President Hampson I'm now calling the board special meeting to order at 430 p.m.
We would like to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people.
For the record I'll call the roll.
Director DeWolf.
Present.
Director Dury.
Present.
Director Harris.
Present.
Director Hersey.
Yo.
Director Rankin.
I'm here.
Director Rivera-Smith.
Present.
And this is Director Hampson.
The Superintendent is also joining us for today's meeting.
This meeting is being held remotely per 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.
Today's meeting is also being recorded.
To facilitate this meeting I will ask all participants to ensure you are muted when you are not speaking.
Staff may be muting participants to address feedback and ensure we can hear directors and staff.
We will start with a briefing on the public comment we received since introduction of the Academic and Student Well-Being Plan at last week's regular board meeting followed by director questions and a vote on the plan.
academic and student well-being plan is required to be submitted to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction by June 1st in order to receive federal elementary and secondary school emergency relief funds.
I will now pass it to Dr. Jones to begin the staff presentation.
Thank you President Hampson and board members.
Today we're to talk about we're seeking your approval of the OSPI required academic and student well-being recovery plan.
This is one of several efforts that we are engaged in to prepare for our fall return.
Today we have Dr. Pedroza Chief of Student Support Services.
Dr. Scarlett Chief Academic Officer.
James Bush Chief of Equity Partnerships and Engagement.
And Deputy Rob Gannon that will be moderating and leading the proceedings.
This is a representation of one aspect of our planning.
It is not a capture of all the engagement that's happening or will happen.
It's not a full representation of all the planning that's happening as well.
So wanted to just make sure we're we're clear on this is a submittal as President Hampson mentioned that will be a requirement for to receive the ESSER funds.
So we'll be communicating over the more over the next coming weeks and months about what the fall will look like for students.
And today we want to be very transparent about this step.
As we articulate future steps and we have more engagement we'll be communicating those further.
So I'm going to ask Deputy Gannon to take us through the next steps around presenting our plan and the feedback that we've received thus far.
Thank you.
Thank you Dr. Jones.
Good afternoon President Hampson and members of the board.
For the record my name is Rob Gannon and I serve as the Deputy Superintendent and I am pleased to share some information today with you as well as the members of the public.
I want to continue to make clear some of the things that Dr. Jones said in his introductory comments as well as President Hampson's introductory comments.
We are here to talk about a plan but to Mint's words it is not the comprehensive plan.
It is a plan that we are submitting to the state to be eligible for federal funds.
We are going to talk about engagement that we did around this plan.
But it is not the sum total of the engagement that we would like to do that we would like to have done or that we intend to do in the future.
So this is very much a moment in time with a important piece of board action in front of all of you.
But it is but again a moment in time as we prepare for the fall return.
So I will move through my slides rather briskly and turn it over to my colleagues who will speak to some of the details that we've heard by way of the themes the feedback that we have received thus far from the public which only serves to inform how we go about the great amount of work that we have across the summer months.
So I will reiterate here that this is a plan that the Seattle Public Schools District is both required to submit to the state.
And as part of that the board is required to take action on this plan.
This is not a singular district being called out.
This is something that all 295 school districts in the state of Washington are being asked to do.
There may be great variation in the types of plans that are being submitted but all of them are following the prescriptive checklist of the of the State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
We are putting forward important information but it is not all of the information that is important to the district.
So sorry if you could back up on that slide I'll hit it.
I'm navigating multiple decks here.
As a reminder the State Office of Superintendent the State's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction has given us and every district six areas in which to focus our efforts and present our response.
Those are listed here and we describe them in some detail when this when the BAR was introduced to the board.
And my colleagues will also speak later to the types of the elements of feedback that we received in these six categories.
There's an important deadline of course that is coming up that we need to submit this by June 1st which is the reason that we are presenting here for your consideration in this special meeting.
But I want to reiterate again and again that this is but one plan that serves as a necessary piece of enabling enabling legislation and enabling funding that opens up many other planning processes and opportunities and brings funds to the district that would help enrich our efforts in carrying out those plans.
So we can move to the next slide.
What you see here is a listing of some of the public engagement that we have done since this was introduced.
Each of my colleagues will speak to some of this in detail but I want to make make this point that to our understanding we have not only met the obligation that OSPI puts in front of us to do to gather public comment and feedback but we have gone beyond that.
We we as a district recognize how important gathering feedback from our community is.
We also recognize that in this moment which was very condensed we did not have sufficient time to do the types of engagement that we would traditionally do or that this moment right this broader moment of post-pandemic recovery and planning would require of a district our size especially with our aspirations.
So I want to say in plain terms we did what we needed to do.
We did a little bit more than we were required to do.
But by our standards it is nowhere near enough to inform the full planning effort that must occur before the start of instruction in the fall.
That said we did mine very rich information from these engagement opportunities.
which we then put alongside all of the other engagement that we have done over the long course of the last year and the pandemic and the impact it had on all of us.
Right.
The district.
The families.
The buildings.
The educators.
All of that continues to serve as important information building our understanding of how we can move forward and frankly also building our understanding of how we must do deeper and more rich and robust engagement in the weeks and months ahead.
If we can go to the next slide.
I made this point in last week's presentation and I think it bears repeating here that the report that is required by OSPI does not ask us to speak to our health and safety plans.
is not a requirement of this plan.
It is not a requirement for us to receive the federal funds through the ESSER legislation.
But that is not to say that we are not deeply concerned about the health and safety and well-being of the students who come into our district and our buildings of the families that bring them in proximity to those classroom environments to our educators who are in those spaces with those students to the building staff and principals all the way to the district staff.
across the central offices.
So we are very attentive to this and we will continue to be attentive to this important element of our recovery and our preparation for fall and we will build the necessary planning documents around that as well.
But to the extent you do not see it in today's presentation it is simply because it is not a requirement of the OSPI submittal and we are moving as quickly as possible to put this into your hands so we can submit it on time on June 1st.
I'm about to turn it over to my colleague Carrie who will begin to speak the Chief of Public Affairs who will begin to speak about some of the things that we've heard.
The last point I want to make before turning it over to her is we know that there are many questions left to answer for our families that support the students engaging in the classroom.
And we are committed to continuing to answer those questions to gather their feedback and act upon it in the months ahead.
That is something that is clearly important to all of us.
It has been expressed by you members of the board.
It has been expressed by Dr. Jones.
It has been expressed by building leaders across across our district.
And we are hearing loud and clear from our families that more is required.
The planning that we will do in the months ahead will be in partnership with families in a variety of forms.
In partnership with district leaders in a variety of forms.
And there are many many plans that now need to come together in order for us to realize a successful return in the fall.
And then even more importantly to realize an outstanding academic year in the year ahead.
All of those plans must come together and that is the work that we take up right away starting tomorrow once we have this plan hopefully approved by the board and then submitted to OSPI.
So with that I will turn it over to my colleague Carrie and she can give additional details about the types of information we have heard from our families through the engagement process that has taken place thus far.
Thank you Deputy Gannon.
Good evening Carrie Campbell Chief Public Affairs Officer.
So yesterday and then earlier today the board received raw comments that we gathered through the public comment timeline from May 17th to May 25th.
As mentioned the district provided a number of opportunities for public comment including board testimony through Let's Talk which is our customer service tool.
And then most recently yesterday during a live Teams meeting that we streamed on Facebook Live teams YouTube and SPS-TV.
Over 500 people participated through Let's Talk or tuned into the Facebook Live and just over 200 comments were collected.
Invitations to these opportunities were translated and sent out to all families.
And as Dr. Jones Superintendent Jones and Deputy Gannon mentioned while we took these communication steps I do want to note that these types of engagements are not generally how we design and perform outreach to our families furthest away from educational justice.
And so I'm excited that Chief Bush will be introducing our comprehensive and integrated engagement and communication plan later in the slides.
So in general comments gathered through Let's Talk were more specific to the OSPI template the required template that we need to submit by June 1. And questions and comments that were offered during the Facebook Live yesterday We're more granular and specific to fall return focus on individual students.
I'm just going to highlight some themes that we found across the comments.
Regarding communications requests provide the fall plan the final fall plan.
This is not.
This is one step one component and related planning activities in plain speak and with concrete details.
For engagement and family and student voice as mentioned in the public comment period It doesn't reflect our intent about engagement for fall planning.
There's a really strong desire for families to have input and for staff to have input into the work activities that are outlined in the OSPI template.
And you'll again see these opportunities reflected in in the planning engagement and communication plan that Chief Bush will introduce.
Regarding acceleration and recovery.
A theme in the OSPI plan there were questions about how student progress will be monitored right now.
How we'll determine where students are at so that our staff can collaborate and plan for instruction in the fall.
And there was also caution from families about over-testing and over-assessment.
Some guidance that we may need to go slow in order to go fast and really attend to the social emotional well-being of our students next year.
Also suggestions on professional development for our educators.
Supports on differentiation as students have experienced this last year in a variety of different ways.
And a number of questions about supports for special education students and services.
Dr. Concie Pedroza did a lovely job addressing many of those questions yesterday during Facebook Live.
And those comments and responses will be included in an FAQ that launches June the week of June 7th.
Social-emotional learning and mental health were also key areas of interest in the public comments.
Recommendations to make social-emotional practices really clear to families so they can also support in the home space.
And a recognition the pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of our students.
So really broad and strong support for school counselors as well as nurses.
And some good suggestions on partnerships to support these efforts.
Next slide please.
As mentioned the current OSPI template doesn't require inclusion of health and safety protocols and our community noted this and requested clarity on anticipated protocols for the fall.
And so we will continue to follow the Department of Health and Public Health recommendations and adjust as needed.
As you may have noticed when you were looking through the raw comments sent earlier today there are varied ideas on what health and safety protocols we should be following.
Some respondents requested no masks in the fall while others were asking that we continue mask wearing for all students and provide hybrid options until all students have an opportunity to be vaccinated.
As we're managing through situations where there's sometimes no clear answers or no easy answer we're balancing lots of different perspectives from families and that really was evident in the comments provided.
For technology there were also strongly held perspectives.
Parents shared how hybrid learning really benefited their students provided space for the in-person social emotional and socialization supports that they needed but also the the sort of not escape but the opportunity to have more focused intentional remote space that really supported their academic growth.
And on the other hand families and caregivers shared that remote learning and hybrid didn't work at all for their students.
So again that that difference in opinion and how our families and students experienced this last year will inform our planning moving forward.
Another key theme was transportation.
Families want more information on how transportation will be increased and questions about if we'll be reverting back to the pre-pandemic start and end times for school.
And then finally a number of comments about our budget and how ESSER funds will be used specifically again to support social social and emotional and mental health support for our students.
And while many of the comments weren't actually directly related to the OSPI template that you'll be voting on today they will be used to shape our planning in the next few weeks.
And the communication team is in process of organizing and gathering those responses.
I'd now like to turn it over to Chief Bush to share our coordinated approach for fall planning and engagement for 2021. Thank you Chief Campbell.
For the record I am James Bush and I serve and have the pleasure to serve as the Chief of Equity Partnerships and Engagement for SPS and I'll refer to it as EPE throughout the rest of the conversation.
Over the last year SPS has conducted extensive engagement and done a lot of research that has led to the activities and focus areas as required by OSPI.
Moving forward EPE and Office of Public Affairs will be implementing An integrated and comprehensive plan to gather the perspectives of families students and staff to lead to a strong fall return in support of all of our students.
Our plan is shaped by 3 strategies.
Number 1 is regularly coordinated family student engagement opportunities with a priority focus on our students of color furthest away from educational justice.
Number 2 is regular coordinated staff engagement opportunities.
And the third strategy is a Broad Fall 2021 campaign that includes both internal and external communications.
Next slide please.
For strategy 1 there's a list in front of you.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but examples of activities outlined in our current plan.
And I'll share a little bit more about each of those.
So EP will reconvene our affinity and stakeholder groups.
These groups included organizations like Villa Comunitaria Families that Color Seattle Southeast Seattle Education Coalition Chinese Information Service Center Atlantic Street Center and El Centro De La Raza.
Each of these organizations serves as a trusted advocate and and as community leaders for many of our students and families and their input input and support is really important for us to move forward.
We will also continue to host Facebook Live Town Halls.
These events are streamed on Teams YouTube and SPS-TV and staff can ask questions staff and families can ask questions via Facebook Teams or send questions to Public Affairs.
Questions asked during these events are answered and posted to the website and distributed via School Beat.
The web services team will also launch a Fall 2021 landing page.
That includes a Let's Talk Fall 2021 form.
By using Let's Talks parents can engage directly with our customer service staff in their home language.
We will also leverage existing monthly meetings with district advisory groups like our Parent Advisory Committee the Equity Race and Advisory Committee and task force like the Return to School Task Force to gather diverse perspectives and feedback and support wrapped around our focus on student and family wellness supporting health and healthy and safe learning environments and high quality and engaging instruction.
We will also engage with our partners at Seattle Council PTSA to host timely informational meetings and input sessions going into the summer and leading into the fall.
Also really important is making sure that we ensure student voice.
We will continue to send a student voice through our engagement with the African-American Male Advisory Committee Student Leadership Council the students Superintendent Student Advisory Group and develop school-based engagement opportunities.
And as Carrie shared earlier our Special Education Department is sharing summer and fall plans regarding feedback and making sure that information makes it back to the communities that provided that valuable information.
Data gathered from all of these engagements will be summarized.
and shared with the leads of the workgroups the board and school communities.
Next slide please.
The next strategy is focused around our cadence of staff engagement.
One of the key areas of interest that surfaced during our engagement for the OSPI plan was how staff can plug in and influence the return to school in the fall.
We will be creating staff workgroups representing central office school leaders educators These working groups will be asked to advise and support a number of key activities related to the wellness health and safety and high quality instruction.
We will also begin to host regular all-staff meetings leading up to September 1st.
Gathering important topics to cover from our labor partners and other school-based staff.
And we are also committed to working with PASS.
We have agreed to develop a school leader Fall 2021 planning team.
This team will work on specific projects and action plans representing the voice and perspectives of principals and assistant principals as we work to plan and ensure that we're developing activities that can be operationalized at the school level.
And finally we'll continue to do JSC John Stanford all-staff meetings.
The first one we had with Dr. Jones was last last week and we'll continue to do those through the summer months.
Now I would like to turn it back to Carrie to share a little bit more about the communications.
Thank you.
Thanks James.
Complimentary to the engagement Public Affairs will launch a robust campaign for Fall 2021. This is primarily one-way communication that addresses the key and common questions that we've gathered through family staff student and broad community engagement.
So this is a long list of tactics.
The one that I really want to pull forward is creating a plug-and-play communications and engagement support to schools including branding marketing materials.
I know that James and I have talked with a lot of the board about how we need to support in a very authentic way communication and strength of communication from school leaders to school community because they know their communities the very best.
how do district messages move from the board all the way through the system to the classroom.
And so I just want to point that out because most of these communication tactics you've seen before.
You've seen social media campaigns.
You know about redesign of School Beat and we're going to refocus it on fall.
So none of this should be new or a surprise but this is something that attends to questions and concerns and advice that the board has given us over time and we're super excited to lead this body of work with PASS.
And so with that at this point I'm going to turn it back to Deputy Gannon to close out the presentation.
Thank you Chief Campbell and thank you Chief Bush.
I have no concluding remarks other than to open up the district for questions that any of the board members may have.
And we are of course happy to respond with information that we have at hand and turn to other colleagues who did not present tonight if they have specific information.
Okay.
Directors I'm going to ask for you to use the raise hand feature or if like Director Harris you're on the phone to just go ahead and speak up with questions.
Director Harris here.
I have a couple of questions.
Go ahead Director Harris.
Appreciate very much.
Sorry the Internet is down at the beach where I am vacationing and looking at the ocean and taking great joy.
Where are we with respect to the Seattle PTSA sped requests and comments on their April 26th letter.
Has anyone gotten back to them.
And where are we with respect to fed services in the summer and are case managers ready to roll on all of that.
Thank you.
Hello this is Dr. Concie Pedroza.
I'm here.
I'm also.
as well.
So I'm going to respond.
In terms of the letter I did we did respond but I will make sure and double-check what what exactly we responded to.
We are working on the case with verifying that information.
We had a meeting with OSPI regarding the data.
So I will follow up with the board on a response or at least follow up with all the board members or Director Harris directly just to let you know where we're at with that.
That's regards to the letter.
In terms of the recovery services plan yes we actually have launched a recovery service plan and we are working through that.
We've actually shared with the case managers and we're going to be sharing with school leaders and we're going to be sending a one-page information to families through a family newsletter coming out to share how to receive those services through the IEP team process.
So that is forthcoming.
And then we're also partnering with summer school expansions and expanded ESY which is expanded school year services for the summer.
So we are roaring and we're ready to go Director Harris and we will be communicating that out with families very soon.
Appreciate it immensely.
Thanks so much.
Did you have other questions Director Harris.
I'm good for now.
I may want to come back after listening to my colleagues.
Thank you.
Okay.
Okay.
Other directors that have questions.
I've got my hand up right there.
Can I. Oh sorry.
Just go up.
There you go.
Go ahead Director Rivera-Smith.
Thank you.
Hi.
So I want to first of all thank you staff.
Thank you for the presentation.
Lots of good information there.
I wanted to follow up really quickly with something that Chief Bush said and I am not sure if he just misspoke or if there's something new but he mentioned a return-to-schools task force.
I want to make sure we didn't have a return-to-schools task force.
We had I think he might have meant remote learning or outdoor and community education.
I just wanted to clarify that because we might have people listening thinking like how I didn't know there was a remote a return-to-schools task force and they might have missed an opportunity to be part of that.
So I just wanted to clarify real fast if that's that was the case.
I was referring to the task force that Keisha's been leading for the last few months.
We were referenced last last meeting.
Okay so there was a return to schools but who is that comprised of.
So Keisha was leading that.
I'm not sure if Keisha's on the call if she wants to give any more details on that.
Yeah I'm I haven't been leading a task force so there might be just some misunderstanding.
We did have return to school work groups.
that went on last year you know in the spring into the summertime that were led formally and overseen formally by by Sherri Cox.
And so that might be some of the information but we were able to share much of the feedback from those in the summer planning you know for us to be able to reopen in the fall.
We do have a remote learning task force that's been ongoing.
that is going to be finishing.
I was just in a meeting with them yesterday and so a final report draft was shared in that in that group that is ongoing sort of feedback to help us with reopening schools as well.
And then we do have a variety of like just ongoing community or committees that we have been sharing a number of different plans.
But as far as a return to school tax force in that being a title of an actual body of people.
You are correct Director Rivera-Smith.
That is not a group that we have at this point.
Thank you.
I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
Thank you Keisha and sorry about that Rivera Director Rivera-Smith.
I copy and paste just mistakes.
Sorry about that.
Again I was only clarifying for maybe people listening because I know I myself did get a few parents asking like why don't we have a return to schools task force and I'm like well we have a lot of other things going on and other task force but not a specific one of that.
So anyways just checking on that.
Aside from all that though I yeah I really appreciate again all the engagement that you have done.
I know that you can't reach everybody.
This is like you know everybody wants a voice and a chance to engage and we put those out there.
And we reach where we can so I appreciate all that work.
It's never done right.
It's never enough.
There's always more people to speak with and but thank you for what you're doing what you've done.
I appreciate all the just the compiling of all the comments we got from Let's Talk and I read through every Facebook Live and Teams Live.
There were a lot of them.
And there was some really good information as was shared already.
Lots of good questions that some of which a lot of which weren't exactly applicable to this template but are still really good for us to know what people what's on people's minds going forward.
And I really I'm sure you guys all saw this one already but I love the one that just says prioritize calm.
When we get back to school kids are coming back in.
It's been rough going back in person in the fall and says you know prioritize calm.
Do less.
Prioritize relationships and SEL.
We're going to focus on that so much and I appreciate how much that is outlined in the template and it is the plan for our ongoing work.
So thank you.
No other questions.
Sorry.
Thank you Director Rivera-Smith.
Other directors.
Any questions.
Yeah Director Hersey here.
Go ahead Director Vice President Hersey.
Thank you.
You got it.
Awesome.
Cool.
Yeah so this is less of a question more of just an acknowledgement of how different this has gone in terms of communication foresight actually laying out how we are going to be getting the information that we need from our families and our educators and all of our other folks in our system who we want to make sure so excuse me want to make sure get a voice.
So this is to me a breath of fresh air and I know that there are going to be lots of families who are on the call tonight and they're just asking themselves okay how does this actually fit into what the experience is going to be for my child.
And I just want to just acknowledge the fact that this is the planning that has to happen and the roadmap that we as a board have been asking for in terms of longitudinal planning to show this is how we're going to collect the information to develop whatever the individual plan and whatever the individual experience is going to be like for a student per building per classroom.
And so we're almost not built in a day.
There's going to be.
information that is coming out in waves as we get closer and closer to that start date.
But I just wanted to acknowledge for staff that this this was really appreciated and I appreciate the attention to making sure that we are included on the front end and figuring out how this is actually going to work and how this is going to get done from OSPI's perspective.
So thank you.
I appreciate it.
Thank you Vice President Hersey.
Director DeWolf.
Thank you President Hampson.
I just have a few questions.
They're probably fairly quickly fairly quick.
On Part 3 can you clarify what the extracurricular activities are.
You'd marked that on the on the OSPI plan.
Can you just clarify what that means.
Yes I can start and and also have Dr. Pedroza speak about that.
That was a later marking in addition so you may not have noticed it before.
And so we appreciate Director Rivera-Smith just elevating that.
as extracurricular activities.
We do want to focus on extracurricular activities.
We do understand the strong correlation of those to student well-being and engagement and we are really focused both the summer and as we return to school for 21-22 on engagement and joy for our students as well.
And we have a site-based school district pretty much that many of the partnerships that happen during schools are site-based and managed.
So we don't have necessarily managed partnerships throughout that.
But we are working and supporting.
I met with the directors of schools a few of them today to talk about what this looks like across some of the different schools.
What are the ways that we can support our schools with their CSIP planning and their planning for next year.
Their engaged partnership with our community-based organizations what it looks like to use some of their levy resources for the levy schools for that as well.
And you know we are also looking at our just after-school and expanded learning programs and how do we both leverage our need to maybe do some academic supports for students along with just these joyful learning experiences that I think is really a great opportunity for partnership with our with our excuse me community-based organizations.
So different schools have different partnerships.
We're partnership-rich.
Being able to and I'll have Chief Bush speak about this being able to really sort of monitor and regulate how all of that manifests across 104 school sites is a challenge.
We do have centrally coordinated of course sports and athletics.
And so Dr. Pedroza can speak.
about how that will work as we come back in the fall as well.
So that's where we are with that.
Yeah.
Yeah and I just want to.
Oh sorry.
Yeah.
Just for clarity for one second Dr. Scarlett.
So it sounds like because every school has their own partnerships and different activities that are kind of housed or are centralized at different schools there is basically this vast diverse list of things that would be hard to put in this plan but each school kind of has different things so that the range of extracurricular activities is quite large given our partnerships.
Is that what you're saying.
Absolutely.
And so what we're working with the Director of Schools I'm sorry I apologize for that that we want to work across our Director of Schools to work with our school leaders to sort of develop a listing of how these will be incorporated into both into their school days like what type of flexible scheduling they might have.
across that so we have just a better idea about how these will display.
And of course we are driving with you know I would say sustained values but even new values as we move forward in looking at what it means to have engaging and joyful learning environments that are culturally responsive and identity safe for students as well.
So we are absolutely paying attention to that.
Thank you.
That's super helpful.
I don't need any more clarity on that one.
Thank you to staff.
My next one is just around Part 4. It talks about and it actually talks about in a few different places but this is Panorama Educational Education School Climate Survey.
Is that the only I know there's a couple other that are marked at the bottom but is there something it seems like it The way I'm reading it is it's almost like this panorama thing is like a panacea for surveys.
Is it is it our most innovative.
Is it is it reaching families.
Is it the best we have.
I'm just trying to understand why we're kind of landing on that.
You know I think the best person to answer this is Dr. Eric Anderson.
I'm not sure if he's on the call.
I can feel this a little bit.
I know a bit about panorama.
But if there's a cabinet member who knows a little bit more about Panorama it's a it's an organization that we work with to help support our student survey dissemination.
They don't set the criteria though we set the criteria in partnership with them about you know what we're adding.
So that evolves over time just as we're learning more about the system.
But I'm not sure I don't think Dr. Anderson is on the call.
If anyone else wants to chime in about that that would be great as well.
This is Director Hampson if Director Anderson isn't certainly is it somebody who uses Panorama as a end-user meaning that that takes advantage of the data.
It is a really robust because it's direct to students.
So that's where all of our student student climate data survey is.
It's not as robust with respect to parents because it's not utilized but by a small segment so it's not representative.
So you probably heard me talk about that in the past.
And and the desire the Eric and his Eric Anderson and his department have been and I believe Dr. Scarlett also been looking at trying to dive into getting better representation from from families.
However from the student survey component it's really critical data.
I always encourage people to go and look at it.
and look at the differences school by school.
You can look at different service category recipients as well as by race and ethnicity free and reduced lunch.
So it's a it's a it's I believe some of the best data that we have and not utilized as well as it could be.
So I'm excited about what they're going to be doing with that.
I don't know if anybody else wants to add on to that.
That's that's enough.
I don't want to I want to make sure I'm not taking up too much time because I just have a couple of quick On page 2 of attachment 3 attachment 3 being the plan details it talks about it actually says the school board received remote learning task force recommendations.
Have we actually received those.
I if I just checked my email I did not see those recommendations so it would be helpful if you could if we could close actually I'm sorry it's page 2 but it would be helpful if you could close the loop and provide those recommendations because I do not remember seeing those in my email so that would be very helpful just to have that as as information.
And then page 6 of the same attachment it talks about professional learning and talks about culture of care.
I think related to something that was just brought up around you know we're going to be bringing students back to school.
We just went through a pandemic but we also just you know George Floyd was murdered a year ago.
And thinking about the impact of coming back into our schools some students will feel excited safe included and some students will feel unsafe unwelcomed and not included just given the racial dynamics in our city and that shows up in our schools.
So are we doing anything to support our teachers in preparing or being prepared to hold space in community in their school communities for these types of potential emotional and mental impacts of the last year.
I'm so glad you mentioned that.
This is Dr. Pedroza.
Because I'll just share we had our special education community forum for our Asian families on Monday and that was the first thing they talked about to us was what are we going to be doing to support their students especially due to the recent Asian hate that has been happening around the nation.
And that's what they were really wanted to come in and have that space for them just to unpack that as a community.
So yes that is part of the work that we're going to be doing in launching our supports for the fall.
And we are actually are actually right now I'll just share two things that we're planning for.
We're looking at doing a racial equity analysis on the MTSS implementation plan.
We're going to be starting that internal review of that work to make sure that we are really infusing and incorporating especially information for dealing with race and bias and all of these things that we're talking about in all of the structures.
And the second thing we're doing is we're making sure that through our supports that we we all talk about ACEs through this work but we're actually adding that layer and I've mentioned this before the racing ACEs which actually talks about race as one of the foundational pieces about ACEs.
And so we're going to be incorporating all of those pieces into that and it'll be featured prominently not only in the work that we're doing with coordinated care and expanding some of our services to all of our schools but also some of the embedded work with the with the community circles and some of the work we're doing restorative practices and really doing some embeddedness with lessons that we're providing for staff.
And so we're going to be doing all of that work to kind of get ready for that in the fall.
Thank you very very very much.
The last question I have and maybe it's for President Hampson but just overall do we need to do anything formally to adjust the grading policy that we approved or revised it was spring of last year right when the pandemic first hit.
Do we need to do anything in parallel to this process for grading.
You know we're still working on just thinking about what the policy implications for grading as we move in.
Honestly Director DeWolf we're We're spending time with our joint assessment committee working on like the assessment calendar but also thinking about sort of this ongoing grading.
So we are meeting with school leaders in our middle school level meetings and also on our high school ones.
I met with the directors of schools for secondary to talk about what their priorities are.
So they have three priority areas and that was a top priority area for that.
So.
While I can't guarantee that we'll have like a policy consideration like right now in this moment we are rapidly working on this.
We know that our grading policy we did make some strides but they don't nearly maybe meet the need.
But it's also grading is just another part of inequitable adult practice in the system that we're you know working to address.
It's aligned with our assessments what we regard as evidence of student learning.
And really that black box that becomes private around how adults grade students and how we deprivatize that as well.
So that is a top area.
And I am grateful for this time to really accelerate and give us this opportunity to make some of the shifts.
We're having conversations that we have never had before because it is a black box.
It is that part where educators close our doors.
So I'm within that but there is not a secondary conversation that I'm a part of that is not about standards-based grading.
And we're also really excited I don't know if we shared with you all recently that we have a new Director of Assessment for School Improvement position.
So we're shifting from an assessment manager position to a director that really manages this the areas of assessment both vertical and horizontal alignment across both us building our data literacy around what is the universal screener.
What are diagnostic assessments to help us to know how to address student needs.
What are the ongoing formative and then summative assessments and classroom-based assessments.
But also that mirrored with the evidence of student learning.
This is a school leadership and school team support position to work and drive this work.
so that we have alignment.
We have to be able to have these practices that are across the system so they're predictable and families aren't just trying to figure these things out.
But also we need to align them with these performance and competency-based pathways that our students are moving through in their educational path in our system as well.
And so that is ongoing work but it is like one of my highest buckets of I have three top areas for me I would say are decolonizing social studies this work around standards-based grading and pathways you know and then some other sort of areas clustered together.
So it is a really high high priority for us as a system.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I won't take up any more of your time but I totally am with you Dr. Scarlett.
Love to be in those grading conversations.
I agree.
I agree with you.
When I met with remote learning task force facilitators last October the biggest thing I talked about and was just jazzed about was thinking about how to reimagine overusing that word this time but reimagine our grading.
So please let me know how I can be helpful or how I can collaborate but that is something I'm absolutely interested in supporting and I will I will stop taking up time.
Thank you President Hampson.
Yeah and I don't know if probably Julia or Greg could could answer but I'm quite confident that our grading amendments to policy were for a set period of time meaning those would expire.
And so everything that Dr. Scarlett is bringing forward is that much more critical because now we're looking at issues that that were present before but laid bare by the pandemic in terms of the grading.
And so and I think further highlighted by our the shift in the grading policy.
So we can double-check with them but they should expire at the at the end of this year.
It is through August.
Right.
It was because summer is through the as part of this current school year.
Okay so I will go next to Director Dury.
Hi.
Thank you.
I I wanted to mostly just say thank you for highlighting that this is a step in a longer process and really highlighting the engagement opportunities and participation opportunities that folks will have going forward and the creation of the actual plan that will be implemented going into the fall.
I think that's really important.
And I also wanted to take a moment to just acknowledge that this has all been done in you know what the leadership started May 1st with us here.
And so I just think it's important to acknowledge that.
I did have one quick question on the professional development and if this is something we need to that can be answered later.
But in that I also think we want to start we want to think about students who are in the child welfare system and ensuring that teachers and staff have culturally responsive professional development in what may be what we may be seeing as students come back having been away for over a year.
So if we could add that into the professional development arena or if that's already being considered and worked on that would be great.
This is Dr. Pedroza.
Yeah we work with our staff from the McKinney-Vento.
We are we are all in alignment but I'll make sure that that is noted within the planning.
Thank you.
Okay.
Director Rankin.
Thanks.
Briefly most of my questions are kind of about what happens next.
So I'm not going to ask those because those would be forthcoming conversations.
But I had just sort of an observation and then a request besides just saying thank you to staff for getting this together.
And I know that there's a bajillion things that you're all working on simultaneously.
So the observation is from the OSPI template this is very much all students and as much as there is you know needs that all students have and everyone's experienced this this unprecedented time as we go into the summer I know that I will expect to see more about specific specific groups and specific needs being addressed based upon you know individual students or based upon characteristics of students.
So that's just sort of the observation.
The request goes back to Carrie earlier.
I was really glad to hear in your time speaking about thinking about the way information moves through our organization.
That's been a big a big kind of hole and supporting building leaders I think that's awesome.
And so but my request I guess is just that as information goes out to families about future engagements that as clear as we can be about when it's kind of informational moment in time and when there's actually room for engagement or input as kind of clear as we can be as I know things will be will move really quickly.
So yeah clarifying what those opportunities are and when they are opportunities.
And as much as we can also kind of We have a lot of the information already from student climate surveys from you know all the information that's been happening in engagement for this year to I feel like you know trust staff in making some really good decisions based on what we already know.
So there will be I anticipate there will be some things that we don't necessarily need to get everybody's you know opinion on when it's evident from what we've already experienced and seen and know we need to do is something that needs to happen.
So yeah I just I guess I would just ask that as clear as like when it's engagement and when it's informational and when it is informational what that decision is based on would just be really helpful I think for everybody to contextualize kind of going forward.
Yeah.
And I'm looking forward to more more discussions and more that I know is ongoing.
So thank you.
Director Hersey your hand is still up.
Did you have additional questions.
I thought I put it down but I am good.
Great.
And one last swing back to you Director Harris did you have anything additional.
I did.
I wanted to put a thumbtack on the bulletin board of all of this work.
with respect to unified athletics for our differently abled students.
When we talk about after-school enrichment when we talk about inclusion I think that's an incredibly important program.
It's one that frankly we have not done a good job of uplifting and supporting and I hope that we take this opportunity to show that we really mean what we say.
Thank you.
I just want to make just one small comment on that.
Thank you Director Harris.
That is such an important piece of my life that I as a parent have actually been enriched through those experiences myself for my own child.
We actually have pre-pandemic the athletic department has drafted a 3-year plan to expand unified sports within Seattle Public Schools.
So I will be working with them to figure out how we're going to start implementing that.
And we've been working with the PE department as well so that we can have a coordinated effort on that.
So I'm really excited about that.
And then yes just to reiterate athletics will be resuming middle school and high school this fall in alignment with WIAA.
So I just wanted to share that but I'm excited to hear you say that because that is near and dear to my heart and we're developing a plan for that expansion and I'm excited to to to see that come come forward.
Well you have made my day my week my month and my year.
Thank you ever so much.
And as soon as you feel comfortable sharing that plan with the board we'd be forever grateful.
Thank you.
Okay.
So I just want to note the.
I have my hand up so I'm sorry.
I don't know.
Oh sorry.
Go ahead Director Rivera-Smith.
Thank you.
I and I I'm coming back because I missed one so like I said I read through all the comments we got and one I had actually highlighted and went to ask about was in regards to the question that is anonymous I don't know how to put it.
Why was special education left off of inclusionary practices on page 16 of the recovery plan and it's not 16 anymore.
It is it's now page 15 page 27 of the PDF.
Under inclusionary practices it has students and 504 plans.
Pre-K-12 targeted.
Either way it doesn't include special education who is called out in other categories there.
So the question is why why was special education left off of the inclusionary practices piece there.
That might have been an error.
So I will have to look at that and work with Julia and Warth and Mr. Gannon.
Okay yeah that'd be great because it isn't like it is sometimes 504's might imply it's specialized but obviously we know they're not all 504's and IP's are not equal so just yeah look at that.
I don't know Concie I would I mean inclusionary practices implies and is directly referencing special education.
So I read that as mentioning 504's saying also inclusive of 504's.
in addition to IEP's.
I don't know if that was my reading of it.
Yeah I read that that way too but you know what I will do is I so but you know so there's so many I think it's a good idea to go back and just take a look at it and review it and then if it has to be spelled out a little bit more clearly we'll do that.
Yeah because right above it one above it high quality tutoring does have them separate as 504 or a special education.
So they are referenced separately in other ones.
That's why I guess it stands out that it's not there.
But yeah if you can take a look at that I think that some families would appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
That was actually one of my questions.
So check that one off.
I did want to just say thank you to staff for the very quick turnaround time.
The OSPI put this out on exactly a month ago and we didn't have a strong indication of what was going to be in this.
I would concur that it's not as robust in terms of what they're asking for with respect to special education services or follow-up.
But that's not because we're not going to have a massive focus on that with some of which has been spoken to tonight and I didn't know Dr. Pedroza if you wanted any additional opportunity to speak to that.
Yeah I'll just share that we actually work OSPI usually sends out their separate guidance for special education which typically follows this.
And then we are with our recovery plan and all of those pieces we actually submit to the special education assistant superintendent of special education.
At OSPI it's usually a separate process but we wanted to make sure that all of those pieces are were called out in this at a high level and to make sure that they were included in the planning for this.
But that process is usually done just like for EL is done through separately through those entities.
But we wanted to make sure that we highlighted that and acknowledged those in the in this in this document as well.
Great thank you.
And again only a month for development engagement and then here we are to to vote on it so it can be submitted on the 1st.
And so thanks to all the staff in the midst of also getting addressing all of the nits and nats with getting back into buildings.
for our all of our students particularly 6-12 and that at the end of April and managed to to pull this all together.
And so congratulations and thank you.
And I know that there is much more work to be done and for our purposes as a board we will be working very hard to structure those conversations and contextualize all of that within the scope of our student outcomes foci.
So with that Director Rivera-Smith your hand is still up but I'm assuming you don't have any additional questions.
Actually I do.
Sorry.
Okay.
Real fast just to follow back up there.
So we're voting right now on the resolution but we're also the motion reads that we're going to be voting on the plan itself so.
As far as what I asked for a second ago about having that inclusionary section include special education.
That can't really be changed later can it if we approve it now.
Because I know Dr. Pedroza is going to look at that.
But again could it be after you vote tonight it's there or not right or can it.
So just clarify that.
I think it might.
Is Chief Narver on.
I think it might qualify as a as a Help me out with.
I am on.
I'm sorry.
Somebody else was speaking for a second.
I don't know if they were answering the question.
Oh go ahead Chief Narver.
So the yes what's voted on today does approve the plan that will be filed.
But that doesn't preclude us from developing I mean it's been talked about filing this plan gets us past the OSPI requirement that this be filed on time.
It's not the final word on what our plans are for reopening.
It doesn't doesn't preclude anything like that.
But this is the form that our filing will take the one that's that's approved tonight.
Does that does that address that.
I think the question was Chief Narver if if staff wanted to go back and add IEP's so that it's not just assumed but explicit.
on that one item under inclusion if that's an administrative change that they could make with us us having to make an amendment.
Before it's filed with OSPI.
Yeah.
I think I think so yes as long as we've had the discussion on the record.
I think that well it really depends on what it looks like.
I think it's literally just adding IEP.
Okay.
Education yeah.
Okay.
Yep I think I think that can be that can be worked through.
All right well just I wanted to get that reassurance just so you know that if that it is decided to include include those that that population under inclusion that we can still do that even after voting for it as is tonight.
Thumbs up.
I think we'll be like I say I think we'll be able to work through it.
I'd see exactly what what change would be contemplated to what's voted on tonight.
But I think we can we can find a way to make it work.
I just have to see exactly what it is that the proposal is to add.
Okay.
So we will now is that it for you Director Rivera-Smith.
We will now move to the action item on today's agenda approval Resolution 2020-21-24 Approving Seattle Public Schools Academic and Student Well-Being Recovery Plan for submission to OSPI on June 1st 2021. May I have a motion for approving this item.
I move for approval.
Second.
This item has been moved.
Is that sufficient Greg or does he need to reread the motion.
I'm sorry I didn't receive talking points.
Yeah we yeah we have the motion language that's in the BAR should be read.
Okay.
No worries.
I'll forward it to you later.
I think Dr. Jones had his hand up maybe.
I think.
I saw a finger go up.
Yeah.
Thank you.
So if we have further adjustments to make They may be small adjustments.
They may be significant.
Greg how do we how do we accommodate that instead of having a whole new process to for approval.
I think there are a couple of things in there that maybe we inventory today that we're going to make changes on small things.
But is it is there a does that fundamentally change this approval process.
It really depends.
You know we.
We can't rewrite what the board approves tonight in a in a material way if if there can be an agreement on the record that if there are what amount to some clerical changes that can be adjusted after the fact that's probably within the scope of what the board's approving tonight.
But you know this is the action item tonight is to approve this for filing.
And so adding substantive new content is probably beyond what can be corrected as a clerical or a clerical adjustment as opposed to actually adding new content to the plan.
Okay so the piece around the task force and those type of adjustments would be considered to be clerical.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say I think those are clerical.
From the way they're described I think I think I would agree I'd agree with that.
You know show me some language I'll say but but what I've heard described tonight I do believe falls within that classification and we could we could file it with that with that language.
Yes.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Okay are we ready for the.
Director Harris.
Go ahead Director Hersey I mean Vice President Hersey.
Yep.
No worries.
I move that the school board approve Resolution 2020-21-24 and the Attached Academic and Student Well-Being Recovery Plan for submission to OSPI on June 1st 2021 as required by House Bill 1368 Chapter 3 Laws of 2021 and approve receipt of elementary and secondary school emergency relief ESSER funding.
This item has been moved by Vice President Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.
Now to directors for any questions and comments before we vote on the item.
Last chance for any comments or questions.
I I'll make just one comment to say on the record that I am voting with the understanding that the term inclusion in education is specifically a reference to including students who receive special education services.
in general education environments and that the addition of 504 is to indicate that students with 504 plans are also included in inclusionary practices.
I just want that you know kind of stated even you know whether or not it's able to be changed.
Inclusion means students receiving special education services being educated with their general education peers.
Thank you Director Rankin.
Anybody else.
Okay.
Ms. Wilson-Jones will you call for the vote.
Director Dury aye Director Harris aye Vice President Hersey aye Director Rankin aye
Director Rivera-Smith aye Director DeWolf aye President Hampson aye.
This motion has passed unanimously.
Okay.
Thank you Superintendent Jones and all staff for your time and energy.
And as there is no further business on the agenda the meeting stands adjourned at 539 p.m.
Enjoy your evening.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.