Seattle School Board Meeting March 21,, 2018 Part 3 A

to give your director comments as yet.

Could you please sir.

I sure can and Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ thank you.

Definitely want to thank all of our community partners and the ones that we're recognizing tonight for what they do for our students and getting more and more involved as our community does with our students and Cedric here tonight you know really does lay that groundwork that for me that's why I feel is still that we're here for the students and making sure that we're developing future leaders for our community and that they'll be strong and acknowledge that we are a very diverse community.

Listening to some of the testimony here about the black lives matter that we have a curriculum week for that.

As we progress with C&I and looking at adopting ethnic studies civil rights that is that each and every week is going to be something like black lives matter work Native American lives matter week.

Hispanic Asian Pacific Islanders week.

Every different ethnic racial group political group students that are underserved or feel marginalized that they feel hey I am part of this school each and every day not just one week out of the year one month out of the year.

So I hear unfortunately some people excuse me as they talk about you know what are you doing for me the majority student.

While the school is already designed for you the majority student and we're trying to make sure we're being more inclusive so that everyone can succeed and be advanced.

So thank you to the students from Garfield and Rainier Beach as well to come up here tonight and share your words.

Again thank you Cedric appreciate you being here.

For me the comments keep it short so I'm sure people want to go out and enjoy the news.

Now we're in spring.

I actually also have to go and do a car repair as soon as I can.

I want to announce that the Urban Native Education Alliance is holding their fifth annual conference.

They held hold it during the Seattle School District spring break April 13th and 14th this year at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School.

Keynote speakers this year will include Makita Wilber a photographer and I was also surprised to see for those of you out there remember this person's name Slick Watts will also be there as one of their speakers.

So encourage students from the Seattle School District as you're taking time off especially targeting the native students come out and enjoy some workshops on leadership.

They have a finding Bigfoot expedition fitness and health.

Nutrition building launch rockets with the Northwest Indian College.

So they are definitely trying to show our students that they can be successful here.

So if you're going to be around the Seattle School District please do so.

You can email me SS Pinkham at Seattle schools dot org if you want more information or go to the Urban Education Alliance website which is actually just that Urban Native Education Alliance dot org.

April 13th and 14th from 10 a.m.

to 3 p.m.

both days.

And they do want advanced registration so if people are going to attend because they plan to give out T-shirts to all the people that attend so they want to make sure they get the proper headcount.

I also want to kind of comment too that I heard on I think it was NPR today of just the direction that we're going.

National Geographic is issuing an apology.

Other directors like Jill heard heard this or not.

But as far as how they were unfortunately perpetuating stereotypes when they go out and want to do you know hey some of the people what you know of other countries is what National Geographic showed.

And they said that some of their writers and photographers actually intentionally went out and found those underdeveloped people.

Didn't show their advancements.

They just want to show hey look at how these people that are less than us still living in the third world lifestyle but didn't share that they're advancing as well.

And I appreciate this.

You know someone as large as National Geographic is stepping up taking ownership.

I contributed to this situation where people see others as less than.

that you know.

And so I asked my daughter the other day to you what do you think this country would have been like if you know Europeans didn't settle here.

Would people still think that American Indians Native Americans would still be living in teepees or live in you know the lifestyle that was depicted you know of them so much in history books.

I would say no we probably would be flying around in cars right now.

We'd have the flying cars that run on biofuels and being really.

But just the advancements that we know we're not are any people stuck in the past we're always advancing and making good advancements.

So thank you National Geographic for admitting that hey we need to help move everyone forward instead of saying hey this is how people used to be and that's who you are if you want to be a real.

So and so because I do get that comment and I know a lot of our students I don't know if this is brought up in your meeting that some of the students say you're not a real Indian.

Because you know you're here dressed in modern clothes.

You're not riding horseback bareback you don't have.

this or that.

Again it attacks person's idea of self.

So again I just want to I guess I can get off of that but I think it's an issue we do need to address.

My next community meeting will be this Saturday after I'll do my best to be out there to join the walk but it will be at Northgate library from 3 o'clock to 430. Anybody that wants to stop by please come by and share the issues that you want to present.

And I did have one family member reach out to me and hopefully she'll be there because she did have some issues you want to discuss about their child feeling some racial targeting at their school.

And it was about her native side so hopefully we can get some issues addressed and let our school districts know we're serving all students.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ Thank you.

And last but hopefully not least my community meetings April 7th High Point library 3 to 5 April 28 Delridge library 3 to 5 May 26 Delridge library 3 to 5 one in three chance of lasagna.

Busy couple of weeks in addition to the superintendent search meetings etc.

We hosted Mayor Durkin for a town hall on school safety a week and a half ago and it was streamed live.

It's on the Seattle Channel and.

I I cannot be more proud of our young people in taking the leadership on and how articulate they are.

It was more than extraordinary.

Some of these same young folks leaders of the March for Life were on Saturday with Congressman Commerce woman excuse me Pramila Jayapal.

at another town hall and they could not have been more articulate.

It makes me proud.

And to that end we expect to see everyone in this building and in our schools at Cal Anderson Park at 10 a.m.

To march for school safety.

If not now when.

Couple of other announcements.

April 15th the Mariners are giving board certified teachers special tickets.

They're playing the Oakland A's www.mariners.com slash NBCT.

And I hope we'll see a huge group at that Mariners game.

With respect to Rainier Beach High School first Gian Rosario I cannot agree with you more with respect to the city's circumventing the city code with respect to not inviting the Seattle school district to the table.

That happened about a year ago.

As you know our resolution for the high school was heard and changes were made.

But we can't really sue the city if we're looking to cooperate with families and education levies.

We can't pick one pocket and then expect to get returned in the other.

We can in fact and will continue to lose it use it as leverage.

We'll continue to remind the city that we weren't part of the discussion on HALA or the MHA zoning changes.

And again that's what that memorandum of understanding is about.

It's increasing cooperation collaboration and assistance.

We've all got the same students and children in mind.

I read something on Facebook last night that made me cry.

Fourth grader.

In my district.

Native.

Female.

Was in class.

Playing a pioneer.

And we talked about scalping and burning.

That is not social emotional learning.

That is not responsible curriculum.

That is not acceptable.

And I would go back to the concept of professional development and the concept of training.

and the concept of awareness.

And I would ask again how many of our teachers have taken the statutorily required mandated since time immemorial training.

And if we haven't coughed up the dollars to pay our teachers to do professional development then we need to do that.

It is unacceptable to me that our students are treated in this fashion.

It's not my story to tell but I suggest we can and should and must do better.

It's my honor and my privilege.

Let's move to action items.

Number one approval of four separate successor collective bargaining agreements between Seattle Public Schools and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 609 for September 1 2017 through August 31st 2020. This came before the executive committee on March 15th for consideration.

Approval of this item would initiate approval of four successor collective bargaining agreements negotiated between representatives of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 609 and Seattle School District number one.

May I hear a motion please.

Vice President Burke.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with each of the four collective bargaining agreements identified as unit A custodial engineers and gardeners unit B nutrition services unit C school security specialists and the fourth unit alarm monitors and security response specialists with the wage schedules and other attachments in the form of the draft agreements for the period September 1 2017 through August 31 2020 as attached to the school board action report with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take the necessary actions to implement the contracts.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Do we have a second?

Second the motion.

Mr. Damas the floor is yours.

Thank you.

As indicated in the.

Brief words on the screen and the introduction.

We have four contracts which provide wages, hours, and working conditions for several groups of employees that provide important services to our students in the way of nutrition, a healthy clean workplace, and security.

I think the board action report outlines the key features.

I'm available to answer any questions.

Questions comments concerns from my colleagues please.

Mr. Damas this was ratified by the members of I 609 correct?

I have been informed that it was ratified by the union.

Yes.

Thank you.

Questions comments concerns.

Director Pinkham.

I just want to give a shout out and thank you for all the work that you've done and all the staff and doing this and making sure that people that are living here in Seattle do have those affordable wages and able to live here because it is a challenge.

Seattle is a very expensive place to live in.

And going through and making sure that are everyone's doing the best they can to assure that they feel that they're welcome here.

I just want to say Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Other questions comments concerns.

Singh none.

Roll call please.

Director Burke.

Director DeWolf aye.

Director Geary aye.

Director Mack aye.

Director Patu aye.

Director Pinkham aye.

Director Harris aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Introduction items.

Number one Satterberg Foundation elementary feeder school grant came before C&I March 13th for.

This came before C&I and was moved forward to the board for approval.

Approval of the item would authorize the superintendent to accept the Satterberg Foundation elementary feeder school grant funds in the amount of nine hundred fifty thousand dollars.

May we hear the motion please sir.

Boy that's three for three.

My apologies.

Who will be speaking to this.

Good evening board members.

My name is Sharon Stone and I'm the Satterberg literacy administrator.

I'm excited to share with you our Satterberg work and ask you to allow us to continue this partnership by approving the nine hundred and fifty thousand dollar grant that they are providing us.

This grant focuses on the superintendent's third pillar of success eliminating the achievement and opportunity gaps in literacy for 10 of our elementary feeder schools into three of our middle schools Aki Denny and Mercer.

In a nutshell this grant provides us the opportunity to provide these schools to build teacher capacity school leadership capacity around literacy provide coaching professional development some extra resources in the way of materials.

We have provided a number of professional development opportunities provided opportunities for our students to become joyful readers capable lifelong readers.

And I ask that we can continue this with the Satterberg grant.

Thank you.

Questions comments concerns from my colleagues.

Director Burke.

I just want to also thank you for bringing this before us and the work that you do and emphasize we had a great discussion around this at the curriculum instruction committee and heard you know a lot more about the You know the philosophy behind it and the how it's integrating with the other district initiatives.

You know our ELA adoption is weaving into this as is our our SMART goals our EOG work.

And so I just wanted to share that as well.

And thank you for the report.

Harris.

Superintendent Nyland you had some comments sir.

Likewise it's definitely arrow alignment work.

And you've heard the reports earlier on the Nesholm family foundation and how instrumental they have been to get our arrows lined up at our three middle schools over a number of years.

And they were the ones that helped recruit the Satterbergs to extend that to the feeder schools that feed into those three middle schools.

So and Sherry is one of ours.

So she has been in the district and knows us well.

And so it's just a nice partnership all the way around.

Thank you.

Seeing no further comments questions or concerns.

We move to number two.

Thank you.

Revision to school board policy 2 1 9 5 kindergarten.

This came before C&I March 13th.

And was brought forward to the board for approval.

Approval of the item would amend board policy 2 1 9 5 kindergarten in order to align the policy with state law requiring free full day kindergarten in all public schools.

Ms. Toner the floor is yours.

Thank you.

Cashel Toner executive director for curriculum and instruction.

Briefly this was discussed at March C&I We asked the committee for their direction around revising the policy how big or how narrow they'd like to see us do that work.

The recommendation was to just amend the last sentence of the policy and leave the rest intact.

So we did that.

And this policy alignment would just bring us to really align with our practice that's happening in schools.

I remember the battle days.

Me too.

Any comments questions concerns.

Okay seeing none.

We move to number three Seattle teacher residency program funding.

This came before the executive committee March 15th for approval.

Approval of this item would provide authority for the superintendent to dedicate.

$251,000 for the purposes of the Seattle teacher residency also known as STR program in the 2018 19 school year.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Clover Codd the floor is yours and Michael Tamayo the vice president of the Seattle Education Association.

Thank you.

Good evening.

So as you know I am joined here today with Michael Tamayo I'm also joined by Chris Strait the manager of the STAR program and supports our Seattle teacher residency work and also Norma Andrade and James Dixon two teacher educators that are graduates of the Seattle teacher residency program.

Codd could you please explain what STAR means please.

Chris Drate will explain what STAR is because I know what it is.

I actually don't know what it stands for anymore.

It's the staff training assistance and review.

It's our induction program for new to profession teachers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

So the outline of our presentation tonight I will give a summary of the BAR kind of walk through it.

Michael will then say a few words and we'll invite our teacher educators to come up for one to two minutes each just to tell you about their experience and then we'll open it up for any questions that you might have.

All right.

So in the bar you've got some attachments.

There is a link to a research brief.

There is a draft scope of work of the four partners the four partners being Seattle Public Schools the Alliance for Education the Seattle Education Association and the University of Washington.

There's also a graphic depiction of the statistics and demographics that are outlined in this bar so it's a little bit more visual representation.

There's also a draft budget that shows the total cost of the Seattle teacher residency program of which our contribution would be the $251,000 if you should approve this motion.

So as you're aware H.R.

Human Resources has centered our departmental strategic plan on making sure there's a high quality teacher in every classroom on the very first day of school.

We are also focused on recruiting and retaining a diverse teaching core one that reflects the diversity of our students.

Despite our very best efforts we had 75 open positions on the first day of school this past fall.

While 29 percent of our schools are considered Title 1 or higher poverty 41 percent of our openings were in those Title 1 schools.

This creates and adds to our opportunity gap in a disproportionate way.

Two our teaching core is 80 percent white while only 20 percent of our teachers identify as people of color.

40 percent of the Seattle teacher residents and grads identify as people of color which is double our current teacher core population.

Additionally Seattle teacher residents commit to teach for five years in Seattle public school Title 1 schools.

So our theory of change rests on the assumption that teacher preparation can no longer just be a university endeavor but instead requires the partnership and collaboration of all aspects in recruitment preparation and retention.

All four partners have aligned goals to recruit a diverse workforce to ensure preparation is integrated is rigorous and context specific.

We know that research asserts that the high quality teacher who is well prepared is the single most important in school factor to improving student educational outcomes.

Because our STR grads are better prepared to take on the lead role of teaching on the very first day of school.

We know this will have a huge impact on eliminating the opportunity yet.

The Seattle teacher residency is one of our most promising practices.

Seattle teacher residents are trained in culturally responsive teaching trauma informed practices.

They work intentionally with families in the very communities in which they serve.

They receive explicit teaching on race and equity and the intersections with poverty.

They specifically explore and experience what it means to be in a classroom and beyond.

One example is that resident training includes visit to the Monroe correctional complex to engage in conversations with the black prisoners caucus and reflect on the school to prison pipeline with men who have not so good experiences in school when they were in school.

STR is an equity focused initiative.

It has a direct impact on the number of high quality teachers that serve in our Title 1 schools and it has a direct impact in the number of classrooms we are able to fill on the very first day.

The Seattle teacher residency pipeline makes up between one quarter and a little over one third of all of our new to profession hires in Title 1 elementary schools.

It's a large percentage of our pipeline.

With a five year commitment commitment you will see a dramatic reduction in teacher turnover in these schools.

They are retained at the three year mark compared to 60 percent of other teachers that come in at the same time in our Title 1 schools.

STR proves to mitigate the cost of teacher turnover teacher turnover in our high need schools.

So today we're asking the board to consider providing the superintendent the authority to set aside two hundred and fifty one thousand dollars in the 2018 19 budget for this program.

There is no action that the district meet a certain percentage of the overall cost of the entire program but that we do make a contribution of two hundred fifty one thousand dollars for next year.

In outgoing years the ideal cost structure would have the Seattle Public Schools contribution be one third the total cost of the program with the alliance for education working with us to fundraise for the remaining two thirds.

The assumption is that the cohort size remains the same.

This bar however is requesting one time funding for next year and any conversations regarding out years.

We will come back to the board for approval.

I'd like to turn over to Michael Tamayo the vice president of the Seattle Education Association who would have some words of wisdom.

Thanks.

Good evening.

I just want to come out and say that SEA 100 percent supports the Seattle teacher residency program.

I was actually a mentor teacher in cohorts 1 and 2 at John Muir Elementary so I have some intimate knowledge about the positive impacts that the residency program provides.

Not just students but for experienced educators like myself.

And so while Clover detailed the impacts SDR has had on student achievement and the clear pipeline that SDR provides to recruit and retain high quality educators in our Title 1 schools.

I'd like to speak a little bit about the impact it has on our mentor teachers and our experienced teacher core.

Like I was a mentor in my sixth and seventh year teaching.

And if you talk to any any any any educator they'll tell you it takes you about five years to figure out what you're really doing in the classroom.

So in the sixth and seventh year in my teaching I had the opportunity to have a resident teacher in my classroom and the benefits that it provided me were monthly professional high quality professional development that wasn't afforded to me to my colleagues who weren't mentor teachers.

One thing that stood out was learning how to leverage the strengths of having a full time resident teacher in your classroom for the entire school year.

Supercharged my own my own practice as a 6th and 7th year educator just at a time when I felt like I was finally settling settling into my role.

Having a resident to daily bounce new ideas off of to ask critical questions about what I was doing in my practice and the effect that the effect that our teaching together had on our students is the kind of reflective kind of reflective professional development and reflective practice that I think all educators and administrators find that's at the core of strong professional development.

STI provided this provided this consistently over the course of those two years.

Recently as a leader in SEA I've come across in my travels across all the buildings graduates of the SER program and these graduates of the SER program are popping up where you naturally will find teacher leaders popping up.

You have first second third year resident graduates serving on BLT's in their buildings being committee being committee leaders instructional instructional leaders in their buildings and also being elected union leaders in their buildings.

And that's kind of the testament to the fact that resident residents who graduated for the program work in Title 1 schools hit the ground running at a far faster rate than any other than than many of the other first year teachers that I've come across and mentored in my career.

You know these aren't novice educators.

These are educators that are ready to go on day one.

One thing in closing I just wanted to reiterate having worked in Title 1 schools my entire tenure career in Seattle.

Our schools need consistency.

Title 1 schools need consistent teacher leadership.

Teachers in the classroom for the benefit of our students.

SGR provides that right off the bat.

And I would just like to encourage the board to consider sustaining funding for this program as it continues to build and as it continues to grow throughout our district.

Thank you Michael.

And now I'd like to call up our two teacher educators to just speak quickly on their experience in the program and beyond.

Hello my name is James Dixon.

I currently teach at Mercer middle school special education 6th 7th and 8th grade.

I.

So first off I'm a former student of Seattle Public Schools.

I. I've basically been here my whole life.

And SPS I mean.

You have to shout out which schools.

You can't you can't just.

There's a lot of them.

Martin Luther King Elementary.

Madrona Denny and then Garfield.

So SGR provided me the opportunity to get into grad school.

I was an IA so I did the class assert program.

And if I wasn't able to go through that pathway I'm more than likely it would have been a harder path for me to become a teacher.

I was a student that was on free and reduced lunch.

So I really needed that extra income to be able to go through school and be successful.

So without that opportunity that SGR provided I would not have It would have been a longer path for me to become a teacher.

And then also one thing that I noticed is being a teacher the skills that I have learned are really translatable to what I do and work every day.

I was I did my residency year at Broadview Thompson and that teacher he was a psychologist and he really taught me how to do data collection and I got to see from day one to the end how everything started and ended.

and set up classroom routines and everything.

So it really helped me build my foundation from my first year and into my second year, which is now, I feel much, really grounded into my work and really successful and SGR helped me get that.

Hello I am Norma Andrade.

I teach fourth grade.

This is my fourth year teaching but I was in STR five years ago so really fifth year.

And I teach at Viewlands Elementary up near Carkeek Park.

So what I wanted to let you know is by funding STR you are standing up for and you're advocating for all the children who are most impacted by poverty systemic racism war and opioid addiction.

STR is very dear to my heart in so many different ways.

You as a board, every one of you, Ms. Geary, Patu, Perk, Mr. Nyland, Harris, Pinkham, Mack, and DeWolf, all of you will be standing just like I do and the rest of the teachers as well here.

You as a board will be sending a very clear message that these children who are most impacted by all of these factors, by the poverty, by the opioid addiction, by war and systemic racism, you are standing up and showing that every single child is worthy.

You are sending a clear message that they are all worthy of every cent and sweat that we have.

You are standing up with the teachers who stand up every single day because every single day I want to go to school.

Every single day I want to be in the classroom.

I chose to be in a Title I school to work with children who are very similar to my own background.

I work with them because I love them.

They are my children, they were me growing up.

To believe and to have a clear message that my life was worth it and I translate that every day in the work that I do as a teacher.

So you are sending, although maybe just for this year that we are asking for $251,000 I really am thinking, I'm hoping that you think about it for the next couple of years as well.

That you're standing up and sending a clear message even if you fund it just this year for the many years that come that you're standing up for these children who are worth every single penny and every single love that we can give to every single child who deserve it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll open it up for questions from the board if you have some comments questions concerns.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you.

Can I know you said it in the intro part or kind of in the background.

Can you just be explicit one more time around I guess an ideal world.

What would it actually take to provide this program at the level that would be kind of equitable to our partners if we're at two hundred fifty one thousand.

Where would it where would a third actually be.

You said we should if it would be ideal for providing a third of the cost.

What is that actual number.

About four hundred thousand dollars would be ideal.

So we're only off $150,000 for.

OK.

And then my second thing I was going to say was I just read in the American Educational Research Association journal about the importance of minority teachers report that was just come out and it said that students of all races white black API Latinx and native appreciate and benefited more from teachers of color.

So.

I thank you for this work and I'm really grateful for you.

And I'm excited to I'm very supportive of this.

So thanks for bringing this to us today.

Director Geary.

Thank you so much for bringing this to us to vote for on.

I had the great opportunity to go visit a school with the STR program in my first year on the board and fell in love with it and would do anything I could to support it this year next year any year.

And but beyond that I just want to I want to hear.

I heard James Dixon that you said you're doing special ed in the title one middle school for 6th 7th and 8th graders and.

That's fantastic.

I mean I just wanted to just take a moment for everybody to think about that job.

And that is really I am.

I'm so thankful to you for taking that on.

I'm thankful to you both for loving those children and those students and knowing because I know that they come to school knowing that you love them.

So thank you so much.

Director Pinkham.

Thank you for bringing this forward and I recall to first year being on the school board that we went to Broadview Thompson's I believe to see some of the STR students are.

I think this is a fantastic program.

And James Dixon mentioned that he would like to encourage our students to actually think about hey if I want to become a teacher.

Here's this program at the University of Washington that I can go through and pursue that dream and knowing that I can give back maybe to my own community where I grew up.

I think that'd be a good strong message.

I know that it is a master's program.

What about like at Seattle University with maybe other schools where it's just bachelor's program for teacher certification or does this look like something we would be able to expand or right now just looking at University of Washington.

We do have other partners where we specifically focus on classified employees becoming teacher educators.

This Seattle teacher residency program is not specifically tailored for classified employees that work in Seattle Public Schools although we do typically each year have four to five I think nine at one point in any given cohort.

So those are sort of separate programs really really dedicated to taking our classified employees.

This is a graduate program where we recruit from our classified employee ranks but also external in the community far and wide to find the best candidates that we can.

Are there questions comments or concerns?

First of all let me say thank you.

Michael one of the things that you mentioned during the executive committee was how much STR cohort grads change the culture in our schools.

and do not accept low expectations.

Can you expand a little more on that because that leverage point to me is huge.

Sure.

And I think what's what's something to note is.

When residents entered in the buildings I mean they've had a year long residency experience and so they're already grounded in what it takes to be a successful teacher to be a successful school.

And so wherever that wherever they are placed after the residency there they recognize automatically the challenge and they are cultivated to challenge the status quo in an education period.

And I think that when we say that we're trying to cultivate you know a culture where we're challenging all expectations from students to our own educators.

A lot of the residents that I've come across and I think what the residency program is trying to cultivate is that framework entering into what's quite frankly sometimes challenging school situations.

So that's where that's coming from.

Thank you for that.

My only comment would be it's not a surprise that Seattle Public Schools and the Alliance have had an interesting history.

There has been a significant management change and philosophical change at the Alliance for education.

There's also been a restructuring of the financing of this program.

Extreme concerns in the past that it was far too expensive for us and and that it's a balancing act.

Do we pay in the front end?

Do we pay on the back end?

Where do we use that two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in terms of being out there and recruiting.

I am very pleased to be able to support this.

And if you had asked me five years ago pretty sure I wouldn't have.

So thank you both.

And thank you for our cohort members.

for being here to speak your truth and your buddies that came to the executive committee as well and the principals.

Thank you very much.

May I just also give a personal thank you to Chris Rape who is the quiet leader behind the scenes constantly working between the four partnerships to make sure that the Seattle teacher residency is moving smoothly from us from the Seattle Public Schools end of the spectrum.

Thank you ever so much.

Thanks.

OK.

Number four Seattle Education Association memorandum of understanding regarding implementation of initiative 1 4 3 3 paid sick leave law.

This came before executive committee March 15th for approval.

Approval of this item would authorize the superintendent to execute the memorandum of understanding regarding the implementation of initiative 1433 the paid sick leave law.

Cheryl the floor is yours.

Thank you.

Good evening President Harris members of the board Dr. Nyland members of our public.

I'm Cheryl Anderson Moore your chief negotiator for Seattle Public Schools.

This evening we're presenting for introduction the memorandum of agreement between the Seattle Education Association and SPS Seattle Public Schools that bridges the implementation of the new paid sick leave law under initiative 1433 into the current collective bargaining agreement.

Of course by state law we're obligated to follow the law and implement that law as quickly as possible.

It took effect January 1st 2018 and we are rapidly doing that.

This memorandum addresses certain operational details with regard to accounting of the sick leave usages sick leave and guidelines for employees.

Harris.

Questions comments concerns from my colleagues.

Seeing none we move on.

Thank you so much.

Number five approval of information technology advisory committee.

This came before exec March 15th for consideration.

Approval of this item would authorize and approve the change of the information technology advisory committee at which time now I will hand the mic to.

Director Burke and I see John Krull our chief information officer in the box.

Thank you.

I will defer on the details to John Krull and thank him and his team for helping put this together.

This is a topic which has been conversed about for the last year plus around how do we weave our technology into our learning.

How do we prioritize voter allocated funds.

How do we.

build the most safe scalable student data system student security.

Security and data privacy components.

So there's a lot of aspects to our technology that we as directors only get a chance to sample and and a place where John Crowell and his team live.

And so trying to find something that somewhere in between that where we can get visibility into the work and a broader appreciation for the work and also an oversight component and an advisory component.

So this is a compilation of a lot of those things and I defer to John to describe it in more detail.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Burke.

John Kroll chief information officer.

I'm excited to bring this forward with Director Burke.

Director Burke brought this up several months ago and he and I have been going back and forth working on the on the idea for the charge.

The exciting thing about this committee is it's it's a little different than other board committees we've had in the district.

This committee is going to be made up of.

nine community members and nine staff members because staff are some of our real experts in how to use technology in classrooms.

And one of the community members I want to mention will also be a student and that will be an active member of this ongoing committee.

It's an advisory committee that will be ongoing.

I want to emphasize that.

It's really going to be a great venue.

We'll be meeting monthly.

third monday of every month all the items that come before the border were planning to bring before the board will go before this advisory committee we will get their input uh...

on existing board board items but it'll also be uh...

two-way uh...

i'm hoping that the community members and the and the uh...

District members will bring ideas.

For instance, for the community members, we're hoping to get community members who have experience in technology that might bring some ideas.

Same with the district members.

It's also exciting that the district members are going to be from a wide range of stakeholders.

We have reached out to the different employee groups.

We've since the last committee meeting we've reached out to the employee groups.

We've reached out to community based organizations I attended.

the monthly community based organization meeting.

I believe it was last week and talked about the committee really trying to respond to the executive committee's input that we had to really have a lot of fingerprints on this to get a lot of input.

We're hoping we can bring this forward.

And start the committee the third week in April.

This committee is going to have a big input on BEX.

So a large part of the technology budget, as a matter of fact, 85% of the technology budget comes from capital funds.

So we really need to have that engagement as we bring that forward.

We also made sure that it's addressing policy concerns.

It is written to follow policy 41 10 which is how board committees are made.

And then also we added since the last committee meeting that it will follow policy 10 10 which means that the.

committee will serve to help the board have oversight over technology.

As a matter of fact a the first agenda item for every over every technology advisory committee meeting will be to go over the budget.

One thing that my department has started is a quarterly program report that talks about all the projects we're doing and how we're doing against the budget for that.

That comes out quarterly the most recent one just got published to the website and the board will be getting copies of that.

But the advisory committee will get a monthly update on how we're doing on our budget much like the BEX oversight committee.

We were really trying to make sure that we like all board committees have a have an equity lens in the selection of of the members.

Director Burke with my help is going to be leading the selection of the committee.

We straighten that out since the committee meeting.

So so with that I'll take any questions.

I'm pretty excited about having another opportunity to get engagement about technology.

Harris Comments questions concerns director Mack.

Mack I'm excited about this committee and the oversight an engagement opportunity that it provides.

We have the BEX committee which is also a board the BEX oversight committee which has been recently expanded to be BEX and BTA but excluding the technology pieces of capital from those level levies.

So from my perspective I'm incredibly supportive of having this committee formed to to provide that function of oversight around technology both the planning forward and how the dollars are going to be spent from the levies and providing that oversight.

So I'm grateful to all of you for crafting this and moving it forward so thoughtfully.

I have a couple of questions.

One is the I haven't read the entire charge word for word I've glanced over it.

Who is going to be designated the chair of this committee?

Is that something that's already designed in the charge or is that an open ended?

I can address that.

The charge calls for the committee to vote for a chair and then I would be acting as an ex officio non-voting chair to help run the meetings.

Excellent.

OK so then my other question is that.

And I'm swimming in policies and trying to remember which one this is but in one of our policies I think it's an under committees.

The 1240 which designates the board committees and says what their roles are.

And as chair of operations committee I I'm wrapping my arms around all the work that I'm supposed to be taking care of.

And I believe in their states that.

Nope it's in 10 10 that the operations committee is responsible for reviewing general technology plans policies and key technology strategies and receiving and considering the recommendations the operations committee with respect to these matters so that the I think that's that's The intention of that policy I think is around the capital oversight.

Budget side of things because we also are tasked with making recommendations around capital levies and.

So I'm wondering how this committee will interface with the operations committee and the full board especially around that budget piece.

If that's a piece that's been worked out or if we need to figure out how that kind of interfaces.

So that did come up in the executive committee.

One reason we brought it to exec is technology transcends all all the committees.

There's there's a finance part to it.

There's an operations part.

But really the biggest chunk is on the educational the C&I side.

So we debated back and forth.

We thought we left it in the charge that it would report to the executive committee but we talked informally about the technology advisory committee to also visit the other committees as appropriate.

to keep them abreast of what's going on.

Director Burke.

I think the way John described it is true that we we could have put it in a variety of places and the the ultimate recognition is wow this touches on so many areas.

We need to just keep the conversation going.

I think we're trying to be really thoughtful about Managing committee time most effectively and managing staff time most effectively.

And so I guess this is an open invite to my colleagues to kind of stay in the loop on this.

And if we think that we have a misalignment we can make a course correction because that's how we roll.

Follow up.

Go ahead Dr. Director Mack.

I am fully OK with having the exec committee be the main committee operations already has such a huge body of work that I'm certainly not asking for more work to have this this assigned to us.

So don't get me wrong on that on the questions the questions is only around.

Ensuring that when the time comes for various decision points around.

Reviewing the technology plans when in turn you know just those pieces that are that are appropriate to come through ops to the board that they do so.

And that's you know just want to make sure we have those intersections.

Director Geary.

So I have two things that I want to comment on and one I brought up in exact and I want to just bring it up again that I think it's we need to be very careful in this committee making sure that not only are we inviting a breadth of people but that we are protecting the space around different voices because I think people who work in technology would have a lot of authority around what is and isn't but they may not have had the exposure around the EOG work and around cultural competency to be able to reflect upon their comments and and how their voice may be Taking up more space and more authority than the other voices in the room.

And so making sure that we are mindful of that in the creation in the charge and and perhaps in the training of the of the members if necessary in terms of.

our goals and what it means to make these decisions and provide input around these goals.

I know having been to the BEX oversight that sometimes it's important to remind the room that we at Seattle Public Schools have a very unique group of people that we are serving and working with and a different lens than sometimes professionals bring.

So that's the first.

The second piece.

Not totally distinct but one I didn't raise before is that nowhere in this charge is there a single mention of assistive technology and what that means.

And it is my experience that when we talk about technology and we talk about curriculum and we talk about special education and we talk about assistive technology for some reason there is never any overlap.

They aren't considered a unified body of work.

And I think that has a negative impact ultimately on the people who are trying to get the right technology to the right people.

And so I would ask that you consider reviewing this charge and working in something very specifically about.

incorporating thoughts and review of assistive technology how it's working with our greater technology.

Are they compatible?

Is a student in a special education class going to be able to smoothly transition into the general education technology that's being used by all of the kids there?

And so that's a really important piece in terms of access to the general education curriculum.

So I'd ask that that be considered.

I appreciate that and I think likewise we should probably be mentioning accessibility which as we know is an issue we need to address.

I was surprised in doing a search of the just a search of the document assistive technology is not mentioned and it should be.

And then thinking about what we need to do to support it in terms of the members and special education professionals.

Thank you.

Other questions comments concerns.

Director Pinkham.

Just looking at this timeline your approval is going to be April 4th and then you have a deadline of April 11th to apply.

Is that you think going to be enough time to get a good candidate pool to apply for this committee?

And are you relying on those committees that are applied that have the technology to apply to this in such a short timeline?

It just seems like it's a very short timeline to approve it and then want the applications by one week later.

Director Burke.

I will I will take that one in the crossfire.

This was a this was one of the topics that came as part of our discussion in exec is that we have a body of work in BEX that we would love to get committee feedback on and it's coming on a very fixed timeline and the sooner we can get that feedback the better.

The flip side of that is if we rush the committee then we might not get representative or engaged community applying.

So the the middle ground which.

This is a board so we get to decide if it's the right middle ground is well let's put the draft application in with the bar so that it's public.

Talk about it here.

Highlight that those are the dates.

We can't officially go out for applicants until it's approved by the board.

But we can share with our CBOs.

We can have a communication plan in place and we can we could put some announcements in place around that.

Is that sufficient?

I guess that's the relevant question.

And the answer from this board member is no.

And your failure to plan is not our emergency.

I'm sorry I'm offended by this.

Barr.

It does not incorporate a great many things that we discussed in executive committee.

We asked for a communication plan.

I do not see one.

Having a couple of meetings is not a community engagement plan.

The community engagement task force did not meet for a year and come up with a model.

to have a box checking.

The race and equity tool has not been used.

This is I'm sorry.

I think that we need one.

I've thought for a long time that we need one.

I don't think this is it.

I think we have to slow down.

We have to have a community engagement plan with the assistance of the comms team.

Not from DOTS.

They're the experts.

We need to reach out to our race and equity professionals.

We need to talk about not making this an inside job.

Having a weak turnaround and putting a geographic community representation on it.

I don't have enough time to go into that.

I I strongly object to the fact that we are box checking here.

We can do so much better.

We need to do so much better.

We don't have a policy on blended or upside down learning.

Yet we just took in an extraordinary grant from Sacajawea.

What are we going to do with those computers?

That's awfully darn important to the future of this district.

And I want to take it as seriously as it deserves.

And to the extent that that I'm frustrated it is so not personal.

I know you're working your backside off.

I get it.

I know that Director Burke my colleague.

Who I respect immensely is working his backside off.

But we're missing big pieces of this and I'm very frustrated and distressed by it.

And the timeline is it's a big no for me.

Now.

Do I think that it should go out in a word document and people need to add their comments etc.

And we can collaborate because we are capable of doing great work in collaboration.

Yeah I think we should do that.

I thought that's what we were going to do when it left exec committee.

Thank you.

Director Burke.

Point of clarification.

With your.

Impassioned objection.

No no not that with with your permission or pacing.

I would like to hear your concerns about the regional.

Selection of committee because I think there's so many ways to take.

And I think that's where the art comes in.

I think that's where the equity piece comes in.

Say you have four Microsoft.

Whomever high tech Amazonia and they all live in one district.

So we leave the other three on the street.

Say you end up with a bunch of white males in the tech sector.

So so from a district perspective.

That's the balancing piece here.

We tried we tried to reword it after the committee meeting to not be hard and fast about getting somebody from each district again.

But that would be that's the balance just to have that running it through the tools etc.

The district's piece to me is very arbitrary.

If districts want representation they have representation up here.

Right.

That's is there another task force or standing committee that has district representation or or people chosen that way.

I don't think so.

So I you know I think that it's it's the balancing piece.

Exactly.

And I don't think districts is it.

But again my personal passionate opinion.

Director Mack.

The organization of a committee There's it's it's this is challenging to try to get a representation across and set up committees that can work effectively.

I think we've had spotty results around committees in the district and I think all institutions have the same challenge of of how do you set up a group of people to do decision making.

and effectively having the right people at the table etc.

So the formation of this is is incredibly important to get right.

I also feel impassioned that it's incredibly important that we get this committee going because we need this oversight and we need to be able to do this work to help support BEX.

So I'd like to make a suggestion that if possible there could be.

some kind of further conversation between now and when the vote would happen to adjust potentially some of these issues internal to the charge with board members that are concerned about such things so that we can potentially Vote on this in a couple of weeks.

But have those kind of issues worked out.

Is that do we think that's maybe possible.

President Harris.

Director Burke.

Director Burke is the author of this together with CIO Krull.

Please.

So I think the conversation that we're having I don't think there's any disagreement about intent as far as having a committee which has representation of those that haven't typically been represented.

And I think Jill was pretty eloquent in not only forming a committee that invites people who haven't been on these committees before but also providing a safe place where they can contribute at parity or even above parity but at a level where that collaboration can take place.

So it sounds to me like there's some some language things that maybe we could do.

And I look through the charge.

And the charge calls out a regional but I want to just emphasize in the bar and maybe this is a place where we can braid some language.

There is the statement that says in the formation of the charge the selection of members and in the committee meetings themselves.

Oh sorry wrong one.

Final selection of the committee members by superintendent or designee will consider these community members and employees who have not historically been active or represented in district engagement as well as represented representation by individuals of differing gender ethnicity race age geography and stakeholder interest group.

So the bar states.

Sort of a cross section that's broader than regional.

And maybe there's a way we can weave that together or maybe that's sufficient and I'm looking for feedback.

I think John can send out the word document to directors and if you have specific comments please we welcome them.

Other comments concerns or questions from my colleagues.

Director Pinkham.

Director Geary stepped out but just want to see if you can reach out definitely to the University of Washington high school where a student is soon as Ph.D. is looking at touch screen and how.

Yes those that are able to have just one finger in point but those that have either mortar controls that they can't do that he's working on technology that allows them to use touchscreens as well.

So I think there are definitely people out there if we can start hey let's get the word out contact these people.

Hey we're looking to form a community.

a committee on this so they they're aware and versus if it does April 4th.

Hey do we have don't have enough time.

So I may then reach out to this PhD candidate say hey just let you know the school district is looking at forming a committee on technology and I see what you're doing and I think you would possibly be a good candidate.

Other questions comments or concerns.

OK.

So go ahead.

Director DeWolf please.

OK so you will be sending out the word document to SPS directors for input.

Correct.

Yes.

Sweet.

Thank you so much.

OK.

Next item.

Number six amending board policy 1 4 1 0 executive or closed sessions and board procedure number 1 4 3 0 BP audience participation.

This came before the executive committee March 15th for consideration.

Approval of this item would amend board policy number 1 4 1 0 executive or closed sessions and board procedure number 1 4 3 0 board procedure audience participation.

Mr. Van Duzer the floor is yours.

Thank you.

Good evening I'm Nate Van Duzer director of policy and board relations.

The board action report in front of you makes clarifying changes to to the two documents that director Harris just referenced.

These changes are not intended to change practice at all but more to provide clarity.

So I'll give a very brief review of each.

In policy 1410 executive or closed sessions the changes which you can see in track changes down in your bar make a better distinction between executive and closed sessions.

Those are two different categories of meetings that you can hold that are each not open to the public.

But the difference is executive sessions are noticed closed sessions do not have to be.

although we have put in this policy that they may be to promote transparency purposes.

We've also added the common subject areas that fall under each type to help people understand that a little better.

And then the other one is board procedure 1430 which is our audience participation procedure.

Essentially we wanted to put in a little bit more granularity around how the board office prioritizes public testimony.

Again this is what we have been doing and what we think the policy has structured us to do.

But I think by having a little more detail on the policy it will just be more clear for everyone.

Thank you.

Questions comments concerns from my colleagues and Please feel free.

Well I was.

Oh that was loud.

I was.

Wondering exactly since I don't have it in front of me unfortunately what are you doing to policy 1 4 0 3. I'm sorry 3 0. I think that's the number.

Yeah there's some language changes to the board procedure there and we are essentially making it clear how the board office prioritizes public testimony.

So we have we prioritize speakers who are speaking to the items that are on the list of items for action first and then the second category prioritization is folks who are speaking to introduction items and then everyone else is in the third category.

So if there's a final vote being taken on a matter, we want to make sure those people have a chance to speak.