Brandon Hersey

All right, good afternoon.

We will be calling the board meeting to order in a moment and SPS-TV will begin broadcasting.

For those joining by phone, please remain muted until we reach the testimony portion period and your name is called.

This is President Hersey.

I am now calling the November 15, 2023 regular board meeting to order at 4.19 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Miss Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Director Harris.

Director Hampson.

Here.

Vice President Rankin.

Here.

President Hersey.

Brandon Hersey

Here.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Director Sarju.

Present.

Director Rivera.

SPEAKER_17

Present.

Director Song.

Present.

Director Muthuswamy.

Brandon Hersey

Present.

Thank you very much.

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

Brent Jones

Thank you President Hersey board members and public who's watching.

I want to start out with speaking to Native American Heritage Month.

As we gather here in November we pause to reflect on the significance of Native American Native American Heritage Month.

As we state at the beginning of our meetings here at Seattle Public Schools we live and work on the unceded ancestral lands of the Coast Salish people.

This month we celebrate the rich traditions cultures and contributions of the Coast Salish and all Native American communities since time immemorial.

I'd like to have Director Ayush to read Governor Inslee's proclamation paying tribute to this month.

Director Ayush would you do the honors please.

Ayush Muthuswamy

Whereas Native Americans have inhabited the area now known as Washington State since time immemorial, and today, 29 federally recognized Indian tribes, out-of-state tribes with treaty-reserved rights, and other tribal communities reside in Washington.

And whereas members and descendants of tribes around the United States and First Nations of Canada also reside in the state of Washington.

And whereas Native American contributions and values have shaped the social, political, environmental, and economic fabric of the state, while also enhancing freedom, prosperity, and cultural diversity.

And whereas state law RCW 43.376 directs the governor and state agencies to establish government-to-government relationships with tribes in order to enhance and formalize working relationships with the tribes through collaboration and consultation.

and whereas state law RCW 28A.320.170 manage the teaching of tribal history cultural and government in common schools which will contribute greatly to improving schools history curriculum and enhance awareness for a better cultural understanding.

And whereas substitute House Bill 1356 prohibiting the inappropriate use of Native American names symbols or images of public school mascots logos or team names was signed into law on April 26th 2021 thus removing harmful stereotypes and barriers to racial equality cultural awareness and an equitable education.

And whereas the state of Washington has designated the Friday immediately following the fourth Thursday in November as a state legal and school holiday known as Native American Heritage Day.

and whereas Washington joins other states across the nation in celebrating Native American Heritage Month honoring the unique heritage of this continent's first people and reaffirming the commitment to respect each tribe sovereignty and cultural identity.

Now therefore Jay Inslee governor of the state of Washington does hereby proclaim November 2023 as Native American Heritage Month and November 24th 2023 as Native American Heritage Day in Washington and encourage all people in our state to join him in the special observance.

Brent Jones

Thank you so much.

Later in our agenda we will delve into a critical conversation about a budget resolution.

Our current budget shortfall demands our collective attention and strategic planning.

We are committed to addressing it in a matter that reflects fiscal responsibility actively incorporates feedback of our community members and ensures that our schools continue to provide high quality education.

The proposed budget resolution is not just a financial document, it's a reflection of our shared priorities and values.

In the spirit of collaboration and transparency, I encourage your continued participation in this conversation.

We will continue to refine this document and make it better as we move forward, because your insights are crucial as we work together to ensure our financial decisions align with our educational goals.

These efforts will not only address the immediate budgetary concerns, but also set a course for a sustainable and thriving educational future for our students.

Lastly this evening we're going to have a chance to explore data showcasing the district's strides towards achieving math and literacy goals.

This session is a focus of what we do.

This is this is what we do teaching and learning and it provides a platform for us to assess our achievements in those in those areas identify areas for growth and discuss strategic adjustments.

So let's engage collaboratively ensuring that our commitment to excellence and education remains steadfast.

But before I break from my comments, I'd like to express heartfelt appreciation for board directors Hampson and Harris, your unwavering commitment to Seattle Public Schools.

Director Harris your commitment to transparency.

Does anybody know Director Harris commitment to transparency.

Commitment to transparency and community engagement has built trust and empowered our community in the decision making process.

Director Hampson your advocacy for students centering student voice and student outcomes has elevated our entire educational system.

You're urging and guidance for us to have a student outcome focused government governance is transformative.

Your focus on families and your care has been very evident.

And I also thank you for being the one to hire me as the board president.

And I have a small token of appreciation for both of you.

And if you both know this, I often like to give plants as a symbolism of we need to take care of our students.

We need to make sure that they have good water, they have good environments, good climate so that they can grow and develop and be vibrant.

And so as a token of my appreciation, I want to just give you these these plants, but I hope that you all stay stay connected with us Not just in in your board capacity, but you come back and you serve in all kind of valuable ways So here's a here's a token of my appreciation Yeah Back to you, President Hersey.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

Thank you very much, Superintendent Jones.

We have now come to the board comments section of the agenda.

Before we move into our committee liaison and engagement reports this evening, We will take this opportunity to recognize and thank our outgoing school board directors Director Hampson and Director Harris.

So what I would recommend for you as the audience unless you want to be clapping for four or five different sessions you might want to wait till the end.

Right.

So with that being said I.

cannot begin to express the depth of relationship that this role requires.

So much so that when reflecting on the opportunity to just offer words that in no way will ever come close to honoring these two individuals for their service to the city of Seattle.

There are some things that.

through my reflection, I've been able to dig out of my brain.

So much so that I remember the first conversations that I've had with each of them.

I first met Director Harris long before I had any interest in sitting in this seat, and she tried to recruit me from Federal Way to come teach in Seattle, and little did she know that we would be sitting across from each other for the next four years.

And I remember the first conversation that I had with Director Hampson shortly after I had been appointed and Director Hampson had been elected where she really sized me up to make sure that I was up to the task.

Both of these women at times could not be more ideologically apart.

However that is the beautiful thing about this role because at no point have I ever questioned their undying commitment to the city to this district but most importantly our students.

The board is quite frankly losing a wealth of institutional knowledge as well as a wealth of free lasagna.

And as a young member of this board I consider myself to be exceptionally lucky to have had the opportunity to learn and serve under both of these women who at their own times have served as president during some of the most difficult days in this district's history.

And as we sit here now on the other end of some of the most I would say harrowing obstacles that our entire communities have been presented with, weathering a pandemic, weathering a strike when we could not come to an agreement with our labor partners, weathering a budget shortfall in the hundreds of millions of dollars that we are going to continue to work on tonight.

science adoptions, multiple curriculum adoptions, and completely overhauling the way that the board does our work through the student outcomes focused governance model.

They each have brought their own talents and strengths in so many ways.

And this experience for me would have been very different had I not had the playbook that each of them had set out in their own specific way.

specifically for Director Hampson when I look back on the leadership that I have been entrusted with by my colleagues up here.

There have been so many instances where I knew that I could call Chandra expecting to have a five minute conversation and we would be on the phone for two and a half hours and I got a lot of education on things that I was not expecting.

But that ultimately made me the president that I am today.

The same could be said for Director Harris, expecting to have a five-minute conversation to get her opinion on something that might be before the board, and then looking up and realizing that the sun had set and my fiance, Elizabeth, was angrily looking at me to get the heck off the phone.

I, for one, am really confused about how this board is going to feel, given that this is going to be the first experience that I'm going to have with neither one of you here.

And I know I almost feel as though, like, going back to the ideological part, when I'm making decisions and leading, I have Leslie on one shoulder and Chandra on the other.

I'll let you make your own assumptions about which person serves which role.

I'll let that set in a little bit.

However, what I think is probably the most important thing that I could say in this moment is just thank you.

Because this job oftentimes is unforgiving.

It can be very difficult.

But the energy, the poise, the smile that both of you have brought to this work in the face of some really difficult things, for me personally, has been an inspiration and has given me great context on what it means to be an elected official, but even more importantly, a school board director.

Because it's not about us.

It's not about the board.

It's not about the district.

It's about the students.

And whether you want to accept it or not we are on a path to greatness because that is what our students deserve.

And so in this moment expressing an immense amount of gratitude and hiding an immense amount of sorrow for the fact that you two will not be joining us on this dais.

probably joining us from the stands, hopefully, holding us accountable continually.

From the bottom of my heart, on behalf of our district, our city, our communities, and especially all the board directors who have come before you, all the ones that will come after you, our student board members, There are not enough words that I could say that would stack up to the amount of gratitude that each of you is owed in your own special way.

So I was not as thoughtful as Superintendent Jones with actually getting living plants, but mine smell a lot better than his, so.

I would just like to present you with a small token of appreciation from not only the board but also my fiancee Elizabeth who sends her greatest, greatest congratulations and the hope that I too one day will be able to be in a position to have this type of celebratory moment.

So again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much for all that you've taught me.

And I'm sure that my colleagues will have additional words of gratitude and accolade for you as well.

All right.

I am done.

If anyone else.

OK.

Director Rivera-Smith by all means.

Lisa Rivera Smith

Thank you.

We are it is it is it should be noted that we're losing two former presidents who Both served in the greatest capacity you can for this board and and there's there's no way to thank you enough for that service I I think Like you mentioned these are two very passionate board members who I think have a lot more in common than they do apart because they both will do whatever they need to do to make this the best district they can.

I remember when I was a candidate the first time four years ago and and I started coming to board meetings and Director Harris then President Harris did not pause to let me come and be part of the discussions.

and be part of, you know, like literally sit at the table, even though I was not yet anything, I was not official at the time.

And I just thought that was amazing and was very welcoming and just showed that Director Harris truly believes everybody should be at the table, truly wants to give everybody the opportunity to do that.

I remember in public testimony would even respond to people from the dais, which was, that's because who she is, that's who Leslie is.

Her spunk, her honesty, and her respect for people shines in everything she does.

I sometimes, I literally do sometimes, we're doing things up here and I think, what would Leslie do?

That's who I wish I could be.

I wish I could be as brave as you sometimes and as outspoken.

We all bring our own style though, and that's yours.

I'm never going to be that proud to the degree you are, but I appreciated every moment that you've been here to do that.

And Director Hampson as well.

Definitely you know saying you know your truth.

Every opportunity you have and it has made this district better.

Both of you say what you mean and mean what you say.

So thank you for that.

And I don't have anything living but I do have some.

So I don't know if you really want to put these up at home but you want to remember us all.

Liza Rankin

President privilege Okay, I'm gonna try to be uncharacteristically brief and And I've already given you a physical token of my appreciation.

But I as Director Hersey said and Director Rivera it's weird to imagine being up here without either of you.

I mean it's weird to imagine being out there without.

One of you by my side and one of you up here.

It's just like I have the trajectory of this district and of my personal involvement in advocacy from 2015 a little bit before 2015 and to now has had both of you inextricably inextricably woven into it.

And I think I just said I was going to breathe ha ha ha.

The commitment that both of you have to students above all else is I may even like want to have a little picture of each of you just to remind me that that's that is what we are here for.

OK great.

Perfect.

That's what we're here for.

That's why we're here.

I mean Director Harris's commitment to.

I mean transparency but but what I will really carry with me from you is is the focus on curriculum because there are so many different things that we need and want and so many different issues at the heart of it.

Our obligation is education.

And what our students need and our teachers deserve is the support and resource in learning materials.

I mean and that's you know that's something that that has gotten pushed aside because it doesn't seem as emergent as some other needs but it's the heart of what we do.

And so I will be forever grateful for your focus on.

The materials that support our teachers in doing their work and support our students in learning and kind of on the opposite side of the spectrum.

What I will be forever grateful to Director Hampson for is the focus on governance and our time as a board and how what we do matters a lot.

It matters so much that until we focus on our job.

I'm not going to be brief.

Our job as a board that nobody else can or will do is to be accountable to the public for whether or not the district is serving our students whether or not students are learning.

Our one job is. to be able to answer the question how are students doing and how do we know.

That's it.

There's other things attached to that.

But ultimately our job is to represent our whole community and be able to reflect back to the community whether or not this organization is doing its job in meeting the needs of our students.

And if we stray from that and get dug into other things, nobody else is going to fill that role.

It just won't happen.

And we won't know.

And kids will continue to suffer.

And we will continue to fail them.

And so I just my undying gratitude and you will not be you know our connection doesn't stop here.

But that that ultimately that focus on the board focusing what it does on making sure that the district is doing its job for kids.

And Leslie's focus on making sure that that people have what they need in the classroom so that students learn what we want them to learn are.

I cannot think of bigger contributions that you could have made to this district and to our entire community.

So thank you so very much.

Michelle Sarju

Is this on?

Yeah, it is.

I don't really need it anyway.

So I've been on the board for two years and partly it's Chandra's fault.

I mean, I did answer the call of the ancestors.

I really felt like I didn't have a choice and I will be having some words with them when I get up there, wherever the there is. about why me, but as Gladys Milton said, why not me?

And that walk that we took in Volunteer Park, I didn't even know you.

I mean, I heard your name, but I didn't know you.

That was the beginning of our relationship.

and me being here, you will forever owe me for this.

You know what you owe me.

But one of the profound ways that I have not publicly stated Chandra's influence is she has, I don't even know what the word is but, You are responsible for me embracing my entire identity, which is something I had not done before I met you.

And you know what that is.

I don't need to say it to you all, because it's actually nobody else's business.

But she knows what it is.

And if my grandfather were still alive, I would be able to tell him it was you.

Because he's been talking about this his entire life, my entire childhood.

And for whatever reason, not that I couldn't embrace it, I just didn't.

And there wasn't a negative reason why, I just didn't.

And so because of you and your family, particularly one of your children, you can let them know they have had a profound impact on this old lady who is now fully embracing her full identity and not hiding it.

That one piece, I'm never hiding that.

Game on.

I don't need to hide that.

So thank you.

I can't, there really aren't a lot of words that I can say, but I want the public to know.

And I want, if there are any children in here, I want you to know, you never know who's gonna make a deposit in you that will change your trajectory.

You gotta be on the lookout.

It can happen as a third grader, it can happen as a 60 year old.

Leslie.

All summer I went to my backyard to smell the tiny little blooms of lilac on that bush you gave me.

I'll take it.

For the children in the audience, I think Leslie would agree.

We don't always agree.

We don't.

We have different viewpoints.

But what we represent, it is possible to have differing opinions and both be right.

Sometimes we're just flat out wrong, period.

If you're an adult who can't admit when you're wrong, I feel sorry for you.

Because we need to model what it looks like to be wrong, to admit we're wrong, to say we're sorry, and to move on like adults.

Our children are depending on us to do this.

So while I may not always agree with you, you have my respect, period.

I can't eat your lasagna.

because I'll suffer for three days after.

Not because it's too much cheese.

I can't do it.

I just can't do it.

I can't have that pizza back there either.

I'd like to, but I can't.

I'm going to do my best to come by on Sunday.

I'll be coming from Burien, where I don't really have an excuse around why I can't stop by.

So I'm going to put it on my calendar, and I'm going to have alarm go off, because otherwise I'll forget.

to come by your place.

I ask that no more than two other board members, no, oh wait, no, no more than one.

So I got dibs on this Sunday.

I got dibs.

If I'm not gonna make it, I'll text, I'll do a group text.

To serve, is this your third term?

To serve two terms.

in this volunteer role that is completely thankless.

This is a thankless job except for the children.

This is why we do this.

I'm not trying to build a political career up here.

And as far as I know, Leslie has said she ain't either.

So that's not why we're doing this.

We're doing this because we have a heart for children.

You have a heart for children.

Your own children have changed your life.

You've talked about that.

And at the end of the day, nothing else matters.

And so thank you for your gift of two terms of service.

You were one of the few board members who actually needed to work and collect a paycheck to pay your mortgage, right?

That's something, right?

Not all of us are in that position.

And you did it twice.

So thank you.

Thank you for your service.

And maybe we'll meet at a restaurant.

and you'll have whatever you have and I'll have whatever I have and we'll just have a good time.

But the public has to understand that serving two terms in this role with nothing to come after it is a big commitment.

And so for those of you who have opinions and ideas, run.

Put your name in the bucket and run.

Be an example to the children in this auditorium, that you mean what you say, and you say what you mean.

Hi.

I think, never mind, let me be quiet, because the media's here.

Thank you to both of you, and I look forward to whatever is in the hinder yonder for you all.

I look forward to either being on the sidelines or being lockstep arm in arm at some protest where we need to make a statement.

Vivian Song

Some of the things that my colleagues said are very familiar to me, namely what President Hersey said about a quick five minute call quickly became two and a half hours.

And I have also been kind of reflecting on what it will be like to serve in this role without the two of you.

And the truth is I know that I'm keeping your phone numbers in my phone.

I know that if I call you, you will give me the same thought partnership that you have so generously given me these last two years.

So I thank both of you very much for that.

I also want to take an opportunity to thank your families, because being in this role, I know what a huge sacrifice it is on their part.

I know the time it takes to serve in this role, and the two of you have gone above and beyond not just being presidents but truly above and beyond and the generosity of your time and Commitment to this district and that comes at a sacrifice to your family.

So please please tell your families how grateful I am for sharing you with this district and What I'm feeling right now in the words of Director Harris is that it truly has been an honor and a privilege.

So thank you both.

Brandon Hersey

It would be an appropriate time to clap.

If director Harris or Hampson would like to offer any remarks please take it away.

Leslie Harris

Wow.

I struggled with this but I actually wrote myself a script because with any luck at all I'll be able to read it and I won't lose it.

People are asking me how I'm doing and I don't have a good answer.

On the one hand I am thrilled proud filled with gratitude and on the other hand I'm gutted that we haven't been able to make the kind of progress that I look forward to nine years ago when I ran for this job that I wasn't looking for.

And I looked for a whole lot of folk and they all laughed.

And then my tough friend said put up or shut up Harris and those of y'all that know me know I'm not good at that.

So here goes.

I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to serve these past eight years to the staff the boots on the ground folks who every day serve our students in over 100 schools.

Nutritional services librarians custodians ground folks nurses IA's front desk folks that provide the backup here in this building.

Capital projects team curriculum specialists student health team the Native American Ed team the comms team counselors social workers accountants payroll and enrollment specialists legal and many many others who are not recognized and cherished as much as they should be.

And happy education support professional day today.

And of course to our principals assistant principals and teachers.

Props as well to our labor partners and great to see SEA representation at the back of the room for most of our ledge meetings and work sessions.

In my fantasy world you'd be sitting at the table with voice not vote.

Thanks as well to our community partners including but not limited to the city's Department of Early Education and Learning deal.

King County's best starts for kids and many many more to our students who in the last eight years assisted by community partners have found a greater voice and wise input that is hugely appreciated.

Thanks as well to former board members and those I've been grateful to serve with.

Sue Peters Betty Patu Stephan Blanford Scott Pinkham Rick Burke Jill Geary Eden Mack Zachary DeWolf now Pullen Aaron Dury and my colleagues here at the dais.

We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and wish courage candidness and clarity to future board members to quote Superintendent Jones.

Clarity is kindness.

I must steal that one forever from you.

Also huge gratitude to the Seattle School Scholarship Committee of which I have been named a new vice chair.

So I'm not leaving the building.

It has been the most delightful and possibly the most impactful duty assignment I've had.

Did you know that we granted a quarter of a million dollars to students this year.

Three awards of five thousand dollars each to each high school including alternative high schools.

Students who are nominated by their counselors who know them best based on excelling in the face of high challenges.

Thanks to mentor Stephen Nielsen former deputy superintendent former assistant superintendents Concie Pedroza Peggy McEvoy Keisha Scarlett JoLynn Berge Kerrick Campbell Diane DeBacker Clover Codd Michael Tolley and others who quote learned me up and exchange thoughtful sometimes very opposing viewpoints and time toward better student outcomes and increasing.

transparency and trying to improve this wild system we call SPS to friends and family especially those who have paid a price for my service.

On the other hand my husband Michael has become a terrific cook in my absence and my daughter Monica.

who is brilliant in large part because of her Seattle public education at Pathfinder alternative school K through 8. She learned how to learn in kindergarten and she was a heck of a door knocker and understood when I wasn't there because of school commitments.

And Michael has helped cook more lasagnas, too many to count.

Monica's attendance at Pathfinder K through 8 is one of the major reasons that I am sitting here as well as Middle College High School who has saved countless lives including my foster and many other children I know.

To my former employer and staff colleagues who work with a crazy school board schedule I thank you.

And I know that that was rough on you.

But I do not apologize.

Lots and lots of wins and many failures but mostly a few remarks for the future to try and wrap this up and keep it shorter.

We need more transparency more learning up for the community and our friends in the legislature and OSPI and the city and county.

We need more civility pay for school board members to increase our representation and diversity and not limit our perspective prospective elected members to those with means or are retired or just a little bit nuts.

We need more arts and participatory athletics club and unified sports too.

Those are curricula that keep students in school and contribute to the quote unquote whole child and encourage lifelong learning more social emotional supports and more understanding of differing viewpoints laughter and friendship especially in these very dark times.

It sounds corny but this is emphatically not quote unquote a thankless job.

It is not.

I have met so many extraordinary people and learn more than I ever thought possible.

It has in fact been an honor and a privilege.

And hinder yonder I'll be here with open arms and an open phone.

Thank you.

Chandra Hampson

So that means it's my turn, which is really hard because all I can think about is the fact that we have work to get done.

I just want to get the work done.

And that's really what we're supposed to be doing up here.

And I sat through a lot of these in prior years when folks were leaving the board and had the same perspective on the other side of the table.

Why can't they just get to the work?

So that being said I do think it's important.

I am a big believer in ceremony and maybe not so much the planning of ceremony but I do think it's important to mark transitions and particularly when those transitions are marked by Tremendous upheaval and just overall change the environment that we are operating in as a team is about as intense as it's ever been historically.

And I don't think it's going to get less so.

I we're in the business of working on behalf of children and you can't bring up news lately without hearing about all kinds of devastating things that are in connection to our children here in the US our children in Seattle and all over the world and.

To to take that and translate it into nose to the grindstone work is the really difficult task that school board members take on because throughout the world throughout our communities particularly our most resilient students and communities we know that when you are armed with an education You are, it's the greatest weapon, most kind and compassionate weapon out there.

And you are the key to your own success and your own redemption and life path.

It's a key to access your joy.

Coming into an environment like Seattle Public Schools that has a relatively short culture and history and yet one that is pretty well established in terms of the culture that that exists in this institution and even on the board and.

And then and I got elected some of us on this board got elected and then the pandemic hit.

And to have done this to have come into that position to take on that role and have the the task of trying to be great on behalf of children.

is pretty daunting when, you know, there's, you feel like maybe the world is, everything is upended, not just here, but in the world.

So it's been a ride these last four years.

It has been a ride.

What I will say, and each and every one of you on this panel, and in this institution, and so very, very many children, so very many children, including my own, have contributed to the most transformative experience that I've ever had.

And I love change.

I love transformation.

You know, I didn't live in one place for more than two years until I until I moved to Seattle my second time.

So that was kind of a habit for me.

And yet, I've had to dig so very deep.

in this role in order to figure out how to show up in the most productive way for children and how to push away the cameras and the naysayers and the influencers and the you know whomever might want to for whatever reason not see us succeed.

And I think we all know pretty keenly that there are pretty acutely and painfully how many people would prefer that we don't succeed that we don't get along that we don't find a way to collaborate and work together that we don't get along with our superintendent that we get up here and fight because everybody loves a good battle our kids are in our schools videoing each other fighting.

and doing it intentionally.

And it's happening everywhere, and it's intense.

And that comes into this space as well.

And to be at this particular stage in life, And have that be the task.

I couldn't be more grateful to each and every one of you.

I mean we are all cemented in each other's brains whether we like it or not in some way shape or form.

But the challenges whether positive or negative the reactions and we're going to we're about to get into some more of it tonight.

have all been part of a really important journey in figuring out what it means to show up for kids every single time, put your own ego aside, and And and also probably the most important thing I know.

Director Rivera-Smith the one thing you had to say about me was that I do say what I mean what I say.

And yet it's actually not.

There's a lot that I don't say.

There is so much that I don't say.

I am always holding back and which is why you have those two hour conversations.

Brandon.

But.

The opportunity to sit up here and try to make the best possible decisions and to be brave there.

I think that the times when I haven't said what I meant have been because.

conflict in this city in this environment is Healthy conflict is not well received and and so it takes all of us a Tremendous amount of bravery to put ourselves out there at any point and say what we're thinking that we believe is the question or the statement that needs to be made on behalf of children.

And I think that's kind of my my biggest request from from all of you is to as we leave.

to of you know possibly the most vocal the loudest the hardest asses that you all dig into that bravery that you stay brave on behalf of kids because my god do they need it do they need us.

We are at a time when, I actually want to hear from Ayush.

And his wisdom, because we are at a time where I don't think adults have ever been more confused about what we need to do to support children.

The gap in understanding the dissonance is greater than it has ever been.

And I consider myself, of course, a really cool mom and cool auntie.

But I know that we are struggling to figure that I know our teachers are struggling.

I know our admins are struggling not because they don't want to do the right thing but because things have moved so fast and so quickly.

But it is at the end of the day it's on us.

I want to hear from Ayush because he is such an intelligent and thoughtful student and person and will have so much to offer.

And at the same time I still want to be his auntie at the end of the day and provide that scaffolding for him to let him know that I have expectations for him and that I believe in him that I have absolutely every thought that he's going to go on and do great things.

And but I believe that about every kid in this district every single kid.

And my dream is that at some point in the future of Seattle Public Schools and humanity that we get to a place where the one thing that we know is most impactful to students as they have somebody in that building that is telling them that that is giving them that message every day that is saying I believe in you.

You got this.

I know you're going to do great things and I need you to get your homework done and I need you to show up.

And and that having that kind of relationship with each other and then also with our superintendent.

That's that's the big learning.

And I hope that you all will stay stay brave in that and keep challenging each other in the best possible way with tremendous compassion and tremendous accountability.

And again I'm grateful.

This has been.

the hardest thing I've ever done and the most transformative thing that I have ever done.

And yes, my family is going to be really happy to have me back.

And my community is going to be really happy to have me back.

I really want to get back to the Indian country.

But also, you know, I still got three kids in Seattle Public Schools, so I am not going anywhere.

It's basketball season coming up.

You know y'all are going to be hearing from me in all kinds of ways.

And so yeah.

Pinagigi from the bottom of my heart.

I come from a long line of people committed to education and keep up the good work.

I believe in you kids.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

With that being said back to work.

We're going to go ahead and pass it to our student board member for student board member comments.

Take it away.

Ayush Muthuswamy

I just want to say I don't think I'm as great as saying as profound things as maybe Director Hampson might have made me out to be but I can't not acknowledge how amazing and wonderful Director Harris and Director Hampson have been.

And I know our time on this board has been short but the few brief interactions moments and conversations we have have shaped me and pushed me as a leader in ways that I don't didn't think could even be possible.

And you set a high bar for where I want to be both as a leader and as a person 10 20 and 30 years down the road.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't know who this board would be without you.

I don't know who this district would be without you.

I don't know how I would be without the guidance that you provided me and hopefully will continue to provide me as I move through my life.

And to Director Hampson's question about the divide between students and staff and.

I agree the divide continues to grow and will continue to grow.

But one thing we can't do is give up.

We have to keep trying and that's the only way that the divide will ever close and that will ever make progress in that area.

So don't give up just because we see obstacles just because we see difficulties cannot mean that we give up.

We have to keep trying.

We have to keep pushing and I know this board will and I know I will.

I also want to take a bit of a 180 here because I do have a responsibility in this role to be the voice for the 50000 students who can't sit up here.

So I want to talk about the fiscal stabilization information that's going to be presented at the meeting today.

And I want to first acknowledge that this is the culmination of months of work from district staff and feedback from thousands and thousands of community members.

But I want to remind the board and this district to please incorporate intentionally incorporate the voices and the direct student feedback on plans for the future of this district both fiscally and both overall especially from our youngest students because they've seen firsthand how this district has changed and how this district has challenged been challenged in these past few tumultuous years and more than anyone else in this room.

They are the people who will be most impacted by the choices we make today.

And there will be difficult decisions that we have to make.

And in those decisions I ask you please do not just think of the students and their needs but involve them in the decision making process equip them with the knowledge and resources they need to make those decisions for themselves.

Brandon Hersey

Thank you very much.

That deserves a round of applause for sure.

All right.

Doubling back.

Do we have any.

Actually we will begin with Director Hounsman Hampson for an announcement of completed internal audit and report from the most recent audit committee meeting.

Liza Rankin

Right.

Well Director Hampson is entering the longest password ever into her district laptop.

Just a very quick update from the policy committee is that we had a actually kind of a.

I would say like kind of a breakthrough.

in our last committee meeting where suddenly things kind of click together.

We're really getting comfortable with the policy evaluation tool.

And we have another meeting on the books the first week of December to kind of finish tightening that up and move into the next couple of deliverables.

So that will obviously be open to the public.

Welcome to join us in person here at the John Stanford Center or listen in online.

And then the other sort of WSSDA representative legislative liaison update is that I have been elected on behalf of the or by the board members in district.

It's district area 2 in WSSDA the Washington State School Director Association to represent King County districts on the WSSDA board.

So that is.

Elected by all board directors individually within that area and each each.

I think there's a I can't remember there's 11 or 13 but there's representation from each of those areas on the WASDA board and it is a three year term.

And you know I really look forward to some more meetings on my schedule.

So that's that's that's what I'm doing there.

Brandon Hersey

Director Rankin.

You ready?

Yeah I'm ready.

Take it away.

Chandra Hampson

OK so I'll start with internal audit.

This is the announcement about a completed audit which is a requirement of the internal audit policy.

Internal audit requires sorry board procedure 6 5 5 0 BP internal audit requires an announcement of completed audits.

As the Audit Committee Chair, I am announcing that at the October 30th quarterly audit meeting, the Office of Internal Audit presented an internal audit report on the prevention and response to employee and contractor perpetrated student safety incidents.

All audit reports are discussed at a public audit meeting and the completed reports are public posted for public viewing on today's agenda and on the Office of Internal Audit Department website.

As I mentioned to a constituent recently that was a once again a very robust and detailed internal audit committee meeting.

And as in our.

One of the reasons for that is when we revise the internal audit policy we're required that not only do all audits and reviews that happen associated with Seattle Public Schools regardless of who does them that they have to come through an audit response process through internal audit to give them for transparency purposes to make sure that folks understand that these audits took place and that they are seeing the corrective action plans in process.

But also because there had been so many audits that came through but didn't go through the reviews and audits and studies that had not gone through the internal audit process.

So we are still working on audits and reviews that were done as far back as 2018. I believe and so there is was some really really rich conversation related to the corrective action updates on those audits including the teaching and learning audit the nutrition services audit the there are always capital projects audits and in this case the initial just a really brief initial response to the audit on prevention and response to employee and contractor perpetrated student safety incidents.

That's different from a much more comprehensive review of building safety that the superintendent and his team are working with an outside Provider to do so if you are interested in hearing the audit corrective action response on that particular audit about Safety or any of the other audits they can be found on the internal audit website and the next quarterly meeting Will be in should be in March with a new chair of internal audit and encourage my fellow board directors some of whom I've already talked to you about Continuing on and or and or stepping up as the chair of internal audit and have talked to some of our new board members I know at least one is here are newly elected.

I guess it hasn't been certified yet so careful about what I say.

But anyway so I just like keep internal audit rolling.

It's a really good tool for this for this board.

That's my last report on that and my undying gratitude to Andrew Medina and his team.

Kimberly Fry and Amanda whose last name I'm forgetting right now but they have just been amazing and they are trying to keep us in compliance with the things that we say we're going to do.

So and then I have a brief update from a Tribal Liaison update.

I have my initial probably 10th draft of the Tribal Consultation Policy.

I'm going to read you part of it now.

Because this is the only one of the few chances the only chance I will have to present any of this from the dais but There is gonna be I'm gonna take it and and work it through with my fellow government to government Committee members we are presenting together at WASDA on Friday.

So encourage my fellow board members to come especially if you haven't Been to the training.

I know some of you have and But and to new board members to come to that that training.

I've also talked to Folks about the the tribal liaison tribal consultation role but so this is the the first part of this pause so it's one of the most difficult policies I've ever had to Right and I think you'll understand why when I get through I'm just gonna read the first part of it so that you can see where we're headed and if anybody is interested in Being part of the the work as this gets put into place Because the next step will be to send it back out to tribes to our tribes the Muckleshoot and the Squamish and and get their feedback on it and basically kind of begin the official tribal consultation process, which is now, it's required by law.

So it starts with land acknowledgments.

Both Muckleshoot and Suquamish have preferred land acknowledgments on their websites.

If anybody is interested, those are very easy to find.

We would like to acknowledge the federally recognized Muckleshoot Indian tribe, the ancestral keepers of the land we are gathered on today.

We thank them for their immense contributions to our state and local history, culture, economy, and identity as Washingtonians.

Muckleshoot is a party to both the Medicine Creek and Point Elliott treaties.

These treaties reserve governmental rights to the Muckleshoot people and recognize their usual and accustomed territory where they hunt, fish, gather, trade, govern, and live.

These areas include, forgive my pronunciation, Zalalook, which is now known as the city of Seattle, and surrounding region.

Zalalook is the traditional Muckleshoot place name for Seattle and means the shaking ground place.

Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people.

Every hillside every valley every plain and grove has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished.

That was said by Chief Seattle in 1854. We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is within the ancestral territory of the Suquamish people of the clear salt water.

Expert fishermen, canoe builders, and basket weavers, the Suquamish live in harmony with the lands and waterways along Washington's central Salish Sea, as they have for thousands of years.

Here, the Suquamish live and protect the land and waters of their ancestors for future generations, as promised by the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855. Tribes and tribal communities have lived and thrived within the Pacific Northwest since time immemorial.

Seattle Public Schools District 1 operates on the lands territories and waters of the Duwamish and Upper Puyallup peoples of the Muckleshoot Indian tribe and the uplands and waters of the Suquamish Nation.

Treaties with American Indian tribes along with the United States Constitution and federal laws are the supreme law of the land as stated in Article 6 Clause 2 of the Constitution.

Following the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, the first non-Indians arrived at Alki in 1851 to occupy what is now Seattle.

They arrived via the Salish Sea to a place where Lushootseed was spoken and the Coast Salish people lived along its shores in cedar plank longhouses where they had since time immemorial.

It was one of the most populated areas north of what is now Mexico City, rich with cultural and economic life.

In 1855, the U.S. government elected to enter into eight treaties, including the treaties of Point Elliott and Medicine Creek, with tribes in what is now Washington State.

The treaties promised in exchange for 60 million acres of land, the tribes' right to continue to hunt, gather, and fish without interference in traditional areas outside tribes' 6 million acres of retained reservation lands.

In addition, the U.S. government agreed to provide supplies, educational services, and medical care.

The government also agreed to protect Indian rights and lands that were reserved to the tribes.

In Washington, as elsewhere, tribes continued to possess property and self-government rights guaranteed under treaties and federal laws.

Each tribal reservation in the state constitutes a bordering jurisdiction subject to federal and tribal laws.

Seattle's first school was created in 1861. So it was from 1855 to 1861 governed by a school board.

In 1865 the municipal Seattle Board of Regents passed ordinance number five calling for the removal of Indians from the city despite the protections afforded and the ratified treaties.

A year later Chief Seattle passed away.

Seattle schools formally became a public institution in 1870 the same year the U.S. government burned down the Old Man House an important winter longhouse that had been occupied for at least 2000 years in Chief Seattle's Suquamish home.

What followed was a period of formal and informal exclusion removal and dispossession via the Dawes Allotment Act in 1904 and forced assimilation of children via Indian boarding schools starting in 1860 on through the 20th century.

During this same period Seattle Public Schools expanded dramatically and by 1919 consisted of over 81 schools and fifty one thousand three hundred and eighty one students.

In 1924, Native American Indians were granted citizenship in the United States.

As of 1940, there were only 222 Native American Indians in the city of Seattle.

Then began the Indian Termination Policy period of the U.S. government, which included the Relocation Act of 1956. This was another period of forced assimilation, moving tribal members from reservations to urban areas like Seattle.

Seattle schools took its first census by race in 1957. By 1960 there were at least 3000 Native American Indian Alaska Native residents of Seattle.

Today Seattle Public Schools has 1311 Native American Indian and Alaska Native students with 153 representing 25 of the 29 federally recognized tribes of Washington State and hundreds more, including my own children, representing the remaining 573 sovereign tribal communities in the United States.

Next is an offer of apology.

The time is long overdue for the elected officials of Seattle Public School Board to acknowledge and apologize for the harmful experiences Native American Indian and Alaska Native First Nations Native Hawaiian and other indigenous identified students have had at the hands of our educational institutions past and present whether through action or inaction.

In response, we commit this body and this institution to not only fulfilling our consultation obligations as required by state and federal law and contracts, but to a moral and ethical obligation therein to create the conditions for increasingly better outcomes for Native American Indian, Alaska Native, First Nations, Native Hawaiian, and other indigenous students.

Then I go into our commitments that are specific to as dictated by both by law at the state and federal level, as well as some specifics related to the requirements for a to form a procedure at the board level and a procedure at the policy level.

I mean, at the.

Superintendent level.

So still a little bit of work to do.

It's mostly formed.

As I said I'll be talking more about this Friday at WSSDA but anyone who wants to check in with me it has significantly more background than we would normally have in a policy because this board and the staff of Seattle Public Schools unlike.

Hopefully our students have not had.

I've had very very limited education about the history and the background of Native people in this country.

And so I think it's important that that stay until such time as the people who are sitting on the board actually had that education through Seattle Public Schools and see that it's no longer necessary.

So thank you for that and taking time to listen to that during this Native American Heritage Month.

Brandon Hersey

Thank you Director Hampson.

Do we have a report on our legislative activities.

Lit.

Thank you.

Do we have any additional liaison reports tonight.

Equally lit.

Thank you.

Finally any additional board engagement for us to discuss tonight.

Go for it.

Leslie Harris

Sunday.

Brandon Hersey

The final lasagna.

Sunday.

Leslie Harris

Lasagna District 6 community meeting.

Please come join myself and director Sarju and one other board member for a district community meeting where we can listen to our constituents and we can trade constructive criticism and.

I have learned so much for folks who have given us perhaps the most invaluable gift and that's their time.

And please know as well that staff is more than welcome and will treat you right.

Thank you.

High Point library on 35th Avenue Southwest 2 to 5 Sunday not a Saturday.

Brandon Hersey

Thank you very much.

Okay, we will next go to public testimony.

We will be taking public testimony by phone and in person as stated on the agenda.

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

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones or step forward to the podium, and only one person should speak at a time.

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

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

Time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins and the new speaker will not be called again later if they are on the testimony list or waiting list.

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

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

The board expects the same standard of civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects of itself.

As board president, I have the right to and will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standards of civility required by board procedure 1430BP.

A speaker who refuses or fails to comply with these guidelines or who otherwise substantially disrupts the orderly operation of this meeting may be asked to leave the meeting.

Staff will read off the testimony speakers.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Good evening.

When I call your name please unmute by pressing star 6 on the conference call line if you are remote.

And as I go through the names please feel free to reintroduce yourself especially as I may not get the pronunciation correct.

First on today's testimony list is Joanne Ko.

SPEAKER_21

Hi my name is Joanne Ko.

Thank you to the board.

for your service and this opportunity to speak.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Can everyone hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

SPEAKER_21

Okay, great.

I am here to strongly urge you to keep our small schools open.

I just have four quick points.

Small schools are happy places.

My two Children are students at Decatur Elementary.

They love their school specifically because it's small.

Miss Miller, Their school librarian knows that one child loves adventure fantasy books and that my other child loves comic books.

She makes personalized recommendations every week for every student.

Mr. D their PE teacher makes class so fun that they are laughing and talking about it after school.

Their art teacher Ms. Monroe has the time to explain block printing and making intricate origami flowers.

They know their lunch lady the janitor the garden outside and the playground.

Teachers immediately bring up issues with parents.

They can do this because our school is small.

Second, we are diverse.

Though we are an HCC school, we are also an E2 school.

70% of our students come from families of color.

These are kids who need an accelerated curriculum along with special education for their learning disabilities.

Decatur is their incubator, their safe place to learn.

Three, Please be our partner in preventing the mental health crisis that's looming.

Our kids lost kindergarten to the pandemic.

They started kindergarten staring at an iPad for four hours.

First grade was at Bryant, our large neighborhood school.

They entered Decatur in second grade.

They're just starting to feel a sense of stability, security, a belonging.

Closing schools is insanely stressful for students and parents.

Believe me when I tell you that these kids will remember this school closure forever.

Most importantly and this is my last point.

SPS made a promise that if our kids started at Decatur we would go through fifth grade at Decatur.

200 families relied on this promise.

We are one of those families.

I know a lot of us will be forced to move or homeschool or some of us will have to take out loads for kids through private school.

Does it make economic sense to lose all these students.

That's 100 fewer students who can rely on Seattle for a quality public school education.

Thank you.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Vivian Van Gelder.

SPEAKER_18

Good evening directors and Superintendent Jones.

My name is Vivian Van Gelder.

And I am the current Vice President of Seattle Council PTSA.

And I'm here this evening to speak on the topic of the proposed financial planning and budgeting policy.

PTA is a national organization whose mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.

Seattle's PTAs and PTSAs are part of the oldest and largest child advocacy association in America.

I'd like to note here that the board's proposed policy aligns closely with the following PTA purposes and positions.

First, one of the stated purposes of PTA is to advocate for fiscal responsibility regarding public tax dollars and public education funding.

We appreciate that this policy would direct the superintendent to consider all of the cost drivers that contribute to the financial financial situation of the district and to steward public funds to ensure long-term sustainability in a way that places the needs of students at the center.

This policy also aligns with PTA's stated positions on fundraising and equity by explicitly addressing the role played by supplemental fundraising at specific schools.

In addition to this long overdue focus on equity and fundraising we appreciate that the policy would increase budget transparency.

This in turn would help to ensure that all sources of funding that come into the district are used in a coordinated way to support the critical goal of improving student outcomes.

We also commend this policy's built-in annual revision schedule that would enable it to always reflect the community's current priorities.

If done intentionally and equitably, bringing in the priorities of the community, of families, and especially of students will add a critical perspective to budget decision-making that is currently largely absent.

We commend your steadfast commitment to centering outcomes for students.

We look forward to continuing to partner with you to ensure our brilliant students are equipped for the bright futures they deserve.

Thank you.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Samantha Fogg.

Samantha Fogg will be followed by Alex Wakeman-Rouse and then Erin McDougal.

SPEAKER_22

Superintendent Jones and members of the board.

My name is Samantha Fogg and I'm speaking tonight as a parent of three Seattle Public School students and as an advocate and I'm here to set to testify in support of passing the financial policy.

For years we have talked in community and meetings and in so many spaces about the need for strong financial policy for transparency for accountability and for creating the framework that is necessary for staff to understand their obligations around aligning budget with community vision and values.

Tonight the financial policy is on the agenda and for that I am both grateful and excited.

When it comes to finances and budgets, our district needs to be forward thinking, not focused solely on compliance.

Our students deserve more than mere compliance.

We need to think not only about meeting student needs today, but how to meet student needs next year and in the future.

How to think ahead about where we're going, not just scrambling to meet the needs of the moment.

And having a strong financial policy moves us in that direction.

We need our budget to align with our vision and value.

This is how we get there.

We hear the words transparency and accountability a lot in community, but we need the mechanisms and the framework and this gives us that.

I would like to take a moment tonight to thank Directors Hampson and Harris for their service, for your sacrifice, because we know that the work of the Board is hard, for your work and for your leadership.

It is with deep appreciation for both of you and to all who continue to serve on our Board and to our staff that I just wanted to say thank you again for bringing forward a financial policy that will give clarity to staff so that we can move forward in this difficult financial time to get our students what they need.

Thank you.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Alex Wakeman Rouse.

Lisa Rivera Smith

Hi I'm Alex Wakeman Rouse proud SPS alum and a parent of a student at Dunlap and Rainier Beach.

And my mom also worked for the district.

So a lot like you Dr. Jones.

First off I want to thank Director Harris and Director Hampson for your service.

Thank you so much for all that you've done for our students and staff.

And two minutes is really hard by the way.

I'm part of a citywide movement called All Together for Seattle Schools.

We are caregivers we're community members we're educated we're united in our belief that that we need to be.

You all need to better partner with us in the face of this budget crisis and the state should amply fund public education.

So I want to first say thank you to Miss Redmond and Dr. Jones for recent communications about school closures.

That is the honest and transparent information that we're really looking for.

We want you to not shy away from the hard stuff.

But I still don't support consolidations even if you're pushing it away.

We're not convinced that it's going to solve that it's going to help student outcomes.

And since you are going to explore it we implore you to start engagement now.

Engagement must be accessible, it must be two-way, and it must be honest with families about fiscal realities.

And things have not been totally up front and honest with families about that.

I also want you to rethink how community voice is solicited and whose input is actually represented.

I'm the new PTA president at Dunlap.

We are Title 1 high poverty school 95 percent BIPOC 40 percent ELL and I was not included in developing or reviewing this financial policy or the stabilization plan.

We lost two teachers in the shuffle.

I reached out to the board district and Seattle Council PTSA and nobody came and talked to our school.

So please do whatever it takes to move resources within the district toward accessible authentic family engagement.

Shoot five seconds.

So for the financial policy I'd love for you to not vote today.

But if you do please accept Director Song's amendments.

We really need to honor existing labor agreements.

We need to have that written down.

We also need to have written down that the district must communicate potential impacts of budget closures to family students and labor partners.

Thank you.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Erin McDougall.

Erin McDougall will be followed by Manuela Sly and then Sabrina Burr.

SPEAKER_09

Good afternoon.

My name is Erin McDougal and I am also a proud SPS alumni.

I have two students in the district right now and another coming up and my mom also used to work for the district.

I want to thank the board and superintendent for your service and for listening to the community tonight.

We need more of our families voices not only to continue to rebuild trust with all of us but also for creating good policy by helping to ensure that the strengths of our students and families are reflected in the policymaking process which I believe helps lead to better student outcomes.

While it's great news that you have changed course on closing schools for next school year knowing that this is still very much a focus in the following year puts a lot of stress on our families and school communities who are still suffering many years into this pandemic life.

Before you commit to cutting programs please have an honest conversation with the community about the budget needs.

Right now the broader parent community is not feeling engaged or communicated to in a transparent way in what are truly impactful policy decisions.

Let's work collaboratively and get creative.

Let's advocate together at the state legislature to fully fund our public schools before making major budget decisions for next year on your financial policy It's currently problematic and I'm concerned about the lack of community engagement leading up to the development and soon passage of this policy.

Frankly the vast majority of the parent community doesn't even know what this is and how much impact it may have on their schools and their students.

Please pause on your policy while the new board members are oriented.

Take the time to take your policy into the community doing due diligence to get input before you vote on it.

The resolution on fiscal stabilization.

Time up.

The action was not reviewed with the racial equity analysis tool.

Please.

This needs to happen on any budget related policy or resolution before we move on to pass it.

If you have to pass it now please look to Director Song's amendments.

We can do this together.

We can turn the ship around.

Thank you so much.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Manuela Sly.

SPEAKER_31

Buenas tardes good afternoon Dr. Jones and members of the board.

My name is Manuela Sly here to testify as a longtime Latino community advocate.

First of all I want to thank both directors Harris and Hampson for their service on the school board.

My deep gratitude for their commitment to our school communities.

I wish you much success in your future endeavors.

Please stay engaged and continue advocating for public education.

I came here today to elevate the voices of fellow community members from my Latino community.

I have engaged in the past weeks regarding the proposed financial policy in Spanish over the radio in person.

It has been a really great experience for me.

A financial policy that centers students in every decision is critical to ensure district, school board, labor partners, legislators, and community work in partnership to provide all students with the best opportunities to succeed in their college, career, and life path they may choose while recognizing and dismantling the deep inequities in our school system our students from underserved communities face every day.

Our Latino community finds of particular importance the much needed support for a school board to authentically engage with community in a renewed inclusive fashion.

We appreciate each and every one of you for making it possible to with limited resources to engage with families and parents.

The constant takeaway is that, time and again, the most privileged voices are afforded a seat at the table, and communities that face a number of barriers, including language and access, are excluded.

So thank you so much for the opportunity to bring forward the voices of members of my beloved Latino community, and please approve unanimously this transformative financial policy.

Gracias.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Next is Sabrina Burr.

Sabrina will be followed by Michelle Campbell and then June Noe Ivers.

SPEAKER_11

Tonight I'm very emotional.

But first I do want to thank Leslie Harris and I want to thank you.

When I was Seattle Council PTSA president people don't know that you checked in on me.

People don't know that you gave me respite.

And I want to thank you.

You haven't always gotten along.

But one thing I know about you you've always done the best that you have thought for kids.

Chandra thank you.

Thank you for being tracked down and saying yes and I'll leave it there.

You know.

My heart is full because for the last week and a half I've been dealing with an isolation and restraint case that I won't talk about.

But will I talk about yes.

Five six and seven year olds coming to our school.

Young boys that look like Dr. Jones and President Hersey used to look and we amputate their spirit.

We steal their childhood because we don't have the resources.

We don't have the funding and we don't have the belief in the love.

I sat with the early learning program.

This early learning program told me that they failed this young man because they loved them too well and they did not prepare this young man for the abuse and trauma that he would receive in Seattle Public Schools.

This baby is five.

This policy has been in community for years and what I want to say Is collective bargaining agreements supersede everything.

So I don't know what people are talking about.

For my community you have been failing kids for 70 years.

School board directors.

When is too long.

I beg you.

I implore you.

Please, unanimously, unanimously vote in favor of this policy.

It gives the superintendent the guidance.

We cannot stay in fear and disbelief.

Fear are the cheapest seats.

Let's go to the high place.

Let's lead with love because I believe everybody who has this voice everybody who stands up for kids do it because they love kids.

But too often adult stuff.

Get in the way.

Let's back up.

Let's get out of the way and let's do the job of not only graduating kids but graduating with mastery with love for learning.

for they can go out and fulfill the potential that they were divinely created to be.

Every child, every color, and every ability.

That's what everybody should want for our kids.

And this policy is a step forward.

Please vote in favor, because our children, they are not well.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Michelle Campbell.

Michelle Campbell.

Michelle it looks like you're unmuted on the conference call line.

Oh and if you press star six one more time we should be able to hear you.

You are unmuted.

Do you want to try speaking or make sure your device is unmuted.

I'm going to move to the next person but I will come back around.

Next is June No Ivers.

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

I'm going to move to the next speaker, Chris Jackins.

Chris Jackins

My name is Chris Jackins Box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4. On outgoing board directors I wish to thank directors Harris and Hampson for their service to the district.

On the personnel report under separations the report lists school board office staff Jamie Love and legal department staff Carol Rosimovich.

I wish to thank Ms. Love and Ms. Rosimovich for their service to the district.

On the fiscal stabilization plan I have helped parents go to court against past school closures.

I will happily pass along the names of attorneys who can help.

I have written up a number of ideas to deal with budget gaps.

There's some 10 pages I've given to you.

Nine points.

Number one use the interest on capital funds to pay for instructional supplies as allowed by RCW 28A 320320. Number two use a new city of Seattle levy to cover budget gaps.

Number three reduce expenditures on screen focused teaching technology.

Number four request transportation safety net funds to address racial imbalance under WAC 3 9 2 3 4 2 0 2 5. Number five provide more real choice to all families.

Number six get rid of inflexible rote funding formulas.

Number seven increase teacher salaries increase classroom aides increase class sizes.

Michele Campbell

I'm going to talk.

I'll be right down.

Chris Jackins

Number eight keep and expand alternative schools to decrease special education costs.

Number nine do a better job with capital funds.

Also a previous board adopted a resolution to acknowledge and give support to the Duwamish tribe.

Please explicitly reference that resolution.

Thank you very much.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Charlie Liu.

Charlie Liu if you're on the phone if you could press star 6 to unmute.

SPEAKER_32

OK.

Can you hear me OK.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Yes we can hear you.

SPEAKER_32

OK good.

Hello everyone.

Yeah this is Charlie part of a parent of Seattle public students.

Today.

Thank you very much for giving me a chance to have three points to share with you and the SPS.

First I want to say please do not drink a poison to quench thirsty.

Why.

Here's the data circle SPS should know.

SPS is trying to keep more students.

Schools with HCC program like Decatur have attracted a number of students families to participate in the program from locals surrounding cities even out of Washington state.

Now if the schools like Decatur with the HCC program are closed the enrolled student number will drop further down as Seattle school system will no longer have more highlights to retain those families.

This is definitely not the Seattle Public School I want to see.

Indeed I have already heard several HSE program families are planning to leave Seattle soon if the program is closed.

Second SPS is depriving a group of kids special education rights.

Charter schools and programs are special education.

Going to a charter school can offer real benefits to some kids with learning and thinking differences.

This is an important legal right for kids in special education.

If SPS takes away that right, sooner or later, it may face a potential group lawsuit.

Third, not only kids, the city of Seattle's future needs more schools not closed with HCC programs, but open more to kids and build a stronger global urban competitiveness.

Do you think We need to talk about this more?

No, I don't think so.

Briefly, Decatur as a charter school has been fulfilling all those kids' needs.

Please do not close.

Further, please do not stop and build a stronger and better education program for Seattle's future.

Thank you very much.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Amy Carroll.

Amy Carroll.

SPEAKER_29

Thank you.

These opinions are my own.

I represent only myself in sharing them.

Please be fiscally responsible and consolidate some schools and close some buildings.

I know I'm advocating for the potential elimination of my own job.

I work for SPS I'm also a former former teacher and a former parent.

At a minimum, each building requires a principal, admin secretary, half-time office assistant, one day or more of nursing, a custodial engineer, at least a part-time evening custodian, a part-time kitchen manager, also utilities, water, heat, lights, as well as maintenance of building and grounds, and bus transportation.

My very rough estimate puts these costs at A million dollars per building?

It's likely very much more.

Bellevue elected to close two schools last spring and open this fall with two fewer buildings functioning.

In the same period of time Seattle has decided to wait.

Being in a leadership position like you are requires difficult decisions that will inevitably leave some constituents unhappy.

That doesn't mean they're wrong decisions.

Deciding to close schools is not easy but that doesn't mean it cannot be done.

Parents will be up in arms about the harm being done to children by school closures but children are resilient and absorb the attitudes of the adults around them.

If we consolidate two partially full schools into one, not only do we save on some of the duplicate staff I referred to earlier, but we'd be more likely to have more fully resourced K-5 schools with music, art, PE, library, nursing, and counseling available to more children.

It's in everyone's best interest to close buildings save money and staff the buildings.

We do have more completely.

I was deeply disappointed to read the message sent out yesterday about the board's decision to not decide this year.

If possible I respectfully ask you to please reconsider.

Thank you for your time.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Next is Nolan Jones.

After Nolan will be Sherrilyn Crowther Erica Ruebery.

Brandon Hersey

Good afternoon or good evening to everyone.

I'm Nolan Jones.

I'm here coming in to speak with you guys for the very first time.

I just recently moved here to the Seattle area.

I'm living up in the north side of town.

I think that's district three.

And I wanted to let you guys know that I'm a software engineer, an inventor of the best keyboard that's been developed in 155 years.

Yes, this is true.

And the thing is, is that I've just recently set up a pilot program that's going to be put in place inside of one of the largest school districts inside of North Carolina.

I'm coming here to let you guys know that I would love for you to speak with me to get in contact with me.

I sent email out to some of the board members so that you guys will know that you should come and reach out to me.

And the primary reason why I know that my keyboard works because over the last five years I've been going across the country you know except for the pandemic year taking my product and showing it to young children, and they've been able to adapt to it within 15 seconds.

So within 15 seconds, you can give a young child, age of two, who knows their ABCs, they'll be able to type their ABCs, because my product is based off of logic.

And this logic is so intuitive that they can use it.

And I would love for you guys to contact me so that you can see how this could be used.

And this is just a quick look of it.

You probably can't see it from that distance.

But this is the keyboard.

But you'll see it inside of my email that I sent out.

So please reach out to me.

This is a game changer.

And I'll let you know.

Thank you.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Next is Sherilyn Crowther.

Cherylynne Crowther

Hello I'm Sherilyn Crowther.

I'm the co-president of the Seattle Special Education PTSA.

We help parents understand the special education system.

Systems in this country often fail those most in need of their services.

Shifting systems takes a heavy lift, but the needs are real.

For example, the lack of visual alarms for deaf and hard of hearing students at Roosevelt and Topps K-8.

This issue, already a year old, became very real to me after learning four deaf people were killed in that main shooting.

You cannot seek safety when you do not know danger exists.

Shifting the system also relies on working together.

The promise of engagement I've been hearing and I appreciate and I understand why we're all here too.

I'm concerned the communication work group ended without a clear outcome.

Student outcome focused governance was to lead to more community engagement as it took more committee time away.

Can we expect that in the next few weeks or months.

Preferably not in August.

School closures are postponed for now.

Obviously opportunity for more engagement but more cuts in central staffing and that's a little bit of a concern.

It's hard to defend bureaucracy.

Yet I recognize the special education services that support gen ed students with disabilities rely on multiple non-teaching staff.

Please consider equity in those cuts.

Thank you.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Erin Rewberry.

SPEAKER_20

Hi, my name is Erica Rewberry.

Thank you all for your service to our kids and our communities.

As the parent of a second grader at Decatur and a proud Garfield alumni myself, I've experienced up close for decades the immense benefits as well as the shortcomings of our HCC program and who has access to it.

Obviously this major overhaul is beyond necessary and I just want to say today that I am really concerned about the dismantling of the cohort model without clear meaningful descriptions of the alternatives that will be offered.

There's often been a characterization of HC students as a sort of privileged fringe group who are not representing those with the greatest needs in our educational system.

And given the history I understand where that comes from.

Yet I also believe that there are many many students across our very heterogeneous district deserving of a more just educational experience.

I'd like to understand why this has continuously been painted as a zero-sum game.

Please recognize that many HC students in addition to being highly intellectually capable are also neurodivergent choice exceptional have learning disorders and other critical and complex academic and social emotional learning needs.

Each one of them and the protected right to real highly capable services as their basic education.

Even in light of closures being deferred we at Decatur fear that we will fall victim to the vaguely referenced quote limited program adjustments.

and I ask that our community please be genuinely consulted in co-determining our future.

Others have already mentioned the commitment made that current HC students could remain through grade 5 within the cohort.

While the pathway model is far from perfect, it has served many students who are otherwise struggling significantly in their neighborhood schools, but some parents have even described it as life-saving.

As you all work to reset the baseline for high-quality education that meets student needs equitably across our schools, I hope that existing exemplars of unique programs that meet unique needs will not be thrown out with the bathwater.

Many families made a very difficult choice to opt into Decatur not knowing its future and further unnecessary disruption and transitions would be particularly harmful for many of our students.

In the worst case, if Decatur's building has to be closed as our population dwindles, then at a bare minimum, we hope and expect that our students could finish out their cohort classes housed in another neighborhood building to preserve the incredibly special community we have.

We expect the district to honor your commitment to our students.

We know there are no easy solutions here and it's an impossibly hard job you have.

We know that you can do it.

Thank you again.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

The next speaker is Karen Hartman.

Karen Hartman.

Karen if you're on the phone please press star 6 to unmute.

I'm going to move to the next speaker but I will come back around.

Next is Jillian Weiss.

Jillian Weiss.

If you're on the line please press star 6. Moving to the next speaker Jennifer Motter.

Jennifer Matter

Hi my name is Jennifer Motter president of the Seattle Education Association.

Speaking today on behalf of of SEA and other labor partners pass Seattle Building Trades Teamsters 174 Teamsters 117 and IUOE 302. Combined we represent 7000 approximately 7000 employees working in Seattle Public Schools and we support the amendments Director Song has submitted to the fiscal policies.

We first became aware of these fiscal policies once they were made public at the end of September.

At that point shortly after we came together as a labor partners to review these policies and provide our collective feedback.

And then we emailed that a couple of weeks ago to the entire school board.

Director Song's amendments capture our feedback.

We believe it will improve the budgeting process if the superintendent proactively engages and collaborates with students families and labor partners around the annual budget projections and potential impacts from budget changes.

This engagement would include both informational meetings as well as opportunities for school community members to ask questions and share their thoughts and feedback in real time.

It would be most helpful to the school community if the superintendent provides an analysis of how anticipated programmatic and operational changes compared to the prior year may affect our school communities in particular how these changes would impact student outcomes.

I know the school board is working towards more transparency and improving collaboration and communication.

And for that reason it is important to be explicit and capture those values in your guidance to the superintendent.

Thank you.

And on a personal note I just wanted to also thank and congratulate our directors Harris and Director Hampson.

Thank you.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Going back around now to the four individuals we didn't hear from earlier, maybe we could try if you are remote and you are one of the people we haven't heard from yet, go ahead and make sure you're muted on your device and press star six now to get unmuted on the conference call line.

Going back around, Michelle Campbell.

Michelle, I think we can hear you.

Michele Campbell

Can you hear me.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Great.

Michele Campbell

Thank you.

Good evening board directors and Superintendent Jones.

I want to thank you for the continued learning and growing you are doing together publicly fostering and modeling what it looks like to actively live our values in pursuit of our community vision.

The community has adopted anti-racism as one of our organizational values.

And if we're serious about this And if we're truly going to be accountable to all our students, it's going to require us to intentionally restructure our distribution of power and decision-making.

Student outcome-focused governance is a great start, and we need to keep going.

As we approach some very hard financial and structural decisions in the coming months, I believe approval of the financial policy on tonight's consent agenda is the next step the board can take to guide us in our anti-racist work together.

Your decision tonight is an opportunity to help our community identify and address long-standing inequities currently being maintained by our financial policies or lack of.

Your decision tonight is an opportunity to enhance trust, truth, and transparency in our collective work We cannot have second and third class students in public education.

Like Sabrina Burr just testified we have students actively being harmed in our school.

It's unacceptable.

Board directors I ask you to be brave and bold in your vote tonight.

Please vote to approve the financial policy unamended.

We cannot wait any longer.

Our students need this strong policy.

Thank you.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Again if you have not provided testimony but you're on the list please go ahead and unmute on the conference call line and keep muted on your phone until you hear from me.

June no Ivers.

June.

Moving to the next speaker.

Karen Hartman.

Karen Hartman.

And finally Jillian Weiss.

Jillian Weiss.

President Hersey that concludes today's testimony list.

Brandon Hersey

Thank you very much.

That concludes our public testimony for this meeting.

Thank you so much for coming out and sharing your thoughts and perspectives with us.

We greatly appreciate it.

We are going to take a let's do six minute recess.

Please be back immediately at 6 15 p.m.

so that we can get on with the rest of our meeting.

Thank you very much.

Brandon Hersey

I don't know.

Brandon Hersey

All right, we're gonna go ahead and get started.

We are gonna go ahead and get started.

All right, we have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda?

Michelle Sarju

I move for approval of the consent agenda.

Brandon Hersey

Can I get a second?

Lisa Rivera Smith

Second.

Brandon Hersey

Thank you.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Director Sardew and seconded by Director Rivera.

We will remove consent agenda item number five from the consent agenda in order to consider an amendment.

Do directors.

It is the financial policy if I'm not mistaken.

Do directors have any additional items that they would like to move from the consent agenda this evening.

What.

She said no.

She said.

All right.

Due to, okay, thank you very much.

Seeing none, all those in favor of the consent agenda, please signify by saying aye.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Brandon Hersey

Aye.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Thank you for the pizza.

Brandon Hersey

Yep.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

President Hersey, can I cut in?

Did you get a motion for the consent agenda as amended with number five removed?

Brandon Hersey

Yeah, I guess I sure didn't.

Since I did it, I felt like I didn't need one.

That's my bad.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda as amended?

Liza Rankin

approval of the consent agenda as amended.

Sarge you seconds.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

All in favor of the consent agenda as amended please signify by saying aye.

Liza Rankin

Aye.

Aye.

Brandon Hersey

Aye.

All right.

First turning to items removed from the consent agenda.

Liza Rankin

You ready for a motion.

Brandon Hersey

Ready for a motion.

Aye.

Liza Rankin

This is number five right.

Brandon Hersey

Yep.

Liza Rankin

I move that the school board adopt board governance policy manual policies financial planning and budgeting and administration of the annual budget and financial reporting as attached to the board action report.

These will be included in the guardrail section of the board governance policy manual.

Michelle Sarju

I second.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

This has been moved by Vice President Rankin and seconded by Director Sardew.

what we'd like to go to the sponsors of or do we need to recognize the amendment at this time as well.

OK.

Well that's what I'm asking.

One sec.

Hold on.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

If you put the amendment before you then you could probably just talk about both together.

Brandon Hersey

Let's do it.

OK.

Brandon Hersey

Let me back up a little bit.

Chandra Hampson

Mm hmm.

Brandon Hersey

One, just making sure that we're still in line.

I'm not missing anything on the talking points.

Okay, yeah.

Can we go ahead and have a motion for the amendment as well?

Vivian Song

Yes, I move that the school board approve amendment 2 to the board action report titled board governance policy manual financial planning and budgeting guardrail section administration of the annual budget and financial reporting numbering lettering system consistent with the board governance policy manual as adopted and Substitute the version of the policy titled governance policy manual policy category colon recommended guardrail financial planning and budgeting and interim policy GPM.G2 or 6000 as attached to the amendment.

To the extent the attached substitute policy conflicts with the information presented in the underlying board action report the substitute policy shall control.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Lisa Rivera Smith

Second.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

So in this instance we would go to the sponsors of the original BLULA BAR and then go to the amendment.

So just confirming.

Can I get a thumb.

I can't see through leather.

Thank you.

All right cool.

Right on.

Thank you.

Take it away Director Hampson.

Chandra Hampson

Well I will note that there were just some clarifying changes made.

Actually let me step back.

This is an amended version from introduction.

Chandra Hampson

Yes.

Chandra Hampson

And then in addition there were some misspellings and grammatical things that were corrected this morning.

There was one perspective.

Let's see.

How do I pull that up.

addition that our.

Attorney deemed was too late too substantive to be considered this late in the game.

So it stands as is.

And.

Don't want to say anything else about it.

We did meet with Director Rankin and I met with our numerous labor partners and PASS principals association and walked through some recommendations that they had.

Most of which we were not.

not amenable to.

It was just simply that they particularly the community engagement one and the notification of.

Programmatic changes were already represented in our minds in other guardrails.

And so.

I think it was a lot about clarifying that this is a direction to be from us as a board to the superintendent.

It's not a an administrative policy it's not meant to be specific.

We are hearing a lot of assumptions about.

a specific thing that this means but that's actually left to the superintendent to interpret and then.

Feedback to us as OK this is what we believe that this means and that's what the board would do with this for the next through June of just this next year as you all go through this this budget cycle it would inform the next set of amendments.

So I think that there are some both in the in some of the suggested amendments that Director Song has proposed as well as some of the other feedback we got there are things that could prospectively be included if we do ultimately feel that they're not represented elsewhere.

But at the end of the day this is a.

financial policy Not a community.

We do have a community engagement guardrail We do have a guardrail about not making programmatic changes without letting folks know I agree that those are incredibly important and we want the district to engage Families in the budgeting process and as we heard earlier today, we are still a long way from either the district or the board doing effective community engagement.

So it's a priority.

It needs to be a strong guardrail priority which which it is and I'm sure this board will look at strengthening that in the in the next round of goals and guardrails.

Do you want to add anything Director Rankin.

Liza Rankin

Yeah just in the context of.

Yes so thank you to the people who reached out like Director Hampson said we had the opportunity to talk with labor partners which is great.

And so what I want to acknowledge from what we heard from that is that.

Because this is a new because we're moving into this policy governance model where we are trying really deliberately to delineate between our governance policies about what the board does and how the board directs the superintendent.

And administrative policies, which are generally policies that are still approved by the board, but are about things that are legally required, like a policy around special education.

We're not going to sit and go, hmm, how do we want to administer special education?

You know, there's a law for that, and there's a policy connected to the law.

So we have been in the habit of kind of treating governance policies and administrative policies at the same level.

And so this is a shift.

And so I totally understand the kind of confusion or concern about you know what does this mean.

Does this mean that all of a sudden this can't happen at buildings this it doesn't.

And I. Like just I guess I just acknowledge that because this is a new type of policy it's not there's not a context for a lot of folks to put it into.

This is not about what anybody in buildings does or what any outside organization does.

This is us saying to the superintendent as you go through your process of planning the budget which we're doing right now for next year we have these iterative meetings.

This is basically saying we this is like pre setting our expectations for what would be contained in the budget saying we expect that anything you bring to us the board to approve would includes these things.

So for example clause 11. You we expect that a budget package being brought to us will include what funding sources for different things are and if it's coming from an outside group or a grant or something that's supplementing the operational functions of at a school that we just have transparency and know if that funding is if it's a one time funding if it's sustainable or not.

And if it isn't one time and it isn't sustainable, what's the plan to continue that expenditure?

What's the need being met?

And then also, if it's something that is a critical need of a school, is it a critical need of other schools?

And how are we ensuring that whatever service or position that that money is paying for, that, you know, well, how is that cost met at other schools?

So it doesn't presuppose any kind of changes to anybody's funding.

It's just saying when you bring us the budget you need to show us where the money is coming from and how that's incorporated you know how that's incorporated into like the weighted staffing standard.

Where, you know, is the allocation coming from the district or is it coming from an outside source?

If it's coming from an outside source, what's the plan to continue meeting that need?

Is that outside source going to continue to provide that or is this a one-time thing?

That's what that means.

And then, speaking of the funding allocations, you know, we, and I've said this before, in budget work sessions the weighted staffing standard is a formula for allocating staff out to our buildings that was created mainly for compliance and as a formula of distribution.

What we're saying with the where is it.

Number six is don't maintain that just because that's the thing that we have.

That was a mechanism created to allocate staff out to buildings made sense at the time.

We have learned and we can see that that that static allocation model is not meeting the needs of our students.

and schools.

And so we're saying don't you know figure out a better way aligned with student need and aligned with whatever other agreements about staffing that are out there to allocate those funds.

We're not saying what that would be because that's not our role but we're just saying we expect you to revisit re-evaluate and align distribution of resources out to schools with whatever is going to best meet student needs at the time.

So yeah I also in addition to the concerns about you know what does this mean for XYZ group.

I have also heard oh my gosh finally we're actually trying to add transparency into how our schools are funded where the gaps are and how we can close them.

So I think that's it.

Oh the other thing regarding meeting with labor partners is the other habit that we have that we're trying to get away from is kind of kitchen sinking all of our policies.

One policy comes up and we want to say oh also put this in.

Oh also put that in.

Oh but what about this.

And as we move through our policy manual.

and try to get really really clear on the existence of policy and what they do and holding ourselves and the district accountable for following them.

We don't want to duplicate direction.

So like community engagement should be in a community engagement policy that would include community engagement about the budget but the budget development policy is our guidance toward the superintendent about the expectations that we have on behalf of the community for what we will and won't accept.

in a budget development.

And I know this is a work in progress so we're a little bit like like building the plane while flying it.

But here's the other awesome thing.

This policy belongs to us.

So if we're like whoops that didn't play out the way we thought it would or we give direction to the superintendent and it's interpreted not the way we intended.

We just bring it right back here and talk about it again and vote on any changes and we can do that whenever we want as needed.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

So we will next go to the offer of the amendment.

Director Song.

Vivian Song

Yeah thank you.

So thank you to the community members that came and gave public testimony.

I think really what this comes down to is I think we're all in agreement about the what but we're having a conversation about the how and just kind of inverse.

I'm glad that there have been updates to this policy after our introduction and I appreciate the work that was done with that and I appreciate the time that you took and engaging our labor partners after they had put together some suggestions for us.

But kind of in response to some of the comments you just made.

I just want to counter them.

So.

Clause 11 in your version says allow building or other leaders to solicit or accept.

And your characterization is that it's this should be about delineation in their budget.

But that's not what the language is.

So the clause that follows that actually does say that failed to delineate in the budget the fiscal mechanism.

So I think clause 11 is asking giving direction to the superintendent to our building leaders not to accept one time funding.

It's really not about budget reporting.

And you know I understand that we're trying to do a policy governance and we don't want to be overly perspective with the superintendent.

We're supposed to be giving him guidance.

And yet I think the the clause that our labor partners suggested and I included in our amendment around the importance to do analysis of the impact I think that's really at the same level of detail that we are asking for and some of the other clauses like the clause around the use of grants and you know, I think overall I Will likely not be voting in support of this policy because to your point about duplicate direction I went and I looked at some of our financial and budget Policies that we have already in existence, and I am really concerned that this is actually giving duplicative Direction I would encourage us instead to take the time to Update those policies instead of adding another structure and so Yes Okay

Brandon Hersey

So I just want to clarify just so that we're all super clear.

Collective bargaining supersedes any policy that the board makes.

Right.

And so regardless of if we include that particular clarification in this document the same outcome would be true.

OK.

So directors I have a question to you would you have voted for this if the amendment was proposed.

So.

If the amendment were to pass you would vote for this piece.

Vivian Song

Yeah.

In the spirit of which piece.

Sorry sorry for the.

Brandon Hersey

You mean both.

Vivian Song

He's asking me if the amendment passes, will I be voting yes on the policy?

In the spirit of collaboration, because I understand what we're trying to do here, I will vote yes on the policy if the amendment passes.

I maintain my position that I think this is just creating another level of policy.

It doesn't bring the clarity that I think is necessary.

My preference would be to go back and look at our financial and budget policies.

And I actually went line by line to find where in the policy that references.

A lot of the reporting is already in existence.

The four-year, the multi-year requirement, that's state, like we have to submit that budget.

If you open up our budget book, the four years are already in there.

So I just don't know that it necessarily brings the clarity that we are hoping to, but in the spirit of collaboration, I will vote yes if the amendment passes.

Brandon Hersey

I don't have any other questions.

Liza Rankin

To the amendment, and I said this to our labor partners as well, one of the things that was added this morning that was deemed too significant to be a day of amendment was to add the, I guess it would be number 13. community engagement and because we are hoping or committing to that being in a policy that does not right now exist, I'm very comfortable with adding that part of the amendment.

for in partnership and in clarity that like yeah our expectation and our direction to the superintendent is to engage the community.

Ultimately that shouldn't belong here because it belongs in a different policy.

But as that policy is not in front of us to see I'm totally happy to like make that commitment there and then in June, when hopefully we have refined our governance policy committee, then say, oh, now it's here, so it doesn't need to be here.

I'm not comfortable, though, with the honoring collective bargaining agreements, because that is law.

And so we like why have that restatement of law and not like and while honoring special education requirements and like that's already a given.

And in fact because this is our direction to the superintendent who we've hired to operationalize that's already part of his obligation is to honor existing bargaining commitments.

We are not asking him to nor would we ask him to not Honor those.

And even if a board wanted to do that it would be a violation of state law.

Even existing policies that we have approved.

If there's a conflict between a policy and a collective bargaining agreement by state law the collective bargaining agreement wins out.

Well it's existing so that we wouldn't we wouldn't and couldn't say hey we said this.

That means you have to rebargain.

No because that was a commitment made for three years or however long the term of the contract is.

So I don't want to put that in here because that's already an expectation of state law.

And we're unless we're going to like the assumption of all of our policies is that it is within compliance with the law.

So we need to get out of the habit of having to reiterate everything because up front is following the law.

SPEAKER_99

OK.

Brandon Hersey

Go ahead Director Rivera.

Lisa Rivera Smith

And I kind of agree a little bit with that, the idea that if things are already state law, why are we restating them?

But that's actually why I'm kind of concerned with the last part of this part, the administration of the annual budget, which I'm still kind of fuzzy on what this is as policy category guardrails.

And I know we don't really have this yet, so it's sort of, again, kind of a new entity that I'm not even positive what this place is.

A lot of these are state law, or already doing them, or just don't belong here.

Number one, we're already doing.

Number two is incredibly vague, meet liquidity guidelines.

I can go on.

I'm actually not comfortable with this part as a whole.

So like, but I hear you, we're going to do this again.

We're going to look at it again next year.

We can refine it.

Um, because like, yeah, like even I really love the, you know, number seven about moving to minority owned businesses, but that does not belong here.

That's not about administration of the annual budget.

That's another whole policy.

Brandon Hersey

Could you say that one more time?

I couldn't understand.

Lisa Rivera Smith

Number seven, fail to provide contract and business preferences to a minimum minority owned and local businesses.

I like that a lot.

That does not belong in a thing called administration of the annual budget.

But I'm willing to work with this and understand that this is like a first version that we're going to still keep refining.

But it's kind of contradictory here to the idea that some of this is state law.

One of these is really just balancing a budget, which is what we're doing already, which is number four or number three.

Anyhow, my point is that a lot of this in this thing is already state law, what we're putting in there anyway.

So we're having it both ways, I guess.

I am more comfortable taking this all together knowing that we're going to keep working together taking more time to do it because I you know I hear that this has been worked on for a while and I know Director Hampson said last time that it's been available since April.

I saw it in September so I have not seen it since April.

I understand you've been working on it and some people saw it.

It was not made public till the end of September.

So that's how long a lot of us have had to actually look at this and dig through it.

And so I don't feel like we've worked together as a whole board on this just yet.

Willing to do that.

But I am in favor of the amendment.

And I think like Director Song if it passes then I'm going to be more comfortable taking this holding on for further work.

But I don't think I am if the amendment does not pass.

Brandon Hersey

Director Hampson.

Chandra Hampson

So I just want to provide a couple of points of clarification.

One the working on the existing financial policies really isn't an option.

And as much as none of them really rise through it using the tool that the that the committee has developed to look at what what is actually going to be considered a either a guardrail or a delegation right in the either it's something that we need to understand in terms of how we work together.

It's something that we have or it's something we have to really clearly articulate to the superintendent.

Or it's something that that is you know required by law.

Leave that whole discussion aside for a moment.

So the the reason to consolidate these and again I used the format that is common the very same format that is common amongst other districts in Washington state that use policy governance.

And depending on who you talk to who does policy governance as a as a framework that is one very secure way of going about it to make sure that we have something that has been tried and utilized in the state of Washington meaning it's abiding by the same laws.

100 percent agree that there are things that could be refined in here.

There's been tremendous.

I don't you know September.

I mean we're in November now.

There's been lots of opportunity.

We let it go.

Three meetings that I was very vocal.

We don't have a draft option which I've complained about endlessly in terms of having something be publicly posted which I would love to.

You might notice in the in the notes are the.

whatever section of our agenda.

There's another guardrail policy that that is that I'm putting forth.

So as soon as I could get it on an agenda we got it out there and it was always open for feedback.

We took a lot of the feedback from the prior meeting you know as Director Song alluded to and stated and incorporated that.

But this is meant to be a guardrail policy.

And it is a policy governance style of guardrail policy versus a much more succinct.

Student Outcomes focus guardrail policy because we are in a place where to the extent that that we have enough trust and enough relationship and enough clarity between the board and the superintendent that we know exactly how to communicate what it is that we need in order to make the decisions on behalf of kids.

And these are things that have stagnated for a very very long time.

that we tried to capture and these policies.

And it is truly a focus on what on our relationship with the superintendent what we need to have presented to us in order for us to make good decisions on behalf of children and to create transparency.

I mean one of the things that was brought up was around the the building level piece and.

You know, we carefully reworded that to make sure that it was clear that, hey, we're not asking.

This is actually a practice that SPS already does, where when you bring in grants, as we discussed at the audit meeting, you're supposed to check for alignment within SPS.

They check for alignment.

to make sure that that funding is actually going to go for something that is consistent with our goals, our vision, and our guardrails, our values.

And this is simply saying we need you to extend that level of transparency and that decision making to the building level for any funds that come directly to that building.

as resources that are going to be included in that school budget so that we can really see as as people have asked for years and years and years to see everything that's happening at the building level.

And also because again moving away from compliance to alignment we want to empower to demand that that building leaders are empowered and communities are empowered to really see what's happening.

It's it's impossible for Superintendent Jones to know how to support or propose a budget for other buildings that don't have you know a massive.

ASB fund right.

How how much money they need.

I mean we do have some accounting of that but we don't have any data about how that's being used and this is just saying like that the vote for this is really a vote for fiscal transparency and accountability at all the different levels of our of our district that we have not seen and being able to show us how that is reflective of children.

I mean how that is is aligned with the outcomes that we seek for children.

And yes, it needs to be To happy cleaned up, you know, the other parts of it are about there's there's kind of a three-legged stool of you know the planning right the fiscal planning the fiscal administration how that money is given out and by the way, some of this is is like a There are some things that are repeated for this purposes of state law that are part of state law that we're not currently effectively doing.

Some of it's for lack of systems, like the fees piece of it, right?

those are the kinds of things that that we need to restate and to be really clear about like this isn't something that that we're gonna wait we're not asking you to to wait to figure out how to do right by our students and by the demonstrating that alignment and showing you know like investment alignment versus compliance.

This is a long process.

You all will have conversations with the superintendent when he comes back about like whether or not they're able to do these things.

That was a very very clear conversation with our CFO.

That and that you know we develop this in conjunction with with them like the expectations that they would then make updates to those policies that you're talking about.

Director Song that are in the 6000 series because those are really on the implementation side.

This is not meant to have any implementation.

It's meant to say you know effectively as I think Superintendent Jones has stated it in one context is to please present an equitable budget.

And we're defining a bunch of different ways in which we know that needs to happen, because there are some things that are not happening that are pretty broken.

And once they start happening, hopefully they come off.

And it slowly becomes just a more generalized statement.

So I think that there's a lot to agree with.

I would hope, my real hope is that At the end of the day this is a relatively short term period to see how this language plays out in your relationship with the superintendent in terms of what you're able to get with in terms of information and what their capacity is to get this information right or to solve some of these problems.

And that you'll come back in June and having gone completely gone through this next budgeting or this budgeting process that we're currently in you'll have some more information to update it for the next round or you'll you know leave it for a while you'll make decisions about it.

So I think it really is a vote for transparency for fiscal transparency because that is the value and the alignment is the value that we owe our students.

Liza Rankin

One other quick thing about the legal piece is that what we're discovering in the ad hoc policy committee is that there's legal compliance, legally required, and that we need to delineate between what is legally required for the district to do and what is legally required for the board to do.

And then where those sometimes overlap.

So like the administrative policies, the different things are, there are reporting mechanisms that like a district is required to do that go to the state that we don't necessarily see.

And so this is our specific direction as the board.

We want you to provide us with this information.

In addition to the other legal things that you need to follow this is our ask as the board on behalf of the community about the information that you share with us as you're developing the budget that also needs to be compliant.

So it's we were talking about this earlier I think the different that instead of being compliance driven we want to shift to being values driven on behalf of our community with the compliance.

But our job is not actually.

The compliance part.

Our job is is direction and oversight and the superintendent's job is the compliance part.

So we allow compliance to be the only thing that dictates everything.

There's no values added to it.

So we're trying to add our values and our direction based on what we have heard years and years and years and years from community about wanting better clear information about why decisions get made how it works where the money comes from where it goes does it etc.

All right.

Brandon Hersey

Go ahead Director Harris.

Leslie Harris

Mad respect for the efforts put into this.

However I've got significant concerns in our last legislative meeting of this board's term.

Why.

We are not passing this on to the new board.

And please don't roll your eyes at me President Hersey that's disrespectful.

Brandon Hersey

I'm whoa.

Yo yo.

Leslie Harris

We have things in here that say fiscal impact indeterminate hasn't been run through the race and equity tool.

hasn't been run through the community engagement tool.

We heard.

Testimony tonight about community engagement.

And I appreciate that two of our directors have met with our labor partners.

But this is work session material a specific work session to learn up on this and what the unintended consequences could in fact be and I have real concerns as to whether or not Our staff has the bandwidth to put forth this information.

And one of the things that I wondered was point a point of inquiry was this routed through the departments like all the rest of our policies are.

And what was the feedback from staff.

I appreciate that the buck stops at Superintendent Jones's desk that we are a team.

Understanding the feedback from our impressive and important staff.

that Dr. Jones will necessarily be delegating a great deal of this work to is important to me.

And and I really appreciate the passion from which some of our folks testified specifically Ms. Sly and Ms. Burr.

And I don't think it's a question of of either or.

I think it's a question of and I.

I feel strongly that this deserves work sessions learning up coming at the very last meeting when you've got a new board to be seated is an overreach in my humble opinion.

I'm concerned about it.

You know.

Director Hampson and Director Rankin are absolutely correct.

We've been struggling with some of these issues for years and years if not decades specifically PTSA funding PTO funding booster clubs etc etc.

But it hasn't been until really recently that we've had a decent grant inventory given to the board and.

I think one of the things we all agree on is that the weighted staffing standard formula isn't meeting our needs.

And we've been.

Forgive the term carping.

on that issue for several years as well.

This this is too big a reach for me.

I think it needs to be split up in several ways.

I think it belongs to the next board and I think it is kitchen sinking to use Director Rankin's verbiage.

I will be voting no.

Thank you.

Brandon Hersey

Any other questions on this item before we move to the vote on the amendment.

Chandra Hampson

Yeah I mean it troubles me that y'all had some rough exchange there after after you know previous kind words.

I don't know.

Director Harris if you want to address that at all.

Leslie Harris

I'm speaking from my heart and what I believe my duty to be that does not negate any kind words expressed earlier tonight.

Thank you.

And these are not inconsistent viewpoints with which I have expressed previously.

Chandra Hampson

No no I just meant your interaction with director with President Hersey.

That's all I was referencing.

No.

So I think the given the sort of some things that are Kind of being attributed to this I think it's best that we just call for the vote because I think there's just an over.

You know like I don't know why I still haven't figured out why we have cameras here tonight.

It must be us.

It must be us.

They're going to miss us so much that they decided to bring cameras out.

I.

Liza Rankin

No it's because we decided not to close the schools that we never actually said we were going to close.

Chandra Hampson

Well OK it might be that it might be that.

So I I actually I just want to say I do think that this is the next board's policy.

This is teeing up the next board to take this see what you make what you will with it.

This is this is our new era of focusing on a very small set of policies.

that people who work full time will have the capacity to govern and manage their superintendent towards outcomes for kids by having a much more concise and clear set of things.

Is this it.

No this is our first shot at it.

And I think the simplest thing at this point is to just move forward.

I think if if we had more response earlier about certain things we might have been able to to come closer.

But I think it's really just going to be a matter of time.

of seeing how these things play out and we have to be willing to take risks.

And this is a risk taking and we're going to get to talk about the superintendent's risk taking here in a minute which I'm very appreciative of actually showing our work right.

Like I'm asking that rather than wait until it's fully baked that we like our students have to do show our work that we show up having done our homework and we say this is my best shot.

Now what do you all think.

And let's fix it and make it better and then let's use it and then we'll learn.

in the next year and we'll do it better the next time.

It should build on it on itself and it should be looked at every year.

And you know all of unintended consequence bring them on.

Bring on the unintended consequences and let's change this district for the better.

Liza Rankin

The.

I want to address the idea of the next board.

We the board right now is the board and it is also all boards that have come before us because policies were adopted before any of us were here.

We don't start fresh every time there's a change to the extent that board directors do change over and oh my gosh superintendents change over.

We have got to provide something to our community that is consistent that is documented and that can be changed as needed.

I know that we're all very used to.

So here's the real thing with this whole policy governance thing the like buzz in social media which is not representative by the way of the community.

It's people that are part of the community.

For sure.

But it's not the vast majority or any but was that we were giving away our power.

And here we are trying to claim the power of the board on behalf of community by setting some governance policies.

That is what we have been authorized to do by the state and elected to do by the people of Seattle.

We're trying to actually take that power and say hey superintendent as representatives of the community these are our expectations of you.

This is the job we've hired you to do.

And people don't want us to do that all of a sudden.

It's I've got to say it is baffling and we've been talking about this publicly for two years a shift in governance.

What I just have to say this is I am going to try to honor Director Hampson and folks who come to the dais who have never come down here to talk to us before and be brave and say we can decide to continue do things doing things exactly as they have been done.

and continue to have the outcomes we have always had or we can actually use our authority and demand better and direct our superintendent in the way that our community has asked us to.

Or we can continue to rubber stamp whatever policy is waved in front of us by staff.

On the underlying agree on an underlying or the amendment.

What's in the amendment.

Brandon Hersey

Which.

We have to vote on the amendment first.

Michelle Sarju

What is the amendment.

The one Vivian has made.

Brandon Hersey

Director Song's amendment.

Quickly please.

Vivian Song

Quick question.

So let's say that June rolls around and we decide that this is not a structure that works for us.

What is the process for.

Changing it.

Brandon Hersey

Any director can bring it forward to like offer an amendment to a specific policy if they've got a couple of directors that want to sign on.

Vivian Song

Director could make them.

Yeah.

Liza Rankin

Yeah.

And so also based on this, the recommendation is that it's reviewed again in June.

So there will be a natural that'll be on the board calendar already.

Chandra Hampson

Yeah.

Liza Rankin

And so leading up to that, the board president will work with the board office and either like, well, part of that has to come out of our committee recommendation because we don't have a very good process.

But even under the current process, the board president would say this policy is coming up.

It's our policy.

It's not an administrative policy.

I mean, they're all our policies.

But and ask.

Like direct Director Song and Director Stardew.

Would you please.

We have this revision coming up.

Would you please take lead and work with you know staff support to bring this forward or the board president could say hey this thing's coming up.

I know it needs.

There were a lot of questions people are whatever.

Let's have a study session like that's just and the shift to is that in the routing question.

This doesn't.

This is not administrative.

It's our direction to the superintendent.

It doesn't the equity tool the community.

That's the superintendent's responsibility as the executive of the district.

And this is different.

I know it's confusing and new because we're used to not actually using our own authority and we're trying to do that and say you don't have to be a policy expert or a finance expert or an education expert to serve on the board.

You have to be able to represent your community and provide direction to our one employee.

And sorry also it's even though yes it wasn't seen by everybody in April.

It's been public since September and we talked about it I don't know how many meetings ago.

Nobody up here has called to ask me questions about it.

Bring up concerns.

We're literally voting right now.

None of this has come.

Nobody has said hey I have a question in preparation for the meeting and we're all allowed to have one on one conversations.

We can't get together and talk about voting, but anybody can say, hey, between intro and action, I have some questions to follow up with.

Nobody's brought any of that.

I don't know about to you, but not to me.

Brandon Hersey

Do you have?

Michelle Sarju

I just want to be clear to my colleagues that it is our job to apply a racial equity lens.

That's what I do.

And if the rest of y'all aren't doing it.

Brandon Hersey

OK.

Go ahead director Harris.

Leslie Harris

Superintendent Jones do you and your staff have the bandwidth.

to do this.

Second if this is a guardrail then this will become part of your evaluation.

Is that correct.

Two questions.

Brent Jones

Yes my team has the ability bandwidth and expertise to do this.

Second whether it's part of my evaluation or not that's negotiated.

But I wouldn't shy away from that.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

Let's move to the vote.

Miss Wilson Jones.

We are first voting on the amendment.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Calling the roll on Amendment 2 to consent agenda item 5. Director Sarju.

Wait wait wait wait wait.

Hold on.

Amendment 2 is the amendment that is proposed by Director Song.

Liza Rankin

I just want to look at it.

SPEAKER_17

I vote no.

Director Song.

Director Hampson.

No.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Director Harris.

Leslie Harris

No.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Vice President Rankin.

Liza Rankin

No.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Director Rivera.

Aye.

President Hersey.

Brandon Hersey

Nay.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

This motion has not passed by a vote of 2 to 5.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

Now we will be voting on the underlying item.

Miss Wilson Jones roll call please.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

We will need a motion.

Oh wait no we don't need a motion.

Apologies.

You are a number of steps ahead.

So to clarify we are calling the vote on the underlying item as not amended.

Consent agenda item 5. Director Rivera.

Nay.

SPEAKER_17

Could you restate that.

No.

Director Saju.

I vote yes.

Director Song.

Aye.

Director Hampson.

Aye.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

Director Harris.

No.

Vice President Rankin.

Liza Rankin

Aye.

Ellie Wilson-Jones

President Hersey.

Aye.

This motion has passed by a vote of 4 to 3.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

Thank you very much.

I believe that is the only action item on the agenda.

We will now be moving to introduction items.

Chandra Hampson

President Hersey.

Yes I would just like to say I was very uncomfortable with the admonishment of you rolling your eyes and I just want to note that publicly and ask that we do our best to to not treat each other in that way.

Brandon Hersey

I appreciate it.

Okay.

Introduction item number one is approval of board resolution number 2023 slash 24 dash 7 direction of the 2024 25 and 25 dash 26 fiscal stabilization plan to create a system of well-resourced schools.

Approval of this item would adopt a board resolution number 2023 slash 24 dash 7 direction for the 2024 25 and 2025-26 fiscal stabilization plan to create a system of well-resourced schools as attached to the board action report.

You want us to go down?

Okay.

We are now going to move down to the tables.

Make sure that you take your mic.

I believe there's also a presentation that will accompany this item.

Brent Jones

So we can go as quickly as.

your bandwidth allows you to go.

But this is all very serious.

These are very serious things that we talk about.

We're in a state of affairs where stakes are very high.

The things that we say, the things that we do are scrutinized.

We've talked about the cameras being in the room.

But what we should pat ourselves on the back is around being transparent and moving to that place where we're trying to show our work as director Hampson says.

And so this is part of that effort.

And so what we're what we want to do in this next two part agenda item is one is show our work around a system of well-resourced schools.

So whenever we see well-resourced school it should always have a system in front of it.

There's no such thing as a well-resourced school singularly we're talking about our district wide effort to have a.

Schools that have all the elements that we know that there's almost a guarantee that students have everything they need in terms of service programs and how we build and how we use building space in a way that's effective efficient and most importantly yields outcomes for our students.

And so when we talk about well-resourced schools we're talking about how are we leading into strategic planning that's forthcoming.

How are we doing our resource allocation.

Again how are we using our our spaces wisely.

And that would be buildings.

And so when we start talking about things like levees and whatnot and so this is important that we walk through the information that we got from community.

And Bev Redman is going to help us walk through that.

But this is again showing what the community has said.

This is driving some of the some of the elements of the fiscal stabilization resolution plan that you'll be seeing after this.

And so I think you'll find this to be enlightening and informative around what community has said to us around what is a well-resourced school system look like.

So without further ado I want to pass it over to Bev Redman to walk us through several slides that really inform us as we go forward.

Bev Redmond

Thank you to be very specific 16 so hang on.

All right.

Good evening to everyone.

It is a pleasure to be back in space with you and to talk about this topic of a system of well-resourced schools specifically the community engagement process that has been attached to it.

We are calling this phase 1. because it is community engagement is never a one and done and specifically around the process of a system of well-resourced schools.

We know we have more conversation, more engagement to have.

However, we did promise that we would come on this evening and reveal The results of our community engagement process tonight.

I have for you an executive summary And the full report will be added to our website.

We are certainly along with the executive summary will be added to our website we are currently putting that through some ada compliance and making sure that that is fully ready for our website and we'll be I believe ready pretty soon.

So with that we're going to go on into our first slide and to talk about the purpose.

As you know, this past August through October, we facilitated a number of meetings, internal and external, with the purpose of going into community engagement regarding the system of well-resourced schools and what our parents, our families, our staff wanted to see in terms of the values within the schools.

We heard from quite a few people.

It is very impressive.

It's something to be proud of, but again, it is a start.

If there's anything that I would like to leave us with, it is the beginning of it.

As Dr. Jones mentioned, it is to be a through line.

It is not just for this particular activity where it's not to go into a binder and sit on a shelf, but it'd be a through line to all of the decisions that we have yet to make.

The strategic plan, the levy, and what happens in terms of the future of our schools.

Moving on to our next slide.

Phase 1 of engagement, in those several months, we heard from approximately 4,000 people, 4,000 community members in a variety of ways.

Many of you attended the in-person sessions.

There were five.

There was an online series, two sessions offered.

Also, school staff had a chance to connect.

And also, there was the community-wide survey.

And when you look at those particular results, 63% of those responding across any of those methods of chiming in and giving input were families and caregivers, 35% of the respondents from staff, and 2% from the general community, meaning they don't necessarily have a student or a connection to our schools on a day-to-day basis, but schools are a part of their community.

If you're looking at the respondents to the survey, we're very pleased as a start, again a start, that we had 32% of the respondents identifying as people of color.

Again, they were self-identifying, but 32% did identify as people of color.

places that we want to go next when we head into phase two is to make sure that we have a strengthening of our student voice that we are able to include students in our engagement and make a strong I would say infrastructure for student voice.

I know that is certainly one of the passions and goals for Dr. Jones this year to make sure that we have a place for student voice in any form of our community engagement processes.

Also want to see more in terms of our interactions with our families of color, families who are furthest away from educational justice, making sure that we have deeper connections with them so that we can realize their voice and further add their voices to our engagement process.

Moving on into our next slide, please.

And this is just a look at some of the great facilities.

One of the questions that we asked, what do you love about your facilities and your learning spaces?

And that was, I thought we should bring in some of the art, some of the visuals to our schools.

We have some incredible buildings, amazing buildings.

and our families and our respondents said so.

You can certainly look at the screen and say where they valued and the things that they love, the neighborhood location, that they were wanting their buildings to be the community hub, a central hub for families, a gathering spot.

Also, the modern architecture, the facilities, the blend of the historical with the modern.

Also, safety was highly mentioned, safety, security, and retrofitting to make sure that we're prepared for earthquake possibilities or that we have the necessary HVAC systems to make sure that we have the air flow in our buildings that we need, as well as the secure and gated perimeters and entry procedures for each of our buildings.

A kudos was a big shout out to the way we maintain our buildings and grounds.

that they are excellently maintained, and that there is a sense of community pride.

On the side of each of our slides, we collected quotes directly from those who gave us responses.

One of the ones that I just absolutely adore, that our schools are more than just buildings.

more than just buildings, and that again, a sense of community pride as you're moving in and about our Seattle area, that when you see our schools, they stand for something, they count.

Moving on into our next slide.

A great deal of comments came in response to what do you love about your buildings, the playgrounds, the athletic facilities, highly mentioned.

What I want to make sure that we emphasize under the first playground and athletic facilities that our facilities, the accessibility, that it's more than a play area, it represents access to individuals who might not otherwise have it.

and exposure to individuals who might not otherwise have it.

Natural spaces, natural light, those are open.

The natural spaces, the natural light, the open hallways, It really does provide a lot of opportunity.

It's not just a space, but it's intentional space that means access for many of our students, that it means places where you can spread out additional types of learning spaces, highly prized by our community.

Moving on to the next slide, please.

I think we're doing a little double duty.

Library as a centerpiece.

I don't know how many of you love a good book like I do.

I spent most of my childhood in bookmobiles and libraries and in our schools, libraries actually as the centerpiece of learning in our, thank you so much, in our buildings was one of the things that was prized and loved most.

The artwork and the decor centering student diversity, centering equity, I had the privilege to go out to John Stanford International, maybe a week ago, to see a mural installed in their building, and just how much it brought the community together, how much it lifted the spirits of students, and it represented their heritage.

So, making sure that our artwork and our decor reflect the student body was highly prized.

Again, common gathering spaces, those flex spaces that we often take for granted, but they represent extending the learning environment for our students.

Moving on.

Yes.

The meat of what we do, academics and extracurriculars, the learning process.

What is it that our families value, and our students value, and our community value?

Heading on into our next, and you see those smiling faces of our students, that cap and gown, it represents what we do best, and that is the learning process.

Moving on.

Educators.

The dedication and the skill of our educators was highly mentioned.

welcoming, respectful, well-trained, caring, nurturing.

There was such gratitude for that and such a desire to see more in terms of our recruitment efforts and our retention efforts to make sure that we have and that we're constantly devoting our time to the best learning possibilities for our students.

Arts and music, again, highly mentioned as an area that was valued and that we want to see strengthened.

And that the second bullet there, integrated into other curricular areas and into after school programming.

So threading those experiences across the curriculum and experiences.

Physical education and athletics, the access to sports for students, the access to those opportunities of unstructured playtime for elementary students, highly prized and wanted to see continued.

Here is a quote, we value music and arts programs because when students participate in creative outlets, they do better academically and socially.

that it is a through line to how they actually perform in the classroom.

And heading on into our next slide.

Before and after school programs, the enrichment experience, that there is a desire to make sure that we have the opportunities to include extracurricular clubs, academic enrichment, and support, arts, sports programs, where community, we're highly named amongst the community.

Appreciation was expressed, and I want to give note to this, that this represents child care support for many of our working parents and caregivers.

So not just an experience, but it's an extension of care for our families.

and that there is also a focus on high quality instruction in core subjects, making sure that we are emphasizing English, language arts, and mathematics as course essentials in our schools, and participants named appreciation for evidence-based curriculum, differentiated instruction, the tutors and specialists that are needed to support students.

And I want to give a nod here also to our equity work and our diversity work that there is a high value placed on, including course offerings such as ethnic studies, black history, and non-Eurocentric world history.

applying social justice lenses to our classroom learning, and professional development to improve educator cultural sensitivity and anti-racist teaching practices.

As one participant said, the programs are valued most by our community are those that promote racial equity in alignment with our district mission.

Moving on.

to our STEM programming.

Appreciation was expressed for school-based STEM programs.

In addition to science courses, this included technology education such as computer science and coding and engineering and robotics, and the belief that a well-resourced school includes dedicated infrastructure and facilities such as science and computer labs, STEM-focused enrichment programs during and after school, and support career-connected learning opportunities such as internships linked to STEM pathways.

The same was mentioned for world languages and dual language programs in a well-resourced school.

Learning a second language is viewed as an educational priority and consistent staffing to support that with multiple offerings in language programs.

Also, emphasis was given to project-based and experiential learning.

Many advocated for integrating hands-on experiences, collaborative learning within the core subjects, and after school extracurricular programs to promote creativity and problem solving in real world applications.

And community members also responding mentioned college and career readiness, including career and technical education courses as a high priority.

I'm gonna pause and take a sip of water.

as we're heading on into our next.

Support services and resources.

What do we need to strengthen in our buildings regarding support services and resources?

This was our third and final area that we surveyed on as we move on.

The full-time staff and key support positions.

Emphasis on having full-time counselors, nurses, social workers in our buildings.

I believe one respondent referred to the adults as a safety net of adults in our schools.

That these are absolutely essential when we are making sure that we are surrounding our students with everything that they need.

Also, the basic needs of students desiring that those are met when it comes to nutrition, when it comes to hygiene, and making sure that there are connections to community-based organizations and mental health.

How many times have we heard that as a theme throughout the last couple of years, especially coming out of the pandemic, the need for increased counselors, social workers, mental health specialists, social emotional learning, restorative practices, all of those were definitely highlighted and mentioned.

Moving on.

and a high value placed around special education services, multilingual learner services, and highly capable and advanced learning services.

This is an area that was highly represented in our survey area, particularly with highly capable parents responding to the survey, making sure that we not only Remember those who we believe are already prepared, but making sure that we're standing up, bringing in services, bringing in the training, bringing in the translation and interpretation services for our families that need that learning.

UDL was also mentioned.

So a lot, a lot of attention placed on what additional support services and resources that we need to strengthen our schools.

Next slide, please.

Transportation services, and you might guess that this one is, the next one is really near and dear to my heart.

Communication, effective pathways for communication for families.

Making sure, back to transportation, the progress that we've started continues.

Consistent, reliable, on-time, clear communication around that process.

Knowing where your child is at all times, on time, is super important to families.

Drivers who know how to interact with students, very, very important.

And also that equitable access to field trips.

And again, back down to my favorite, favorite area, strengthening communication in the schools.

There's a difference between what happens at the district level and what happens in the buildings, and making sure that those communication networks are incredibly strong for families, and that families are asking, and you've heard some tonight, you've heard it many, many times, that they want to be involved.

Families, students want to be involved in the decisions regarding our district.

I think we're getting ready to round out.

As a final slide, taking a look at the participants and the breakdown of what they actually look like and felt like coming through being analyzed for demographics.

many areas of pride, many areas where we need to increase our representation throughout our surveys.

So I accept it as a challenge, as a blessing and a challenge.

It was great to get started, but let's go.

Let's keep going.

Dr. Jones, back to you.

Brent Jones

Yes I just want to probe a little bit ask the board is this information.

Are you surprised by this information.

I actually have some pride.

This is our community is really savvy about what their wants wishes and needs are.

But I want to just open it up to the board to just react to this.

This is this is catalytic to me in terms of what you'll see next in terms of.

how we're setting our priorities for our budget, how we're setting the trajectory for the next strategic plan.

All of this is feeding into that, and so I just want to Ultimately the board's going to need to validate that this is the vision and values of the community.

And you will say Dr. Jones and team go forth and bring us a budget and bring us a strategic plan with these with these elements in it.

So I want to get your reaction.

You're not sure necessarily your thoughtful response because you're just seeing it right now.

Does this does this comport with you.

Is this in alignment with what you believe that you experienced in part when you were with the folks at these sessions and now that you're seeing it.

in the aggregate, does this resonate with you?

Please, just go ahead and just.

Lisa Rivera Smith

Yeah, so I did attend all the in-person meetings and so this is in line with what I saw and what I heard.

So I have two questions.

One is, all the post-its I went there was like, I don't know how many thousands of post-its, right?

Where is it all at?

Is that accessible to us to read through if we wanted to?

Not that we have the hours that it would take you guys to do it, but is that accessible somewhere so that we can see what was collected?

Bev Redmond

It is here in-house and it is in our research.

Lisa Rivera Smith

Has it been scanned and is it digital?

Bev Redmond

It has been digitized.

Lisa Rivera Smith

That's a hoax.

Hoax over there.

Bev Redmond

Yes.

Lisa Rivera Smith

That would be great to see.

And one other thing under effective communications, I didn't see any reference to, and I'm wondering, am I seeing the demographic breakdown?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but there was nothing in there about mention of the accessibility of communications nor translation availability for families whose primary language isn't English.

Because because I from a lot of the sessions did have like a interpretation table and I tried to give more attention to those because I know that's what the voices we don't hear the most so you know I heard and then what I did hear a lot about was things about that about about having communications that were accessible to them in different formats, different mediums, and about having translations.

So, not seen on the slide, I do want to know that you captured that, and that is, was that something you heard too, or you got anywhere out of the feedback?

Again, the demographics show that maybe the people who most responded aren't the type who are concerned about that, but you should be.

Bev Redmond

Yes, I will say that would not be a new piece of information for me, for my team, and it is something that we always keep in the forefront of our mind in terms of how we need to expand and improve.

Lisa Rivera Smith

Thank you.

Michelle Sarju

Oh, yeah, you're not buttoning on me this time.

I'm teasing.

I am proud.

You know, I haven't seen anything like this in our district in my history of living here.

And I have been very actively involved.

And I got another bulldog coming up.

Anyway, let me not digress.

When I think about communication, I just want to state this, because what is apparent to me is that we don't want to mislead our community into thinking that they will have a say in every single decision that's made at every single level in this district.

That's not going to happen.

For those of you who live in King County, which is all Seattle Public School students, likely, the county is in a similar massive budget crisis.

While I would like to walk into Executive Constantine's office and tell him a few things about what I'd like to see happen, I don't get to do that.

I actually don't even get to send him an email to tell him about what I would like to see happen because my supervisor has been very clear about how the decision-making process is happening.

And so I give that example to say, I really would like to give input to Executive Dow Constantine about what I think we need to be doing in my division, because my division is actually the most impacted in this entire budget crisis.

We will have the hardest we will be the hardest hit.

So yes, I have an urge, and I have to retain that urge.

And so we have to be authentic and transparent with our families around what can they be involved in in the decision making.

And that's a nuance in the communication, right?

I think this is an example of us including community in this thing we're calling a system of well-resourced schools.

Fred, how many weeks have I been asking for a definition for well?

I've been putting him on the spot.

since I walked through the door, right?

I have.

I now have a definition.

I am so ecstatic.

I think I've publicly shared with you, thank you.

Thank you, my brother, my friend, my colleague, for helping me understand what a well-resourced school is.

Fred Podesta

The only thing I'll take credit for is being smart enough to have Chief Redman and others.

figure out how to answer that question.

Michelle Sarju

But my point for making that is it did, while I was impatient for the definition, My pressure was to come up with one quickly, not that I needed one right then.

And I don't think my pressure to come up with the definition quickly is how we got here.

But I think the leadership, the leadership of this district is why we've gotten here.

This has not happened in the history of this district.

So I take a lot of pride in our superintendent and his staff for leading the way, for taking a risk, for being courageous.

We're not going to get this perfectly right.

And that should not be our goal.

Our goal should be good enough to take that step in the direction that we know we need to go to get where we want, to get where we know we need to be.

And as we're on that path, we're paying attention and we're doing what we need to do to continue to improve what we're offering to our Seattle Public School students.

So I just wanna thank the staff.

It's more than just what's sitting at this table.

When you're at this level of leadership, We don't necessarily get to see all the people that were involved, right?

But that includes all the people that prepared this PowerPoint, right?

There was somebody doing this, and they are part and parcel to our long term success.

So I'm thankful.

I'm proud to be a Mimi in this district now.

That is grandma for some people.

I am not a grandma.

I'm a Mimi.

That's what I am.

I'm proud to be a part of this district and the leadership that we have attempting to do their best to steer us in the right direction.

Thank you.

Brent Jones

Director Sarge thank thank you for that reflection.

And I do recall the pressure that we felt for coming up with a definition of well-resourced schools.

We don't like how it sounds.

We don't like how it looks.

We need a definition.

And it's validating to hear that you're you are now proud of what we attempted to do is just wait until we heard from community And we were able to achieve that in part.

And so so thank you that that makes us collectively become a learning organization.

We're growing and we're developing together.

So I just I appreciate that reflection and I hope we made you proud in this.

So.

But anyway, I know there's other comments to be made or thoughts, and Aisha, I want you to jump in here too, because we're taking some of your school night, so at least we want to hear from you.

So I want to try to make space for your voice to get in here too, because this may or may not reflect what students are thinking, but I think it's a good snapshot of the 3,800 people that chose to participate or had the opportunity to participate.

But I'll let him formulate his thoughts.

Liza Rankin

OK.

So I yes like Director Rivera-Smith was at all of the in-person sessions so this is not surprising.

It very much aligns with what I was hearing walking around the room and what I experienced too as a parent like this is this demonstrates the.

The best things about Seattle Public Schools and about our individual schools.

And.

What I notice especially on this slide is that this is a great.

Wide net first pass.

And there is a strong representation from.

Well there's missing representation in the response.

Disproportionate representation in the response.

And we there's no there's almost no student representation in this about how students would define a well-resourced school.

We're also missing you know our job as the board is to represent the interests of our shared owners of our district which is everybody in the community regardless of whether or not they have students in Seattle Public Schools.

So we're missing that representation also.

And this isn't at all a criticism.

It makes sense to me why they weren't there.

And I'm thinking like if so from a from a staff superintendent perspective as you're trying to follow our direction and implement It makes sense that your focus would be on families and students and what's happening in our buildings.

We though have to know that our job is to represent the entire community and what they expect for students living in our community.

And so this is maybe more of a note for us as a as a board than for staff is that you know what's our next step in terms of engagement supported by staff but to include the broader community about like hey this is what we heard from our families but we represent all of you and what you want to see for the kids in your community.

Does this does does this meet your definition of a well-resourced school.

What would you add.

What are we missing.

What do you want to see for the kids in your neighborhood in your community.

Because that has to be part of what what we do as a board.

And so I would say it's a it's a great first pass.

It makes a lot of sense.

It's it's not surprising.

And thank you to everybody who participated.

And now, how do we bring in a student voice?

Where's the broader community influence?

And also, I would expect, or I guess would want to have further conversation about, Okay, now the communities that we know are underrepresented in terms of our students and our families, what's the plan to go another level down and specifically reach out to the families that are not as represented?

When we were in San Diego, Council of Great City Schools, the Denver superintendent talked about actually going and knocking on the doors of families and some and especially a Spanish speaking neighborhood.

They were just like what like what are you doing here and why are you asking us.

Because they had not at all been given the opportunity to have to participate in saying what they expected from their schools as community members.

And also told him you know OK great now we're probably never going to see you again.

And he said well I went back next week.

And I mean that that's obviously an out outlying example but you know if we're serious about representing the entire community and meeting the needs of all of the students in our city we're going to have to.

not just ask people to come to us, but go out to them and say, hey, it matters what you think and we want to hear from you.

And we are now going to design very specifically for your needs.

Here's an opportunity to show up if you can, but we are coming to you with interpretation, with this, with that, connecting with community partners, whatever, because we want your input.

Yeah.

And then the one other thing about my definition of a well-resourced school personally is one that can meet the academic expectations and requirements of our students.

So that's kind of like this was a lot.

This is a lot of like really great things and we could have schools with like the best all the best everything.

But if we're not resourcing literacy which we're going to talk about in a minute that's not like That's not going to that's not well-resourced that's not doing our job.

Brandon Hersey

I think that the biggest takeaway for me is just like good job for doing it.

You know I think director Sargi you put it best in terms of like I have not been around nearly as long as Mimi but I have been here for a minute.

And I know community engagement pretty well from a different from a variety of perspectives.

And this is new.

This is very new especially coming out of the pandemic.

What I immediately my reaction is like OK so now this is we did in some ways have this as a collaborative opportunity for the board and the district to do this.

I am looking at this as like OK.

There are 3 percent of black families that are represented here out of the 15 percent.

Where does the board pick up the slack.

Like where do we now have a starting place from the superintendent.

What are we going to do to go out and find where or like try to fill in as much of this as we possibly can through our own community engagement.

So I think that like.

great job for bringing this and placing this forward.

I think that this gives us a wealth of information.

I think that this also gives us a playbook for whoever the next president is and whoever is going to be on this board come the next meeting.

We have a very clear indicator of where we are lacking in terms of community engagement was very specific populations.

And I think that like this gives us opportunity to put our plan together in terms of going out and getting that information.

I also am super concerned about the fact that there is very little student voice here and also want to be super cognizant that this wasn't directly designed to like fully impact and take in what student voice looks like.

That type of design is like very different from what it looks like to engage with adults and in a lot of ways we actually have more bandwidth and capacity to hear from our students given that like We have them on a daily basis.

And so it's literally pushing into classrooms and like having real conversations.

That is a capacity issue right.

That's another place where the board can step in.

We always like like to ask and beg for more opportunities to get in front of students.

We can go to them.

I think that where I'm really interested in the next steps here is knowing what were the lessons learned.

Like if you were to do anything different or if you were to like do some analysis and I'm not asking you to do that on the spot by any means.

What were some of the barriers for families of color specifically participating and how can we work together with our expertise given that we are one of the most diverse boards that Seattle Public Schools has had in a bit.

to really lean in and get more information in a more representative fashion.

And then I would also just ask myself if I'm looking at, we had in person, we had online, we had school staff sessions, and we had a community survey.

If I'm thinking about how my family would have responded to those things when I was going to school, probably would not have participated either, especially like during the summer, right?

And I want to be super clear.

It's not for lack of desire.

It's probably lack of knowledge that this was even happening.

And so I'm really curious, again, amazing job to the district for standing this up and doing this in the way that they did.

I'm really curious like to have a conversation as a board about like where do we see ourselves fitting in and filling in the gaps.

So immediate reactions.

But again great job.

Excited to do more.

Brent Jones

One thing I'm clear about is we want we saw this as opportunity to do this in tandem.

And so to the extent that we can staff this and we can stand it up you all can as board members can come in and show up show up and participate.

We want to continue to make that possible.

We know that you all's bandwidth to do some of the planning and all this is very limited in terms of just your.

Seven folks that aren't aren't necessarily in the operation every day.

So let us do some of that heavy lifting for you to create these Environments and so you all can direct us in terms of help us to find ways that we can get to more African-American families help us to find ways that we can get get in get in front of students and I think we can start to build that.

I want to consider this to be an evolution that this is we're starting this.

We're going to keep refining this.

This might be the road map for how we do this for other items that we might want to talk about.

We want to just continue to build on this and not not necessarily say okay.

We're done Here's the information, but just continue to refine it get more get more clarity as we go along so I appreciate the board wanting to take initiative to get in touch with Families that weren't able to participate, but we want to do we want to be supportive of your efforts to do that so I don't want you all to have to do that heavy lifting solely not that we have a You know a bunch of community engagement type of staff but we actually had.

Volunteerism internal to the to to to district staff that came and facilitated and showed up participated didn't know what they were going to do when they got there were were open to be directed to these different places because they know how valuable this is too.

So.

I don't know who is next but I do want to make sure that Aiyush can jump in there from the student perspective.

But Aiyush I'm going to ask since this is Director Hampson's last meeting I'm going to let her make sure she gets an opportunity to go.

So go ahead and then Aiyush.

OK then Aiyush.

Ayush Muthuswamy

Oh OK.

Just a few things.

One I think it's great that we've had this opportunity to get nearly 4000 community members to give feedback on us.

But with that I think the ball is in our field now that we have to show how or the district has to show apologies how they're going to use that feedback in a tangible way and be transparent in that because these people confided in us they took the time out of their day to give us this feedback.

And we have to take that and show how it's influencing the actions we make because they're not going to come back again if they see they gave the feedback and nothing came out of it or even if things did come out of it they don't see it.

So we have to show the actual actions and the actual influence this is happening.

This is having on the decisions that are being made.

Second thing regards to student feedback.

I know President Hersey and Vice President Rankin touched on a little bit but yes we do need more student feedback in this.

It isn't a complete picture without the student voice.

And with that, I think thinking about utilizing existing channels, because there's a lot of fatigue, there's a lot of survey fatigue.

That's something that I talk about all the time with my friends, that we're over-surveyed, we're over, I mean these things that come up over and over again in multiple different channels because people don't communicate between what already exists.

So looking into climate surveys that already exist and incorporating these things into there rather than trying something completely different, I think will lead to increased turnout.

Brandon Hersey

Yeah.

Ayush Muthuswamy

And with the points that were brought up and with what the general trends look to be I'd say that's accurate to what students are feeling too.

But I'm just one person.

So survey the students actually get the consensus voice from them and I think go from there.

Brent Jones

Thank you so much.

Director Hampson.

Chandra Hampson

Was there a breakdown between K-5 and.

I mean primary and secondary.

Bev Redmond

There were options for you to identify or to select but I will go back and double check.

But if it was not represented here I don't think we have that data.

Chandra Hampson

OK.

I'm just curious because it's feels very very K-5 to me.

That's I think it's an accurate representation of K-5 data.

And that would be true for the advanced learner services and you know there's a number of things that point to that.

But that's also the period when people tend to have the strongest opinions.

Also because y'all are a lot harder to manage when you get older.

Ask Mimi.

So.

I mean you don't want to be managed period So I think That would be really important to track.

I don't know.

I think that this is It does paint a really good picture and I agree that we want to be able to feed that back in terms of hey this is what we heard.

This is you know kind of the vision.

I don't know if anybody noticed but I did get Director Rankin the book on Schoolhouse Rock.

The whole book.

So I see a little animation of this of like what this.

That's what's going through my head when you're when you were doing the presentation is like the visual.

Yeah.

See.

My choreography.

Bev Redmond

Thank you.

Chandra Hampson

Well, and I know you like the video so that that that you know we can visually represent this to people and and it that is a Much more digestible way for people to say that.

Oh, yeah, that is kind of you know what we talked about and I think Again, very elementary focus because it was sort of like we need one of these and we need one of those and we need what you know the librarian and the counselor and it's so different in the in the secondary environment and You know given absent you know having more student surveys more student voice which I don't think we would necessarily ask them the same questions.

And I think my my sense of of this was very similar to Director Rankin's in terms of OK.

Yeah.

And what if you have all that but you're not learning.

And that's kind of my interest for asking students that question.

Because I started to see this drift that we get into as adults, and we as parents are particularly guilty of this, of what do I want for people to provide for my child to sort of stuff them full of things, resources, versus what does my child actually need to be successful in the things that they want to do and to achieve their their goals and and how to what's my.

So that's one piece of it that I don't see talked about that I think if you don't and this is about how you survey but if you don't we didn't ask the question to families what would you need in order to for your student to be more successful.

And I would want to ask that's a question I want to ask the same thing of students.

What do you need from the adults in your environment in order to be more successful.

Because the number one thing that I've been hearing from students is because we during all the campaigning I had the opportunity to hear from a bunch of students and the thing that I heard was instruction.

and the feeling that they and this is not because the this isn't a knock on teachers per se because we know where teachers mental capacity is right now and how overwhelmed and exhausted they are.

But there's such a low sense of like I just don't feel like they want to teach me.

And some of that is the belief gap I believe.

that we have in this system it's very prominent in Seattle Public Schools and adults not believing that that kids are.

It's that gap we talked about earlier.

You should like just really not being able to connect with the students and make those students see.

And I'm not saying that this is necessarily how teachers are feeling.

But it's what's happening in the dynamic and so what is the perceived need or what would do you think would help you.

I gave an example to Superintendent Jones.

There's a librarian in one of my kids schools that is connecting with with my kid in a way that is making.

the difference.

And it turns out this person is known for doing that.

And so it wasn't a surprise.

And every kid needs that.

And so that was the one thing that I sort of saw.

I think it was sort of circuitously identified as like well we need one of these and we need one of these because we think those are the people that are going to create those touch points as opposed to identifying the actual need.

Right.

Like that's going to help the kid feel present and and wanting to learn and that somebody believes in them and That's what you're supposed to get from all those little job titles, right?

But it's not about the it's really not about like there happens to be it doesn't have to be a librarian, right?

I mean, that's that's a it's not about the the position it's about the the risk management strategies that everybody in the system, see how I worked that in there, takes on.

That's the best result of good risk management is that everybody is a risk owner all the way down to the classroom, to the building.

That means you take on the risk of checking in with this student who's wandering through the halls and say, hey, what the heck?

Why aren't you in class?

So those are the kind of things I would be interested to on that next deeper dive of like OK now we got to take this and learn a little bit more.

And I agree with Ayush that there's ideally you try to see what's already out there because students are surveyed to death.

And I and frankly I don't think they think that anybody is going to do anything with it.

So what some sort of method of doing it because I think they'll tell you if they have like One to two quiet.

I don't know.

This is not my area of expertise.

I know that I When you do it in the right way in the right time frame you can get a wealth of information in a very short period of time from students that will really provide some more meat around this initial data like not not just you know in addition to this is what we what we visually think that it needs to look like.

in order to provide those underlying needs.

And now we need to talk about what are those underlying needs that are being you know like why OK why.

Why do you need these things.

What is it that is how is this going to support you support your student kind of thing.

And then the only other thing I would say is I can tell that this was not using max I.D.

and I guarantee I'm not going to go away when it comes to using MaxID.

You will get emails from me still about any surveys or data that comes through that is not using MaxID.

We've gotten surveys from other entities who have used not even our data but some other federal data.

Federal data is the I can only think of expletives for it right now because it erases students.

And so that 1 percent I just gave you the number of native students.

Somebody remember the number of native students that I read off earlier.

Yeah.

So that's not right.

Right.

But you that you pulled a real number.

It was just not max I.D.

So I think it's really important when we're trying to say whether or not we're representing our communities that we're using the max I.D.

that tells us.

Whether or not we truly have those identified where you know showing the percent because it's actually lower.

Right.

It's not representative.

If that's five which you know those are rounded up I can tell so who knows what the actual number is but.

So that's just a note in terms of going into this.

We don't want to.

I do want to celebrate that we got that high percentage of families of color.

And at the same time I want to push us to use Max ID and dig deeper and get to those communities.

I'm not sending Superintendent Jones out to I mean.

You could but there's a whole bunch of issues with that.

Thank you.

Leslie Harris

Yes.

And as we.

Chandra Hampson

As we get into yeah disaggregating so that that's where you want to make sure you get into populations that we know because we know there's some multilingual populations that are under that Asian category that we need to disaggregate that our students for some educational justice.

So but you know again it's still it's really not bad all things considered that you managed to pull this off in August.

And I think the good news is people are invested, right?

And it's a matter of giving people the right hooks and kind of educating them along the way.

And so I think this is a fantastic starting point, which is I know that's what you were aiming for.

I think for what you set out to do, you really accomplished a lot.

Bev Redmond

Thank you.

Thank you.

I did get a text from our research team.

We can break that down by level.

Vivian Song

Building on what Ayush was saying, I think there's tremendous work in terms of the people who responded giving us their feedback and tremendous work from your team in compiling this.

So I'm wondering what is the next step in terms of sharing back these, sharing back this essentially beyond this session with four directors.

Bev Redmond

We will be sharing out tomorrow this report as well as a breakdown of the rest of the meeting that is going out.

We will also host it on web but we will also send out directly to community.

So those are two immediate steps.

Brent Jones

Director Harris.

Leslie Harris

Thank you.

Thank you big time.

It's a start.

Impressive.

Love me some pictographs and graphs.

One of the things that I noticed having attended four of the five I think whenever.

In the hot summer.

We need some more TLC some more high touch.

We had a ton of SPS staff facilitating but but they weren't wearing their badges.

So folks didn't know who the heck they were and we had.

Big trolleys full of water.

But we gave them to facilitators and board members while people were sweating bullets.

At one point at Nathan Hale we rolled it down the middle.

But that's the sort of thing that people you know it's like having one bad restaurant meal right.

Everybody carps about it for four years.

The other and we've talked about this in the past was the framing of this.

closures and consolidations laying right on top of this and what we put out tomorrow if we can connect those dots with the budget process closures consolidation and the strap plan.

Why did I give up one of my evenings when for some folks Their biggest fear and lots of us work from a position of fear especially when it comes to our kids.

If we can connect the dots closures consolidations the budget process and our dreams because this is what it is.

This is about our dreams about our children.

And somehow synthesize but at a minimum recognize and identify that piece would be my concern.

The framing of of what we put out there and then give folks what their appetite drop a carrot or two next steps that it's not going in a filing cabinet someplace because unfortunately we have a history.

Thank you very much.

Brent Jones

All right, so.

This was really good.

I just threw a question out there and 45 minutes, an hour later, tremendous perspective.

We're learning in real time.

I think one of our public testimony persons today said thank you for being transparent.

Thank you for your open learning.

And that's what we're doing.

And so hopefully this is building on that.

So as we transition to this next part of this presentation, These data that we just saw from a system of well-resourced schools will ultimately be I think the road map to where we want to be.

So this is the vision for what it looks like.

It's going to take a multi-year effort obviously to get there.

In my in my view I'm thinking around 2030 is the point where we have all those elements that are in the well-resourced schools.

aggregation there available and up and running and that people can access it.

So as we go on to this next section where we're talking about the budget we're talking about the fiscal stabilization plan.

We're talking about the resolution that the system of well-resourced schools data points that you just saw is going to influence that.

And so as Director Harris was talking about show how to show these connections.

It was important that we let out with this catalytic set of data because this is going to influence not only again budget planning but strategic planning the levy planning and all those elements.

And so when we start talking about services programs and how we're using our building spaces that covers the gamut.

So next slides please.

So this is the funding our future.

This is session number three of 11, as we talk about getting to a balanced budget for the 24, 25. And if you go back in time a little bit, we were dealing with $131 million.

budget crisis or budget gap.

We dealt with that.

We're still feeling the impacts of that, that we went into, we went really deep to find ways to get us to a balanced budget for this year, 23-24.

And next slide, please.

And we in those gaps were caused by insufficient funding from the state of Washington.

We know that declines in enrollment previous service and staffing decisions.

And it caused us really to have a structural deficit.

And so the structural deficit is different than a one time deficit a structural deficit is over time when your expenditures outweigh your revenue.

You are in a structural deficit.

And so we had one time sources ESSER stabilization fund other other one time resources and that masked the structural shortfall.

Those are no longer available to cover the gap.

And so we've been talking about this but year after year after year after year at least as long as I've been involved with Seattle schools we had one time resources to do that.

What makes it so hard in 24, 25 planning is we don't even have really funding to do adjustments.

So we're now down to the point where we're looking at reductions and some of some people might say, well, that's a deficit mindset.

You need to have more of a growth mindset.

But the reality is.

Resources are resources, and we're going to be as creative as possible.

And so this meeting that we're having, this part of the meeting right now is why we had the cameras here.

There was all the interest around, what are you going to do?

And the cameras left too soon, because this is it.

This is it.

Next slide, please.

So our budget development goals are still the same.

We want to stabilize our financial future to be able to fund our highest priorities.

Well reached the system of well resourced schools.

Those are that's what it looks like for our highest priorities.

We want to resolve long term decades of structural deficit spending.

We I said it before we're going to be the cohort that resolves that.

And then we want to display fiscal stewardship and responsibility.

You all, as board members, got into a tangle about an hour ago about the fiscal policy, but that's what this is all about.

How do we display fiscal stewardship and responsibility?

What I know that we do well is we argue over the how, but we ultimately agree on the what, and the what is trying to get to fiscal stewardship and responsibility.

That was the genesis of the fiscal policy, so I applaud the board for Taking that that frightful step to go out there and make that happen.

But that's what we're trying to do.

Next slide please.

You've seen these principles before.

Now we have some graphics to go along with it.

We want to always prioritize quality instruction and learning that that is our bread and butter.

That's what we do very well on all measures.

You can see Seattle Public Schools around.

I was just with other urban districts.

You can look across.

almost every measure and we're in that top quartile and we're doing that really well.

But that we are not stopping there because we know we have gaps and where the standard is and where we want to be.

We are moving with good faith efforts.

We each share the same values.

And I talk about teamwork.

The board and the superintendent are one team.

Sometimes we don't do things and I will and you all I'm talking in code right now.

We all know we're talking about.

as a team, but sometimes we don't do that, but ultimately we all, going back to the first graphic there, we do share the same values.

We need to be clear on the challenges and opportunities.

That's really us trying to be transparent.

And so as you kind of hear what we're trying to do here, I'll speak to the nature of a fiscal stabilization resolution.

So next slide, please.

So Fred's going to talk about this enrollment and he's going to talk about the next slide and then I'll I'll come back with the actual fiscal stable fiscal stabilization resolution plan so that we can be all on the same page about where we're trying to go for this 24 25 budget.

Fred Podesta

Thank you, Dr. Jones.

It's good to know there were three elements that Dr. Jones referred to that sets up the context that we're in, that we recognize that there's a general funding problem in the state of Washington for basic education.

And while we appreciate the efforts from the legislature, there's still more work to be done there.

There's our own kind of decisions and operations, and then a decline in enrollment.

In the last four years, we've seen 4,900 student enrollment decline, about 4,000 of that are elementary schools.

We just finish an October count the Combined October count of Enrollment at our smallest 20th elementary schools is 4,000 And 41 students so that loss is the equivalent of 20 of our current elementary schools, so that's why we need to and while We get revenue as noted above and kind of we get marginal revenue for each student.

We have fixed costs around buildings, which is Why we're thinking about how we allocate resources Amongst buildings are work with two demographic firms to look at the future.

We don't see huge, you know, we see flat to maybe slow growth in coming years.

So some of the commitments we've made to the board is to restructure you know, how we develop budgets and to think longer term, you know, not just plan a year ahead.

And so we're trying to get to recommendations that get us back to a sustainable future that year in, year out, we are not scrambling to figure out how to budget, how to solve next fiscal year's challenge.

And then, again, this has been something that's been years in the making, and it's good to know that You know over the last several decades our enrollment has declined about 50% and our utilization of buildings has declined about 10% and again all those buildings come with fixed costs that Don't go away as enrollment declines, which is you know why we need to keep that's why we asked about questions about buildings and well-resourced schools And that's why we're one of the big drivers that is leading to this discussion If we could go to the next slide, please And so again, I mentioned that where we lie with small schools, the prototypical model that describes how you allocate funding at the state level for elementary schools kind of assumes 400 students.

13 of our 62 elementary schools have 400 students or more.

So about 25% are at that model.

Obviously, 75% are.

And even at 300 students, we have 28 elementary schools, 26 elementary schools, and 2K through 8s that have less than 300 students, which is a practice that is not shared by any of our neighboring districts in the Puget Sound area.

So that's why we're looking at this as hard as we are.

And, you know, it's just we're going to have to land on a strategy that accounts for this one way or the other.

What's the best allocation of our resources?

Is it more resources in each building, or is it spreading resources across more buildings?

That's really the core of what we're going to be wrestling with over the next couple of years.

I think I'll turn it back to Dr. Jones if I remember correctly.

Michelle Sarju

Can I make a quick comment?

Because your point about declining enrollment is also connected to declining birth rate.

I mean, let's just be honest, right?

That's what's happening in our district, too, is people are not having the number of children at the rate that they have.

And so, when you're doing this, you have to ‑‑ I encourage you to reach out to whatever public health connection you have.

That's not me.

Because I'm doing other things.

But they have data ‑‑ they have the trends of the data.

And the birth rate is not going to go up.

given all the things that are happening in Seattle.

So that will impact.

I'm making my contribution.

I got one coming in.

Fred Podesta

But that's about it.

Michelle Sarju

I have to just get him in there every time.

Fred Podesta

With public health, with our local planning authorities who see the same trends we do, see leading indicators, building permits, and that is by far the biggest driver.

While public school systems and other districts, you know, we're still searching for some enrollment because there certainly was a a short-term dip related to the pandemic, but the long-term outlook doesn't see us bouncing back.

And so this gets back to this needs to be a multi-year exercise.

We need to think many years ahead as we think about how to resolve these problems.

Liza Rankin

Are you open for questions right now?

The other I mean the there's the birth rates there's also the age of our city and home homeownership and housing which is that's just it just is what it is.

But but something that's I've talked about this before like this isn't like there's no reason for anybody to take this personally.

It's just the reality of living in a city that changes and grows and.

contracts and expands.

And if you look at the history of Seattle Public Schools and the population of the students and in Seattle that are in our public schools it's we're actually I know that when there's change we're all like oh my gosh oh my gosh we're under you know this is a desperate situation where you know losing students right.

We're at about the same point that the Seattle Public Schools population was in 2008. That's not that long ago.

So we're at about the same place.

Since then, there was a huge amount of growth in a short period of time and opening of a whole bunch of buildings.

And now that's contracted back again, but we still have 10 more buildings than we had then.

And that's just we project and we make our best guess, and then sometimes things end up being different than we expected.

Hopefully, what we're doing now, and I, you know, I can't imagine we're doing anything that differently than people did in the past.

They did the best that they could with what they knew at the time.

Hopefully maybe since then we have maybe better tools maybe some historical knowledge partnerships with the city you know is going to be I already know of different housing things that are changing around.

We also then are going to have so like my parents still live in the single family home that my brothers and I were raised in.

So there's there's no new students there and there's no new housing in their neighborhood and their neighborhood has a lot of people of their generation.

Those people are eventually going to retire downsize move die and that's going to drastically change the landscape again.

And so I just just to say that like this isn't an un — this isn't like a crisis that's never been dealt with that we don't know how to face.

And it's also not it's not that once we solve this right now OK now we never have to address it again it's never going to change.

No there's going to be you know it's going to it's going to the only thing that's going to happen again is more change.

So we just have to be able to meet the needs of our students that we have.

And also I don't know if it's been stated but I just want to be really explicit that like closing and consolidating schools doesn't mean that we sell those buildings and that property and we never have them again.

Because we know that should birthing rich birth like and actually I had just very anecdotal a lot of toddler age trick or treaters at my house this year and that I haven't had.

Right.

Like that was a change.

That's a change in just my immediate neighborhood is that suddenly there's a bunch of toddlers around.

So I know what people are doing during COVID.

But those kids are going to become Seattle Public School students.

And and then depending on what kind of housing changes are there's going to be more of them.

So and then in 2030 or whenever we think you know we anticipate a swingback.

So we we can't ever say and this is the decision and now this is how it is forever.

We don't get to do that because we're a public entity that has an obligation to all children who live within Seattle who want to attend Seattle Public Schools which is most school aged children by the way.

That's really that.

So I don't know.

I'm just saying like this is this is just a reality of where we are at this point in time that we need to be responsive to.

This isn't anything that's wrong with this those schools or the people at them or the students it's this is just the reality of the moment and our charge really is to Make sure that we're representing as a body what's best for the entire district not any individual part of it because all children whether they're out of school with less than 300 students or out of school with 550 students whatever all students have the right to a free and appropriate public education provided by Seattle Public Schools if they live in Seattle.

But none of them have any entitlement or priority ownership over any particular location or teacher or principal.

That's we as a community own this all together.

to in order to provide education to our children.

Nobody has more ownership over a school or or that staff or whatever.

So our obligation to students and serving them no matter where they live and no matter what building they're in is what we have to focus on and not get caught up in believing that our communities have to compete against each other because we're actually part of the same community.

Fred Podesta

I would note that our long-term plan has to account for that capacity and the need for variability and capacity.

It's easier to do with our current design standards that has bigger buildings where the capacity is how how much you fill each building it's not opening and closing buildings in terms of being being agile and ready to deal with that is again a bit easier to do with buildings that can handle higher enrollments.

Brandon Hersey

Just a heads up it's 830 and I know that this is a critical conversation but I'm not letting any of us off the hook for progress monitoring either.

So that's going to be at least an hour plus questions.

It is 830. That's fine.

We can have a bathroom break.

But let's keep it concise.

Liza Rankin

One super duper quick technical question is if there's is there an update?

Vivian Song

Oh, sorry.

It's okay Thank you for including some of this context around the sizes of elementary schools I'll note that Mercer Island their elementary schools are about 500 students and they're looking to go to 600 students I have a so I wasn't aware that we had recruited a second demographer and I was wondering if Were there different?

Did they approach the methodology differently?

What was the rationale for getting a second demographer?

Fred Podesta

It was really to provide quality assurance on the major project that Flo did.

And so we hired Les Kendrick, who has a firm that we worked with for many years and many districts have, to see is it consistent with what he's seeing in other districts and just check our methodology.

not an exact science, and so their take on it was fairly consistent.

Vivian Song

That's good to know.

When Flo gave us that presentation, just for Director Sardew's sake, that he shared with us that we are actually getting birth data from King County Public Health.

So that is the baseline that we're working with.

And we are also working with the city of Seattle around permits.

Yeah.

Fred Podesta

The epidemiology folks at King County Public Health are, Seattle King County Public Health are great and are data wizards.

Vivian Song

Wonderful.

So I know that the last time we had to do a round of consolidations, that at the time the enrollment planning was that we were either going to be flat or kind of declining.

And then actually what ended up happening, there was a huge increase and we had to quickly reopen some schools.

So what I didn't get from Flo is what is actually different this time around that gives us the belief that that won't happen again.

And regardless of whether or not it does happen again, I understand that the expectation is that we will be planning just in case that that happens again.

Fred Podesta

I think the single biggest factor is the infill since then.

And at some point, you get to the point where how much housing stock is possible that is going to be family housing?

And that I think we had issues last time about.

And this is where it still gets difficult.

Um, forecast for the current, um, year is off by 47 students out of, you know, tens of thousands, obviously.

It's much harder at the school level to know exactly what's happening in every neighborhood.

So some of the challenges we had about it was where we forecast and then again the city you know as the city matures it becomes it matures as a place.

It becomes less malleable in terms of how much family housing can you build.

Leslie Harris

What are our consultants telling us about the Seattle comp plan.

Because this this does have shades of the previous closures consolidation.

We are going to go through a revolution here with recent cross the alley.

I got to listen to the hardware and we've got eight condos cross the alley.

My neighborhood is two blocks away from a rapid ride and it's crazy town.

So and many of those are in fact family oriented development.

Fred Podesta

So both our consultants and so we participate in the comp planning process.

We have staff.

And they are predicting higher growth in populations than our demographers, 18 and younger.

And concede their methodology for doing that is Just kind of based on historical trends and much more coarse than the analysis We've done and they said, you know, it just isn't our thing to In terms of kind of services that belong in the comp plan, you know, that is not a focus area for them so they acknowledge as a reason for that difference and it's really a the looking at building permits looking at the kind of construction aspect it just is much lower rate of Housing that's two-bedroom or more and you know is is the In terms of everybody's crystal ball that there's there's a housing crisis in the city as we know and there's a lots of need for workforce housing and densifying neighborhoods but it's not necessarily leading to the kind of housing that we expect.

Right.

And so that's why we are at the table to at least understand what what they know.

And then again what the goals of their plan.

They don't write the comp plan to satisfy our needs.

Brent Jones

All right, so you all have this, what's called a resolution, fiscal stabilization resolution plan.

And this is, like I said, this is meeting three of 11. This is also meant to create increasing clarity as we go along.

So this is some this is a preview insight as to what my team superintendent is proposing to pursue as we get to a balanced budget.

And so these are the elements that are within this resolution that we are proposing that we do our do the analytics on that we do the costing on that we go forward and really bill for the May 8th plan that you all will actually be voting on for the balanced budget.

And so this can be adjusted as you see fit, but we are, I think, four or five months ahead of where we were last year.

I think you all might have concerns about the new board members coming on.

They will have an opportunity to participate in this as well.

I want to give ourselves credit for being ahead of the game around showing you this is what we're trying to do in terms of the key elements to balancing the budget.

These next slides are really the roll-up to what's contained in this resolution document.

So superintendents recommendations for 24 25. We want to be purposeful and collaborative as we build toward the system of well-resourced schools that we talked about earlier.

We want to make sure that we build a budget does not that does not include consolidations for the 24 25 school year so that we can be planful so that we can bring people along so that we can talk about things like the master plan and what that's going to look like.

We want to make sure that we facilitate this transition to a system of well-resourced schools that we may actually need to borrow a short term basis and or liquidate assets.

So you're seeing that as part of our strategy proposed strategy moving forward.

Next slide.

And so the recommendations may include reductions and adjustments in central office and central office staffing and expenses.

Changes to transportation.

Some sort of fees.

Perhaps the sale or lease of non-school properties.

We have about we have three major pieces of property that we don't have school based activities happening.

Programmatic adjustments and restructuring.

We would think about delaying our repayment to our economic stabilization fund that we borrowed from, that we used up last year.

We also would look at reductions in any other contingency balances that we have.

And then we talk about reductions and adjustments in school staffing, unfortunately, and the utilization of one-time self-help funds and school carry forwards.

So these are kind of the elements are what we're going to use to balance the budget.

Next slide, please.

So as we look at the out years 25 to 28 this plan as I mentioned will include may include school consolidations.

We're going to have a basis for that understanding of why that might be a very very plausible approach to helping balance the budget.

But also we want to do that in a fashion that we would also try to realize some of the things in well-resourced schools.

We wouldn't just do consolidation as a budget savings exercise.

We do this as can we bridge programs and schools and services in a way that our students actually get more or we actually have some assurances.

We'd also look at grade level reorganizations.

What that looks like, maybe Dr. Jarvis could talk about that a little bit.

But then program adjustments and restructuring are what we will look at as well in the out years.

So I'll stop there.

Said a lot.

This shouldn't be new information.

We've talked about this just recently.

But that's what the spirit of what we're trying to do.

This is the arc of it.

Like I said, you all have the pen and the gavel to add things, delete things to this, but we are eager to get started on the depth of work that we need to do in order to get ready to provide a balanced budget for 2024-25.

So open it up to responses, concerns, wants, wishes, desires, and fears, and then we can go from there.

Leslie Harris

The last two grade level reorganization program adjustments and restructuring.

I don't have a clue as to what that means and I don't want to assume.

Chandra Hampson

Thank you.

Art Jarvis

So for just a minute I want to be really careful because things can run away in a hurry.

What we're trying to share with you is a toolbox.

A toolbox of elements that could be used in combination to A, get us to a stable footing, get us to a system there.

You saw earlier the values that are leading to vision and using those values that are emerging and the vision that's emerging.

The present status is that we've got a change requirement.

We cannot stay where we are.

We have to fix some things.

But if we're going to go about that, then how do we do that?

So I want to be careful that I don't just roll out a whole bunch of things that people say, aha, that's where they're heading.

So I'm not trying to be there, but example of that would be for just a second, you've had issues you've been looking at for a number of years on K-8s.

K-8s could be looked at from two different perspectives.

One is what's the effect on middle schools where middle schools will be shrinking in a few years.

And what would you do or could be looked at from the other side?

The k5s and say if you add those as pure k5s in the system, how big are they and now?

What's our what's our issue?

As you look at grade level reorganizations one of the things that's been done for certainly from baby boom times on is Some of you live through an era.

Where do we put the ninth graders?

Why don't we put them in the high school if I've got room at the high school?

Or I kick them out of the high school because the high schools are overcrowded and districts have left them alone in their own building.

They've hoped they would go away for a year and grow up.

They've put them with the junior high model and the middle school model.

In this case, one example, that's all it is an example is you could look at retaining the sixth grades at the elementary and you would say I've just increased the enrollment size by 17% on the average and I haven't moved a child.

I just don't let any fifth graders go out of my school for a while.

You could combine those in a sense of, do I start to phase out K-8s if that's necessary, and I'll have some weird configurations over a while, but they will be part of the tools that get us to where we wanna be by the 2030 as we look there.

A little bit, President Hersey, I know we're pressed for time, but I'm gonna try to say it quickly.

I don't think I've ever experienced in my long career District that was literally living living strategic planning of Looking at our what what changes need to be made?

Looking at the values looking at the vision looking at the tool set that's there Looking at the assets that we have and then trying to figure out a plan I want to give this gentleman on my right a great credit.

He's been very patient and I'm not looking at immediate what do we do just to fix the budget but rather what do we do that fits the city of Seattle and a school district he so obviously loves dearly to say this has to be part of a longer range and has to build on the vision.

So I'm trying to answer it but at the same time be really really careful that I'm not rolling out a hidden plan or not trying to be transparent but all the tools are there to say let's when we're done and we we won't be done it'll be a five-year process but as we move through this we're moving very intentionally very appropriately with the values and the vision, and we haven't ignored places that could help us get there, if that's it.

What I think I love most of all, what Beverly went through earlier, is you saw from the parents and the community what represents a really well-run school system.

It's got all of these elements for my kids.

And if my needs are special services or extended program or highly capable, if it's the extracurricular, if it's the tremendous interest we've had in recent years on wellness and student wellness and health.

So I'm taking that extra minute just to say the broad picture is a superintendent And I know what he's asked of me, and that's to take the whole toolbox and look at it and say, how do we get there honoring the community, honoring the values?

And so there, I said it, now I'll quit.

Brent Jones

Thank you so much, Art.

Art Jarvis

Please.

Vivian Song

So in looking at the 24-25 recommendations and the kind of the recommendations beyond I think something that is missing for me is that other than

Brent Jones

Flip back one please to 20's.

Transportation.

Yeah.

Vivian Song

Other than changes to transportation there doesn't seem to be a match with what are the largest sources of our deficit.

So we collectively know those to be special education transportation multilingual substitutes is one that I learned at our last session.

So.

I understandably, I see the vision where we're choosing some maybe one-time strategies in the 24-25 budget so that we can do the work of actually addressing our structural deficit in the years beyond.

But I think that we need to have an understanding of the sources of deficit, like why were there not options from those categories that are included in the recommendations?

And then secondly, specifically to the changes to transportation and the reductions and adjustments in school staffing, I try to include that as a addition in the financial policy that we just passed, which is, I think it's really important for us to when we think about these as options to have an analysis on what is the impact to the students so I understand the goal here in December is to here's a list of ideas and you will do the work but my expectation is that there needs to be some analysis around the sources of deficit and there whatever ideas that you are proposing to us analysis on the impact on students.

Brent Jones

Yeah please.

Art Jarvis

With all due respect I think you actually heard some of those tonight, but we didn't present it in that fashion that may have been a weakness so the loss of enrollment the tie of the enrollment to the funding system and OSPI the 400 school size versus the small schools that we have in Seattle those are actually the source the major source of our deficit and I think what you're looking at if I may is for example special education is is a major deficit program.

That's not Seattle.

In a way that is the funding system that's that we have from the state.

It's not that we can't find efficiencies and we already have But the reality is the major deficit, you can say, of X dollars in special ed is not the source, even though it's parallel in numbers, it's not the source.

The source is exactly what you've heard.

We're running, for example, the small schools that are not sustainable, not funded.

So as you look at the world of staging for 25, 26, consolidation, closure as necessary, restructuring as necessary.

That's right at the heart, but that's the hardest part to get to unless we do a real quick knee-jerk of just let's close some schools without doing the rest of that.

So I think we're trying to, I know, for example, the hundreds of hours have already been spent doing exactly what you're asking.

Let's make sure we know what we're looking at before we do this, which is part of the reason we're not recommending to move immediately into consolidation because that has to be part of the rest of it.

So again, I'm pontificating and I apologize for that.

Brent Jones

No, that was clean.

I couldn't have said it better myself, but that is exactly what we're trying to do.

And that's the quote unquote delay.

We're not delaying because we never said we're going to do it, but that's the longer run up to doing some of the harder, more complicated work.

So thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Jarvis.

Liza Rankin

Somewhat related I think you know we're used to we're used to the one-time fixes We're used to the band-aids and I know like the capital gains tax has yielded more money than was anticipated and I It's, you know, some of it is earmarked for early learning and child care, and then the rest of it is supposed to go to school construction.

The legislature could decide to change that.

They're the ones that decided it would go to school construction.

They could decide to change that, and that's $500 million, I think.

And that would be well 500 million dollars across the state.

So that would be worth advocating for like hey what's what's the plan for this.

We have a lot of districts that could use that but that still would be another bandaid and not help us not address the underlying issues that we have to address that would just sort of be pushing off a piece of it.

Not to say that we shouldn't advocate for that.

And if it goes to districts you know we're the largest district in the state.

But if it goes for capital, we are very fortunate to have the ability to receive capital funds from local levies.

And I can't remember if I said this before, Wacayacum has not taught chemistry in 30 years.

So when we're talking about $500 million, Like first of all that's not going to solve our under — that's a one time money because the next time the capital gains tax is collected it might not have that deficit.

So it could help us with some stuff.

But if it's earmarked for construction I'm not about to suggest that we fight for a piece of that ahead of Wacayacum who has I think six working toilets for a district of over 400 kids and the staff that serve them.

Like, no.

So the, sorry.

Oh, yeah.

So my question directly related to what's in the resolution is about the, Number three the superintendent is authorized to include the following.

This is sort of the the universe of possibilities that will be presented.

But the question that I have is is is the.

is the, because I want to make sure I'm interpreting it the same as it's being intended, like what I would like to see, and we may not just, we just may not have that many different options, but I would like to see sort of, within these things, here are a range of possibilities.

maybe we're not actually, maybe we don't have a range of possibilities.

But so I guess my question is, is how prescriptive is this direction?

Is it that were we to approve this and provide this direction.

I mean it's a resolution so it's not binding but were we to approve this and affirm this direction would that mean that your interpretation of that would be a proposal.

One proposal that includes elements of these or a I'm trying to make sure I'm making sense or a.

sort of proposal that includes we could do this, we could do this, like a kind of would you rather sort of tradeoff, description of tradeoffs.

And again, like I don't, we don't have a huge range of options that are going to be available.

But how, I guess how nailed down would you view this language as?

In terms of what's presented next?

Brent Jones

Yeah this is prescriptive in the sense that you are absolutely correct.

We don't have a whole lot of other options.

And so this is really getting your your authority to pursue these and to study them and to research them to director Song's point around which which which are the big ticket items.

And we would start to sharpen our pencil around how do we pull all these together to get to that.

to that balancing point and so um in doing this over a multi-year uh a multi-year approach is actually good but for 24-25 there's there's not like there's not 17 other options that are on the list that we're not looking at.

Again, as I opened up, you all can say, don't touch number 3, fees, unless you're only talking about I'm making it up, but you all could say take a couple of these off and then we have to go deeper other places, but we don't have a list of 10 or 11 other choices here.

So it is somewhat prescriptive, but it's you all can explore the universe of these things that are on that list.

Liza Rankin

Is that clear?

Yeah, I think so.

It makes sense to think a little bit longer term, but I have to reflect on what a very bold testifier, I can't remember her name, but I'm super appreciative of her just saying the super brave thing.

Of.

And what you just confirmed also Dr. Jarvis that the source of our structural deficit is in fact a mismatch between students that we have and resources in terms of buildings and such like that is actually the structural deficit.

And so deciding to do that for one more year I.

I mean I think a lot of people breathe a sigh of relief but I'm thinking about the impact on students and school communities that was just felt last month.

What does next October look like with no consolidations and how do we keep like Dunlap from not having that same experience again.

How do we make sure that we're serving students within that?

And then as a kind of a follow-up, I know there are some principals in buildings who are like, please just consolidate us.

We are struggling.

Are we open to saying, if there is a early adopter or, I mean, I don't know that anybody still feels that way, but I had heard that sort of at the beginning of this year, There were some buildings that were just like oh my gosh we're so tired of not knowing if we're going to have a counselor an art teacher or whatever and could you just please and our buildings old could you just please let us let us go here.

Not not saying there's a ton of those but if there were to be a couple of schools school communities that were like we don't want to wait because we don't want to we don't want to do another year like this year.

Could could that.

Like no consolidations meaning we're not directing them but like suppose someone like knowing that that is the source of our deficit.

If there was a school community that was like yeah we we don't want to wait.

What's the.

Brent Jones

Yeah.

So so there probably are some school combinations of school communities that are saying they're approaching readiness.

But I would question what readiness means.

Are they bringing part of their community?

Is that ready or all of their community?

Is their K-5 community ready and not the six through eight community?

So I know Dr. Jarvis has been having some conversations and we've been invitational.

He's been running point on Just the exploration of that and so some folks are saying yeah, we're we're we're thinking that we can we can actually pull this off But when we when we ask a couple deeper questions Do we know that we're ready to even support them in this move right away?

And so dr. Jarvis, can you add a little bit of context to that?

But I know that we're We were thinking about that and you know frankly if the board said hey if there are some folks that can exhibit some readiness go for it.

I mean this is these are this is my recommendation.

If you all said don't be too constrictive on your recommendation if there's some schools that are ready to kind of pilot or.

be early adopters and you have the authority to go forward.

But that's that's.

Liza Rankin

Or also go to instead of going to an interim location for a building that's going to get rebuilt.

They're being they're moving location anyway.

Maybe it makes sense to say oh why don't you join this school community for this time.

Brandon Hersey

I'm starting to think that this conversation as fruitful as it is is getting away from the intent of the presentation.

It is now nine o'clock and we will be doing progress monitoring.

So.

Art Jarvis

And I'll try to do it quickly so Yes, I like what you're saying and what I'm doing is trying to be as invitational as possible to those principles and leaders that say practically speaking pragmatically speaking we're probably gonna have to do this and There's also, though, the side that is very, they call it loaded, in a sense of, I don't know too many of the principals who wanna be the one that says, I volunteered my school to be closed, and then have their own parents say, whoa, when did this come, how did it get there?

So we're trying to suggest that there are ways in which we will assist, we will go through a very good process that would engage people, We'll try to use that as a model ahead of those that are willing to step ahead but it's being it's very cautious and it's very careful and I would say I'm definitely not closing the door to that but it's invitational and It's I don't believe it's going to happen broadly the timing of Saying can we do some of this on a frame of the fall of 2005?

Opens up a whole possibility to take a longer Runway as as dr. Jones said to have those same people say let's start and we can engage but it's I've seen it up close in this last week of Principles and there's and their parents and their PTA and just how do we make that work in a unified fashion?

I'm not naive enough to believe we're gonna get consensus on any hard decision but we can get to a place where the the parents feel that they and the people they respect like their principal and leading them safely through a hazardous process.

So that's what we're trying to achieve in the short term.

Brent Jones

I know Bev's been trying to get in there but I want I used to because I think you might have had a connected thought to Director Rankin.

Ayush Muthuswamy

I just want to get a clarifying question in before I do have to go home.

My mom probably got me pretty mad at me for staying here until 9 p.m.

But on this resolution, I think you described it as a toolbox, most of the items are internal in that you can enact them now or you can enact them immediately, but there is one item and going to the legislature and legislature and getting a loan which is contingent on whether that actually happens or not.

And I was wondering how crucial is that to the budget for next year and if that doesn't happen do the other tools provide sufficient funding that we can exist without that one?

Fred Podesta

I think we're going to build this.

We're going to follow through on Dr. Jones' recommendation.

And the state school financing system has tools around financing.

If districts can't build a balanced budget, that would be our last resort.

We're fortunate to be a wealthy district, even if we have a structural spending and revenue mismatch on an annual basis.

So what we're asking the legislature is to do something that's in state government's interest to let us leverage our own resources.

But there are ways to do financing.

So I mean, in the end, we'll have to put together a package that makes sense to the board, that the board can support.

But the And whatever that financing looks like it would be in the I certainly believe it would be in the best interest of students to take that time and use that fine whatever financing mechanism we land on would mitigate impacts to students of.

all the other things we would have to do if we just in one year tried to make these expenditure reductions.

These are problems that have built up over decades and it really isn't fair to the cohort of students in 24-25 to say it's all on you.

to absorb the hit.

And so one way or the other, I have confidence that we can find a way to basically get that bridge loan to a sustainable financial strategy.

Brent Jones

I'm going to head out now, so bye.

Tremendous question though, Aisha.

That's great.

Your mother's calling me too.

Liza Rankin

But can you clarify on the loan?

We're not asking the legislature to loan us money.

We're asking for permission to borrow from ourselves.

Brent Jones

Correct.

Liza Rankin

I want to make sure that that's really clear.

Brent Jones

I think that's a clear, I mean, a crucial distinction.

Yes.

Liza Rankin

that we're asking to use money that is designated by the legislature for capital?

Is that correct?

Brent Jones

Yes.

Against our cash reserves.

Liza Rankin

So we're asking to use that for operations which by state law we may not use as ongoing operating costs.

We did also did that this year for this year's budget.

We did receive permission to borrow from ourselves and so we're asking for an extension of that.

We're not asking the legislature to lend us new money.

I don't think that they would do that.

Brent Jones

Right.

So they gave us permission to do that for this year.

We didn't exercise that option.

So we're asking to have that permission again that we will likely exercise.

Liza Rankin

I just want to clarify where the loan is coming from.

Thanks.

Brent Jones

All right, I know.

Bev, please jump in.

Bev Redmond

There were no jumping in, sir.

Just signaling what might next steps be.

What would you be seeking from the board as we're wrapping up tonight?

Director Hampson.

Chandra Hampson

Well my my comment.

I think it's a response to this is related to that.

I think by and large my understanding is this pretty similar to last year.

I think it's good to have this ahead.

I do think it would be ideal to give new directors to not ask them to vote on it.

Well I guess it would be.

It's intro tonight so I guess it would be on the consent agenda for in December.

But they'll be building off of it and in subsequent meetings and so I think it's important that they have the opportunity to have another really long protracted discussion.

But the.

The only concern I have is the way that number three is is worded is that it does feel very much like a prescriptive list as opposed to, you know, number four, which is to explore legislative solutions and Because it's that it's a resolution that feels like not the right framing that it should be the language should be something more to the tune of you know is authorized to explore or provide evaluate these these options.

Which is my understanding of what you're actually wanting to do is look at these and see what?

impact they're gonna have and then you know, we've talked about fees before I mean these are because these are really general and Changes to transportation that can mean a lot of things That could be probably tiers but because we are one of the again one of the few districts that has two tiers.

But it could be other things fees.

There's two components to that.

I still have issue with any time we start I think taking charging a fee to charge to run a payment system is one thing.

I think as soon as you start charging families for things.

That's another again, I would want to see that as a net because it's not it costs money to collect that money And then Yeah, I think it's it just feels to a little too much like a laundry list and Of like, okay.

These are the different things like that you can expect to To see are we gonna see all of these things?

We're gonna see some of these things.

I just I Something about the phrasing of it doesn't sound enough like OK but we are still going to make clear what these.

The research you know the analysis behind all these things is and.

My preference would be for there to not be a list because then it just feels like we're getting into line item vetoes and I don't think that's an appropriate discussion for us to get into.

Brent Jones

Director Hampson and the board would it please the board to perhaps say.

And number three, authorized to consider the following instead of include.

Consider and research.

yeah okay so next steps uh uh this board can give me direction on whether you want to uh respond to this and on december 13th which is proposed or a later date um and then pushing out to January we're gonna start talking about updates on our budget development process.

And so that's what we're gonna see the next Two or three months and so that's that's consistent with what's on the budget timeline here.

And so we're tracking on this we have Eight more engagements that we're gonna have with you all around this around this topic We want to make sure that you all are fully fully up to speed on what we're trying to do and attempt.

And again, this whole concept of teamwork is critical for us to get to where we need to be.

So, President Hersey, I'm going to leave it up to you on your board, the board's determination if December 13th is a date that you all want to hold fast to.

If you say, no, we need more time for whatever reason, then we would certainly accommodate that.

Brandon Hersey

Yeah I think we're just naturally going to need more time given that we're about to get at least two new board members if I'm not mistaken.

So.

I think it would be tough to bring them in on the third and then have them lobbied for two weeks and then put into a position to vote.

What I would like to hear back from you is is there any significant difference between the 13th and when we return.

Obviously like more time is better but in terms of getting the clarity that you need do you see a substantive difference between those two.

Brent Jones

Yes, a month makes a difference sure we're gonna be hustling to get the plan together by May and so that's yeah We're six months out right now today.

Mm-hmm.

And so if And we're still gonna be working in the background.

We're in the lab right now looking at all these and I think we'll go forward with Looking at all these anyway, um, but we may shrink the list if the board comes back and says no We're not we don't want you to pursue right items a b and c And then we we look at the rest of the list and you can do that, but I don't think it's gonna Significantly slow us down, but we do We we do want to have as much time as possible.

So we're coming way in advance of what we did last year, but sure it's still This year we're talking about reductions and not necessarily adjustments.

Brandon Hersey

Right.

Brent Jones

And so that's a much more difficult process.

Brandon Hersey

OK.

I would just say please make it a significant part of new director onboarding.

Will do.

Vivian Song

Yeah I was just going to say that the December probably is important because we're going to be heading into school budget process in February so you're going to need some lead time that but I would encourage us to also participate in the new Georgia onboarding.

Thank you.

Brent Jones

Thank you all.

Brandon Hersey

Thank you.

All right.

Take three minutes if you need to use the restroom.

Take a bio break and please be back promptly at 9 19 for progress monitoring.

I'm hoping to get us out of here by 10 30.

Brent Jones

Thank you to Progress Monitoring this evening for third grade reading and our seventh grade math goals.

Today I'm joined with key leaders of this work, Assistant Superintendent of Academics, Dr. Mike Starosky, Executive Director of College and Career Readiness, Dr. Caleb Perkins, and Executive Director of Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction, Cashel Toner.

We'll follow the same sequence that we used at our last review of both these goals, taking each memo in turn, first third grade reading, then seventh grade math, by spending a few minutes doing an independent read.

And we're going to bypass that today.

We're just going to scan it.

And then we'll refresh our memories to ensure we're all coming into the discussion with the same information.

We plan to change our approach slightly by providing a few slides to illuminate the student outcome data and emphasize ways we are responding to these student outcomes.

My colleagues and I will share some brief comments on the strategy strategies, plural, SPS is engaging to change these data before we get into our main discussion.

So, any questions?

Not hearing any, thank you.

Let's go ahead and begin our close read of the third grade memo.

But seriously, if you have questions, I will entertain it.

Yes, okay.

Yeah, we'll just scan it briefly so you can get just refreshed and then we'll proceed on.

You're supposed to be scanning, yes.

Yes, third grade reading.

Cashel is going to share a few slides to kind of help ground our discussion and then we'll take it from there.

Mike Starosky

So as people are scanning the document just we're excited because over two board meetings we've waited nine hours to get in front of you.

And so it's going to be worth the wait.

So we're.

Yeah.

No and I'm excited because if we make this last long enough Directors Hanson and Harris we can just have you for just a little bit longer.

So this will be the I think a good one to end on which is the student work for third grade reading and seventh grade math.

Some of the things that you're going to hear tonight are reflected in questions that we had received that have been responded to and answered.

25 questions or so that were brought back in October.

We will talk briefly about some of the strategies and then also we want to get into some of the specifics because of last time that we were going to be here in October.

We've done some good implementation of the work for both third grade reading and also the seventh grade math that we want to illustrate for you in addition to sharing some of the status of where exactly we are with our data for our African-American boys for third grade reading.

So I'll hand it over to Cashel who will get us started.

Cashel Toner

Okay.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Cashel Toner, Executive Director for Curriculum Assessment and Instruction.

And I'm actually really excited to talk with you about this work because I feel like, you know, three, four years ago, we were talking about planning and kind of laying the foundation for the work, and now we can actually talk about the work.

So let's get into it, okay?

So well anyway we need the purpose one of the main purposes of this meeting is to answer the question are we on track to meet our targets.

OK.

So in the next slide you'll see a more intricate slide.

Yep.

There it is.

That shows our subgroups of students that we've been you know looking at data around.

But before we even get into that I just want to say that all of our children have the capacity to learn to read at grade level by third grade.

It's our responsibility to think about how do we build the systems and structure so that they can show their brilliance at school just like kids do in community as well.

So this work isn't about fixing kids.

It's not about fixing communities or schools.

It's about us thinking about how do we build different systems and structures so that all kids can show their brilliance and read at or above grade level by third grade.

All right so you'll see here this is Smarter Balanced data from last school year and the solid lines show student outcomes over the last several years.

There's some gap years in there when we had that pandemic.

And then you'll also see the dotted lines up there are the targets that were sent that were set again before the student outcomes focus governance process was learned by Seattle schools and also you know before the pandemic.

So that's where we are right now.

You'll see that our our outcomes are generally holding steady which you know isn't what we were hoping for but it's also not a significant decline.

So that gives you a picture of where we are right now.

with our African American boys at 29%, which is a couple percentage points down from where we were last year at 31.7.

You will see our multilingual learners have had an increase in outcomes from 24.8% up to 30.6%.

You know, anyway, so that's where we are with that.

I find this information sort of like a look back in time, but let's look at the next slide because it's going to help us understand what I think is a little bit more interesting.

So this is a comparison where we look at MAP and SBA.

And we take a look at kids and their accelerated growth.

So on the left you'll see the academic African-American boys and then in the next column over is students furthest from educational justice.

And you can see the kids that were proficient on the SBA.

But take a look at the next sort of shade of green down which is the 16.8 percent or the 14 percent.

Those are kids that are showing accelerated growth.

And that is, first of all, we wouldn't have even been able to show you this kind of data a couple years ago because we didn't have map implemented across the system, so thanks for your support on that.

And also, we know that kids, when you're not quite at grade level, obviously you need to accelerate your growth.

So this is a tool that helps us as a system understand where our kids are, and then also we can have different conversations with teachers and school leaders and others that are supporting those systems and structures that we were talking about.

Let's move on to the next slide.

All right.

Now, because we didn't get to talk with you the last time through, we are here today, and now we have some new data for you.

So this isn't actually in your memo, but it is in your slide deck.

And what this is, is looking at some of those predictive factors that MAP has a whole psychometric way of thinking about, OK, if this is what your achievement is looking like in the fall, then you are predicted you know, achieve like this on the SBA.

Why that's important is because we can look at that and then we can say, all right, who do we need to really work with to get at that accelerated growth that we were talking about on that last slide, right?

So if we were to just, you know, look at the predictive indicators of our system right now, our students furthest from educational justice in the spring on SBA, are predicted to be about 43.6% proficient on the SBA, and our African-American boys would be 32.1% proficient.

Now, that could swing three or four percentage points one way or another, but it is a better, it's more real-time data that helps us inform our strategies and our work.

We'll move on to the next slide.

Lots of you have asked about hey could you please break out some of the data and show us what's going on with our subset of schools that you've been partnering with over the last several years.

So this is a slide that shows our 13 priority schools that we've been working with.

And then there's some comparative comparison schools that our research team looked at in Seattle schools.

If you read the fine print at the bottom there you'll see that it's like schools that had about 15 or so African-American boys to Kind of have like comparison schools and of those Comparison schools.

I believe 11 of them are title one schools so the top line shows the achievement of our african-american boys at our 13 priority schools on the SBA from last spring and And the dotted line there below shows the like comparative comparison schools that we haven't been targeting those systems and structures and those resources toward.

This is just one data point though and so I just take it as exactly that one data point and certainly we have lots of work to do and lots more to learn in that space.

We can move to the next slide.

One of the things we've been working on is thinking about what other data do we need to be paying attention to in order to better understand what's happening with our kids at school.

So this is a slide that shows attendance rates for kids in kindergarten, first, second, and third, fourth, and fifth grade over the last several years.

So you can see 2018, 19, 21, 22, 22, 23. And let's hover on, let's just say the first, let's say, let's say third grade, right?

This is third grade reading.

So let's look at that together.

In 2018-19, you would see 16% of 18 or more days absent, right?

And that is our indicator for long-term absenteeism.

And now we're up at around 30% of our kids are, you know, would be considered as long-term absenteeism.

So how does that relate to student academic achievement, you might be wondering.

Well, if you look to the right of this slide, you'll see.

OK, I'm going to jump into education ease for a second, OK?

And then I'll hop out.

But OK, map, right?

That's our measure of academic progress that we administer three times a year.

And in the MAP assessment, you get this thing called a RIT score.

It's just that it roughly correlates to grade level.

And you can see that if you have more days absent, obviously your achievement on the MAP assessment, it goes down, right?

You want a higher RIT score on MAP because that correlates with grade level proficiency.

This is a long way around to say we need to pay attention to student absenteeism.

This isn't anything new that we know about.

But I'm going to talk to you in just a minute about one strategy that we're implementing to think carefully about student absenteeism.

Liza Rankin

Really quick clarifying.

Sure.

Is this saying that 32 percent of all students in third grade in Title 1 schools and SPS missed 18 or more days?

Cashel Toner

Yes.

Liza Rankin

across all races and incomes.

So Title I schools.

Cashel Toner

Yes.

Whoa.

Right.

Whoa is right.

So we need to talk about some strategies about that.

Now that's complicated.

Right.

Things have happened since COVID.

Things have happened.

Even my own kids probably would have been been up there and you know like this.

Things are different now.

But what we need to think about is how do we respond to that as in building those systems and structures together.

Right.

How do we respond because there is a connection to student absenteeism.

Let's move on to the next slide.

Vivian Song

Oh sure.

That's a super tactical question.

Have the COVID that how long you have to stay home because you're positive for COVID.

Those protocols still in place.

Cashel Toner

I think you're asking like do we say, do we recommend you stay home for five days now and that kind of thing when you have the COVID, when you are positive?

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Now you might be thinking gee how does this play out this school year.

What's going on right now.

And this is another advantage of coming back to this table right now is that we can look at this data together.

So of our Title 1 schools you can see that we're we're tracking you know generally about the same as we were last year.

And so that helps us think about what's what can we do as the adults that support children at school and families to think about how how can we respond to that a little bit differently.

So we'll get to that in just a second.

All right let's move to the next slide.

Mike how am I doing on time?

Caleb Perkins

All right.

Excellent.

Director Hampson are you looking for one of the.

Cashel Toner

There she goes.

OK this slide helps us understand what we've been building toward over the last several years.

Remember when we started off and I said you know it's nice to talk to you tonight about some of the real work because remember back in 2019 in 1920 we adopted the strategic plan and that was it was generally a planning year and then 2021 that was our remote learning year.

we did some significant work there but you know we had some challenges as well because it was remote.

We were back to school in person in 21-22 and we did some big work that year.

We implemented dibbles across the system.

We became really clear about our instructional priorities and kind of narrowed our focus and we we learned that we needed to do that in the first two years.

So you can see the instructional priorities listed on that slide up there which would be systematic phonics instruction and fluency and comprehension work in second and third grade.

We also learned that we needed to have a different mechanism for family connections and so we hired we came up with a strategy around family literacy connectors and staffed folks in schools and built that out.

Now we're in 22, 23, and 23, 24 over there.

And that's when we were really kind of functioning as a whole, more of a comprehensive approach to the work.

And now we're over here in our second, in 23, 24 space.

I really would like to talk with you about this.

One of our big learnings over I'd say in the 22, 23, 23, 24 space was thinking how much work we needed to do with our educators around in the PLC space and really supporting that collegial conversation so that we could ground those conversations in student work.

I have to say I'm So impressed every time I'm at one of our early literacy priority schools and in the classrooms of our kindergarten first and second third grade teachers.

Those folks are working so hard.

They're standing up just monumental strategies in their classrooms internalizing new practice.

They're engaged in you know tight coaching cycles where they have a coach come into their classroom.

videotape their instruction, go back together in a PLC together, look at student work, watch the video, give each other feedback, and repeat that cycle over time.

That's significant.

That's brave work that our teachers are doing in our 13 schools.

It's pretty amazing.

Oh thanks for asking that.

Professional learning community.

Yeah.

And another big learning is that we needed to build a similar network for our educator for our principals.

So we launched something called the early literacy improvement network where we bring together principals coaches directors of schools my team from curriculum assessment and instruction and we do that virtually and we convene Once a month with a with an instructional focus that's aligned to what the teachers are learning and what the principals are learning and what the coaches are learning.

So that's that's pretty edge work that we've been able to stand up over the last several years.

And it's very rewarding.

And we can move on to the next.

Oh sure.

Yep.

Leslie Harris

What we're doing in the 13 schools has been pushed out to our other K-3s?

How many and what are the results there?

Cashel Toner

Sure.

So when you look at the memo, one of the ways we changed writing it this time through was to go through each one of the strategies, you know, the five overarching strategies, and then we actually listed out what are the universal strategies.

What are the targeted strategies?

And then what are the central office responsibilities or systems and structures that feed into both of those things?

So you can see that charted out.

An example of something we learned from our 13 schools and then took system-wide would be something like the Science of Reading Institute that we did with our teachers at our 13 schools.

Then we scaled that district-wide for all of our K-3 teachers.

Some work we're doing now that might lead us to scaling system wide is some work with DIBLS because we're learning that if you're a kiddo that's not reading yet, you don't have your foundational skills solid in second grade and we know that from DIBLS at the end of that assessment.

What are we doing in third grade to monitor your foundational skills work and same goes in fourth and fifth?

So we're doing a small pilot this year at our 13 schools and what depending on what we learned from that Potentially we could scale that district district wide as well.

Brent Jones

So those are some examples because she'll should we skip to Slide 12 so you can kind of show this universal.

Yeah, I

Cashel Toner

Sure.

I would say, though, if we go just one second on these instructional priorities, I would say that that's some really big learning that we've had over the last several years.

At the beginning of this work, it was like, wow, we should work on this and this and this with our educators.

That didn't work very well.

We need to narrow that focus and be really clear about what are the instructional priorities and how do they build on each other in a sequential way so that when you're in kindergarten and first grade, if all of us can help kids master their have systematic phonics instruction, then that builds to fluency protocols that we can do in second and third grade, and then that builds to text-dependent questions.

So that's been some of our learning over time that we've been engaged in a continuous improvement cycle to get to that clarity.

We can move on.

Oh, sure.

Liza Rankin

Just, and this may be too technical of a question now, so I'm happy to take the answer later, but because you brought up dibbles, that, you know, When that was adopted it was as a screener for dyslexia.

And so this sounds like it's being used in a different way.

So I'm confused about that.

Cashel Toner

So it's both.

It was implemented for a dyslexia screener for sure.

It also helped us as a system do something we weren't doing really well which was having a universal tool to help us understand how kids were progressing in their learning trajectory of systematic phonics.

So yes it helps us identify children that are having that might be at risk for dyslexia.

Absolutely.

It also helps us understand if kids have mastered their foundational skills and if they're moving through that progression well.

So I'd say it does both.

Liza Rankin

Is it adaptive for different ages?

Cashel Toner

Yes.

Liza Rankin

OK well I guess I don't want to derail us too much but I am having a hard time understanding how it does both those things.

Cashel Toner

We can.

I'd be happy to talk more about that with you if you like.

OK we can hop on to the next slide.

OK so back to Director Harris's question around universal and targeted strategies.

Here you'll see you know all of that sort of laid out on the in this memo.

One thing I'd like to zoom in with you on and this gets to some of the learning that we've engaged with would be around this early literacy improvement network that I was telling you about with our principals and coaches and central office support engaged around those instructional priorities.

So we can move to the next slide.

So here is a picture of all the people that are convening every month.

These are our coaches, our school leaders, our central office folks, and we meet virtually.

And we can, you can even see Dr. Storosky's picture there.

He comes and joins us.

Yep.

Let's go to the next slide.

And you'll see here that in the spirit of being more precise about what are we working on and how does that level of precision become really transparent with all of the different stakeholders I just identified for you?

And then how does that scope and sequence of learning sort of connect from one thing to the next, right?

So you'll see what was the focus of our improvement network in September was data review.

So our Department of Research and Evaluation helped to build specific data profiles for each one of the 13 schools, including an analysis of student absenteeism at the school level.

And we talked about that in September, you know, as not necessarily our main focus, but certainly something that's impacting student learning, right?

Because remember that early literacy instruction is typically sequential, and you do some work on Monday, and then you do some more work on Tuesday, and then you build on that on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

But if you miss Tuesday and Wednesday, it's really hard to jump back in on Thursday.

So that means that we have to come up with a solution for that.

You know if Mike isn't there on Tuesday and Wednesday then his teacher needs to have a strategy to help you know accelerate his learning so he can jump right back in.

Anyway we listened to some school leaders that are doing that really well and this won't surprise you because it's a blue ribbon school but Thurgood Marshall presented at that September 19th engagement session to other to their colleagues and they talked about their strength based approach for monitoring student absenteeism.

But really it's more about student engagement and they talked to us about some of their strength based protocols and their data practices and how they what they've learned over the last several years to address that.

address that challenge of helping kids come to school.

And they talked with us about having, you know, various different people on the team that's looking at that absenteeism.

They talked to us about transportation challenges and how to solve for those.

They talked about housing challenges and how to reach out to different central teams, right?

So that was really nice learning.

Well, the homework from September to October for the school leaders and for the coaches was to think about what is your your engagement strategy for absenteeism that fits your school community.

Like could you devise a plan and then bring it back together in October on October 10th and then we shared those together.

Yeah.

Chandra Hampson

Excused absences unexcused absences.

So are we seeing school refusal school avoidance.

Cashel Toner

What's all those things.

Yes.

And the school-based teams are grappling with those questions for sure.

And for the purposes of instructionally, because if you're not at school, we need to figure out why that is, right?

And we have to come up with a instructional response to fill that gap, whether if you're home for an excused absence, unexcused absence.

In summary, you're not there, right, to learn alongside your peers.

And so we have to figure out what are we going to do about that as a system.

Now, when we met in our improvement network, each one of the schools got a data analysis that was specific to their own school.

I didn't include that in here.

I just went up a few levels to the Title I group because it's kind of representative of what we're seeing in the schools.

Chandra Hampson

Yeah I was just wondering if we knew what some of those larger trends were in terms of whether they were excused like kids are sick.

Cashel Toner

Yes.

Chandra Hampson

And they could be I mean technically if it's if it's school avoidance that is a form of sickness meaning they're not literally not able to get themselves to school or are we is there some cautiousness post COVID with sending your kids to school because of not wanting to spread things.

Mike Starosky

Yeah and just very quickly principal May from Thurgood Marshall was talking and her team was talking about the nuances of trying to understand that and trying to get to the root cause of why students were not coming to school.

so that they weren't treating them all the same, but they were trying to understand it so that they could respond differently to what the students are doing, but ultimately also for the teachers, knowing that every day that the student's not there, they gotta figure out a way to accelerate, accommodate for the students who are not there, but trying to understand it was a whole team-wide approach, which that particular school team was sharing with everyone.

And everyone's got a different take on it, but it's Director Hampson.

It's it's getting to that nuance trying to understand It by not treating all absences the same.

They're not here.

They're not here.

They're sick.

Okay moving on There's a lot of underlying issues that often masked by absences

Liza Rankin

I'm thinking about future potential guardrails just around student well-being and how this might interact with that.

And in the learnings about, I'm really glad that there's acknowledgment that absences are for a lot of different reasons.

And also, teachers and principals can't by themselves go connect with every single family and be like, what do you need?

What's the barrier here?

So I know we just talked about a budget deficit, but in terms of aligning, If we think that this is a significant contributor to failure to progress more in reading, what resources, I mean, are we thinking about aligning, like, is a strategy to improve third grade reading improving attendance?

And if it is, I guess, is that a thought?

And if it is, what are the strategies to do that?

Because it can't just be that teachers and principals now have to Also, you know, follow up with every family.

There's going to be, I mean, one, you know, one solution could be door-to-door service if it has to do with anxiety or something related to a disability.

It could be, you know, is door-to-door service something that would help your child get to school?

That might, you know, the pressure as part of a bigger plan.

Is it housing insecurity?

Is it, you know, there's so many different things and I in no way expect every teacher and principal to be able to to identify that and provide whatever support is needed.

But I do expect us as a system to support those kids.

Mike Starosky

So this also crosses over into the seventh grade math as well.

But what I would say the answer to that is that when we did the third grade reading didn't go in there thinking about attendance being an issue.

We stumbled upon it by going through this this work together.

So now that we understand it that it's a barrier.

that is definitely connected to the progress or non-progress of our students for third grade reading.

So what can we do about it?

It's probably a part of the well-resourced school conversation as well.

About, you know, resource officers or officers that we used to call, sorry, back in the day, attendance officers, people, truancy, oh my gosh.

But we don't want to call that.

But what we want to get to is that any position in a school should be servicing somehow the academic outcomes that we're all involved in.

And so Director Rankin you specifically called out hey if we're not doing something about the academic outcomes we're not focused on the academic outcomes then we could be focusing on a lot of good things.

But it's the academic outcome.

So the third grade reading and school attendance.

They are connected now as as a part of we've got to solve that somehow we've got to address it in addition to these really strong reading strategies and writing strategies about reading that we're focusing on now.

Leslie Harris

So how does that end up on the CSIP plans?

Mike Starosky

specifically attendance.

I think that's Mr. Howard who is here somewhere I believe behind me would be smiling.

Is he smiling back there?

And waving.

It's something that we should be putting in there because it's part of our overall strategy that we need to call out.

Vivian Song

My understanding was that for some of the levy the FEPP schools that the attendance was one of the goals of the school.

So presumably those are schools that have strategies in place.

And I'm just wondering if you've had a conversation with Deal about attendance.

Cashel Toner

Some and I would just say that the paradigm has really shifted since COVID.

And you can see it across all of our time.

It's just something we need to look at again and think about how do we respond as a system that takes into account the intersection between the sequential instruction that happens during foundational literacy and kids that have lots of absenteeism.

We got into some of that work in 2019. But it's a little bit different now.

And yes, some of our 13 schools are levy schools, and some of them aren't.

So we have to kind of think about each unique community.

I was worried about putting these slides, putting this conversation in here, because I was worried we would talk all about absenteeism and not so much about the other things.

And so I just, I would love to talk to you a little bit about the text-dependent questions, but I don't know if we're going to have time.

Mike Starosky

So could you show one of your favorite slides that you haven't had the opportunity to share yet?

And then we'll move it over to Dr. Perkins.

But I think the- Can I have two?

Cashel Toner

Please.

Mike Starosky

Director Harris said yes.

Cashel Toner

Thank you.

Thank you.

OK, so one of the things we've also been learning, and that's been a big focus of this work, right, is what are we learning and how are we responding differently?

One of the newest components that we've added to our work this year is about text-dependent questions.

And what you might think, Kishel, what is that?

All right, well, let's go to slide Slide 18, and there's a group of teachers doing some really cool work that we don't get to look at right now.

But this is a prompt that would be really similar to what a child would experience in academic world in third grade, right?

And so we've been doing some really specific work with third grade teachers at our 13 schools to learn together about how do we help kids be super successful when they get a prompt like this.

So we've been doing some work about deconstructing the prompt.

Like what is it asking you to say.

We've been doing some demonstration lessons at schools with groups of teachers together and coaches and school leaders and directors of schools.

And we've been modeling what some instruction can look like to help kids be able to engage with this kind of work.

And this is what third grade kids this is the line to standard.

and what kids need to be able to do.

So it's not just reading, right?

You have to synthesize your reading and do your thinking, right?

So welcome to third grade, everybody.

But kids can do this.

And that's the thing.

They really can do this.

So now this is why I wanted to have two slides.

Let's go to slide 19 together.

We had a lesson at a school, and we did a demonstration lesson together.

And if you want to go back in the deck, you can see a picture of us all in a classroom together.

And after 90 minutes of instruction, I believe this lesson took place on September, I don't know, 20th or something, a third grade child was able to have instruction around that prompt that you all just kind of went, whoa, what is that?

And was able to respond to some text.

and give this kind of a response.

So our kids can absolutely do the work, right?

And this child was able to name the main character in the text and give two or three examples about how this person in the text protects a cherry tree, okay?

So it's pretty...

exciting to think about what kids can do when we, as the system that supports them, give really explicit instruction.

But that takes lots of years of learning and stacking of skills, right?

Foundational skills, fluency, and then being able to write about your reading.

We're out of time now.

Mike Starosky

Yes.

Yes and and Cashel and the and the team the principal learning network met yesterday and they went over this student work they read the story.

I mean I was there I read the story and I read the student responses and the goal is Now as the third grade reading goal is evolving is now getting into the writing part.

Writing about your reading and that they're synonymous they're directly connected to each other.

But specifically now I think these teachers the principals are.

evolving in their skill about being intentional about the interconnectedness and intersectionality between reading and writing that we're hoping to see significant improvement for African-American boys.

And we're not at all satisfied with the current state of 29 percent.

And we know we need to accelerate that.

But we think we're on the right track on a number of levels with this and worth pursuing.

And so making a transition to Dr. Perkins and the seventh grade math goal.

Brandon Hersey

People need.

Please.

So I as a teacher I'm a little confused.

Right.

So for me I'm looking at this.

And I'm asking myself, if we have a goal for third grade reading and we want the majority of our students to be reading on level, can you give me an explicit, like, explanation of, like, how producing this writing, which is great, right?

Fantastic.

is actually supporting them in the ability to read on grade level.

Because if I were sitting at home, I would likely be thinking, actually, I don't even need all of that follow up.

Can you give me a just very clear explanation about the link between this type of exercise in writing and how it gets us to reading on grade level?

Yeah, internally, in the back of my head, right here.

Cashel Toner

Yep.

We had to skip that slide.

So if you want to go back to slide 15.

Brandon Hersey

That's a critical piece.

So if we could go back to slide 15, that would be awesome.

Cashel Toner

And there's a whole research base that talks about an action.

I was planning to have someone read this aloud to make that link to get at what you're asking about.

Go for it.

Brandon Hersey

Having students write about text enhances reading comprehension because it affords greater opportunities to think about ideas in text.

requires them to organize and integrate those ideas into coherent whole fosters explicitness, facilitates reflection, encourages personal involvement with text, and involves students transforming ideas into their own words.

In short, writing about a text should enhance comprehension because it provides students with the tool for visibly and permanently recording, connecting, analyzing, personalizing, manipulating key ideas and text.

Totally get that.

What I am wondering, given that writing is a very high-level skill, are we also incorporating drawing and other representations into this framework?

Cashel Toner

Yes.

Brandon Hersey

OK cool.

Thank you.

Cashel Toner

And to get to that you're right.

This is a high level complex skill and that's why the instructional priorities all build on each other right.

We've got to start with the systematic phonics and then we've got to build on the fluency.

So in second and third grade we're working really hard on fluency routines and then you have to be able to synthesize your thinking make meaning of the text and actually produce.

Brandon Hersey

Sounds great to me.

I have one last question.

this is a great strategy in an environment where students are on a more, I would say, what's the word I'm looking for?

Where students are on a trajectory that is more typical of what people would think about.

Given that we are behind where our goals are, do you feel as though this is the most efficient and effective strategy wholesale?

Cashel Toner

I love that question.

And yes because because we need to have some literacy accelerators involved in our strategy.

Right.

And a fluency protocol can actually cut across content and we're getting in the weeds here for a second I can't help it.

But because for example we've been working on some fluency protocols that can go inside of our science time.

Because we know that literacy accelerators are vocabulary and background knowledge.

And so having that kind of a fluency protocol that cuts across saves teachers time, it's super effective, and it helps kids internalize those routines so that that way when I'm working on it, You know, first we'll work on it all together as a coral read maybe, and then maybe as the time goes on, then I get to internalize that myself and be able to do that myself.

And that gets to what you're talking about as like a more typical trajectory of learning to read.

Not all our kids are there for whole kinds of different reasons, right?

So we have to think about how do we provide access points to all the learners, right?

Brent Jones

So the reading wars are done, and the science of reading is the direction that we're going.

Cashel, can you talk about how these are aligned specifically to the science of reading and to President Hersey's inquiry?

the whole the whole sequence of the science of reading is what you're seeing here from first from pre-k all the way through please.

Cashel Toner

Yes and that is what we're talking about with instructional priorities and why they're sequenced that way right.

We know that kids all kids need to have systematic phonics instruction in the early years and we as a system need to be able to measure that and monitor it That's why we implemented a tool, right, to do that, DIBLS, and why we made other instructional resources widely available with SIPs and other things like that.

We've talked about that for a while in this space.

We need to build on that, though, and we need to get to the next step, which would be fluency and then the text-dependent question work.

So, yeah.

Liza Rankin

This is sorry weedy but directly related to President Hersey's question which I really appreciate.

I I mean I know this isn't a full presentation of all these things but this seems to me so inaccessible for kids with disabilities and kids who are English learning English.

This.

Are they?

Well it wasn't that old.

That slide was a projected projection that wasn't.

So just the amount of.

executive function that this requires and organizing thoughts and narrative and all of these things is like I can I absolutely know third graders that this would be no problem for.

I also have lived with a third grader who would not in a million years be willing to do this and probably refuse to go to school the next day.

I hear you.

So how are we supporting that from becoming because you know if a kid has a disability or is learning English that doesn't mean that we change the expectation for them.

That means that we increase the support for them so that they can access the same learning.

There's no.

You don't have to pass go to get to the third grader should be accessing and supported and learning third grade level curriculum.

So you don't have to earn it.

So how how do you do that.

Brent Jones

So wait wait for her strategic question.

I want to she made a statement.

I want to wait.

I want to wait for that strategic question that's in there.

Liza Rankin

So what are the strategies that go along with this to ensure that all learners in a classroom are are able to access and participate in this activity.

And is there the same benefit for them.

Cashel Toner

Yes.

And how we get there is helping kids have access to the text would be things like everyone choral reading together, actually maybe even the teacher modeling first, right?

And then everyone choral reading together.

And if you can't read it, that's okay because you're going to hear a lot of the other kids reading along and that's okay because now you've just heard that text two and three and four times, right?

And across the week, because there's day one instruction, day two, day three, day four.

By the time you get to day four and five, you're pretty familiar with what that text is, all the learners are.

And we've taken that prompt I showed you that was kind of complex.

We would probably pull that apart and have, depending on the learners in the classroom, and you might take the first part, you know, today we read an excerpt from Cherries and Cherry Pits.

That might be the only thing you're going to deal with.

And then you would ask yourself, what text did we read today?

Now I'm going to write down, today we read Cherries and Cherry Pits.

Great.

Draw a picture about that text, right?

Next, like you build the complexity as you go across the day, but it doesn't mean that the expectation is lower.

It just means that the task is sort of pulled apart so that you can kind of chunk it out and then see the small bits and then put it all back together again.

Brandon Hersey

So for now we can move on to the next presentation.

Chandra Hampson

I just had a basic question.

I'm just still.

You gave an example of pulling it apart for myself I would say I would call it you know dumbing it down.

Maybe that's Homer Simpson that says that.

I'm trying to figure out why.

This is just for my edification.

Why a question like this for third grade and I've seen this throughout prompts in literacy and education.

Why are we using so many difficult words in the prompt.

Why is it written with so many difficult words.

Is that intentional or.

excerpt contributed and then the other options are impacted or led to it.

There's so many ways to ask the same question and not.

Like why is that part of this challenge or is this we're saying this is the expectation.

I'm questioning the expectation because I feel like the the ability to do this thing can still be assessed without using that same vocabulary.

that no third grader is going to use.

A third grader is not going to say an excerpt.

Brent Jones

I want to push a little bit for the strategic question in there.

Chandra Hampson

I know.

I don't understand the strategy of asking questions of kids.

I've seen it endlessly.

I'm constantly having to translate things from my own kids who are in middle school and high school.

And when I was a kid, we would look stuff up in a dictionary.

But that was also me.

And I had nothing but fields and books.

I don't.

It's confusing to me why this is part of the.

Brent Jones

So I'm hearing that is why is this strategy effective.

Is that.

Is that your strategic question that's embedded in it.

Chandra Hampson

Yeah, I mean, there's just so many different ways.

I would not, I'm just still blown away by this question.

Still stuck on the Cherry's question.

Mike Starosky

Go for it.

Go for it, because you have the mic.

Well, I'd say my initial response is the students can do it.

And the work that I saw yesterday of a teacher talking about the planning of it, and then watching the teacher teach it, and breaking it down for the students when she was talking about excerpt.

And the students in their writing were, she said, this is one of the things that we're looking for is that you can do this and this is what this means.

And so when you're looking through the text, so she was setting the standard for them to hit.

And the student writing that we witnessed or looked at yesterday all had that.

So I think the part of it is that they can do it if it's scaffolded for the students.

They can do it.

That's all right.

Chandra Hampson

Yeah, but they can they can do it and they did it I believe they can do it Which is why I talked to my kids that way and they get mad at me all the time.

That's right, but that's right.

Yeah, I That's not something that I particularly that's just how my mom did it and that's how you know, her parents did it and So But I don't necessarily assume that that is appropriate for all children.

I talk to all kids that I interact with that way and I set those same high expectations for them.

But from in terms of when when we've got 29 percent and we're trying to.

That's right.

Cashel Toner

So technically speaking this is this this kind of a question is aligned to third grade standard.

It is what kids need to be able to do.

No I heard that.

Chandra Hampson

I'm just questioning.

is that appropriate, right?

Brandon Hersey

Hey y'all it's 10 13. No and I don't mean to cut it off I think it's just like our brains are getting kind of mushy at this point.

And so I think your question is great Director Hampson I think your responses have been great team.

I'm just asking to do a check in with how our people because it's like we can continue to marathon this out.

I really think this is critical.

Right.

And so I'm just trying to do a check in with folks around the table like do we have capacity to continue.

Chandra Hampson

OK I just I'll try to clarify.

I'm just double checking that the standard is something that we also agree is appropriate.

Right now I can.

No no.

I mean we don't.

We're not.

Brandon can answer that but we're not the experts.

Liza Rankin

We don't know.

The state the state says what the standards are.

Chandra Hampson

OK never mind.

Let's move on.

That's not.

Brandon Hersey

I do see Director Hampson's question my question I guess if I could take a crack at it.

What I think the question is is we know what the state standard is and what they need to be able to do.

We also know what our goal is in terms of being able to read as close to on grade level as possible.

I don't know if those two things are perfectly aligned based on the measure that we are giving our students.

And so and that's a big question.

Does that get close.

Chandra Hampson

Yes it does.

It does.

Yeah that's what I was trying to get at.

I just wanted to see because we know it's flawed.

And you know so that's why we have map.

And so that's why I'm just trying to like state standard over here.

What we should really be asking is here we're going to kind of try to I'm just trying to see the bigger picture of it.

You know because it is important to know if the state standard is actually from a neurological standpoint developmental standpoint cultural standpoint.

right, is not, you know, I don't think we mix it up.

I don't think there's a lot of mixing up of this stuff that we're providing different.

OK, we're too tired.

I'll stop.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

But yeah, someday.

I'll listen in and you guys will be ready to answer that question.

Brent Jones

My team put a let's let's put a pin in that and research those questions and get back.

Chandra Hampson

The opening up of so thank you for providing all this because yes that is what we need to know what we should be curious about and being able to then also track OK so this is what you're investing in because behind all of this is a need for a tremendous amount of investment.

for the next strategic plan and can we afford it?

Caleb Perkins

Can we not afford it?

Brent Jones

Now we'll pivot to seventh grade math.

We're grateful for the time that we had in third grade.

Now let's pivot to Dr. Perkins is going to lead us through this.

We won't have the opportunity to review the memo.

Dr. Perkins is going to show us the salient, relevant slides, but we're still going to get the key points in front of the board with our own vulnerability around what we can do and can't do.

Thank you.

Caleb Perkins

I'll just want to start with some notes of gratitude.

First of all, just thank you to Cashel for articulating where the math work is trying to go in terms of level of precision, in terms of that carefulness, in terms of that sequence.

We're in year two now in math which leads me to another note of gratitude which is to Dr. Jones for deciding to really invest and fund this and to try to move the needle on these pieces.

So what I want to share is both sobering initially and hopefully encouraging ultimately.

So the sobering piece is that the data that you see, especially in the bottom right, is not going in the direction that we want to do.

again, appreciate the student outcomes focus governance process that we actually have this opportunity to publicly put this up here and own this and to really talk about how we're going to try to get the needle to move in the other direction.

So just to be clear on our top line measure, which we think is important since it correlates with access to advanced coursework in math and ultimately post-secondary opportunities in STEM and so forth.

We only have 20.2% of our seventh grade African American males reaching that proficiency.

And you all asked, what was the score in sixth grade?

It happened to be 17%, so you could argue that it's going in a better direction, but that's much lower than where it was pre-pandemic, and it's not even close to acceptable.

So if we can move to the next slide.

It's just another cut of the data, which Cashel helpfully already previewed, which is the correlation between map growth, which we are so grateful to have this additional metric.

So I want to echo the thanks to the board for that.

Tomorrow, all of our six school leaders, our priority school leaders across these middle schools are meeting to look in-depth at our map data and to really unpack what it means and what it's telling them about what they're seeing in their classrooms.

So that's thanks to you and thanks to these efforts that we're making.

But bottom line, again, this is showing that there's far too much in the pink and red here, which is showing students who are not on track and are not achieving their growth levels in middle school math.

If we can go to the next slide.

So as Cashel shared, we have more recent data that's a little bit more encouraging, a little bit going in the right direction in terms of African American male students and students of color, but still far from where we want to be.

And that leads me to what I hope is encouraging, if we can go to the next slide.

The memo tries to follow up on our conversation in July as you might recall where we talked about we learned a lot from the first year and Cashel alluded to this in her work about how to be much clearer.

I'm going to steal the line of the night that clarity is kindness and our six school leaders have been pushing for us to be much clearer much fewer and much higher in the expectations that we're making for those the work.

And I just want to highlight a couple of things this is in the memo in much more detail.

The consistent use of our Envision curriculum and really getting into a level of specificity that we're asking all teachers to begin their classrooms with the solve and discuss piece.

Why?

Because learning how to solve and also share your reasoning is exactly what is required to meet standard and ultimately to have success down the road in their math classes.

We're asking all teachers to do three specific curricular assessments and look at the data and use that data to inform their planning.

And that's already happened.

Two weeks ago, we actually had all of our school leaders, to the point about how we're mixing the targeted and the universal, we had all of the six school teachers from the 7th and 8th grade math classrooms in one room, and we brought all of the middle school leaders, including those who are not in the six priority schools, down the hall to have a conversation with those educators about what they were learning from using the curriculum and best embedded assessments.

We're also engaging families in much more concrete ways.

We asked all of our families, and I'll highlight South Shore, who did calls to each of their families about the math nights that they held and were able to much increase attendance and participation there.

And finally, following what Cashel shared, we have a much more concrete calendar, as you can see on this slide, of activities every month, including, again, tomorrow, a PLC, a professional learning community.

Dr. Sarju, thanks for that reminder of EduSpeak, to engage all of our six school leaders in what exactly does this data show.

So I'm very encouraged.

Dr. Jones has been very helpful and motivating in pointing out that we need to push, and we need to push harder.

because we are not going where we need to be in this area.

So you can go to the next slide.

So that's just an example.

So tomorrow, in and of itself, we'll be looking very deeply at the data that we'll have and be talking about planning going forward.

I don't think I need to spend too much more time on this.

We also looked at the attendance piece.

We're just starting that.

We're not as far along as doing the analysis.

But I think what's powerful is that because we're funding this work, we're giving regular times for these school leaders and coaches to come together and actually talk about solutions.

And we can do that.

with all of our middle schools, and that's what we're starting to do with our school leader engagement sessions.

I want to give a shout out to one of our regional executive directors, who I think is still here, Dr. McCarthy, who invited, who said, why don't you share this great stuff with all of our middle school leaders?

So that's what we did on November 2nd, and that's what we plan to do going forward with our school leader sessions.

With that, I think I might be at the end.

Yes, we just wanted to highlight this is a cross section of questions you asked.

And I'll just pause there.

Again, sobering data, but hopefully encouraging next steps.

We've already made a lot of progress in just a couple months in getting much clearer about what we're trying to do and how we're doing it together.

Michelle Sarju

So I'm not surprised by the data.

And I'm actually not angry.

I will be.

in the future.

One of the things that I would like the staff to consider is messaging.

We have teachers and I actually unfortunately have board colleagues who have articulated publicly that they do not believe we will ever close the gap for black boys.

I'm going to let that just sit for a minute.

Part of my problem is I know too many people and I randomly have people tell me, we have teachers and I have board colleagues who have said publicly they don't believe we're going to close the gap.

Game on.

I take that up.

I got a meeting on the, because of that comment, I have a meeting on the calendar with Dr. Jones.

If we don't believe our kids can do this, then they won't.

Because you know what?

The adults in the room are not going to do what they need to do.

Don't worry, board directors.

I'm not outing anybody.

I will be having a private conversation.

Because we can't be talking like this in public.

These are children.

If you want to say that, I'll take you and me, we're going to go to the African-American male classroom, and you will tell them that you don't believe We're going to close the gap.

Let's be honest.

Because they need to know that the adults either have their back or they don't.

So I'm not angry about that statistic.

You want to know why?

Because time after time, you've come in here, you've admitted, you've been authentic, you've been transparent, you have a plan.

We're not turning this around.

When Kai gets to third grade, Mr. Perkins, it better be turned around.

You got nine years.

Chandra Hampson

That's reasonable.

Michelle Sarju

You got nine years.

That's reasonable.

Chandra Hampson

It's more than reasonable.

Michelle Sarju

And nine months.

OK, well, I'll advocate for your job a little longer.

But my point is that teachers have to believe that my grandson can achieve.

They have to believe that my nephew who is currently in Seattle Public Schools can achieve.

It starts with the belief.

And if they don't believe it, go find another job.

Like it's real simple.

But don't be making public comments.

Don't actually tell children in classrooms I don't think you can do this.

Because you know what our kids are telling us?

It's the instruction.

I think you alluded to this.

We do have teachers who don't believe it and they're telling our kids every day.

Those are the people we need to hold accountable.

Right?

No one can tell me that at Thurgood Marshall, those teachers didn't believe.

They didn't get where they are.

with a bunch of teachers and administrators coming into the classroom telling those black kids, you'll never, ever close the gap.

Just stop trying.

You're not going to be good at math.

That's the message I got.

So you know what?

I wasn't good at math.

Isn't that a surprise?

But I got a master's degree because I said, I won't say what I said because I'm on the video.

But I wasn't good at math because I actually was told I would never be good.

Negroes are not good at math.

That's what I was told.

They told me I wouldn't graduate from college because Negroes don't do well in college.

Well, I got a master's degree.

I actually got two, but we're only going to talk about the one.

So we have to start with the message.

It has to start here.

All of us, including you retiring board members, we can't be making statements that will never close the gap.

Because you know what?

Our children are going to hear that.

And they have heard it.

They've heard it.

So I believe, I actually really do believe that what you presented as a plan to get from this pathetic outcome that we're currently in to a better place for the kids who are not doing well, not to their own fault and not to their parents' fault.

Let me just put that on the table.

It's about what's happening in the classrooms.

It's about what's happening here.

If you don't believe we're going to close the outcome, go be a different kind of director.

Because I got two years left.

That's my commitment.

That's my commitment.

Because we have to believe that our kids can do it.

Or what are we doing here?

What are we doing here?

Brent Jones

Dr. Perkins, can you respond to question number two?

I'm tagging that to what Director Sardieu just...

I got your back.

Please.

Caleb Perkins

Thank you for all those comments, and I couldn't agree more about the importance of beliefs and why we've centered the importance of mathematical identity and understanding the genius of our students, particularly our African American male students.

In terms of the adherence to expectations and the strategy, and this is where The partnership with our regional executive directors has been incredible.

On Friday we have our next steering committee.

We have a meeting every other week with that with them to go through each of the what's going on in each of the six schools to debrief the walkthroughs that we're doing every week at the six schools and to provide effectively that accountability.

At the same time as you can see in the memo there's a lot of support.

It's not just about checking in on folks isn't making sure that they have what they need to actually meet those expectations.

The nice thing is that because we've gotten so focused, because we're much clearer and fewer, we believe that schools are having a much easier time of keeping up and frankly helping us see where to go from here.

So that's how we're doing it.

Vivian Song

I don't think that I ever believed that the kids couldn't do it, but I confess that I wasn't really sure that the district could do it.

And I would say that after tonight's presentation, my confidence level is really there.

I think finally there is clear articulation of what the strategies are.

And so I really commend this team tonight for putting the data together and putting just the clarity of what the strategies are and how you're going to be approaching them, how we're going to be tracking them.

So I really commend this team.

One added comment, I have in the past year met with a lot of community partners who do the high dosage tutoring, and they have done a lot of data analysis themselves.

Reading partners, tips, School Connect Washington, math agency, and their outcomes are very impressive.

And so in future conversations, I would love to see how what can the board do to really support that because they are getting the results and I would love for us to invest in that because I think that could kind of address some of the absentee issues as well.

Mike Starosky

Yes, so that's definitely on the horizon as a specific strategy is the high dosage tutoring along with the expanded learning during the summer as being a specific investment that we're going to need to all be together with on.

So we're on it, we're thinking about it, more than thinking about trying to think about how do we get strategic about the partners that we can bring in to help it and then scale it up.

Caleb Perkins

And I'll just add that I know it's been talked about in the media as well, and we have regular conversations with math agency, and it's all about the details.

We're trying to figure out where the right connection is, because they have a very specific model.

It's incredibly impressive what they've been able to do.

So how do we do it in a way that can adhere to the success of that model?

But you're absolutely right.

We should keep looking.

Brandon Hersey

All right.

Director Rivera-Smith we would have timings evaluation but had to step away given that we are we'll just do both next time.

That being said.

I'm sorry, was there something?

I missed something.

I'm sorry, I didn't see.

Oh, go ahead.

I mean, we might as well break out the sleeping bags at this point.

Chandra Hampson

It's a question, I know.

Brent Jones

This is your last formal question, Director Hampson.

The pressure is on.

You've got to make this spectacular.

Chandra Hampson

I do remain a bit confused about the strategies and I don't think we have time at all to go into it.

And I think one of my something I hope comes up relative to strategies is what we know about relevance is for students is math relevance.

one of the strategies are trying to improve math math relevance.

I know when we looked at Envision that was something that at least when I was looking at the curriculum I was wondering about and have it's been a question in my mind as far as why we struggle so much with math and that you know it's no offense.

one versus the other because I do know that the reading work started much earlier that immediately when the strategic plan hit.

So yeah I'm just curious about the extent to which that plays.

Obviously you've in absenteeism plays a role but how much does relevance play a role.

And I mean the belief I guess that's the other thing that in terms of strategies.

I have asked the question about strategies to close that belief gap and I really encourage the district the board and the district to think in terms of asking teachers What kind of support do you need to close that belief gap for yourself to get over that hump?

And what strategies do you guys have to address that?

Which you've answered in some parts before, but I don't know if that's changed.

Caleb Perkins

Yeah, well, in terms of the relevance, I think that's an ongoing conversation.

There are things like STEM projects, references to financial literacy, things that we heard from Our Voice, Our Vision, and that kind of outreach to students about what they're looking for in math classrooms that we're trying to articulate.

We also do have math empowerment that some of you helpfully asked about and actually pushed on our strategy in a helpful way in one of your questions, which is how do you identify students that take that?

I think we could be more systematic in making sure particular students are getting access to that as opposed to, you know, when it fits in their schedule, which is a little bit too much of what we're doing now.

So those are two great points.

I think there's more to be done in that.

And I mean, that's the benefit, I guess, of being in year two, that we can still pivot and learn and adjust.

Liza Rankin

So just maybe a closing thought.

This didn't just suddenly magically happen.

We actually demanded that it happen.

We demanded as a board on behalf of our community that the district show us how students are doing and explain to us where you are and if the results are not positive what you're going to change.

And we hired a superintendent who would do that with us.

So like it's not mysterious to me that we're seeing change because this is what systemic changes and this is us doing our job.

and spending well today a lot of time but focusing our time on talking about how students are doing and having you show us instead of talking about the whole host of other things that need to happen in the district but that we're not responsible for.

We are responsible for this.

And that's why it's here and that's why we're able to see this shift is because of the people in this room.

Not a mystery.

This is our job as this is what we do in governance and it is going to impact students.

And that is clear right now.

And also that's why we are pushing for this shift to policy governance because it's proven to improve student outcomes.

And that's why we are here.

Brent Jones

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

I know this was a long journey together but they wound up in a good place based on that last statement.

Thank you all.

Brandon Hersey

There be no further business before the board meeting stands adjourned at 10 37 p.m.