Seattle School Board Meeting - January 26, 2022

Okay this is President Hersey.

I am now calling the January 26th 2022 Regular Board Meeting to order at 415 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones please call the roll.

Vice President Hampson.

Here.

Director Harris.

Director Harris alerted me that she has a work conflict and will not be able to join us.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

Director Sardieu.

Here.

Director Song-Moretz.

Present.

And President Hersey.

I am here.

All right, this meeting is being held remotely consistent with the governor's proclamation on open public meetings.

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

Consistent with the governor's proclamation on open public meetings, for those joining us by phone, please remain muted until we have reached the testimony period and your name is called.

I will now turn it over to Superintendent Jones for his comments and then for the presentation of the annual financial report per board policy number 6030.

Thank you President Hersey and board members.

This month is school board recognition month.

And accordingly I'd like to read a proclamation by the governor into the record in appreciation for you as board members.

Proclamation.

Whereas the mission of Washington's public school systems is to assure that all students achieve at high levels and possess the knowledge and skills to be responsible members of a democratic society who enjoy productive and satisfying lives and whereas Washington's 295 locally elected school boards and 9 elected educational service district boards are at the core of public education governance system in our state and whereas the districts and regions they lead serve more than 1 million students have a combined annual budget of over $15 billion and employ approximately 120,000 people.

And whereas school directors play a crucial role in promoting student learning and achievement by creating a vision establishing policies and budgets and setting clear standards of accountability for all involved.

And whereas school director school directors are directly accountable to the residents in their districts and regions serving as a vital link between members of communities and their schools.

And whereas school districts school directors excuse me and educational service districts provide a passionate voice of advocacy for public schools and the welfare of school children.

And whereas it is appropriate to recognize school directors as outstanding volunteers and champions for publication for public education.

Now therefore Governor Inslee Governor of the state of Washington do proclaim January 2022 as School Board Recognition Month in Washington.

And he encourages all people in our state to join him in this special observance signed this 15th day of December 2021. Thank you so much.

And so I also want to take a moment to personally express my sincere gratitude to you as board members.

Your dedication to ensuring Seattle is delivering excellence and a nurturing place for our students to learn and grow is noticed and appreciated.

You all work tirelessly to till the soil and plant the seeds for lifelong learning and create the conditions for our students to thrive across our district.

I've witnessed this year you attending press conferences engaging with people at rallies administering COVID testing campaigning for voting rights advocating for students and families supporting principals and educators in untold ways.

Raising flags protecting students champions for racial equity and justice and cultivating key partnerships.

So as you till this soil know that I have milled you each a packet of wildflower seeds.

Now I encourage you to plant these seeds somewhere where you can see the flowers they produce and be reminded of the seeds you plant in our students every single day.

The beauty of those seeds will manifest enduringly.

So thank you so much.

I appreciate you as the superintendent.

I'm speaking on behalf of all 10,000 of our employees that we appreciate you as board members.

Thank you so much.

That will conclude my remarks and I will turn it over to Assistant Superintendent of Finance JoLynn Berge.

Thank you Superintendent Jones.

Alright, another another exciting topic for at the board meeting tonight, our annual financial report.

So we've talked about many of these numbers in our work sessions, so I'll just hit the highlights for us as we work through this presentation.

So just as a reminder, our fiscal year runs from September 1 through August 31, so these are the statements and reports for September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021, August 2020 to August 31, 2021. We do have the following funds that we report out on the general fund.

There's a sub fund that's located within the general fund, but we're required by state law to account for it separately.

Followed by the capital projects fund, the debt service fund and the associated student body or ASB fund.

On the next slide just give some background about the policy that does require this annual financial report and notes that we do have monthly financial statements that are reported to the Audit and Finance Committee.

Moving on.

Two items of note a couple that we've gone over already in the work sessions.

I would just point you to this report shows our general fund budget to actual.

So the first column is the adopted budget and then the actual year-end numbers and then the variants.

So you will note on the second to bottom line where it says a total expenditures we were significantly underspent in 2021 because of the pandemic.

And I believe this is very similar to how other districts financial statements have rolled out for the full year of the pandemic.

And you would note that the offset to that is the increase in funding is in ending fund balance.

On the next slide we'll look at revenues.

And so this is where we really see some additional impacts from the pandemic where our local levy dollars first because our state apportionment was smaller than anticipated and it went from 55 percent in 19-20 school year to 52.7.

That really is showing our reduction in enrollment and the revenue loss from that.

So it makes the local levy collection a higher percentage.

And then the other item that I would just note is our federal grants.

That is the impact of our federal stimulus funding known as ESSER.

So the elementary secondary school emergency funds that we receive.

You'll note that that is quite an increase from 19-20.

Moving on.

Just a picture view of those dollars by revenue source.

And then on the next page we talk about expenditures that happened during the year and we compare it to the prior year.

So we look at total personnel expenditures for 2021 was 87.4 percent.

That's quite high.

Generally we're very steady around 85 percent for our district which is normal for districts regardless of size.

actually, but that was because of the pandemic and the offset there really comes from the purchase service line where you can see that some of our other activities that we may have contracted for, we did not do some of that work and you can see the reduction.

It was 8.6% of our total expenditures versus the 11% in 19-20.

As we continue going forward, this is the picture view of that that shows The bulk of our expenditures are for personnel, certificated salaries, classified salaries, and related benefits.

And then the next slide is one that we have talked about in detail at the work sessions.

This is the picture of ending fund balance, and we've actually gone over this information.

So just at a very high level, our non-spendable inventory component of our fund balance, There was a small increase from 19-20 school year.

There was a pretty sizable increase in our carry forward of our grants.

A small increase in the Economic Stabilization Fund.

And then a big increase in the assigned fund balance where we are saving dollars to smooth out structural deficits in upcoming years and we'll go over more of that in a moment on the next slide.

So you can see that our fund balance actually did grow.

And here's the detail behind that 125 million dollar number.

Just it's it's part of the school carry forward central carry forward.

And then there's some underspend that we have in several areas.

The first item is the capital dollars that we said last year were part of our budget fix for 2021 school year where we were going to transfer those from the capital capital from the general fund to the capital fund.

And then there's some other dollars.

The $65 million is both all of the unreserved fund balance that we ended 2021 with as well as $10 million of ESSER dollars that we're planning on smoothing and using for the 22-23 school year.

There are some funds $2.9 million that we are holding as mitigation dollars or a buffer against lower enrollment for 22-23.

And then finally We have outlined the money that we're setting aside and that's committed for our science adoption through years 27-28.

On the next slide, we talk about the sub fund.

So again, the sub fund is part of the general fund, but what it really outlines is how do we use our levy dollars?

That's what the sub fund was created to represent is how do levy dollars get spent by our district?

So on the next slide it shows both the basic ed which is the general fund and then local dollars.

And it just shows the beginning fund balance the revenues that came in for both basic education or state apportionment and then local dollars would be primarily the local taxes.

And then our expenditures we'll go over in just a moment.

So on the next slide these are our revenues.

And I would just say that local revenues for basic education it's a small negative because it was some refunds that got processed late for child nutrition or school lunches and we didn't have school lunch fees.

And that was in the in the in basic education column.

Those are really the only component that we have in the local revenue category.

In the local column that is again our tax revenue from our levy.

And then you can see generally speaking most of our dollars go into the state line in the basic education and then the state requires us to put our federal dollars there as well.

So these categories are defined by the state into which line item they would be represented.

Next slide.

So again we outline which of our expenditures we're going to say what do we spend our local levy dollars on.

And that is there are some prescribed categories under well under that but and we talked about that just a moment ago.

So moving on to the next slide.

This looks at expenditure.

So this really tells the story of what does our local levy buy.

And in regular instruction you'll see that that is When we talk about nurses and other staffing, our substitute costs are probably four times higher than what the state provides funding for.

Next largest category is special education.

So you can see out of the total amount spent of $185 million, $78 million came from our local levy was our local levy filled out funding gap.

In compensatory programs, the majority of that is our EL program in the local column.

So somewhere around 20 million dollars that we use local levies to help support our EL programs.

And then the other instructional the other instructional line in the local column is where you see the city the FEP levy grant is in that column.

All right.

Continuing on we'll talk about This just kind of outlines that and gives you more specifics about the items that I highlighted just a moment ago.

Moving on next to the capital fund.

So the capital projects fund.

You're going to see some similarities to the general fund where you see on the expenditure line some variances.

So where there were some things that were delayed that we didn't get to as quickly as we had thought.

And so our actual spending was about $103 million less than we thought that we would be spending on our capital projects.

So some of this is just some some timeline delays some delays to COVID and then things just didn't happen as quickly as we had planned.

On the next slide.

We talked about the debt service fund.

The debt service fund for our district thankfully is very small and we use these dollars to pay the John Stanford non-voted debt.

It's a once-a-year payment.

That's the only activity that goes through the debt service fund for our district.

On the next slide is this ASB activities.

This is student-controlled.

So students vote their own budgets in.

They have their plan for what they think they're going to raise as revenues and they have their spending plan.

And you can see on the revenue line just the COVID impact of not being in school of being remote.

Most revenues didn't happen and most expenditures didn't happen if you look at the total expenditure line.

So this is a very different trend line than general but it is directly related to the pandemic.

And with that I'm happy to take questions.

All right.

Thank you Ms. Berge.

Oh I'm hearing an echo.

Okay.

Are there any questions from directors.

Please signify by raising your hand.

Okay.

I see Director Hampson has her hand up.

Go ahead Chandra.

Just a quick question.

The level of funding at the state level level for the skill center and vocational programs is that reimbursed at a higher rate or is it just such a small program that we don't create as big of a gap.

It's a pretty it's a pretty small program and it is it's better funded in my opinion.

The CTE program has been enhanced and it is more robustly funded than basic ed or general education or special education or EL education.

I mean important for us to know I think because it's something that we generally very much support and knowing that we could grow that and still maintain a pretty high level of reimbursement is really good information to have.

Thank you.

That's all for me.

Okay let's see.

I also see Director Rankin.

Go ahead Liza.

Thank you.

I have a question about the special education line and it's a question I think maybe I've meant to ask before and just haven't.

So special education is basic education and it's also a state or a federal and state requirements.

So how do we where's the line determined of what is funded in our operating costs and what ends up being funded by the levy?

We spend every dollar that we generate in state funding and put it into the bucket first and the same with our federal grant and then everything that's left that we have to do to provide IEP services as required by federal law that's paid for by the levy.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions from directors.

Okay.

Thank you Ms. Berge.

We really appreciate it.

All right.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

So moved.

Second.

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

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

All right.

Thank you very much.

Okay let's go on down.

Sorry.

All right.

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

and aye.

Aye.

This motion passes unanimously.

Thank you all.

Okay.

We have now come to the board committee reports.

Let me make sure I'm in the right spot.

Okay yep.

We have now come to the board committee report section of the agenda.

We will hear briefly now from the chairs of each of the board's four committees and we will begin with Audit and Finance.

Vice President Hampson are you prepared at this time.

Yes we have not met since we last came together so I don't have anything new to report but we will be meeting on the I originally had my dates messed up in Seattle so I want to make sure that I I mean in Seattle in February.

I don't know where that came from.

So I want to make sure I get the dates right for when we are meeting next.

And so our next meeting is on the 14th.

It's on Valentine's Day.

So join us for some love for numbers and finance.

Actually really importantly we will be we will be I believe getting our first look at the revised sexual harassment and assault policies or at least the direction.

So really strongly encourage folks to share To I think it couldn't be a better time than Valentine's Day to address something that is really critically painful for many for many students.

And hopefully we are with with new policy language and direction from the board we can bring some some better supports for for students and so.

Please share that that will be happening at 8 a.m.

on the 14th on Valentine's Day with your parent and student communities to listen in to hear initially.

And then I believe we will also be getting a report out a final version within the next within about a week and a half of the the finalized recommendations from the Sexual Harassment and Assault Task Force.

as well as the student subcommittee.

So and I'll make sure that the full board gets that.

And that's it for me.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We will now hear from the Operations Committee with Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

Can you hear me.

We can hear you well.

Go ahead.

You can.

Okay great.

Thank you.

Yeah, we had our last meeting on January 13th.

And many of the items we discussed at that meeting are going to be covered today in introduction.

So I won't go into those too much.

Just stay tuned and we'll hear more about those.

I will just share that we had the one item that we actually had probably the most discussion on was the, you know, otherwise kind of easy to, easy to miss one of capital and operations community engagement.

And that is where Assistant Superintendent Fred Podesta gives us not only a physical list of the month's public meetings for his department, but also additional information on those meetings, which include, there is a number of BTA V information sessions, and the BEX, I'm sorry, BEX BTA Oversight Committee meetings, the ITAC meetings, which is our Information Technology Advisory Committee, and then our Clean Energy Task Force, who is meeting up now.

Those you know those are kind of easy to miss but I really appreciate that they're always listed on the second page of the agenda so we can all see those and public can see them.

But we had a discussion about what it really meant to be engaging with community and if those meetings were genuinely engagement or more of you know information sessions or one-way kind of meetings.

So I really appreciate Director Sarge who really raised the point there.

and had some really valuable things to say about, what do we call an engagement?

What does that mean?

Because real engagement is two-way, and she can probably say more if she wants to later about what her insights there.

But we want to be careful.

We don't want to just call.

We went out and spoke to people.

That's not engagement.

That's talking to people.

That's valuable in its own right, but it's not engagement.

It was really just a great, good conversation to have in operations considering, you know, that's not like what we usually get to dive into, but really appreciated that discussion.

And I think we're going to probably talk more about it going forward.

And hopefully in other venues too, we'll get to discuss that.

So we can make sure that when we're using that term and when we're aiming for community engagement, that we're actually doing that in a genuine way.

So our next meeting is currently scheduled for February 10th.

And we're actually moving to a later start time of 430 p.m.

And you'll see more on the calendar.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Really appreciate it.

We will now hear from Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Yeah we had our first meeting of the 2022 calendar year last week and we we had an unusually I won't say slim because we saw a lot of items but but we didn't have any action.

We didn't have any new bars new board action reports coming through that needed to be voted on.

So we got to spend a little bit more time this month with our standing agenda items which was really nice.

A lot of times there's great stuff to share and learn about from those those standing items and it's it always feels like we have to rush through them so.

So it was it was really nice to hear some really robust I don't really like that word but it's appropriate updates about what's going on particularly in the areas of Black Studies and Ethnic Studies.

Really enthusiastic and thorough update that was great to hear and there's great work happening.

So it won't none of that none of that's coming through today's meeting since we didn't have anything to take action on.

But it was it felt productive and we also heard a lot more had a chance to hear more about how math curriculum adoption is going.

And we get a report on that monthly at every meeting.

So if you ever want to know more about what's happening in the math curriculum adoption process there's a web page for it.

But also you can drop in and listen in on our Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee meetings.

Next one will be in February.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Okay.

As Chair of the Executive Committee I will give the Executive Committee report.

One of the major things that we discussed at our last meeting was the adoption of School Board Resolution Number 2122-15 which is our Black Lives Matter at School Week resolution.

We will be addressing that later today.

So stay tuned.

We also heard from our labor partner Local 302 which was really great.

I always love making sure that we are hearing directly from our labor representatives and leadership and members as much as we possibly can.

And I know that I speak for the entire board when we're excited about forming some strong relationships with Local 302 which is formerly 609. We also had a student outcomes focused governance update as well as did some work on the board calendar work plan.

We had a 21-22 annual report schedule update as well as a government relations update.

And we also did a little bit of work on the executive committee work plan.

I know executive committee work is riveting.

So if you would like to join us you are always welcome.

Our meetings begin at 8 and usually get out a little after 9 930. And our next one will be on February 16th 2022. We will now move on to the legislative liaison report which I am very excited to receive from Director Rankin.

Director Rankin are you prepared to give that report.

I can give a brief update.

Yes.

There's you know this is the part of the session where lots of bills are being heard in different committees in the House and the Senate.

And so the committee chairs decide whether or not to hear a bill.

It's presented to the committee.

And then members of the committee vote on whether or not to move it forward.

So this again is a short session so there's a lot happening pretty quickly.

But there's also kind of this lull period right now where you know it's it's a lot of presenting the items and then waiting to see what what advances.

But there is opportunity for public testimony.

So I was really excited to testify on our behalf this week in favor of an outdoor learning bill which is specifically for a and the governor actually requested this bill and it's got companion bills in the House and the Senate.

So it seems to have a lot of positive momentum behind it.

But it's specifically about outdoor camp and having a week having every student have that opportunity to go learn outside and be together in SPS.

It's typically in fifth grade.

When I was an SPS fifth grader I went on one of these trips to Camp Rekaila and it was a hugely formative experience.

I then eventually became a camp counselor at Camp Rekaila on Orcas Island and the San Juans.

And I got to see when I was a counselor I had student students campers who this was their first time engaging with the ocean and the woods and some of them.

And it's just one of those amazing formative experiences that.

Hopefully every student in Washington will have the opportunity to do if this bill is passed and have it be state-funded as opposed to which schools PTAs or communities can do fundraising for it.

So it's pretty it's pretty exciting for but Seattle but for Washington State students as a whole.

I would love to see that go forward.

I've also emailed out information to my colleagues on the board about legislative legislative district meetings with the House and Senate representatives from each district that overlaps or that is part of Seattle.

And I've heard back from about half of you so if the other half want to let me know if you are available to join during the WASDA which is the Washington School Director Washington State School Director Association.

So these meetings will be with other board directors from around the state.

Well not all of them because they'll be with people in in Washington in Seattle.

But let me know if you're interested and available.

Not all of them are scheduled yet.

So what we do is I'll sign you up through WSSDA and then they'll let us know the times and if it doesn't work out that's fine I can let the office know.

But but yeah I am hoping to my goal is to help us all He really united as a group of seven and speak as a board instead of as individuals when we talk to our legislators and also build just build relationships and get to know a little bit more about how different our situation in Seattle really is from the rest of the state.

And because we're the biggest district sometimes that works in our favor.

A lot of times it doesn't.

But I think it's important to build these relationships and have the opportunity to share with legislators so that they can share with their colleagues outside of Seattle what the real impact is on students here that may or may not be different than the rest of the state and that ways in which you know in advocating for our students we can also advocate for the benefit of all students in Washington.

So committees are still hearing.

Those meetings will get set up for the first week February and I'm I think that's about it for now.

Oh and actually at the outdoor bill we heard also signed in to testify for in the Senate was a West Woodland student and he gave a fantastic testimony.

And in the house we had a 6-year-old from the Cascade Parent Partnership.

here in SPS that testified pro and they both did an awesome job did our district really proud and spoke up for this this amazing opportunity for all of our kids and their classmates which was really really fantastic.

So yeah hopefully we'll continue to have some good positive updates.

But that one you know hearing from hearing kids testify was pretty awesome.

And I will say that having remote even though remote testimony and these meetings are not very accessible because they're during the workday during the school day.

I know that remote testimony being an option at the state level has opened the door to participation for a lot of people even though there's still more more to more to do more to go in terms of making it really accessible.

But it's pretty great.

So more next time.

Thank you Director Rankin for that very robust report.

We really appreciate your service and your role as legislative chair or whatever the appropriate title might be.

Okay.

We have now come to the public testimony portion but it is not yet 5 o'clock.

We are going to do the same dance we do every week.

Are there any directors who are prepared to give their comments at this time.

All right.

Director Hampson.

Thank you.

Feel free.

I should be the first one to step up since I bugged everybody as president to step up.

I wanted to note that I had the opportunity today to do the introduction and land acknowledgement for Christine Day a native Upperskadget and Nez Perce author whose book is in the Global Reading Challenge which is a really really important literacy partnership we have with Seattle Public Library.

When my children were in elementary school I participated as a coach three years in a row at Sandpoint Elementary.

And it was really exciting to see that we had students on the call from Concord Viewlands Rainier View and a couple of other schools.

And the questions that these students had for her were amazing and some of them brought their own writing to share with her.

And in fact, in one instance, she had actually had a session directly with the class and they remembered her.

It was really inspiring and important.

And I think in particular, just watching the way in which it was mostly young girls of color that were responding to her as a young woman of color, as an author, as a native woman.

And The it really highlighted in an incredibly powerful and positive way the importance of representation in our curriculum in literature and literacy and was a really great way to start the day.

And I'm grateful to Seattle Public Libraries for running that program every year and for everybody out there that's working in schools to make sure that students are involved in the Global Reading Challenge.

It's a it's a fun enjoyable thing to do during the dark hours of winter.

So that's that's kind of my highlight for this week and just one way that I see the ability to have a really positive impact on student outcomes just by making sure that they can see themselves in the in the books that they're reading and in the authors that are that are writing those books.

Other than that I don't think I have anything else to report other than oh I guess actually one other thing I did have the opportunity to listen in with the PTA from Thornton Creek and I want to do a shout out to their ability to show up in a very vulnerable brave and steadfast racial equity commitment fashion when dealing with some very tough issues that they've had at that school and trying to figure out how to move forward.

And I don't think as board directors we have a right now because we're not coming together with parents and school environments.

We can get into schools and see kids and teachers but we're not seeing parents.

And so it was an incredibly diverse representative group of parents who spoke really clearly passionately and pragmatically about what they need to move forward as a school community.

And it gave me a lot of hope and hope on the parents the parent and caregiver side that I've been really missing because you know what we get is is a lot of really negative email.

And so I'm really grateful to them for inviting me to that and you know look forward to seeing the continued good progress they make there towards a more equitable and less racist culture which has been really damaging in the past.

So with that I will pass it on to the next director.

Thank you and take it away.

Thank you Director Hampson.

Any other directors prepared to give comments at this time.

I can President Hersey.

Yay.

This is the most we have ever gotten ever before.

Go for it Director Rankin.

I let's see.

I was at Whitman Middle School today for lunch duty and I've been you know doing stepping into some some openings when staff more staff is needed.

since before winter break, but I've been at elementary schools.

This is my first middle school experience and, um, middle schoolers are awesome and amazing.

And, and it reminded me of when I was fostering a litter of seven puppies.

Um, they're just, they're, they're just full of, of so much of everything.

Um, and you know, they're not quite adults, but they're also not little kids.

And, um, just sort of getting to witness all of that happening in such large numbers was was kind of fun.

But also I do need you to find a seat is what I was saying a lot today just to keep but they're doing a great job with with COVID stuff and they've got so they've got some kids eating lunch in the cafeteria and some kids in the auditorium to spread out and the auditorium is all set with you know same facing same way facing seats.

but reminding kids not to go up on the stage and watching them try to balance their lunch to eat kind of on their knees.

It's a good reminder of a lot of things that probably with less access to schools, parents are not thinking about as much the stuff that, just the extra small stuff that's just extra that everybody's doing.

I mean, because lunch is spread out all over the building, I was chatting with the custodian, he has to, flip up all the chairs and go in between each row in the auditorium every day now.

And it may not seem like that big of a deal but you know it's going to add a lot of time and work above and beyond what his normal job is.

So just you know things like that that I think a lot of people are not necessarily thinking about.

And the reason that I'm bringing that up is sort of a segue into something that I noticed with the the state's rollout of the four of the household COVID tests which I want to be really clear that was a great effort.

Those tests are having access to tests is really important.

However we're almost two years into this and that's literally like the first thing that has come from the state to families and community and there were only 650,000 of them and they were gone in less than 24 hours.

So who do we think those went to.

and was able to get them and now have them at their home.

And it something about the rollout of that even though I'm appreciative of everything everybody's doing to try to to keep our communities healthy and safe.

It really rubbed me the wrong way in terms of the like oh you know on Twitter.

Thank you governor.

Thank you for this.

You know this.

Oh I got my tests all ready.

And it's all white people.

Got my test already so super great.

And public schools and I know it's just not in Seattle but all over the place we have provided laptops iPads hotspots vaccines COVID tests and then all of the other things like the I mean on a on a on a systemic level and also on a personal level the custodian who's doing you know having extra labor added because of lunchroom protocols things being spread out.

You know teachers that are teaching their students in the classroom and also checking in with students who are quarantining.

There's just all of this stuff happening.

And what struck me and made me angry was the sort of enthusiasm and gratitude about four tests for a whole household that may have more than four people coming two years into this when schools and districts have been feeding kids keeping them connected and following all these health and safety protocols that we need to follow with the existing staff that we have.

And So I don't know.

I just was really struck by how much the local conversation and the national conversation is focused on criticizing one of the only social programs we have in this country which is public schools.

The other most widespread one is libraries and they're under a lot of scrutiny too for not stepping up more and providing shelter and places to sleep for.

That's not what a library is for.

That's not what the staff is for.

Of course if we can do it you know in uncertain times everyone should kind of step in with a little bit of extra effort to support the community but I just was so struck by the outsized criticism on our two most robust and accessible services as a democratic society versus these other entities that are are I would say more responsible for taking care of some of the things that we have ended up taking care of.

And we do and we will because we care about our communities.

We're not obviously not in this job for the money.

But that's just an observation that I wanted to make and also a reminder that public schools are not in it for the money.

There's no profit.

The profit is happening with the pop-up companies that have been contracted with by the government to provide all these services.

Because again, they're not providing those services themselves.

Everything is contracted out.

So there are people making money.

It's not people in public schools.

And so I just feel like I had to say that out loud, not because we want You know I don't I don't need I'm not asking for people on Twitter to say hey thanks school district for X Y Z but I am asking for people to really think about what this system is and what happens when the sort of critical rocks get lobbed in the wrong place and how powerful we can all be as a full community and how much we are all here for each other.

and our students.

And it's a good thing because a lot of days it feels like not very many other people are.

Absolutely.

Thank you Director Rankin.

I really appreciate your comments.

Okay.

We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda.

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

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

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

I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

First testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from the public testimony list.

and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website.

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

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

The total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers and time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins.

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

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

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

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

Miss Wilson-Jones will read off the testimony speakers.

Thank you President Hersey.

For those who are providing testimony today as President Hersey said please call in now if you're watching on YouTube.

When I call your name please press star 6 at that point to unmute on the conference call line.

Please also make sure you have unmuted on the device you're calling from.

You'll hear a chime sound when your two minutes has been exhausted.

The first speaker on today's list is Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins.

Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On roof repair at four schools.

Two points.

Number one the board report references local independent labor.

Is this union labor.

Number two it also references a significant percentage for women and minority-owned business enterprises except for Washington Middle School.

Why.

On the student assignment transition plan.

Three points.

Number one the plan states that quote students who move to a different attendance area school have the option to remain at their current school through the highest grade offered unquote.

Number two this is less of an option for families who cannot provide their own transportation.

Number three the district should offer transportation to all students who live outside their school's walk zone.

On the Wing Luke final building conditioning report two points.

Number one the report notes that systems were all functionally tested yet the irrigation system was not tested under the intended future control system.

Number two the project wastefully demolished a school building it constructed for six point four million dollars in only 2005. On Resolution 2021-22-15 declaring that the lives of Black students matter.

Four points.

Number 1. Years ago I helped an African-American great-grandmother go to court to fight the closure of Rainier View Elementary.

Number 2. The district promised to keep tabs on the welfare of students at closed schools.

Number 3. Not long ago I asked the board and district to look into the welfare of her great-grandson.

Number 4. The district never responded to my testimony.

Thank you.

The next speaker on today's testimony list is Sabrina Burr.

Sabrina Burr.

Can you hear me.

We can hear you.

OK great.

Thank you.

I just want to commend the school board on the Black Lives Matter at school resolution.

I know in past years the timing of Black Lives Matter at school week and the resolution have not been in succinct.

But I remember it was 2016-2017 when we had a bomb threat at John Muir and I remember sitting in the superintendent's meeting and we weren't sure which way to go and we had conversations.

And we decided to support Black Lives Matter at school day.

And the next year Director Rankin was the Seattle Council PCSA ledge chair for district.

And she wrote a resolution.

And I just want to read the last part.

Resolve that Seattle Council PTA supports the expansion of the day last year to a week this year.

Endorses participation district-wide in Black Lives Matter at school week.

this February and annually going forward through discussions and events in classrooms and in homes and our members and our families in all parts of the city of Seattle.

And so I want to commend all the work that's happened.

I remember that first press conference that was mostly adults.

The students had their Black Lives Matter at school press conference earlier this week and it was mostly students.

So we've come a long way.

We're working with SEA but I.

Also asked how are we including families.

How are we engaging families and leveraging Black Lives Matter at school.

I see our educators doing a lot of great work.

I see a lot of good curriculum coming in but I have not yet to see how we celebrate Black Lives Matter and allow our families to be a part of that in their homes bringing in their history and their story district-wide 104 buildings.

So we have a long way to go in family engagement and I really want us to really think about how we are including families not only in communication but in decision making as well.

Thank you.

The next speaker is John Kinau.

John Kinau.

Thank you, and hello.

My name is John Kino, and I'm a Seattle resident who works in strategic innovation for the University of Washington.

I served one year as an elected school board director in my hometown near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

My message tonight is to ask you to be innovative as you invest this precious time and money in enhancing public education.

We live in a world that's constantly changing, something we don't need to be reminded of since COVID-19.

This district school assignment plan shows overcrowding at many of our neighborhood middle and high schools.

I was intrigued to learn that the district either owns or controls assets in and around the Seattle Center including the Armory Memorial Stadium and a revenue generating parking lot.

I'd like to urge this board to use the lessons of the past few years to imagine new ways of unlocking assets at the Seattle Center.

Instead of spending $70 million for a one-to-one redo of Memorial Stadium, played out in the current BTA measure before voters, I'd like you to consider the possibility of the wonderful legacy you could leave if we build an equitable, all-city draw educational facility on the space available to us right now in the Seattle Center.

Public transportation is available from every neighborhood, and this downtown site would give every student access to our city's civic assets and brightest minds.

I'd ask this board to direct the superintendent and the staff to set aside discussions started with former Mayor Durkin regarding a land lease and land swap involving a less attractive site in Belltown, which does not serve our student's greatest needs.

Please apply some of the BTA dollars currently designated for Memorial Stadium redo to a larger vision a STEM secondary school on the ground that you already control which would create a world-class educational hub in a world-class city.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is David Posner.

David Posner.

David Posner.

It looks like you're on the line if you could press star-6 to unmute on the conference call line.

Okay can you.

We can hear you.

All right.

Sorry about that.

My name is David Posner.

I am speaking tonight as a community member although I am currently an active substitute teacher in the school district and a retired teacher before I became a sub here.

Um, yesterday or the day before I can't remember which exactly I was walking my dog yesterday.

It was yesterday in the afternoon.

And we came across a, about a five or six year old student who was walking by herself on this, uh, towards us.

And I stopped to watch it obviously didn't look right.

She should was too young to be walking alone.

I thought maybe she was going to go into the house that we were in front of, but instead she came up to me and said with distress on her face that she was looking for her auntie.

and i saw no one around uh...

i started walking with her back we were a few houses from the intersection that i thought maybe she'd come from and walked away from her caregiver and uh...

a car pulled up and uh...

a woman got out who uh...

had a couple of her own kids in the car said she knew the student because she picks her kids up in the same school bus that this little girl just got off of and had gotten off the bus apparently and her aunt wasn't there to pick her up so i was but concerned of course.

And, um, the mom that was with her said she would take care of it.

The other woman said she would take care of it from that point.

And I continued with my dog.

And when I got home, I called the, uh, transportation, uh, to report that because it was obviously a concern to me.

And I spoke with someone in the, uh, safety, uh, safety, uh, tab.

And she told me that the school district's policy is if a student If there's no one there to pick them up, the bus driver asked the student, are you okay with getting off with no one here to pick you up?

And if they say yes, then they let them off the bus.

I can't believe that that is the correct policy.

And if it is, there is something greatly wrong with that.

Um, as I've been a preschool teacher, kindergarten teacher, middle school teacher, grandparent, father, great grandparent.

Yes, we want our kids to make decisions, but I never did.

So we never want to give children the opportunity to make a decision.

that's going to put them at risk.

And that, somebody needs to, if that's really the correct policy, that's not a correct policy.

We can't, you know, we can't do that.

So I just wanted to report that.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jennifer Matter.

Jennifer Matter.

Hi, you can hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Hi good afternoon.

I'm Jennifer Modder President of Seattle Education Association.

First I'd like to express the SEA's strong support for Black Lives Matter at school.

This educator-led movement started in Seattle and has grown nationwide.

This is a shining example of how SPS listened to educators and students particularly our Black educators and students and our system is better as a result.

Thank you board for your renewed commitment and support.

Second for the past three weeks Omicron pushed our chronically underfunded school system and our educators to the limits.

One thing we educators see clearly is the impact OSPI's aggressive stay open at any cost stance has had on our safety and mental health.

We've seen large numbers of staff absences many going unfilled by subs.

We've seen public health responsibilities foisted upon educators without anything coming off their plates.

There's been a large number of student absences which impacts educators ability to provide quality instruction to students both in-person and those at home.

This is unsustainable.

Educators and students have been crying out for help.

While we may have passed the peak of Omicron the crisis continues.

Educator burnout which was already a problem is only growing.

Our students mental health crisis is ongoing and we still have not meaningfully addressed their demands.

It's critical that SPS leadership and OSPI listen to and follow the lead of educators and students during this crisis.

One thing both educators and students are calling for is OSPI to provide flexibility to school districts so that district leaders have the autonomy to make decisions that serve our local school communities best.

We need to break free of the 20th century model that defines basic education by counting hours and days.

Instead of focusing on how many hours students sit in their seats in a classroom we should focus on how we meet students' expressed needs.

How we spend more quality time learning.

And how we provide anti-racist instruction.

Thank you.

The final speaker on today's testimony list is Natalia McConnell.

Natalia McConnell.

Natalia if you're on the line you need to press star 6 to unmute.

One more try.

Natalia McConnell if you're on the line please press star 6 to unmute on the conference call line.

President Hersey that was the final speaker on today's testimony list and I don't see the phone number listed that was provided for our final speaker so they may just not be on the line.

Okay.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones and thank you to all the speakers who took time out of their days and evenings to come chat with us.

We really appreciate you.

Okay.

That concludes our public testimony for this meeting.

We will now move into the items on our action items this meeting.

Sorry I read the completely wrong line.

We will now move to the one action item on today's agenda.

May I have a motion.

Actually hold on one second.

That should be right.

Yeah yeah yeah.

So may I have a motion for this item.

Very happily so.

I move the that the board adopt School Board Resolution Number 2021-22-15 as attached to the Board Action Report.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

I second the motion.

Okay.

This item has been moved by Vice President Hampson and seconded by Director Sarjeu.

This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today and is sponsored by Director Charjou.

Now to Director Charjou for her comments as the sponsor and then we will move to any comments or questions on this item from other directors before we move to the vote.

So Director Charjou please take it away.

I just love how you say my last name which is actually a variation of how you say it but it sounds very kind of I don't know French.

Please forgive me.

It's not French.

Oh, so what is the Krinex?

Is it Sardjou?

It's just Sardjou.

OK.

I'm teasing you.

You can say Sardjou if you want to.

OK.

I will keep that in mind.

Take it away.

Thank you.

I do not speak French, by the way.

So first of all, I feel honored and humbled to be bringing this before you.

This my involvement is just an extension of what Directors Hersey and Director Hampson and former Director DeWolf started and so I feel honored to be asked to be a part of once again advancing the adoption of this particular resolution.

You all can read the text of the language.

I want to highlight one change from last year and that is the there is an additional clause that says Seattle Public Schools will eliminate the racial predictability and disproportionality No that's part of Board Policy 0030 is that correct Director Hersey what I was reading.

President Hersey.

I believe so.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but please continue.

Anyway anyway you all can read it.

I'm not going to go into reading it because I did read it but I've been on the computer all day and actually my eyes are pretty crossed at this point.

But what I what I do want to share is a story.

And it's a story of something that happened last week and it is absolutely directly related to Black Lives Matter and what it looks like in action.

I was invited to a meeting that was organized by a group of high schoolers representing schools from all over the district.

They asked me to attend this meeting to hear about their concerns around the school district's threat policy and the response to that.

and COVID safety.

I was invited to this meeting by a white student by the name of Cole.

That's all the information I'm going to give you.

And Cole is somebody that I actually did some work with when I was campaigning.

And they helped to write my social emotional policy framework.

So Cole invited me to the meeting.

my assumption was Cole was leading the meeting.

And as I stated, Cole identifies as white and is one of the white students in our district.

So when I got to the meeting and I was surprised, and then when I thought about it, after the meeting, I wasn't surprised.

So although Cole invited me to the meeting, Cole was not the leader of the meeting.

What Cole did was demonstrate what it looks like to prioritize and center black voices, black and brown voices.

Cole maybe made one comment in the meeting.

I actually don't remember because they were not the center of this meeting.

Their voice was not the center of this meeting.

And after this meeting, I thought to myself, this is what centering black and brown voices in our society looks like.

And it was led by a high school student.

I reached out to Cole today to let them know that I would be talking about them in this meeting.

I didn't give them a choice about whether or not I was gonna talk about them.

I did commit to not revealing any identifying information other than the first name.

But when we talk about Black Lives Matter, This is what Black Lives Matter looks like.

That is what Black Lives Matter leadership looks like.

This student could have very well been the center of attention, centered their own voice, shared the mic when they felt like it, but they actually gave up the mic.

They gave up the mic.

And I think it's a lesson to all of us adults.

When we say all lives matter, If we're not centering the voices of our Black and Brown people our students our our families caregivers parents Black lives cannot matter if we are not willing to center the voices of Black folk.

What this student demonstrated to me was they had a they had an actual actual tangible strong grasp of what it looks like to be an accomplice, to be walking alongside their colleagues, their student colleagues.

And I just want to say thank you to Cole for modeling.

I wish others could have seen what I saw.

And I want to say thank you to Cole's parents because Cole has not ended up the way Cole is by accident or by mistake.

May we all take this story as a lesson of what it means in real time, what it looks like in real time, what it is when we say Black Lives Matter.

This is one of our high school students that will be a graduate that we can all be proud of.

And I have no doubt that Cole will go to college and Cole will be the accomplice on campus who walks the talk of Black Lives Matter and takes up the mantle of centering the voices of Black and Brown students wherever they end up in college.

And maybe one day they will come back and they will work on another Black hopeful hopeful Black board directors campaign or maybe they will run themselves.

But let this be a lesson to all of us.

So what is my next step.

Am I supposed to read something.

I met with Ellie Director Ellie earlier today and I took some notes but I think my comments are the last thing to do before we get other board directors comments.

Is that correct President Hersey.

I believe it is.

And if not someone will correct me.

Okay.

We will now move on to any other directors that would like to ask questions or make comments at this time.

You know the drill.

If you would like to do either of those things please signify by raising your hand.

Okay.

Seeing none I will take the liberty of just making okay I see you Director Rivera-Smith I'll get you in just a moment.

I will just take the liberty of saying a huge thank you to Director Sargeau for tackling this.

This was a really special part of my first year as a board director and I could not be more thrilled to pass it on.

And I think that for many of us As we continue to live through the pandemic, as President Motter so eloquently stated, this was a movement, quite frankly, that arose out of the very soil that we're meeting on right now, on this borrowed land from the Duwamish people, the Coast Salish people.

What I would say is for us to try, not even try, we have no opportunity not to do this, but we cannot lose focus on our strategic plan.

We cannot lose focus on the very children that we are trying to serve which are specifically Black boys.

And I also want to throw a pitch out for Black girls as well as I've been reminded time and time again and we should have a renewed focus in that group of students as well.

But we cannot let COVID distract us from the very real work of making sure that our system is oriented to serve those who have been marginalized for decades.

And as we rebuild and continue to arrive back to some sense of normalcy, I want folks to remember that normal wasn't great for all of us.

Normal is still not great for the people that look like me and Michelle and Dr. Jones.

And as we continue to develop these policies with rebuilding in mind, what I would just say is challenge yourself.

If you might be listening, this goes for our educators.

board directors especially senior staff continue to challenge yourself to ask the question are we really living up to the standard of targeted universalism.

Are we really living up to the standard that all of the ancestors and giants in the Black community before us laid out for us in terms of what advocacy and what service and what dedication and what a dream and what a mission really looks like.

And I just remember working with some students a few years ago when I was living in Washington, D.C., and one of the things that really stuck out to me was their call to make movements and not monuments, right?

Let that sink in for a second.

Make movements and not monuments.

Oftentimes we hold up the legacies of Dr. King, Malcolm X, and every other person that we talk about during February and almost never during the rest of the year.

And we give those as the examples of what our Black boys and girls should aspire to be like.

Those are monuments, right?

Taking no respect away from those wonderful, wonderful members of our community.

But there are also folks right now, right around the corner from where all of us live, who are making the lives of our Black and Brown students better every single day who are working within the system and outside of the system in order to change the system.

And in my opinion that represents more of a movement.

A movement is a living thing.

It is consistently moving forward.

And so as we all are about to head into February What I want us to really dig deep into is are we living up to targeted universalism.

Are we celebrating monuments or are we actually participating in movements.

And what can we do if we are not meeting standard in one of those two things.

What little bit can you do more to to get yourself there.

So I'm going to pass it over to Director Rivera-Smith and then we will move on to the next portion of our agenda.

Again thank you Director Sarge.

Thank you for that, that was very great.

I wanted to, well, just note, so like this is our fourth year, I believe fourth year declaring as a body that Black Lives Matter at Santa Public Schools.

And I think as we all know and agree that we still have a long way to go before all of our black citizens do feel loved, appreciated, and that they truly matter in our schools.

And I know that, We're working towards that.

I want to elevate some of the questions we had from public testimony from Ms. Sabina Burr.

Her questions I think were very valid questions regarding how are we engaging with families in this effort and how do we celebrate and allow families to be part of that work we're doing.

And I don't mean to put staff on the spot or Dr. Jones.

I just wanted to again elevate those questions Because I think that they are important to focus on and remember as we do look at the work we're doing to live up to our declaration that Black Lives Matter in our schools.

So I don't know if Dr. Rankin wants to do any response but again like I think those are things we should definitely not lose sight of in the ways in which we aim to you know genuinely embody our our resolution.

Director Rivera-Smith I wholeheartedly agree with the full sentiment of ensuring our Black families and educators and staff have an opportunity to participate fully.

I think they're they are the best reporters of what the conditions that they expect for their own lives.

And I think as we elevate the opportunities for folks to speak and step back and step forward that should be part of the normal fabric of what we do.

I wholeheartedly support this resolution in the spirit and in the execution of it widely since we did it four years ago.

So yes to your answer I mean to your question and I support what Sabrina Burke said.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other directors with comments or questions.

Okay seeing none we will now move to a vote.

Ms. Wilson-Jones would you please call the roll.

Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Sarju 100 percent yes.

Director Son-Morez aye Vice President Hampson aye Director Rankin.

Absolutely aye.

President Hersey.

For all of my ancestors aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you very much directors.

Okay we will now move into our intro items for today beginning with Introduction Item Number One.

Approval to repair and reform or perform roof coating restoration of the low slope roofs at Whitman Middle School, Washington Middle School, Lowell Elementary, and Decatur Elementary Schools during the Spring-Summer 2022. This came to Ops on January 13th for approval.

Assistant Superintendent of Operations Fred Podesta I believe that you will be briefing us.

Yes thank you President Hersey.

This action approves a contract to do major preventative maintenance at at 4 schools by applying waterproof membrane on the school roof that will eliminate the need for spot repairs which are expensive and not always effective and extend the life of the roof overall by about of each roof by about a decade.

This is particularly for low slope roofs that you know have drainage problems and we think will be a good way to extend the life of our assets and avoid disruptive repairs at schools.

And I'm happy to take any questions directors may have.

All right.

Do directors have any questions for Mr. Podesta.

Go ahead Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I given some I'm curious if supply chain issues or difficulty with materials is it is will potentially be an issue in this case?

No, we're not expecting that given that, you know, this isn't a lot of different building materials.

It's a, you know, a single kind of composite application of a waterproofing material.

So we think we're ready.

Cool.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay seeing none we will move on to our next item.

Thank you.

Okay.

Our next item is Introduction Item Number 2. Approval of the Student Assignment Transition Plan for the 2022-23 school year.

This came to Ops on January 13 for consideration.

Executive Director of Operations Ashley Davies I believe that you will be briefing us.

That is correct.

Go for it.

Great.

So within the BAR document there are several different changes that we are proposing for the student assignment transition plan for the 22-23 school year.

And so I'm just going to summarize those.

And I shared a little bit of this at the operations committee especially because we have some new directors there but every year We review our student assignment transition plan and update any policies as they relate to where students are assigned.

It reflects any new schools of which we don't have any this year and it also incorporates any information as it relates to school boundary changes which we also don't have this year.

So the changes that I'm just going to quickly highlight really just relate to student assignment because of some particular changes that we've made based off feedback as well as some developments as a result of the pandemic.

So the first of which we're proposing updating the move rules so students who move to a different attendance area school have the option to remain at that school through the highest grade offered.

Our current move rules allow students to stay there for the current school year but then they would need to move to the new school in the next school year.

So incorporated also in the materials is the move rules chart that accompanies these changes.

The next is updating services and programs to include the new virtual option pilot program that was created for 21-22 explaining the assignment rule for returning to previous to a student's previous school for students who were in in BOP.

And so we had identified with the school board that students who are currently assigned to the virtual option pilot program have the ability to come back to their neighborhood school or to the last seat that they were in and that seat would be saved for them.

And so that's reflected in the document.

Next was adding the definition of tiebreakers during Open enrollment in school choice.

We have several tiebreakers that determine if we have more students who apply to a school than we have seats available.

We use tiebreakers to determine that order.

And the tiebreakers have been listed in our document without defining them.

So we went in and defined those tiebreakers.

So it explains the GeoZone, sibling tiebreaker, as well as the feeder area tiebreaker, and then the lottery number.

Next was removing language about separate Montessori enrollment.

Last year we had changes for Daniel Bagley which was our last school that offered a separate Montessori program.

So this year we've just removed that language since it's no longer relevant.

We've removed outdated language regarding advanced learner programs.

Now the AL is served at all schools for grades 1-8.

We've renamed the Bilingual Service Center to the Newcomer Program and that's consistent with our reference to the Newcomer Program in other areas.

And then we updated the name for SM-2 to Moderate Intensive Program.

It does not change the nature of that program.

It just updates what we are naming it and calling it just because SM-2 doesn't really have much reference for people.

Any instance of SM-2 which is a special education program will now be referred to as moderate-intensive program.

And so some of these are just natural changes that we have as we continue to work with departments across the district to update our language and our policies to reflect the needs of our schools and students.

And then some of the updates that I shared as that incorporated our virtual option pilot program as well as the move rules reflect feedback that we've heard from families.

Okay.

Thank you Director Davies.

Those all sound like fantastic updates.

Are there any questions from directors.

Okay.

Please use the raise hand feature though I see you Director Rankin.

We will begin with Director Hampson.

You can go first Director Rankin.

Go ahead.

No no I don't need to.

I raised my hand because I couldn't get the button fast enough.

It's okay.

It's not game show.

Thank you for these efforts.

I'm going to apologize for this question in one sense because I realize that it assumes a level of capacity and time during the past 12 months that that is likely not been there for you and your staff.

But it's a really critical question and one that that you've been tremendously helpful in supporting us in discussing as a as a board.

And that is the what I'm not seeing here necessarily is a any suggested progress toward the elimination of racial equity gaps in particular but that are present in our option school environments our dual-language school environments and where in other words where we know that we're creating segregation through our option school for through many of our option school opportunities we know that we're providing dual-language opportunities in schools that don't represent geographic areas where we have the the abundance of dual-language or multilingual speakers in our school system.

And so I am really struggling with the idea that we would kick the can another year on the student assignment plan without taking particularly given all of our transportation woes that that we're not trying to make any shifts in equity.

And even if one of the things that I'm wondering about is whether or not because one of the most egregious things that I that I know about the option schools for example is that they're they're only available to really limited high income neighborhoods in many instances particularly in the elementary level which are all on the north end.

So I would just like to to hear from you where are we with that work and why we haven't tried to take any to chip off any of the those those inequities that are represented in our student assignment plan.

It's hard for me to consider approving something that I know by definition creates inequities even if I'm fully supportive of the changes that you brought forward today.

Yeah and I understand that and thank you for for sharing that and raising that and bringing awareness to some of the discussions that we have had over the more than months.

It's been a year plus we were reflecting in our both our conversation about the way our current programming is for advanced learners and for dual language and the fact that it's been over a year since we've been discussing and reviewing and talking about what those changes could look like and how they would roll out.

So I will say in in terms of what is presented here and why it's not included here and so we despite everything else that has been going on within the district we have still been continuing to meet regularly with different partners internally around the highly capable our current structure with that and then where we are envisioning to go as well as with dual-language international programming and then how we look at other types of schools like option schools.

And I will say I think the short answer to that is that there's there's no there was nothing that we identified that could be chipped away to to just kind of expand off that.

You know it really has we've we've put together a lot of really thoughtful not only conversation but planning around where we think our district can go.

And also recognize it takes a ton of engagement.

And so you know we are at a point where this spring we anticipate being able to have engagement around some of the things that we've been talking about and planning around but recognize that any of this will bring about a lot of change and so we want to be able to to to to to share that information in a way that we just haven't been able to to do at this point.

So if it I would say you know maybe I can bring it first to operations committee as a special attention to do an update on where we are and then share that back with the board.

But I would say that's kind of where we are right now with that and why it's not incorporated here.

Okay thank you.

I I could respond but we have other directors that that have questions and I'm sure we'll need to we'll have responses to that as well.

And if for some reason it doesn't get covered I'll I'll ask to come back around to it.

But thank you for that that initial response Ms. Davies.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Three questions.

The first one is if I'm remembering right back to my time before being on the board we had the student assignment plan and then a student assignment transition plan was created for sort of some interim changes.

But now we have the student assignment transition plan every year.

So is it are we are we going towards having a student assignment plan.

Or is it always going to be still a what's the transition part I guess.

And are we trying to transition out of that or is that what it is now.

Yeah so you're correct in kind of in the initial transition plan was a way to transition us from year to year after we after the student assignment plan was created.

We continue to use the transition plan as a way to transition us from year to year.

I would say.

In terms of being able to get rid of the term transition that would be something that the board would need to indicate that there's interest in.

I we as a department have talked about being able to consolidate documents.

The board at some points in time and not this board in particular but other iterations of the board have talked about the fact that We are transitioning every year as a district.

So there was some conversation about not getting rid of the word transition but still simplifying the documents.

So I would say that would be something that the board would need to indicate you know whether you want to keep that terminology or whether we continue or whether we move forward to just a student assignment plan and we just have one consolidated document we just call it that and we only update it when we feel like we need to.

We do end up updating it every year.

Okay.

I mean I think that would be I'll just as personal preference it makes sense that we have like here's the here's the foundation.

This is the assignment plan.

This is how we you know know who goes to what school.

And then but anyway but thank you for the explanation.

I'm sure there'll be more to talk about that probably in operations.

My second question is the students who move who have the option to stay at their former school until the highest level.

Do we provide transportation or is that part of the choice being made.

Yeah that's part of the choice being made.

Yeah.

Good.

And then my third question is I don't know if it's a question as much as it's just a well so special education is supposed to be a service not a place and so I know this isn't your you know particular preference but it's it's frustrating to me to see a special education service model delineated at all in a transit in an attendance plan because all students should have the opportunity to attend any school through the either the neighborhood assignment plan or the option school process.

And I know that there has been work done in the last few years to make the option school process less discriminatory frankly for students with disabilities.

But it's still troubling to me that we have a service model designation that is really about staffing and adults and nothing to do with the service that the students need codified also in our school assignment plan.

And in the packet.

It does say that you know according to IDEA which is the Individual Disabilities Education Act that's federal law the district districts have to ensure that a quote continuum of alternative placements is available to meet the needs of children with disabilities for special education and related services end quote.

IDEA does not require the full continuum of placement to be available at each school in the district.

So that's that's one thing.

But then also there are a very small number of students with exceptional needs and circumstances that might require medically fragile say or vision support.

That is something that is kind of more exceptional in needs to support that that we can't offer at every school.

But some of these other categories are not based on student need they're based on adults and staffing.

And so I would say like maybe on paper the law that a continuum of placements is available and doesn't have to be at each school you know.

I don't know that the the spirit of that is necessarily met.

It's not.

I feel like it's not.

And I know we've talked about this in other contexts I wanted to just address this I guess and maybe Concie can answer or excuse me Dr. Pedroza or we can talk about it at another time but I feel the need to note that the determination of how a student with disabilities receives services shouldn't rely on what neighborhood they they live in and what school they get to go to.

Okay thank you Director Rankin.

We will now move on to Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

So I have a couple of my own questions but I will I do want to just touch on the questions of Director Hampson and Director Rankin.

I think those are extremely valid questions and I would very much like to see those come to the committee.

so that we can have those discussions on where our district stands and what are, what are, what are, what are our possibilities and options.

And because, yeah, I mean, with you, we, I won't go into those two, again, they're very, they're very big conversations to have, and we need to start having them.

So I will, if, as you offered, Director Davies to see about getting those into a committee discussion, that would be great.

Really appreciate that.

On questions first of all I will say that my favorite part of this BAR is the line that says this year's student assignment transition plan changes are a response to family feedback.

Because I think that's how great is that right.

That's what people want.

We want to know that when families give feedback on concerns and issues with our assignment plan that we are hearing them and we're acting on those.

So thank you for that.

I do remember getting emails from families who had to move A lot of times by no choice of their own because financial reasons and they were going to change schools and that is very traumatic for students to have to you know leave their community that they know and love.

So I appreciate that that change is being made.

I see that on page 3 here under it says regarding continuing assignments.

The language is either that students who have moved out of their school's attendance area and have not requested to change to their new designated school.

Is the default that they stay at their original school or or is it they have to request to stay.

Like if they move.

Yeah the default will be that they stay at their current school.

Okay.

And and then was there considered like I think Director Rankin is the one who asked it about providing transportation to those students.

Was it considered to provide transportation to them.

Again like some a lot of these families that are going probably utilize this are ones that are having to move and maybe not necessarily because of you know of a privilege but because of a hardship that they have to move.

So was there a consideration to provide them transportation as they stay at their home original whatever school you want to call it.

So given our current transportation challenges we we didn't have any strong consideration around adding transportation as part of this assurance.

You know one of the things that I would just also suggest depending on where a student moves to it could be it could be a real challenge and extremely costly to the district to be able to guarantee transportation.

So you know I will just say that still does result what was shared in public testimony and you know we did talk about this at operations committee.

and the fact that that does create a challenge for a family who wants to maintain that continuity but can't without transportation.

So you know we do have the ability for a family to be able to look at their circumstance and so we can continue to do that for those instances.

I will just say one big thing that will be a benefit from this change is that instead of you know emails to the board or you know dozens of transfer appeal requests that we get from families or the anxiety that families may have during the school choice process trying to stay at their last last school.

Hopefully that will help to ease some of those things.

I agree.

No thank you.

Again I really appreciate this change and I It sounds like you said that there could be some sort of looking at an individual family circumstance and considering some transportation options perhaps.

So I'll take that for now and I'll pass on.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

I see that we have new hands up for Director Rankin and Director Hampson.

Please keep your comments concise as this is the second round.

Go for it.

Thank you.

I just wanted to clarify that my question about transportation was in the hopes or expectation that we were not providing that.

Even though circumstances might be tough that does not seem fiscally or operationally viable and that students who qualify for transportation through McKinney-Vento and other considerations would still be have it provided.

So yeah that's it.

Thanks.

And I just had a quick question I forgot to ask before.

The HCC component I assume that that is I read it but I'm not sure I didn't have a chance to go and look and make sure it's consistent with the shift in the cohort.

Is that.

It is.

That was what the update was.

Okay.

And then my the last one is just a comment that in terms of I do think that we need to be very thoughtful that we don't wait.

These things are the the inequities represented in this plan are known and we need to be really careful when we think about doing engagement.

And I understand that it is it is a big nut but we don't need to do engagement around something that is inherently segregating or racist practice.

Right.

We need to be responsible and demand and because our communities has already demanded and we have already committed to through our strategic plan that we eliminate those aspects in our systems.

I think so that doesn't need and we don't need to go to people who are experiencing you know a privilege or an entitlement and say you know we want to hear whether or not you want to lose this entitlement.

That is a mistake this district makes a lot.

We do not need to ask people for permission to remove something that they believe is an entitlement that creates racial inequities in the system.

We do not need to do that.

So I want to make sure that that is not a trap that we fall into.

I realize that there is a whole other side to that of, well, then what does it look like?

And I think in terms of what I would like to know between now and we come to action, because what I'm trying to get to, President Hersey, is any possibility to approve this, because I have major issues with Our student assignment plan it's nobody's fault it's not Ashley's fault because she's been doing incredible work on trying to get to a new place.

But is there anything such as you know at minimum increasing the notion of a geo-zone so that every student in the city has access to an option school which is not currently the case.

So as opposed to this geozone notion which which becomes very difficult to manage.

But I will take the answer to that question offline.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Thank you directors and thank you Ms. Davies.

We will now move on to the next introduction item which is item number 3 the BEX V award.

architectural and engineering contract P1952 to Mollum Architects for the Alki Elementary School Modernization and Addition Projects.

So this came to Ops on January the 13th.

Assistant Superintendent Podesta I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes.

Thank you President Hersey.

This action authorizes us to enter into an architectural engineering contract The scope of work at Alki Elementary School is a modernization of the school's gymnasium and a multi-story classroom addition in addition to administrative spaces.

The board needs to while this is below our typical threshold there's state funding in this project so it's required that we have board approval when we hire the architects and engineers who will design the space and we had a fairly competitive process a fairly good response to our competitive process for proposers with 11 proposers.

We selected Malum Architects to design the new build space and we're ready to go with upon board approval to proceed with the contract.

Be happy to take any questions.

Okay.

Directors any questions at this time.

Okay seeing none.

Thank you Mr. Podesta.

Okay.

Stick around for us because I'm sure you're on this next one too.

Our introduction item number four is the BEX V Award for Architectural and Engineering Contract P1953 to DLR Group Incorporated for the John Rogers Elementary School Replacement Project.

This came before Ops on January 13th for approval.

Take it away Mr. Podesta.

Again this is very similar to the last item.

The scope at John Rogers is a replacement of the school building and this contract does exceed our threshold and is also required by the Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction for board approval because there is state funding in the project.

The contract will support an architectural and engineering firm to design the new school.

And again we had a fairly competitive field of nine proposers and the team selected DLR Group and again is ready to begin work on the project.

And I'd be happy to take any questions.

Okay.

Directors please raise your hand if you have any questions.

Okay.

I see that we have Director Rankin and then Director Rivera-Smith.

I just wanted to make a quick comment about my enthusiasm for starting on this John Rogers project.

Their building is like literally sinking into the ground and the students and staff there are just awesome and I just am very very excited that this is this is coming.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Hi, Fred.

I'm wondering, and I don't know, this might be way off because this project might not be actually doing a...

When will the work begin on this is, I guess, my basic question.

I'm sorry?

When will the work begin?

I think the slated for completion in 2025, so I don't have the schedule in front of me, but given a standard construction schedule, you know, design construction schedule of four to three years, you know, that we will begin the design work later this year and break ground, you know, next year.

Okay, so I'm just trying to get a timeline idea of like, so the work that the Clean Energy Task Force is doing right now, will that, I'm trying to think of how timelines mesh with that, we're coming out of that with the design and construction of this project.

You know, we'll certainly in all these entertain, you know, given that it's staffed by the capital group, pay attention to the task force.

The building code in Seattle, you know, I think with regard to getting to 100% clean energy, the task force will end up, as a practical matter, really focusing on our transition of our old buildings.

Seattle has one of the most progressive energy building codes in the country, so our new construction you will probably meet most of the goals of the task force by definition to meet the needs of our energy code.

I think we're really looking for advice from the task forces.

So for a building that's not slated to be replaced for 30 years, 20 years, what are our strategies in the meantime?

But we will focus on construction techniques and other things that the task force might be working on beyond you know, that are aligned with the Clean Energy Task Force in terms of sustainability.

But some of that might relate not to the actual construction of, you know, is it all electric and clean energy and clean sourced electricity, but how are construction materials sourced and other things like that.

So, you know, we'll have a lot of things in design before the task force is complete.

And so we'll pay attention to the direction they're going.

But you know we need to keep moving.

Yeah of course.

All right.

No thank you.

No other questions.

All right.

Thank you Mr. Podesta.

We really appreciate you.

Okay.

We will now move on to intro item number five.

Bex.

for Resolution 2021-22-14 Acceptance of the Final Building Commissioning Report for the Wing Luke Elementary School Project.

This came before Ops on January 13th for approval.

Mr. Podesta I believe that you will be briefing us yet again.

Take it away.

Yes that's correct.

As the board is aware we welcome students full-time to the new Wing Luke building with the start of this school year in person.

And so construction of a completely new business building and a commissioning report is really a quality assurance process where a commissioning agent evaluates, adjusts, and tests all the major building systems, mechanical systems, electrical systems, plumbing systems to make sure they're operating as designed and provides us a punch list and goes through a review until the systems are functioning properly and working in the new building.

Again, the building is in service, it's working well, and our commissioning agent recommends accepting their report, as does the designing architecture firm.

Happy to take questions.

Okay, do directors have any questions for Mr. Podesta on this item?

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you, Fred.

Thank you very much.

Okay now we will move on to directors for any comments or sorry I'm a little tongue tied.

We have now come to the board comment section of tonight's agenda.

We have already heard from Director Hampson.

We've already heard from Director Rankin and I will let my comments on the Black Lives Matter at School Resolution stand as my comments for tonight.

So we will now move on to Director Saarju.

Do you have any additional comments for tonight.

I will let my comments about the Black Lives Matter resolution stand as recorded.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Director Song-Ritz.

Thank you.

It sounds like Director Rankin and I had a very similar experience today.

I also.

visited my first middle school, McClure Middle School.

And my own kids kept asking me, is there recess when you're in middle school?

Is there recess in middle school?

And I actually only found out the answer today.

And the answer is that there is not recess.

And, you know, over the course of the last couple of weeks, I have heard from parents and students from our middle schools and high schools, and they're very eager for kind of a return to normalcy when it comes to extracurricular activities.

And I just wanted to acknowledge that feeling.

I think when I was talking to middle school students today, they are just really hungry for opportunities for physical and mental challenge, mentorship, social time.

And so I'm hoping that we can, as a community, come up with some creative ideas to make these opportunities available.

to our students.

So in that vein I'm very excited to attend my first meeting tomorrow as our city liaison as part of the Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy Oversight Committee.

So I hope to have a report back to the board on that.

I last week also attended our city's School Safety Committee meeting and I want to thank during public comment Mr. Posner for bringing our attention to a safety issue.

It's really important that our community members are eyes and ears for the safety of our students.

And so I will bring this to their attention and hopefully have an answer for Mr. Costner.

And my final comment for tonight, with the announcement of Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement, I heard him on the radio today and he was talking, this is something that he's often quoted for, it's, don't worry so much about credit, credit is something is where if you succeed, there will be plenty of credit to go around.

And if you fail, who wants that credit?

And I was just kind of sitting on this quote and really wanted to thank, I do think credit is due over the hard work of our students, staff, and community over these last few weeks, as we've navigated this Omicron wave and just the spirit of humility and teamwork from our staff as I've been meeting with them in the last couple of weeks.

It's just very much there and I really want to thank them for their hard work.

Thank you.

Fantastic.

Director Rivera-Smith.

You are on mute.

I am.

I'm not anymore I hope.

You're good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, so I'll start just with public testimony.

Thank you to our speakers today, Chris Jenkins, Sabrina Burr, John Key now, I don't want to say your name, but.

So you had comments about the Sela Center and Memorial Stadium, Battershoot Tunnel kind of discussions.

And just know that now that's been decided that we are definitely still having discussions regarding what the plans are, if any, for those projects.

Aside from Memorial Stadium, obviously that's something we do wanna move forward on, we're eager to, but appreciate your comments there.

To Mr. Posner about the experience you had with a small child at a bus stop, and that's concerning.

And thank you for bringing that to our attention.

I trust that the staff you spoke to are hopefully following up with that, but I might check myself just to know that, I'm not clear on what our policy is regarding that.

educate myself first for having any more comments there, but thank you for bringing that to our attention.

To Jennifer Motter, thank you once again for the work you do with SCA and for reminding us again about the importance of listening to our teachers and respecting and not, you know, not adding to, not continuing, I guess, to add to the burnout and the situation, you know, with Omicron and COVID and all that's going on, We are, teachers already had to do a tremendous amount of work and now it's multiplied and we appreciate your comments.

I know that our administration is in talks with you constantly.

And again, I just appreciate you coming tonight to speak to us.

I wanna touch on, and I know people have talked about the work that I'm focused on where it's in Dr. Rankin.

talked about the work they did this week.

And I want to share an experience that I also had this week that really resonated with me for a number of reasons.

And I'm sorry if I'm going to go all over the place with this, but the first of which I think is in relation to the amazing people in our community who are really stepping up right now.

And I heard, and I really appreciate Dr. Jones, his comments earlier regarding board member appreciation month and about the work we do as volunteers, as volunteer board members.

Thank you Dr. Jones for that.

I really do appreciate it.

And I really don't want also though what I want our communities to know is about the volunteers they're not hearing about which are so many of our central office staff who are really stepping up right now.

We have people in from human resources from academics research and evaluation all over our John Stanford Center who are coming out and going into classrooms and helping out in so many ways and serving meals in the protected health care rooms, lunch and recess duty, front desk support.

They're doing it on top of the work they're paid to do.

So I really want to appreciate them.

And so that's one of the reasons that this experience meant a lot to me this week.

So as I also did this, I went into a school and I had an experience.

with a young boy, a young black male in one of these schools, and I'm not gonna name a school or a child, obviously, because I'm not trying to shed any sort of light that somebody might take negatively about this, but I was just welcoming students for the morning, and he quickly just opened up about how he felt that kids in his class weren't nice to him, and that he was not being treated fairly, and it was, It was such an amazing and an honor, really, to sit there, or stand there, where we're standing, and to have that opportunity to really center his voice and listen to him and honor what he was saying.

And I don't know, you know, it was just the perfect situation.

We were kind of alone, so other people weren't hearing, and I just approached him to see how he was doing.

And it was just, it was, you know, concerning and really hurt to hear how hurt he was.

So I, so in regard to this, it made me think about how well being present is so important.

And right now we're struggling with staffing.

I know, you know, I've just, it's the emergence of the regular shortages we have combined with COVID, absenteeism.

And we, we were losing that.

I think we're losing some of those opportunities to just be present with students.

And so I was really just thankful that I could be there to hear him and to elevate what he was saying.

And I did, you know, I touched base with the principal who was, who walked up to us and saw us talking.

And, and I was just, again, like, I really appreciated that, especially as we're moving, as we're talking about, not enough, but we're talking about Black Lives Matter and we are going into like, you know, as we all know, February, the month that it gets the most talking about, about black lives and about, Celebrating Black Voices.

And I just really appreciate it again, just that I got to, you know, help this child.

I don't know if I helped him or not, but just listen, I listened.

And I think that's what we need to do, right?

We need to start with listening to our students, taking what they say seriously, moving on that, and just remembering, you know, that this is, you know, again, like I said earlier, we have a long way to go before all of our Black children, our Black males and females really understand how valued they are, how important they are, and how we are making all the efforts you know that we've proclaimed and set out to do to better their educational experience in their lives in our schools.

So again like you know again it's about this whole gamut of feeling like thank you to volunteers.

Thank you to our district Elevating Black Lives Matters.

Thank you to organizations like SEA who are telling us to listen to students.

Yes we need to do that at every opportunity.

Because we never know when we're going to have that breakthrough moment with a student.

And I hope that we all get an opportunity to do that.

Thanks.

Thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

Okay.

We have reached the end of our agenda.

If there being no further business to come before the board.

Going once.

Going twice.

The regular board meeting is now adjourned at 6 17 p.m.

Thank you all very much.

Please enjoy this time with your families or however you choose to enjoy your free time.

Take care.

I hope you all are doing well and until we see you next time be well.

Good night everyone.

Good night.