the classroom.

Specifically, we believe that we are now heading in the right direction, given our investments in five strategies, as noted in the memo.

So let me walk you through the five strategies.

One is in the area of excellent teaching and joyful learning.

In so doing, we've launched teacher professional development and ongoing job-embedded coaching.

And this is focused on equitable math teaching practices, such as the strategy for developing the mathematical brilliance of African-American males through the program, through the framework of ICU care.

And this was developed by Drs.

Pamela Seda and Kendall Brown.

The second strategy that we're championing is in the area of strong relationships and connected families.

This is where we're increasing the capacity of school family partnerships to support the mathematical learning and mathematical identity of African American boys and teens and their families.

And this is where we began one hour home visits for incoming sixth grade African American males at six schools this summer.

The third strategy that we're using is in the area of equitable measures and student supports.

This is where we've begun to implement the MAP, the measure of academic progress, in fall 2022 in grades K through 8 and have begun to study examples of African American male student success.

The fourth strategy is in opportunity pathways, and this is where middle schools are collaborating with their feeder schools to support African-American boys and teens to have the opportunity to enroll in Algebra I in 8th grade and advanced coursework in math.

And lastly, number five, it's in expanded learning and enrichment.

This is where we're working on systematizing summer bridge programs with our expanded learning colleagues at the city of Seattle.

They're partnering with us for incoming sixth grade African-American male students and connecting these opportunities to our larger district pre-K through 12 STEM plan.

So these are strategies are grounded in the research and engagement with students and families.

And as illustrated in figure seven in the memo, we've also thought through how each of these strategies and initiatives will lead to improve student outcomes in specific ways.

So I've said a lot, and now we turn to our discussion.

As AJ has shared, there are many types of questions that we can discuss.

There are technical questions, tactical questions, and strategic questions.

So we ask for your questions ahead of time so that we can address the technical and tactical Before this meeting and in other venues, thank you very much for the robust response.

I hope you saw that we got back to you on many of those questions.

But before we move to strategic questions, I want to see if you have any clarifying questions on the data in the memo.

Please.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you.

I did not get my questions in on time.

I was a day late by a technical error.

I was cutting and pasting from my doc and I missed this section.

So I sent them in a day late but I don't know that you've received them because you did.

OK.

So I was going to ask them as we have this discussion but maybe I don't have to or maybe we can address some of them.

I do have some I would like to talk about tonight.

But regardless, I was just clarifying that in one of them.

So as far as technical, I just asked, like, if we can put the in future sessions, if we can put the goal on the top of the page, that's clear what the top line goal was.

I forget what else I asked regarding technicalities regarding the actual memo.

I also asked to state the authors of the memo so that we know who this is coming from.

And there was a link that wasn't working so.

But I'll get more into the rest of the questions as we proceed.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_28

Director Rivera-Smith did you want to answer to.

Were you asking a question or.

Oh OK.

SPEAKER_04

I just want to speak to that last one.

Do other folks have their mics on.

Is that why we're having feedback or just generally because we're close.

OK.

All right.

I think we're good now.

Specifically for the piece around the author of the memo.

So technically all of it comes from the superintendent.

So if you have a question specifically you could direct it to him.

And then like if you there was a piece that you were interested about that you think that maybe Dr. Scarlett has some impact on, you could direct that question and route it through the superintendent.

But just for clarification, whenever we receive these, the author is technically always for our purpose as a superintendent.

Yep.

Great question.

SPEAKER_19

So just in terms of the way the data is presented and as we go through this we're talking about primarily strategies that are related to six schools but the in all cases right.

I just want to be super clear that in all cases we're looking at data for all students in those categories right.

And the reason I ask that is that and that is part of that strategic question and.

The if we're not looking at those schools separately are we really seeing the impact that we're having if we're only looking at you know so we're throwing in another third that's going to have some sort of weighted impact one way or the other.

That's something I would like to see us get a little more clear on because it's confusing.

to understand how to make decisions or how you're making decisions about strategy if we're using data that's holistic, but we're only taking action in a small group.

And so is it at some point necessary to look at how are things changing or moving in that smaller system?

And maybe you are and you're not presenting it here, but I think it's confusing in the presentation.

That's my one question about the data, I think.

SPEAKER_28

So the six schools represent two thirds of African-American males.

And then there's another third that are not in these schools.

We're doing specific strategies in these six schools, but I hope you all would be comfortable in knowing that other components of work are available to all middle schools.

For example, all middle school students and educators have the opportunity to participate in the MAP assessment, as well as the MAP seven and eight compact and the math empowerment courses and so they're having the benefit of being able to participate in those programs as well.

I don't know Dr. Scarlett or Dr. Perkins if you have anything to add to that but I think this is a really important question because we talk about the targeted applying to the universal and we really need to be clear on how we're spreading the good things that we're learning at these six schools beyond beyond it's not just housing the six so we're trying to make sure we're spreading that.

SPEAKER_19

And just before we open that box, I want to be clear that my question was actually about the data, the data.

SPEAKER_28

OK, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_19

Maybe that's what you're going to answer.

So let's start with that, because that other piece of it I want to get to as well.

But and I think other directors had the same question, but I want more follow up on that.

SPEAKER_04

But yeah, I want to know about that before we dive in.

Just for the point of clarification, as I understood your question, it would tell me if I'm wrong, but it would be good to see the broken out impact of only those six schools as opposed to looping in the other third when, you know, that's not a fair characterization of the impact of the work that y'all are putting in.

Yeah.

So that that's what I heard.

SPEAKER_19

That's correct it doesn't change the goal but it is confusing in reading it in this and there's all kinds of great stuff in there and awesome answers to you know everybody's questions and we still have to you know there's still the goal to be met.

So yeah.

SPEAKER_22

I think that's a great piece of feedback I think it isn't as clear as it could be but absolutely you know you all set the goal for all students for all of our African-American male students in particular but all students ultimately through the lens of targeted universalism and we need to spell out that be clear that that's what the data is about it's about all of our African-American male students and in the middle school grades.

So but in terms of you know one more piece related to what Dr. Jones is sharing we are committing to using our Friday school leader engagement sessions as a way to socialize what we are learning in these six schools and I think that's been a common theme from the board as well wanting to know more about the theory about how we go from the six schools to the entire piece.

But the data is for all and we should be clear on that.

SPEAKER_19

But is it possible to see the data on the six schools?

Absolutely.

Well just because sometimes there's you know n values and what not that might cause problems.

I just want to make sure that that's something that is.

Yeah.

OK.

SPEAKER_28

Manage this feedback.

Any more clarifying questions on the data in the memo and I know you asked a question about the data in the memo and I asked I was talking about strategy.

So data any more data questions.

Director Rankin.

SPEAKER_16

I guess I'm just I want to make sure that I understand what the conversation that was just had because we're we're monitoring for all students.

And then we want to see the broken out data for the impact of these interventions and supports at these six schools.

Okay, so internally I'm assuming, I'm hoping, I guess confirm for me that you are looking at the impact of those things on data at those schools.

But then our goal is for all students who are reporting that out.

OK so can we are we thinking that we see that data broken out by strategy by school or and when?

SPEAKER_19

I guess.

I wasn't putting that fine of a you know detail on it.

I just think that it needs to be clarified in terms of the communication as it comes back to us in the future so that we can in fact see the directly what's happening at this six schools.

I mean every school is responsible for doing this work and should be looking at this data so.

SPEAKER_28

So if you look at figure two we broke that out African-American male students of color first from educational justice bilingual learners students with IEPs.

I think we could add another line for those at the six the six schools.

Right.

OK.

So that will add that as a feature for the next the next session.

SPEAKER_19

Appreciate all those other data points.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, because what that's going to or at least the way that I'm looking at this is like as we do these interim check ins, having that data will then like let us know what interim measures you're putting in place are working right.

And I think that it would be a fair characterization of all the work you all are putting in to just see that broken out subset of students.

SPEAKER_16

One more data question, yes I think having that separate line of students at the six schools would be great but now are we talking about all students at the six schools or students at the six schools that fall into one of these other four categories?

SPEAKER_28

You're asking for a lot, Director, right now.

I think we should think about that, but I want to just ask...

Yeah, I'm not expecting you to have an answer right now, but that...

Well, I am actually curious.

Can either of you speak to how well our six school students are doing compared to other students?

SPEAKER_22

I can't with this is the exact data points but what's interesting you know there are past studies of Deniaki Mercer for example which is three of the six that had some stronger growth in math so but again it's a great point we should I think that the challenge is obviously not overwhelming with too many different pieces but I think what Dr. Jones suggested for figure two makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_16

And then the other question I think I can't remember if I asked this in relationship to this data or other data in general but students who may fall into more than one of these categories they are counted individually in each category is that correct?

So an African-American male student who is a multilingual learner who has an IEP would be in each.

OK.

Because you know maybe someday down the road we will look at within the categories if there's disparities.

But but I think that's important to know that that we're considering the needs of what.

But considering so students with IEPs.

SPEAKER_19

I said take it easy cowgirl.

SPEAKER_16

I said sometime down the road.

But yeah, I think it is important that the students are represented for each of the categories that they fall into.

So thanks.

SPEAKER_14

Let me preface this by saying I'm not asking to see the data but I'm curious, I think I'm surprised by how predictive some of these early tests are of future performance and I'm wondering if you are looking at previous grades and just kind of making any observations like particularly in elementary school.

So I looked up the 7th grade math standards and I think I was, I'm not an educator so I was a little bit surprised to know what 7th grade math is.

But it is truly you know I think if you were a struggling math student in earlier grades I could see absolutely how you would be struggling in 7th grade because it is adding and subtracting integers, decimals, multiplication and so I'm just curious if your team is looking at data and previous grades and just you know are there any patterns that you're noticing like is there like a point where the kids are really struggling and that can be predictive of later performance?

SPEAKER_29

That's why the K-5 math adoption is so vital and key.

Having that missing link didn't give us a good opportunity to have a continuum of you know from K-5 mathematics and that transition you know beyond that into middle school as well.

So having that aligned curricular material allows us to be able to look at practice across and to be able to see the alignment between the instructional practices within that as well.

So that's why we're so excited about having that aligned curriculum.

SPEAKER_04

I know that this is true for seventh grade but Director Summer it's actually jogged a memory that I have from my own classroom experience where we had our standards but then we also have priority standards.

Right.

Like the most important of those standards.

And so I don't know.

I guess my question in there is are we measuring all the standards within the seventh grade range for mathematics.

Is there also an ability to break out data by the.

Well, that's assuming that priority standards for 7th grade math even exist.

I just don't know for a fact if they do or don't, but it might be an interesting facet to look at.

You know, there are all of these things, but like in the core competencies, are we seeing any difference as opposed to the full subset for 7th grade?

But again, assuming that 7th grade has priority standards within the common core standards.

SPEAKER_22

If I could Dr. Jones?

So you're absolutely, what's still accurate is that you know we're following basically the common core in math and math had the greens and the blues and things and those still apply because they signal what is going to be most assessed in particular on the SBA so that's still is there.

Where we have struggled recently is that the SBA hasn't been broken out by that level of strand, but I agree with you that that's what we want to get to so that we can have even more precise understanding of which strategies are moving which pieces.

So that's something that we anticipate having more data in the future, but this last round was just high level.

SPEAKER_28

But Dr. Perkins, the map does measure the strands.

So the map, the interim assessment, that does measure the strands.

Is that correct?

SPEAKER_22

It has some additional information, but we'll have to see how it matches what you're thinking.

Not all the way down to those individual standards.

Yes okay very good see Dr. Jones is spot on.

SPEAKER_04

And that might also be a conversation that we need to have as a team around because I know like just firsthand priority standards while they are also included in the like full slate of standards in general priority standards are really where the meat of the competencies for that particular grade are.

And I just think it would be interesting, and if it doesn't necessarily fit into the framework, one of the folks on the ad hoc committee tell me if that is a question that is outside of the bounds, but it might give us some indication of like, okay, in our core competencies, our kids are doing X, and all of these things where they're assessed less frequently and less efficiently, they could be doing Y, which might, you know, give us a better understanding of what strategies are working and what we should invest in versus, you know, the antithesis of that.

SPEAKER_16

I think that well I think that might be getting into a level.

Yeah I was gonna say that's like our goals are about grade level proficiency based on an agreed upon assessment.

So then below that you know we would want you all to be doing that.

SPEAKER_19

I think our expectation would be that that is the kind of conversation that we want to support the superintendent and getting administrators and teachers to that.

I mean I've heard other districts have those conversations and between schools where they're focusing in different areas and therefore having different outcomes and sometimes with different groups of students and because they're doing things differently in another building just based on exactly what you're saying.

And but we haven't supported as a board getting access to that data.

SPEAKER_07

or even like effectively collecting that data.

Because if it's, like we have the map, the map is the map, but if, yeah, that's a, sorry, I'm getting into weeds.

I'm good for right now, that's good, thank you.

SPEAKER_28

We're here to serve.

Any other questions about data?

If not, we'll get into some strategic questions that you posed.

One of the questions that you posed was really around short-term strategies.

And so in addition to the long-term strategy, what is your short-term plan for addressing student needs that require immediate interventions now?

And so let me reference figure seven on the back page.

We really like this figure, actually, because it shows a real comprehensive view of what we're trying to get done.

And so these are the steps we're taking in our first year as implementation, as well as our longer term approach to the continuous improvement expectations.

The immediate intervention supports available to middle schools are math empowerment courses for 6th grade students, professional development for math empowerment educators, the Success Maker program, which provides students with an intervention to develop areas of needs, and school-based intervention programs.

So we're going to continue to learn from the school-based intervention programs at our six priority schools, as we talked about, and share our best practices and share those best practices at school leader sessions.

So those are my initial thoughts on that question.

What does this raise for you all in response?

SPEAKER_19

Now I was just thank you for all this good work because it's exciting that we get to talk about our student outcomes at this level.

I'm excited that we're getting to this point so much more to go.

But so the.

I like this as well and I think that the answers to the questions around what are the immediate strategies and it sounds like they are substantive particularly at the six priority schools.

My wonder is about I want to say this in the most I was I learned something at the Council of Great City Schools conference around what it means to support teachers and buildings with data without hitting them over the head with it and making them feel at fault for the these very students who we are not serving in terms of supporting them and getting to the knowledge and the know how that they that they need in life.

And.

At the same time, and that was related to one of the other questions, there's the belief gap that students who are at this level, the L1 or the L2 of not meeting standard, that we It's not somehow we have to to bring those teachers and administrators into.

Wanting to have the belief that those students need the support to get to the higher level of achievement which is I know much of what is in here.

And not just sort of helping them remedially right to get sort of limping along and.

So in this interim space that we're in, I think my question is, what kind of strategy do you have to message out to teachers and administrators, hey, this is new for all of us.

We've got some really good preliminary work that we're doing really focused on these six schools.

This is what we're seeing that's working.

We wanna make sure that you all get the benefit of this.

Here's what you need to do.

some things you should be thinking about, you know, right now.

That's kind of what I was wondering about.

What are what are those sort of emergent things?

Because we're heading into the end of you know, this is kind of our last shot right for this year to make any improvement for the for the spring.

I know we're projecting not great strides, but this is the ideal time for I believe I heard that you know check in with students before we get too far into this next the second part of the first semester and then you've got you have to tee up to get to that second semester to potentially get some of that learning.

So I and so I didn't know if like for example math empowerment is that like this class is now going to be offered.

We know it's offered at every school right.

It's a fantastic class.

I don't know if anyone who's had kids or knows of what this class is but it's it's generally a really really successful class I believe.

So I was happy to see that.

How are buildings and teachers being supported in understanding they need to look not just at kids grades, which goes to some of the other questions, but their deeper understanding of these concepts and their ability to apply them in another situation.

And to look at their MAP scores.

How did they perform?

Are they being asked to do that analysis within their buildings and take glean something from the six schools that they can do to support students for some educational justice?

I sort of wrapped all my questions into one.

SPEAKER_28

That's fine.

So we believe the belief gap is real and one of the ways we're trying to address that to scale is in the ICU care framework and that framework we're doing training across our middle schools on that to really give teachers the tools to how do you deal with that?

How do you manage through that?

We also believe there's a belief gap in How do you utilize the assessments?

How do you utilize map assessments and whatnot?

And so we're trying to provide training to scale on that as well.

So we can't just hope and wish that the belief gap changes.

So we need to make sure that we provide ongoing job-embedded coaching, professional development so that we can do that.

There's another tool, SuccessMaker, that we're using.

And I'd like maybe Dr. Scarlett or Dr. Perkins to maybe give a little commercial for what SuccessMaker does.

SPEAKER_22

In brief it's a computer adaptive tool that allows students to learn from basic assessment data kind of to your point to kind of identify needs and then provide supports that are go beyond the tier one curriculum go beyond and so it's just another companion and I think addresses I think a theme of many of your questions is what are we doing now?

Like we need to help students right now.

So I just wanted to call that out as well as another piece.

That's kind of more on the technical side and then on the belief side it's the ICU care work and it's these larger conversations around the use of assessment which I think Eric Jackson our director of assessment has been doing great work in leading the idea of we need to address the beliefs about assessment because there They are more complex than you might think in terms of Seattle there's actually a number of teachers who have been using standardized assessments for very good reasons and others who are not.

And so you know we have a lot to work with I think there.

SPEAKER_19

Director Harris I really appreciate the, I had to figure out how I could read it because it was so little in there but I did, I mean it's scary that.

particular graphic that you provided but that is really good to know that that's something that you're all thinking about because there's some great information and training out there about the complexities and the issues and the benefits of assessments without any form of assessments we don't have any accountability for how we're supporting students.

and to for that to not I just I'm curious how we get to that messaging or what strategies around the messaging we can even employ right like how should we be talking about it in these sessions so that yes it's about accountability and transparency but like hey partner with us in supporting these kids because it is our responsibility as a district within the confines of the school day that's the thing that you know there's people so others tutoring after there's that you know it's like well no we're supposed to be support they've got sports they've got music they've got family they've got jobs within the context of the school day we need to be providing that and every just every school has MTSS on their CSIP their continuous school improvement plan, multi-tiered systems of support.

I'm looking at you, Michelle.

But then what about the, you know, I can think of how do we support how do we get teachers to to partner with us and applying targeted universalism and you know in the classroom like it just can be mirrored everywhere.

And I think to great impact but without again hitting them over the head and I feel like you know we as a board don't even necessarily have that language yet to talk about that effectively.

SPEAKER_29

Just to add maybe one part of that, thank you Director Hampson, super helpful.

You know that acknowledgement of having imperfect metrics you know measures is really there but we think about how identity for learners is co-created between a family, that student and that educator as well.

And so, when educators hold implicit biases about students and what their abilities are, then it really impacts that.

So, sort of that default, that, oh, the standardized tests are racist, is not really the case.

It's actually data that's in the hands of people who hold implicit biases about students.

So, one of the things that we're really doing is thinking about how do we build racial data literacy for students?

How do we ensure that we have good data?

that we apply compassionate understanding and also thoughtful analysis.

That we really think about the conditions, the supports and the opportunities that surround students.

The work that we've done around our gap closing schools even previously when you think of the work of those middle schools of Aki, Denny and Mercer it wasn't just what was happening in that classroom at a technical level around instruction it was also about the relationships.

All we need to do is look at the call to action sort of themes from the Office of African American Male Achievement, you know, around targeted universalism to think about how all of those help to support that identity development between, you know, the student, the, you know, the educator and their family as well, and our community partners, you know, within that part as well.

So that is a challenge, you know, as we move forward.

But as we really start to move from symbolic racial equity to really what this looks like in the classroom at the instructional level, that's where that ICU care framework is really helping us to think about how does this look specifically in mathematics, because mathematics is a battleground.

That is where people are sorted into being intelligent or unintelligent, and particularly around black and brown people and the attributions of who has access to being a mathematician or having intelligence in this country as well is really important.

SPEAKER_19

And we heard about the disproportionality of the identification of black students into the behavioral IEP category where other kids who are not black may be seen as needing more you know intense challenge in math or the the I see.

I see you care.

I guess.

I had it all wrong in my head.

I was saying IQ care and I was like that's not very sexy.

OK.

I see.

Sometimes the brain just doesn't quite put it together.

So that's available just in the six schools right now.

Is that a cost thing in terms of making it available to other schools.

SPEAKER_22

In short yes it's just available to the six schools we're doing sort of intensive work to really learn how it can be implemented but I think the idea is that yes it will expand to the other middle schools as we learn and figure out what's resonating most.

What's interesting is that already our six school leaders are already pushing to shape this to kind of which aspects of the ICU care framework are the ones that are most critical.

And so we want to take that time to learn with them before expanding it out to other high school.

SPEAKER_19

And then you said that this is part of your administrator weekly.

Is it a call or.

SPEAKER_28

We have school leaders that get together weekly and they do professional development trade best practices and they talk about how to how to advance the our map proficiency.

SPEAKER_19

And our school counselors ever are they is any of this being pushed down to their circles?

SPEAKER_28

I don't know if we've we've employed that strategy but correct me if I'm wrong Caleb.

SPEAKER_22

Not directly but again I we do work for the counselors on a fair amount so that's.

SPEAKER_19

Because aren't they responsible for identifying kids that are below standard?

SPEAKER_22

Best one of the strategies around the idea of opportunity pathways to make sure for example that a lot more students are getting access to the opportunity to take algebra by eighth grade to take advanced coursework that's absolutely where the counselors are playing a huge role in helping think through what are the barriers there that

SPEAKER_19

Yeah and that's the other quick because wanting to make sure that they have time in their schedule whether it's math empowerment or you know being able to waive PE for example because you can't waive it in sixth

SPEAKER_16

You have to take it at least one semester 7th and 8th grade maybe 6th grade.

SPEAKER_19

But that math empowerment you know so yeah I was curious if the counselors are involved in making sure that they are creating that flexibility within the school day but without taking away important electives for students.

SPEAKER_28

I think correctly if I'm wrong we are looking at master schedules as well as part of the strategy.

SPEAKER_22

Absolutely and you know just a shout out to Alyssa Farmer who is our lead architect of the math work along with many others and she's a close colleague with Tara McFarland who is the head of school counseling and they are you know the idea of how do we expand the number of schools offering math 7-8 that combined class so that students can actually take algebra in the eighth grade or advanced coursework when they get to high school.

So that is a collaboration that needs to happen.

SPEAKER_04

Director Rankin Director Rivera-Smith and then Director Song-Moritz.

But actually we're going to go to Director Crombarone first and so then we prioritize student voice here.

So we will go to Luna first and then we will follow the order previously.

So take it away Luna.

SPEAKER_23

So I was just going to the SADA educational consulting thing to look more deeply into the ICU care whole framework, which is really interesting.

And there was one piece that I was wondering about and how it's being connected into the excellent teaching and joyful learning piece.

one of them is use culturally relevant curricula, use instructional materials in ways that help students see themselves as doers of mathematics and help them overcome the negative stereotypes and messages regarding who is and who isn't mathematically smart and I was just wondering if with the envision math curricula which is currently what's adopted as the 6-8 materials, is that something that you would say aligns with the culture as culturally relevant curricula in combating stereotypes and representation and that kind of thing?

SPEAKER_28

Tremendous question and wow and I know we did I know we went when we when we selected envision, we looked at it from a racial equity lens and if it was culturally responsive, but can you elaborate on some of the detail of what we did to make sure it met those targets that Director Cron-Berone just mentioned?

SPEAKER_22

Yeah, again, I think incredibly astute question because, yes, we did look at cultural relevancy, of course, when the materials were adopted.

It rates very highly in terms of the options that we have.

At the same time, we do need the ICU care framework.

We do need Drs.

Brown and Seda and that work.

to really kind of include within the lessons how do you call out those pieces.

So as an example as you read that one aspect is having students develop their own understanding, honoring different ways of getting at the same concept in math and so we need both and there's ways to strengthen it and ICU care is one of those ways but again great question.

SPEAKER_28

And the curriculum in and of itself was not enough.

It has to be also implemented in culturally responsive ways.

So I just want to add that piece too.

SPEAKER_23

I'm assuming but just to clarify and the ways that we'd make sure that it's implemented in culturally responsive ways would be through that job embedded coaching in equitable math teaching practices and stuff like that for educators?

SPEAKER_28

Okay fantastic thank you.

SPEAKER_23

Okay awesome thank you.

SPEAKER_16

Yeah OK so she asked what I was going to ask so.

So my question really is about sort of what Director Hampson referenced and you know what I asked very specifically in the questions that were submitted ahead of time about goals in IEPs and that I understand that is super tactical and super individual level but so my my question on the strategy map is these feel important and impactful and the most impactful piece of this math instruction is going to be in the classroom between the teacher and the student.

So all of these things sound really great and are I think supportive of like shifting mindset, shifting the belief gap.

We have 6,000 teachers.

I don't know.

How are we or what is the strategy to supporting or holding building leaders either supporting building leaders to or holding building leaders accountable for really setting these expectations in their classroom that may be different than people are used to.

Like we're talking about a shift.

And I think we have you know there's a wide range of experience and approach that teachers have which is awesome because it's the diversity of our classrooms and you know neither students nor educators are robots and you know that's part of the messy beautiful imperfectness of all of this is that it's human at every level.

At the same time, if we're really trying to set an expectation that hasn't necessarily been set before about who is responsible for supporting certain students and showing progress on that, the thing that I'm My wonder is what's the strategy at the building level to provide adequate collaboration time between instructors to for principals to be really clear about what the you know their instructional leadership so that we're not You know we have this distributed model from central offices out but also even within buildings sometimes there is a principal that's really just operational and teachers are in their classrooms doing their thing.

So how are we kind of I guess aligning and supporting everybody to understand that This is all of our job, I think, is where I'm getting at.

Because this sounds great at this level, and I know that it's like the worst game of telephone.

By the time it gets down to it, are educators going to feel supported and empowered, or are they going to feel criticized?

Because we want the first one.

SPEAKER_28

So let me take a shot at it.

Whether we're talking about multilingual learners, students with IEPs, students of color furthest from educational justice, African American males, our first strategy is to have high quality tier one instruction.

These other pieces that are the job embedded coaching and the professional development are supplemental to that, but we want to, one of our key strategies is tier one and making sure that's done with fidelity, almost like a service level guarantee.

The other elements that we're talking about in terms of targeted strategies are supplemental to that, but tier one is where we're placing the emphasis.

And so that's where you should be able to go across the six schools and the 13 schools and see high-quality tier one instruction first and foremost.

I don't know if that answers your question but that's that's where we're placing our emphasis.

SPEAKER_16

So the stronger we have the stronger the tier one and the more inclusive tier one is the less need for tier two and tier three like tier one needs to be the strongest but I know that on a theoretical level.

I also don't have a classroom of 30 kids in front of me who need a ton of different things.

So I guess this is to me like building capacity and understanding and shifting mindsets in a broader way and in any given classroom on any given day.

there is probably a kid or two that is struggling and maybe is not, I mean in terms of math too like beliefs is one thing but also like you were sick on the first day of fractions and so then like the next few days it's not making sense because you weren't there the first day and you may or may not be able to advocate for yourself or you know instruction may have been sent home and you know who knows who knows but like at some point we have to stop and say hey you know what's like I mean and with the IEP's are a really extreme example I know I said this in my question I would love to see sometime and I know this would be a really big data ask to have you know what goals are in every single IEP but my assumption and from what we see in the data here and from what I know is that unfortunately IEPs have been a codified lowering of standards.

That we have that we are not going to ever see students with IEPs achieve at the same level as students without IEPs because purposefully their goals are not at grade level standards.

So you are aiming for a target that is below what other students in your grade are achieving.

And that is so that's just sort of the water that we swim in.

I'm not saying that to like slam anybody but it's an accepted practice that this student needs more support, this student is behind when in reality the IEP is a tool to accommodate for a disability to allow a student the support that they need to access the grade-level curriculum that their peers are accessing.

And unfortunately I think you know probably nationally that has not been the case.

The IEP is a way to codify lower expectations for the student.

That's a very blatant piece of information where standards are lower.

I think that happens in more subtle ways other places.

So I guess my question is about at the individual student level, how are we encouraging or what's the strategy to go after that mindset where our belief gap is not just something that we have to overcome in our the way we see people, but it's actually like and what kind of, my aha moment was seeing a presentation from Spokane school district where they had this whole, they had this moment themselves of lowering standards, IEP goals to a lower level and started doing a co-teaching model and you know veteran educators that had been special education teachers for years like suddenly realized that they hadn't realized that they were lowering their expectations by practice and I know that's that's that's specific but I guess I'm I'm thinking about how do we get what's the strategy to get on an individual level that examination of the ways in which things reinforce these disparities in achievement and to actually you know I'm changing this IEP goal to make it a grade level target because the student is an 8th grader they should have an 8th grade goal.

SPEAKER_28

I don't know if this will be satisfactory but we are doing some universal design work the ICU care framework addresses this it's embedded in that but maybe Dr. Scarlett can speak to this I know that this is part of our central strategy to address exactly what you said so I want Maybe you can get a little technical on what we're trying to do here, because that's our entire goal.

SPEAKER_29

So thank you.

One of the things that you said at the onset, you asked a question, so I just wanted to answer that, about this strategy and how it started.

And when we were first charged with thinking about a middle school math strategy, the first person I went to go meet with in August of last year was Jeff Clark at Denny.

He's a math leader.

He had been working on this.

He's one of the most senior leaders.

So we know we needed leadership amongst the principal core, that credibility.

Then the next people who came were the directors of schools, and they have been part of this planning with the school leaders very early on to build out this strategy.

So that accountability is the accountability of having colleagues working together that have professional communities they've created, but also having the directors of schools as a part of that.

in helping to architect this strategy along with, you know, educators, you know, to really think about the best practices around that.

The other part of what you're speaking about, it really is about our inclusionary and culturally responsive practices.

Our partnership with NOVAC and Universal Design for Learning, that is how we create that access.

We know that student that if you get students and you say okay we are going to start again in multiplication you know and they are still in ninth grade that just doesn't work right?

And so it's about reducing barriers so the students can have great level expectations.

I know I'm thinking about a few board meetings ago you talked about the lowering the standards and having great level of specific school or I'm sorry IEP goals.

and having those you know at a level that actually meets that we know that by lowering standards we don't actually ever accelerate achievement.

We know that for students whether they have IEP's or not at all but how does the system kind of move and evolve with that?

So the work that we are doing, Dr. Torres just led extended cabinet and we had our consultants from Novac helping us support Everywhere I look then the school leadership session on Friday was the same thing with our you know consultants really helping us and so what you named you named every single lever in the system that needs to be touched you know by this but we have multiple levers that are happening and there are a whole lot of adults before you ever get to children in a classroom so our central office everyone understanding what you know inclusionary and culturally responsive practices and how all of us on senior leadership are a part of this, our staff team within our extended cabinet, the school leaders, so multiple different levers you know as we move forward and keep building capacity around this but that is exactly what you've been advocating for, what many of us have been advocating for at a policy level, policy 0010 right?

I'm excited about the direction that we're going through and how we can use this work that we're doing visibly, you know, for the public to really be accountable for policy implementation where we don't just have symbolic policy, but you can actually see it activated in ways that are endorsed by our superintendent.

He said that this is the direction we're going so everyone understands, you know, how we're moving forward with our leadership on that.

SPEAKER_16

Well and as we continue to monitor this goal we should be able to see progress or not.

SPEAKER_15

Hi thank you.

I'm going to talk about specifically to this to the status of the school and you've seen this question already that the orange goal status indicates interim metrics, so it says interim metrics indicate results are unlikely to be delivered without significant change.

So my question is, and I've seen the strategy map and I've compared it to the June memo, which the link didn't work but I dug it up, so and I see changes.

Which of these are the significant changes that you feel are going to be necessary to bring this up to, you know, the level where we need our students' achievement to reach.

And I'll connect that to another question I had, which was, of the strategies, what evidence do you have that these are going to equal increasing student outcomes?

Because I hear things like our new curriculum has helped, but we haven't met our target.

So where's the data that shows it's helped?

Where are the data that shows that these new strategies and specifics like ICU care and math empowerment are going to correlate to improve student outcomes.

SPEAKER_28

Let me just address a couple of things.

A couple of things that we need to highlight as challenges are we have turnover.

We have turnover with our math instructors.

We have turnover with some of our math specialists.

And so there's a talent acquisition, talent recruitment challenge that we need to shore up.

That's a gap.

So if we want to try to implement these things with fidelity, and we do all this great training, job-invented coaching, and then we lose the people who are actually doing that, that's preventing us from moving forward.

But also, just in general, I think we need to stay the course.

We have good practices, research-based, evidence-based practices that we've studied, that we've adopted, and we need some time to allow those to take hold.

But there's some specific things that we can do along the way that we've kind of talked about, but I'd offer up Caleb and Keisha to talk about some of the more specific strategies, but bottom line, I think we need to stay the course.

We have some good strategies here.

We have a strong curriculum.

And then we need to address some of the challenges because we can't implement again with fidelity if we don't have the right people in place in terms of educators.

If we have turnover at the leadership level, turnover at the technical level, that impedes us from making progress.

SPEAKER_15

add to that real fast that you know obviously the goal it's that the status itself says it needs significant changes to achieve.

So I hear stay the course but I also see that it says we need significant changes so how do we reconcile those two?

SPEAKER_28

So address some of the specifics on what we're trying to do please.

SPEAKER_22

So the orange piece just does have a bit of a technical answer so this is language that we are adopting as part of student outcomes focused governance as part of the Council of great city schools that red is really about what we saw at the end of the year.

So we are not red because we still have an opportunity to work as hard as we can with all of our students and with all of our systems.

So I know that's not at the core of what matters.

So it's not meant to signal we think we have the wrong strategies and we need to change the strategies it's sort of to Director Rankin's point we need to really start following through with the expectations piece and getting and that's where I want to stress as Dr. Scarlett pointed out and she's really been helpful in guiding this we're going to have to do this with these six schools to really learn specifically how it plays out with our educators because there's a number of educators and a number of PLCs at these buildings that are doing wonderful things but we need to figure out how to socialize that and spread that.

So that's where in terms of if we have to make a prediction right now which is what the student outcomes focus governance on December 14. we are predicting that we are not going to get there to the 35% that we said.

So but the changes are about again I know that sounds not like a change but staying in the course is in some ways a change from what we have been doing.

We have been moving around to too many different initiatives trying too many different things The sort of radical idea is that we're going to stick to this and really work on getting all levels of buy-in to make sure it actually has the results that we want.

The last piece I'll share is that we do have a robust research base thanks to Dr. Anderson and his team connected to each of these strategies.

We've only implemented things that have gone through a rigorous review in that sense.

So with that I'll turn it back to Dr. Jones.

SPEAKER_04

Just like, really quick note there.

During my time as a teacher in Federal Way, we went through a similar process when we were adopting Erla from the American Reading Company.

And essentially, Erla, in my experience, was really great.

Had an online component, very clear and detailed about what skill acquisition was necessary for students.

I mean, as the son of a teacher, it was something that my mom would have loved to have back in the Gap.

The problem was is that for many of folks in our system, regardless if you're a principal or a teacher, if you didn't have the buy-in in that first year, a lot of that curriculum sat in the corner.

But it was sticking the course and not bouncing from thing to thing that at the end of my time with Federal Way, which is like all told by five and a half years, It had been fully adopted, parents loved it, and we actually started to see results.

Took a minute, though, right?

And we've had this conversation before.

Public education has this problem where when we realize that we can't solve a problem, we call it something different and have a new initiative, and we move on, and now we've got something new and shiny.

Instead of doing what we're doing here tonight and clearly saying, yo, we're not on track to meet this goal.

I can't remember the last time that we had a conversation that started off with that.

And I mean especially in Seattle Public Schools where we get beat over the head for trying to sweep stuff under the rug.

This is the kind of conversation that we don't need to be afraid of data.

That is data.

You know what I'm saying.

And having these iterative conversations where we can figure out like OK what do we do in the near term the short term X Y and Z is I think a huge leap forward for what we are doing and especially for what I am I as a director I'm used to.

So you know great work on that piece.

Yeah, please.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you for that.

Thank you for that response and for clarifying what that means.

Because I think that's what I was looking for, just understand better how staying the course means significant change because they sound like opposites.

But so I guess my question, and I'll come to one of my questions in here, was to what extent could we have the list of challenges?

To what extent do we expect these challenges to continue?

And what is being done to prevent them from continuing into the future?

SPEAKER_28

Yeah, we are particular when we're talking about staff turnover, we're working with our HR department, the benefit and the in the vein of probably director, excuse me, Dr. Pritchett's existence is I used to be in HR.

And so we're being really aggressive on our strategies to recruit, you know, and we call these hard to fill positions.

And so there's partnership with CA and I around the specific skills, competencies that we need.

And we're actually sending our HR folks out to really be assertive and aggressive in recruiting those folks.

But we also have to spend some time thinking about retention.

These these folks are highly sought after we have some of our.

neighboring districts that will do whatever they have to, to steal some of our talent and to poach, right?

So that's one of the major things.

And I think that, you know, again, broken record here is to add some of these challenges, we need to be honest with our current situation.

We want to, as President Hersey talked about, we want to be forthright with where we are in terms of our assessment.

And we don't need to sugar coat where we are.

We're behind.

And so the fidelity of implementation of these things from our job-embedded coaching, our professional development, and our collaboration amongst our school leaders is really going to, I think, move the needle.

And since I've been around Seattle Public Schools, we have jumped from thing to thing to thing without seeing it take hold.

So those are the main challenges I see is Keeping our talent in place, staying the course, fidelity of implementation, and keeping the job-embedded coaching and professional development in place.

These frameworks are only as good as how much we buy into them and how much we have fidelity of implementation of them.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you Dr. Jones for answering the questions around the teacher recruitment because I had the same intention I had similar questions.

I'm curious about success factors.

Is that something that is available through K-5 now that we have adopted Envision as our K-5 curriculum and was that a consideration for the adoption committee?

What kind of intervention materials there were?

SPEAKER_22

Please share and I can get more details from the math team on that but thanks to some of my colleagues not mine but vision that when we did the adoption we leveraged some of the tech levy funding to ensure that we were going to have the tier 2 electronic resources, digital resources to accompany the tier 1 main curriculum so that is something that we are working on.

We don't want to overwhelm our K-5 schools with everything all at once so we are rolling that out.

slowly and deliberately but we will have access to that so we're excited to add that.

SPEAKER_14

Second question is there's mention of working with the city to do some of the summer learning for example.

So I did reach out to the Department of Education early learning because I noticed that four of these schools happen to be levee schools and I wanted to learn more about you know from their perspective you know how are they working with building leaders.

So I'm curious to hear from you are the building leaders wrote their grants do they include asked related to 7th grade math goals or are there grants related to other projects?

SPEAKER_28

I'm going to defer.

I don't know what the specificity is of that.

SPEAKER_29

Yeah.

You know, we work in partnership with DEEL constantly.

And as things have evolved, like our college career readiness goals, they're coming alongside of us and are tremendous partners.

And you know, these goals that were set are not synchronized necessarily to the cycle of a seven-year levy plan, that levy cycle around that.

I would say that some of the schools that have historically had those investments they worked alongside of DEEL that has been a big part of what's helped them to synergize the professional learning communities that are fostered through DEEL was something that really I think helped the Aki, Denny and Mercer to have some really similar ways around their standard space instruction and assessment.

and the sort of think tank that is created around that.

So those are the benefits.

I don't know if those, we haven't quite codified all of that in sort of the next phase of partnership but deal is already getting ready to get ready for the next you know levy and moving together.

So, I would say in this round, because some of the other goals are just, they've been around for longer, we've been able to synergize and move things, you know, different aspects forward within that, I think that this one will increasingly become more aligned because that is an area of investment for them around that.

So, that's what I would say.

and they're tracking data you know the same data like the work that we did that our board did to ensure that we have these interim measures that is part of our data sharing agreement and they're holding that same accountability for their schools when they're looking at achievement as well so I think it's really helpful.

SPEAKER_20

I want to take a different tact and that's that we're looking at a budget cliff from hell.

And that these things are expensive.

So I don't have a sense of ICU care how much that costs success makers.

I see reference to hiring more math coaches.

I believe the number was one hundred and sixty five FTEs from central office and we've talked a lot about synergy between departments and collaboration lifting all boats.

Does that mean then that we.

as a board and as an administration are going to hold portions of our budget as sacrosanct untouchable if you will.

If we're going to meet some of these goals because nothing is free and I don't mean to be director wet blanket but I think I need I think we need to be terribly terribly candid and forthright about this.

And say the Ness Holmes or the Satterfield foundations decide you know we've given these people a ton of money over the years but we are not obligated by any way shape or form to continue to give us that money.

And how we run this district in a non-sustainable wish and a prayer.

concerns me greatly.

And I you all have heard me moan about curriculum adoption in years past not recently.

Proud to say curriculum adoption being one of the first things that has come historically in this darn district right off the top of the budget.

So.

I don't have and Dr. Jones and I had a really thoughtful and robust conversation about this yesterday.

I don't have a sense and maybe I don't need to but I think I do need to know how you have charged your cabinet with reductions given what we know today on our bottom line and our looming is the nicest word I can come up with.

Deficit.

Assistant Superintendent Scarlett you need to cut you know 10 percent out of your budget of X point million dollars.

Associate Superintendent Pedroza you need to cut X number of dollars out of your X million dollar budget.

And what does that look like so that whatever progress we have made doesn't come to a screeching halt.

And if we want to talk about retention I think it would be a terrifying place to be in this very expensive city to think well cool.

I can't stand my family and my kids and their tuition later up to you know, Everett School District coming down and poaching our best folks.

I'm very, very concerned about the price tags and what our philosophy is if we are going to protect certain segments of our budget.

And I'll leave it there.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_28

So my colleagues to my left.

and Dr. Pedroza have had the task of balancing our budget but staying wedded to these ideals and goals of third grade reading, seventh grade math, college and career readiness.

Our strategies are protected if you will, the core of those strategies will not be gutted Dr. Scarlett has presented a preliminary kind of list and ideation of what she wants to put forward.

And she's been extraordinarily skilled.

It's been difficult for her to protect all these elements that we're going to have going forward.

That means other elements are going to, it's going to be painful, but other elements are going to go first.

If we get to the point where we're cutting the core out of these strategies, then we're just done.

That can't happen.

And so she's been up at night, I know, looking at the ceiling like, how are we going to do this?

It's been stressful for all of us.

But she and we have been wedded to protect these things that you saw today.

There may not be as many people.

SPEAKER_06

uh providing the support uh people are going to have to quote unquote double up if you will but that's where we're protecting the the core essence of curriculum if you will all right so uh with that being said keep in mind we're a little over time um but we would like to slide right into the technical section which i believe is my uh button here

SPEAKER_28

So thank you for engaging with us.

We learn a lot every time that we do this progress monitoring.

I know AJ might have some counsel to us as we move forward, but I just want to leave you with we have, I believe we have the right strategies.

These are research based and we're going to try to stay the course, but I just appreciate the level of questions that you all asked and give us a lot to think about as we go forward.

And thank you for your support.

So you want to tee it up with AJ to give us his piece?

SPEAKER_04

I'm not sure.

Go ahead, AJ.

SPEAKER_27

Good evening.

SPEAKER_04

Can you all hear me?

Yeah, we can hear you well, man.

Any feedback?

SPEAKER_27

No, it's perfect.

Great to be with you all.

First, kudos.

I am so excited for this team and the work that you all are doing.

I really appreciate the thorough monitoring report that the administration's put together, how you have clear data that is part of the board's goals, but then also additional data that helps explain and give more context around the direction you're all doing.

I think you all have put a lot of thoughtfulness into how are we helping articulate what does the data mean.

I think it's also helpful that you have made it really clear what your interpretation is.

You've got multiple colors in the color scheme that identify and let your board members know, no, actually this isn't actually on track and it's not going to get on track without really significant changes.

I think that level of clarity around your interpretation is really valuable.

To the board side, you all came loaded up and prepared to ask a lot of questions.

I was writing down all the questions and I have put them into an evaluation spreadsheet and we'll send it off to you so you can see all the questions and you can see how I evaluate the questions.

But it's all based on the rubric that I provided to you.

Julia has it.

She'll send it out again.

So you'll have it again because there's a to some of you may have the version that you received.

Uh, last year, but we've just updated again and send out a new version of the monitoring guidance about 2 months ago.

So we'll make sure that you all have that.

And so what I'll send you is a spreadsheet that has all the questions that you all asked in it.

and then how they stack up in the monitoring guidance.

But the fact that you all are really digging in and being really curious is valuable and curious across a wide variety of domains.

Always a big fan of board member wet blanket.

But I but I think it's important that the board collectively is asking questions across the variety of domains not all centered in one area.

So bringing financial questions into a strategic conversation is 100 percent in alignment with what you're supposed to be doing in an activity like this.

And so just the way that you all jumped in, as usual, making space for your colleagues of the day who are students to make sure that they are participating in the process as well.

Just big love on all of that.

I want to read through some of the questions.

Again, I won't go through all of this because you'll get my detailed report.

I want to read through a few of the questions.

I don't want you to hear any of this as these are things to remove from your process.

The only thing I want to highlight because there is so much richness in what you all did.

I just want to highlight things that you will want to add to your process.

And so keep what you've got.

But then just how do we take it to the next level.

As I'm listening to all this by the way I think part of the the unexpected weakness and why some of the questions I'm going to highlight weren't asked is because I actually think you all are so aligned as a board and as a board with your administration that there are some things that you are taking for granted.

And I would encourage you to ask questions about them even though you're already in alignment around them just to test them.

And so if there's any weakness in this monitoring conversation I'm about to highlight I think the weakness is just an abundance of alignment.

But I'm going to encourage you to test that alignment to make sure that it's actually producing the results you want.

not just matching your assumptions about what should be producing the results you want.

So that's what you should hear in this, not take away anything you asked, but what's that next level of thing that you need to add in inquiry.

So for example, one of the questions that was asked was, what is the strategy for supporting building leaders or holding them accountable for setting these expectations in the classroom?

What's the strategy at the building level to provide adequate collaboration time?

So part of the thing that I want you to get curious about before you ask a question like this, this question is doing a few things.

It's asking really something that's almost at a tactical level rather than a strategic level.

It's also asking about what you're going to do going forward.

What I would encourage you to get curious about before you ever ask a question like this is what evidence do we have that this is actually the right strategy to begin with?

that more collaboration time is the right strategy.

If that's what the administration is putting forward, and I'm not clear that it is, but let's say that it is, what evidence do you have that that is the lever that's gonna make the difference?

Because the danger that you have, if you don't ask that question first, the danger you have is that you are anchoring your administration around strategies that they have not provided you evidence are working.

And so that's why before you get super curious about what are the strategies that we're going to implement going forward for almost every single question I wrote down and you'll see this in the reviews spreadsheet.

They're all talking about what are you going to do going forward.

But this and this is what I mean when I say I think you're assuming that because there's so much alignment you're making assumptions around what's working and what's not working.

I test these things.

And so before I ask questions about what's going to happen next, I'd be layering in some questions about what evidence do you have that we actually got here?

A perfect example of that came up where a board member asked a question very much like that.

You indicate this goal is orange, unlikely to be accomplished without significant change.

Which of these are significant changes that you feel are going to be necessary?

What evidence do you have that these changes are actually going to move student outcomes?

That type of question needs to be showing up a lot more often.

That question was spot on in that it brought in the question, hey, you're saying this particular change is necessary, but you're also saying that you need significant change in order to pull it off.

Why do you consider this a significant change?

Totally fair question, spot on.

And what evidence do you have that this particular change has actually gotten us results in the past?

So that's the one example that I wrote the entire evening that really leans into the types of questions that I would encourage you to ask more of.

So don't remove the questions that you ask, but make sure you're asking the questions to get at, how do we know that the strategies are actually working?

And so again, that's the one high level thing.

I think it's born out of just an abundance of alignment.

And so that's a beautiful thing for it to be born out of.

It just means you have to be vigilant about your own biases around the strategies that you believe are going to work.

You know get questions about them.

One of the coaching piece and you all can go back and replay the video yourself to test me on this one.

Much of the time you spend more time asking your question, kind of adding all kinds of preliminary statements and hemming and hawing and so on and so forth.

Most of the time you actually spend more time asking a question than your administration's been answering the question.

That's just something the way I see boards get better at that.

show up with your questions written down.

Not even questions that you necessarily provided to the superintendent in advance but like have a list for you as you've gone through it here are five questions that I'm definitely going to ask and then just be prepared to read it but that way you're not kind of having to work to organize your thoughts because here's the thing that you'll see if you go back and replay this video.

When you spent three minutes trying to figure out how to get your question out the first question that you asked in a series of three-minute kind of discussion, three-minute monologue, the superintendent only ever answered the last question that you got out.

And so even if the first question, even if you ask like three questions in a sequence while you're busy trying to get your thoughts together, the superintendent generally only answered the last one.

I think largely because unlike me, he probably was not writing them down word for word.

And so he probably lost track of them, because if I wasn't writing them down, I would have definitely lost track of the first one you asked.

And so that's what I mean by, I think if you write down your questions, you know, at the start of this conversation, like, I want to ask this one, I want to ask this one out, then just ask the question, don't add a bunch of preliminaries.

And I think you'll get more of the answers that you're wanting.

Because another thing that happened, there are a number of times when, because you kind of bumbled around with some of the questions, The superintendent never actually got around to giving you the answer that I think you wanted, but I don't hold him accountable for that.

I hold you all accountable for that in your question style.

And so that's something that's easy for you all to handle.

Just, you know, come prepared.

The other thing that I would offer that I always offer is I'm happy to meet with you in advance to just have a one-on-one session to kind of hammer things out to figure out kind of what's the question you're trying to get at and what do you want to know?

I want to give you one more example before I hang this up.

Actually, I'll go back to an example I called on.

What was the strategy for supporting building leaders or holding them accountable for setting these expectations in the classroom?

What's the strategy at the building level to provide adequate collaboration time?

This was an example of where it took a really long time to get to the final question.

First part of it I think got missed.

The superintendent tried to take a swing at the second part of it.

But this is where as board members I think when it takes you so long to get to your question I think you may be struggling to remember what you asked and what and struggling then to test for did I get my question answered.

Because here's the answer the superintendent gave.

Let me read the question again.

What's the strategy at the building level to provide adequate collaboration time.

And the superintendent's response essentially was our strategy is to provide high quality Tier 1 instruction.

That is valuable.

That's an accurate answer but it's not a particularly valuable answer.

That's kind of like saying where are we going on this trip.

And the superintendent saying we will be driving on the right side of the road rather than the left side of the road.

It is accurate but it's just not particularly helpful.

And I think part of the reason you get answers like that, again, if you give, you know, a four minute long intro and the superintendent's kind of struggling to synthesize what do they want to know, and you wind up with a more generalized answer rather than a more specific answer.

And again, I put that on the questioner more than the answerer.

And I think if you just get really clear and precise with your questions instead of, you know, a long intro and multiple compound questions, it'll be easier for the superintendent to give you answers that are both accurate and useful.

So that's the feedback I wanted to provide.

I certainly want to open it to any questions you have or clarification.

And like I said, I'll follow up with both a spreadsheet that identifies the performance on these, the way that we're training people to identify performance on these questions and an invitation for you all to make some one-on-one time.

So any questions or anything that I can clarify before I get out of your way?

SPEAKER_04

They're really burning because we're already 20 minutes past and we have another work session.

So if it's something that can be email, consider that.

SPEAKER_27

Well, again, as I want to close out, just really, really excited about where you all are in this journey, the work that the administration is doing, but then the quality of questions that you all are asking as a board and the way you're digging into it.

Don't stop anything you're doing.

All I'm going to do is add some coaching on.

Let's add on.

Let's keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger.

Keep up the great work.

Call on me anytime.

Mr. Chair, back to you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

Have a wonderful evening.

OK.

We got to go back.

Oh, I don't think we need to go back.

Let's go ahead and knock this out.

SPEAKER_17

Great.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

Thank you.

Great job.

SPEAKER_08

It's the week before winter break.

It's always an entertaining time.

We're getting there.

SPEAKER_04

All right, for those of you who might be watching at home, we are about to transition into a transportation work session.

This work session will be short, hopefully.

We are scheduled for 30 minutes obviously directors if you have questions you have questions, and I will turn it over to Superintendent Jones who will turn it over to staff.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you Fred Podesta interim deputy superintendent my colleague Dr. Campbell will give the most of the presentation but I'd like to make a few introductory remarks.

I think the last kind of budget related work session was on November 16th for the risk management pool and just a general fiscal update was provided at that time we said we'd come back to start talking about transportation.

We want to really, our goal this evening is really to set the context, I think it's not an overstatement to say that transportation has been through a very tumultuous time in the last few years as much as any department in the district.

Getting through ongoing labor shortages prior to the pandemic.

We had some improvements in the fall of 2019 but just a few months later we ceased having in-person learning.

And I would say in the scheme of kind of staffing and operations in Seattle Public Schools transportation shut down harder if you will than any other department because we weren't providing much transportation.

We were providing some, but not much transportation during that time.

That was considerably a large workforce that was laid off during the time of the pandemic and again was a workforce that was hard to recruit before the pandemic.

So when we returned to in-person learning, we really needed to completely to stand up new operations and had a very challenging year.

In the prior school year as you know we weren't able to ever through the whole course of the year deliver on our service standards to provide transportation completely and really had large shortfalls at the beginning of that year.

We also placed our legal obligation to reaward since we outsource most of our transportation operations to compete for new transportation partners in the middle of that.

And while that was a challenging and difficult process I think we landed on a really good outcome.

And this year exceeded our expectations of really being able to start the school year providing full service and providing good operations.

I really want to thank the board for support of two vendor model which and frankly just going into that the fact that we had competition for the first time in many many years was a good problem to have.

It made it hard to sort out.

I think we landed in the right place with splitting the work with two partners who have brought a lot of innovation or have brought new drivers, which is our chronic problem, into the system.

I had a little bit of a concern.

really going to be competing for the same pool of drivers and trying to recruit from each other.

I think we've got a model where they are actually bringing new players into the system, new types of operations into the system.

So again I want to thank the team and thank Dr. Jones and this board for supporting that model.

So it is really great that our operations have improved and are actually this year operating better than they have in several years.

But this is coming at a cost and where transportation is an area where chronically the district's expenses have exceeded our state funding by a large amount so it's really an area as we try to find a path to a balanced budget it really just bears some examination.

So I'll turn it over to Dr. Campbell who can really Describe kind of where we are and set the context and at this point again We're really just trying to set the table of the major moves.

We're going to be evaluating To try to see if we can find significant efficiencies in our transportation system This is not to present those options.

I would I I would strongly advise if you are willing to take advice from me is to think about transportation when you see our whole balancing package.

Because you asked a very good question in the last work session Director Harris about how are we setting priorities?

If we make decisions too early about well we can't touch this in transportation then you're not doing that.

This is not the time to make anything in operations sacred until you see the whole package and what the tradeoffs truly are because we are facing a very challenging set of circumstances to balance the whole district's budget.

So with that I will shut up and turn it over to my amazing colleague Dr. Marnie Campbell.

SPEAKER_18

Good evening, everybody.

It's nice to be here with you.

I want to say hello to our student representative.

It's wonderful to see you here.

I just want to say first off, if I may, just should I?

Is that OK?

I mean, it's a little muffled.

I was brought on in mid to late August as an interim director, executive director, and and in the ensuing time some things have happened in transportation.

I'm now actually leading transportation and honestly learning.

And I like to think I'm a pretty fast learner but there's a lot to learn.

So I want to give you that caveat.

I have educated myself and I believe have actually acquired maybe another doctorate in education at this point in the amount of time I put in to this.

But I do it because I care so very much.

This is essential to our district.

I've never seen and I've played a lot of roles in the district.

It's my 21st year in the district as a school leader, leader in special education, executive director of schools, executive director of curriculum instruction and now in operations.

So all of these things, I very much see how they all coalesce and how they all work together.

And I just want to start with that.

I also want to apologize because I know a number of you wanted to see much more detailed analysis.

The intent of this is to really give you an update and I'm not a believer in pulling punches.

I mean I think we have to be real.

I didn't you know my intention was not to step in a hornet's nest about bell times but these are simply things that have come up before and I believe they need to come before us again.

These recommendations for example on efficiency and efficacy and I added the efficacy because I think efficiency without efficacy is not the right way to think about how we operate as an organization.

But these all come forward from Hunter Malta so our last manager of transportation, these are not new.

So I realize that it was alarming, it's been alarming to some community members and I recognize alarming to you.

I promise you we will do detailed analysis but I don't want to get ahead of that, I don't want to jump into that until we really have an idea.

of what we want to do.

The idea about building efficiency existed, has existed for a while.

As I said, Director Maltais or Manager Maltais had these ideas but it's even more intensified now and just wanted to put it out there.

But again, I'm not intending to withhold work.

That work and analysis will be done.

I just want to give you that caveat.

We can do that and I have some tools that I can share with you.

All right so tonight I just basically as an update want to do transportation today December 2022 vision and goals.

A quick data update just a reminder about legal requirements and service guidelines for transportation and then some potential solutions for efficiency and effectiveness or efficacy.

So we can go to the next slide.

Thank you.

And I don't know if you can see this, but I went around and I just want everyone to see that human face of our transportation department.

It's a phenomenal department.

They're tucked back in the in the backside of the building.

There are people who are here.

They cannot do their work remotely.

They're on phones.

They're out in the field.

They're right here doing the work.

And there are just a phenomenal group of people in the upper right hand side.

You can see those are vests that are crossing guards and bus monitors were and then you can even see in the foreground some little dolls with a car seat that's for the special sort of five point I don't want to say harnesses but seat belts that we that certain students it's useful for them as they as they're on buses.

So and there's Evelyn if you know Evelyn up on the phone she's second in the top from the left.

She's phenomenal.

Great customer service.

She leads our team of interventionists and I just really wanted to share that with you so you could see the human face of our department.

The next slide, I just wanted to make sure that you understand and I realize this is teeny tiny, I always do this, that we align to our goals.

So the goals we've just been talking about and we've been talking about the seventh grade mathematics goal, but the third grade reading, seventh grade math and students ready for college and career with advanced coursework.

I will read the vision statement to you since the tiny students will learn and thrive when we see support and welcome every student and every family every day with respect care and consistency in their journey.

And I really have I have seen that as a school leader how critical that journey is from home to school and school to home.

And I see it even more so now so that the journey of learning begins the minute they.

cross their home threshold, head out into school.

So transportation really is part of setting our students up for the success.

Absolutely tied to our strategic plan.

And the next slide, similarly the guardrails are a little more directed toward things we might think of as operational but I think that the second one is particularly relevant.

We will not allow operational systems to deliver unreliable service.

That was our primary goal as we launched into the school year so I just wanted to share that.

Did you want it?

Okay feel free to stop me as I go forth I'm happy to be interrupted.

So really I mean coming into this work in the fall really we had some very simple goals and they might seem very baseline but frankly you know the last few years and I was at a school where a large number of our bus routes were cut and I saw that very real impact.

and lived with it throughout the course of the year.

So really coming as a practitioner into this role had somebody that understood the impact districtwide.

Our two service providers work in collaboration so that every route is running on time every day.

That was job one and guess what?

We did it.

I didn't want to promise that, we sent out a memo saying we might not be able to do it because we wanted to under promise and over deliver.

But we did it and it took a little bit of work with our two service providers but they really authentically collaborated where they are still definitely competitors but we had an agreement and Fred and I sat down with him and I said look the victory narrative we want here is that school buses are running, frankly people are pretty agnostic as to whether it's Zoom or for students, they just wanted bus.

I almost swore.

People just want a bus right?

They don't really care.

The competition I believe has created these conditions and I don't always love competition as a necessary motivator but in this case I believe it is the reason why we are having the service we are having.

We are working hard to have a full roster of support staff, including crossing guards and bus monitors.

We are still short crossing guards and bus monitors.

That is a group of people that we lost them during the pandemic and bringing them back has been very, very hard.

Bring them back vaccinated.

That last year was the challenge.

Our field staff supervisor went out door to door and knocked on doors and all the people to help encourage them to get their vaccinations.

So that's that's been a piece of work.

The other challenge there is that the process for application was not automated it was all on paper so some of the work I've done is to try to is I've gotten that into neo gov and to try to get more people applying online so that we can follow our regular procedures.

We're working hard to have full staffing in the transportation department.

So we have been we are adjusting and realigning and especially now.

But we requires a special kind of person particularly the potential new director of transportation unique set of skills.

We focus on responsiveness to phone calls emails and communications and let's talk.

So that is really critical to and that is daily work that we do.

So these are again these things that I said these are immediate baseline things we've got to do.

The things that I know I experienced as a school leader that families experience.

and we want to use digital tools so that families and schools have fast or faster access to more information in real time.

That and some of you I think asked questions about that and again please stop me if you have a specific question.

Zoom has an app that they pushed out themselves to families that families have really enjoyed.

They're a ride hailing company so that was a big part of their business model.

And as it was a little bit of a time to get people acclimated to that but people are used to using apps of that type.

First student is still building out its family facing app.

We are doing some work with them to make sure it complies with our VPAT with our ADA compliance and a few other things that we need them to fix.

So we would love for that to be accessible to families.

It would it would enable families to feel that much more confident and it would also enable us to maybe streamline a little bit.

Did you have a question Leslie?

Dr. Harris sorry.

SPEAKER_20

Thank you very much so.

My recollection of the contract and the RFP was that our good friends at First Student promised us the family facing app.

And I.

in years past to spend some time with our friends at First Student and I know that internationally they advertise because international conglomeration and we listen to senior corporate officers in this room promise us that.

So I guess I'm confused.

Burn me up please.

SPEAKER_08

They.

I've got a little bit more background with this possibly Dr. Campbell.

Thanks.

No absolutely.

They have in this contract in the prior made an app available to us.

It is in use in more than 200 districts around the country.

We have some specific requirements here that require some integration work on our side to actually get it implemented.

You know both vendors were pushing hard to try to Get us to do that work to have it ready for the start of school, but we just had so many changes So it's it's really a partnership Zoom because of their ride-hailing background I think were their design makes it that you know, they can push the they can make products available to families with or without us and first student is kind of more integrated into our system so there's work that we need them to do and that we need to do to make that.

But I think they've fulfilled their contractual obligations.

This is why we like competition I mean I think on this front one of our partners is more adept than the other and so that's one of the things we'll be looking at but I do believe that again first student has delivered has made available what they proposed we have work to do to integrate it with our data systems that is not complete yet.

SPEAKER_18

Yeah and I thank you for that Fred and I also there are just some technical pieces of it and I won't and I'm happy to follow up with you Director Harris and some more specifics that I have a meeting I've met several times with that team and I need to meet with them again to say here's some things from a just a privacy and legal perspective that We need them to develop a little bit more.

It works but it doesn't mean just a few.

It requires some implementation on our part and also has some some potential data privacy issues.

I'll just say that I don't want to you know it's fine but it's we have some work we need to do before we're comfortable saying that we're sponsoring this as a as a district.

I will say that the school dashboard we are rolling out and that's actually a boon because if schools can look on a dashboard and see where the ride is that's huge.

I mean and so as much as families want to know it's also something when schools are waiting for buses to show up and or at the beginning or end of the day that that's also significant.

All right and I just wanted to share next slide just a little bit of family feedback just because we like to, yeah sorry completely not visible.

But this came from families, our student traffic safety committee.

So just sent these to me and said we've just heard such positive things.

I said send it you know I'm sure the board would like to hear it.

This year has been an incredible improvement.

We've had a bus from the beginning of the year with no issues.

Our bus has been slightly late one time and the driver apologized and had a completely understandable explanation.

He's even reminded us about early releases and I'm a mother of a Fourth grade student it is our fifth year in the school starting in kindergarten and our fifth year using SPS bus services compared to the last year and the year prior to the pandemic our bus service has vastly improved.

We have had zero late and canceled buses since the beginning of the year and have had no complaints regarding the drivers or experience from our child.

Now of course that we have had a few hiccups but this is by and large the feedback we are getting.

So I just wanted to really celebrate the positive things, the fact that we were able to launch the year with a full roster of buses and transportation.

So hooray to the transportation team and to first student in Zoom.

Thank you.

All right next slide.

So the other thing I want to mention about 70 percent of our students do not use district transportation.

However getting to school is still part of our mission.

So we do have a project manager a Safe Routes to Schools project manager who works with the city is funded by the city who sponsors things and there's our own Dr. Jones and our mayor and Lori Dunn.

who is our leader in PE, walking, biking, alternate routes to school, safe routes to school.

So that is just, I just wanted to really highlight that as well, that we are also thinking about our overall health as a city, physical health and environmental health, that we also want to acknowledge that that's part of our work is really supporting alternate ways of getting to school.

So that's just a few highlights of data.

Some on time performance data and I want to clarify Zoom represents their data AM and PM and then overall.

So that and the first student data is AM.

The AM is a harder target to reach the AM on time data.

And so that's why first student that's how they've typically represented it.

But if you aggregate it it's it's that you should pull this up on the screen.

I believe it's 95 percent.

Yeah.

95 percent overall on time performance as of the week of November the 11th.

And 96.3 on time performance by first students.

So we aim for 97 to 98 percent on time performance.

And part of our work is just analyzing you know where the hold ups.

There's usually a few key routes that are difficult.

Sometimes we have to consolidate the route make it more efficient.

Sometimes it's just a high traffic area.

So we have to think about you know when we pick up and drop off and those kinds of things.

So that's just one of our key performance indicators are really our main key performance indicator.

SPEAKER_08

It might be worth noting that the AM on time performance is the key performance indicator built into the contract which is required to be reported monthly.

So what we see in these on these altering layouts between the two vendors is Zoom is providing more detail for student in this case has provided what's in the contract that they're required to provide.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you.

Any questions about this?

All right.

Next slide.

This is a slide of ridership.

SPEAKER_08

This is just for students.

I think we had them on two different slides.

SPEAKER_18

Yeah I know.

Can we go to the next slide.

Yeah.

96.3.

All right.

Ridership over time you've seen this.

Some of you have noted that as of today it's reported to me that we have fourteen hundred six hundred ninety nine riders.

overall in the district.

So not all of those riders are eligible for the state count.

And that's something I've learned for any number of reasons.

If they are not riding on a school bus they do not get counted on their state count so that the number of riders might not match the number of students reflected in the state count.

So that's just an important thing to note.

And the next slide.

So this is our fall period state count data.

Average distance and these are the things that the state asks us to report three times a year.

We're just completing that winter state count.

2.22 miles is the average distance.

And again some of you asked is great question because I researched it.

But it is basically if you take every single school bus or bus stop and its distance to the school and average them out, it's 2.22 miles.

102 destinations, 9,525 basic program riders and 3,191 special program riders.

So again, those are ones that can be counted.

Some of the routes that Zoom has are currently being serviced by vans versus school buses and that was not optimal but that was a result of some supply issues for them.

There are reasons why that's actually been good in a way because it's enabled them to train more drivers more quickly it creates a pipeline because they can be learning without yet having their commercial driver's license.

So it actually has been an interesting pipeline experiment.

Sadly we cannot we cannot count those students on vans as for the state count.

That's just what the state has decided.

Nor can we count students just on any alternative service provider.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_16

Sorry for the state count.

That's OK.

So the state count if there are there still basic program writers but they're on a van not a bus.

The state doesn't include them.

Correct.

SPEAKER_18

Okay yeah so and some of you have asked and I will just say again because I you know if there were to be any change in the state the way the state does their funding formula to include alternative service providers actually would be quite powerful and even some of our alternative service providers that are driving smaller cars are actually operating electronic vehicles hybrid vehicles like it might actually ultimately be a really smart choice especially Where we are looking at some of our routes just having smaller riders for any number of reasons.

We don't have a lot of options so we put a very few kids in a very large vehicle and it's not really great for anybody.

So if we could count our kids on alternative service providers that would actually make a big difference for us.

because we just wind up putting a lot of kids on alternate vehicles because it works better for them.

And it gets them to where they need to go and that is our primary job even though we know we're not getting reimbursed for that.

Yeah.

Director Hersey.

SPEAKER_04

I totally understand that and think that that's a great idea.

The biggest complaint that I've heard about that particular model is that it's really or at least there has traditionally not been a density of union represented members that participate in those multimodal scenarios.

So what I'm wondering is, is there a way?

Well, that might not necessarily fall under our jurisdiction, but that would be a concern for me.

Yeah.

So if you have a response and whatever that might be.

SPEAKER_18

Absolutely and again I'm just sharing with you what the kinds of information I've been getting.

I mean we have a couple of competing interests here but yes.

SPEAKER_08

I think we the district as a policy leader I mean there have been various movements over the years to organize drivers in that business model and perhaps if the board chooses to use its authority as a policy leader saying that anything that the legislature or others can do to remove any barriers for those types of drivers to organize.

And we made it clear our labor harmony requirements with our vendors.

You know, and actually let them know that hey, this model works for us, it would work even better if all the drivers were represented.

That we wouldn't have that split, it would also probably make this an easier thing to accomplish in Olympia.

SPEAKER_16

That's super helpful.

But you're also talking about like for example, for student drivers, Teamsters were not reimbursed if they drive a van.

They are not driving vans.

Oh okay so the vans are being provided completely through a different sorry.

SPEAKER_08

Mostly through Zoom.

SPEAKER_18

They are Zoom vehicles.

SPEAKER_08

And they are ramping up and this has so it's provided you know that's how we've been able that's one way Zoom has been able to really get more drivers into the market is that they can Gotcha.

Get them employed and make money for the company, but also paying the drivers right away as they go get their commercial driver's license and then get ready to drive a yellow bus.

But again, we use our buying power and our policy authority to let everybody know that, hey, we like having represented drivers regardless of what kind of vehicle they're driving.

SPEAKER_18

Right.

Thank you.

Any further questions?

SPEAKER_21

Thank you.

SPEAKER_18

Anything thus far?

Okay.

All right someone had asked the question why the decrease in ridership and that you know overall there is an inconsistent service last year, the last couple of years some families have made other arrangements and this is from my department members.

and maintain those arrangements.

Orca cards so this is the first year that we have given Orca cards to all.

We can no longer count students with Orca cards so we used to count them toward our state count and then we would buy the Orca cards but it was still a net gain for us.

We no longer count those students so that is a definite shift in our numbers.

There are some shifts in some grandfathering of transportation, we are using some more alternative service providers that again is just again to meet the needs of students to get them where they need to go.

So we also last year when we lost routes More students opted for transportation maybe through their IEPs which then literally drove alternative service providers so we are working on adjusting that which I can talk more about in a moment.

So next slide.

So this is the one that I'm just sharing with you broad numbers.

We absolutely can get more specific.

This is our adopted budget minus what STARS has told us that is the state reimbursement model in July.

What they anticipate they will reimburse.

So there's our there's our gap.

So and that we can talk about why that is what it is but it is what it is.

We may wind up spending less than 51 million.

That was that was you know projection and our budget analyst you know based it on.

We don't have you know the last couple of years we don't have really good historical data.

We know that costs have gone up in terms of labor and fuel and other kinds of things.

But there are other reasons why this gap has has widened.

SPEAKER_14

I think it would be helpful to have some historical data on the number of buses that we have been using because that seems to be driving our actual cost.

And so I think that was like one of my big questions between what happened between last year and this year, did we plan for a return to the original number of buses because now we have the two contracts and that's why we've got this budget estimate and how many buses are we actually using.

So I'm just trying to like drive in as to is this 52 million actually what we are expecting our transportation to cost this year?

Or do we have any hope that this deficit is smaller than what is being presented right now?

SPEAKER_18

That's a really great question.

So the quick answer is we run what we call controls.

Control means a bus and a driver.

A single control might run a number of routes.

So that's one way of thinking about expenditures.

We run 340 controls.

And I made a cool little tool that I'm happy to share with you that lets you kind of play around with the different variables.

So if you're estimating an average number of about 30 kids per bus, which we're a little higher but it's just an easier number to work with, average 39, at about 100 grand per bus that's a little low but again it's a good number to work with.

how many controls are required if we have, if we are transporting kids in two batches, three batches, four batches, just to kind of see that if we can change some of those variables we can change the cost.

So if you want to see that let me know I will send it to you, I just made a little spreadsheet.

SPEAKER_08

Over the past years of our previous contract and understanding that we weren't offering in-person service for a long period in there but when we had full ridership this has been a pretty stable number between 340 and 360 buses.

And this budget was built on an assumption of 355 controls and so it sounds like we have found some efficiencies.

SPEAKER_14

Here when we had to suspend some routes, do you know off the top of your head?

SPEAKER_08

We eliminated 80 controls and our goal at the time I believe was 353 so we were and that really has informed when we start talking about the reductions we are trying to achieve.

We're kind of using that as a benchmark to look for models that get us back to that 280 control level.

SPEAKER_18

All right.

Just a reminder and you probably you all are if we can move on.

Thank you.

Our transportation funding model I don't know is Linda Sebring still here or did she leave?

We lost her.

OK.

I have spent and I have this binder is full of all the information about STARS which is the state transportation funding model.

But we are funded on the lesser of prior years expenditures or the are expected costs based on a regression analysis.

The funding is heavily weighted on two factors, the number of riders, and that's not individual students, and to wrap your head around that, that means we're just counting riders on buses.

We're not saying this person rides at the beginning and end of the day.

That's not how it works.

It's just simply riders being transported to and from school, the number of destinations that busses take students to and from.

Those are two of the big factors.

The number of buses we use does not, so basically it's up to us to move riders to places as efficiently as we can in order to meet the state's criteria there.

If you think about Seattle if you think about both our city and how we do school which I think is wonderful where we give lots of choice and lots of options it becomes a little less efficient because we are moving kids to lots of different places.

And that's then that's why we see that gap.

I mean that's that's a short answer to that.

Director Rankin.

SPEAKER_16

I was just going to channel JoLynn Berge and add that there's another factor that's used where they compare comparable districts and we don't have a comparable district.

So when that's being evaluated at the state level for if districts are spending appropriately or not according to the formula that is something that is uniquely negatively impactful for Seattle.

SPEAKER_18

I literally have a note right here Director Rankin that I typed that says we don't have a peer district to model from.

So yes we are suey generous in so many ways in Seattle but definitely transportation is where we see that bearing out.

Contractor costs have increased if you want to know.

You know let's see if there's anything else.

I have a lot of details here.

If you have any additional.

We have some of our buses that are being run right now are leased.

And just so you know that has an impact because while we can count riders on leased buses we can't.

There's a depreciation factor that this state also gives us.

We can't count on that depreciation factor if we're using a leased vehicle.

So that's just another thing that that we're facing right now.

Yes Dr. Harris.

SPEAKER_20

Harris Was that taken into account in our RFPs and our contracts?

Assistant Superintendent.

SPEAKER_08

It was taken account as we evaluated proposals and we are kind of negotiating prices.

We have allowed flexibility whether it's lease buses or vans to try to get a second provider into the market.

understanding that you know it's a huge capital lift for them on up front so we are still having discussions about the flexibility we gave to the new partner so they could stand up a business you know has impacts on our reimbursement and so we are.

SPEAKER_20

Harris Do we have any kind of a guesstimate and I appreciate first year.

competition blah blah blah.

Do we have any sense of how much money we're losing because of that?

SPEAKER_08

I think we can certainly provide that.

SPEAKER_20

I because that that feels like extraordinarily important new news to me.

SPEAKER_08

Best and then I think we should also add that this is something that we expect to be corrected over the course of this year.

I mean this is going on for a matter of months and it matters but we felt you know to get another player into the market and get all the benefits that we were going to get it was worth taking the hit.

SPEAKER_20

Harris and I'm not suggesting it wasn't worth it I'm just.

frankly shocked.

That's all.

And we'd like more information.

SPEAKER_18

Sure.

Thank you sir.

Yeah.

We have a note about that and thank you.

These are just our bus contract budgets.

So you can see the increases.

Any number of factors that that you know impact the cost of the bus contracts.

Yeah.

Georgia Sunwards.

SPEAKER_14

I think I am surprised that the number in 21-22 is so close to the budgeted amount given that we had so many, we had reduced the number of controls by it sounds like a third, right?

So why were we only able to save $4 million?

SPEAKER_08

think the budget estimate was probably low that year and this ended up being roughly the equivalent of of going to three tiers that we only did over part of the year.

So we eliminated 80 controls.

We started bringing them back almost immediately.

We never got there.

And we had estimated then that that was about a potential $5 million savings.

So I think it's in the ballpark.

We can drill down into these numbers a little bit more.

Whether the budget number was too small, but we ended up close to it and then also in the remaining buses ended up paying for more extra time than we would have for the buses that we were using.

SPEAKER_03

Is fuel calculated into these costs as well?

SPEAKER_08

No this is just we we buy the fuel directly.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you.

Next slide.

Just a reminder of the legal requirements.

So we are legally not that we would ever do this but only required to transport students who have transportation indicated in their special education IEP or students who are entitled to transportation because they are unhoused or are covered by the McKinney-Vento law.

So just know that those are things that you know that are that we are legally required to do.

And then the next slide.

So these are our constraints those legal requirements our own transportation service standards which you are familiar with.

Ride time so attendance area elementary and K-8 schools 45 minutes or less were feasible.

All other routes 60 minutes or less were feasible.

And the definition of ride time the time the first student boards the bus until the bus arrives at school in the morning the time the bus leaves the school to the last student is dropped off in the evening.

And transportation option schools and other program schools is also part of our transportation service standards currently.

Next slide.

So just again this was in Fred's and my conversations and I'm probably you know coming out the gate a little early in terms of the larger budget work that we're doing but in reality we in order to be responsible In our system, regardless of what other work we're doing with our budget, this seemed like a reasonable reduction to shoot for, about $7 million, which would be about 70 controls.

It's not precise numbers, but it's a good way to think about it.

So reducing 65 to 70 controls, that's a bus plus a driver, that's approximately a 20% reduction.

So that's what we're aiming for, just as an initial start.

that I wanted to share with you and that's again just to bring us into alignment with what we believe the state expects of us.

We are in terms of our KPIs with the state and again we do not have a peer or a like district in the state but we are ranked last in the key performance indicator of basic riders per bus out of about 23 districts.

We're about third or fourth from the last in terms of special ed.

That is the number of riders per bus.

So that just again is an aggregate.

And what that means is that again I believe it's because of our commitment to getting kids to school to their programs to all of the things that we that we want to do.

It means that our buses just run not quite as full as they might in other in other districts.

So this gets us to the slide where we're just thinking and we're just we're just imagining here some of the things that we might do.

This first one I think is is our responsibility regardless is to return more students with IEPs to general education routes and create more inclusive communities that during the time when we first returned from the pandemic only students with IEP services were getting bus routes.

And I know that I saw in my own school, in order to really serve and meet the needs of families, some decisions were made maybe to add transportation to that IEP so that student could get that service.

And we know that that's happened in a number of places.

So the first thing we want to do is take a pass at some of our service model one IEPs, see do they have transportation in them and is that something that it might be better and healthier for that student to move back to the Gen Ed route.

So that's something that we think we should do regardless.

It will result in savings potentially and getting more riders on those buses but it also will be the right thing to do for our students.

There's a couple of models where we might think about a slight shift in what I'm calling a modified two tiers.

So if we shifted some bell times for a few programs that would enable us to piggyback a couple of routes.

And our and our transportation staff are you know they know which ones can fit together.

So that might be one approach.

And I want to say up front that moving to three start times and again although we we frame this as a transportation issue we all know it's it's really a schooling issue right.

This changes just about everything about school for everybody and I'm not unmindful of that by any means.

But it happens to land in transportation so.

Here we are but I very much see how these things all come together.

This alone would probably get us to our 65 to 70 controls if we move to three tiers of start times.

We might and again and I can and will model this out.

It might take perhaps a combination of all of the others to come even close to that impact.

So we really just want to think about all of the other shifts so we could.

do a couple of modified two-tier start times.

Again those those two second and third bullets are that an opt-in transportation process we could we could look into that that's something that districts do.

So we would want to make sure that we were mindful of equity you know that we don't some families that might not proactively opt into transportation we would have to find a way to make sure that we're not Leaving them out of that service that we want to provide.

Similarly we could look at opt in for option schools or there are some other models that we could do for option school transportation certainly not eliminating it.

But there are other Everett has an interesting idea that I've seen where they pick kids up at their neighborhood school and then take them to their option school.

So it just it makes the routes a little more efficient so that you don't have to drive all around to a lot of different places.

So there's a couple of ideas like that that we're investigating and exploring right now.

And I actually have a project manager who's working on researching this right now.

Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Given that all of this wonderful information, because we have received quite a few emails, there is not a proposal at this time to move the district to three-tier bell systems.

Is that correct?

Correct.

And there is also not a proposal at this time to cut transportation to all option schools.

Is that correct?

SPEAKER_18

Correct.

I mean these are thank you thank you for clarifying that.

SPEAKER_04

No I just if somebody could take that clip and blast it out I think that would be really really helpful because we've already started to receive a few emails and that clarification is super important.

SPEAKER_08

I think it's probably worth noting that all the analysis that Dr. Campbell is talking about the thing we don't really need to do analysis into is three tiers.

We understand that system we know what it would do.

we've kind of set that up as an aspirational target in this exercise to see so what combination of everything else on that list could save the equivalent amount.

That's what this exercise is really about and again I think the board would do itself a disservice to take any option off the table until you see the whole because you're going to be trading general fund dollars in transportation for things that are so critical that we really need to understand everything.

So we understand how difficult the conversation about, we were here, we paid attention, we know how difficult that conversation is.

We are facing some very difficult choices.

We just didn't seem intellectually honest to say, well, here's something we know we could do, and we're just not even, you know, we're never gonna talk about it again.

Just did not seem like a good faith approach to this work.

So that's why it's there.

But no, there's no such option.

SPEAKER_15

Wow.

I'm sorry.

No thank you.

Thank you for that.

President Hersey for emphasizing that point there.

And one of my questions.

My commute is about to die so hopefully I remember and wrote it down enough.

Regarding this slide, having an estimate of what the expected cost savings is from each of these I think is what I personally would need to give the answer you gave which is you need to know the direction we want to go.

I can't really give that direction unless I knew what the amounts were in this.

The cost savings expected were because that has to factor into it.

But then I also go back to when on a previous slide you had a thing about the goals being not just cost savings but actually a reduction in controls.

So my question is which are those equal goals or is one more important than the other?

Do we need to achieve both of them?

I mean I know that you kind of do achieve both together but some things like you said like the reduction in option schools might not actually save money but it would reduce controls perhaps.

So I'm trying to understand better what your goal is which of those is if there is a ranking of those two different goals.

And then again knowing what the cost savings of these would be would be necessary for me to give the direction of like yeah this sounds like something to pursue versus not.

I'm assuming they all have some amount of that but I would like to know what those are.

SPEAKER_18

For sure.

And I will say for I think for the purposes of this it's not just a thought exercise it's just real but controls equal cost savings.

So in other words the way to think about cost savings is to reduce the number of buses on the road.

That's it.

So each one of these has the potential to reduce the number of controls.

So for example if we modified just the transportation service standards and this is just speculative but let's say we increased that elementary school right to 55 minutes.

We might then be able to and this is the analysis we can do but it's going to take some you know we want to give you accurate analysis.

We might get five more kids per bus in elementary school.

That might then aggregate out to 20 controls, right?

20 buses.

So we think of that, our costs primarily come in the form of buses on the road.

And the more we can get, you know, efficiency around a bus moving as many kids as possible, the better.

So the cost savings really is, we would reflect it in terms of controls.

That's what we can manage.

We can, that's a variable that we can manage in terms of how we do our routing.

So does that help?

SPEAKER_15

And I know you can't predict quite yet but would you agree that there could be cost savings in an increase in revenue if the state was to reimburse for alternative transportation?

You wouldn't necessarily be lowering controls but you would have a cost savings per se because you're making more reimbursement.

SPEAKER_18

Sure I think that right now it does not look likely in fact our analysis of the potential shifts to the state funding actually has us losing quite a bit of money.

And their alternative is they said we can hold you harmless.

Well as you can see by the basic math holding harmless is not going to help us.

So there's there's another factor in here as well we might lose riders like if we were to say just restrict transportation overall as a move.

Yes, we lose revenue from the state.

However, we're also just reducing our costs overall.

So I think there's two things for us to think about.

You know, we do get reimbursed by the state, but we know that for the past little while it has not come near to our that our expenditures and our expenditures primarily hang on, again, choices we have made and their choices.

I understand why we've made them, but we've made some choices that result in just more expenditures in terms of how how many buses we run to move how many kids.

It comes down to that basically.

SPEAKER_15

But yeah.

And so regarding these suggestions again knowing what those cost savings would be is would be paramount to knowing.

But just on her face you know I definitely I appreciate the many options you have here.

And definitely I know the first one that jumps out is just the efficiency of opt in transportation and Are we close to that?

I know for a long time Ashley said we were working towards it.

SPEAKER_18

How close are we to that?

Not terribly close.

So I mean I mean we try to be but I don't have a figure for you.

But I mean if we were to say you must opt in in order to get transportation that would cut our ridership significantly which would then result in that you know fewer expenditures.

SPEAKER_15

Fewer expenditures and fewer reimbursement.

Yes I understand.

Yeah.

I like the idea of Everett and what you said about their option school busing because option school is interesting because you know people believe sometimes that wherever you live you get busing and you really don't, there's like that magic donut they call it of where you get busing for option school so if those were neighborhood school children they would still get transportation per se, they would just be to the neighborhood school so that I don't, that isn't necessarily, like you said you admitted there might not be a cost savings there.

But any kind of efficiency is great to investigate.

Of course with walk zone changes, I know we have a great school safety committee that investigates those.

Adjusting transportation service times for longer times.

It's already, you said making it longer would be more than an hour, because it's an hour right now, correct?

SPEAKER_18

For secondary, yes.

But most of our riders are elementary age kids.

And theirs is how long you said?

SPEAKER_15

Forty five.

So I think.

Depending on this obviously the school start time that kind of makes a difference how feasible that is right.

We're talking about exact years it was going to be like five in the morning wake up time.

Yeah.

But anyways again I'm I'm open.

I love the conversation we can have about this.

And if and when we can get when we can get the estimates on that would be great.

SPEAKER_18

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_19

Yes.

Quick follow up question to Director Rivera-Smith's question on the opt in process.

Is there a plan as part of that costing cost savings estimation strategy to survey existing transportation recipient families about and if we do that would we be asking about the implications of you know what's more important two tiers versus having transportation.

Thank you for this part of the analysis.

SPEAKER_08

Best You know we've been talking about how to research this and working with other districts who have had pilots.

What we've heard from some districts is you opt in and you end up with a bit more Swiss cheese in the routes that you have.

So people opt in, it doesn't reduce any buses, it lowers the ridership in the buses so we are trying to figure out how to approach, how to get some feedback and how to model what that savings might be.

Perfectly honest.

Some of this will be balancing that we're looking at for the 23 24 year and some of it will be balancing that we're looking for out years just because of the implementation.

SPEAKER_19

That was why I asked that question about I think if that's to happen it needs to be what?

Seems to me it would be important to be honest about the implications of not getting enough opt outs.

I mean you know like when you're on a plane with your luggage or you know what you're going to have to.

Yeah.

Something's going to be much more uncomfortable.

Yes.

Or you might perceive it as being uncomfortable.

What's your perspective about that.

Would you rather have two tiers or would you rather.

Right.

You know.

Would you rather have the time or you rather have the convenience of the transportation.

SPEAKER_16

So thank you for having this conversation with us in this way at this time rather than being alarmed to see it incorporated into some other information.

My question really is at this like what's the do we have a timeline estimate of when We would need to narrow down on choosing something or what at what point.

Like I guess what's the next what's the next step for this like when you come back to us with more information.

What do you need from us right now?

SPEAKER_08

To include them in an overall balancing package that's going to get introduced to the board in late January.

SPEAKER_17

Oh OK.

OK.

SPEAKER_08

And so because.

you know, as difficult as some of these things are, it's really, and we understand people need them costed, but they also need to understand everything else.

I mean, that these aren't just competing against each other, they're competing against every other choice that you have to make.

So I think our goal was just because transportation is such a big factor in our expenses that exceed state funding is to let you know that it's going to be a significant, I mean for this year, for the current school year, You know it was again transportation was called out as its own line item when there was proposal around three tiers and so I think We'll have a significant proposal around transportation, and we just wanted to be a little bit more transparent director Harris asked questions So what are the kind of instructions the staff are getting to try to approach this balancing package?

We wanted to give you insight into this one Again at the conceptual level just because it's going to be significant

SPEAKER_16

And the balancing package you're talking about overall budget.

Okay so between now and January what factors are going to be considered as you approach a chosen solution here to include in the balancing package?

Because that I know that January is January we approve a final budget in July.

legislative session we're not going to know really what changes might come out of legislative session until the end of April.

So everything is there.

We don't we don't have a set it and forget it position until like we're ready to approve the budget.

So I've got it.

I know that that was for me.

And that's a struggle that I have.

And if we're talking about accepting neurodiversity.

It's really a struggle.

SPEAKER_18

So understood.

SPEAKER_16

And now I'm totally derailed.

Sorry.

So between now and January it's great that this is now saying we have a problem, we have a problem we need to solve.

Here are some ways it could be solved.

Between now and January what factors will be taken into consideration before the the like I mean like I have opinions but I guess what I want to say right now is that I know from having advocated very strongly and worked with the city to get the money to go to two tiers in the first place after the flipped bell times for later times for high school students like I feel like a pretty good idea of the different feelings around bell times but also the different challenges and What I just will say what I know is important to community that has engaged on this topic is that late start time for the later start time for adolescence is and in terms of student outcomes there's a lot of data to support that being a healthier important thing to maintain is the later start time for adolescence.

The challenge that that created in 2016 was splitting elementary times on either side.

And so you have some elementary schools start at 750 and some at 940. Just really late.

But I guess the kind of the thing I'm wondering is as you're honing in on you know there's the financial analysis there's the customer analysis of just like simply do people have a preference?

And then there's also the impact on student outcomes.

And so the you know I know that the reliability and being able to coordinate when you have multiple kids in the system and just kind of knowing that you can manage that schedule whatever it might be is really critical.

Keeping that later start time for adolescents I heard from educators and students and families parents about how important that has been.

So I just I guess I'm just stating that I think that's a really strong value as we're navigating all this.

And people hate change.

But like this is the reality is this is a problem and it has to be solved.

So my sorry my my very specific question is I want to read because of last year and the way that this came forward and then didn't come forward.

I had an amendment.

to decouple making a decision about a change of bell times from the transportation service standards.

And I never had the opportunity to actually introduce that item.

And so it was misconstrued in various places.

The important thing that I want to reiterate here is that if there is a change in bell time that we're very clear about how and when that decision is made and that it's not.

tacked on to something else.

The service standards are about who rides the bus.

The bell times I just I don't want those to get squished together again and lose track of you know they're separate issues that deserve and need to be considered separately even though they're interacting.

So just as much clarity as we can get on how and when those decisions will actually be made.

And what to expect coming from before the board and when.

And then the other thing I wanted to ask is if you if there's any need based on if there's any policy level changes that should be looked at to provide better stronger direction from the board as you're approaching this that seems like something we should talk about sooner than later.

SPEAKER_17

So I apologize for the end of the day.

It's a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_08

And I think it was just the way you delineated it.

You talked about customer service impacts and other factors and student outcomes.

I think we're putting student outcomes first, not just in transportation but for everything.

And that's why I think it's important to not have this be a standalone topic that come in a comprehensive package, because if those other things don't add up to $7 million, and that's going to come out of some other program that may have been more impactful to student outcomes.

So we really just think it's important that this not be a standalone topic, even though it's a big one, and it's big enough to talk about, you know, how we're approaching it.

because it's so much in one bucket but it's really hard to make decisions.

SPEAKER_16

So would it be fair to say then that whatever comes forward in January shouldn't be thought of here's the package but here's all the information together and now we can all consider it together.

Would that be fair to say?

SPEAKER_08

Yes and we're hoping for some consolidated options because there's going to be a lot in there and every line item gets looked at you will be here for 100 years trying to figure it out.

SPEAKER_14

Director Mack.

Dr. Campbell I just want to say thank you so much for getting up to speed on this.

Based on my interactions with our building leaders I'm not surprised that a former building leader could jump in and just quickly learn like this and sort it out.

So thank you so much for your hard work on this.

I think one of my kind of big feelings about this is that we've made so much progress on our reliability of our transportation and I'm feeling a little nervous about having to rock that boat.

But I thank interim superintendent Deputy Superintendent Podesta for giving us the context for why we're going to have to make these difficult changes.

In terms of evaluating these options I think it's important Yes, we need to lay it all on the table and evaluate each one.

I think what would be helpful would be trying to understand if there are any combination of ideas that we can put together to kind of get us closer to the $7 million target.

And also I know this is I don't want this to be strictly driven as a financial decision.

I'd like to also understand the number of students that would be impacted with some of these options and which students.

SPEAKER_17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_14

So I just want to make sure that that is a consideration as we're weighing our decisions.

But thank you very much for this presentation and for having it right now.

SPEAKER_18

Oh absolutely.

And thank you for that.

That's why I added we often talk about efficiency and some of these operational things but again efficiency by itself does not get to what we're talking about.

It has to be effective it has to have efficacy has to meet the needs of families and students and community and that's really critical part of it.

So again I just want to say these are all things that were mapped out previously two years ago in a presentation I think it was the winter of 22 21. These are not new things are not unique.

I didn't dream them all up although the HC decentralization is one and someone did ask will that result in some more efficiency.

Yeah but if we do a year over year transition, it might actually result in the opposite.

There might be a time when we have even more kids going opposite directions if they are rolling that up.

So that's just something to think about.

And what I will do, and so some of you asked as well, why the revolving door?

Someone said it's like the defense against the dark arts teacher, I don't know if you know Harry Potter.

transportation manager, it's a really complex position and I think that it requires a level of technical ability and awareness as well as a finesse and frankly understanding Seattle Public Schools.

Which is a journey in and of itself.

And so I'm confident that we can find someone and I would like to find someone, I love it and I love the department but it's also you know it's a lot.

I feel confident that a strong transportation director will be able to help do this work.

I do have a project manager as I said.

What we are going to do is put together again in terms of thinking in terms of the core values that we have so these things that you've talked about.

Making sure that we're giving rides to kids who need rides.

making sure that we're supporting the community and as and I already said I mean three bell times is not a transportation issue it's a school issue and I get that and so we want to make sure that we're aware that it it does have an impact on the schooling experience but also aware that it's it's something that many many school districts do.

We're again a little singular in that we we only run two tiers.

But what we'll do is represent each one of these in terms of potential and our best analysis the impact it would have.

So it might be that one might only have two to three controls.

And again I think of that unit just because that's works for the way I can see that model running.

And it might be an aggregate of five plus another five that we haven't thought about yet that gets us to where we want to go.

So again as Fred said overall.

As responsible citizens, stewards, members of our community we do have to look at some more efficiency in how we do our work without losing that effectiveness.

And we all are also very aware of the need to not cut into other areas of service.

that you know we would have to pay for.

Not that it's a one to one ratio but we are part of a system.

So we do have to do our part in the context of the larger budget conversation.

So we will have that ready very soon.

Just not now but we will do that analysis.

SPEAKER_20

Because I could talk all night on this issue as you might be surprised to know.

So the next time we see the numbers on slide 20 the potential savings who it would affect unintended consequences will be wrapped into a potential budget session or we get a say an ETA with a different slide deck.

It has the big draft watermark on it so that we have more information attached to these options.

SPEAKER_08

Best I think we'd like to get a little further in the analysis before we lay out those milestones.

I mean some of these are going to come up just dry and they're not really going to be worth the effort.

And so the savings won't be there.

You know we are approaching this part of a larger budget exercise.

So, if once we have those initial estimates we think there is a need for some interim input and explaining how we got there again I think we want to see this in light, I mean every member of Dr. Jones cabinet is you know doing their own version of this right now.

Not many are at that scale.

And so if it ends up that you know we're only end up to end up in Dr. Jones recommendation to the board.

I think you'll just see it.

again laid out as part of the overall comprehensive package if it's more complicated than that we would devote dedicated time to this but I think it's a disservice to have these floating in space where you know the board can say this is not something we are really very supportive of without being known okay if we don't do this What is the thing that's going to affect another department?

I mean, I just I just think you need to see it all of a piece, you know, would be our goal.

SPEAKER_15

OK, I just wanted to follow up with us, as I said earlier, I really appreciate the options, but I did want to I was remiss to not say that as far as a three tier start time goes, I don't know the world in which that would go over well with families who were very taken by surprise.

last time about it and we saw a lot of the issues with it came forward.

I will say that there was, because I understand we never wanted to say roll this out immediately, but again, that one was really disruptive, it was going to show to be disruptive.

Part of that was also because there was an insistence that the tiers be an hour apart, which made the first tier really early and the last tier really, really late.

So I don't know if there's a way to shrink that down if you had to give us a model for this.

Because that I think was, I mean, it doesn't cure it because you still have maybe a kid in one grade, another grade, two different start times, which is incredibly disruptive all over the place.

But again, with the engagement, that would take obviously a lot of engagement that we didn't have the first time.

And as you do that, We need to do that before a decision is made because usually we make a decision then engage on it, right?

Which does not go over well because the decision has been made, it's more like how do we make people feel like they are having engagement now.

So if we are going to explore that one, I just really want to see that whoever's job it is, whether it's our boards or your guys is on your part, that has to happen before we start really going down that path.

Because then you don't have to take our word for it, you can hear directly from the families who will be most affected.

Because again these aren't just dollars, students are affected on different levels.

SPEAKER_08

Again I think we will need to do that with a broad range of subjects.

We understand some of these things might be difficult choices without knowing well if we don't do this, this is what is going to happen.

You really, I think we are going to have to, we are facing a very daunting challenge in balancing this budget and I think engagement is going to be required on all of it.

You know, there aren't, I don't believe, you know, a balanced budget is, I mean, there are gonna be many difficult choices, and it seems like you really just need to have the whole, you need to have all your cards in your hand.

You can't just make a choice about one thing in isolation without knowing, well, we've taken this off the table, so that means we're gonna have this impact on staffing in schools, for instance.

I don't think, you can do that in that order.

But yeah and then you know we also have a timeline that we are legally obligated to live within and so our need for engagement is going to have to fit into that timeline and be prioritized which are the biggest issues that will be most impactful that we want to make sure we get the most feedback from our constituents.

SPEAKER_15

And we've given our direction to the superintendent regarding engagement so I feel like that's that's out there because I know like Director Rankin said how can we help out with policy to make this clearer and we've we've done so far I think that part but obviously there might be more but yeah I put that in your guys's hands.

Thank you.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

All right fantastic.

I'm sorry directors I cannot entertain any more questions at this point so with that being said we will have more opportunities to talk about this I promise.

It's also almost 10 o'clock so we will do you have any final thoughts that you want to share?

SPEAKER_18

I just want to share that last slide that comes after the thank you.

It's not it's the after the any questions slide has a lot more numbers on it.

That was if you're really interested in digging into the formula.

This is where I was going to have Linda Sebring here because she understands this better than I do.

I think I understand most of it.

That's if you're really curious about the STARS formula that I didn't intend.

Yeah it's after the question slide.

I tacked it on to the end.

SPEAKER_04

all right thank you so much team we really appreciate it thanks everybody no further business before the board this evening the meeting stands adjourned at 9 36 p.m.