Seattle School Board Meeting April 25, 2018 Part 1

This is a legislative meeting of the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors.

Roll call please.

Ms. Ramirez.

Director Burke.

Director DeWolf.

Present.

Director Geary present.

Director Mack here.

Director Patu here.

Director Pinkham present.

Director Harris here.

Could we all stand please for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

not have a recognition this evening and we do not have a student performance this evening.

So I will turn the floor over to Superintendent Larry Nyland for his report.

Thank you.

Nyland All right.

Thank you.

Well April is a month of celebrations.

April is occupational therapy month.

And we have 54 occupational therapists that do great things to help our students fully participate in activities.

It's also administrative professionals week and many of us rely on those dedicated assistants on a regular basis.

They help keep the workflow moving and we certainly express great gratitude to them.

We also I think we did library recognition last month and this month.

Congratulations to Danny middle school librarian Chief Treisman Jeff Treisman and congratulations to Franklin high school librarian Quinn Longhurst for their recognition.

As I usually do I give you an update on the strategic plan work underway that is driven by the SMART goals that the board sets each year.

The first goal is around educational excellence and equity and our work on eliminating opportunity gaps.

We will at this point in time have a presentation by Nova.

One of the things that the board has been very interested in is identifying schools that are leading the way and have practices that have can be replicated in other schools.

So at this point in time I'd like to introduce executive director of schools Sarah Pritchett who will introduce Nova.

And I think they did lots of good work today with colleagues talking about how they're learning from one another.

Good afternoon Sarah Pritchett executive director of schools.

It's my pleasure to introduce Nova High School principal Dr. Mark Perry.

Mark is an exceptional leader with a true focus on social justice and equity.

He was recognized in 2016 with the Seattle Alliance for Education's Thomas B. Foster award for excellence for his continued commitment to our students.

Mark has developed a phenomenal system of support for students within his building.

His innovation in this area remains an exemplar for our district.

So I'm happy to present Dr. Mark Perry.

Good afternoon everyone.

Thanks for the opportunity to be here.

I was asked to speak on the topic of unrelenting no on the positive adult beliefs.

That's my next note.

And really the essential component to me is unrelenting self-belief that every child or youth who enters our buildings can be successful.

So I want to talk a little bit about.

How we do this at Nova that I think we can say everybody can say that they have they believe every child can succeed.

But what do you actually do in practice and then how do you measure that.

How do you show that there really is growth going on.

And we like to look at data we try to find data that's relevant and data is real.

So we give you a couple examples of both quantitative and what I would call qualitative data.

So last year's student climate survey on most of the categories.

Our students just sort of knocked it out of the park.

School safety 20 percentile points above the average student motivation inclusion 27 percentile points above pedagogical effectiveness 24 healthy community 23. So students are recognizing this.

These are confidential surveys.

We had a high number of students.

complete them.

So on the qualitative side we had a unique opportunity yesterday that we had three young women from the Middle East from Israel and Palestine who came to speak with us and talk about their experiences and just sort of the intensity of what's going on there.

So one of things we did we did a focus group that generally was supposed to be 20 students and ended up being almost 40 students because I just couldn't turn people away.

And they talked about everything from politics to what kind of music do you listen to questions back and forth.

It was all student to student.

There was no adult participation in the discussion.

And towards the end the three young women.

said to our students well we you know we've been around the country here in the United States but we've never really been in a school like yours.

And what.

Why are you here.

What is this place.

Why are you here.

So and every student said something went around and the first part which I won't get into too much.

They talked about you know some not very great experiences they'd had in other schools because a number of students are transfer students and not very good experience with middle school but almost to a person and they weren't prompted on any of this.

They said to our visitors.

is because the adults in this building believe in us and we believe in ourselves because they believe in us.

And that's not the kind of stuff you're going to find on a spreadsheet someplace.

So how do we make this happen.

What's our secret.

There really isn't a secret.

It's the balance between instruction and personalization.

And really the key is is how we how we answer the question how do we assess intellect and how do we measure success.

One of the things we don't believe in is we don't believe you can test your way to equity and equality.

And we also don't believe in ranking in ranking and publishing these results because they're based on a racial hierarchy that doesn't help anyone that doesn't number one doesn't exist and doesn't help any students.

So on the instructional side we're driven by the question what is worthwhile to know and experience.

And I'll just tell you the words and you know if you want to come visit our school we can show you in practice.

It's competency based it's non-graded it's inquiry project based performance based and problem based and performance assessment.

And one of the things it does is it knocks out the competition.

And we talk about leveling the playing field.

This levels it and raises it at the same time because when it's non-graded and it's competency based you actually have to apply your learning which means to earn credit if it was in a graded system it would be B or above.

So you can't sit in a classroom and get a C or a D or just get socially promoted.

You actually have to do the work.

And so within our system you can earn partial credit also.

So there is no failure.

The other side of that when I give you an example.

So and this is really important to us.

So we discovered a number of years ago that the number of competency based credits that are ninth grade incoming students earn is the direct correlation to whether they're going to graduate in say typically four years.

We see it as a three to five year process.

And for nine years now we started tracking that around race, special ed, different categories, and there's no disparity.

of every race ethnicity is basically the same.

So if you just looked at this data you couldn't pull out and say well black youth Latino youth Native American youth are not performing to somebody else.

So we've broken down that racial hierarchy and we have an equity.

in practice based on earning competency based credits within our instructional system.

The other side is personalization.

We've had an advisory system for years and years.

Every teacher is a teacher advisor.

It's all multi graded multi aged.

It's about 24 to 1. They meet with them as a group every week and they meet with them one on one a lot.

We have family meetings to go along with that.

So two of the essential components.

So I know I'm speaking quickly I was told in big letters don't talk more than five minutes.

is you got to have the right people.

We've worked really really really hard to find the people to work in our system.

We've recycled some in some out.

And about seven eight years ago we finally sort of went over the hump which was really cool.

The other thing is knowing our students and it's about student voice.

It's about listening to students and validating what they're what they're thinking.

So.

A few of the things that I just want to throw out I think are some of the ironies about what we do at NOVA is that we started doing project based learning probably as a whole school probably 16 years ago.

So you know we were sort of ahead of the curve.

Competent competency based learning.

If you look at the scholarly work right now this is what people are talking about.

They're talking about confidence.

They're talking about inquiry.

They're talking about project and problem based learning.

We listen to our students.

We're the only school in Seattle that every single bathroom is all gender and non-gender.

It's no big deal at our school.

Half our high school still just have one.

It's because we're listening to our students.

These are the students who come to our school.

They asked for that and we made it happen.

Just you know to toot our horn we're doing trauma based work starting about six years ago.

We just didn't know what to call it.

And once people start talking about trauma based work is that that's what we do.

Ethnic studies is right now we're on what I would call a rapid and expanding experimentation with new classes.

We're doing a class on the history of racist ideas.

We're doing a class that focuses on education incarceration.

We're doing a class.

These are experimental classes.

The entire August Wilson cycle all 10 plays.

It's pretty intense.

And I think one of the things about Nova in some ways we're R&D we see things before other people see it because of the students who come to us about 60 percent of our students are transfer students who come because for whatever reason they weren't safe they got pushed out they weren't successful.

Other things were going on in their lives and.

One of the things that we've noticed in the last couple of years is that we're getting more and more foster kids in our system or in our school more and more kids who've actually grown up in the system and more and more students who have had experience with the juvenile criminal justice system.

And so in looking at this more deeply one of the things we discovered is that if a juvenile gets in contact with the juvenile criminal justice system as an adult they are 38 times more likely to end up in prison than someone who didn't.

And so we've been trying to figure out a way that makes sense to help students feel comfortable talking about this.

And then also the collateral things that go on with it like I have a parent who is incarcerated.

I have siblings who are incarcerated.

I have other people my family who are incarcerated.

and try to figure out a way to as as as the school to prison pipeline to wait to wait to intercept this and identify it and then to begin to provide some resources.

We're just at the beginning stages of that.

And you know I think that all schools are facing this but we need to identify it.

We need to be open and honest about it.

70 million people in the United States have a criminal record.

You know it's it's it's normally extraordinarily high and most of the people who get incarcerated 85 90 percent are going to be back out on the streets.

And so what does that mean for the kids too.

Lastly one of the things that are two things.

For probably the last 10 years I've been taking educators up to Monroe prison to meet with the black prisoners caucus once a month.

And I mentioned to the men that I was going to be down here at the school board and they said well I invite them to come up and visit with us.

So you have an open invitation from the black prisoners caucus.

The meetings are on Friday evenings.

They last for two and a half hours.

They would love to have you come up and talk about their experiences.

I mean this is the source.

This is the end product.

And they often say the teacher residents from the Seattle teacher residency but going up for five years now is that you know their main goal is to interrupt this pipeline so they do not see other people who look like themselves coming back up into prison.

So if one of you wants to contact me at some point and we have dates open if even if one or two of you just want to come up we can make that happen.

Last thing because we don't have sports teams you know we can't celebrate our basketball championship but we have other strengths at Nova.

So spoken word is something that we do a lot.

Saturday was the Seattle finals to put together the team that's going to go to Houston for the international competition this summer.

Only five people get chosen.

We sent four applicants or four students who performed for the five people on the team are the Nova students.

They got into the final five.

So we're pretty happy about that.

And that's I don't think you do questions but if you have questions fire away.

Otherwise I tried to make it be as succinct as possible.

Do you have your burrito bar yet?

No it was supposed to go in a week ago Monday and we haven't seen it yet.

Do you have an ETA?

What's an ETA?

Estimated time of arrival.

No.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Anything else.

Sign me up for one of those Monroe.

Meetings and I think you have other folks that one of you guys will come as well.

Somebody needs to contact me and then I will put it all together.

I will send back the dates that are available and there's information they need their personal information they do a watch check on everyone that I have to send up at least 45 days ahead of time.

We'll make it happen.

Absolutely.

Thank you sir.

OK thank you.

Thank you for the unrelenting positive belief in students.

So that's great.

On Saturday we had in this room the final institute for the year for our race racial equity teams.

15 schools were here and.

Dr. Pedroza along with Keisha Scarlett and a variety of other people including our partners from the University of Washington and SEA.

We're here putting that on.

I had the opportunity to participate for a little bit and fascinating for me to see the way that they continue to unpack the work.

So we've talked about this belief in students we've talked about being culturally responsive and they have done some survey work both with people who've been through the process before and those who are currently in it.

And they started out.

Asking questions like I draw on the cultural practices of my students and my instructional practice.

Kind of a big global question.

And it looks like people gave that an average response rating of four out of five.

And then they went to meddling here.

It's kind of like I regularly ask students for feedback on the effectiveness of my instruction.

So it was drilling down and then they had table group discussions to say so if we're not doing that and the results were more mixed than what would be a way to go about doing that.

And we certainly do see that across many of our schools.

where principals and teachers are asking that question of students and they're actually finding out a lot of really good information about things that we can do differently in the classroom to do what Mark just talked about in terms of having that unrelenting positive belief and relationship with our students.

Second goal is improving systems and we actually had today a partnership with SEA and with PASS and with our district leadership working on professional growth and evaluation.

So they're working on a variety of things.

What does it mean to be an excellent teacher in Seattle?

What does it mean to be an excellent teacher with an equity lens in Seattle.

And then what would that evaluation process look like and how would we coach and prepare teachers for being able to do that on a regular basis.

The third goal is our school family and community engagement.

And I know one of the items that the school board has been very interested in has been our task force with regard to community engagement and then the website redesign.

So we've been notified that Seattle Public Schools was selected as the 2018 Washington School Public Relations Association website redesign winner.

So a lot of good work by communications Under way are discussions with regard to the levies coming up.

I don't know if they made it to the back table.

We do have up here at the front for board members.

We have a high level sheet that's been passed out at those meetings that talk about our upcoming levies in February of 2019. Both for operations and for construction.

So I think there's one more meeting.

I think we've had four meetings.

We have one one left in terms of getting feedback from the public and the board will continue to work through that process.

Right now there is something like two projects for every one.

Unfortunately that will make it onto that list.

But taking a careful look at the condition and age of our buildings as well as the overcrowdedness of our buildings.

And then trying to run that through an equity lens to determine what will make it on to the final package that goes before the voters.

Lots of good news underway in the district.

Cleveland STEM high school's journalism team took home awards from National High School Journalism Convention in San Francisco.

Ballard High School's talisman newspaper won second place for the best of show at a national competition.

King County Department of Community and Health Services awards told us that they would be sending us two hundred and three hundred and forty thousand dollars to help prevent substance abuse at middle schools.

And our K5 schools in a partnership with fun at bat will receive lots of equipment to help them have fun outside with with baseball.

So I guess the last one that I would comment on and then I may need to backtrack if we're ready to do that.

We do know that we've had a lot of comments and concerns with regard to transportation and we have been working with First Student.

I guess this is a challenge for Seattle as well as our neighbors.

that when the economy improves it becomes harder to get bus drivers.

So we have it doesn't feel like it for those parents that get left out but 95 percent of our buses are on time but we have had to double up on several of our runs because we're about 20 bus drivers short.

And so working with first student in a variety of ways to see what we can do about rectifying that.

So are we going to when are we going to work this in.

Next.

African-American task force will be after the consent calendar.

OK.

Not all of their members have arrived as yet.

So we want to give grace.

OK.

It is time for board committee reports.

Who would like to go first.

Director Burke have at it.

I'll provide a quick summary as the chair of curriculum and instruction.

We had a meeting earlier this month April 17th.

Key items that came before the committee you will see I believe three of them today.

The CTE annual plan renewal of homeroom data dashboard and expansion and additional funding for Native American programming.

Good discussions around all three of those things that we're excited to bring forward.

We have some special attention items that come up sometimes every month and sometimes on alternate months.

and sometimes by invitation.

Cashel Toner came back and shared an update on the Seattle preschool program and SPP plus.

That was a topic that came before the board and there were a few sort of final program placement questions.

If you want to follow up directly with Cashel on that by all means.

I think that they've knitted together all the pieces on that.

A heads up about the annual approval of schools.

The CSIPs are due to the central office apparently June 15th and then will be coming before the board for approval in September.

We talk about CSIPs a lot.

And one of the things that we learned is that now the CSIPs have an expectation for all schools to include specific strategies and incremental goals that align with our formula for success depending on what their grade level is and what their band is.

It's an ELA goal or a math goal.

We have a robust conversation as we always do around advanced learning.

The there's a.

A lot of work going on there to put together a charge and an announcement public announcement to form a task force.

And I think all the directors will have gotten the most recent version of that.

We're trying to.

Get that moving and out to community this week.

There's definitely some urgency in getting it up to speed before the summer so that that that group can do a significant body of work that does need to happen.

The we also discussed that at committee that the communications team will be in the loop in getting that out to the public.

Looking forward next C&I meeting is May 15th.

The agenda is a little bit in flux because we've got a couple of items that might or might not make it.

One of the.

ones that was moved forward from this month is the policy and superintendent procedure on policy 20 90 program evaluation.

2090. Yeah I think so.

And the student rights and responsibilities handbook.

There'll be a board action report coming forward on that for the annual renewal with a few changes.

And we have a high school schedule standing update.

I'm hoping we can have a little bit more time next month to talk about that work because it's super intense.

And then this one is one of the ones that's in flux on our calendar.

We have electronic learning as a topic policies 2021 and 2024. I think that probably what we won't be getting into it in great detail but we'll probably talk about the scope and work needed and how that will interact with the ITAC advisory committee that's being formed for technology.

Those are the high points.

And I think we'll also Director DeWolf is working on a board action resolution around.

Making the since time immemorial curriculum unofficial adoption because it is but it isn't.

So we wanted to just make sure that that's captured in policy.

And it will come with professional development dollars with it.

Work underway.

Director Mack.

Good evening.

I.

Thank you for coming and being here today on this beautiful sunny day.

I don't know about you but I'm excited about the weather.

It's been refreshing.

Operations committee has been incredibly busy with staff as well working on.

Lots of planning activities.

And I've personally been diving into the policies that exist and relate to operations to map out make sure that we're calendaring reports that come to committee and action items that need to come to us which is also discussed in the operations committee.

The last one we had was on April 5th which was after right the day after our last board meeting.

There we had discussion of the guiding principles for BEX V which is on the agenda tonight.

So we'll talk about that a bit more.

The student assignment enrollment report was presented to us.

This is this document it's huge.

It's also online under the annual enrollment report if you're interested in digging into the numbers.

Thank you for staff for pulling that together and presenting that information.

It's helpful in our planning processes.

We had board action.

We'll have a three or four items for board action today or introduction.

And again as I said we've been kind of planning the work plan which includes a work session on May 1st coming up 430 where we're going to get some great conversation and information.

First of all we'll have a Presentation of the capital report for 2017. This is the 2016 in front of me.

It's also online that you can check it out.

We'll have a report on that and then we will have a report and conversation around our.

Current enrollment projections the building capacity information and what situations exist for next year that we may need to do things about where the hot spots.

You know do we need to add portables.

Are we adding portables are we moving out preschool classrooms.

We'll be talking about the wait lists and also diving in.

So for for next year looking at next year's planning around capacity management.

We'll also be taking a look at.

the following year and identifying which areas may need some action taken for the 2019 20 school year.

So for example the Magnolia school will be opening.

So the conversations around those boundaries that are going to need to be set for the opening of that school and will be voted on in the fall of this coming year.

That'll be something we'll get an update on where the process is with that.

Eagle staff is that we've been hearing from folks about the crowding there.

That'll be one of the topics of conversation about the process for figuring out how we can manage the capacity challenges there and other hot spots as are identified with the staff doing the grade analysis.

Staff have also been hosting community meetings on our levies including back.

So there were some before spring break and some this week.

The last one is tomorrow night at Salmon Bay.

If you're interested in going in there and you can provide comments learn a little bit more about what's going on.

We also have upcoming meetings next ops meeting is May 10th.

And then on May 30th we'll have a work session on BEX V. We'll have one of those every month for the next few months.

Some of those aren't calendared yet but they will be.

And.

Just super excited to be working on this planning and a grateful thank you to staff and my fellow board directors for collaborating on this work.

Thank you.

Next up would be Mr. Pinkham.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Audit and Finance had their monthly meeting on Monday April 16th.

And I think the highlight of that meeting is that we had a presentation from the youth participatory action research program.

We had three students there and I.

they're watching tonight to forgive me for mispronouncing name Folly Rose and Chloe presented research that they did and they actually looked at Nathan Hale high school sent out a questionnaire and asked students and teachers how they felt.

diversity was represented in their school and they collected the data and did a fantastic presentation of the results that they found and were encouraging us to look at how can we as a school board school district increase the diversity of the teachers and administrators in our schools because they've noted that.

Almost we're getting close to 60 percent of our students are students of color but we're still down to about 20 percent teachers of color.

So they said we need to get more teachers of color.

And I appreciate their research and doing that and it's something that yes we are been aware of and we are I think making those strides with the Seattle residency program doing earlier hiring.

But letting the students share their voice and say that hey we do notice that we don't have teachers that look like us.

And they said we need to get that moving forward.

And but then when we asked the students well do you want to be a teacher.

Unfortunately they had this no I don't want to be a teacher.

So I think we got some work there to do to encourage these students that yes you can be a teacher.

It is a worthwhile endeavor.

You know looking at the impact.

Can you think of a teacher what they how they impacted you.

And if it's a student that looks like you or can make that connection it does take you a long ways.

So hopefully maybe we'll change their minds before they graduate and they'll go on to become a teacher and say yes I can make a difference.

But I just wanted to thank them for doing their presentation to the Auditor and Finance Committee.

Other things covered that day include the triennial report on a rental and lease agreements.

And this to be clear we had to get clarification.

This is long term rental leases not the short term which is under a different policy.

And it was a first experience for myself and all the board members were there.

First experience for Jolene because when she came on so it was.

And the first time we met Lewis that actually provide the information for it.

So thank you.

But it was an interesting presentation so we know what property we have what land we have.

And that's kind of a combination that we have land but we don't own the buildings on the land and how that works out.

One thing that we do see that is kind of the major on the report is the Lake City Elementary School that we are taking that back on that will be the.

Landlords per se but we will contract with someone else to do that.

But the current leasee is ending his lease with us.

Other information that we covered that day include which unfortunately we have to look at potential rifts coming up based upon our student counts and student numbers in the schools we have.

Our minimum balance fund agreement policy 60 22 which Jolene will be discussing in a future work session to have that amount determined and get that settled in.

Director Mack had some questions about that to see what comes first and how do we do that.

and appreciate her questions as it helped clarify things for me.

And so if you're able to and want to see how this process works out for the session comes up please attend and observe.

We also have some preliminary operations levy rate discussion that we got to think about what are we going to ask for.

And we do want to ask for the maximum I believe because if we don't.

I think we're going to be trouble because the way they think that they've solved the McCleary funding is going to hurt us in the long run.

So we need to make sure we talk to our legislators to say no McCleary hasn't settled what we need to do and how they're restricting our future levies is going to be an impact on us.

Our next auto finance meeting will be May 14th and we will have some again future work sessions on our budget.

That's the next one of the big lifts that auto finance will do getting our budget ready for next school year.

Thank you.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

Director DeWolf did you want to speak about your efforts in the Native American community sir.

And otherwise liaison work.

Sure that would be great.

I wasn't sure if I should share it here or after so that's why I'm a little maybe not totally prepared.

So in.

In March spent about a month putting together a work group of funders from around the county from Campion, Gates, Rakes, Satterberg, Schultz.

I might be forgetting one in there and then some city county state folks and then a huge contingent of folks from Seattle Public Schools.

Calling it a student homelessness work group and with our kind of primary focus on our student homeless population and figuring out ways to address that issue in our schools coming together with those funders thinking about if there's programming or other supports that they can give us.

We just had our very first meeting on March 28th.

and already thinking about ways to do a universal screener for example.

So don't have much to report.

We'll be happy to keep updated at our regular board meetings after those meetings take place.

Our second meeting of the student homelessness work group takes place next Monday so probably in about two weeks I'll have some some better updates too.

In addition Gail Morris who is a rock star I would say here at Seattle Public Schools.

Yes.

Her and I are working together to find build relationships with the tribes around our school district.

And I will have more information as that work moves forward.

Scott and I will be meeting soon to talk about a work plan for what what it entails under the title tribal liaison and we'll have probably something to present to you maybe at our next board meeting.

So those are more of an appetizer to future updates.

But that's all I have for now.

Executive Committee has been meeting.

We have been working off of the publicly disclosed agendas and in addition to that your executive committee myself Rick Burke Jill Geary Superintendent Nyland Deputy Nielsen have been working on back back mapping.

Issues like 24 credits.

We have found it to be very helpful to have a structure.

To work with a calendar that has very little wiggle room and to be more disciplined about what we're doing and aligning those arrows.

And on that note.

Liam Broadhead who is a senior at Ingraham High School.

He's a two sport varsity athlete plays football and baseball.

He's an IB diploma candidate and holds the position of senior class treasurer in the Associates Associated student body.

Take it away.

And then after he's finished speaking we'll bring up the African-American task force.

before we go to consent.

Thank you.

Hi there first off.

Thank you.

I'm very honored to be here to represent Ingram me and my fellow classmate.

A couple of things that I really enjoy about Ingram are the just the inclusivity not so much in the academic world but in the student atmosphere world.

There are many clubs.

It's very easy to join or make a club at.

at Ingraham High School, for example, the DECA club, which is a very well-known club, not just at Ingraham, but everywhere.

I was able to be a part of that club starting as a freshman, and that was a really good way to make friends within the school atmosphere.

Also, the sports, the athletics at Ingraham are very inclusive.

I know about four sports at Ingraham where cuts need to be made.

There's always an opportunity to play for pretty much all sports especially sports that other schools probably have to cut.

For example the football team.

We didn't.

No one was cut.

Everyone was able to play.

There's a very inclusive atmosphere in the sports and the club world.

within the student life at Ingraham.

One thing I did want to touch on though, I just went through the application process of applying to college to get to the next level of whatever that stage may be.

But for me, my choice was college.

And I did notice that the advisors, my advisors were great, my counselor was great.

They were overworked though.

They did have a lot of people that they had to deal with.

to help get to that next level, whether it be college or job training or just going straight into the job field.

And they did a great job with me.

They helped me out a ton.

But they did seem very overworked with their job.

But that being said, they did do a very good job at it.

And that's pretty much all I got.

Just really the inclusive atmosphere at Ingram is what makes it most enjoyable.

I couldn't really see myself at any other school.

Hearing things from other school, I'm very happy with where I am.

Yeah.

Do you guys have any questions for me?

I do.

So you're an international baccalaureate diploma candidate.

That is correct.

Yes.

Is it true that the work load is back breaking back breaking and you have no time for a life.

It depends on who you ask.

For me, it's not as bad as some people hype it up to be.

It's all about time management.

So if you want to go out and hang out with friends or play sports, do other things outside of academics, you can if you manage your time well.

For me, like I would say other people in my class, procrastination.

is a very big thing.

So it's all about working to get to not to do that and making sure that manages time well.

But if you do it correctly it's not as bad as people say.

Do you have a sense of where you're going after graduation.

If you care to share.

I do.

I'm committed to the University of Oregon to study business administration get a major in business administration with an emphasis in sports management.

So yeah really looking forward to that.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Now we'd like to invite the members of the African-American male advisory task force up.

We're going to give you 10 minutes.

And for those folks in TV land this extraordinary report that represents thousands and thousands of hours of folks.

is on our Web site.

We encourage you to read it.

And we encourage you to be loud and proud.

Thank you.

Dr. Jones thank you for excellent work.

Our AAMAC group thank you for amazing work.

I've been able to put my head in a few times and I always see lots of hard work underway and I've been very impressed with the partnership where the committee has come up with great ideas.

They work back and forth with staff.

So it truly has been a great partnership and you're right at the heart of our SMART goal focused on illuminating the opportunity gap which we continue to say is the issue of our time.

So thank you for the great work that has been accomplished along the way and I hope that great work continues.

Thank you Dr. Nyland.

Thank you board.

Thank you for the adjustment to allow us to have this representation of vested individuals community scholars intellectuals and activists organizers and this passion about African-American males and their progress and their ascension from where they are to where they're going to be soon.

So represented behind me is a group of respected leaders from the community.

Many of them came together in 2014 and they've made a three and a half year commitment.

In 2016 they became the African-American male advisory committee and today we have representatives from the breakfast group, the men of the middle passage, Equity race advisory committee, teachers, principals, faith based community, Native American education, Department of race and advancement, University of School of Engineering, human resources, research and evaluation, behavioral health, our best advisory committee with the city, parents and students and friends of Dr. Felder.

So without further ado one of our partners our premier partners is the city of Seattle and one person that has really helped us to move into a place where we're being recognized on the national scene is Mr. Anthony Shoecraft and he's going to be the representative from the African-American male advisory committee.

Brother Shoecraft.

I'm going to invite folks behind me.

Come on.

This is a family affair, y'all.

Come on.

Come up.

Come up.

Come up.

Come up.

This is not about me.

This is about us.

Thank you Dr. Jones for those opening remarks and I also want to acknowledge the brothers leadership for stewarding this important work for this district.

To our dear friend and brother Superintendent Nyland to the board of directors thank you all for this opportunity to speak for you and address you today.

Before I go any further though you know as a black man whose ancestral lineage is of the Cherokee Nation as.

A collective of leaders from our community that really believes in working in alliance across all communities of color.

It is important that I begin by honoring the first people of Seattle the indigenous inhabitants of the greater Seattle area.

And the people that this very whose land is very building stands upon that is the Duwamish people.

My name is Anthony Shoecraft like the brother said, I'm a father, I'm a husband, I'm a community member and I'm a very proud member of this group, the African American male advisory committee.

And I say that I'm proud because as you see we've got elders, we've got young people, we have people representing this community that have chosen me to speak on their behalf and so it's an extreme honor that I can address you on their behalf today.

I also proudly serve as the special advisor to the mayor on black male achievement for the city of Seattle.

And last year you know under the city's commitment to race and social justice or I should say racial equity through the race and social justice initiative we launched our best.

Our best is a bold.

Very historic initiative that's really focused on expanding opportunity and improving life outcomes for young black men and boys in Seattle in five areas education being one of them.

And it's through our best that the city and the district really find alignment.

Our best is really connected to the mission of the AMAC.

It's really connected to the district's commitment to racial equity right to eliminating and I love that it's eliminating not just closing but eliminating opportunity gaps.

That is particularly for black males and other students of color as it's articulated in the superintendent's smart goals.

You all might be able to complete this for me.

If you want to go quickly then go alone.

I ain't got to be shy.

If you want to go far then go together.

Right.

This African proverb aptly describes the journey of the AMEC over the last three to four years.

Collaborating with Superintendent Nyland district leaders really run the education of black males.

Superintendent Nyland you charge the AMAC with providing guidance on systemic transformation to ensure the educational excellence and equity for all Seattle students SPS students and in particular black males.

And it was with this responsibility that we set out to put a fresh set of eyes on what the district was doing and really like a decades long district and community issue.

We also set out to develop a set of recommendations that was consistent with our charge.

We also sought to ensure that in that process authentic community engagement was part of this effort by the district.

And it's worth noting that the AMAC, again as you see, is truly a village effort.

More than 50 academic, higher education, K-12, business, government leaders, and allies are really committed, deeply invested into uplifting the academic outcomes of young black men and boys that are being served through this district.

And so in 2015 we developed a set of I would say foundational recommendations.

Then as the brother mentioned as the African-American male think tank subsequently in 2018 a more robust and comprehensive set of recommendations.

And it's worth noting that those recommendations really came at the behest of input from students, parents, teachers, community members and the like right.

And given that journey and this collaboration with Superintendent Nyland and I do want to give a shout out to some extraordinary brothers and sisters like Keisha Scarlett, Director Tolley, Dr. Jones, Lois Brewer, Pat Sander, I can go on, right?

Several principals and teachers, right?

We've been really encouraged by the fruits of this collaboration.

And I'll just point out a few specific fruits.

Dr. Nodden, for example, in taking the recommendations, took those and made some decisive leadership decisions.

And he assigned ownership of some of our recommendations to key departments.

He also directed them to both incorporate those recommendations into existing work plans and then also had them identify procedural supports for operationalizing them and we're thankful for that and we appreciate it.

So as you see up here this body of leaders committed to this cause, the AMAC, our allies, we are really here today to highlight this collaboration and momentum.

The reason why is because it's very easy to get bogged down in the politics, city, district, right, left, take your pick, blue, green, right?

But it's easier to not celebrate the progress, to not celebrate the relationships that have been deepened and really not celebrate the understanding that has been gained through this collaboration, that's worth That's worth pulling out specifically.

We the AMAC and our allies were also here to urge you all the board to continue to focus on African-American males being served being nourished being supported by this school district.

And we want to continue this momentum.

Let me let me just point out what the brother just mentioned not too long ago.

The nation is watching this district and this city.

As an example, Seattle's work is being recognized nationally as one of the leaders.

Putting aside all the data we can say, oh, really?

One of the nation's leaders in this movement around black male achievement is the Campaign for Black Male Achievement.

It was the reason why former President Obama launched My Brother's Keeper.

It started 12 years ago, dedicated to this movement.

Every two years they produce a report, promise of place, and they score cities that are doing work for young black men and boys.

Seattle made the largest gain of all metropolitan cities as of January 17 in this year's report.

So the work of the AMAC was actually cited in that.

So it's more than a notion.

On a national stage again we've got more work to do.

The AMAC and our allies were also here to cite a number of expectations that we have of the board as well.

There's six in total.

Number one, that the board maintain a focus on ensuring the operational goals of policy 0030, the district's equity policy.

That work is not finished yet nor are we here to say that.

I think you all agree that there's more work to be done.

Number two that the superintendent the incoming superintendent Juneau and the board will continue the specificity of African-American males and the superintendent's SMART goals that will start in 2015. Number three that the board will continue the moratorium on discipline.

We know that it disproportionately causes harm and trauma on our black males all of our black children right.

The board will maintain, number four, the board will maintain a focus on aligning with the state, specifically through House Bill 1541, the state's opportunity gap.

Number five shortly after the sister arrives incoming superintendent Juneau that the AMAC will continue having the same level of quality access to her as the superintendent that we have robustly enjoyed with outgoing superintendent Larry Nyland.

And lastly as soon as reasonable that the district I've heard all of you all we have heard all of you all on the dais say you all can't do this alone and we're here behind you brothers and sisters.

But we wish for you all to hold a work session with the city and the school district to run aligned initiatives that are in service to black men and boys.

Let me close by saying this.

Black males are the largest student segment identified of those identified as lowest performing.

I phrase it like that because we can't call our young black men and boys underachieving.

The system is doing them bad.

It's not their fault.

So of the students that are identified as underperforming that's five thousand black males in the school district.

And even as a group dedicated to their cause we stand in alliance and astute solidarity with other communities and other student groups.

because we have a mutual destiny.

We stand in alliance with other populations of color groups deemed underserved or underperforming.

In fact we walk side by side with them and we honor their struggle and furthermore we view the work of the AMAC as reinforcing that alliance with other communities of color.

The district's mantra is every student every child every day.

Come on y'all.

I'm an old church boy, I've got to do call and response, come on.

Disparity is not a level playing field, that's worth saying and citing unapologetically.

Disparity is not a level playing field and we know that the pathway to achieving a universal goal like eliminating the opportunity gap can only come through targeted means.

It's the very definition of targeted universalism that is blazoned on this district's website.

And we honor you all for having that courageous sort of leadership for that.

But we want to reinforce that is the pathway.

Targeted universalism matters.

You achieve broad equity goals, universal goals through targeted means.

Lastly, thank you again for listening, but this group, this body, we openly welcome the opportunity to continue to work with this board and this work.

This is critical work.

This is generational work and we hope that you're very open to it.

And again, thank you again for listening to me on behalf of this remarkable group.

Thank you.

Oh, getting caught up.

We also have, um, In the spirit of building this momentum and in the spirit of looking backwards and how far we've come we actually want to honor the brother Dr. Nyland and I'm going to ask him to come down because this group actually has a token of appreciation for his leadership.

So we just have we have a gift.

We also have a certificate for Dr. Nyland.

I won't read it all but it simply says that the African-American male advisory committee presents this certificate of appreciation to Superintendent Larry Nyland.

Brother we hope that it is a reminder of part of the legacy that you've helped continue here and hopefully several years from now you can look back on even more progress that we've made since the time that you spent with us.

Thank you brother.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And a nice book for you to read during retirement.

So I believe there's a picture to be had.

Aaron, will you organize this?

Oh there's a question.

Director Harris.

I do get to speak for the board.

Yes.

And we can say yes to all six of your asks with respect to your work session.

We need staff to find a time because our schedule is plenty full.

But let's make all due effort.

Thank you very very much.

Thank you Director Harris.

We'll make that happen.

Okay.

Everybody?

Okay.

Everybody?

Everybody?

Everybody?

Come on.

Stand up.

Let me see your brother.

Oh, love, man.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Come on, sis.

You know I have to give you a shout-out, too.

Oh, we're standing back.

I'm standing in the back.

And we have some in the back.

Do I have everybody?

Can I move this?

All right, ready?

Thank you for coming.

I thought the brother was still speaking.

Is the brother still speaking?

Sorry about that.

Thank you.

Okay.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda please.

I move.

The consent agenda.

I second the motion.

All those in favor of excuse me.

Does anyone have any items on the consent agenda they wish to remove for discussion and or action.

Going once twice three times.

Saying none.

May I have a motion to pass the consent agenda.

We did that.

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

Thank you ever so much.

We have 10 minutes before public testimony.

Who would like to give their board comments.

First that would be director DeWolf.

Take it away.

Thank you President Harris.

I just wanted to kind of go down the list here since our last board meeting.

Director Geary and I were able to meet with some representatives both nationally and locally from the National Black Child Development Institute.

We had a really great conversation about some of the work they're doing and looking forward to certainly think about ways that the AMAC and particularly some of the work that they're doing might align and collaborate.

Also just want to give a special thanks to our admin professionals it's admin professionals week so thank you for all that you do.

I had a community meeting on April 9th and one of the biggest topics was the Seattle World School and just some of the climate issues there.

And so I will be going out to Seattle World School likely within the next week or two to visit with administrators and along with Sarah Pritchett.

And they also had some questions about the families and education levy.

So I know that folks are very very interested in that and that topic.

Wanted to give a shout out to the students and educators at Nathan Hale High School was really grateful to go out and visit Nathan Hale High School last week and actually got to go visit C 89 5 radio which is our public radio that we we support here at Seattle Public Schools.

I. Particularly my social media brag about our connection to C89.5.

They're actually starting a fund drive tomorrow.

So just wanted to give a little bit more radio signal pun intended to the folks at C89.5.

They're raising money for their programming and so starting tomorrow if anybody feels inclined please support C89.5 radio station.

They do a lot of really great work and it's one of our I would say more unique CTE offerings.

And also just want to elevate the fact that the Thurgood Marshall students and community created a wish tree after a book that they kind of did some learning around and the wish trees to promote peace and hope in their neighborhood and community.

So thank you to the Thurgood Marshall students for promoting peace and hope in their neighborhood.

Last week the Office for Superintendent for Public Instruction came out with a report around student homelessness.

Seattle Public Schools in the 2016 2017 year saw 4280 students experiencing homelessness.

Obviously this is a crisis.

I think I talk about this issue every time I'm up here but 125 of those students are unsheltered.

In addition there is a large number of students that are unaccompanied.

So again this is a crisis and I'm not trying to put anybody on the spot.

But if we continue to go home every night and do not see these at least these 125 students as the most vulnerable they do not have shelter.

They do not have the same type of privilege and access that other students do.

They don't.

They're either sleeping in hotels they're sleeping in cars they're sleeping outside.

They're sleeping on couches they're sleeping with family.

If these students do not have access to housing stability and those resources then how the hell are they supposed to come to school and learn.

And I hope and I continue to hope that the work that we're doing with the student homelessness work group will be able to provide some opportunities some funding some ideas for how to address these students.

And I certainly know that at my day job which is at all home that we are particularly concerned about the one hundred five hundred twenty five unsheltered students so I will hope to be giving some good news.

As our meetings go on.

But I just implore you all to really really think deeply and ask yourself what are we doing if we're letting 125 of our students go unsheltered every night and then expect them to come back to school.

I am working with President Harris and Director Patu on a triple director joint community meeting in the Chinatown International District and we'll have some details coming up soon around the dates for finalizing that.

And I just kind of want to share some of the work that I've done.

Spring Break was really great if you're a student but I kept coming back to the district office and so had some really great some some meetings here.

First thing I want to just share is that we're working on some pride activities and so we'll have some news about that probably at our next board meeting.

I'll be visiting Nova and Principal Perry on May 4th and then I'll be visiting Washington Middle School on May 7th to do a book donation of the books donated by Elliott Bay Book Company.

These are all sci-fi kind of books.

books from authors of color.

And then additionally we'll be going to Daniel Begley Elementary on May 11th to do an additional book donation.

And this is the letter from Jet that talked about and finally given kind of scheduling hiccups will finally be going on May 11th.

And then this Friday we'll be going out to Arbor Heights for their salmon release in support of Earth Day.

And yeah that's all I have for now.

But again we have 125 unsheltered students.

in our district.

And that's that's that's what I'm going to be.

That's the drum I'm going to be beating every every board meeting until we get that issue taken care of.

So thank you.

President Harris.

Director Mack and we need a hard stop at 530 and you can continue your comments after that time if you like.

For public testimony.

Yeah I think I can actually do that because I covered so much in the update on committee.

A lot of my focus has been on the operations committee and the work around that.

I had a community meeting this week and it was it was I don't know about eight folks and they brought a.

issues around wait lists and what's the planning for Magnolia Elementary opening and director Burke joined us as well for a bit.

So that was great to have the conversation around some of the ramp up of various task forces and other work that we're doing.

And I.

honestly had a restful spring break which was nice.

And I hope y'all did as well.

Apparently Director DeWolf did not.

Because that was a lot of great work that you've been working on.

So thank you for all that.

The Lincoln High School community meeting was Monday night and it was exciting to see where we're at in terms of progress for opening Lincoln in 2019. So not this coming year but the year after.

And there are sweatshirts available now with their logo black and red.

So that's kind of exciting.

And I can easily make your deadline because that's basically all I have.

Thank you.

Anybody else want to start or we can take a two minute stretch break.

Let's let's do a stretch break for two minutes.

OK kids.

Thanks.