Seattle School Board Meeting October 6, 2021

minute and we will get started.

calling the October 6th 2021 Regular Board Meeting to order at 421 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Director DeWolf.

Present.

Director Dury.

Here.

Director Harris.

Director Harris warned me that she would be joining us late.

So if someone could let us know when she joins if she's not here yet.

Vice President Hersey.

Here.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

And President Hampson.

Here.

Superintendent Jones is also joining us for today's meeting and additional staff will be briefing the board as we move through the agenda.

This meeting is being held remotely consistent with the governor's proclamation on open public meetings.

The public is being provided remote access today by phone and through SPS-TV by broadcast and streaming on YouTube.

To facilitate this meeting I will ask all participants to ensure you are muted when you're not speaking.

Staff may be muting participants to address feedback and ensure we can hear directors and staff.

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

Thank you President Hampson and board members.

Today in the Superintendent comments we'll have an extended version.

We're going to have Deputy Gannon talk about health and safety protocols in schools and then I'll close out talking about how we're organizing for excellence.

A little bit about what we're doing with the senior leadership team around how we're galvanizing around Seattle excellence.

Looking forward to chatting with you and without further ado Deputy Gannon.

Thank you Superintendent Jones and good afternoon school board directors.

For the record my name is Rob Gannon and I serve as the Deputy Superintendent for Seattle Public Schools.

I intend to give a high-level overview of where we are with respect to our COVID mitigation strategies.

I am also joined by colleagues who can answer specific and detailed questions if it becomes necessary.

Thank you for the opportunity Dr. Jones to present this information.

If I could have the next slide please.

So my hope is.

Just to let you know apologies for the interruption.

Deputy Superintendent Gannon that I just wanted to let folks know that Deputy sorry Director Harris has joined us.

Thank you.

Hello.

Thank you.

Welcome Director Harris.

So you can see a number of topics that I will try to touch on throughout this short update.

Happy to answer questions at the end.

But we're trying also to provide a comprehensive view of all that we're doing.

I want to stress that these are the additional layers of mitigation that we have put in place or are attempting to put in place since the start of school.

Much of our base level of mitigation is in place and incredibly important and for the most part largely effective.

If I could have the next slide please.

It would be my desire to have this be the single slide of my presentation.

As we're all aware Our primary purpose as a school district our endeavor is to advance these three things and these are the highlights of Dr. Jones' leadership and call to action for this district.

We are committed to 180 days of excellence in creating the conditions for our students to thrive through high-quality learning building a culture of care and increasing our ability to be responsive to the needs of students and families especially.

So we continue to adapt our approach in response to the needs that are surfacing from our schools from our building leaders from our families.

And we're taking all of that feedback in addition to the feedback we've received from public health and community partners.

We are trying almost desperately to stay focused on these three things while also managing the impact of the Delta variant and community spread that is happening throughout our region throughout our nation.

So I want to pause here and on behalf of the district express great gratitude to all who are partnering to make this school year a success.

From the resilience of our students to the brilliance of our educators and building leadership teams to the outstanding dedication of our community partners and to the guidance we're receiving from public health.

We would not be operating today without that deep partnership.

So what we are doing in our COVID mitigation strategy is not only combating the virus and its variants but we are striving to minimize the disruption to the educational environment.

Next slide please.

So I can't tell if the slide is advanced.

We are on the slide that is COVID stats for SPS COVID-19 cases at SPS.

And if everyone that is not Deputy Gannon could please mute your phone that would be helpful to stop the echo.

Thank you.

I think we have a 206-771 number that possibly is not muted.

Thanks.

Thank you President Hampson.

So the slide before you gives a quick snapshot of information that is portrayed in our COVID dashboard.

I want to point out that our dashboard is not limited to COVID infection at school.

The dashboard reflects a number the total number of staff and student confirmed COVID cases including those infected in the community prior to the start of school as well as other self-reported confirmed cases from the community wherever they might have originated.

I want to also stress that when a class switches to remote it is not a decision that we take lightly.

It is made out of an abundance of caution.

It is our effort to contain the spread and minimize again the disruption to the educational environment.

Many of the classes that have pivoted to remote learning are at the pre-K or K classes or kindergarten classes where mask wearing and physical distancing are more challenging for our students.

Reported quarantine cases in our student information system reflect both those that have been directed by SPS and also quarantines due to community contact tracing.

So it is imperfect data for these reasons.

Our team has worked over the last several weeks to build additional coding into our power school that would give us more reliable and accurate information.

And our building staff will be able to use this code and input information into each students quarantine status starting next week.

This should roll out across most all schools and really give us even greater ability to track who is being impacted impacted by the quarantine.

Next slide please.

As I think most people are aware our efforts to do contact tracing within school environments has been a great challenge for us.

This is an incredibly important tool that we're using to understand how our schools are being affected.

At the start of the year acting under the best available guidance from our public health partners we thought we had the staffing level in place.

Obviously with the Delta variant and the unanticipated increase in spread our systems have been quickly overwhelmed.

Our teams doing contact tracing are currently both streamlining the process for case investigation so that we can increase the speed and efficiency of our close contact notification.

And thanks to board support this week that central contact tracing team is onboarding Columbia Safety an outside entity and a partner who will be supporting the close contact notification and providing resources and testing information.

This additional staff or additional staffing will help us increase our level of supports to school and decrease the response time it takes to get vital information out to our communities in support of our building leaders and the families that are affected.

Next slide please.

So I don't want to dwell on this slide but this is a simple mapping of how we are doing contact tracing.

The yellow area.

indicates the new capacity that we are creating.

So by handing some work off to Columbia Safety it allows our coordinated health staff to really be involved in doing what they do best directly supporting staff at schools.

It also allows us to continue to offer this important piece of our layered mitigation strategy.

I want to stress that contact tracing is not something that school districts are well-equipped to do.

It is a draw on our resources but without it we would be missing vital information and without it the rate of spread would almost certainly increase and be more pronounced.

So this is a vital tool that we're going to continue to use and we're grateful for the partnership coming online.

Next slide please.

The district has been employing a number of strategies around COVID testing so that we have additional information to support what's going on in schools.

Early the district planned and implemented diagnostic testing in all 104 schools.

This was a great way for us to understand when an event occurred how we could get quick and accurate testing.

However staff are now in conversations to our staff is now working to go into a screening model of testing.

We are in conversations with SEA about extending expanding our testing program.

because our instructional staff are going to necessarily be key components of how effectively we can do the various enhanced testing measures.

In prior discussions we've mentioned that we're moving towards a pooled testing model that would allow us to do some rapid testing and then come back and do what's referred to as reflex testing to do more specific analysis of where the infections might be occurring.

This is also a way for us to stay on top of as best we can the rate of community transmission.

We're also considering doing pool testing for targeted classrooms.

This would allow us to test those classrooms where students have had a harder time doing the physical distancing wearing masks or where student and students are involved in higher impact and greater risk greater risk activities.

So it is a narrowing of our testing efforts in an effort to make the best use of that reef source.

The third testing option that we are less interested in doing but we may have to consider is rapid antigen testing.

We get less reliable results but the results are available faster.

And this would require more time and work from classroom teachers.

Next slide please.

So Strategy 3 is something that has been only made available or the protocol has only been made available to the district recently in the middle of September.

So our team is in the process of putting our application together to consider whether a test-to-stay approach is something that the district can implement.

If it if our plan is approved and implemented unvaccinated students would be able to participate in a modified quarantine and continue to participate in in-person learning if they meet specific criteria.

Now this comes with a number of risks and including that some parents may feel uncomfortable with unvaccinated close contacts returning earlier even with a negative test.

So here I'd like to pause and just note that all of these testing strategies and their implementation are again taking away resources of the district.

Financial resources.

staffing resources overall capacity.

And while it is well deployed and it is an endeavor that we need to do it is an endeavor that is is creating additional risk in our district and it is an endeavor to which there are few alternatives.

So we are actively pursuing our testing options.

We know of no other way to implement these without drawing down our resources.

Next slide please.

Another challenge is how best to support our students once they are in a quarantine situation.

Currently our commitment to parents and student is that teachers will share their lessons and resources weekly to the district's learning management system.

We think this is a vital component of maintaining connection with students who are in a quarantine situation.

The challenge of course is that that is not live teaching and students lose out on that opportunity for live and in-person instruction or even direct contact with our teachers and other staff in the buildings.

If students are quarantined it could be for as many as 14 days and they lose out on that connection.

If students are quarantined for multiple times then that component those components just add up.

In partnership with the Seattle Education Association we are trying to move towards a simulcast or concurrent teaching model which would allow for quarantined students to be in direct interaction with their class and hopefully buffer the the learning environment and keep them connected as possible.

Many of our educators are already working to do this.

We are offering training broadly across the district so that more and more educators can learn about the practice and about how to implement it effectively and put it into their own individual classroom setting.

This I would say is a must-have.

It is in our view essential for the well-being of students in quarantine.

It is a mitigation strategy should others or large numbers have to enter into a quarantine environment.

We are working closely or as closely as we possibly can with our educators to figure out how to do this in partnership We are trying to do our best to train and bring people into this mode.

We are considering how we can incentivize that.

We're also just appealing to everyone's conviction to serve the best interest of students.

So we will continue to press on concurrent teaching because we think it's such a vital strategy.

Next slide please.

The district is experiencing great challenge in its transportation provision.

This is not a new challenge to the district but it is made especially difficult in this year due to a nationwide driver shortage which is manifest throughout our region.

In order to mitigate this in order to address it in our best manner possible we are looking at both short-term and long-term solutions.

What we can do now as limited as those options may be and how we can build to a future system that can be operated more efficient and with a greater supply of bus drivers.

Currently we have about 60 routes each day that are delayed.

And we acknowledge that students are students and families are experiencing those delays and it is impacting learning.

We don't view this as acceptable and we are working with our partner at First Student to try and mitigate this as best as possible.

A nationwide bus driver shortage in the Puget Sound region is not immune from that.

Compounding this issue we anticipate that we could lose many more drivers after the vaccine vaccine vaccination mandate takes full effect on October 18th.

What I want to let the board know is this week we will begin communicating out some of the coming changes to our families so that they can begin the planning process.

when this new additional driver shortage will take impact will have impact on families.

Our transportation team is working directly with school leaders to figure out how we can prioritize routes for those students that need that transportation the most especially those furthest from educational justice.

And we're also deeply analyzing how we can potentially remove this risk in future years.

But that could mean going to some difficult decisions and hard conversations around returning to a three-tier bell system which would allow us to operate more efficiently and at a lower cost and be less dependent on a high number of drivers.

So this is a concept in development and something that we are evaluating and will continue to stay in contact with families and the board as we bring this proposal forward.

Next slide please.

We continue to look to all opportunities to advance vaccine and vaccination opportunities to our staff to our students to our community.

As a leadership team we're fully in support of the Governor's vaccination mandates.

In our view and in the view of many others it is the clearest way out of the pandemic and back to some level of normal school operations.

But required vaccinations will have an impact on staffing.

We are actively planning as a leadership team to understand what those impacts will be from a human resources perspective.

How do we understand the draw on our people power from a public affairs perspective.

How do we communicate the impacts out broadly.

And then how do we just respond to the everyday issues that come up.

I want to point out that we're also aware that while 90 percent of youth in King County are vaccinated the numbers are much lower in our Black and Latinx student groups.

in the age range of 12 to 17. This is important because the current 14-day required quarantine for close contact of a confirmed case hits those populations harder and that is an impact on our students of color furthest from educational justice.

On the upside we are expecting to hold over 50 regional or participate and communicate and advance directly 50 regional and school-based clinics for 5- to 11-year-olds beginning in November once a vaccination is available.

Our nursing staff our central staff and our school leaders are continuing to do whatever it takes to keep our school communities healthy.

And again we want very much to move out of this pandemic and we think vaccinations are a key component of that.

The next slide will provide the board information about some upcoming vaccine clinics vaccination clinics.

including advancing ideas or advancing dates where flu vaccinations can also be had by our community members.

Last Saturday as an example 75 Seattle Public School educators got their third booster.

A huge thanks to our nursing manager our school principals our custodians and our the rest of our staff for doing everything it takes to stand up these very effective clinics and making sure people are aware of them.

One last slide.

Next slide please.

I want to give a brief update on our efforts to advance remote learning.

There's information contained here but we are actively working to respond or respond to families needs for additional virtual learning options.

We know that this is a mitigating measure and can help not only in the near term but over the long term should the community transmission rates be sustained at their current levels or spike again in the later portion of the year or next year.

We are moving people off of the elementary virtual option pilot program waitlist and bringing them into that program.

About 300 students will be enrolled with an additional 30 300 already in the K-5 option.

We are also looking to stand up as quickly as we can a grade 6-12 option by contracting with an outside partner ingenuity to bring that additional resource into the reach of our families for the 6-12 grade levels.

We don't have a firm yet a firm date yet on when the edgenuity option will become available but it will be towards the end of October and we will make every effort to communicate that broadly to our families and those that are interested.

The next slide is the question slide and I just want to offer a few closing remarks.

I would like the board and members of the public to know that the district is deeply committed to exploring all of the available additional layered mitigation approaches.

We are pressing well beyond what we had originally put in place.

And we're also moving as fast as we are able as a large organization to put new options into place.

We are attentive to scaling those services to as many families as possible so that we have a consistent application.

We are working to remain in compliance with law and policy and other constraints and we often run into those.

We are working as closely as we can with our labor partners and working to prioritize their needs and our needs as we jointly serve families and students.

And finally we are listening to the community.

We are hearing their feedback and we are working diligently to move these options into a state of effectiveness so that we can continue to minimize disruption and return to those three high priorities that I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation those that Dr. uttered that it is our goal to serve with the highest quality instruction to provide a culture of care and to be responsive to the needs of our families.

So I want to close by saying that as resilient as our students are as brilliant as our teachers are as dedicated as our staff are and as hardworking as our principals and building leaders are we are approaching the limits of what we can do as an organization in a public health setting.

We desperately need to get back to focusing on the provision of educational service and serving families where we know how to do best.

Where our educators are perfectly equipped to respond to the needs or near perfectly equipped to respond to the needs of students.

It is a great strain on our organization.

It is a great strain on many organizations.

I don't think that we are unique but I do want to call to the board's attention that we are reaching the limits of our ability to do any more as a public health entity layered on top of an educational entity.

That doesn't mean we'll stop.

But it does mean that over the course of the next several weeks we are going to push to put as many of these things in place as possible and then stay focused on delivering education.

And we hope that that will be enough.

We'll continue to look at new options.

We'll continue to take guidance from public health.

I just want to let people know that we are we are a stressed and strained organization.

And we are I'm going to finish by saying we're deeply grateful to the people in our buildings the instructors the educators the teachers the staff the nurses and the principals who are doing nearly heroic work keeping our our educational system alive.

So with that I'm happy to try to answer any questions.

Again I have.

colleagues who know many of the details who are on the line with me.

But I also want to turn it back to Dr. Jones as quickly as possible because I know that what he wants to present speaks to the higher aspirations of our organization.

With that President Hampson I will rest and take any questions or turn it back to Dr. Jones.

Okay for those that do have questions if you can please get your either virtual or physical hands up.

And I know Director DeWolf is on the phone and so I'm actually going to go to him first to see if he has questions so that he has a moment to unmute himself.

Excuse me.

Thank you President Hampson.

I don't have any questions but do really want to again Thank Deputy Superintendent Gannon for this really great presentation.

And just to reiterate my gratitude to our staff from our custodians nurses anybody else in our school buildings for the work that they're doing.

So this is great presentation.

Thanks for the update.

Okay.

Director Harris.

Thank you so much.

I have three quick questions and if the answers can come back to the entirety of the board not just me would be grateful.

Ingenuity for 6-12 do they have the capacity to deal with our students that have special needs instruction and what experience do they have.

I I have to say personally I've not been impressed with ingenuity in the past.

Video instruction and worksheets etc.

Second question.

I understand that we are looking towards putting out a new RFP with our bus providers.

And my question there if we are going to be focusing on Title 1 schools students furthest from educational justice such as Concord Elementary School which is in a desert of metro service.

Will that require First Student to renegotiate their collective bargaining agreement and if so what will that do to the timeline and the ETA of changing the route bidding system.

My third and potentially most important question and certainly potentially controversial surprise is do we foresee doing like the California governor did once the FDA approves the COVID vaccines for 5 through 12-year-olds requiring those much like we require vaccinations for MMR polio etc. and can we explore requesting OSPI Superintendent Reykdal and Governor Inslee to do so so we might have better protection for all of our school staff and all of our students.

Thank you.

Just a note before you answer the first two questions I'm happy to start the response on the third.

along with Chief Legal Counsel Narver if that's helpful.

Thank you President Hampson.

And Director Harris if I may I would like to send information to the board on your first two questions so that we can give you a comprehensive answer rather than a short and perhaps unsatisfactory answer in this briefing.

I think you asked very sharp questions and I would want to have fully explored that.

and then provide that back to you and your colleagues.

As to question number if that's okay with you.

If we could append those answers to the meeting minutes for this board meeting I would be ever so grateful so that we have the transparency that we all aspire to.

Thank you.

Without hesitation we will find a way to share answers to question 1 and 2 with with the broader public or at least those listening in and make sure that they're appended in some way.

I don't mean to dodge question number three.

I think it is a topic worth the board's consideration and I know that Legal Counsel Narver has been working with a number of staff to understand just what availability or what tools may be available to the district and to the board.

So I'm going to.

defer to President Hampson and whether she wants to speak to that now or at a different part of the agenda.

I'll I'll I'll rest with her decision there.

Director Hampson you're muted.

Thank you.

Yeah I want to make sure we get through through questions but I and we can we can circle back around to it during our either our board or committee reports or other comments.

And I think it's probably is it appropriate a time to talk about it as any.

So I have been asking Chief Counsel or what's your new title Greg.

It's General Counsel.

General Counsel Craig Narver.

to support an appropriate messaging given the lay of the lay of the legal land in the state of Washington for an appropriate statement that we might consider as a board relative to vaccine mandates.

And I think you probably heard me make statements about that.

We thank you to Greg for help for creating a draft that I think is in really good shape but needs a lot more discussion.

because of the disparity associated with the impact of a vaccine mandate.

The disparity it's it's a catch-22 in that we need for the benefit we've been we're forcing kids back to school.

And at the same time as a broader community have not done and certainly from a public health standpoint have not done the level of education and access support for the families of our students furthest from educational justice in anticipation of them coming back to school.

And so we want to do some additional due diligence.

I think we owe it to our students and our community to do some additional due diligence and make sure that the statement that we're making about the vaccine requirement and the what will surely be a forthcoming mandate at the state level is fully conscientious of the inequities present in the in the system to date and across the board given that there's a forced attendance back to school but without necessarily the supporting benefit of the kind of healthcare system and or vaccine access that would have made it possible to have equitable and safe vaccination rates across racial and ethnic categories of families.

I think that we thought there was some indication that King County had kind of started to eliminate some of those disparities but they've certainly not that's not stayed the case.

So it's something that I'm continuing to bring up and I want to engage in conversation with the board about that.

I was hoping we might be able to look at that resolution today.

We'll either need to schedule another meeting or push it to our next board meeting.

But right now the that power rests with the state and the current strategy is to request that the and demand that the Department of Health start that process of creating it as a mandated vaccine.

But I don't think that we can do that without also recognizing the disparities that are that are existing.

And as as we know there's there's disparate impacts on the other vaccine mandates that that are of great concern.

So a lot of questions still being answered.

Anybody who wants to speak on it I think it's appropriate in your questions.

I don't know if you want to respond to that at all.

Director Harris I hope to get a draft in your in all of your hands as soon as possible.

And then I guess I should say Greg do you want to add anything to what I said.

No I think that that sums it up pretty well.

Just in general the power to impose a vaccine mandate or requirement on students as a condition of attending school lies with the state.

And that's spelled out pretty thoroughly the process for that in the in the wax of the State Board of Health.

It's nothing that it's not something that individual districts have the power to do.

But that is that's something that will be explored in this draft resolution that may be coming forward.

I appreciate the feedback and I well appreciate that the power lies with the state not with us.

What I was asking about is whether we are going to advocate for SAME.

And I will stay tuned and await the draft resolution.

Thanks so very much for these responses.

Yeah and that's 100 percent the intent is is that advocacy to make it very clear where we stand.

I think we're in a place right now where we really are wanting to understand better where our families are with this before we just go out when our students are with us before we go out and make statements on their behalf without having had any communication with them.

I'm going to turn that over now to Director Rankin for questions.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Huge appreciation for this presentation and the opportunity to have this conversation as part of a board meeting.

It's it's much appreciated.

I continue to be struck by even a year and a half into this how for how many people this is still a very individual and and hyper-local thing that's happening instead of this broader context.

And so I'm wondering how can we I mean connected to quarantining connected to vaccines are there ways that we can help I guess we as a we as a board and also U.S. district staff how can we help support kind of the broader understanding of the context of what's going on.

You know I don't think people really realize that our school district is the size of the city of Missoula Montana that has its whole own public health department and its own you know Transportation Department.

And we have in Seattle Public Schools been asked to and well asked voluntold to become a public health organization on top of being an educational institution.

And so not only are teachers in the buildings and and building leaders doing you know this multiple level of monitoring social distancing helping kids with masks and you know contact tracing and all this stuff but central administration is also doing their regular educationally related job and you know navigating the effects of of homelessness and as they may be you know near near our schools in addition to students who are impacted by that.

And then now also running a public health a huge public health initiative.

So do we can we find a way to or is there a plan to kind of elevate the it's not it's corny like we're all in this together but a little bit more there still seems to be this idea that that screening is about prevention.

Rather than you know the school district we were directed to return to in-person and we're providing and doing a pretty admirable job providing the safest environment that we can.

But there's no preventing the presence of COVID in our schools when it exists in our communities.

And there's no guarantee of individual safety on anyone's part but rather the the the support of the safest environment.

So I it's it's a little bit of cognitive dissonance to me that's still a year and a half into this that's not landing.

And we may be doing this for a lot longer.

So can you is there I don't know can you address that at all.

Thank you Director Rankin for your question.

I'm going to defer on some of that to what Dr. Jones will present in the second part of his his Superintendent comments.

Because I think what he'll begin to address is what I alluded to is we as a district are going to do our best to return to a focus on education supporting students and families being responsive to their needs.

And Dr. Jones will point to some specific things that we're going to do.

At the same time we are also considering what we as district leaders can do in partnership with the board and other critical stakeholders to say we need different levels of awareness different levels of support different levels of resource new tools.

But I would just say right now I don't know the answer to that question.

We have not figured out what more we could ask for because we are so mired in delivering what we can as a public health agency in support of an educational endeavor.

So I'm not trying to avoid the question.

We just don't have an external answer and we're going to be very focused on what we can do internally to continue to to advance the district strategic plan to serve those that need it most to serve the interests of family.

And then Dr. Jones will speak speak to that very shortly I hope.

And then my other question is as much briefer I promise.

I'm wondering about and I thank you for elevating the issues around concurrent teaching and also test test observation and and collection which are the challenges.

And I'm glad that those conversations are happening but I'm also wondering how we may go about getting broader I guess I don't know how this works with regard to bargaining but I've had individual educators reach out and say you know can we get tests.

I'm willing to help with tests.

You know doing testing and and support for concurrent teaching in a way that as you can imagine across 6,000 or so represented people are not not going to be all consistent.

So what opportunity and time do we have to do broader engagement with educators and families around both those issues or is there opportunity.

Is there time for that.

So Director Rankin I'm going to try and be brief and say that we are continuing very diligent and intense conversations with our building leaders and principals to talk about how this could work with SEA leadership in an effort to understand what the limitations might be and how we support teachers doing simulcast or concurrent teaching.

We're looking at ways to either provide incentive or to work in partnership or appeal to the base notion that we are all here to serve students.

And those conversations at the bargaining table and outside the bargaining environment are still ongoing right now.

So I think that's part of it.

We need to continue to stay close to this notion and work with SEA to put it into play.

And then I know that Dr. Pedroza and her teams are working as soon as this week to launch training on what simulcast or concurrent teaching could look like.

How individual instructors could incorporate it into their practice.

Our curriculum and instruction teams are looking for ways to bring state-of-the-art teaching into this sort of unheralded space.

And we're also looking to the longer term right that this this could be to the benefit of students in quarantine over the course of this next year.

But it could also be to the benefit of the educational endeavor for years into the future.

So as much as we can we're trying to not just have a short-term view but a longer-term view on this as well.

But the short answer is we are trying very hard to to figure out the best way to engage and talk about this and make it happen.

because we think that that's the best way to get it into the classroom literally and figuratively so students can take advantage of it and our instructional staff can figure out the best way to modify their practice in their teaching to serve students.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith your hand is up.

It is.

Thank you.

I want to piggyback really fast off that last response to Director Rankin's question regarding engagement.

And I just want to say how much I really appreciate your answer there about engagement.

Not not that it said much because it didn't really say as much as we probably would like to hear but I really respect and appreciate that you want to kind of hold off a little bit until you do that work with SEA and the educators.

I know we often get criticized for speaking ahead of them or without engaging with them in the process and families get different messages sometimes.

So I just appreciate that you make a point to say that there is work to be done.

Discussions we had with our labor partners our educators first.

So thank you for that.

My questions though I do have them.

Let's go back to the 345 cumulative cases.

You mentioned that well you said students and staff.

Does that include parents and family members of students too or is that strictly students and staff.

Director Rivera-Smith I may have to turn to my colleague Carri Campbell who can probably answer that with greater specificity.

So rather than.

I'll turn it over to Carri.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Carri Campbell Assistant Deputy Superintendent.

So our external data dashboard only reflects students and staff.

Not families.

Thank you.

And maybe that's next on the agenda.

Assistant Superintendent Deputy Campbell.

Sorry there's a long title there I keep forgetting.

But I remember there was a situation in Sacajawea recently where the dozen plus students were instructed to quarantine not by SPS but by the Boys and Girls Club because a student in the after-school program had tested positive.

They were using different sort of tracing and contact specifications than we do as a district.

So I'm just wondering what are we doing to align our CBO's identification and quarantining procedures with.

SPS's to help to eliminate the confusion and missed school time for students.

So our health information team worked directly with the partnership team to better clarify that process of both close contact but also communication with the school.

And just so that we're clear with the public they did engage with our nurses before making that decision.

One thing to note is our public data dashboard both reflects the positive tests that we get through our testing program at the school level but also self-reported.

So when a parent calls in and says my child has tested positive and I've been told to notify the school our data dashboard reflects those positive cases as well as those cases that come through child care youth sports that might be happening in outside school hours.

I just want to make sure that.

everyone is aware that the data we're reporting we really reflects community spread not just those cases identified within our schools.

Okay.

So to get back to my question though are we aligning our identification procedures with the CBO's or is this still kind of different.

So we are we are aligning.

So as I mentioned the two teams came together and provided additional clarity to community partners to make sure that they are using similar processes and that we have clear communication.

But child care actually falls under different guidance than public education.

So we have to they follow different DOH guidance than school building.

So we have to work in collaboration to make sure that when they're making decisions there is an instructional learning impact when we have to quarantine students.

Okay well yeah I appreciate that coordination going on and collaboration for that.

Next question was regarding the clinic hours that you showed a slide of that are coming at different high schools.

Just for clarity because somebody might be looking at that and wondering what's given with it because it has like like for example there was a Rainier Beach High School from 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

but then it said COVID and flu are just 12 to 2. What happens between 10 and noon and 2 and 4. I have slides not up right now so I can show it to you.

So I'll introduce our colleague Audrey Corns who I think her title is amazing but she's done excellent work in figuring out the logistics and the practical practical details of our vaccination clinics.

So Audrey I'll let you respond to Director Rivera-Smith's question.

Hi I'm Audrey Corns the project manager in the strategy deployment and responsiveness department.

And to explain the time difference for flu and COVID shots, they're actually being provided by two different medical providers.

And the flu clinics actually have, at this point, have had a much bigger draw.

So they need to run through the whole day and the COVID clinics are, Up until last Saturday they were only getting like four to six people and so they were a shorter period of time.

Although for some locations they were going back multiple times to to try to spread out the accessibility especially like at Washington Middle School because that area has a lower vaccination rate.

But going forward into this weekend's clinics, because of the availability of booster shots and the availability of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for people who are trying to meet the October 18th vaccine mandate, or at least get closer to it, they are actually adding pharmacists to come because they're expecting a lot more people to come get COVID vaccinations this weekend at the Rainier Beach site, as well as Nathan Hale.

Okay so there are still vaccines going on between 10 and noon and noon and 2 it's just I mean sorry 2 and 4.

Yeah there are flu vaccines going on for the whole period but the COVID vaccine part is just 2 hours.

I don't know if that's the exact wording we're going to use when we advertise it so maybe that can be clarified when that does go out because it just look at it again maybe you'll see what I'm talking about.

It's just confusing.

So anyway thank you thank you for the response though I know you want to move on.

Regarding the additional K-5 virtual option seats can people who are not currently on the waitlist still apply to get on that.

Director Rivera-Smith I think the short answer to that is yes.

Though our colleague Dr. Pritchett could give you a bit of additional information if you would like.

The answer is yes.

And and again priority will be given to students with documented health conditions physical mental or emotional issues and concerns.

So we will still have that.

You can still apply and we'll still give consideration.

To be clear though it's not only for students with those conditions but those are.

I think we got a lot of families who thought that that was what prioritized men but that unless your student had that you shouldn't even bother applying.

But anybody can apply still.

It's just that with a limited number of seats The priority will be given to students who have that.

I think just clarify making that really clear in our messaging I think is important too.

Again because I remember hearing before about the confusion with that.

Last question.

Ingenuity.

Will students who take advantage of that option have to disenroll from SPS.

No that will be a part of our we're moving that into our Cascade Parent Partnership so they will not need to disenroll from Seattle.

And that's for grades 6-12 correct.

Correct.

Awesome.

How soon do we see that coming in as an option online.

That will be enrollment will begin late October.

So we're sending we'll be sending out communications on that for families to enroll.

Thank you.

No further questions.

All right.

Okay so I just had I think one question which is about the The rate Director or Assistant Superintendent I'm sorry Ms. Carrie Campbell what's your title.

Assistant Deputy Superintendent.

Assistant Deputy Superintendent.

I knew I was getting it wrong.

I've been asking about the rates at because we're posting raw numbers on our on our dashboard.

And so if you don't mind kind of going over those rates publicly this the I don't know if you gave me an overall rate but the overall positivity rate and what goes into that because I think it's also important for us to note what is and is not contained in those numbers.

You you talked about what's contained in the raw numbers but I want folks to be able to see that there are some geographic differences they're not necessarily exactly as is represented in the raw numbers because of the number of students.

Absolutely.

And I'll make sure to include this in the written response to the full board as well so the public can have access to this information because I'll be sharing it verbally.

So this is the percentage of students that have tested positive compared to the overall number of students in Seattle Public Schools.

So it is different than a positivity rate that public health would use which is the percentage of positive cases compared to the overall number of tests that have been given and and and have gone through DOH the state and then filtered down to public health.

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

We're looking at positive rate compared to overall student population.

So for the overall district we're at point So less than 1 much less than 1 percent.

And I'm just going to go alphabetically.

Central region 0.74 percent.

Northeast 0.4 percent.

Northwest 0.4 percent.

Southeast 0.77 percent.

And Southwest 0.68 percent.

And we'll make sure to include that in our written statement back to the board.

And how does that track with rates for I guess it would be for 11 to 17 year old or 12 to 17 year olds.

I don't have.

That's okay.

I can look it up.

I'm just curious what how those positivity rates are looking.

I know it's not the same.

It's a little bit apples to oranges but trying to see what it looks.

I know that we're at or below community transmission rates.

I would want to talk to our health team to make sure that my response is really accurate.

But what I do want to say is Our confirmed cases reflect both the positive tests that we're getting through our testing program and those cases that have been self-reported.

So we are dependent on families and community to let us know when there's a positive case.

So all of this has to be viewed with that lens.

Yeah.

I'll part of the data detail that we need to consider when we look at something like a vaccine mandate.

And I think I would just I just wanted to note relative to the discussion with respect to trying to shift as much of our energy as possible back to the the the our educational purpose that One of the reasons why a prospective vaccine mandate is important to me is the extent to which I see our the energy of our educators being pulled away from supporting students who are furthest from educational justice to do these other things that are also helpful but not as helpful as we know vaccines to be.

And so and yet within that because of the lack of really strong educational campaigns that I think might have gotten us to a better place that we are that sort of then take you to that spot before really kind of getting any kind of permission from the families that we aim to serve with that notion of a mandate.

So.

Okay that's I think all the questions that we have for now and we can turn it back to you Superintendent Jones.

All right.

Let me just start by saying thank you to Deputy Gannon and team.

This was a thorough authentic and actually sobering rendering of where we are.

We're not the only district that's going through this but it is having an impact on all of us.

I'm grateful to our school leaders our educators our staff to you board for just being invested in trying to have this mitigation strategy persist.

And we're trying to transition to get to focus on student outcome focused goals and Seattle excellence.

But this is real.

And hopefully you found this to be authentic and helpful as to explain kind of where we are currently.

So it's all-encompassing.

It's a challenge that we have to get through and get over.

But that's where we are.

So I'm going to have Clayton step through about 13 slides.

I'll also have opportunity for questions at the end where I'm going to talk about our how we're organizing for excellence.

So I want to talk about go back to the front please.

Slide 1. I want to talk about just what what are we projecting between now and October 21 and June 22. And what are we doing as a leadership team in trying to get organized.

One of the things that you all received recently was was an org chart.

How I'm how I'm resorting my team.

However I think some context around why we're doing that what we're trying to achieve would be helpful for you to have some context of what we're trying to get done.

So next slide please.

So as we think about our work we've heard this from AJ.

We've started to brand this language.

You know what can students know and do as a result of our efforts.

What student outcome does this support.

How do we know it benefits students.

These are kind of high-level questions that we're starting to ask around what are we doing and why are we doing it.

And so this is really important for us to guide our work We know that we have all of the things that Rob laid out so beautifully before us that we have to deal with but we still need to stay focused on our main thing that we do and that's teaching and learning.

And so this is really going to ground us as we move forward.

Next slide.

So my self-appointed mission is to create the conditions for students to thrive.

And this is around what are we doing for our entire system to really press into this concept of thriving.

We don't want students to just just make it.

We've had this kind of model over over the years that we really want students to to to meet a standard.

I think we should meet meet and exceed the standard and we should have our students feel like they're thriving.

So one of the things I wanted to lift up early on and I heard this from principals in March when I met with them before I even started in May.

They said let's get focused on on responsiveness.

Let's get focused on a solid fall return.

So we did that.

So these two boxes are checked.

We checked the box on fall return.

We said it.

We said it.

We claimed it.

We made it happen.

Was it perfect.

No not it not at all.

But we we made it through it.

But we also stood up a department and you heard Dr. Pritchett and Carrie Campbell A department of strategy deployment and responsiveness.

And that whole department was is geared to being responsive to schools and families.

And I think we've done a really good job of reconfiguring central office not only by strategy but our behavior to really focus on what principals needs are.

So we've done that.

Through our ESSER dollars we're really trying to focus on well-being and wellness.

And of course we want to meet learning outcomes.

That's what that's what we really focus on.

Next slide.

So as we try to create the conditions for students to thrive there are some conditions that we can control.

So as we think about all the things again that we need to do for our layered mitigation strategy we also have some things that are within our purview that we can make sure that we're doing.

And so as we start to restructure and organize around student outcome focused goals and guardrails We really can start to do things such as align our budget to our top priorities.

That's in our control.

We can have a through line to our actions and activities to student outcome focused governance.

We can design all of our work for those on the margins first.

Take into consideration those who are furthest from educational justice.

Those activities that we can do upstream to really get in front of how they how people may be impacted that have been marginalized over over time.

We can also orient what we do to have an outcome orientation versus only a process orientation and get really focused on these outcomes for African-American males students of color furthest from educational justice.

We can focus on progress not perfection.

We're a learning institution.

We need to always be in this continuous improvement mode.

One thing I heard from Director Harris a lot is document and replicate what you're doing so that you can push it back into the system for system improvement.

So that's the spirit of targeted universalism.

We focus on what we need to do to enhance the system for a targeted population.

Then we teach back into the organization how are we improving the system as a result of that.

And then finally I'm calling this last box here radical inclusion.

How do we invite and enroll stakeholders into the mission.

Who can we get to really be behind us and to again enroll them in taking part of this mission.

So these are the conditions that we can control when we start to think about restructuring and organizing for excellence.

Next slide please.

So again you have the org chart.

I've sent that to you.

And part of the thinking behind that the strategy is We need to address the conditions that we can control with a focus on Seattle excellence.

We also are organizing around meeting student outcomes.

You've heard these terms over the years around efficiency and effectiveness.

We think we can achieve that with this new model of how we're organizing.

We've also thought about the concept of tangible and real-time support.

Not delayed support but tangible and real-time support.

As I talked about the Office of Strategy Deployment and Responsiveness that was designed to have real-time support.

And then alignment and integration.

Most organizations like our organization have silos.

We want to we want to mitigate those silos.

We want to be not only aligned but we want to be integrated.

So this org chart this organizational structure is in effect for 9 months.

We're going to have a sprint and then we'll we'll reevaluate come July but this is what we're trying to do.

So next slide please.

So traditionally you've seen org charts with the with the boxes and lines.

This is the senior leadership org chart.

You already have the one that's formal but this is the informal one and I think this tells a story.

These are circles.

They touch each other.

They're dependent upon each other.

And they're all around excellence.

So we have Three different groups if you will.

Three different pods.

And I'll talk about these pods very briefly.

Operational excellence.

You just heard Rob talk about one of the components of operational excellence.

What are we doing to mitigate to mitigate COVID and learning disruption.

The lead in that area is coming out of the operational excellence box.

Rob is leading that area along with Carlos Kerry Fred JoLynn Noel and Sarah.

Moving to the blue box is engagement excellence.

We're framing what are we doing to engage the broader public our stakeholders.

Dina Dina is leading that area along with Beverly and James.

And then finally the academic excellence area.

Kasi's leading that area with Keisha Mia and Mike Starosky.

So these this is really a different way of looking at our org chart.

but it's synonymous with what you have on paper.

Next slide please.

So as we think about outcomes and what it looks like the outcomes that we're really striving for that are consistent with our Seattle Excellence Plan is racial and educational justice.

We know that that's an outcome.

We know that's one of the foundational pieces of Seattle Excellence.

We also have learned over the last several months around student outcome-focused governance.

And we really want to set up set ourselves up for goal attainment.

We also talk about meeting standards.

And there's a wealth of standards out there.

We've identified the standards that we want to meet.

Again we're organized for that.

High quality learning experiences.

That's something that we do really well.

We're going to continue to do that.

And the latest feature that we talked about that's really relevant in 21 2021 is around wellness.

Those are the outcomes that we're trying to to achieve.

And what does that look like.

It looks like again the concept of responsiveness.

It looks like engaged and active stakeholders.

It looks like central office recalibrating our support for schools and communities in tangible ways.

And it's not about central office what we need it's about what our what our school communities needs.

And then our decisions and actions are all geared towards goal attainment.

Not just the process but actually getting outcomes.

Next slide please.

So when we look at the pod of academic excellence we're talking about doctors Pedroza Scarlett Williams and Starosky they are the ones together who are really going to do our vision maintenance and our goal attainment.

They're the ones who are going to be our pace setters.

They're going to standardize they're going to prioritize our standards.

They're going to figure out ways that we can get beyond and over barriers.

And in schools and classrooms they're going to be taking the innovative best practices from from entities such as the African-American Male Achievement Office and push those back into the system so we can learn from those.

They're going to be the ones who are taking the curriculum selection implementation and support process and really implementing that in a powerful and bold way.

When we start to talk about a concept like capacity building We're also talking about capability building and holding people not accountable but holding people capable.

So we're going to train and then release and then expect really great things.

Coaching and development will come coming out of this organization as well.

And they're going to also set the tone for the welcoming environments.

And where students thrive they're going to create conditions of accountability So that we're making sure belonging and identity safety are foundational to what we need to do.

And we already talked about high quality learning learning experiences and well-being.

These are the conditions where we believe students will thrive.

This academic excellence team is leading this effort.

Next slide please.

So we have the engagement excellence team.

Dina Dina Morris Beverly Redmond James Bush they're coming together.

They're going to articulate in a way that we speak with one voice.

We're going to make sure that we have impact communications throughout throughout the district.

We want to make sure that we continue to have and stand up meaningful reliable stakeholder involvement.

We want to make sure that our board is engaged and we communicate effectively with our board.

We want to make sure we have proactive government relations and building political will.

We talk about these concepts like How are we going to do the vaccination encouragement.

This is an area this team will be leading the design and the strategy for that.

We want to make sure we have our partners aligned with SPS goals.

We want to make sure that we're being anticipatory around engagement and some of the foreseeable issues.

We know what these cycles are on an ongoing regular basis.

Let's be anticipatory so we can foresee issues.

Family engagement information and resources.

It's time that we continue to equip families with the information that they need so they can be the second teacher.

So that they can be empowered and capable of really pushing in supports to their students and their and their and their families.

And I talked about the concept of radical inclusion.

This is when we bring lots of folks to the table.

This is where we bring some of the people who have been our critical friends to the table.

Ask their opinion.

Not being afraid of what it means to be inclusive of a variety and a diversity of voices.

And then lastly on this this group we really want to have a reconciliation and a prioritization of stakeholder expectations.

Also known as demand management.

So we really want to be discerning and intake what the concern what the concerns are of the community.

This engagement excellence team are going to do these things.

Next slide please.

And then finally our Operational Excellence Team.

You you just heard Rob and the team talk about how are we mitigating learning disruption.

How are we mitigating COVID spread.

This is the team that's leading us through that.

This team will also do diagnosis organizational diagnosis not diagnosis necessarily around disease and whatnot but what are our Our hurdles and our back and our barriers and our challenges.

They're going to be really skilled at helping us look at diagnosis.

Project management.

We have a lot of different people doing project management across the district.

This team will be the ones who are setting the standards for how we do project management.

Operational excellence will also.

There's a lot of back-end systems.

There's so many things that we do that need maintenance.

Some of them are have deferred maintenance.

But this is the group that's really going to make sure that we audit and we are aware of what what are our needs for our back-end systems.

And then resource allocation and alignment.

This is really going to be focused and targeted to where needs are greatest.

This is this is where we are being strategic in terms of how we're using our limited resources.

Talent acquisition retention and development of staff is coming out of this shop.

This is really important particularly now as we're trying to retain our best and brightest and we're just really trying to retain and not have attrition of staff.

We have to be really specific and strategic about how we're doing that.

Building classroom infrastructure.

As we evolve technology comes in play.

How do we create digital access.

How do we create digital equity.

How do we create cutting-edge innovation.

It's going to be held right here in the Operational Excellence Team.

And then responsiveness.

This is the team also that is going to continue our operationalizing the concept of responsiveness.

And then mid-level manager activation.

This is where I think we have a golden opportunity to really empower our mid-level managers around what can they do to advance these goals and help us get to the outcomes that we that we really want.

Next slide.

So just a little insight on what we're going to do internally.

These are some near-term deliverables.

I've set these expectations out for us to deliver these on November 1st.

And I'll start at the top.

Academic excellence.

We have in my opinion too much discipline.

Too many suspensions.

Too many expulsions.

And we need to come up with a discipline reduction plan.

That discipline reduction plan will be consistent with the guardrail that we have around looking at alternatives prior to administering discipline.

We have the assessment implementation calendar.

We need to start to pull that together.

I know there's all kind of dialogues that need to happen around assessment but let's pull a calendar together with our best knowledge and set it and then we we go forward.

Goal-oriented plans around our goals around reading math college and career readiness.

That is really important for us to move forward.

And in standards clarity.

There are so many standards across the board that we have to really reconcile which standards are applicable in our environment.

Going down to engagement excellence.

Communication protocols.

I think I've heard from every board member around different ways that we could communicate stronger more effectively have more impact.

Internally we need to work to.

really start to hone in on what are our protocols.

Everything can't be the priority.

Everything can't be urgent.

Even though we have a lot of crises that we're dealing with right now there's some science and there's some math to how we're going to communicate.

And bringing Beverly Redman on board is going to be a help for us to be able to do that.

We've been trying to do this for a long time.

Now we have a focused opportunity to do that.

Proactive prospective shared engagement calendar.

We as I mentioned before we know what what engagements are happening annually and we need to make sure that we start to engage our stakeholders in a systematic and proactive way.

Board work plan a policy calendar.

That's a that student outcome focused governance work that we're doing.

That plan needs to come together as soon as possible.

And then meeting alignment and coherence.

We have a lot of meetings at central office.

Sometimes the one meeting isn't aligned with the other meeting.

Now's our opportunity to have agendas that really mesh with each other and we have alignment and coherence.

And then radical inclusion.

This is where I talked about let's have a plan for how we're going to bring in diverse stakeholders in a very coherent and strategic way.

And then operational excellence.

I want to have a baseline dashboard on our goals and guardrails that we can track and that we can make sure that we're following our progress to meeting outcomes.

Not just the process but really how how close are we to meeting those outcomes.

I think included on that we need to have some statistics around COVID status around transportation and substitute some of our high some of our challenges that we're working with right now.

And then a public-facing report that can be updated periodically on what we what we've established and what's yet to come.

So two more slides and then we'll we'll be done with this.

Next slide please.

So when we bring it all together when we talk about academic excellence we're talking about students are thriving and excelling and reading math and college and career readiness.

Those are our student outcome focused goals.

When we're talking about excellent excuse me engagement excellence we're talking about families students stakeholders and staff.

They're heard informed and equipped.

And then when we're talking about operational excellence the organization is responsive and adaptive to the needs of school communities.

And before we go on to the next slide we've been talking about this concept of little AJ.

Little AJ moving from from 3 to 6 to 9 and that concept was really around moving from 30 percent proficiency or 30 percent meeting standard to 60 percent to 90 percent.

We're going to replace Lil' A.J.

with Lil' B.J. I have I've been in the system as a student as an employee for a long time.

In 1985 I was I was featured in an article at the Seattle Times around not having high enough expectations for people like me African-American African-American students.

It is time that we transition from focusing on little B.J.

to focusing on the system to yield outcomes for little B.J.

So next slide please.

So this is why we're doing it.

We're trying to make the system yield better outcomes for people like me and others who are students of color furthest from educational justice.

This is why we're doing the work.

The system improvement to yield better outcomes.

So this is in a nutshell.

what we're trying to do around organizational design organizational structure from the senior leadership perspective.

So with that said I'll be glad to take on any questions.

Of course not as many as Rob had to take on but I'd be glad to hear your reactions and take on your questions.

So back to you President Hampson.

Thank you Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones.

For those of you that have questions if you could raise your hands.

Let's see Director DeWolf does not have questions.

Let's go first to Director Rivera-Smith.

Go ahead Lisa.

Thank you Superintendent Jones for all those wonderful words.

It's always good to hear you speak.

I never walk away from you speaking and I'm disappointed because you always say such beautiful amazing things and make us so hopeful.

And I just want to you know I want to I want to be able to follow all the all the PowerPoint you put out there.

I didn't see it so it's online now.

I looked about an hour ago or so I didn't see it there but I just checked real fast and it is there so I look forward to looking at that more thoroughly.

after the meeting because it was all fresh and new here.

So it's things like that like I think you know just that part I appreciate one of the slides there's talked about board communications and I know that you know we just really hunger for all the information you guys can you guys can share with us when it's when it's you know appropriate because that just helps inform us in our work with our constituents.

And we better to be better ambassadors of these messages these beautiful messages.

Wonderful hopeful.

work that you're doing.

So I want to be able to do that as well as I can.

So again having this kind of information as early as we can so that we can really dive and think about it would be awesome.

I I I appreciate I had a discussion with Dina recently.

I got to meet meet virtually with her and appreciate that the role she'll be playing in that work with us in the communications with us.

And I one of the things I think I told her was to try to anticipate those questions we're going to be having and that those those information we need because I think that will help make it smoother and get us get us that more timely fashion.

I'm really I'm really I'm really loving your radical inclusion because it just makes me think of the pastor of my church always talks about a radical alternative and the way we think and the way you know we have to really just blow open the idea of the way things are and just go for You know that dream that that we need to include and we need to just turn away from how we've been doing it and look at new possibilities and new opportunities.

And I know we're building on that with our work with AJ as you mentioned.

For people who if anyone's listening and wondering who he is.

He's been our you know our consultant through this process of moving to a student outcomes focused governance model which we're all still learning about too.

And I think there's a lot to learn in that.

There's a lot we really want to see us share more with our communities.

And I think that's coming soon.

So I look forward to that.

I had another point there I'm trying to remember what it was I was reading.

I was listening to you thinking about so many things and it was really great.

And I will follow up with you after the meeting or an email later.

I just thank you.

Thank you for all this work you're doing and for oh org chart.

That was what it was.

Love the org chart.

Can we get another version with names of staff because you have top level but then all the other boxes don't have names.

So if we can get an updated version that has those names in there that would be really helpful just because it helps us put those faces to names and names to jobs and helps us feel more informed especially when we're talking to community.

So that was my one request coming out of this right there.

So thank you again.

I'll pass.

Well thank thank you Director Rivera-Smith and we will follow up with an org chart with names I'm glad you like the radical inclusion.

I can't give attribution.

I got it from somebody.

And so if anybody knows who that author was that came up with that term I'd appreciate it so I can give attribution.

Regarding communication this is the first time that we've had a complete team.

So we have our I have all the positions hired for the for the senior leadership team.

And now we have the opportunity to really hone in our messaging and to be anticipatory perhaps of some of the things that you all have been expecting from me and us.

And so hopefully you're going to see us start to improve in that regard.

But I do believe that communication is a collective effort.

It's not just one person that can set the tone for communication.

It's all of us.

We have to come up with the right content.

We have to come up with the right timing.

We have to come up with the right mediums to send it.

So please continue to.

Give me your expectations around communication.

I listen to you all.

I try to pour it back into our organization.

And I do want to give Carrie Campbell a whole lot of credit.

She set a whole lot of systems in place for communications back in the day.

Now is our time to really just leverage those and expand on those now that we have a full and complete team.

So with the addition of Bev Bev Redman I think we have a golden opportunity here.

So so thank you and I believe communication is critical and it's important especially in this time where we're in such a heightened crisis period.

So so thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Is just is Bev here.

Is it appropriate to meet her virtually.

I don't know if Bev is here.

If you are here Bev why don't you say hello to the people.

I know you've been you've been you don't want her to get completely just inundated by all of us.

I'm sorry.

Yeah you all have to leave her you all have to leave her alone for at least a month.

Good evening everyone.

Hi it is Bev Redman.

I am currently off camera but I do want to honor the request to come on board and speak to everyone.

It is a pleasure to be a part of the team.

Looking forward to really helping manifest a vision for communications and public affairs for Seattle Public Schools.

We have an awesome opportunity.

A lot of great resources.

And it's our time.

Thank you so much.

Love that.

Love that.

Welcome Beverly.

We're so excited that you're here which is why Brent's keeping you from us.

We could not be more excited.

Okay I'm going to go next to Director Hersey.

Yo can y'all hear me okay.

Yes.

Okay fantastic.

So first thank you Bev.

We are for all that you are going to do and all that you have already done.

We are very excited.

I just want to lift her up.

She was a member or a participant in our D7 equity meeting last week and I know a lot of folks are super excited to have her presence.

Immediate reactions to the presentation and all the information that we just received from Dr. Jones I think that it is incredibly exciting and especially in terms of the responsiveness that we've received in the communication from senior staff to the board.

I have felt very included on many of the issues that we have been dealing with regularly.

So a big thank you.

It is a welcome change from what we have been used to especially over the past couple of years.

What my question is is I heard specifically in the presentation about the golden opportunity to utilize our managers more effectively in helping us achieve some of the goals that we have set out for ourselves.

The only question that I have around that or the only desire rather is I believe strongly that that is indeed a golden opportunity and would love to hear more at whatever intersection makes sense.

about how we can do that because I feel strongly that the resources that we have in front of us and the people that we have in our district are more than enough for us to achieve these goals.

And I think that there is like you mentioned a really big opportunity to give folks the chance to lean in in places where typically we have not provided that opportunity.

So just wanted to share that.

Looking forward for more details about what you're thinking.

and how we can come together as a leadership team especially to to make that vision a reality.

And I think that a lot of folks who especially those who are on the ground are educators are nutrition services staff or bus drivers would be really appreciative to understand what that looks like for them as well.

So thanks so much.

You can pass on to the next director.

Director Hersey yeah I'd be I'd be happy to share with you some of the ideas that that we have I have around mid-level managers and how we can just really support them.

I think they're going to be catalytic for us meeting our student outcome focus goals.

And yeah I think it's a it's a it's a golden opportunity right now.

So I'd be glad to share that with you when we have an opportunity.

Okay.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Yeah I had actually a similar question to what was just addressed about bridging the gap from central to to buildings.

And I think I said this in the last board meeting.

You know I feel these shifts happening and we can see these these reorbs and everything and and and I know that getting the impact of that out into our buildings is is a longer process and going to take time.

Because my hope and ask of the community is that they give us the opportunity to to allow that to happen before demanding something different again because they're not feeling the immediate the immediate impact.

So I just wanted to express my immense gratitude for the clarity of what's happening.

both to us as a board and as much as possible out to the community and for as a visual person the the overlapping circles and the very clearly defined different areas is really really helpful for me to understand.

And I think it will be for the for members of the public too that you know an org chart can look like okay it's just a bunch of people in suits in the central office like what does that actually mean for students.

And seeing it organized in this way It feels much more I think we've been used to operating in a way where everybody's so reactive in this district and there's always a new fire to be put out and everything has sort of become everybody's job in a vague way which really means that it's nobody's job.

And so I just especially during COVID and all of this stuff that's happening really really appreciate and just wanted to highlight the the very different sense that I know we're all getting that I think people will feel eventually of who's responsible for what.

How we look at it in terms of outcomes for students and what we do when things fall short.

And so I just kind of wanted to put another point on that I guess.

And then I'm so happy also to have Ms. Redman on board.

I'm wondering how or when is appropriate to kind of start to signal these shifts to the broader community so that they understand that we're not doing business as usual and we're not scrambling around that we we've got a leader with a plan and we have a board with a vision and the pieces that are coming into place to make these changes and I just I don't know how how can we help how can we as the board help the community understand what this will have as an impact and what they can look for and what questions they might ask and and how they can understand the changes.

Director Rankin I think one of the things that I want the board to take credit for is to having the foresight to do student outcome focused governance.

And what is what that's doing for us is role clarity.

And that role clarity between Superintendent and staff and the board is allowing stuff like this that we're talking about today to really take shape.

And so it's not just you know technical things that we're talking about here.

It's really around this role clarity and this governance clarity that's going to help us propel us into where we want to go.

So and it's not just one individual that's going to make it all happen.

It is this systematic approach to it collectively that again the board and staff have together.

That's that's going to make it go.

So so thank you.

Director Hersey is your hand just still up accidentally.

Yeah.

Okay.

Director Harris.

Thank you.

I think the dog sees a Amazon or UPS or FedEx than and I apologize for the noise.

Super Interim Superintendent Jones I appreciate you calling out former Communications Chief Carrie Campbell.

And I also appreciate the trust that you're placing in Dina.

I I I have to say that I have watched a number of these PowerPoints from different superintendents over the years.

This one is probably the best one done but the proof is frankly in the pudding.

3 4 5 8 12 months from now whether or not we've met those goals and I I don't mean to be a negative Nellie and I don't mean to suggests that your heart and soul and efforts and your team's efforts are not completely enmeshed in this.

But if we look at the history of Seattle Public Schools and as you rightly said in 1985 you wrote an article in the Seattle Times we can point to ever so many of these PowerPoints and aspirational goals and I guess I want to see more incremental communication.

And unlike my extraordinarily valued colleague Director Hersey I have not seen that enhanced communication.

And and as you very well know in our conversations I have been begging for same.

Family engagement has been a hot point for a great deal of our communities that represent students furthest from educational justice.

And it and it sounds really good and I so want to believe but I also want to hear more often about the incremental changes that we are doing.

I want to not have to Listen to principals that call me up and say did you hear what they did now.

I don't want to hear from families that are angry and hurt and fearful for their students.

And and again I do believe I wouldn't be doing this job if I didn't believe but an overarching PowerPoint doesn't work for me if it's not backed up with incremental communication and and we all stand on the shoulders of those that came before us.

Perfect or not.

And and I want to give thanks for those folks that have helped get us where we are now.

And again I absolutely give you my best efforts but There's a piece of me that is is having problems with these pretty PowerPoints and these new slogans and silver bullets.

Thank you.

Director Harris I know you're from the show-me state.

I appreciate that.

I also appreciate the incremental evidence of progress to these outcomes.

And we've we've given ourselves over time a lot of credit for process but we haven't gotten to the outcomes that we that we want.

So I also agree with you on I don't want those calls around what we're not doing well.

And so we we're approaching this in a continuous improvement model.

And I think what one thing I'm taking away from your comments is we need to have some some more evidence of the incremental things that are working.

And so we'll try to produce some of those things as we go along.

real tangible things not just kind of symbolic but tangible evidence that we're making progress.

And so I hear you and I and I appreciate that.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well my simple comments would be that once again I appreciate your willingness to show I guess I sort of see I see this as incremental I see that the tilling of the soil and the and the planting of the seeds even before we've we've fully come with the final evidence that is you know ability to be shined and polished that we're talking about it in process and you're Humility in doing that is really helpful to me.

And I also appreciate that we're doing this in full view of the public as boring as it may seem to them to start to look at how things need to be centralized but centralized in a way that supports the outcomes in our buildings.

And really finally clearing enough space and time to start to draw those threads.

And I think already in a very short time since you've been on as Superintendent you've managed to start to see the little tiny bits of of growth toward that and toward connection to a cohesive singular purpose which is outcomes for kids and so.

I am grateful to that for your your willingness to put you and your staff out here to have these conversations because they are hard ones to have and we need to keep having them.

And that's part of why we create space on our agenda so that we can have these conversations publicly and let people let everyone know where we're headed directionally in spite of the massive workload that's created by the COVID pandemic.

So thank you for that.

And then we're going to.

Move on.

Oh sorry.

Go ahead.

So so thank you for your comments but I just would be remiss if I didn't just acknowledge Disability History Awareness Month.

And and we know that we have Dr. Torres and Dr. Pedroza who've met with school leaders provided them resources for more awareness that they can share with their communities.

We just want to give a quick shout out to Disability Awareness Month Disability History Awareness Month.

as we as we proceed.

So thank you for your support.

Thank you for all the things that you all are doing to lift up our population that our system also has to change and do better by so that we have a soon to be a history of really serving our students with disabilities in a powerful way.

So just wanted to close out with that.

Thank thank you Director Hampson.

Yeah and we'll when we do our acknowledgement about Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday I was going to mention that briefly but I did want to note that one of the things I learned this month is that it was actually officially declared the national well it was originally called National Employee the Physically Handicapped Week in 1945 and that was the beginning of what is now Disability Awareness Month and so I did not know that it was such a longstanding awareness month and I think it's probably been little little supported and heralded.

So thank you for for bringing that up.

Okay so I'm going to keep us going on the agenda.

And so we've now reached the consent portion of today's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

And move for approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

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

Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda.

Hearing none.

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

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

The consent agenda passes unanimously.

And we are going to move directly to public testimony for our very patient public and then move to committee reports.

So I will briefly give an intro.

We'll be taking public testimony by teleconference today as stated on the agenda.

For any speakers watching through SPS-TV please call in now to ensure you are on the phone line when your name is called.

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

I will summarize some that are important in this procedure.

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

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones and only one person should speak at a time.

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the listed Speaker's name is called.

The total number the total amount of time will not exceed 2 minutes for the combined number of speakers.

Time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins.

In order to maximize opportunities for others to address the board each speaker is allowed only one speaking slot per meeting.

If a speaker cedes time to a later speaker on the testimony list or waiting list the person to whom time was ceded will not be provided testimony again later in the meeting as there is only one speaking slot per person.

For those who do not wish to have time ceded to them those who wish do not wish to have time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or waitlist.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Thank you President Hampson.

Speakers please remain muted until your name is called to provide testimony.

When your name is called please ensure you have unmuted on your phone and then also press star-6 to unmute yourself on the conference call line.

Each speaker will have a 2-minute speaking time and a chime will sound when your time is exhausted and the next speaker will then be called.

First on today's testimony list is Nora Hakimian.

Hi my name is Nora Hakimian.

I use she her pronouns and I am a junior at Roosevelt High School.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to speak rather quickly today so I apologize for that.

All women should be raped at least once.

Rape is awesome.

These were just some texts by boys in my grade that came out on social media in my freshman year.

It is indescribably indescribably petrifying to walk into a space that is supposed to be safe and know that a person who says rape is fun or the N-word on a regular basis is 10 feet away from you.

You cannot function properly.

How am I supposed to learn and grow when I feel like my immediate safety and well-being is put at risk.

And I am a lucky one for many reasons.

So many people have had a variety of experiences that I can't even begin to imagine.

As a member of clubs I have sat in meetings with everyone from school staff to Title IX attorneys and been told that this system works.

But it doesn't.

This year I ended up in the class with someone who had sorry several serious claims of sexual abuse and violence against them.

After I decided to report them to the school I watched the administration do nothing after I brought undeniable evidence because the student never harmed me directly.

Systems that work don't leave kids traumatized in these problems happening over and over and over again.

From all the sexual assault I have seen to the racial microaggressions I've experienced every phobia and ism that my friends and peers have endured it is abundantly clear to me that we have a problem.

The purpose of the school is to raise well-informed intelligent empathetic human beings and Seattle Public Schools is not doing that right now.

Last year some Roosevelt clubs created a list of first-step goals that we believe will start the change for the better.

I would like to share a shortened version of them with you.

They were specifically designed for the school board implement in the district as these problems are reflected everywhere not just Roosevelt.

We need your help your resources and funding and pressure to make these happen.

They have years and the stories and experiences of students in them and we believe they could make an enormous difference.

First all middle and high school teachers must receive sensitivity training around student reporting and all middle and high school counselors must receive more intense versions of these trainings.

I know versions of this already exist but to be frank they aren't working because if they were I wouldn't be here today.

Second all middle and high school students must receive at least monthly training around the experiences of and discrimination against marginalized communities.

By giving tools to under kids tools to understand each other better we will break this culture before it even starts.

Lastly the stories of marginalized communities and their experiences must be integrated into regular curriculum.

Representation matters.

Additionally by understanding how we got to where we are today we can better understand the systems that need to be changed.

After I am done talking today you all are going to move on with your days and your lives.

But I ask you to not forget us and our stories.

I'm going to have to go to class tomorrow with the person who sexually abused others and deal with the fact that I get anxiety so bad that I shake every time I'm near them and that I'm never going to feel safe in that class.

Thank you for listening.

Nora I want to thank you for your bravery and your continued advocacy.

And I want you to know that the issues of sexual health and assault are incredibly important ones ones that we are that we need to get back to.

And it's actually one of the most critical items in terms of workload that's being disrupted by our focus on other major health issues because there's so much crossover in that that staff and yet it doesn't diminish their importance.

And so I just want to thank you again for coming and being here as a student speaker.

And let's connect again soon.

Back to you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

The next speaker is Chris Jackins.

Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins.

Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the minutes of the September 22nd board meeting and on today's board agenda three points.

Number one the board is continuing to deliberately vote on the consent agenda prior to allowing public comment.

Number two the public was allowed to provide in-person testimony at the August 25th meeting but not at today's meeting.

Please explain why.

Number three for the fourth board meeting in a row today's meeting agenda did not include a Pledge of Allegiance or flag salute.

Please state if you believe that the Governor has waived this expectation.

On the BTA V proposed capital levy 5 points.

Number 1 this district is giving the BTA V levy less environmental review than the previous BTA IV levy which had an Environmental Impact Statement or EIS.

Number 2 a formal request has been made for an EIS for the BTA V levy.

People making this request include a recent former school board member.

a representative of a family who donated the land for a Seattle Public School and the chair of the Duwamish Tribe.

Number 3. Have district staff told the school board this information.

Number 4. During two board work sessions on BTA V district staff did not mention a single word about the legally required environmental review.

Number 5. The board can order an EIS seeking more review and rescheduling the levy to a regular election would reduce district election costs please have district staff publicly state the cost savings.

On district communications two points.

Number one decades of previous school boards have given priority to starting public testimony at the time specified on the agenda 5 p.m.

today.

Number two the superintendent's presentation did not seem to have been posted last night.

Thank you.

Next for testimony Derek Belgarde.

Derek.

Belgaard.

Bonjour Seattle School Board community.

My name is Derek Belgaard.

I'm an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon.

I'm also Chippewa Cree from Rocky Boy Montana.

First I just want to acknowledge and thank the school board for your recognition and the proclamation of Indigenous Peoples Day.

I think that was really good news.

Good job.

So today I'm here as Executive Director of the Chief Seattle Club.

We're a 50-year-old nonprofit organization with the mission to provide sacred space to nurture affirm and strengthen the spirit of urban Native people.

Among our many programs and services we currently partner with Seattle Schools Right Now helping to keep families in their homes through our contracts with King County and the Federal Treasury Rental Assistance Program commonly T-RAP.

We also run two temporary housing shelters in Seattle in addition to our long-running day shelter in Pioneer Square.

Today I'm conducting a community engagement and inviting public comment as part of an exciting partnership that's going to serve urban American Indian and Alaskan Native youth and families.

We're partnering with Bellwether Housing and North Seattle College.

We'll be bringing 200 units of family housing to the North Seattle College campus.

And we're also going to be constructing a contemporary Coast Salish longhouse on site that's going to serve families and students and the community at large.

In addition to the partnership with North Seattle College This location is so important to our community.

It's close.

It's a very close site to Licton Springs which has been a resource to Native people since time immemorial as well as being in close proximity to the historical Historic Indian Heritage High School and the current Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and the Cascadia Elementary School.

So as we continue to develop the site we will share updates with Seattle Public Schools to ensure that the school district can plan for any changes to enrollment that stem from this development.

Chi McGuich.

Thank you everybody.

Next is Janice White.

Janice White.

Good afternoon.

Thank you Superintendent Jones and President Hampson for acknowledging and mentioning Disability History Month which is this month of October.

Understanding disability history is important.

Important enough that over 10 years ago state lawmakers passed a law to guarantee that during the month of October each public school in Washington would quote conduct or promote educational activities that provide instruction awareness and understanding of disability history and people with disabilities.

In that spirit the Seattle Special Education PTSA has created two virtual reading rooms with books videos news and activities.

One for young students and one for teens and young adults.

There are links to them on our website and I will send you all an email with links as well.

I want to state huge thanks to the four parent volunteers who curated and created the virtual reading rooms.

We hope that these virtual reading rooms will be shared with schools with teachers principals librarians.

We've shared them with PTSA's and also community organizations who care about disabled youth.

At our October General Meeting on October 19th we plan to look together at one of the lessons in the 1 out of 5 curriculum developed for Disability History Month by the Office of the Education Ombuds and Rooted in Rights.

The lesson is about ableism.

We've asked the Special Education Department and our members to also come and share how our schools are observing Disability History Month so we can spread the word.

Finally we want to extend an invitation to as many members of the school board as possible to Superintendent Jones and to as many staff as possible to come to our community conversation about inclusion on October 26th.

It will be held over Zoom and it will be facilitated by Adina Protinentis.

We have invited a large and diverse group of stakeholders who care about students in Seattle schools so we can have a robust conversation and work together to develop a shared understanding about the benefits of inclusionary practices to our school communities.

Thank you very much.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Oh there we go.

That was the final speaker on today's testimony list.

Okay.

Let me get my notes up.

Okay so we are going to go to let me just double make sure I get this correct because we moved things around a bit.

Okay so we are going to sorry Ellie did you want me to do the go straight to the recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day with the proclamation.

We're going to start with that right.

Yes President Hampson.

Okay.

So we will now move to recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day.

Today's board meeting agenda links to Indigenous Peoples Day resources collected by our Native American Education Department for all ages and learners.

I'll talk a little bit more about that after the proclamation.

I'm going to turn it over to Superintendent Jones to do that proclamation right now.

All right.

Thank you President Hampson.

I will read a proclamation of Indigenous Peoples Day.

A proclamation of Seattle School District Number One King County Seattle Washington reaffirming the district's commitment to promote the well-being and growth of every district student especially Seattle's American Indian and Indigenous students.

Whereas the Seattle Public Schools recognizes that the Indigenous people of the lands that would later become known as the Americas have occupied these lands since time immemorial.

And whereas the Seattle Public Schools recognizes the fact that Seattle is built upon the homelands and villages of the Indigenous people of this region without whom the building of the city would not have been possible.

And whereas the Seattle Public Schools values the many contributions made by our community through Indigenous Peoples' knowledge labor technology science philosophy arts and the deep cultural contribution that have substantially shaped the charter of the City of Seattle.

And whereas Seattle Public Schools has a responsibility to oppose the systemic racism towards Indigenous people in the United States which perpetuates high rates of poverty and income inequality exacerbating disproportionate health education and social crises.

And whereas the Seattle Public Schools seeks to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination stemming from colonization and to promote awareness understanding and good relations among Indigenous peoples and other segments of our district.

And whereas the Seattle Public Schools promotes educational excellence for Indigenous peoples through policies and practices that reflect the experiences of Indigenous peoples ensure greater access and opportunity and honor our nation's Indigenous roots history and contributions.

And whereas Senate Bill 5433 requires the teaching of the history government and contemporary issues of the 29 federally recognized tribes of Washington state.

And whereas the school board of directors has mandated through policy number 2336 required observances to observe the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples Day.

Therefore all schools are encouraged to support the well-being and growth of American Indian and Indigenous students and recognize the contributions of Native peoples on October 11th Indigenous Peoples Day.

October 11th 2021 is hereby proclaimed as Indigenous Peoples Day and celebrated across Seattle Public Schools.

Thank you.

I'm honored to read this proclamation.

Thank you so much Superintendent Jones.

And I just wanted to note as was stated earlier thanks to Native American Program Manager Gail Morris and her department for your work to prepare the resources and today's proclamation.

The resources that are provided both externally and internally that are incredibly comprehensive broken down by K-2 and then 3-5 6-8 9-12 and then specifically for teachers that have an absolute treasure tour of resources all of which have been vetted and are appropriate for our educational environment to to provide the true and accurate history of our Native people both past and present.

Particularly as it pertains to the sovereign nations that are part of Washington State and that in in those teachings provide a safe environment for our Native students to be seen and feel that they are represented in the teachings around history and also anything that has to do with this place that we call home in the Puget Sound otherwise known as the Salish Sea area.

Again please encourage families teachers administrators to utilize these incredible resources.

It's not only inculcated in law.

But there it's an absolute as I said a treasure trove of resources that they have worked very hard to put together and some incredible and truly enjoyable story.

Everything from storytelling to much more in-depth history videos television shows literature poems it's and then with specific call-out to the folks that have also helped provide these tribes these resources such as the United Indians of All Tribes and their virtual event that's on October 11th.

The Indigenous Peoples Day Festival that is October 12th through 15th that's sponsored by the Seattle Indian Health Board.

Those are some of our local partners who are doing great work around this and many many more.

Those are just some of the things for 3rd through 5th grade.

Again it's an important opportunity.

But as with one of the things I wanted to note that I think we need to do better as a board is make sure that we do justice to what are actually long-established months of recognition.

If you whether it's Black History Month or Black We're still in the midst of Hispanic Heritage Month that runs from September to October 15th.

And I think part of the way that we do justice to those is noting kind of the history of how those things came to be.

Hispanic Heritage Month was actually created in 1968 through through a congressional act.

And that kind of history knowing that it's been around for that long.

And also figuring out how we can better incorporate the need for that recognition into our every day because these are not as is the case with Indigenous Peoples Day for Native people every day is Indigenous Peoples Day for Latino people every day is Hispanic heritage or every month is Hispanic heritage month and so on.

And it's something that we can do as a board I think to connect a little bit better and have a an authentic approach to these and connected to what's happening in our classrooms and making sure that that we are providing a safe environment for those students that identify with the month being represented.

So thanks for giving us time on the agenda to to focus on Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday and we'll have Native American Heritage Month coming up in November.

But again it's it's it's an all-day everyday thing.

And this is just a time that we highlight some of the resources and good work that's happening.

Okay so now we're going to move to our committee reports.

Director Vice President Hersey is going to go first and talk about the board evaluation and plan for or goals for our next board year.

Yeah absolutely.

So just even with hearing an echo.

So just for the Audit and Finance Committee really quickly we haven't met since the last time that we had a regular board meeting but our next board meeting is our next committee meeting is going to be This coming Monday October 11th.

So if you're interested please let us know.

Now taking a closer focus on the board self-evaluation.

So board policies charge us with formulating board goals each year and then conducting a self-evaluation in relation to those goals.

Our current goals were adopted in January of this year and will be complete with this cycle with a self-evaluation posted to the November 17th regular board meeting agenda.

As the designee for the process I'll develop and draft the evaluation narrative based on feedback received from individual directors about our work toward goal our goals this year.

We'll then have a work session on October 27th for board directors to review the draft evaluation narrative and provide recommendations and edits.

I'll then take that feedback to finalize the evaluation narrative for posting on the November 17th regular board meeting agenda.

This evaluation process also overlaps with our goals development process for 2022. As part of the work session on October 27th we'll also begin and discuss development of goals for the next year.

The Executive Committee is also scheduled to discuss goals in October and November.

We are hoping to have a draft of goals to then review during the December board retreat for finalization with a BAR potentially introduced in December and acted on in January.

This year's goals were developed prior to our move to student outcomes focused governance.

So they are not well-suited for that evaluation framework but our goals for next year are planned to be aligned with this work.

The purpose for today is to invite any questions or feedback on the process that I just outlined for you.

So.

If any of my colleagues have any feedback or questions or clarification points now would be the time to address those.

All right.

Seeing none I'm going to pass it back over to you to facilitate the rest Director Hampson.

Great.

Thank you.

So I'm going to go next with our executive committee.

We we.

I already spoke about our last Executive Committee sorry yes Executive Committee meeting at our last board meeting but October 4th we had a special Executive Committee where we discussed and approved the RFP for the organization with an S in parentheses that will support us in doing community engagement and search for our permanent superintendent.

So that RFP was finalized and we'll be posting this week.

If anyone wants to get a copy of that and can't find it elsewhere feel free to email the board office or myself and we'll make sure that you get a copy of it and the final draft before approval can also be found in the minutes for that meeting.

And our next meeting is on October 14th unless I'm mistaken.

And I will then pass it over and that's at 8 o'clock in the morning.

I will pass it over to Director Rankin.

Do you have any updates for curriculum instruction.

And then Director DeWolf had to hop off so if you want to talk about I'm sorry October 13th is the October 13th with must be at 8 a.m.

is the Executive Committee meeting.

Director Rankin do you have a report from SSC&I and or Ops.

Thank you.

Just that We have our next SSC&I committee meeting next week Tuesday October 12th.

And our next Operations Committee meeting is tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.

So we'll have more to share from those meetings at the next board meeting.

Great.

Thank you.

And SSC&I stands for Student Services Curriculum and Instruction.

And that brings us to board comments.

So let me start with Director Hersey.

I'll keep my comments brief.

I just want to shout out our educators.

I've had the opportunity to speak with a number of them over the course of the first few weeks of school not only here in Seattle but across King County and across our state.

And they are burnt.

I there there is no other way to put it.

This has been an incredibly difficult year for the folks who are with our children in those classrooms trying to figure out how to make sense of all of the various moving parts that are happening while also keeping our children safe and while also in some way by some measure educating our students with the highest quality of skill commitment and love And so please know that it is not lost on us the immense task that you are up to.

And we are trying feverishly to get to a place to where you can focus on what you were hired to do which is to educate and to care for the children of this city.

So if someone has not told you thank you in the past couple of weeks months whatever the time frame might be please take it from me.

Thank you.

We see you.

We appreciate you.

And we are going to get through this together.

Thank you Director Hersey.

Director Harris I'm sorry Director Dury.

Yeah I just want to.

Second what Director Hersey just said I've been visiting schools and principals teachers staff alike are drowning and and they're we're asking a lot from every angle of our educators and our staff.

And so I just wanted to say that I think That we I want to make sure that they hear a thank you as well.

And also beyond that to move it to action and see the district the board the parents the community really rally and not rush back to going back to normal and take the opportunity to look at things differently and consider our options and come back stronger and better and not lose that sight and that vision.

So I just want to say thanks to everybody that I've been talking to for sharing your time and your space and your energy.

And and to everybody else I haven't been able to see yet that I look forward to meeting with you and hearing what you need and how we can best support you.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Dury.

Director Harris.

Thank you.

I will add on to Director Vice President Hersey's comments with extraordinary gratitude to everyone in this district whether it's a building custodian whether it's a bus driver etc.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and I hope that folks will continue to have patience.

And I well appreciate that our students and our children are the most important things in our lives.

And will admit to having struck out in the past when I felt things were not going well.

But I absolutely believe in the bottom of my heart that folks are trying their very best including all of the folks at the John Stanford Center who oftentimes are slimed and categorized as memes as as not caring.

And and I don't believe that for a freaking second.

Everyone I've met at the John Stanford Center does care whether or not the systems allow them to reach out and express that concern is a whole nother issue.

And Interim Superintendent Jones spoke about that this evening and I really appreciate his candid comments.

With respect to Indigenous Peoples Month I guess I would lay the question at Interim Superintendent Jones's doorstep.

If we care this much why hasn't manager Gail Morris been made a director.

Five years I've been pestering asking begging and I don't beg well.

And I've been told on multiple occasions over 5 years that absolutely that's coming up next.

Well you know there's a phrase that says you put your money where your mouth is and a director gets paid more.

And when we talk about org charts we are putting our values in the spreadsheet.

And I would like to have an answer at some point in writing why we have not elevated her position to a director position because of the extraordinary importance of this unit this silo this portion of our district leadership.

And and I've been really nice and really patient but yes I am absolutely calling it out and I need an answer at some point because this has gone on far too long and the work is so extraordinarily important.

I have not yet done a Zoom conference for my district and I miss it terribly.

I miss the personal conversations in one room because Teams Zoom whatever you call it is missing a huge element of human communication and I will continue to try and and stay tuned for the the announcements of a district meeting.

And as folks may well remember in-person meetings usually come with one out of three lasagna.

Last I am very concerned about our transportation system and those folks furthest from educational justice and whether or not just putting an RFP out there for First Student our contractor and again historical information the Seattle Public Schools has never had its own bus system.

We contract with First Student.

We did a good job of getting them better benefits in the past.

But if we are going to change the bidding system it is my sincere belief that we need to take into account that that will probably change the collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters.

And as Deputy Superintendent Gannon said he will respond in writing and his response will be attached and amended to the minutes of this board meeting as to what the ETA and the unintended consequences of that are.

But if we have 80 late routes that are anywhere from a half hour to two hours overdue that means we have an extraordinary loss of learning and and we need to embrace and address that deficit.

Again the hardest work I've ever done in my life.

I respect and adore my colleagues even if I disagree with them.

We try very hard to do it elegantly.

Call me.

Write me.

Fax me.

Email me.

We're trying hard.

Being a public health agency in addition to a school district is as was said earlier this evening we're reaching our breaking point.

So so please help us as opposed to throwing rocks at our head.

Thank you so much.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

I would like I want to circle back to something the previous directors shared is that great gratitude and concern for our staff our teachers our our educators And it's and I just want to echo it because I'm hearing it too.

And and I and I don't know what to tell them which is what I what I think I really want to say is that I know that we care.

I I hate too when I hear that oh oh Central doesn't care and board directors don't care.

We care a lot.

We just I personally don't know what to tell them because clearly there's a disconnect in the services that we do have for our educators and their well-being and their mental health.

And I want to.

This is the kind of thing where I probably say hey can you shoot us something in the Friday Memo explaining what is available for educators.

But we don't have a Friday Memo right now which goes back to communications.

So in some form though I would really appreciate from administration some sort of information for us because when we do hear educators and school leaders talking about burnout and the distress they're going through.

I want to be able to help them and let them know what we do have to support them because I know we have those resources.

I know I've heard about it.

I know it's even come through with the ESSER dollars.

We have whole departments dedicated to this but I'm not equipped with what I can tell them and help them and help them find those resources.

So if you can get that to us to all board members I think we would really appreciate that.

Again to be the ambassadors we should be for this district that does care.

And I know we do.

I don't doubt that for a second.

And I just want to be able to tell these people who we care so deeply about.

My own my son's speech language pathologist recently posted to Facebook that she cried five times by noon one day and that's not acceptable.

That is that breaks my heart because she is an amazing educator and woman and and therapist and I I can't feel good about that we're leaving that.

But that's the state of our staff.

So what can you do to help equip us with that information that we can share.

I would really really appreciate that.

I want to go also then back again to our student speaker tonight Nora who I don't know if she's if they're still here.

And I wish that was yeah Nora von Roosevelt.

Really thank you for your strength coming here tonight to share that message with us about the again like the lack of safety and not feeling cared for in our school because you need to sit next to people who you understand have abused others or assaulted others.

And that's again it breaks our heart because we don't ever want students to feel that way.

And when you say that you know how can you learn and grow when your safety is at risk and that's an excellent question.

How can you.

We need to make sure that we're doing what we can there to listen and hear and respond.

We're always told we don't want to be reactionary.

Well we want to be responsive.

And I know our district values that.

We've got a response department responsiveness.

But I want to thank you.

Like I said I'm not at Roosevelt anymore.

My my daughter graduated recently from there so I don't know specifically what your school is working and doing.

I'm sure there's I think you spoke of a group that's getting together.

And you did speak about a list of first step goals.

And I would really like you to send those to us.

I think you named a couple of them I'm not sure if that was the whole list but if you could send that to to myself and other board directors I know we would love to see that because hearing your voices is the most powerful thing that we can do in this in our work to make sure that we are responding to that and doing and using our powers to make your educational experience and your school experience safe.

I want to also just acknowledge Indigenous People's Day and Disability History Month.

Definitely I'm very pleased to see the resources that are available to our educators and our families and our students in both of those both both for both of those those recognitions.

I thank you Janice White again for being out coming out tonight and speaking your truth and reminding us of the importance of recognizing and valuing and including our students with disabilities.

I think we had another speaker about affordable housing and I love hearing that early so that we can plan on enrollment and how it's going to look in regards to new developments that are springing up all over.

So thank you for coming tonight Derek to let us know about that.

And we had another speaker Chris Jackins as always.

There is there is a response to the pledge and I know that Greg and I would love to share that with you.

Maybe we can we can figure out a way to have that happen because we need to kind of put that issue to rest I think.

So thank you everyone who came out tonight to speak to listen and all the staff who are still here to board directors.

Good night.

Why don't you just go ahead and share that Greg if you're still with us and put it to rest.

I'm still here.

The state law does not require flag exercises or pledge of allegiance at board meetings.

It's in classrooms at the beginning of the day and at assemblies.

It's optional for board meetings.

We used to do it.

We don't now.

It's not a violation of state law or our policy.

That's that's the bottom line.

And since we're there can you clarify what is required in classrooms.

Sure.

The statute is RCW 28A 230.140.

It requires appropriate flag exercises to be held in each classroom at the beginning of the school day and in each school at the opening of all school assemblies at which exercises those pupils so desiring shall recite and then it gives the quote of the Pledge of Allegiance.

There's of course longstanding case law that students who don't wish to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance don't have to.

should stand or be respectfully silent during it.

But that's what the statute requires and those requirements are reflected in our policy as well.

Board meetings are not a classroom at the beginning of the school day and the pledge or any other flag exercise isn't legally required there.

It's optional if people want to do it.

Thank you.

And I think it's important it's always important to remind buildings that students who do not wish to participate should not be forced to do so.

That's a fundamentally unwelcoming environment being created when we try to impose that on them.

So thank you for that clarification.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I want to echo the comments of my colleagues expressing our appreciation and care for educators and staff.

And I think the best way that we can show that concern and care is by doing what we can to make their jobs easier.

I know that we do have support resources and some different things but I think we're kind of at the point where encouraging people to exercise self-care is not really going to cut it.

And as much as we can minimize the impact of continued and added-on burdens of other things that that's what I I'm I guess asking us to all focus on just what's extra what can we get rid of what can we stop doing as we're pivoting to these other things.

And also how what can we do differently instead of just less or more.

Just I'm really I've been talking about this for probably since the beginning of the pandemic is encouraging flexibility and creativity.

And that's really hard to do when you're right in the thick of it.

But as much as we can as a board support that that way of thinking and essential office staff as much as and because we're we're all burned out too.

We're all doing multiple tasks and multiple multiple jobs.

But I think even though it's.

It seems hard to change course and it feels everything feels like more.

This again is our opportunity to really get honest about what what's good for students and what's not good for students and get rid of the stuff that's not good for students because it's also not good for the adults in the in the system.

So and that goes to my earlier comments also about COVID testing and simulcasting and how can we or I just guess I want to double down on being sure that we get as broad of engagement and input from educators as we can about those things because I know that there are folks out there that have ideas on how they could support that how they could do it better how you know what they would need to make those things effective.

And I want to make sure that as a district we're we're getting those ideas from the boots on the ground as we say and incorporating those into how we roll these things out to serve students and to make sure that teachers in the classroom are supported in doing that in a way that's that's manageable and sustainable for them.

I want to say thank you to Janice White and the special education PTSA.

The virtual reading room sounds amazing and I hope people will visit that and take advantage.

And I also want to add that in terms of disability Disability History Month a really really important part of of disability history in education is from here in Seattle.

In 1971 a group of parents came together and lobbied authored and lobbied for the passage of Washington House Bill 90 Education for All.

That was passed in 1971 and it was the first law in the country to mandate public education for children with disabilities.

And I know I've mentioned this before.

I think there was education for all day a while ago and I know I mentioned the anniversary of the bill.

But before 1971 students with disabilities were not considered part of who could be served in in education and they were either institutionalized or at home not not participating not being included and not receiving education.

that House Bill 90 established the foundation for what eventually became Individuals with Disabilities and Education Act.

And so I'll just add to that that the best way I think we can honor and recognize the contributions from this area is to acknowledge that since then we have trailed behind even though our area was some of the first to say this is this is a right this is a right for students students with disabilities.

We're now 44th and I've mentioned this before too 44th in the country in terms of providing inclusive educational opportunities for students with disabilities.

And and so this is again a call to improve that for our students in Seattle and across the country.

Again we have a huge opportunity with how we do things.

You know every day we have the opportunity to do better and I'd like to see see us move up from from the bottom to to to do better and push those around us to do better as well so that students with disabilities are fully included members of their communities.

And and also add that I firmly believe that disability justice is racial racial justice.

Our people experiencing homelessness people who are incarcerated are disproportionately people of color and disproportionately people with disabilities as compared to the rest of the population.

So thank you and thanks again for the resources from Special Education PTSA and from our own staff that I know have been going out to buildings and I believe there will be a broader community community communication as well.

So look for that.

And that's it.

Oh I'm sorry.

I forgot to mention that I have a community meeting tomorrow on Zoom and it's also currently it's Principal Appreciation Month.

So another recognition to add on to the month.

Thanks.

So I just want to note before we sign off that there is a for everyone that's that remains on the call I think it's we're pretty much down to board and senior staff here.

We one of our last board goals is around communication and healing and we have an opportunity with AJ to do some really deep centering work around mindfulness as it pertains to the ways in which we get in our own in the way of our own leadership success.

And so you'll be receiving an invite for that and I strongly it's a it's a time commitment but The one thing that I can guarantee is that it is a rejuvenating process even as it is emotionally taxing.

I can I don't know anyone that's gone through the process and hasn't come out of it feeling much stronger about their ability to move forward with their leadership goals.

And I just want to emphasize that too.

All of us as as board members as a reminder that we definitely all have our own work to do with respect to improving our ability to lead in this space and create the conditions necessary for our superintendent and their staff to succeed on behalf of outcomes for our kids.

So please watch for that.

And if you can in any way participate and make it I really encourage you to.

It's important work and it will I believe pay dividends in your ability to to in fact create that space for others and for our district to succeed.

So with that as there's no further business on the agenda this meeting stands adjourned at 655 p.m.

Pįnagigi.

Good night all.

Thank you.

Good night.