School Board Meeting Date November 4th, 2015 Part 1

you

Too short.

All right so we're after 4.15 we will go ahead and start and I'll start by welcoming everyone that's here in the room and any of those that may be watching on the television.

And I'd like to start with a heartfelt congratulations to our Ford school board directors elect.

I don't know if they're here in the room but we'll extend our congratulations to them.

I know officially the ballots are still being counted but I think we've got pretty clear outcomes so we'll look forward to the weeks to come.

Alright with that I will start with the roll call please Ms. Fodey.

Okay Director Blanford.

Here.

Director Martin-Morris.

Here.

Director McLaren.

Here.

Director Patu.

Here.

Director Peasley.

Here.

Director Peters.

Here.

Director Karr.

Here.

Alright so the next item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance so if we could all please stand.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, thank you.

Next item on the agenda is recognition and with that I will turn to Superintendent Nyland for the reading of the proclamation on Native Heritage Month.

Whereas the school board celebrates Native American Heritage Month every year to recognize Native American cultures, contributions, history, traditions, art and land.

Whereas the school board recognizes the history and culture of the city of Seattle and how it's been significantly influenced by Native Americans and by its many surrounding Native American tribes whose customs, traditions are respected and celebrated as part of a rich legacy throughout our area.

Whereas the school board values that the city of Seattle was built upon Native American lands and our city has greatly benefited since its founding in 1865 from Native American contributions and resources.

Whereas the school board recognizes the responsibility to honor the legacy of Native Americans and recommit to strengthening our nation to nation partnerships.

Whereas the school board in celebration of Native American heritage month wishes to encourage Everyone to join in the recognition of the accomplishments and contributions the Native American community has made to our society and salute all of the local organizations who work with and in support of the Native American community.

Resolve that all schools are encouraged to support the well-being and growth of American Indian and Native American students and recognize the contributions of First Americans during November Native American Heritage Month.

November is proclaimed as Native American heritage month and Gail Morris our manager for the Indian education program will be giving an update on the Native American program in Seattle schools at the next at the December board meeting.

Thank you.

Next I would like to call Sarah Sense-Wilson to the podium for the native heritage month presentation.

I would note that given the length of this evening's agenda the presentation will not exceed the 10 minutes planned and I'll give you a heads up when you have two minutes so that you can kind of manage your time.

Good day Superintendent Nyland and Board of Directors.

I want to first acknowledge the Duwamish tribe as this is their territory and we occupy their land so I want to acknowledge that.

My name is Sarah Sense-Wilson, I am Oglala Sioux, Seattle resident, alumni of Seattle Public Schools and I have raised successfully a daughter and a nephew that graduated from Nathan Hill High School as well.

I am chairperson for UNEA.

There is an ensemble of youth, parents and community members here today to express supporting in establishing an Indian heritage high school cultural learning center.

So this proposal is and was widely supported by native community.

We urge you to meet with our native community.

Our requests for a communitywide meeting have not been answered despite contacting Seattle Public Schools by email, letters and phone calls.

Our goal today is to provide Seattle Public Schools with testimony from parents, family and community.

However none of us made it to the testimony list.

We cannot stand idle or complicit when our children continue to be victimized by uncaring failing systems which condone racism and privilege the privileged.

It's unconscionable for the district leadership to vote three to four in removing native learners as a priority for your strategic plan.

If you're tired, fatigued by issues of race and racism, can you imagine how we feel?

It's not an Indian problem, it's a white supremacy problem.

So our kids are here, they want to present and show you some of our leaders in the community, activists, people who have shaped our community so I'm going to turn it over to them and they are going to share and then with the remaining time other parents are going to give testimony.

I'm Kareem I'm in ninth grade I'm Tlingit and Haida and I'm a human being.

I'm Karen Elliott I'm Tlingit and Haida and I'm 100% human.

I'm Imad, I'm Klingon and Haida and I'm 100% human.

I'm Logan and I'm Sioux and Chippewa and I'm 100% human.

Being a native.

Hold it close.

Oh okay sorry.

Being a native youth I did not ever at school ever feel that I was being told my being told my Native history and I did not feel that was okay.

I asked my grandparents and they never, because it's such a hard topic, they never told me.

I have been researching, I have been reading up on Black Elk, Roberto Maestas, all of these great role models for me.

I've never heard of them until now.

This is Alice Tu.

She was a teacher.

She supports our program.

UNEA, Clear Sky.

This is Robert Eaglestaff, President of Indian Heritage, Principal of Indian Heritage, a big part of the native community.

Hold it close.

He's a big part of the community.

My name is Sylvia Saban, I'm Tlingit, Afdabaskan, this is my daughter Zia.

I'm Zia and I'm Tlingit.

My grandson Yato Angel, Tlingit and Mexican.

My daughter went to Chief Sealth and we were talking about push out.

They kicked her out for a whole year and now she has a son.

Repeat the pattern again.

They kicked him out in kindergarten at Rainier View last year.

Now he is going to South Shore.

We are asking the board of directors how to talk to our native kids and don't push our native kids out.

Don't take our education away from us.

And we want our Native American school, we want our Indian heritage school back.

Thank you.

I just have a little testimony, a short one.

Growing up in school whenever they try to bring up Native history whenever they play our songs from Powers or something the kids would laugh at it and it made me feel really insecure about my culture and that is something that should have been taught into the curriculums and then when I got to high school if my culture had been taught about maybe I wouldn't have ended up a youth at risk.

I would have been in my culture, I could have been a dancer but I ended up in system and when I was going to school my principal, I got behind on schoolwork and so I went to the library to catch up on my work and then when I was in there the principal had caught me in there skipping class and she told me that I should just drop out and get my GED.

And that kind of hurt because I was actually trying to do my work and I just feel like, and then also they had expelled me from high school for something that happened outside of school hours and school grounds but they expelled me and I never got to go back.

My name is Joanne I'm in 5th grade.

I would like to have Indian Heritage open when I attend high school.

This is Native American month.

Not all schools are celebrating this.

At Ingram where my sister attends the principal does not want to acknowledge us.

He is worried about IB and not all students.

This is not fair.

Hello my name is Molly Pinkham I'm a senior at Ingraham High School.

The way that they treat natives there is like kind of horrible.

They don't recognize us, they don't support us.

Except for one teacher and it's kind of sad that this is my senior year and I can't do anything that much about it.

But now my father is going to be on the board so.

You are at the two minute mark.

Two minute mark.

Hello school board my name is Jessica K. Nagamatsu.

I am a senior at North Cape Middle College High School and I am here speaking on behalf of Dwayne Jack who couldn't be here today.

I may not be native, I am Japanese but I am still 100% human being.

And I am speaking in his words.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Dwayne is Cowichan First Nations from Canada.

I am in my second year at Northgate Middle College High School.

I have become an advocate, mentor, and leader for my classmates while attending middle college and Clear Sky.

Before I was rejected by other schools and programs.

I have never received support from programs like Huchoosedah.

It is tough to be a native in Seattle without the support.

However, Northgate Middle College High School and Clear Sky have been turning points for me. with the support of the teachers.

I'd like to see Indian heritage high school again and more programs like Clear Sky which has helped me a lot with tradition and encouragement.

I'd like to see an Indian heritage high school that has native teachers like Robin and more classes about native history and culture like the stuff I'm learning about at Clear Sky.

Outside of school my life has been pretty difficult to keep stable and balanced.

My living situation was bad.

I was homeless.

I am in transitional housing now because of the help programs like Northgate Middle College High School and Clear Sky.

Seattle schools needs more programs for native high school students and the native high school.

I was an outcast by the educational system before.

Now I am a leader, advocate and mentor for students and I would like to see this opportunity for all native students in Seattle Public Schools to experience.

Thank you.

My name is Mary Ann Peltier, I am Chippewa and Assiniboine Sioux.

The purpose of my testimony is to bring to light the promises of previous superintendents concerning American Indian heritage high school and the needs of our children and youth.

In previous years when American Indian heritage When the school was relocated, now Robert Eagle Staff building, the superintendent promised it would not move again.

It was not only moved but the program was diminished to another program that did not work well for indigenous youth.

Another superintendent Jose Banda promised to revitalize Indian heritage and develop a learning center for native students and their families.

This longstanding proposal is widely supported by local native elders, leaders, community, city and county organizations, nonprofits, families and youth.

Our collective voices are unified in demanding the promised establishment of a comprehensive native focused K-12 Indian heritage school and learning center returned to its original site at the newly named Robert Eagle Staff.

We have come back to you today because the data hasn't changed much for many of our indigenous youth at SPS.

More of the same stuff is not addressing the needs of those.

I know we should move on.

but how can we when our future, our children and our youth are left behind time and time again.

In spite of some attention and great efforts by Seattle Public Schools Indian education staff, Native American students remain the most disadvantaged population within the district.

Our students struggle to find inclusivity and cultural understanding in another cultural climate that over identifies them as learning disabled, suspends them more frequently than any other group and seemingly accepts their sad graduation statistics at approximately 50% year after year.

This year needs to be different and we should be different according to the SPS policies.

We hope that SPS will honor their promises and revitalize American Indian heritage K-12 including development of an indigenous learning center and coordinate the efforts with the broader Native American community.

Thank you.

So I'm going to have to ask you to conclude your presentation.

We're at about 13-14 minutes and I'd allowed for 10 so if you could wrap it.

We wanted to tell you one more thing.

That would be great.

This is my mom, Carmen Pastoris Joe.

She graduated from Cleveland.

My name is Laura Pennington and I went to Van Asselt.

We are the relatives of Vi Hilbert.

She's our great aunt.

Your program, Chachuchida, it's named by our great educator, Vi Hilbert.

It means a compendium of our cultural knowledge.

This is what your program should be teaching.

It's not a thought, a spirit.

It is a place for our children to be, to learn, to heal, That's what happened at Indian Heritage High School.

We used to go there back in the day with Grandma Vi as a storyteller.

What the kids felt there was the love that our culture brings, the strength that our elders laid on this road before us.

They need elders in their lives.

They need a place for them to be where it's safe and that's what Indian Heritage High School was.

And that's what Huchoosedah should mean for each of our tribal students.

They're not getting it in Washington history.

They're not getting it in United States history.

They get it from their elders.

the work that you're doing and for the work that you will do for our tribal students and for all of our students of color.

Thank you.

Thank you for the powerful presentation.

Hello.

I'm going to have to bring this segment to a close.

It's Native American history month.

My name is Robin Wilson.

I am Coeur d'Alene.

I am a teacher at Northgate Middle College and my son goes to Licton Springs.

I know the importance of having culture-based relevant instruction and curriculum for the success of our native learners.

For example my student Dwayne Jack who wasn't able to be here today but he is couching and he never misses a day of my class because we talk about origin stories and his cultural stories.

We are currently reading Velma Wallace's Two Old Women which is an Athabascan first Nation's story of tradition and survival and like I said Dwayne never misses a day of class.

I'm very concerned that my son will not get what Dwayne is experiencing in high school.

My son attends Licton Springs which has a native focus approach and curriculum and he is thriving there but what about native focus approach and curriculum rich high school for native students?

Obviously there is a void in the continuum of support from Seattle Public Schools for native focus schools.

There is Licton Springs but what about high school?

It will cease for my son and his classmates when he finishes eighth grade and then what?

Thank you.

Thank you.

And then with that we will conclude the presentation and we will say thank you to each of you for your presentation and for your comments.

And next I'm going to move to this next one because we're going to have a little transition here in the room.

The next item is a student presentation and so for this evening's Okay one moment.

Am I reading this instead?

Okay all right so I've been informed we have an issue with capacity in the room so as you know there are limits to how many people can be in the room.

The auditorium is just about at capacity and so for our next student performance the parents of students would like to come in for that performance so if anyone would be willing to give up their seats at least during the performance of the students so that the parents could participate in their student presentation it would be appreciated.

And it would just be for the duration of the presentation after the students and the parents leave after the presentation you would be certainly welcome to come back in.

So it's for a reason.

Alright so with that let's go ahead and invite those students in and maybe we could open one door to let students in and another door to let folks out.

Oh students are coming in the hallway okay.

Thanks for your cooperation on this.

Okay alright and so.

Alright are the students on their way in or do you want to seat it down in the front before the students come in?

Theresa?

Alright directors why don't we go ahead and go sit in the audience and we'll take it from there.

Now we have a dollar a day

So it's really big.

Oh, I thought you said 50. OK.

Yeah, we have way more than that.

So they can come on.

I'll probably.

I don't have the microphone.

OK.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

That's why I like to go that way.

Go to.

Oh, I got your fingers.

No, no two is down on the step, Vincent.

Hello everyone.

We are VAM which stands for Van Asselt Music Makers and we are made up of third graders, fourth graders and fifth graders and I have to tell you one thing.

These, I am so proud of these students.

They come during their lunch recess.

They come during their lunch recess, sometimes they bring their lunches, and we stand up.

I mean, it breaks all the rules for vocal training.

I mean, they're eating oranges, and then they have to stand up, and then sing, and then sit down to eat some more of their orange.

They're eating a waffle.

So I mean, it breaks all the rules, but that's the time we have.

That's the time we have.

So they come at least two times a week.

And if we have a performance, which we have about 12, at our school every year.

If we have a performance, then we perform all week long.

So I'm very, very proud of them.

And we're going to sing a song, The Star-Spangled Banner, if you want to stand.

You can, but we talk about what we sing.

We don't just sing.

Music has to be connected to something else.

So we talk about what we sing.

So let's find out what they learn about The Star-Spangled Banner.

Who wrote The Star-Spangled Banner?

Yeah, he wrote the words.

What year was there a battle that he was in?

What year was that?

1814. Thank you, not 19. That was a great war.

And who was in the battle?

Who was fighting the Americans?

British.

And were they on the water or the land?

Water.

And the Americans were where?

And what was the name of the fort?

Fort McHenry.

Fort McHenry.

And what was the name of the battle?

This is a hard one.

What was the name of the battle they were fighting for?

The battle of what city?

Baltimore.

Thank you very much.

The Battle of Baltimore, 1814. If you'd like to stand, we'll sing the Star Spangled Banner.

Music is connected to lots of other arts.

and other things that we do.

It is a theme.

Thank you.

You can sit down.

I'm sorry.

It is a theme that runs through the curriculum.

It is a theme that runs through my classroom.

That music connects us to other things.

Here's a poem.

Magic Carpet by Shel Silverstein.

You have a magic carpet that will whiz you through the air to Spain or Maine or Africa.

if you just tell it where.

So will you let it take you where you've never been before or will you buy some drapes to match and use it on your floor?

So what we've done is we've taken this poem and we've put it to music and we hope you enjoy Magic Carpet.

You have a magic heart

Or will you buy some tapes to match and use it on your floor?

Okay, so we have one more song for you.

This song is America the beautiful.

And I think it's a beautiful song.

So America beautiful is one of those.

Yes, what what do you need cares?

Oh, yeah, violence.

Yeah, I have two more songs.

At our school we have started this program, a Suzuki program for, it's after school and it's a program that is volunteer, it's a volunteer program.

These students, when they are in third grade, now they are in fifth grade, all of these girls are in fifth grade.

When they are in third grade they were asked to write a letter to get into the program and the letter had to mention why they wanted to play violin.

In order to find out if they are really motivated.

So they did write their letter and they're here two and a half years later and they're still playing the violin so there's my hope when they get to sixth grade and on through their lives that they'll at least keep playing that violin.

So we're going to play a song from the Suzuki method called Perpetual Motion.

It's fast and it's very difficult especially to stay together and we're going to do our best with Perpetual Motion.

Is that rain outside?

Is that rain outside?

This is our real last song.

It's America the Beautiful.

We hope you enjoy it and thank you for being a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful audience that has received us so well.

Thank you.

♪ O beautiful for spacious skies ♪ ♪ For amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ For purple mountains majesty ♪ ♪ Above the fruited plain ♪

♪ America, America, God shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ And crown thy good with brotherhood ♪ ♪ From sea to shining sea ♪ ♪ Oh, beautiful for spacious ground, for ever free ♪ ♪ O'er all mountains majesty ♪ ♪ Above the fruited plain ♪ ♪ America, America ♪ ♪ God shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ And crown thy good with brotherhood ♪ ♪ From sea to shining sea ♪

Well I just want to take a minute to say thank you to each and every one of you.

You guys are a very impressive group.

That's incredible that you're giving up your recess for this work so thank you very much.

I also failed to properly introduce our teacher who leads this terrific group and this is Paul Fowler of Van Asselt and so I would just like to take a moment and say thank you to you for the work that you're doing.

And so here's what we're going to do.

We're not going to let you get away with that, at least telling us your first name.

So why don't you each state your first name and then pass the microphone down to the next person.

Ramon.

Kalen.

Benjamin.

Diego.

Melissa.

Ella.

Ariana.

Lily.

Ada.

Nathan.

Victor.

Jeffrey.

Chenxin.

Nina.

Alex.

Amy.

April.

Jennifer.

Barsabi.

Vincent.

Zakira.

Emily.

Jessica.

Myla.

Adrienne.

My angel.

Rita.

Taniya.

William.

Miley.

Gwen.

Kathy Tassa Afameya Aubrey Azriel Tyra Vanessa Vivian Kathleen Michelle Justine Karis Erica Lai Anthony Wilson

Thank you again to each one of you and we look forward to seeing you again someday.

With that I will invite the directors back up and we'll probably need a few minutes here to transition the room.

We'll let the students I think go out the side door and as parents exit we'll let some other folks back in.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Good seeing you.

All right so as we are, we'll give it another half a minute here to complete the transition and then we'll start with some superintendent comments here in just a moment.

Let them kind of transition.

That's after we do, after we superimpose them.

Yeah, thank you

Wait a second.

Alright so we are going to get started here in about 10 seconds so if you could complete the transition.

We will appreciate the opportunity to continue on with our meeting.

And so with that I am going to now turn it over to the superintendent for the superintendent comments and to the extent that when people are done transitioning we can shut the door back there that would be great.

Thank you.

Well again thank you to the Van Asselt Music Makers Elementary Choir for their great performance.

And thank you for the Native American presentation here tonight.

I might make a few comments with regard to that.

The since time memorial curriculum is now available and required for all of our students in the district and we provided cultural training over the summer and in several of our schools.

Native American students are supported through after school programs in seven schools, increased partnerships with community organizations.

All right so yeah if we shut the door back there I think people are done transitioning.

All right thank you for letting us know.

Talk right into the microphone here and try to do better.

We are opening a new program at Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School where we have the most native students.

I'd like to recognize Patsy Collins award for excellence in education environment and community.

Go to Christine Benita from Hazel Wolf K8 and Marsha Ventura from Maple Elementary for winning this award each receiving $10,000.

The Seattle Foundation presented these awards at the annual Island Wood fundraising breakfast on Bainbridge Island.

Christine Benita focuses her teaching on designing project-based learning units for grades K-8 that include environmental awareness and sustainability.

Marsha focuses her teaching on connecting her fifth grade students to their community and environment.

Some current updates.

State of the district will begin tomorrow at 1 PM in the Bertha Knight Landis room at City Hall.

A great opportunity to highlight our partnership with the city of Seattle.

And we will be doing a presentation, follow-up presentation here in this auditorium at 7pm tomorrow night.

During that time we will be sharing some of the successes from this past year and some of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

And we will have student performances by the John Rogers Otters Choir and Seattle's first student poet laureate Leija Farr.

Congratulations to our recently elected school board members who will be sworn in on December 1 and take over as according to state law at the first official board meeting in December which is December 2. Newly elected Scott Pinkham, Rick Burke, Jill Geary, and Leslie Harris.

On tonight's agenda are action items with regard to our levies that are coming up on February 9, 2016. Our operations levy provides about 25% of all of the general fund day-to-day operating funds that we have in the district.

And the BTA levy supports buildings, remodeling as well as some added capacity, technology, academics, and athletics.

So, thank you for the work that's been done to prepare those items and thank you to our community organizations for the work that they do in supporting those levies.

Some recent opportunities, listening opportunities that we've had.

We met recently with members of our Seattle delegation around district finances and some of the enrollment staffing.

We have coming up on the agenda tonight the state legislative agenda for board action that calls for McCleary's full funding of education including regional salaries, adequate classroom space, and several other items, closing the opportunity gap for example.

Did have staff members that met with the Queen Anne Elementary PTSA leaders recently.

And we had staff that met with the Seattle Council PTSA leaders.

Based on that conversation I will be recommending at the end of my remarks that the student assignment plan that was to be on tonight's board agenda, I'll be asking the board to postpone that for consideration at the November 18 meeting.

Yesterday several staff and I had the opportunity to meet with the African-American male scholars think tank to have an in-depth conversation about their recommendations.

And I outlined how those recommendations dovetail with the SMART goals that the board is directing myself and staff as superintendent to work on with regard to closing opportunity gaps.

Some of the good news that we have to share, Walktober has been a hit.

Lots of our students participating in walking to school and participating in staying healthy and reducing pollution and avoiding traffic jams.

I guess one of which we had is a big time issue today with problems on I-5 that made several of our buses late today.

Ballard security was recognized by Seattle police for helping to apprehend an alleged suspect and that story aired on Q13.

Kudos to one of our security specialists Craig Plummer for his alertness and looking out for the safety of students.

The restorative justice program at Garfield high school was featured recently on KCTS channel 9 talking about how to change the culture around discipline and make that more of an educational learning opportunity and correcting the behavior and avoiding suspensions for students.

Beacon Hill international.

had a neighborhood vandalism issue with some spray painting and hate messages and the students and the teachers used that as a learning opportunity to cover up the graffiti and to talk about how hurtful those incidents are.

And for Whitman They had a short film, Time Catches Up, produced by filmmakers Max Ballou and Sam Boldvin.

It is one of only 12 works selected to appear in the Fresh Film Northwest winners program at the Portland Art Museum on Saturday, November 14. So with that as I mentioned I do have the one request to postpone the student assignment plan to the November 18 meeting.

I also would request that the board delay the bell times recommendation to the November 18 agenda.

We've done the SEPA requirement but haven't been posted timely so we want to wait the seven days waiting period for review and would ask the board to consider the bell times recommendation at the November 18 board meeting.

All right thank you for the comments.

Next item on the agenda is the student comments that would be the student that we often have sitting at the end of the dais here not the one that's on the public testimony list and we will not have those comments tonight as you can see because we do not have a student up here.

So with that we will move to the next item which is a motion to amend the agenda.

And so I would ask that we address staff's request to amend the agenda and I'll start by asking directors if they first have any questions about the request.

All right looks like no.

So I will now entertain a motion to amend the agenda to delay action items number two the approval of transportation service standards and revised bell times for school year 2016-17 and number seven approval of the student assignment plan to the November 18 meeting of the board.

So moved.

I second the motion.

All right and so with that let's go ahead and call Ms. Fodey for the vote.

Director Blanford.

Aye.

Director Martin-Morris.

Aye.

Director McLaren.

Aye.

Director Patu.

Aye.

Director Peasley.

Aye.

Director Peters.

Aye.

Director Karr.

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Alright so it is my understanding that Director Peters will then have a motion to amend the consent agenda item number two which is the personnel report to the first action item slot before the 2015-16 legislative agenda.

So I will let you read your motion and we will look for someone to second and then you can speak to the reason for the request.

Sure and I am going to amend what you just said a little bit.

Okay sorry about that.

That's okay it's fine.

I would like to offer a motion to amend the agenda to move the consent agenda item number two the personnel report to the next board meeting November 18. Here is the rationale.

There is an employee separation on the report that is of great interest to the Queen Anne community.

They would like to speak to this issue before the board votes on it and this action would afford them that opportunity.

Just one moment.

I second the motion.

Thank you.

So I will ask now if directors have any questions related to Director Peters request to amend the agenda.

So I do have a question and I think it's probably to Dr. Brent Jones and John Cerqui our general counsel.

So if they are here, my question would be there are other things on that item on the consent agenda and on the personnel report and so I'm wondering what the impact of delaying the whole report for two weeks or yeah two weeks does because my understanding was it going to be moved to an earlier slot this evening so I wasn't concerned about it at that point but there's more on there than just one particular individual.

Well that's why I'm asking the question.

So Director Carr, John Sirk we act in general counsel.

So the personnel report does contain hires, retires, and separations for the district.

We do need to act on that in the month of November.

So as long as it's approved this month we would legally be hiring individuals.

Your policy allows for temporary hires before the board hires them.

So it could be delayed if that's the prerogative of the board.

The piece I would like to point out is that there is a board procedure about audience participation that talks about speakers are not invited to come to the public school board meeting to talk about personnel matters.

So potentially postponing this could be inviting the community with an expectation to come and talk about that important issue for them.

when they may not be allowed to speak on that because it involves a personnel matter.

I do want to highlight that the open public meeting act allows for personnel discussions to be held in an executive session and this was brought to the school board in an executive session.

We've also had communications with individual school board members to attempt to address their issues on this particular matter.

Alright so can I ask a question of clarification as follow-up and thank you for that answer.

A person speaking could speak to the positive experience that they are having at the school that kind of thing but not about the individual directly is what I'm hearing you say.

That's the way that I would interpret that policy.

Alright I just wanted to clarify that.

And I think Director Peasley has a question.

On this particular situation there are a whole host of legal and confidentiality considerations and I am concerned that there will be some violations of those in open public discussion of a personnel matter that is supposed to be completely confidential.

Can you address that?

So I did not draft the audience participation board procedure but yes when we publicly talk about an employee and behaviors that maybe they did or didn't engage in without factual findings supporting that there's concerns that we could invade their privacy in a public setting and that's really the rationale behind that comment.

I know the communications have been sent to the board about this matter so that is an appropriate venue to send direct communications to you concerning that but to discuss it in public does raise the confidentiality concerns.

There could be legal concerns depending on what is said.

Alright follow-up go ahead.

This has not, I mean is there a precedent for this?

for postponing a personnel report?

No for having a public, for giving the public the opportunity to weigh in on a matter that is confidential.

Well before you answer that I mean let's just be clear we've you know the folks are here in the room and we've laid some boundaries in place so we'll look for them to speak to their experience generally and the climate at the school and so forth but we're going to stay away from speaking about individual personnel.

All right I would like, I would appreciate just a response from legal counsel as to whether or not there is a precedence for this and then I have one other follow-up question.

So outside of Dr. Larry Nyland which is higher and is part of the public debate for you, I'm not aware of another employee having a discussion in public about their performance or their desire to resign from the district.

The other question is would it be possible to remove one single item from the personnel report rather than pulling off the entire report and delaying hiring and other personnel transitions for two weeks?

Brent Jones assistant superintendent for HR.

I believe it would be a rejection of the entire personnel report not just to be able to pull one item off.

All right so and you've already stated that as long as it's done in the month of November that that still that doesn't create an issue for anyone's paycheck or their hire date or anything like that.

This is officially hiring and separating employees and so all of those official actions would not take place for another two weeks.

Right but maybe I misunderstood the earlier answer but I thought I heard the answer being that it could be delayed that there's the authority to do these hires or separations on a temporary basis you have that authority as long as they're processed within the same month.

I'm just trying to be sure I understood what the answer was.

We could operationally make that happen.

It's not a desired practice, but it's something that we could accommodate.

Okay, Director Peasley has a follow-up question.

So what I heard you say is that we, and I may have misheard you, that we would have to make temporary hires in certain instances?

So the board policy allows the superintendent to hire individuals pending their approval by the school board.

So those temporary hires would continue until this is acted on.

For me the overall concern is that postponing to November 18 to allow individuals to come in to comment or to comment tonight about it is allowing individuals to come to comment and not honestly and genuinely comment about the issue they want to because we are not set up for you to accept testimony as to whether somebody should or should not resign based on the actions they did or did not take.

Okay, Director Peters.

I just want to clarify that what prompted my proposal tonight, my motion is my understanding that there are people here tonight who would wish to speak to this issue and if we vote on it before they speak to it the sequence is such that they feel that they have not really been heard.

That is what I am trying to address tonight.

So one of the motions could be to have it as your first action item tonight after the public speaking portion of the board meeting and that would allow the individuals that are here tonight to speak and I guess it would be up to Director Karr to set the limitations for each individual speaker on what can and can't be said.

Okay well I think we've set those parameters and so I guess the question would be if we wanted a counterproposal to move it to the first agenda item on tonight's intro.

And Teresa you're going to have to guide me because we have an item that's a motion and a second do we need to disposition that and then accept another alternative.

Should we not first vote on the original motion?

That would be my recommendation.

That is the motion that is standing and seconded that you should vote on that.

So it is either you withdraw it or we vote on it.

And if we vote on it and it doesn't pass I could introduce the other.

Precisely.

Well I would like a vote on this first motion please.

Oh I'm sorry.

Yeah that would be my job.

Can we please call the roll on that one.

Director Peasley.

No.

Director Peters.

Yes.

Director Blanford.

No.

Director Martin-Morris.

No.

Director McLaren.

Yes.

Director Patu.

Yes.

Director Karr.

No.

Okay.

This motion did not pass.

All right thank you.

And so with that now we've had an alternate motion would you like to do that one?

So now I would like to put forth an alternate motion to move the consent agenda item number two the personnel report to the first action spot on the current agenda before the 2015-16 legislative agenda item.

And if I could have a second.

I second.

All right thank you.

So it's been moved and seconded.

Any questions or discussion?

Any questions of clarification?

All right I'm seeing people seem to be ready to go ahead and call the roll so if you would please.

Director Peasley.

Aye.

Director Peters.

Aye.

Director Blanford.

Aye.

Director McLaren.

Aye.

Director Patu.

Aye.

Director Karr.

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

All right.

All right so thank you for that.

And thanks for bearing with us as we went through kind of the nuts and bolts of that.

All right.

So now we are to the consent agenda.

So I would look to Director, if I'm tracking this correctly and Teresa catch me if I don't, I would look to Director Peasley to make the motion to approve the consent agenda as amended.

I move approval of the consent agenda as amended.

I second the motion.

All right so do directors have any other items they would like to see removed from the consent agenda?

We're talking the remaining items that we haven't already discussed.

All right seeing none, all of those in favor of the consent agenda please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed?

All right the consent agenda has passed.

All right so if I'm tracking my script correctly that brings us to public testimony and since it is after 5 o'clock well after 5 o'clock we will go ahead and oops.

we will go ahead and move to public testimony.

So for this meeting we had a large number of requests for public testimony so therefore according to board procedure 1430 BP the testimony list was increased to 25 speakers.

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

We've highlighted some of particular note here tonight.

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

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

When the two minutes have ended please conclude your remarks.

Alright so now I'm going to move to my list and I'll do these, I'll try to do these with a running of three and if you could be the second, the next speaker could be queued up and ready to go it will move us along.

Okay the first speaker is a student from Rainier Beach High School.

It looks like Alam Abrahim followed by Sarah Lang and Kimberly McCormick.

And the clock will start when you start speaking.

And it turns yellow when you've got about 30 seconds to go.

And I'll ask everybody that speaks to keep the microphone, kind of get it up close.

It's a little hard to hear if you don't have it within an inch or so.

Testing, okay.

Good evening I would like to thank the school board for making this time available for students like I to share experiences.

My name is Alam Ibrahim and I am a senior at Rainier Beach High School.

Our school is faced with many challenges not unique to our school.

I live in one of the most beautifully diverse communities in the world and one that is able to come together to solve pushing issues.

One of these issues is equity in our south end schools in particular Rainier Beach High School.

Three years ago our community came together and fought to bring the international baccalaureate program to our school and demand a renovation for our school building.

IB is a rigorous internationally minded curriculum that was developed for children of diplomats living abroad.

Our school is part of the community.

We don't isolate ourselves from our own neighborhood.

IB has taught me not to be afraid of the changes that are happening in my city and around the world but to be an active participant in them.

All students at Rainier Beach take at least one IB course.

We are proof that every student can succeed with hard work and supportive families and teachers.

We just need an opportunity.

I'm here to ask for your help.

In 2017 we will run out of funding for IB.

We are on the list for BEX for a building renovation.

Our families and neighbors are already working hard to keep programs running and finding private donors for our green renovation.

But we need your support.

Secondly, we the students and families at Rainier Beach High School would like to see a full renovation of our school as we need a complete facelift of the school.

Thank you for placing us on the BEX 2017. However, we at Rainier Beach High School have heard many promises but we before and nothing ever comes from it.

We need everyone to be part of this change.

We can't do it alone.

As a freshman I was a major part of the walkout for our new renovation.

After two superintendents and now a third, still no renovation.

So my question is, is the reason why Mary Beach High School has not received a renovation because it is populated predominantly students of color?

Are you waiting for it to gentrify in order for you to justify this renovation?

Sorry.

Thank you.

All right, Sarah Lang followed by Kimberly McCormick and Julie Van Arcken.

Hi, I'd like to cede my time to Medha Chen, Dr. Medha Chen.

Hi my name is Maida Chen I am director of the sleep medicine program at Seattle Children's Hospital.

I stand before you here tonight as a physician and a Seattle public school parent to urge the board to vote to approve bell time changes.

I commend the district for the work they have done on this proposal which has taken many iterations and has sparked significant community engagement.

This proposal in its current iteration aligns 100% of high school students and the majority of middle school students with biologically sound school start times.

This is the right change to make at this point in time.

Though these changes may not be embraced by all families at the outset, it is your responsibility as the board to provide the best educational opportunities for the entire district.

And here you have the chance to shape the learning and health of thousands of current and future adolescents who will thank you one day.

As a mother of children who will be straddling tiers 1 and 3 in elementary school, I will thank you for protecting my future teenager's sleep.

I also present to the board tonight a letter signed by over 30 of the Seattle sleep medicine physicians who also support this change.

They too urge the board to vote to propose, to approve the proposed bell time changes.

Notably the president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, executive director of Swedish's Medical Center and Dr. Judith Owens lead author of the landmark policy on school start times have all endorsed this current proposal.

This level of high-profile support is putting Seattle in the national spotlight.

It's our time to shine.

The board has invested years of time, personnel and resources on this subject and have the opportunity to finish the deal and start the next chapter.

You have the opportunity to become national leaders on this subject.

The world looks to us for this leadership.

Please do so now and vote for bell time changes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Kimberly McCormick followed by Julie Van Arcken and Tina Podlowski.

Hello my name is Kim McCormick I support the board's state legislative agenda to fully fund McCleary to address capacity needs in Seattle and to close opportunity gaps.

Please adopt this agenda and prioritize the needs of children and their families first.

For instance, the pulling of teachers and merging of classrooms does not support the McCleary decision.

The district needs more capacity, however new capacity should be added and managed in a way which best supports our children and their families.

While it is disappointing that the BTA IV levy did not include John Rogers or Cedar Park, thank you Director Peasley for your amendment calling for a reevaluation of the boundary changes for Cedar Park.

In total 21 elementary school boundary changes are planned for 2017. The largest change areas fall in high poverty immigrant neighborhoods such as Lake City, Northgate, Pinehurst, Oak Tree and Oak Tree sorry.

Grandfathered assignments are a hallmark of the 2009 NSAP which has accommodated a number of boundary changes.

In the proposed student assignment plan grandfathering is offered only if available.

Students may be forced to leave the school they have attended since kindergarten because the boundaries of their school have been changed.

There could be no incentive to keep surge capacity in place to accommodate these students.

The use of geo splits for opening attendance area elementary schools has not been vetted by the board but it was used as a planning assumption for opening Cedar Park.

How does this possibly support closing opportunity gaps?

Please do not approve the proposed student assignment plan.

It simply does not put the needs of children and their families first.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Julie Van Arcken followed by Tina Podlowski and Greg Wong.

Hi I'm a southeast parent and my daughter is in one of the many programs that staff is asking you to exclude from the student assignment plan and relegate to superintendent procedure.

But before I talk about that I just want to say I know the board is changing and I wanted to thank all of you for your service.

I've been to five different directors community meetings and I've always appreciated your willingness to listen to families before you vote on things that are important to them.

And that's exactly what the staff wants to take away from my family.

They want to strike us from the record and relegate our school assignments into mere procedural detail which doesn't require a board vote.

The staff is trying to tell you that this isn't a big deal but it is a big deal.

In fact the only reason I get to stand here right now is because I'm addressing a board action item which gets speaking priority.

Procedural details do not get speaking priority.

The staff is trying to tell you they're only changing two policies and they're merely streamlining the rest of the document.

And if that's true I would ask that they change those two items and for the rest just update the wording.

Then when student assignment changes are needed, and they will be, they can just change the student assignment plan.

The staff is also trying to tell you that they've already provided sufficient outreach on this including meetings all over the city.

Well they held meetings all over the city except for in Southeast Seattle.

And this is where outreach is needed the most.

Southeast has more poor families, ELL families and families of color than any other region.

I know that the staff finds it difficult to engage these families but that's no reason to ignore them altogether.

So remember, every student, every classroom, every day.

And tell the staff to give all students a seat in the student assignment plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Tina Podlowski followed by Greg Wong and Karen Town.

Thank you so much my name is Tina Podlodowski I'm a Queen Anne Elementary school parent and I'm here to ask the school board to reconsider voting on the motion regarding the personnel report and defer that to the November 18 meeting.

You know the school board was elected not by the district to represent their interests but by the families of the City of Seattle to represent our interests to the district.

With regard to the personnel report you are not required under Seattle Public Schools policy 5280 to act upon one matter on that report which has an effective date of June 30, 2016 until April 1, 2016. There is no pressing reason despite what you have heard today because you can make this work there is no pressing reason to approve this report today.

You can approve it at the November 18 board meeting.

That would give us an opportunity as a Queen Anne community to hopefully finally have Superintendent Nyland meet with us which we had been promised he would do.

prior to this meeting and has not regarding a situation at our school, a situation that is tearing our school apart and which we believe has been unfairly adjudicated by the superintendent.

Also according to district policy 5820 each request of this sort shall be determined upon its own merits.

and it's clear that the merits of this decision regarding the issue that has a 2016 date has not been fully vetted.

It's not been fully explained.

Also the policy further says that the needs of the district and the continuity of the educational program offered to the students shall receive primary consideration in the board's decision.

I am urging you of the four board members that voted against supporting this particularly the ones that are leaving the board to please reverse your vote.

Queen Anne Elementary needs your support and we have a situation that can be fixed.

It can only be fixed if you vote for the personnel report to be delayed to the 18th so that we can meet with Superintendent Nyland before an unintended consequence.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Greg Wong followed by Karen Town and Erin Aberbuck.

Good evening Board of Directors.

My name is Greg Wong.

I am a parent of three children in Seattle Public Schools and I am the volunteer president of the schools first coalition which as you know is the nonprofit coalition of parents, teachers, nonprofits and organizations who just care deeply about the schools and come together every three years to make sure that our Seattle school levies pass in February.

And I'm here tonight to urge you to approve both the operations and BTA IV levy authorizations.

The operations levy as you know is about 25% of the district's day-to-day operating expenses.

Historically that's paid for the very basics needed to make our kids successful.

Textbooks, arts, school buses, teachers.

At last week's board meeting you had a presentation from staff that found striking because I actually had not seen the statistic before but they had a chart that showed how much the state actually funds in terms of class size and if our levies failed what would happen to our class size.

And I was shocked to see that if we don't have our operations levy passed our kindergarten class sizes will shoot up to 34. And our 7th through 12th grade class sizes would shoot up to 45. And that's unacceptable and we know that it's just crucially important we get these operation levies passed.

The BTA IV levy is a levy that as you know funds the basics for our buildings.

Roofs, earthquake safety upgrades, athletic fields, heating systems and in this levy too over 2000 new seats to deal with some of the capacity issues that our district is facing.

We know the levies won't be able to pay for everything that's needed in the district.

We absolutely know that and we appreciate it but these are good packages that should be supported.

We only have three months to get out to the voters so I urge you tonight to please vote yes to authorize these levies and then we can get out and support this campaign.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Carr in town, Erin Averbeck and Carrie Brown Wooster.

Good evening, thanks for the opportunity to speak about the revised bell times.

I'm glad to hear you're postponing your decision.

You've spent several years researching adolescent sleep and learning and in applying that information you are now arranging a school start schedule that coincides with the results of that work and we applaud and support the district on this.

But I wonder tonight how you spend time and energy and research making it right for high schoolers and junior hires but not for all elementary students.

It is contradictory and it's actually puzzling to see the schedule you promote for adolescent learning negates and compromises that for young children particularly those in tier 3 elementary schools.

A 940 AM start time will lead to missed learning opportunities.

We all know most young children go to bed earlier and therefore wake earlier.

The best learning times for these students according to research and teacher feedback occurs in the morning hours.

When children have been awake for up to three hours perhaps by the time school learning is introduced which would not be until after 10am for a 940 start time it's logical that you have more tired and unfocused children.

A research study done in the Minneapolis school district start times echoed these thoughts by saying the most feedback was the negative effect that the 940 later start had on teaching and learning.

It included concerns about student fatigue and disengagement in the afternoon.

Therefore I hope you will consider giving all elementary children the same thoughtfulness as to what schedule works best for them in terms of learning that you are giving to our adolescent students.

One solution perhaps is to work harder to use the metro buses for high school students.

That would free up more district transportation and ideally introduce our high schoolers to public transit.

But if the only way to financially do this is to give some elementary schools a late start which I believe is a poor solution.

then the only fair way to do this is to alternate which schools will have the later start time and which schools then will be compromised learning because of what time their kids arrive.

Every child in your school district deserves the same regard and support for the best learning regardless of zip code.

My child has been in a school that has a late start time for the last two years and is now being assigned an even later time.

Please conclude your remarks.

I think there's no justification for this and I hope you move towards a proposal that moves all tier 3 elementary schools to tier 1 so all of our of our children's best learning cannot be sacrificed by bus schedules.

Thank you.

Erin Aberbuck followed by Carrie Brown Wooster and Diane Casper.

Hi my name is Erin Aberbuck I'm a parent a taxpayer and I'm here asking that you put classrooms first.

I'm not going to discuss personnel matters or individuals but I am here to discuss the personnel report.

I don't think the board or the public has enough info to approve this personnel report and that's my concern and why it should be rejected.

There's been no meeting or discussion on how this report is aligned with the strategic plan re-family engagement or placing student interest above all others.

Here's what I do know.

Board policy 1620's policy of deference to the superintendent and personnel does not apply as it only applies to hiring and firing and there are things on this report that do not fall into that category.

Board policy 5820 in regards to contract releases mentions that they should all be submitted to the superintendent and if accepted by the board and more importantly each request shall be determined on its own merits and the needs of the district and continuity of the educational program offered to students shall receive primary consideration in the board's decision.

I can tell you emphatically as a parent that educational continuity has in fact been disrupted in not just one but two schools for days now.

That's been my biggest concern more than any one individual.

Furthermore, the superintendent himself is specifically asking you to approve or disapprove the report if you read the agenda.

By approving it you are stating to the community that you are in agreement with the report, have enough info to judge each line item on its individual merits and that parental engagement has been achieved.

Finally, RCW 28A 150-230 requires school district directors to provide information to the local community, policies concerning hiring, assigning, terminating and evaluating staff including criteria for evaluating teachers and principals.

We as the public have not been given info on the application of these policies to this report.

In fact we have not been given any information.

And from statements I've heard from some board members I don't believe you guys have been given that information either.

As such this report should and must be rejected until such times as parents and the board can make an informed, appropriate informed decision on its merits as per board policy and our expectations of you as our elected leadership.

Thank you and please meet with us Mr. Superintendent.

Carrie Brown Wooster followed by Diane Casper and Nick Bockhuber.

Hi there.

Thank you for listening to me this afternoon.

My name is Carrie Brown Wooster and I'm a parent of a first grader and an incoming kindergartner at John Rogers.

Many parents including myself and staff at John Rogers have grave concerns about the building.

It is rated the fifth worst building in the district and two of those below us are uninhabited.

Room 16 is sinking.

Our electrical capacity is maxed out, breakers are often blown when heating comes on.

When it rains, water leaks into the building into exposed wires in the hallway.

The roof is past its lifespan.

When it rains, a pretty substantial lake forms in the parking lot.

Last year, maintenance came out to repair it and explained that they were not going to permanently fix it.

This Monday, the lake was back.

We have a rat problem.

In the past weeks, rats have been found in the building, including one in the kitchen.

In addition, rat feces matter has been found on the stage, in the closet, in the kitchen and in the book room.

Last year during winter, a boiler went out twice.

We had no heat.

The boiler is from the 1950s and it could start working at any time.

A teacher at John Rogers has been told that the piping from her sink in the classroom is too old to allow them to unplug it.

The clog has been there for about a year.

These are but a few problems at the school.

The facility is an estimated $8.7 million in repairs.

As you are fully aware of the population of the families in the northeast are increasingly dramatic and neglecting these repairs will only compound the problem.

Right now we have a great opportunity with the Cedar Park facility becoming available for occupancy.

We could move John Rogers students to this facility during the much-needed repairs or raising and rebuilding the school.

Again I urge you to deal with the problem now while we have this opportunity before it becomes more expensive and too unwieldy to complete.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Diane Casper followed by Nick Bockhuber and Eden Mack.

Good afternoon my name is Diane Casper I'm the parent of two daughters at Ingram high school.

I've come before you many times before over the past four years and I can't tell you how excited I am that we're finally after years of work by many many people looking at a final bill time proposal.

I'd like to thank the board for taking the leadership and making bell times a priority these last two years.

Without your standing up for students and listening to the science we would not be here today.

I wanted to thank Peggy McEvoy and Sam Markert for all the work on the task force and the transportation team who have managed to rearrange schedules to maximize healthy bell times and respond to the voices of the community.

Late breaking changes in the proposals show they are still working on making this the best it can be and I wanted to thank the superintendent for supporting this and bringing it to the board.

And now I understand we're delayed two weeks but in theory it's coming up.

The proposal before you is not perfect but it is a huge step forward.

The gains that are being made with a price tag of zero represent a cost benefit ratio that is off the charts.

You are responsibly addressing what has become a well-documented health issue for our secondary students.

As a result of this change over 95% of our secondary schools will have healthy bell times compared to barely 8% today.

The great majority of elementary schools are at better times too.

As I noted this is a huge step forward but the work is not done.

We need to improve and refine our transportation system to better support every single student in the district.

This week the Seattle Council PTSA board reaffirmed their support for this proposal as well as for the ongoing work to make it better.

We'll send you full copies of the statement.

The timing is important too.

Voting it in today would allow nearly 10 months for families and businesses to plan and adapt, time that other districts have found greatly contributes to a smooth transition.

Nine and a half months would have to be good enough, you know if it's delayed for two weeks.

I hope you'll vote yes on the transportation standards, you're doing the right thing, you're creating a legacy that will benefit students for decades to come and I hope you'll continue the work until we get every single student in the progressive steps that we can work on in the future so everyone has a good time.

Thank you very very much.

Thank you.

Nick Bockhuber followed by Eden Mack and Taya Lauer.

Good evening my name is Nick Bockhuber.

As a parent of three young children I would like to voice my displeasure with the proposed new bell times.

While I agree in concept of staggered start times based on student age, I completely disagree with the implementation.

Creating a three tier solution results in the minority third tier sacrificing being sacrificed for the majority.

Without consistent start times across the entire district based on student age, This will create a new opportunity gap.

Any solution that results in a handful of students starting 100 minutes later than 90% of all other elementary schools within the district unfairly penalizes those very students who claim to be helping.

If early start times are in the best interest of our youngest children you cannot arbitrarily decide which students are worthy while others don't count.

The Seattle Public Schools is charged with providing a fair and appropriate education for all students.

I am concerned with the lack of transparency throughout this entire process and I have yet to hear any proposal to remove the third tier.

The current proposal doesn't appear to be fully thought through and have no plan to achieve only two tiers.

I urge you to vote no on the pending proposal.

You cannot claim a decision based on student welfare and then sacrifice the youngest to achieve the goal.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Eden Mack followed by Taya Lauer and Andrea Baumgarten.

I'm Eden Mack I'm the legislative chair of the Seattle Council of Parent Teacher and Student Association as well as the chair of the city's neighborhood councils youth schools and education committee and I'm on the steering committee for the Washington's Paramount duty group.

First thanks for the changes to the state legislative agenda.

Fully funding McCleary and advocating for funding for facilities is paramount.

Please also join Washington's Paramount duty Facebook group and visit our newly launched website paramountduty.com.

Second, bell times, please vote yes.

It's not perfect but it's a good start.

Third, the transportation standards still need a little work.

The walk zone for high school is too big and the kids at Rainier Beach in particular are having a difficult time getting to school without ORCA passes.

And the elimination of the guarantee that special education students will have transportation to school if it's not their neighborhood school is problematic.

And fourth, the city council passed an amendment on Friday.

It requires that the city's new office of planning and community development plan for school facilities needs.

Please engage in this effort.

We need the city's help to plan for classrooms and buildings.

And lastly, the student assignment plan.

Seattle Council PTSA requested that the action be removed from the agenda.

Thank you.

Families need to be given sufficient information, context, and time to understand the changes.

My question is why is so much information being removed from the proposed student assignment plan which the board has to approve?

The existing NSAP new student assignment plan provides critical information that is omitted in the proposed student assignment plan.

It's important that the district clearly daylight all of the details about what is being removed from board approval.

I took the time today to bullet point out some of the information that's in the NSAP that's not in the proposed SAP.

It's a long list and I handed it out so you have it.

Please require community engagement process on the NSAP before it's brought to the board again.

A vote on this in the current state with the existing communication around it is not a legacy you want to leave.

Taya Lauer, Andrea Baumgarten and Dionne Hutchings.

Hello my name is Taya Lauer.

I am the mother of an elementary and middle school student.

I am also a third-tier school and have been the last seven years.

Under the current proposal my family would remain a third-tier school.

However, I am still in strong support of this proposal to change the bell times and I urge you to vote yes on it.

Currently we have two out of 14 high school students at optimal, high schools at optimal bell times and this proposal moves all 14 schools.

to optimal bell times.

Right now we have zero out of 14 middle schools at optimal bell times and this proposal moves nine out of 10 there.

Today there are 28 elementary schools in tier 3. This proposal only has 10 which is a 64% reduction in the amount of schools, elementary schools in tier 3. Presently we have five K-8's in tier 3 and this proposal moves that to 3 which is a 40% reduction.

The proposal is budget neutral and so for no additional cost you can make a change that will positively affect a huge majority of our students.

Sleep deprivation is a public health issue that can create lifelong problems.

I don't want our school district to teach another generation of children that sleep deprivation is acceptable and normal.

We have an opportunity to educate about healthy sleep patterns and support those patterns through our school schedule.

We have a chance to help teenagers avoid depression and suicide that can be a result of chronic sleep deprivation.

We have an opportunity to help teenagers reduce the other high-risk behaviors that are often associated with a lack of sleep.

We have a chance to get students in the classroom at their prime learning times creating more academic success for those students.

Why would we not capitalize on those opportunities now?

I believe it's imperative to move ahead with this vote.

Early adoption of the program will make the transition go more smoothly and beginning now will allow more time to continue to improve the plan.

Again I am a parent that will remain in tier 3 and I am still staunchly in support of this proposal.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Andrea Baumgarten followed by Dionne Hutchings and Catherine Harmon.

Good evening I am Andrea Baumgarten and I am a kindergarten teacher at Olympic Hills Elementary in the far northeastern corner of Seattle.

My colleague Aaron Bodwich has just handed some additional briefing motions to the board.

First board members I would like to thank you very much.

Can you move that up closer to your mouth?

Sure.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Sorry about that.

First, board members I'd like to thank you very much for your service.

We've had personal conversations with many board members and many district stakeholders.

Many people on the board and district chapters are aware of the situation that we face at Olympic Hills Elementary where a large percentage of our population of especially underprivileged kids are about to be cut out of our school and put into Cedar Park, which is a school that does not meet Ed specs, rather than being able to go to the brand new Olympic Hills with the rest of the community.

And for members of the audience that aren't aware, I would encourage anyone to please visit the Olympic Hills PTA website, take a look on your phone.

There are a lot of documents and it's a complex issue and we really need your support as a community.

As a kindergarten teacher, I'd like to tell it like a narrative for a moment.

So imagine yourself as a child or a mother or a father who has faced so many barriers already in the educational system.

And you're being told that you can't go to the brand new building with the rest of the community.

That's why we need board action now.

We have heard from district staff.

They are going to be reviewing data.

We do appreciate and thank any district staff who have been working on this issue.

But our community, just like Meany, whose 2017-2018 boundaries are going to be before the board, just like those communities, we need for our families to have certainty.

and predictability.

Thank you very much board members.

We have an additional set of briefing papers for you with more signatures.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Dion Hutchings followed by Catherine Harmon and Douglas Ambach.

G'day.

My name is Dion Hutchings.

I'm a parent, a taxpayer and a member of my school's site council.

In a time of increasing revenue, I'm asking you to put all classrooms first.

I work full-time and I have two kids in Seattle Public Schools, one with special needs.

I feel like I have to be here because I feel like parents have to be constantly vigilant, monitoring any changes that may be slipped in and be experts in deep inner workings of the administration in what seems like an us or them zero-sum game.

Today my concerns are the proposed changes to the student assignment plan and simply it's a simple matter of transparency and accountability.

Removing programs and services from your direct oversight as proposed by the district is not an incremental change.

Student assignment programs and services demand board oversight and public transparency period.

Regardless of which document or sub-document the details are enumerated or how difficult its claim to be maintained.

Transparency and oversight should not be set aside for expediency or to put administration before education.

I see an abundance of parents that want to help make Seattle the first class school system it can and should be.

I stand gladly willing to help the board, the district and other parents with this goal and I would ask to please spend energy on putting the classroom first and not what looks like from the outside obfuscation.

This means Seattle schools, all Seattle schools are quality and investing in principals who are committed to educating children.

And what I have learned tonight is ratless kitchens I guess.

In closing I would ask please allow more time for public discussion of all the proposed changes in the SAP and to delay the vote until December 1. Thank you.

Thank you.

Catherine Harmon followed by Douglas Ambach and Summer Stinson.

If Colin Pierce is here, I will, okay, save my time to him.

All right.

Hello Board Directors, Superintendent Nyland.

It's good to see you all.

I am Colin Pierce.

I'm the IB coordinator at Rainier Beach High School but tonight I'm actually here in my capacity as a first period teacher of teenagers.

And in that capacity, particularly in a school that has on paper about 80% free and reduced lunch although in actuality I'm guessing it's closer to 90. About 40% of students who are from immigrant and refugee backgrounds and also as of last year 10% of students who qualify as homeless.

I'd like to say that the new bell times is making a great step in the direction of equity for those students.

Early bell times disproportionately impact students who by circumstance or who by culture are denied an early bedtime.

For students that I'm working with in particular, I'm working with, all of our students are IB students, but I've been working with our full diploma students.

And out of the seven full diploma students we had last year, five of them worked between 20 and 40 hours per week.

One of them was the secondary income earner for her family because they were homeless.

And these students are working late hours, they're also trying to keep up with their schoolwork and allowing them to have a reasonable medically sound start time is a massive step in the right direction.

I had one student who would get off his night job at Lowe's an hour before school started and for this student even an hour of sleep would make a huge difference.

So I'm here to encourage you to approve the new bell times and let you know that that approving those new bell times is making a major stride in equity for students who are disproportionately affected by early start times.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Douglas Ambach followed by Summer Stinson and Linda Chu.

Good evening.

My name is Douglas Ambach.

I'm a View Ridge parent.

I have two kids in the public schools.

I'm here to comment on the proposed early bell times for elementary students.

I support the superintendent, you the board in your use of research on appropriate start times for our schools.

You have taken the important step of linking academic outcomes to early start times for elementary students.

However, you must go all the way and find funding so that all of the elementary students can start early.

It is simply unfair to go into the next academic year with a plan that knowingly puts 20% of our students at a disadvantage with regard to academic opportunity.

Further, in the superintendent's memo on October 23 it is noted that the public health office of Seattle and King County had key concerns about tier 3 start times for elementary schools.

With the current proposal the district would place our third-tier students in an unsatisfactory and unhealthy school environment.

The intended academic and health benefit of early start times should not be denied to all of the students in tier 3 schools for budget neutrality.

We must do better than that.

If you can't do better than that now let's make sure there is a plan to correct the injustice as quickly as possible.

In the latest revision of the proposal the superintendent would be given some wiggle room to move some tier 3 schools to tier 1. But that is not the same as having a definite plan.

As you consider the bell times proposal please ask what is the optimal timeline and the plan for eliminating tier 3 start times for elementary schools?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Summer Stinson followed by Linda Chu and Melissa Westbrook.

I'm Summer Stinson the advocacy director at my son's school's PTA.

In September the PTA president and I discussed the SPS meetings on boundary changes.

We dutifully reviewed SPS's notice that advertised the meetings as growth boundary community meetings.

We also reviewed the proposed boundary revisions which identified West Seattle as having the bulk of the boundary changes.

We noted that SPS staff stated that they may propose minor revisions to the student assignment plan and this notice only identified distance tiebreakers as the possible revision.

Based upon the information provided by SPS we determined that our school did not need to prioritize the boundary change meetings.

Remember that at the same time the boundary change meetings were occurring SPS meetings for BTA IV planning and the bell times were also occurring.

We relied upon SPS's meeting notice regarding boundary changes and the assurance that only minor revisions would be proposed to the student assignment plan.

Imagine our surprise to see the red line proposed student assignment plan on Friday evening.

Nearly immediately after it was released parents at my school and I realized that SPS staff were recommending that the board agree to gut the NSAP.

This is absolutely not right.

It is not right to mislead parents and call these revisions minor.

It is not okay to skip holding dedicated advertised public meetings on these massive changes.

It is not right to remove pathways for services and programs such as ELL, special education, HCC, STEM, language immersion and other options from the student assignment plan.

Even now SPS staff will admit to only making two changes to the waiting list and to tiebreakers.

This is not right.

We need to go back to public meetings.

We need to have the public be aware of what these meetings are for and we need to be able to give our input.

Thank you.

Linda Chu followed by Melissa Westbrook and Rochelle Dickerson.

Hi I'm Linda Chow the president of the Laurelhurst elementary school PTA and I'm also a parent of three boys in kindergarten second and fourth grade.

I am ardently opposed to the later start time proposed for our school.

We took a survey of our school community and the results showed 78% of the families preferring the 8 AM time.

Of the 22% left, 91% preferred an earlier start time than 940 PM.

You've heard of all the studies tonight, you know, from sleep deprivation to, you know, to just the negative effect of the later start time for young children.

And as a community, we actively participated in the Bell Times Task Force last year.

and we contributed our feedback which kind of gave you the initial proposal where we were at the 8am time.

We didn't fight for it because we were happy with it and then all of a sudden in the last month we got changed to the later proposed time.

Not only that you changed only two schools in the entire Northeast elementary school system to the latest proposed time.

We are almost two hours later than everybody else that starts.

That means that all of our kids who have afterschool activities will be affected by this.

because they're going to change all of the after-school activities to accommodate the majority of the students.

View Ridge and Laurelhurst are the only two schools that are starting, we're starting two hours later, we don't get out until almost four o'clock in the afternoon.

So as on a personal basis I work full-time and so does my husband and for many many families like ours it's an extreme struggle to find before and after school care for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.

I mean we have to pay more to pay for those nannies and those after-school child care programs.

And it's just expensive and it's hard to find.

It's an additional stress.

So anyways I beg you to please understand the impact your decision has on hundreds of families in the Northeast.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Melissa Westbrook and as she's approaching the podium I'll just mention that we will go one person into the waitlist assuming that the rest of the speakers are here.

I would like to cede my time to Sarah Sense Wilson.

Thank you.

Thank you Melissa, one of our allies that ceded their time, appreciate it.

I'm just here on behalf of as a stakeholder, as a volunteer, as somebody that has put in over 7000 hours in the last eight years towards Indian education and supporting our native learners.

I'm really at a loss for words regarding the lack of communication with the district.

At this point I know we have a turnover of superintendents year after year.

Since we've been involved there's been four new superintendents but the lack of transparency, the lack of community engagement.

The lack of accountability and the lack of consultation.

So this is, it's egregious at this point.

And each of you is accountable for that.

So I'm just here to plead with you that you need to reach out to our native community.

We can't always make it down here for a lot of reasons.

So we just want to again express that it's up to you guys to reach out to us.

Nyland committed to coming to Clear Sky, that never happened.

We've been on again with contacting the district, let's meet, let's meet, let's meet and there's no response.

So that's negligence.

And when we have a graduation rate that is as dismal as it is, that's shameful.

So I'd quickly like to address the racism at the Ingram high school.

It's sad to think that the Seattle schools and the leadership here condones the behavior of racism.

I have to admit that my daughter's reported to the White House initiative.

She got it into the newspaper at Seattle Times.

If what happened to her happened to any of your children, the fact that you are two young black men up there.

If a teacher came home, if your child came home and said we want you to forget who you are.

You are going to be black slaves and I am going to be the black slave owner.

You know that there would be a lawsuit.

Therefore I want to know why and how the continued racism can continue at Ingram high school.

Please conclude your remarks.

And the final remark is the leadership has been resistant to meeting with the native community and we had planned to try to do an assembly and that has not happened.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Rochelle Dickerson followed by Brad Hoff and Rachel Ann Moskal.

I'm ceding my time to Anthony Shoecraft.

Thank you.

Your two minutes will start whenever you start speaking.

Good evening board directors, superintendent Nyland, my name is Anthony Shoecraft, I'm a southeast resident, community advocate and very very proud south shore parent.

For work I serve as the director of engagement and equity for CCER, as you know the backbone organization for the roadmap project, regional collective impact initiative focusing on driving dramatic improvements in accredited career education, Southeast Seattle and South King County.

I'm also a very proud member of the Seattle Public Schools black male think tank.

Several of the members with me here tonight but this think tank as you know is the district's designated group that's composed of district and community stakeholders designated for stewarding recommendations for improving black male achievement in this district.

I'm here to urge you to maintain the African-American male focus in the SMART goal 2 title.

It's currently in the rubric as you know and here's why.

In 2012 going off of a six-year baseline starting in 2008, Portland Public Schools declared that by June 2016 they would reduce exclusionary discipline by 50% by June of 2016. While rates have dropped by the largest percentage for black students at 11.2% versus white students who dropped 3.2% and Native by 10% today.

Black students are still four times as likely to be excluded by their white peers, which is actually an increase over the six-year baseline.

This represents a very clear evidence of an attempt to be very well-intentioned and universal and one would think that such a broad strategy would make strong headway.

By the sheer percentage alone it has and yet the gap for black children increased.

This is why a targeted focus on African-American males is unquestionably necessary.

Black student neutral policies and initiatives are limited and they don't work.

Please do well.

by our more than 4,000 black males in this district.

Please conclude your remarks.

I will, thank you.

And as you know they are the proverbial canary in the coal mine of opportunity gaps that have haunted this district for nearly 40 years.

Please conclude your remarks.

Please do well for our children.

Thank you so much for listening to me.

Please do the right thing and show your courageous and innovative leadership by black males.

Thank you.

All right next is the next speaker is Brad Hoff followed by Rachel Ann Moskow and Chandra Hampson.

And then we'll go one speaker into the waitlist.

Good evening I'd like to cede any additional or remaining time I have in my two minutes to SEA President Jonathan Knapp.

My name is Brad Hoff, I'm the current chairman of the board of the Alliance for Education.

Last, or two weeks ago you heard from Jane Broome, incoming chair of the Alliance, and she expressed her appreciation for all the work you do.

I heard, and it resonated with me when Director Carr said two weeks ago, and I'm sure you've said it many times before, we, you, don't make decisions, we make choices.

And we realize those are hard choices and it takes hard work to make those choices and we appreciate for doing that hard work.

I also however share the disappointment that Jane expressed regarding the district's consideration of a significant movement away from the alliance and the partnership that we've had for 20 years.

That we believe is a decision not a choice and we don't think it's best for the children in the schools.

Now we have heard you and we agree the school district needs a partner that is aligned with it and we believe that historically and in the future we have been and can be aligned with the district.

the alliance's strategic plan that is currently in effect was based on the school district's strategic plan and done in direct consultation with direct and significant input from school district leaders including then superintendent Jose Banda.

The alliance's major programs, our schools coalition, the Seattle teacher residency, the school board leadership work that has historically been done, came into existence at the request of school board leadership.

So we believe there is significant alignment there.

And we believe we can have a path into the future.

Now the alliance is an independent organization and we will continue to be regardless of this action, what is taken tonight, we will continue to work on the many unique and innovative programs that we believe promote the education that is being received by the students in our schools.

But frankly we are open to collaboration and we want collaboration with the school district.

We seize upon the comments that some of you made at the meeting two weeks ago saying well maybe we could work on a program by program basis in partnership and we have invited you to propose programs and I stand here now inviting you to propose programs so that we can work on together and find a path forward with the district.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright the next person is Rachel Ann Moskow followed by Chandra Hampson and the last speaker would be Eric Blumhagen.

Hello I am going to cede the remainder of my time to Julia Bowles.

First of all I would like to say we are aligned.

We believe in the rule of law and we want the best for our children and community.

We are against the proposed changes to the SAP.

I'm in favor of the SAP as it stands today.

My son, a first grader at Queen Anne Elementary, a choice school, is thriving.

However, we should be concerned by the top-down nature in which business is being done.

Under the new student assignment plan it is likely to impact putting APP and other choice school options at risk because they would now be under the sole purview of the superintendent, not the board.

Most recently the superintendent and staff's heavy handedness in a swift and silent removal of the Queen Anne Elementary's principle with zero public dialogue or transparency is a troubling display of this behavior.

I call for equity, transparency and dialogue with and from Seattle Public Schools and request that the personnel report be moved to November 18 to have an opportunity to dialogue with Dr. Nyland and work together for the betterment of our community and children.

My name is Julia Boltz.

From 2002 to 2012, I worked side by side with the former principal of Coe Elementary and Queen Anne Elementary School to develop and implement a nationally acclaimed project called Journey with an Afghan School.

By the time we had finished, we had built or repaired 40 schools serving 25,000 kids in Afghanistan.

We had touched some 50,000 Americans with our show and tells and cultural exchanges, including thousands from the Seattle area.

And we caught the attention of the White House, State Department, Congress, and National Geographic.

Koh helped raise funds to build one of the first school schools in northern Afghanistan, and the former principal was determined to visit.

As an exemplary educator and role model, he sought to build bridges of understanding and show his students that they could make a difference.

And he also wanted to encourage his Afghan counterparts who daily risked their lives to attend or teach at the school.

and encourage he did.

That school went from 200 to 2,000 kids in a short period of time.

Please conclude your remarks.

Thank you.

And as an international city and gateway into the world it's key to hire and retain dedicated and compassionate leaders and visionaries who are interested in making this world more kind, just, safe and sustainable.

To lose principals like the principal of Queen Anne Elementary would be a tremendous loss to our global community.

I'm going to ask you to please conclude your remarks.

Thank you.

Okay so the next person is Chandra Hampson and as she's approaching the podium I just want to confirm with Teresa Hale that we have two more speakers including Ms. Hampton.

Right?

We skipped number five that was struck through so we would go one into the waitlist.

Alright thank you.

The timer will start when you do.

Hi my name is Chandra Hampson.

I'm the president of the PTA at Sandpoint Elementary.

I'm a parent and a taxpayer.

I am also the vice president of the Title VII Native Education Parent Advisory Committee.

I thank you for your time today and in particular I thank our outgoing board members for your service.

My heart tells me that you're frustrated and exasperated.

You've done good works, but we too are frustrated and exasperated.

I ask you, how can we help bridge that gap?

What lessons learned will you convey to your successors?

To your new colleagues?

Will you encourage them to partner with us?

Maybe we can start anew with some points of agreement.

Can we agree that classrooms and kids' lives come first in a period of increasing budget growth?

We cannot and should not strive to protect our children from adversity, but we can provide them with the tools necessary to face it.

And we certainly must boost up those children who suffer trauma, both historical and day to day.

You face hard decisions toward this end.

However, thus far, yours and the administration's strategies for decision making, the student assignment plan is a case in point, seek to avoid conflict.

Yet here we all are.

How can we work with you to clean up the opacity that marks our interaction?

We are all here, we are not going anywhere.

Tell us how we can help and let's get to work and show the community how we can put classrooms and kids first.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And the last speaker is Eric Blumhagen.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Eric Blumhagen and I'm a parent of students at Ingram and Hamilton.

I've come today to talk about the student assignment plan.

The board should either vote this measure down or defer action until the new board is sworn in.

There are three major problems with this proposal.

First of all it defers all authority to a superintendent procedure.

Procedures can be changed at will by the superintendent with no notice and no public comment.

For something as important as student assignments this is unacceptable.

We could find out just before open enrollment that the pathways for HCC high schools are now to West Seattle and Rainier Beach.

That might make a lot of sense for enrollment but it would cause an absolute uproar and there would be nothing the board could do because it had washed its hands of student assignment policy.

It would be middle college all over again.

Is that what you're looking for?

Even worse, the current procedure actually says that it may not be kept up to date.

It says that right in the tips for reading the document.

Can you imagine the confusion that will be created when changes are made before staff updates the policy?

It's a recipe for double secret rules and district wide upheaval.

Second, there's no rush.

The policy before you references the current superintendent procedure that was updated in December 2014. Even if this policy passes that procedure needs to be completely rewritten to include all of the stuff that was in the old policy.

That will take weeks to draft and there will undoubtedly be changes.

Until that procedure is changed there can be no forward movement on enrollment under the draft policy.

Why not wait until you can see the draft procedure and change the policy then?

Finally it's inappropriate for an outgoing board to make major changes to board authority so soon before a new board takes control.

In four weeks the board will have a majority of new directors from the current election.

It just doesn't make sense to tie their hands with a procedure passed by a lame duck vote.

This is the wrong plan at the wrong time.

Please vote no.

Thank you.

All right so with that that brings us to the end of the public testimony list for tonight and I'll start by saying thank you to each and every one of you for testifying and for being here.

And then this brings us to the point where we will open it up to board comments however We will lead with a presentation from Director McLaren on the family engagement Institute because I know there are a number of people here that participated in this as well.

And so with that I'm going to turn it over to Director McLaren to share and explain.

Thank you very much.

Last summer it was my privilege to attend a four-day family education Institute with several members of Seattle Public Schools staff and parents and representatives of our community-based organizations.

So I'm going to forego my comment time and introduce Anita are you, Anita Coye Mwamba who will be introducing a presentation reporting to you on our work.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Before I continue it's really important that we acknowledge the generations of Native Americans who have been good stewards of this land and to allow us to be here to do the work as it's being done.

So we honor you and for those who presented we want to acknowledge you.

Thank you to the board for being willing to give us this time and if the team would please come up So as you heard, I'm Anita Koyer-Mwamba.

I work for the School Family Partnerships Department.

And as you know, we strongly believe in the power of family engagement work as a tool to completely shift our democracy in this nation.

So it's bigger than just reaching parents for the value of being in a classroom, but really thinking about when I am 80 years old, the children we're educating today will be the people making policy about me and my life.

and the way I treat them will impact how they make decisions about me.

And as a consequence, we went to Harvard not as a luxurious trip, but as a way to say, what is it that we will pick up from that trip that will help us have really high impact at the lowest cost possible policies and procedures?

So today, there are two things we'll ask of you, and then I'll hand it over to my colleagues.

One of the things is just a request to amend our policy number 4129 and to add to that the idea of the dual capacity framework as embedded in the work as a way of moving the work forward.

The other piece is an acknowledgement of the professional learning community that we have created since then that is open to everybody who has concerns and issues so that we mitigate our adversarial relationships and actually come to the table as a collective to think about what does it mean to really honor a parent as the first teacher.

What does it mean to empower teachers and give them the capacity to receive empowered families and what does it mean to you as a school board to have the capacity to receive all these groups of people and work as a collective to really move the work forward.

And before I give the mic over to Anthony Shoecraft, I would like to say a very big thank you to Director McLaren, who took the time to listen to me and listen to why this was so important.

And I really appreciate your help.

And to Clover Codd.

Clover, if you could please stand up because Clover had the insight to understand the power and significance of this work and found ways to support us in getting to Harvard.

So I want to thank you.

And Anthony, I'll invite you to speak.

Hi again.

I just want to say briefly on behalf of the Roadmap Project a major thanks to Superintendent Nyland, Director McLaren and really the supportive leadership of you two for enabling such an august body of leaders to participate in this delegation to this institute.

As you all know I'm with the Roadmap Project we have a major major ambitious 2020 goal And one of the core elements that we lift up as achieving our 2020 goal is family engagement.

So our primary goal for going to this institute, leading more than nearly 70, rather, parent leaders community-based organizational leaders and district and school leaders, educators and principals as well, to this institute last summer was really to equip them with the best of the practice and some of the best examples of systemic family engagement given that the way that we look at it within our project is we want this work to be really clearly implemented in many of our schools throughout our region.

And so I'm very happy to also say in closing that Seattle had the largest delegation of the 70 people so shout out to you all but again on behalf of the project thank you for your support of leadership and enabling this team to take advantage of what our nation has to offer around this very important body of work.

So we have a parent who will be presenting her story.

Hello, hi, I think I come here for the second time.

Last year was the transportation cut for South Seattle, South End school.

So I'm here as a parent, I'm a mom, I have three kids in elementary school.

I want to share one of my stories that happened for one of my child that makes me involved at the schools and my son when he was a first grader.

He was a little, before that he was so excited and he likes the school and he likes his teacher and then by the time he become first grader, my child, my son, he will come home very depressed and I never see that.

The child that will come home smiling and will draw pictures how much he love me will come home not happy.

And he will come to me, and then he will just come to me like he don't want to go to school.

He don't want to go to school.

And not only he's saying that, but also I noticed that he was chewing his clothes.

And something that I never noticed it.

I never see my son doing that before.

I decided to go to school and meet the teacher but the teacher would not even recognize me or you know by the time I come to the door.

So that was the shock I got from the school and they would not pull out my son from the school, from his class because the teacher was not even communicating with me. and how will she teach my child when she cannot even communicate as a parent about talking about how my son will not want to come to school.

So I want to also That story of the you know I just removed my son from that school and come to another school and then my daughter would come home and say mommy why my skin is dark?

Why am I different?

And I was you know it was I don't know.

So and the other thing is she will come home and also said some of the kids tell her like she's not American and she's immigrant and she's just a proud child that she said this is my country I was born here.

So I wanted to see that every school parents to get involved and I What I did was I got involved and I discussed you know this issue.

Every parent that my daughter is not, she's having a low self-esteem and we need to talk about it.

And you know we change a lot, our school change a lot and I wanted every school in South end, you know all Seattle Public Schools, the parents to know that you're going to see a child that look like me.

So that's all I want to say that.

And Family Connector, it teach me about a lot of how I advocate my child and I learn a lot.

So I wanted to see other parents to step up and learn about Family Connector and see that not only the parents are not only they come from different countries and refugee families, immigrant families and you know we don't know about how American system works.

we learn from them so I think this is a good opportunity you know we should have this thing going on every school.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Christine King, and I'm a parent of students also in Southeast Seattle.

One of my children now, formerly three, go to the same school as Adil's kids currently go to.

And I want to start by saying thank you for sending me as a parent to Harvard.

I was very happy to have the opportunity to do great learning there.

and to learn the depth and complexity of family engagement on that level was very powerful to me.

I think as a parent, I'm a much more useful instrument of family engagement now in the community at large and specifically at Graham Hill and Aki Kurose where my older students attend.

I just wanted to talk about how that experience greatly deepened my understanding of family engagement and how as a school community and myself as a personal commitment and with the PLC as a community at large how that has given me the tools to continually return to the dual capacity building framework.

That's a flyer, a handout I think you all got.

And this tool, all the learning was very deep and rich, but this tool is something that I can return to on a regular basis with whatever community I'm working with and say, what are we doing that meets the goals?

What can we follow on this tool?

And what are we doing that's working and not working?

And this is a very instructive tool that has been so helpful for me and for my community.

as a way to develop more equitable family engagement within the schools as a whole.

I think we've been able to move family engagement especially at Graham Hill and hopefully at Aki as well towards more equitable family engagement through the specific learnings of Harvard, so thank you so much for sending me, and thank you so much for sending so many principals and assistant principals from Southeast Seattle specifically, also Walter Chen from Graham Health.

It's just been really powerful to work as a team with that shared deep understanding of family engagement, and it's such a powerful equity tool, so I can't say enough about that.

As you know more than 50 years of research link the power of families as their first and most important teachers for their children's education.

And research also talks about the various roles that families play in their child's learning, a supporter of learning, as encouragers of grit and determination, as models of lifelong learning and also as advocates of their children's education.

Next slide please.

The dual capacity building framework is something that was developed by the US Department of Education and the Harvard Graduate School of Education to create a compass, not a road map but a compass that school districts can use which will lay out the goals and conditions necessary to chart a successful path for engaging families in student learning and in a path that links learning to student academic achievement and family engagement for the success of our children.

Next one please.

So in front of you you have the dual capacity building framework which covers the following four things.

The first one is a description of the capacity challenges that must be addressed to support the cultivation of effective form and school relationships.

As you can see the challenge that we have in the United States currently and the problem of practice is how do we have effective meaningful intentional and strategic family and community engagement practices in every school.

The opportunities and articulation of the conditions that are integral for the success of the school family partnership initiatives and interventions.

As you can see in the second page in the second part of opportunities the program must be systemic, it must be sustainable and it must be integrated in every single department to work.

Number three is the identification of the desired immediate capacity goals that should be the focus of family engagement policies and programs at the individual schools and the school district.

And the fourth one is a very detailed description of capacity building outcomes for schools and programs as well as for families.

in serving the education of the children.

One of the things we also learned in Carver is that family engagement is a shared responsibility.

We all have the moral imperative to strengthen family and community engagement.

We also learned that it is continuous from cradle to career so when kids are born to the day they go to their careers parents play a very important role in their children's education.

And we also learned that family engagement reinforces learning not only in the school building but also in the community and that's really important.

One of the key things that Dr. Mapp wanted me to say today is that we need to move from random acts of excellent family engagement to a systemic approach that takes care of the dual capacity building which is as we work with families to support them in learning more the system and how to advocate for the kids.

It is also our responsibility to support the capacity of school teachers and school staff to engage them and work collaboratively as equal partners in the education of our children.

Hi I'm Stephanie Jones I'm the director of community and parents for public schools of Seattle and I was sponsored in my participation at Harvard this past summer as a CBO that's community-based organization partner through the roadmap project.

I am also a parent of two current students and one graduate and it's my privilege to address what I think is one of the most important parts of our learning message.

The next slide please.

Thank you.

And that's readiness.

What we learned at Harvard and what the dual capacity framework necessitates is that family and community partnership for the benefit of every student, every classroom, every day requires readiness on all sides for both accountability and support.

It's one thing to be involved as educators with family and community members but engagement requires commitment and partnership which is what we are talking about is a long-term journey of hard work and collaboration.

In my own case I'm over 14 years invested in that type of partnership and I'm not done.

I'm several years ahead of me.

And I think everyone here who testified tonight and came out in support tonight is also putting themselves forward in an effort to reach out in partnership.

But we have not done the work at the school district and leadership level, program level and we haven't done the work fully at the parent and community level either.

It's a two-way street.

In order for us to be ready to implement the dual capacity partnership model we need from school, program, and district staff honor and recognition and utilization of family and community strengths regularly in our decision-making, in our programming, in our practice.

We need to, and this honoring and recognition of strengths is for student learning.

That is the purpose of everything that we are doing.

We need to create invitation, acknowledgement, and communication so that families feel welcome so that they can participate more than just at events and showing up.

More than just political statements but really to be true partners.

Next slide.

From families we need work as well.

Families need to be able to knowledgeably share about their children to support school learning.

They need to assert high yet realistic expectations for academic and social emotional well-being for their students and for the students who sit next to their students and across from their students in their classrooms.

And we need to be decision-making participators and collaborators within the SPS system.

It is as important as speaking our truths that we are doing it in community and we are doing it collectively and that we are moving as one.

This readiness work is more than just saying that we want to do it.

It's efforts in programming for families like the family connectors university, like the neighbor to neighbor, like the community outreach events but it's also a sensibility to not as one speaker said stack things on top of each other so that families and schools can't reliably participate.

It's also about attitudes and it's also about really as I said that long-term journey of commitment.

Thank you.

My name is Sabrina Burr and I'm a parent of a sixth grader at South Shore.

And for me Harvard was a life transformational trip.

Sometime in life you walk through a door and window and you are changed and you can never walk back the same.

So for me Harvard was that.

Clova I really want to thank you for the opportunity.

Not only for me but for the amount of people and the diversity of people from Seattle Public Schools and from community partners who got this experience together.

Director McLaren I feel like I will always be connected to you from the experience that we had at those four days of Harvard.

And I know that your lens has been widened and as you go forward and advocate for kids in a different way I know that the dual capacity framework will help.

Right before my trip I ran into Bruce Nordstrom who was my former employee.

lawyer and I was able to thank him for the lens that Nordstrom's gave me and to be able to do this work.

It is a foundational piece.

And to get to Harvard and to hear Dr. Karen Mapp talk about Nordstrom and the experience and why can't we in education personalize the experience for each family and each child.

And for me that was a coming home point because I had always looked at this work as our children being the customer and why can't we put them first.

Dual capacity framework is the how.

We have done great work but a lot of our great work as soon as a wind comes or a director changes that work goes away.

Dual capacity, it allows us to make the soil fertile.

It makes sure everyone has that richness of soil so that when we do the work together we are taking root.

That we are doing generational work.

The comments that I heard tonight about miscommunication and us not getting it right for so many people, the answer is dual capacity framework.

So I really want to thank everyone who has been a part of Harvard both last year and this year.

what we are able to do as a region for 70 people, seven different school districts doing work together and best practices for kids.

It's amazing and I am very excited for the community learning center and I just want to end with a quote from Dr. Karen Mapp.

Family participation is the leading predictor that supports student academic success regardless of family, race, socioeconomic status, ethnicity or cultural background.

And together we can make sure every single child learns at their highest potential and are honored for the greatness that they bring.

Thank you.

So that concludes our presentation today and we hope that it was sufficient for you to be willing to invite us to give us some updates on how the work is actually happening in practice.

We are really being ambitious here and hoping for winter and spring invite.

But there's already some phenomenal work happening at Rainier Beach High School and at South Shore Elementary at Graham Hill and we hope that this will catch fire and that this will become something that truly makes us a place where we are proud of every single one of our schools and that every one of our children is honored for the culture they bring into the building.

and never have to think about what part of them to leave out of the building and that we embrace our teachers and teach them how to work with curricula and work with all the children before them.

So to the team I want to honor you and say thank you and this is not everybody this is just who could make it and we would also like to invite you to join us at our professional learning communities.

We are going to put an email out for our next meeting so thank you again and thank you to all the parents who are here advocating for your children you make our work meaningful and we pray that someday we will not have to have you here and we will be doing a different kind of work as a collective.

Thank you.

All right well thank you very much for that powerful presentation and the remarks that were included.

Sounds like you guys had a terrific experience and look forward to hearing back more.

All right with that I'm going to open it up to directors for what comments they may have.

We are at the board comment section.

We are going to go to Director Martin Morris.

First I'd like to thank the Van Esselt music makers.

As someone that started out singing in Glee Club in second grade and I know what it feels like to give up lunch.

I did that in college for four years because the chorus I was in always met at lunchtime so I never got to eat lunch in college for four years.

So I hope they don't follow that pattern but I turned out ok so you know it was music so it's great.

I would also like to publicly thank Jonathan Knapp.

Several weeks ago I got a phone call from the NEA, the National Education Association for a group called local progress and they were very interested in Seattle.

At first I was like why are you calling me and it was about our moratorium on elementary school out of school suspension.

So they asked me to come and share with my colleagues, school board directors from all around the country what we did in Seattle, how we did it.

That was the big question that everyone asked.

How did Seattle manage to actually do that?

The nice thing was we also had a board of directors from Oakland.

who also was doing that same work as well.

And it was very positive and people wanted copies of our policies and the moratoriums and we were able to share a lot and I've had two phone calls since then of people following up asking more questions.

So I wanted to publicly thank Jonathan for nominating me or having them speak to me.

It was a really great, great experience so thank you for that.

Thank you.

Other directors?

Director Peasley.

I mean gosh sakes I'm sorry.

Director Peters.

Director Peters.

Thank you.

First of all I also want to give a shout out to the Van Asselt music makers.

These are the students who performed for us at the very beginning of our meeting and they were a very powerful combination of talented, disciplined, and adorable.

We also had a presentation from our Native American community and that's always a good reminder of what has existed before and what we need to restore.

And so I'm excited at the prospect of having the since time immemorial curriculum now a part of our district-wide curriculum and I'm also excited about having the prospect of a school board director who is Native American and I think it's going to help us keep a focus on an area where we need to offer some more strength.

So the student assignment plan is not on the agenda tonight and I want to thank the superintendent for moving that off of the agenda as has been brought up.

There were a lot of changes indicated on that document that we all saw on Friday and so clearly we need some more time to process what that means and my understanding is that we are going to have a board work session to discuss this.

Is that right?

Okay we're going to have a committee of the whole which means the whole board is going to sit down and discuss this and staff will have an opportunity to explain exactly what these changes mean or whether these really are changes and so I'm glad that we're doing that.

I think we're doing our due diligence on that matter and it's very important for us to honor our strategic plan goal and commitment to community engagement on all issues especially something as wide ranging as this one.

So bell times we will be discussing at the next meeting or we will be voting on at the next meeting and I want to.

Pass along some good news to the tier 3 families that there have been some more tweaks done that will offer some changes that should make it easier for those schools that are in tier 3. I believe there is a slight time change and also some options to maybe switch out of that tier.

So I really appreciate all the hard work that has been done by Peggy McEvoy and her staff to make things workable for as many families as possible.

I recently had a community meeting and it was very well attended.

There were about 60 parents, families there and the two main topics they wanted to bring before me were the tier 3 bell times issue and also the leadership change at Queen Anne Elementary.

And I want to say thank you to all of you for bringing your concerns to me and recognizing that your school board directors are here to represent you.

And to convey your concerns and all your offers of assistance I would like to say to our superintendent and to our colleagues.

The other issue that came up in that whole discussion was a sense of not enough communication coming from the district that is clear on lots of issues and a sense of not getting the community's voice heard by the district.

So again I want to encourage us all to work together towards that because it is one of the challenges of a district, a large diverse district such as ours to hear everyone's voices and to respond as well as we can with the resources we have.

There is still a lot more work that needs to be done in that score.

Let's make sure I've covered everything.

I also want to thank the students who spoke to us about funding for the IB program.

That is an ongoing challenge but my understanding is that we are looking at that within our budget to put aside some funding for that.

And then there was very compelling testimony about the John Rogers school building.

Unfortunately we do still have buildings that are in need of repair and we have a long list of those we have to address and I hope we can get to all of them as soon as possible because there were some pretty disturbing details about life at John Rogers elementary school in terms of the condition there.

Let's see I will have my next community meeting hopefully on November 21. I just need to confirm that one and it will probably be the Magnolia library.

And I believe that is everything for now.

We will be discussing other issues later on tonight when we get to our action and intro items.

Thank you.

All right Director Patu.

I want to say thank you to the Van Asselt Music Makers Choir for an amazing performance and the Native American community for their presentation.

I really appreciate them talking about their culture and how they would like to be represented within their schools.

I also was a little appalled by the fact that one of the speakers talked about John Rogers about the rats and everything falling apart.

That kind of really bothered me thinking that our students are actually in a building that's full of rats and unsafe so hopefully we can look into that.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who actually came tonight and testified on behalf of issues that you are very passionate about.

It is always great to hear from all of you because it gives us the opportunity to to either correct change or continue the successful work that is done.

As a board director I realize I cannot please everyone but I can do the right thing and be a good listener.

I might not be able to resolve the problems but I can certainly look at all the evidence and make the best decisions that will be a win-win for both sides.

I thank you for reminding us about the things that we need to correct and I thank you for continuing to be patient with us.

Yes I would like the opportunity to work together with parents and community because I realize that when we can do that we can actually be able to come together and be able to create the best district in the state of Washington.

So thank you for your comments and for your concerns.

and hopefully that as board directors we continue to hear you and working together so we can make a difference.

All right.

Other directors.

All right well let's go to Director McLaren.

So I'm not going to speak at length I just want to affirm the presentation by the group that went to the Family Education Institute and how incredibly important I see their work as being and my hope and vision of them and us being able to bring that work to fruition in the future.

Thank you.

Director Blanford.

And at the outset of my presentation I would like to publicly thank Director McLaren both for going to the presentation and then for bringing me the slide deck back which I had the opportunity to look at and part of the reason I wasn't able to go was because my schedule just didn't allow but the slide deck allowed me to see the change that's been made in the concept since when I went.

to Harvard several years ago and there have been very positive changes that have been made over time and I agree that the hope is that we will be able to authentically engage with our families and our communities in ways that ensure that we hear what they say, that we act on their beliefs and their hopes for their children and I'm looking forward to that day.

I very briefly want to thank the, what did they call themselves, the VAM, the Van Asselt Music Makers for their fabulous presentation and the Native American group that came and presented to us.

It is always heartwarming and a little bit troubling to know the work that we have to do particularly for our Native American students.

I also wanted to give a shout out to the school's first board and particularly to Greg Wong though I am a little bit troubled by the fact that he stole my thunder in his presentation.

One of the things that he said that caused me a little bit of heartburn last week was there were a number of people that were frustrated about an issue at their particular school and were making arguments that would say basically that they might have to withdraw their support for the levees.

And I think Greg did an excellent and far more nuanced and diplomatic job than I would have done to say that those levies actually keep the doors of Seattle Public Schools open and how important it is that we don't have 38 or 39 or 40 students in a classroom And the threat that comes, which I believe that those who would actually threaten the district or threaten their support, they don't recognize the incredible devastation that they would do to Seattle Public Schools for a limited purpose.

And so I hope that cooler heads prevail on that issue and that people realize how important those levies are and what good they actually do for our students, all 53,000 of them.

And I will end my remarks by noting the fact that I have a community meeting scheduled for the 21st of November at the usual place, the Douglas truth library at 23rd and Yesler and it is scheduled for the 21st between 10 and 1130 and I look forward to as many parents as we can fit in the room there are lots of issues to discuss.

Thank you.

Director Peasley.

So somebody in public testimony said that some of us up here look kind of frustrated and I can't remember all the exact descriptors, burned out, whatever.

So I wanted to, yeah maybe that was my descriptor.

And there is some truth to that and I'd like to speak to that having been on this board now for four years.

Those of us who do the work of the school board director, it's an amazingly complicated, demanding, time-consuming job for which we are not paid.

And we, every problem in the district comes to us.

And we can't fix everything and so that is unbelievably frustrating.

It is unbelievably frustrating and it is very disturbing when we hear about, when we hear first-hand stories particularly of students who are not, who don't feel welcome in their schools, who don't feel supported by their teachers.

who feel that they are culturally not appreciated.

This is very very disturbing.

There are so many contributing factors The one that always sort of rises to the top is funding because if we were adequately funded we could do a whole lot more.

We probably couldn't fix everything but we could do an awful lot more.

I would like to say to The request for Indian heritage high school, I've been speaking with Sarah and Mary Ann and other leaders of the Native American community about this for the last four years.

And the best that we as a district have been able to accomplish, it was mentioned by Larry Nyland in his comments but he mentioned it so quietly that I feel like I should mention it again.

And there is a high school program that is about to launch, it's actually middle and high school at Denny and Chief Sealth and it's a native focused program that's modeled on Proyecto Saber which is a Latino focused program that we have in a few of our schools.

So this is progress.

It may not be enough but I just want to be sure that people are aware of it.

When it comes to such things as the student assignment plan, the board has been concerned about this over the last several meetings that we've had.

So, I was concerned at the campaign of emails which seemed to suggest that once again we are incompetent, we don't know what we are doing and how dare we allow staff to usurp our authority and give it to the superintendent and all this kind of stuff.

First of all that's not what was going on but second of all the board was trying to resolve it.

So a lot of times when there is a campaign there is misinformation, there is incomplete information and there is an assumption that we don't know what we are doing and things are happening that shouldn't be happening.

So, I just want to say once again that we were asking that the student assignment plan issues be addressed before we voted and that's exactly what happened.

The superintendent pulled it off the agenda tonight so that the issues could be addressed before they come to the board for a vote.

So, the system is working in that respect.

As far as John Rogers I am proposing an amendment to the growth boundaries item that we are voting on tonight and the amendment was thrown together this afternoon very quickly and basically it just ensures a process of considering the boundaries between Cedar Park, Olympic Hills, John Rogers.

as well as concerns that those three communities have about the potential overcrowding of Cedar Park and the terrible condition of John Rogers.

So this would be a process that would occur within the context of talks about the growth boundaries for next year.

Our growth boundaries review process and modifications are made for growth boundaries in the very next school year.

The boundary changes around Cedar Park and Olympic Hills would not occur until 2017. So, but those discussions and considerations would also include the condition of John Rogers.

So I just wanted to make people aware of that because it was thrown together this afternoon and probably nobody has even noticed it yet.

So that is all I have to say.

Thank you.

I'll make a few comments now I'm going to hold comments that are pertinent to specific agenda items for when we get to that item.

I wanted to echo Director Blanford's thanks to Greg Wong and the school's first board and I look forward to continuing to work with you as we move toward the election coming in February.

A very important work and we all know that that money is so greatly needed to address needs in our classrooms as well as to address the physical properties and the facilities and so forth so thank you.

I also wanted to thank the Native American community for the presentation that they made earlier as well as the performance of our students from the Van Asselt music makers that was particularly heartwarming.

to see their performance and to watch the enthusiasm that they have for music.

It was wonderful.

And I also wanted to say thank you to Director Patu for her request for a follow-up operations committee of the whole to take another look at the student assignment plan.

As Director Peasley mentioned We have been aware that there are concerns and the message that there's concerns that I believe stem from trust by parents about burying elements of the student assignment plan and different parts of the website versus putting it in the document.

That message is heard and so we'll have an opportunity as quickly as we get scheduled to have some more conversation and dialogue on that.

So thanks for the feedback and for the comments.

And I'd also like to say thank you to Director McLaren, Clover Codd, Bernardo Ruiz and the fabulous group that shared their presentation about what they learned when they went to Harvard on the family engagement Institute.

Very inspiring.

Very inspiring.

So thank you for that.

And I'll just close my comments by saying that I have my final community meeting on November 14 at the Hearthstone and I look forward to seeing people there.

Alright so this typically comes about the point that we take a break and we're what almost three hours in so but given the interest in the item that we added at the very first part of the agenda what I'm going to propose and since I get to make the decision.

I'll decide.

We'll go ahead and take the item on the personnel report first then we'll take our break.

And then carry on with the rest of the agenda.

That way we don't have people continuing to wait.

I know you all have things that you would like to get home to as well.

And so with that let's go to the first item, action item which is the personnel report.

And Teresa do we have a copy of it up here, the motion?

Okay so bear with us because we're going to get.

Okay we've got it.

I move approval of the human resources personnel report.

I second the motion.

All right thank you so the item has been moved and seconded and so let's go ahead and open it up to questions or comments from directors.

So I will go to Director McLaren.

So I appreciate that we had a chance to move this to the end so that we could hear some speakers talk about their concerns.

And I will tell you that I don't know as much as some of my colleagues about the situation but I have read a discussion by our legal counsel and my understanding is that the district cannot invite parents to participate in discussions of personnel matters.

And so even though I am very glad that you have taken the opportunity to express your feelings on this tonight and also via email, I am supporting the fact that we that we move ahead and approve this personnel report.

I would hope that after that happens, after the vote, that we find a way to have a lessons learned conversation with the community.

It's a community problem.

Please let Director McLaren finish speaking.

So at any rate that's my explanation of why I will be supporting this motion tonight.

Thank you.

Other directors that would like to make any comments?

Okay so let's go ahead and Director Peasley and I'll be looking, gosh I did it again.

Two P last names, Peters Peasley and Director Peters.

Please go ahead and allow Director Peters to make her comments.

Okay so this report typically is something that is handled through HR and by and large the board members don't weigh in on every single one of these decisions.

As you see it's hiring people, people leaving the district.

In this particular case I think there is one item on this list that I know a little bit more about that I know about others.

And I had hoped for a different outcome in that particular case, that separation of a specific principal.

And for that reason I don't support this personnel report.

Thank you.

Other directors?

So I'll give other directors a chance.

I'll speak last so once I speak we'll go to a vote.

Director Patu.

It's really kind of hard to weigh in on something you really don't know much about in terms of all the detail and we know this is actually a personnel report.

I am a little disappointed that there wasn't any discussion in terms of what direction we want to go with this.

So I too will not support this.

Director Peasley.

I am wondering if John Cerqui can come up and answer a couple of questions.

First of all I'd just like to say that because this is a personnel issue we can't say anything about it.

But it's also a legal issue and so I would like John Cerqui to explain to the extent that is possible given all the restrictions on what can and cannot be said.

Can you please explain to the community The laws and limitations around any kind of disclosure or discussion of this particular item.

That is Director Peasley's question.

Excuse me but I get to talk now.

As I indicated earlier there are some privacy concerns about discussing the circumstances of any employee's performance while they were working as an employee for the district.

So we have a situation here where there are some concerns or some issues related to the performance of a particular employee.

That employee has consulted with a lawyer and they have submitted a written documentation to the district resigning their employment.

So what you have before you is a document that is pro forma for the board to accept hires and to accept resignations.

So I can say to the community that this individual has submitted a written document, he does have legal counsel and they submitted it, had seven days to consider it and he's requesting through his lawyer and the written documentation that he resigned his employment from the district.

So to what extent would further community engagement around this impact the legal process?

You know I'm not really prepared to answer that specific question on what the legal implications would be for going in an alternate venue.

It may result in a breach of contract claim, it may result in Dr. Nyland making a unilateral employment decision which under state law for a certificate administrator rests solely with Dr. Nyland and that is not what this individual is asking be done to his career.

That's all I can comment on after talking to his lawyer.

Other comments or questions?

So I don't have questions.

I would just make a couple quick comments.

First I want to thank you for coming down here.

I know that this is a, these are challenging situations.

And no less challenging for the board.

In the eight years I've been on the school board typically the ones that are related to a loss of a teacher or principal are always the most impactful and emotional for families.

So thank you for coming down and for sharing your concerns.

I, as was just laid out there are confidentiality laws and concerns around this matter and so again there's only so far that we can go.

I will tell you just by way of process the superintendent has provided the board updates.

Each director was offered the opportunity to sit down and be walked through the particulars of the case.

of the situation and so I'll leave it to them to process what they learned or not.

And then I will just tell you I've made my inquiries and have shared my concerns relative to this but largely the concerns I had were more about systemwide matters related that were unrelated to the personnel report.

And so with that I'm prepared to go ahead and go to the vote.

All right so let's go ahead and Ms. Fodey if you could please call the roll and then when that's over we will take a short break.

Director Blanford.

Aye.

Director Martin-Morris.

Aye.

Director McLaren.

Aye.

Director Patu.

No.

Director Pinkham.

Director Peters?

No.

Director Karr?

Aye.

This motion has passed the vote for 5-2.

All right so at this point we are going to take a 10 minute break and we will reconvene at we will make it 11 minutes so we will do 7.25.

Thank you.