Seattle School Board Meeting Dec. 19, 2018 Part 3

OK I see a quorum up here on the dais and we're going to continue to do business.

The chair of Audit and Finance has an announcement regarding completed internal audits.

Director Pinkham please and those of you all that are visiting in the back please take it outside so we can continue to do business.

Thank you so much.

We so appreciate you being here and telling your truth.

Board procedure 65 50 BP internal audit requires announcement of completed internal audits as audit and finance committee chair.

I am announcing that.

Folks visiting in the back please take it out to the lobby.

At the December 4th quarterly audit and finance committee meeting the office of internal audit presented two internal audit reports of special education right back process.

and Thornton Creek Elementary School.

All findings and recommendations are discussed at a public audit and finance committee meeting and the completed reports are available online at the office of internal audits public web page.

Click on departments and services under the directory tab then click on internal audit.

Thank you sir.

OK.

We are at Roman 9 business action items.

Number C 1 the creative advantage arts partnership fund with the city of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture came before C&I December 11th for.

Approval.

Motion please.

Also this is an intro and action item and staff will tell us why that is.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute the memorandum of agreement with the city of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture for three hundred and thirty four thousand dollars for the creative advantage pathways with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the agreement.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Just getting used to my new role.

Second.

OK.

Dr. Kinoshita could you please dial us up here.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Kyle Kinoshita executive director of curriculum assessment instruction.

I'm presenting here at the board action report for introduction and approval of the memora — memorandum of agreement with the city office of arts and culture for three hundred and thirty four thousand dollar grant to fund creative advantage.

The time factor is the reason for having both introduction and action.

I believe our staff basically took one extra month to actually figure out actually how to do our board action report.

But once we did.

We determined that it was in our best interest to the district to actually expedite this by December by December.

So if it's appropriate I'd like to just underline a few points from the bar in terms of what this is for.

Please.

OK creative advantage is initiative here in Seattle Public Schools that ensures equitable access to arts education for every student in Seattle Public Schools.

It's actually been in existence since 2013 and 14 when a pathway was developed in the central region to develop arts programs such that kindergarten through 12th grade students would have access to you know rich arts program.

Since that time partnerships have developed between the city of Seattle office of arts and culture and the Seattle Foundation and nearly 100 arts organizations in the community and teaching artists to actually bring art to the schools.

The reason for this action tonight is that originally started out around one hundred thousand four years ago and has gone up annually as a program has increased.

And so this year it passed the two hundred fifty thousand dollar threshold due to the expansion into three pathways and the 38 schools 16 of which are new.

So in any case I'll stop here for any questions.

Director Mack.

Thank you for bringing this forward.

It is a very exciting program.

I wish we didn't have to grant fund programs like this but I'm excited that we are finding the funding to support these schools.

And I think you just said that there are 16 additional schools added this year.

Did I understand that number 16. Mr. Kinoshita sorry.

Yes.

OK.

My my I'm super excited about this and very supportive.

My only question is how are the schools decided and do we know where the gaps exist because we're expanding.

It's great.

We started smaller it's expanding over time but which schools do we know which schools are not getting arts programming.

Yeah it's gradually expanding.

The selection of schools in the beginning were those that you know because of I think their situation did not have a rich arts program did not have strong neighborhood support and did not have strong resources from the community.

Those schools tended to be in the central region as well as in the southeast and southwest.

Because of that those schools were prioritized and expansion was you know decided upon you know based on a school's need for this.

Other questions comments concerns from my colleagues.

Director Pinkham.

Just for clarification again on this bar action report where you get to get down here community engagement and it says tier 3 collaborate.

So can you help expand that as this being an intro and action item.

How was the collaboration achieved.

As the bar points out a good part of the engagement occurred at the inception of this grant process where quite a few schools parent organizations and other community organizations were actually consulted in terms of how to develop this particular model.

So in that way most of the engagement occurred at that time.

And you know essentially when schools were actually brought online they're building leadership teams and their parent organizations were consulted to actually develop the vision for a particular school.

And this was necessary before they actually received funds.

Once they did create that vision then we were assured that the school had ownership of the grant funding.

Yeah thank you.

I just want to hopefully get that on record that this isn't surprising anyone that this is an ongoing community engagement and that the collaboration did occur and that's not a reflection of this intro and action item.

And then we're here for the public testimony and some of the issues that were brought up seems like there might be some either typos in the BAR and.

Yeah addressed.

We'll go back and take a look at those and ensure that the numbers are squared.

General Counsel would those be considered Scrivener's errors to be backfilled.

Thank you sir.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Harris.

My question is about the MOA.

I don't see anything about here about maybe not even the MOA but I'm just curious about how are we tracking or at least checking the data to see that these programs which absolutely enrich our students are also helping their academic success and performance.

What are we doing in that in that place.

Did you use the term MOA.

I thought this MOA here.

I don't know if it actually would be enshrined in this.

I'm trying to figure out what you mean.

I'm a memorandum of agreement.

Oh are you trying to tell me to not use acronyms.

Please.

Thank you.

Thank you sir.

OK.

Thanks.

Yes.

Thank you.

Since the inception of the part of the grant is funded an evaluation service of the Burke group to actually track not only developments of the program you know tracking who was reaching and possibly who could do a better job of But the there is a several hundred page report that's been developed every year that actually tracks you know some of the gains and not only in terms of the quality of the program the type of art but as well the impact on students.

And then just my follow up is does this apply to every student or is it students are picked or they have a membership or what's the is it accessible to every student.

Oh in terms of you know if it comes to a particular school you know the intention is is that you know the program that's developed is intended to reach all students at that particular school.

Other comments questions concerns Director Burke then Director Patu.

Building a little bit on Director DeWolf's question and I'm not sure if we have this depth of of information but it looks like the awards are seventy five hundred dollars or three thousand dollars per school and that cannot be used to pay SPS staff time but it would it's used for either to fund professional development or artist residencies.

an awesome thing but but depending on what you want to do at a school level it's not a really huge amount.

Are our schools combining that with other funds or there are things that they can do with that that have a high impact in their schools.

From the accounts I read of different schools sometimes schools do bring other funds to bear to actually you know really enrich the program even further.

Director Patu.

So I guess my curiosity is how are schools actually chosen to get this fund.

As I said you know what was developed is focusing on areas in which you know arts programs were not prevalent and the way the programs constructed was to actually construct a pathway such that you know the elementaries that feed into a particular middle school and the middle schools that go into a high school were actually selected as a pathway.

So that with the idea that you know a student going to elementary would be impacted by these programs as they went up the grades.

Director Geary please.

And forgive me for coming in late because you may have said this and the goal is to have this throughout our schools.

Eventually.

And so what theory are we working under.

You know it gets back to Director Burke's question when we have other schools that are able to backfill when they are given this and we know that there are going to be some schools that will be able to double.

And so why are we trying to use this money across the district rather than targeting it in the communities that can't raise that money to backfill.

or doing something where we're we're making that more transparent around.

This is the totality of funds that are being spent on the arts in our district.

And this is how they're being distributed.

And this is how we are going to use this program.

I mean those are two different ways to proceed.

So why have we chosen to go in the one that.

will still leave some communities with not enough to get to where we want to go.

From what I can tell in this inception in the early days that was seen as something that was an aspirational goal to spread it throughout the city.

In the beginning it was I think limited to the central area pathway you know acknowledging the fact that there are many other schools you know of need that didn't have deep arts programs which I believe is why there's you know a continual push to actually add resources in order to expand the program.

Director Harris — Dr. Kinoshita can I interrupt you for just a moment and ask the indulgence of the folks here on the dais and of Kerry Campbell who was I think part of putting this together for the historical piece.

I given the historical context here I wonder if you all could come speak to that.

terribly important equity question.

Can I also say something here too.

On page 4 in the equity analysis that it does talk a little bit about this.

So I just want to encourage folks if if that question is not answered by Kyle that there is something that I feel it gets to that which is that the creative advantage has ordered its implementation by targeting regions of SPS that have greater racial diversity and higher numbers of Title 1 schools.

So not sure that that answers your question.

I'm just saying that.

as we appear to be taking it beyond that line.

And again I don't want to put you on the spot and you're free to turn us down but given your context and history if you could.

It's OK.

Plug some holes I'd appreciate it.

Good evening Carrie Campbell chief public affairs officer.

So historical perspective we did a longitudinal study looked at students from sixth grade through high school who's getting access to arts education who wasn't.

And we found that race was the greatest predictor of access to arts education.

So we focus we looked at instructional minutes that's something that we continue to track over time from certified staff.

So that's actually the.

the root the core of the program and teaching artists and our partners are supplementary to making sure that students are getting standard arts instruction.

So to the question of why are we applying across the district in some cases a lot of it had to do with changes in teaching practice.

So the creative advantage is both is both art specialists teaching to standard looking at transfers transferable skills like creativity collaboration communication and the effect that has on their academics but also their artistic practice as well as deep investments in areas where we saw limited access or more limited access through our community partnerships.

So it has both a broad range goal of everyone getting high quality arts education and then going deep in pathways where there was limited access that we continue to track by instructional minutes.

Okay.

Director Mack.

And again I really applaud the work and the intentionality around the selection of the of the schools.

What I'm when I look at the list here though I see a school like Concord that's not on the list and I see Northgate's not on the list and I see some of our high needs schools not yet on this list.

And so when I ask the question of like there are schools that are not getting this how you know do we have a plan in order to support those schools as well.

in the future.

I'm not sure the schools that are on the listed on the bar are the ones that are the newer schools the ones that are in year one and year two.

KOUW this week actually did a feature on the impact of the arts program and the school it featured was Concord and yeah.

So so for clarification you you're.

These are the new schools but the full list of all the schools that are actually in the program are not in the BAR.

Correct the over the years the program has impacted a total of 61 schools.

That does not mean that all 61 are getting current funding.

But the idea was that it built capacity to actually deliver arts education to those schools and that's really the main purpose of the grant is to build capacity such that.

You know when the funding moves on to another school that that arts you know instruction can continue.

I really appreciate that clarification because I did see that article on Concord and I thought it was connected to this program so I was terribly confused to not see it here.

I think it's a really good testament of the success and importance of this program.

Any other questions comments concerns Director Pinkham.

Do we know how the creative advantage develops their arts partner roster.

I'm trying to look at their site and they said it's they get new people annually.

Do you know when that occurs and how they advertise that so hopefully we can expand who would be eligible for these funds.

That's apparently a function of the city of Seattle and that's something that we can research to find out actually how they develop that arts roster.

But there are quite a number of artists there.

I believe in the you know up into the 100 range.

Seeing no further comments questions concerns roll call please.

Director Burke.

Aye.

Director DeWolf aye Director Geary aye Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Harris aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you so very much.

Number two approval of agreements providing for payments to resolve pending grievance issues regarding pay for the two hundred sixty first 262nd payday in the year.

This came before the executive committee December 13th for approval approval of this item would approve settlement agreements between the district and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 609 Seattle King County Building Trades Council Automotive Machinists Local Number 289 General Teamsters Local 117 and General Teamsters Local 174. This is an item for intro and action before you get started.

Can you address the comment that was brought up in public testimony with respect to current employees or whether we are going to ratchet back and pay employees that have left our district.

Well you could do a motion.

Please.

I'll make a motion.

I move that the attached agreements between the district and the International Union of Operating Engineers local 6 0 9 Seattle King County Building Trades Council automotive machinists local number 289 general Teamsters local number 117 and general Teamsters local number 174 be approved with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement these agreements.

Immediate approval is in the best interest of the district.

I'll go ahead and second that.

I'll second the motion.

I got this.

OK.

Everybody all at once.

OK.

Can you address that question please before we get rolling.

Sure.

Clover Codd chief human resources officer.

So we will not be tracking down employees that no longer work for us and paying them for this.

We negotiated these settlements with the unions and those negotiations included current employees who are still with us.

OK a short ramp up as to what we're doing here please.

Yes.

So last summer the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 609 did put us on notice with the claim for unpaid wages on behalf of full year employees who had only been paid based on 260 days in a year.

when the year actually consists of two hundred and sixty one work days.

So we calculate pay for year round employees by taking the employees hourly rate.

We multiply that by two thousand eighty hours which represents two hundred and sixty days divide that by 12 and pay that amount to the employee on a monthly basis.

This approach actually underpays employees by one or sometimes two days per year when the number of paid days is greater than 260. So paid days in any given year could fluctuate between 260 261 or 262 days based on the number of weekdays during that year.

So we worked with the unions as covered by Director Harris.

The total cost of the settlements is estimated to be four hundred forty one thousand dollars in lost wages and one hundred and six thousand in benefits.

That's a high mark.

We believe it will actually come in much lower than that.

All of the affected unions in this bar indicate agreement with the terms outlined in what's the attached agreements to this bar.

Moving forward we know that we will need to negotiate how we do this in the future when we have years that have more than 260 days.

There are lots of different choices we will negotiate that with our unions.

Other questions comments questions concerns from my colleagues.

Director Pinkham.

Is there a reason this one didn't come through Audit and Finance because it's a human resource issue more than a budget issue.

We took it to the executive committee instead of Audit and Finance purely because of timing.

What we're trying to do is should you approve of this motion we're trying to get on the January 1 paycheck for the employees and so really it was a matter of the calendar timing so we took it to the executive committee.

But in the future you'll give a heads up to the A&F chair.

Yes ma'am.

Any other comments questions concerns seeing none.

Roll call please.

Director Pinkham aye Director Patu aye Director Mack aye Director Geary aye Director DeWolf aye.

Director Burke aye Director Harris aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you very much.

OK we're into intro items again.

We went through D1 which was the approval of the 2019 20 transportation services.

So we're at number two.

Approval of the student assignment transition plan for 2019 20. This went before Ops December 6th for.

Consideration.

Approval of this item would set the.

Approval of this item would update the student assignment transition plan for 2019 20. Ashley Davies.

Let's give your title and take it away.

Good afternoon.

My name is Ashley Davies director of enrollment planning here at Seattle Public Schools and I'm here to talk about the student assignment transition plan changes for the 2000 and 19 20 school year.

So I'm going to go through all the changes.

We do have a lot of the Graham Hill community that is still here that wants to have an opportunity to hear a little bit about that portion.

So after I go through quickly I'd love if we could talk about that aspect first and then that community and the children can go home.

Unless they want to stay and listen to more.

That's pandering to your crowd.

So within the board action report for the student assignment transition plan there is also a PowerPoint.

We've had two board work sessions to discuss the student assignment transition plan changes.

We've also talked a little bit about those changes when we discussed the boundary changes.

We just have kind of highlighted what are the things to come.

I first want to start off with the fact that we are still keeping the name student assignment transition plan.

Previous conversations we've had we've talked about taking off that transition label but we are keeping that with the understanding that we are still in transition as we go from here.

So a quick summary of the changes the first is changing the name of service schools to option schools with continuous enrollment.

and noting that they have continuous enrollment and no geo zone.

So that was one of the specific pieces of feedback we got from operations committee was making sure that's noted in there when it talks about it in the appendix that there are no geo zones and just again differentiating a little bit more about these option schools with continuous enrollment versus our other option schools.

So that's been added.

The next is updating the international dual language immersion pathways at the high school level in the north and southeast Seattle.

So north are changes that were actually already approved in January of 2018 with the opening of Lincoln High School.

So the board previously approved designating Lincoln as a dual language immersion pathway for the north.

So that is written in there and then also for Southeast Seattle we've added Rainier Beach within their talks also about the mitigation necessary for both of those which would be 0.4 FTE for two years for Lincoln and then 0.6 FTE for two years for Rainier Beach.

Next is updating the high school high capable pathways again based off that same vote from January 31st of 2018. It adds West Seattle as a pathway.

It also adds Lincoln as a pathway for the north.

Garfield remains but Garfield will only be serving central and southeast Seattle.

So we also are noting that.

With the opening of West Seattle families who are from West Seattle currently attending Washington can continue into Garfield.

So that was two grades 6th and 7th graders would be able to continue on through Garfield.

So that remains.

Next is implementing a grade level adjustment for middle college from serving grades primarily 11 and 12 to 9 through 12. This is to align that with the national model as well as identify students earlier and be able to serve them earlier based off of student need.

Next listed is Graham Hills programmatic redesign to a one school program and that would mean removing them from the area where they talk about tiebreakers for schools that are designated as Montessori.

Right now that section talks about the fact that Leschi is blended and so the tiebreakers do not.

apply it lists Daniel Bagley and Graham Hill so we would remove Graham Hill.

The only thing left would be Daniel Bagley and then we are updating language to clarify current special education services and placement.

And so that allows families who have been assigned to an elementary school outside of their middle school service area to continue in that middle school service area feeder with that cohort that they are with because of the fact we had to place them in a school outside of their service area given that nothing was in the service area.

had space.

So that was something we talked about last year with the student assignment transition plan that did not get approved.

And then the last piece again based off feedback around our conversation with the opening of Magnolia and some of the school changes for Catherine Blaine.

We've added some language to clarify that students entering sixth grade from a K through 5 school may also apply to middle school enrollment.

for any school that offers K-8.

So first we begin the language talking solely about Catherine Blaine there's a mention of it but it really applies to any student who may want to enter into the 6-8 portion of a K-8 across the district.

So we just make that really clear for families and understanding that they can do that during the school choice period.

So.

Questions comments concerns from my colleagues or did you have something else in mind.

I did just want to acknowledge the Graham Hill principal and if you wanted to come up at this point.

So principal Russo gave some public testimony earlier but she essentially came to us maybe about a year and a half ago something like that and said you just have to come.

I have this great presentation.

We've been doing some amazing work at the school.

We want you to come and see the work we've been doing.

And so that basically began the conversation that we that district staff had with the school the school was having deep discussion amongst their race and equity team around the work that they talked about here tonight.

And over the past year and a half we've just talked about how we can actualize that through the changes in the student assignment plan so.

We've actually gone through together all the different ways that we could get to the same outcome and felt like this was the best way for us to be able to tackle making the change there.

So I'll turn it over if you want to add anything else.

It's actually been two and a half years, and we're only midway through the process of fixing our problem of practice.

But, you know, getting your support is part of our way that we can move forward as a community.

And thank you for taking the time to listen to our community members.

It has been a long two years but it has taught me a lot as a leader and taught me a lot about listening and you know sitting at the table and listening to communities.

We got to sit with I was the only person in all of my language group.

meetings where I was the only English speaker except for a translator and the testimonies that I heard from them.

I still get weepy when I hear even Paul Tibbles who read some of those statements because I was crying when I heard how families were feeling in the building that I was a leader in.

And but.

You know moving forward.

We all agree in our community that this is the right choice that we are done having a segregated school.

You heard from staff.

You heard from students.

You heard from families.

You do.

You all got a packet.

And it has more student voice more parent voice.

It kind of walks you through our timeline.

Some frequently asked questions a letter of support from the Graham Hill staff a letter of support from the PTA executive board.

Letters of support from individual families in multiple languages.

Initial summary report and even data to support our work.

What I do want to tell you is that with your support this is an exciting time for us to move forward and as a community this coming January we are having an advisory board that is going to Once again go out into the community into those language group meetings into all of those small family meetings to hear from the families.

What vision do we have for our community.

So it is it is a long process but it has been the most meaningful in tying us all together as a one community school.

So we ask for your support.

Come out and visit us if you can.

The last thing I'll leave you with is between now and the time you vote.

I want to ask that you remember how you felt when you heard Ayanna Jones testimony.

I want you to remember and write some notes tonight how it felt for you to hear some of the parents that spoke tonight because things change you know you between now and when you vote.

But I just want you to remember those those feelings because those are the feelings we as a district can't perpetuate anymore.

I heard I heard you guys say it.

I was glad to hear you say it's not OK anymore.

So I appreciate you.

Thank you for taking the time and we hope to get 100 percent approval from you when you vote.

Thank you.

I'm taking Ashley's notes.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Harris.

First thank you Principal Russo.

I think honestly you are profound and such an honor and privilege that you are part of our district.

So thank you.

You're such a treasure to us and so thank you for all of your hard work.

I really appreciate that.

And I know obviously what you're thinking is well it wasn't just me it was everybody else.

So I know your heart and I also appreciate the community that you organized and everybody that showed up tonight and your staff.

I'm really excited about this package.

I think as you know the things that I was really looking for were just some of the updates around the service schools particularly for schools in my district like Nova.

as well as seeing the changes for middle college.

So I'm really excited about this package.

I might.

One of the questions I did have was.

Just about the online process.

So I know that we might be changing that but I think not necessarily needs to be answered here but we'll reach out and just chat about what does the online process look like because I was trying to trying to think about what it would look like to be a secret shopper and I have no idea how to do that.

So I'll bug you to get a little tutorial.

So thank you.

Director Mack.

Thank you Ms. Davies for all of your work.

Like you said we had a number of work sessions around this we've had lots of conversations around in work session and ops and as Director DeWolf just said the package I think the package is coming together.

in response to all of the issues that we're wanting to try to resolve this year.

And I really appreciate all the work to do that.

On the Montessori program issue I really appreciated the opportunity to meet with the school yesterday and folks and understand the transition.

And also because I'm a data wonk get the numbers of what the demand has actually been for the Montessori program and it's been less than a classroom each year.

So the demand for Montessori is relatively small.

And yet the impact of continuing that program is great.

So I'm completely in support of that the language in the transition plan the transition for the monastery program to be sunsetted and for Graham Hill to move forward as a attendance area school and help figure out their additional identity as they work forward in the.

in the future just amazing community engagement there and I really it's wonderful to see that in a community.

So thank you for that.

The I did have a question around because I think community is going to have some questions around the space available portion because we're not changing the language there.

We still have that kind of conflict between physical space available and staffing space and when those numbers are decided and how the waitlists are drawn and and all of that.

And those are going to come up around in particular around some of the grandfathering that's being requested around Lincoln as Lincoln opens there's families that would like to have grandfathering that we can't guarantee that but they they'd like to potentially have the sibling stay and there's the sibling tiebreaker.

So my question.

hopefully briefly is it's not in the student assignment transition plan we're not changing the language around space available and we are collectively working on the capacity management space available policy process which we don't have clearly defined yet.

So I'm wondering how do we transparently communicate effectively to families that at open enrollment.

For example Blaine will have X number of seats Allocated in the 6 8 portion.

So therefore there's likely to be X number of choice seats available so that there's more transparency in what the availability of seats is and when those intersections of when those numbers can change and waitlist move.

Can you help me.

We don't have it all defined but can you help kind of provide some context on how like how those numbers are decided and how we're going to share that with community.

So I can speak a little bit high level about that and maybe we can continue the rest of that because there's a lot of detailed pieces to it.

So for the most part, because we will have situations with both Lincoln and with the opening of Magnolia where we'll have Students who aren't getting grandfathered and the reason why they're not getting grandfathered is purposeful so that the new school opens up as a viable school that's able to offer rich amount of programming.

You know we already have families.

who are going to Lincoln who have talked about the challenge of what only two grades offers you know they're going to be certain programs and services that are not going to be available because there's only two grades and the more grandfathering we layer on top of that or the more guarantees we layer on top of that the less students that start when the school starts.

So I think with the 6 8 portion of Blaine we could look at something a little bit more specific because that's going to be.

Dictated by the number of students rolling up which we have a better understanding of and the better understanding of the seats available in terms of everything else is going to take a little bit more of a kind of a dive to see where things lay out after those changes happen and after we see open enrollment.

But we've been already working with.

the communications team around specific communications that we can provide to all families as we continue to move through this process.

Understanding that there's a lot of things happening this coming year we want to make sure people are really clear about what's happening what are their options what are the timelines and we'll be doing all that work together.

Go ahead.

And to that end I know that someone posted recently that they went to look up their assignment and it's not what the current assignment is.

So I'm wondering is our current address assignment before open enrollment because that's happening in February.

Is it updated right now for what is happening for next year.

Is it current status because there's a bunch of changes that may or may not be updated.

So if I go to look at my address is it going to be accurate or are there some places that it might not be.

So we haven't voted on the boundaries yet for Magnolia for instance so those aren't updated because nothing officially has changed yet.

So there are certain things that aren't official that haven't been updated registration for incoming students begins in the new year.

So at that point we'll be working on our systems and getting everything updated.

So not everything is updated yet.

Thank you.

Director Geary.

you so much for including and clarifying once again the special education feeder pattern.

There is in my mind a conflict in what is being said and what is being implemented and what is being written.

And I want to make sure that we're really clear so that families don't fall between the cracks.

Families may.

We may assign we may enroll a student outside of their neighborhood school because of their special education need and that becomes the student's assignment.

And then as they rise through that school they are assigned by us continually based upon that original enrollment.

So what this says is that once a student is assigned they can stay within the feeder pattern of that assignment.

But how it's implemented it's implemented as if though only the forced assignments initially but once a student is assigned they are assigned by us with no further action on the part of the parent all through that time.

So when is it that it is no longer a forced assignment because that's not how it reads.

It reads as if my kid was assigned to this school and granted they were forced assigned originally but a parent that enrolls a student the next year their student is assigned to that school once they're there.

So the language isn't clear and I don't want families or myself misunderstanding when when somebody says I chose to put my school there.

They weren't my special ed student in this school.

They weren't forced there but they were allowed to go there and then assigned there year after year.

But now I'm being told my student can't go along to the middle school feeder pattern with all of their friends or to their high school with all of their friends even though the assignment letter they got every year said that they were assigned to that school.

So this reads to me that once that assignment is made the enrollment happens the assignment occurs it perpetuates year after year.

It doesn't say anything about the origination continuing in terms of how that origination piece.

But I heard you say that tonight.

So there is a discrepancy and I like it this way better.

Because I think that special ed kids doesn't matter how they got there.

Those kids should be able to transition with their friends because it's hard for that group to make friends and it's hard for any group to make friends.

It's a it's a touchy time but for that group in particular.

So I'm going on record now saying this is how I want it and that's how I want it interpreted because that's what the language means.

And but I also want everybody to know that that is a there is a discrepancy in our practice versus the language on the paper and our families get caught up in it and it is very frustrating for a very very vulnerable population.

So I'm on record.

Would an amendment make it more clear that you could work on in the next two weeks.

I don't think it needs to be any clearer because this is what unless we're going to define what assignment says because the plain language does what I want it to do.

And once we start amending the language and the meanings of enrollment and assignment.

then that's a problem because that opens another.

There's the unintended consequences.

But what I don't want to see is language in here that says only if your student was forced assigned do you get this benefit because that's what it should say based upon how we implement it.

So but and I hear those costs to that but we need to figure it out because I like this language.

Ms. Davies.

So I hate to burst any bubbles but the way you're interpreting it based on the way it's written is not the way it's intended.

So it's in the word assignment is intended to be.

They are actively assigned rather than making the choice.

And then I guess you could use the word to mean you are given an assignment.

But the idea is assigned meaning actively assigned versus making the choice.

If there is interest in other language I know that our chief of student supports would probably have some words to share around the implications of that.

And so I would want him to have the opportunity to talk through that.

I will publicly recognize though that's not the way the way you described is not the way it's intended.

I understand that.

But I but the way it is written because otherwise those perpetuating assignments.

So you you enroll your student in an option school.

That was a choice you made.

But then you get an assignment letter every year every year after that Seattle Public Schools assigned your child back into that school.

And this says if you are assigned into the school Which they are that they get to go on their middle school feeder pattern.

And I know what the chief students support chief schools all those words together title would say because we have this argument all the time.

But I've never it's never been plotted out to me the real consequence.

I don't even know how many kids this captures.

So what the real consequence is I don't know what the cost of it is to do this.

All I know is the implication for families and students is huge when you have a special ed student who is forced away from their feeder pattern bias.

So the forced it would apply to those who are forced as you're describing it.

So right.

But those who those who make a choice through open enrollment.

Early on so they choose in kindergarten to put their school and then all of a sudden their fifth grader doesn't get to travel.

So who bears the burden of that in my mind.

And this isn't this I'm not the emotional burden is borne by the student.

And so I like this language and I want to know if I'm forced to make something if I'm forced to modify something that makes it more explicit.

And we've just been told that the person that is the author of the document doesn't interpret it the way that you do.

I would suggest now that a public record has been made that you do want clarity or we're going to continue having these same

I just caution against the unintended consequences of tying conversations of of trying.

We have a word assignment.

We have a word enrollment and now we're going to start messing with those and it just the unintended consequences of changing the definitions of words that are throughout all of our documents.

It is profound.

Can you come to the box please.

Can I try something.

So we've just put on public record that the author of the document doesn't read it the same way as the questioner does.

What are the unintended consequences of that fact.

Well I I need to read the language at issue because ultimately the conclude we'll need to make a legal determination on what does the language as written and then adopted by the board mean.

So I think that's that's going to be a starting place.

But certainly we obviously have a discrepancy in how people are reading the language so we all need to make sure we know what the language means as written.

And then obviously the board can then debate whether that's the right language or not the right language.

Director Mack.

The the base document the student assignment plan not the transition plan talks about and kind of define some of these things a little more explicitly.

And if I understand and remember correctly I think the word choice.

a choice assignment.

It's there's a there's a term around when you choose something when a student would choose to opt into a school that's not their attendance area school and that could be another attendance area school but it's in a choice it's a choice assignment.

And so the fix to getting where you want to go might be adding the words choice assignment or district assignment.

to clarify that it would be in any case.

But your question around the numbers that this is impacting is actually really meaningful because how many how much movement is that going to guarantee and and you know if we have 13 percent of the district that is special ed then.

So in I think there is a way I would think to get the language where you want it to be to be meaningful.

The question is whether or not it's something that staff is going to feel comfortable saying yes we can actually guarantee that for a 13 per 10 of our students or whatever so.

Well the vast majority of our students are staying within their.

their homeschools.

And so but that's right.

I before I'm going to believe that it's going to have this huge impact on us both in assignment enrollment fiscally.

I just want to see the numbers.

I don't want to just accept that because I don't think we force assign very many kids anyway.

I don't know how many kids even choose to go outside of their their least restrictive environment.

But the idea of least restrictive environment fundamentally is that keeping kids close to home keeps them in their neighborhood keeps them in their communities.

And once you have you're talking about kids rising from elementary to middle or middle to high school their communities are there.

They're the friends that they have at school.

That's why they go to school many of them.

So point I want to know.

Point of privilege.

Madam Superintendent how do we get ourselves out of this impasse with very tight deadlines.

How do we get the information that we need numbers fiscal impact etc.

Because frankly right now we don't have the information to make a thoughtful decision.

I would ask Director Davies what that what her timeline might be on.

I mean to me it seems like you're looking for a certain number.

We could probably get that correct.

Yeah.

Yeah.

To pull the number won't be that we have the staff available the rest of this week to pull that that won't be a challenge.

I would just note that if you were to add include those with a choice assignment as Director Mack mentioned there is specific language that talks about choice assignment.

We would be then providing a guarantee to families that other families don't have.

So say a student decided and they could be served near home but they decided they would prefer another school and so then they choice into another school.

If the language reads that way they would then get to stay in that middle school and that is not available to other families.

Please we do that for our highly capable students all the time.

They have profound numbers of choices in terms of the school that they can choose into or their neighborhood school or the highly capable option program.

We give them lots of choices.

So to do this for the kids that actually lawfully get individualized placements.

I'm OK with that.

But I wouldn't think these numbers would be too hard to pull together because I'm always told that it's the reason we can't do it.

So if I'm being told it's the reason we can't do it it must be known.

Otherwise I'm just being told that based upon a gut feeling.

So I don't know how long it should take together because I get this reasoning over and over and over by Chief Jessee.

So it must be there.

He must know what it is.

It must be on a piece of paper that he feels so comfortable telling me this is why we can't do it.

So I mean you talk about timeline.

So that's the problem is like we are going into winter break staff's gone.

It depends on how this goes forward because the work can be done.

You know we can get the numbers we can figure out the words that need to be in place.

Open enrollment starts.

All these things are going so.

There are timelines and just no people are gone so there it can't happen right away.

However these questions have been asked historically and the numbers have not been made transparent.

Now well appreciate that was before your tenure but I don't understand if an answer has been given on a continual basis why and again well appreciate that people are working very hard but but there seems to be a lack of transparency here.

And and you know I don't know whether this is the cross departmental part and I can't speak educrat ease yet getting better but we have to have these kind of numbers in order to do our fiduciary duty.

And getting jammed up against open enrollment is difficult.

And a year ago we didn't have a student assignment transition plan and we've been paying for it every day since.

Director Mack.

Yeah I would just ask Ops Chair like what was the conversation and how did that play out.

So the OK so we've had multiple conversations around the entire student assignment plan transition plan and as I've been tracking the various issues and we've been having these conversations I feel like most of them have been resolved and that the package in general feels like it's addressing all the issues.

There is this one issue that Director Geary is bringing up that the language of what she's been asking for in there is not matching.

what the intention is.

So there there's this sounds to me like there's one issue here that would need to be resolved to have a solid document that would would be doing everything we need.

And there is a little bit of lag.

We talked about this in executive committee that we we can push the student assignment transition plan if we didn't act on it at the next board meeting.

There's still two weeks to actually make action to meet the open enrollment.

So there's a little bit of wiggle room if that's necessary.

So I guess what I would suggest is that I think the way forward on rectifying this issue is to do our best to have staff work with Director Geary to get the clarity around the language matching the intention.

something that makes sense that can be agreed upon.

And if that's ready to be inserted for action on January 9th which I think is the date then we can move forward.

And if it still needs more time then we might decide not to act on it.

I guess I would just also say if these have been historical questions I wish they would have been figured out in ops committee before coming to the dais for introduction to have this conversation.

So there is just a process question there as well.

If those questions have been continually asked and not answered where do those take place before they get here.

Yeah and I really appreciate that.

This is actually I didn't realize that the language didn't match.

yet and it's not something that came up in Ops and we don't have everyone sitting on committee.

So sometimes things get missed.

I know that the amount of detail that we have tracked and moved through to process has been intense and so there's one thing here.

I am frankly I was surprised to see the language written as it was because I know what they do and I know what they've intended to have happen and I'm not on ops.

So but reading that I was pleasantly surprised but I could have sat quiet and then thought after it all got passed but I thought I'd make it transparent that I see the way I read language in documents that there is a discrepancy.

So I don't.

This is the thing.

We get to introduction and this is when I see it.

So I bring it up and I like it and I thought should I just sit quiet and then.

argue after it's all passed and everybody's like no that's not what we intended.

So.

I will just note one other thing.

So the language as it's written is exactly the way we wrote it when we tried to approve the last plan and we had that discussion there.

So I recognize I am probably at the limits of what I can speak to on this without without Wyeth here to elaborate more.

But part of I think our understanding of this being worked out was that it was what it was what we had ended up with at the plan that didn't get approved.

But that language you know there was some discussion about it previously.

And I spent the better part of the fall fighting with him over this.

And you all know that.

And I asked him for this information.

So it's it's this is not unknown.

Director DeWolf.

Well I just wanted to offer to Director Geary if if you feel like it would require some sort of amendment or bringing forward something else I'd be happy to sponsor that.

But I also think too.

I hear that people are busy but also I have two jobs and so I'll be at work on Wednesday next week after Christmas like we all work hard.

So I I don't take that very lightly because this is my second job.

So I know we can we can do more.

So I hope to see the language reflect exactly how Joe Joe looks at it because I think that's exactly where we need to be as a district.

So.

I guess I'll work with staff to figure out the timeline on that and we'll send you what the timeline of when that can get done.

But know that you're going to have to put in time to read it through as it comes as well.

So don't don't dilly dally.

Director Burke did you have a comment question concern.

I just wanted to reaffirm that obviously my interest would be to see numbers of students impacted in a fiscal note around it and and specifically whether that also has transportation transportation ramifications.

I would expect that makes the analysis more complicated but I think it's probably an important part.

Yeah.

Seeing no other comments questions excuse me Madam Superintendent.

I guess you know despite this issue I just want to really commend Director Davies on the hard work that's been going on.

This is a lot of work.

It's a heavy heavy lift.

There are a lot of brain power and things that have to go into developing this type of plan.

So thank you.

And I'm sad Principal Russo left because I also wanted to give my hat off to her and her team for putting in all of doing this.

I mean I think this Graham Hill thing is an example of the really hard work equity work that goes on on the ground level that often goes unnoticed until it gets here.

I mean her conversation about this has taken two and a half years to get to this point.

This is work with her community.

This has been collaborative.

I think this these are lessons that we as the central administration and the board can learn from and those lessons are that it's not easy.

this equity work.

It takes time and patience and sitting with people and sitting in community to really hear what's happening and how we can best move forward.

It needs to be collaborative and it takes tremendous leadership.

It takes backbone and spine to sit there and work through all of these issues and so please pass on my appreciation to Principal Russo and all of you doing the hard work at the local school level.

I sincerely appreciate it.

I think it's a move in the right direction and it's lessons that we can all learn from and it's going to be a great neighborhood school.

So thank you.

Director Davies I have a couple of questions and if you can believe that I've kept my mouth shut for the last hour.

There you go.

There's a reason you sit next to me to keep me honest.

I'm in a line.

Check.

Middle school high school very important middle college high school very important to me.

We're talking about expanding it to add freshmen sophomore year.

So are we talking about all three locations.

I believe that would be part of the plan.

The principal has put together essentially a recruitment plan.

Let me let me tell you about my disconcernment about it.

Am I in favor of it.

Absolutely.

But at the beginning.

And the end of the day I am a pragmatist and we have a 45 million dollar budget deficit next year and I'd rather do a better job of 11th and 12th grade middle college high school than expand it and and have it set up for and we have scar tissue and history.

to show when enrollment drops some fairly unilateral arbitrary decisions get made.

West Seattle Middle College High School.

Have we put a fiscal note on this.

Have we truly thought this through because I don't want to sacrifice a program that we have spent so much time and effort bringing back and enhancing and if we spread too thin then we set it up for failure.

I've got grievous concerns about this especially when we see our snapshots of our schools that are under enrolled really difficult horrific cuts are going to be made here.

Are we setting ourselves up.

South Lake High School is under enrolled.

Grievously so we I I understand the passion behind it.

I understand the good thinking behind it.

But have we truly thought this through and unintended consequences.

I'm not convinced we have.

And the person that used to hold the baton on this has left the district and we have a new Extraordinary person coming in but there's a there's a transition bridge here that I'm very uncomfortable with.

Ideas comments or care to take it offline.

I think this one might be best offline.

There is a group in teaching and learning that's still carrying some of that work that that was being led by Michael.

So we can I can connect with them and I know that they've at least put some things on paper around what this could look like and any fiscal impact.

And I'm all about aspirational but I want to see fiscal notes attached to pretty much everything going forward.

Because it's going to get real ugly real quick here.

And we need to embrace that.

All that said thank you very much.

Much appreciate your responsiveness and your accessibility.

This woman is a human computer and you're the rock star.

Thank you.

Number three approval of attendance area boundary changes to create an attendance area for the new Magnolia Elementary School.

This went before Ops December 6th for.

Consideration.

Approval of this item would outline elementary school attendance area boundary changes to Lawton Elementary Catherine Blaine K through 8 to create an attendance area for Magnolia Elementary scheduled to open in 2019 20. The new attendance area will relieve overcrowding at Catherine Blaine.

K-8 and Lawton Elementary.

Did you want to dial it up director of ops.

Whoever wants to go.

Let's let's roll please.

I'll hand it over to Ashley.

Yeah.

Do you want to present on that with the boundary changes are and just give the overview of the.

Time check.

It's eight o'clock and we have an executive committee meeting after this.

Oh an ops overview.

What we discussed.

OK yes I can I can do that.

So we did the community seeing these boundaries are three options.

Staff came forward with the option C to Ops option C and D are very very similar.

There's only like a five block section.

That is in the walk zone of Lawton that in D is included in Lawton and in C gets moved to Magnolia and essentially in the conversation around at Ops Ops Committee decided to move forward D for recommendation.

There's still a little bit of remaining concern about the long term viability of the plan and that little slice is relatively small.

So it's one of those kind of judgment calling things and it's also in the walk zone and ops.

I can I can allow other members to speak about their perspective as well about why they felt that the D option was was preferable.

So that's where.

The recommendation from ops came.

Comments questions concerns or should we move on.

Seeing none.

I do actually would you want to give the brief like just so everyone knows like what what actually is happening about grandfathering who's getting grandfathered who's not.

So we're opening a new school Magnolia Elementary.

So Magnolia Elementary is opening in fall of 2019. This I feel like a broken record because I've said it so many times but I recognize that not everyone has heard it.

So we began this conversation two years ago with the community anticipating that Magnolia would open in fall of 2018 because of some costs that were delaying the project.

We are on track to open in the fall of 2019 and Magnolia is about six blocks away from Catherine Blaine K-8.

And so impacted by the opening of Magnolia are two schools.

Our initial conversation nearly two years ago involved basically all the schools in Magnolia and Queen Anne and we've kind of dialed it in based off all that conversation and feedback that we've had assuming from the beginning of that conversation that.

15th Avenue would be one dividing line and that we would keep Queen Anne as an option school rather than redo all the boundaries in the area.

And so we began talking with the community in the spring of last year basically updated them on the assumptions are planning assumptions as we went into the work.

And then we've been working with a group of parent representatives from each of the schools and that even included families from Queen Anne and John Hay and Co.

Even though at that point they knew they weren't going to be impacted so they were still part of the conversation initially as we looked at some different options talked about some of the different concerns and desires of families in that area.

And we came up with three that are represented here which are.

B C and D.

A just in case you were wondering didn't have any impact at all at Lawton.

We just essentially cut right between Catherine Blaine right in the middle and said one part is Magnolia one part would be Catherine Blaine and decided that wasn't viable because it provides no relief to Lawton.

So A did exist and it was quickly decided it would not be viable.

So we brought those three plans to the community got feedback on them.

There honestly wasn't really strong feedback any which way around them.

They were all slight modifications of each other.

And so after some continued discussion with the group as well as with the ops committee We had brought forward C just because it gave a little bit more relief to Lawton but as Director Mack mentioned it's minimal and there was some concern about the fact that those families from Lawton who were to be going to Magnolia were so close to Lawton and so D essentially provides a little bit of relief to Lawton still kind of maintains walkability as much as possible.

With it we are also bringing forward grandfathering of fifth grade students.

There was some other conversation around grandfathering and this is very specific.

So I'm going to say this slowly.

Grandfathering of siblings at Catherine Blaine.

So Catherine Blaine is a K-8 attendance area school.

We have two of them in the district.

Broderick Thompson and Catherine Blaine all our other K-8's are option schools.

And so some families who are impacted by the change have a student in middle school who won't be impacted and then have an elementary student who would then now be in Magnolia.

And so part of their discussion was you know we we wanted to go to a K-8 because we wanted our students to be together for the entirety of their experience.

And so splitting them because this younger siblings would be impacted by the change families some of those families talked about that being a hardship for them.

So there's a little bit less than 50 students who would be impacted if we were talking about those siblings.

So just wanted to provide that information to the board.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf had his hand up first and then Director Mack please.

That's funny.

My curiosity is just between C and D the Director Mack was mentioning that that little section between the difference between C and D that there's some multifamily housing in that little sliver.

Do you have a breakdown of of both the scenarios of what their kind of population of students from multifamily housing Just trying to think of some of the.

So we don't have the actual the small sliver itself that changes broken out.

But if you look in the packet.

In the bar packet for each of them you will see the demographics broken out and then in the very back we also have attachment C which provides the total demographics for each school.

So we've got the individuals change areas demographics and then the school demographics as a result.

Director Mack.

Yeah for clarification in the packet the demographics is provided for option D.

Correct.

I'm not looking at that.

I think your packet should have all of them.

The packet should have D B and C in there.

D is first but then the others are listed afterwards.

I apologize I'm actually because I didn't print it out and we don't get printed copies it's online.

So what I'm looking at is what we had at the Ops Committee meeting which had option C.

Yes we added all the others to the packet.

OK so for clarification in the packet the question that was in testimony earlier about the racial demographics is included.

It's all included in the packet.

It's all in there about what what each scenario does.

Great.

OK so then for clarification on the siblings and the grandfathering question because that was that was something that a number of families have come forward and they really wanted to get the guarantee of grandfathering.

And that is not in here.

It's not stated that those siblings of the olders would necessarily have the youngers because of the again it's just like with Lincoln it's.

So many students that guaranteeing that many students is is not really a viable situation.

But they still will have the option potentially that there would be some choice seats left at the middle at the elementary portion.

Correct.

And they would get the sibling priority during open enrollment.

Right.

So they get the sibling priority and that we might have a little bit more clarity about how many choice seats there are and be sharing that information so family knows that OK yes we are leaving open 20 choice seats or 50 and that we'll be we'll try to be more clear about that hopefully.

I think it'd be helpful for families to know like how.

Because what happened with Whitman years ago was you had the option to opt in and then they were told they didn't have space available.

Tell me when please because I'm confused now.

When please we would try to be more clear about it.

Where where does that belong.

I think as I'm looking at something here that we either voted up or we amend it.

Is that correct.

No no.

So for in in the actual assignment plan we say this is who gets to go.

And then we have this thing called space available which decides whether or not there's space available and whether or not there's choice seats available.

The process for deciding what space available is is really dependent on the process internally of the enrollment projections and we're going to go ahead and plan for six classrooms or we're going to plan for seven classrooms.

And in this scenario we are planning for boundaries that dramatically shrink the size of the elementary at Blaine and increase you know it opens an entirely new school.

But there is physical space at Catherine Blaine to maybe have two or three more classrooms than the projections are setting up.

So the question is and I have this question on how we're going to run this process going forward because families hope to have some ability to choice in.

We can't promise it to everyone but how many seats are we going to set aside and how are we going to do that planning and let them know At what point.

Here's the expected enrollment we're planning for this number of classrooms this number of seats and there's approximately these number of choice seats available.

I think that transparency be really helpful in the process.

We don't do it now but that's part of the capacity management policy and process that would be really helpful.

So in terms of making it more clear for this document.

We can't get there from here before we vote on it.

Is that correct.

That is correct.

I'm just looking I don't mean to cut you off but but we have got to continue this meeting.

We need to do the possible as best we can.

And your work on capacity management and the task work is so appreciated.

But let's stick to the four corners of this now.

And yes space available.

I dream about finding a definition of that that everybody loves.

And I'm just hoping it doesn't harm other schools.

I think all I'm asking for in connection to this is the clarification that there will be.

work towards trying to make that more transparent and clear to families and that was given a little bit earlier today.

Director Burke.

I appreciate this conversation.

This has been informative because I understand now what I didn't understand before about the idea of grandfathering instead of older siblings which is what I'm more accustomed to actually younger siblings.

So it's kind of a new experience.

You mentioned the number.

that could potentially be impacted by this was 50 something or.

A little bit less than 50.

A little bit less than 50. So I'm just going to take a brave conjecture and say that any family that has their students at a K-8 if their older student is there they're going to want their younger student there so they would they would be slightly under 50 students that would be advocating for any space available seats.

And so if that's a thing that is important it should be in here.

And if it's not if it's something that's not possible based on creating the program at Magnolia we need to be explicit about it.

I'm just nervous about the way this conversation is going.

As of my the other issue that I want to know about is those 50 students do we really know which grade bands are going to be affected etc.

The devil in this stuff is in the details and we've taken some votes in the past that for all the right reasons that had unintended consequences and I'm nervous about that.

They're currently at the school so we know who the students are so we could tell what grades they're in.

Director Burke are you asking for the consideration potentially to look at actually putting language in that would given the knowledge of the numbers and if it is actually a viable possibility that for current families to have the grandfathering that that might be an amendment that you would want to see.

Because I. What I'm asking for is to try to the understanding you know we've heard.

There's a recommendation to not do that grandfathering.

Presumably that's based on programmatic integrity at the new school.

And if so if that's really true we should state that or you know that we need to own that that that's important for programmatic integrity and there isn't grandfathering or is there any way there can be program there can be grandfathering and then we just.

include that because I think aspirationally the board what I've heard from my colleagues is grandfathering wherever possible in all cases.

But.

But if it harms a brand new school brand new school then that's that.

We just I don't have enough information in my brain to know which of those is a is a better alternative.

And.

I agree I think actually having the numbers on what that actually would mean because in the first year of the school we don't actually want to overload Magnolia too far too fast and I think that having Blaine's K5 get sucked down so small so quickly it could actually it could be really dramatic changes in those two schools.

So if it's possible to kind of get the data and information out to us about whether or not that might be an option.

Yeah we can definitely do that.

I mean we have the data.

It'll just be a matter of the trade off of the transition.

So which I think that you guys can decide.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We are moving on.

Number four approval of attendance area boundary changes for Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and Jane Addams Middle School for 2019 20. This came before Ops December 6th for consideration.

Approval of this item would outline middle school attendance area boundary changes beginning in 2019 20 due to a enrollment overcapacity at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and B Olympic View community request to move to the Jane Addams attendance area.

Director Davies.

So this particular board action report is as you described in response to two things.

We have we had heard this request last year in terms of there's a small portion of currently a student who are assigned to Robert Eagle Staff that are go to Olympic View for elementary school.

We have.

Three elementary schools across the district that are split across middle schools.

One is Green Lake and they wanted that.

So that's the way it is.

The other is Olympic View and that was a result of changes that we didn't implement in 2017 and then the other is going to be Viewlands.

Viewlands is the other one.

So this small portion crosses I-5.

You have all these families who are at Olympic View together.

Then a portion of the community crosses I-5 to go to Eagle Staff and then they come back for Nathan Hale.

So they've talked about just the challenge of being with the community being separated being back with the community again.

There are 40 about 43 students who are in that area.

in grades 6 through 8 who are attending Robert Eagle Staff.

We are recommending that we grandfather all those students in the event that they want to stay.

Many of them probably do.

We talked a little bit about this one when we went out to discuss some potential options for reducing the overcrowding at the Robert Eagle Staff and Licton Springs building and families spoke in support of this.

Questions comments concerns from my colleagues.

Director Burke.

I just want to say thank you.

Appreciate the consideration for this one.

The one point of that I want to make sure that we all acknowledge as a board the change proposed in this BAR increases enrollment at Jane Addams Middle School which is over its right size capacity but not as significantly as Robert Eagle Staff.

So this is a shift from one over enrolled middle school to another over enrolled middle school.

Our reality.

It's our reality.

And I guess I would just look to Miss Davies.

Is this something that you feel we can sustain longer term vis a vis Robert Eagle Staff.

Like is there is there more capacity to whether through renovation whether through portables whether through something that we can support it better at Jane Addams Middle School.

Are we kicking the can down the road.

I think it's a combination of being more capacity and also being really limited in our capacity at Robert Eagle Staff.

So the combination of those two things having one campus without much room to add anything we've we've heard continually about the challenge in taking any more space on that campus versus our ability to be able to add more classrooms at Jane Addams.

OK moving on.

Number five.

Happy holidays.

Happy holidays to you as well.

Your work is so appreciated.

BTA III award architectural and engineering contract K 1 3 2 2 to S.M.

Stemper architects for the 2019 roof repair and replacement projects came before Ops December 6th for.

Approval of this item would provide authorization of the superintendent to enter into an architectural and engineering A slash E contract in the amount of six hundred sixty thousand seven hundred sixty dollars for the 2019 roof repair and replacement projects.

Mr. Best take it away.

Good to have you back here.

Thank you.

Richard Best director of capital projects and planning.

Pleased to be back here.

Likewise I too will wish you all happy holidays.

This is for the architectural engineering contract for S.M.

Stemper architects.

The amount is six hundred and sixty thousand seven hundred sixty dollars that includes reimbursable expenses.

It is to replace the roofs at two schools one North Queen Anne which houses our Cascade parent partnership and then the other is the African-American Academy which has houses Van Asselt.

And so this is for the complete design and replacement.

We did enter into an interim contract, I want to draw that to your attention, in the amount of $189,699 so that we could get the work going.

Both these roofing systems are currently failing, so we need to replace them in the summer of 2019. We are utilizing funds from I got to look back just we are utilizing fund funds from BTA III to fund the design services for these schools that's underspend on those projects.

But both of these roofing projects are part of BEX V and both of these schools their roofing systems are failing and need to be replaced in the summer of 2019. So open it up to questions comments concerns Director Geary.

Passed when I was on the operations committee.

There was some discussion about including at least a brief description of some background information especially with these really large projects because it becomes I think important for all of us to know what how old is the roof that is being replaced.

And I recall this being discussed at several times at operations and being agreed it was a good idea but I don't see that information in the background.

Here I don't necessarily expect that you would be able to provide that off the top of your head.

But I thought that that would be good and helpful information to be included in the BAR.

And so to the extent that the head of operations thinks so as well perhaps next time it can be looked for in any future BARs.

I do remember that request Director Geary and so I apologize that it's not here.

I can tell you the Van Asselt roof is original to the building.

The building was constructed 2000 2001 time frame but we'll get that information.

I'm uncertain about the North Queen Anne roof.

So does that mean the BAR will come to us in a red line version so we know what has changed.

Yep.

Okay.

Moving on.

Number six BEX IV approval of budget transfer from BEX IV program contingency to the Ingram High School classroom addition project budget and approval of construction change order number two for the project came before Ops December 6th for.

Approval.

Approval of this.

So this is a.

I have to read this.

Sorry.

I don't want to.

Approval of this item would one approve the transfer of one million five hundred thousand dollars from the BEX IV program contingency account to the Ingram High School classroom addition project budget and number two authorize the superintendent to execute construction change order number two as attached to the board action report in the amount of one million four hundred forty seven thousand two hundred eighty eight dollars plus Washington state sales tax with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary action to implement the change order.

And can you address the public comment on this as well please kind sir.

I did hear that.

Thank you.

So we're asking the board to first approve a program contingency transfer from BEX IV's program contingency to the Ingraham High School seismic improvements project portion of this project that was contemplated in the BEX IV capital levy the BTA IV capital levy contemplated the classroom addition project so we would minimize impact to staff and students.

We combine those and are implementing those two projects concurrently.

And so this is a BEX IV program contingency transfer.

We did review this transfer.

With the BEX oversight committee.

I want to highlight that to you on November 9th And then the change order is for the seismic improvements to building 100 and then we are not accepting a Proposed ceiling type That would the architects had proposed for Ingraham High School.

It was a type similar to what was done in the West edition at a cost of three hundred twenty three thousand dollars.

That was not a cost that we had anticipated to receive.

So we are accepting both of these.

We're bid alternates in our bid and we're accepting both of these bid alternates at this time rather than when we awarded the contract back in.

It was back in May.

So.

Questions comments concerns from my colleagues.

Seeing none we move on.

BEX IV BTA III resolution 2018 19 dash 11 acceptance of the building commissioning report for the Meany Middle School reconfiguration project.

Ops December 6th for approval.

Approval of this item would adopt resolution 2018 19 dash 11 and accept the building commissioning report for the Meany Middle School reconfiguration project in accordance with WAC 392 dash 344 dash 165 As required to complete the office of superintendent public instruction OSPI form D dash 11 application release retainage approval of the resolution meets identified requirements.

So you have approved commissioning reports before commissioning is activity that we implement at the end of the project to confirm that the mechanical and electrical systems are all functioning as designed by the mechanical electrical engineers.

I will note that meaning middle school had a larger number of commissioning items than we initially that then we would have anticipated.

It was primarily related to the lighting control system and then also some equipment that we opted not to replace during the design process of this building that we needed to replace and did replace during construction.

So we had some commissioning items identified for existing equipment that we had not initially designed.

Identified to replace and then lighting controls.

Those were the what created the large number of commissioning items that spoken to in the executive summary for the commissioning report Comments questions concerns Thank you

Number eight BEX IV BTA III resolution 2018 19 dash 12 final acceptance of contract P 5 0 7 1 with Western Ventures Construction Inc. for the Meany Middle School reconfiguration project.

Ops December 6th for.

Approval of this item would adopt resolution 2018 19 dash 12 and accept the work performed under contract P 5 0 7 1 with Western Ventures Construction Inc. for the Meany Middle School reconfiguration project as final.

So yes this project will be the final action on Meany Middle School.

I will highlight that it is under the revised budget that you had approved the board approved two budget adjustments one in October of 2015 and then another adjustment in March of 2016. We will be below that final adjustment that you approved.

We had 28 change orders on this project, made up of 287 change order proposals.

As I articulated to the board previously, I really look at modernizations for existing schools to come in at a 10% change order rate.

This is at 10.17%, so it's right where we would anticipate this to be.

And your approval is the last activity on this project.

We'll submit it for final close up to OSPI and then we'll receive retainage.

Here here.

And the difference between the old Meany and the new Meany is stunning.

Stunning.

I blew my mind.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I agree.

OK.

Here we go.

Number nine last item before executive session approval of capacity management actions for 2019 20 school year ops December 6th for.

Thank you.

Approval ahead.

Approval of this item would authorize allocation of up to two million sixty nine thousand dollars from BEX IV and BTA IV capital funds to implement annual capacity management actions in spring semester 2018 19 and summer 2019 to support projected district homeroom capacity needs for the 2019 20 school year and authorize the superintendent to take the necessary steps to implement the actions as detailed in the attached Capacity management recommendations.

This is our portable fund isn't it.

This is our portable fund.

Correct.

OK.

Thank you.

And it's our portable and repurposing existing classrooms fund.

Director Harris and we're asking for your approval to spend two million sixty nine thousand dollars.

We've identified the schools where we are looking at placing portables or repurposing classrooms in attachment three.

We're also asking because we know things may shift around.

your ability to allow us to add potentially up to six additional portables at schools.

We know Ashley's enrollment planning team will have some additional information to us in January.

Then with the close of open enrollment in February we'll really be able to finalize our portable plan.

This is an initial installation that our initial schedule that we're looking at adding a classroom at Gatewood Maple and North Beach.

We believe Northgate is going to be OK for next year but we're going to continue to monitor that.

We.

Looking at placing two portables at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School.

I did hear the person speak about Licton Springs today.

I'm going to work with the board office to get a copy of the document.

I don't have a copy of the document that she talked about so I'll make sure I get a copy of that so we can look at the issues that she's identified.

Great.

I'll get a copy of it from her.

And we'll be like I said working closely and reporting to you again on these items.

One thing I do want to highlight is there is no special education program adjustments in this budget and there is at this moment in time and there's no early learning budget adjustments in this proposal at this moment in time.

What does that mean.

Well we have not yet got the information from special education.

We usually get that information first of January and so we may be coming back to you and talking with you about special education adjustments that we need funding approval for.

When you talk about early learning why would that affect our enrollment already if we're trying to take Help me understand this please.

So we have placed some classrooms early learning classrooms in existing schools.

We provide a desk a computer a chair file cabinets and interactive projector as part of the educational program for that early learning because that staff member is a SPS employee.

We do not make facilities modifications.

We primarily provide those five furniture items.

So I just want to be clear with the board that there is no special education in this proposal at this moment in time.

This is strictly related to capacity and there's no early learning items in this proposal before you.

Director Harris.

And because that information is not actually folded into the analysis for this then it's not completely complete.

So that's one of our challenges around the capacity management policy and process that we are.

It's a really complicated process and all the inputs and when decisions are made around things and when things like special ed decisions because our student assignment transition plan makes decisions around.

The programs that are in there we make boundary decisions before open enrollment but there that's that's a process that's transparent and public and through the board's decision making the program placement for preschool and special ed programs is not something that is transparent and it's also done later in the process.

So the numbers can change and the impact of where space is needed.

or unintended consequences of adding more special ed classrooms to a building then wait a minute we actually need those for neighborhood seats and so I'm just mentioning this is this is one of the challenges that I hope we can help resolve for the future to get that timeline a little bit more solid.

It's not about who makes the decisions it's about making sure that we don't have unintended consequences and we have a comprehensive picture when we're making these decisions.

Well if we're talking about SPP and we're talking about the city it is about who makes the decisions if it impacts RK through 12 delivery.

It absolutely is.

OK.

Any other comments questions.

Director Burke please.

Just one.

You mentioned the recommended or potential portable placement at Gatewood.

It looks like it's over maximum capacity but it's actually projected to reduce next year from this year.

Is that.

Gatewood we'd actually Director Burke look at converting the computer lab.

And.

OK.

So this is really not so much a adding extra capacity for to a portable it's essentially increasing the the maximum what is maximum operational.

So as it rather than it's going to increase the right size and the operational capacity of the building.

As compared to adding supplemental capacity with portable.

I think it has to do with grade level as well.

Those students.

So.

Thanks.

Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues.

Seeing none.

This portion of the meeting is adjourned at eight thirty five.

We'll take a 10 minute break and then go into executive session.

Thank you.

We expect executive session to last a maximum of 45 minutes.

Clarification please executive session is to evaluate the performance of a public employee potential litigation complaint against a public employee.

This session will begin after a 10 minute break after the regular board meeting and last approximately 45 minutes.

The legislative session will reconvene at the conclusion of the executive session.