Seattle School Board Meeting 1222015 Pt. 1

Hi, my name is Geneva, and I'm in sixth grade, and the first song we'll be singing for you is called I Can Feel the Rhythm.

I feel the rhythm in my hands and my feet I feel the rhythm in my hands and my feet makes it all complete.

I can feel the rhythm.

I can feel the rhythm in my hands and my feet.

I can feel the rhythm in my hands and my feet.

I can feel the rhythm in my hands and my feet.

I can feel the rhythm in my hands and my feet.

Music has a way of making me move.

I want to stumble along when I hear that groove.

It's a feeling that is hard to control, but now I can feel the rhythm down in my soul.

Feel the rhythm in my feet, oh yes, I feel the rhythm in my hands and my feet.

Feel the rhythm in my feet, oh yes, I can feel the rhythm in my hands and my feet.

Hi, my name is Coco.

I'm in 6th grade and my second song for you tonight is Moon River.

Moon river, wider than a mile I'm crossing you in style someday Oh dream maker, you heart breaker Wherever you're going, I'm going your way.

Two drifters off to see the world.

There's such a lot of world to see.

We're after the same rainbow's end.

Waiting round the bend, my huckleberry friend.

River.

me.

Ah, blue river, wider than a mud, I'm crossing you in style someday.

Oh, dream maker, you heartbreaker, Wherever you're going, I'm going your way.

Two drifters off to see the world.

There's such a lot of world to see hereafter.

The same rainbow sand Pointed round the bend My huckleberry friend Blue river, be blue

Hi, my name is Ava and the last song for you tonight is Fireflies.

I would not believe your eyes Ten million fireflies lit up the road as I fell asleep.

Cause they fill the open air and leave teardrops everywhere.

You'd think me rude, but I would just stand and stare.

I'd like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns ♪ Slowly, it's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake than I must sleep ♪ ♪ Because everything is never as it seems ♪ ♪ Ten thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs as they try to teach me how to dance ♪ ♪ A flock shot above my head ♪ I'll come beneath my bed, a disco ball and a chair singing by a thread.

I'd like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly.

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I must sleep, cause everything is ever as it seems.

When I fall asleep Ten million fireflies I'm weird cause I hate goodbyes I got misty eyes cause they said farewell But I know we're sacro-art My dirty and real was marked Cause I see it of you and I keep them in a jar I'd like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly.

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep, because everything is demorized.

It seems when I fall asleep, I'd like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep, because my dreams are bursting at the seams.

That was an amazing performance by the Pathfinder K-8 middle school.

Thank you so much.

And I also want to thank Victoria Melton and Elizabeth Percival for a wonderful performance by your student.

I would like you to say your first name and grade and then pass it on to the next person please.

I'm Geneva and I'm in sixth grade.

My name is Coco and I'm in sixth grade.

I'm Quinn and I'm in sixth grade.

I'm Taryn and I'm in sixth grade.

I'm Miranda and I'm in 6th grade.

I'm Francesca and I'm in 7th grade.

I'm Tate and I'm in 6th grade.

I'm Britta and I'm in 6th grade.

I'm Zovie and I'm in 8th grade.

I'm Rose and I'm in 8th grade.

I'm Louise and I'm in 8th grade.

I'm Eve and I'm in 6th grade.

I'm Kiona and I'm in 6th grade.

I'm Maylynn and I'm in 7th grade.

I'm Emma and I'm in 7th grade.

I'm Mina and I'm in 6th grade.

I'm Aspen and I'm in 6th grade.

I'm Tessa and I'm in 7th grade.

Thank you so much you guys did an amazing job have a good evening.

We are now going into the superintendent's comments.

Superintendent Nyland.

Thank you and thank you again to the Pathfinder Choir.

Welcome to our new board of directors.

We had a wonderful ceremony in this room last night with family and friends and a wonderful opportunity to recognize our new board members and go through the swearing in process and get all of the final paperwork done.

So welcome to each of our new board members.

Today we have a Native American education annual report and I very much appreciate the work that Gail Morris does as manager of that program to figure out ways that we can provide support districtwide with very limited resources and then also find ways to provide support where we can for Native American students.

I'm looking around to see if I see Gail.

I don't know that I see Gail.

Is she here?

Welcome Gail.

I want to welcome the new directors, Director Harris, Director Geary, Director Pinkham, and Director Burke.

Good evening to the rest of the directors.

My name is Gail Morris.

I am the chandler of First Nations, I house the Indian band and the manager for the Native American education services.

We have a few people here with us today that I would like to introduce and they have some things that they would like to say before I move on with my report.

First I'd like to introduce Gabe Pork he's a 10th grader at Nathan Hale and part of the native club there and I'm going to have him present first.

My name is Gabe Port and I'm a sophomore at Nathan Hale High School.

Last week I was invited by a teacher of mine to speak during Nathan Hale's first Native Assembly and at first I was a bit hesitant but then I realized it's important for people to talk about these things.

It's an important part of my school and our society even if you don't notice it.

My native heritage is one of the most important traits about me, as your heritage should be for you.

I'm part of the Samish, Snohomish, and Upper Skagit tribes of Washington State, and I am part of the seventh generation since the signing of the Point Elliott Treaty in 1855. I have a great-great-granduncle alive today who was held by his grandmother, Daudub, born in Sauk in 1848, and she remembered the time before white people were here.

My Samish, Snohomish, and Upper Skagit ancestors lived on Gramas Island, Fidalgo Island, and Penn Cove on Whidbey Island.

They harvested clams, crabs, and salmon, as well as plants for food and medicine.

Washington tribes are constantly working to improve the salmon and wildlife habitat.

There's a yearly celebration known as the Canoe Journey.

Tribes and First Nations people from all across Washington and British Columbia paddle through the Puget Sound, the ancestral water of the Salish Sea, from Oregon to Bella Coola to reach their final destination in the land of the hosting tribe.

And each year, a different tribe hosts it.

It's a massive celebration of our culture, people, food, songs, and dance.

It's a celebration of our history and a celebration of each other.

It's also a celebration of our ancestors and elders who have passed on cultural teachings.

Native heritage is very important, yet the United States government refuses to recognize the Duwamish, who are the first people of Seattle, as a tribe.

But natives of Seattle are still fighting for their rights.

The late Billy Frank Jr. dedicated his life to fighting for civil rights and protecting salmon habitat.

And Cecile Hansen, the chairwoman of the Duwamish tribe, continues to fight for recognition of her people from the U.S. government.

See, I'm very involved in my native heritage, but I'm also involved in many other parts of my school.

I'm part of Outdoor Survival Club, Climate Justice Club, and I'm a captain on the Varsity Ultimate Frisbee Team.

It's important to know that Native Americans aren't invisible.

We attend local schools, work in local businesses, and we are quite involved in the communities in which we live.

And we speak out on issues that affect all people of this land.

Because we all benefit from a healthy environment, from safe neighborhoods and schools, and from equality and justice.

I've explored a lot about my heritage, but I know there's still a lot to learn.

To educate myself, I need to keep exploring.

And in the future, I plan to pull during the canoe journey and better my carving skills.

I want to learn everything I can about the place I'm from.

This holiday, I urge you to explore your history as I am now.

And to everyone in this room, speak with your elders and learn everything you can, because they won't always be here.

Cherish the moments you have with them.

There is strength in all cultures.

As we respect and appreciate our culture, we must also be respectful of other cultures.

From this comes tolerance and love.

Aishka, thank you.

I too am part of the canoe journey.

I've been on 13 journeys and I know exactly what he's talking about.

I learned from my elders as well.

I'm also going to bring up my parent advisory committee, also known as the PAC.

I'll let them introduce themselves.

I have our president of our PAC and our vice president of our PAC, and they can introduce themselves to you.

Hello, my name is Chandra Hampson.

Thank you for allowing us the time to speak on our program.

My Ho-Chunk name is Henuka Traidega.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Emma Medicine White Crow.

I'm Comanche Cherokee and adopted Makah.

I'm the daughter of Dakpati and Sitta Kleewood.

I have a son at Licton Springs in kindergarten, a granddaughter at Bravia Thompson and a granddaughter also at Olympic View Pre-K.

I am a product of Seattle Public Schools.

I've worked for Seattle Public Schools and I totally support Seattle Public Schools.

I also very much support the Huchoosedah Indian Education Program.

I'm the governor appointed chair of the Governor's Interagency Council on Health Disparities where I've worked diligently since 1999 as a volunteer.

I'm also the newly elected president of the Title VII Huchoosedah Parent Education Committee for Native American students and I hold that dear to my heart.

An advisory committee or PAC is made up of parents and family of current Native American students and Alaskan Native students in the Seattle Public Schools.

The role of this Title VII Native Education PAC is to advise Seattle schools on the development and operation of the Title VII grant and budget.

We also help organize and conduct community and cultural events.

We want to be your partners and we should be your partners.

We want to support Seattle Schools in the quality education of our Native students and help them in the best way to be their very best.

Seattle Schools has a wonderful resource in its Huchoosedah program staff.

They are strong educators and supporters of our students and their families.

They're experts in Native education and should be your very first point of contact.

They're also a wonderful resource on urban Indians in our Native American pack.

We have multiple expertise.

We're diligent volunteers.

We're also very open-handed and welcoming.

So at any moment in time, you're all welcome to attend our Parent Advisory Committee meeting.

We are very transparent.

One last thing I'd like to say many of us work for and are products of Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle urban Indian community is often referred to as one of the largest tribes in Washington State.

There are over 500 nations in our country and Seattle reflects that.

We also partner with many native organizations and tribes and supporters in Seattle and the I currently work for the Muckleshoot and Port Gamble tribe, but I've worked with all 29 of the federally recognized tribes in our state.

I work in our region, and I work nationally as a subject matter expert on health disparities, health equity, and more importantly, long-term services and support.

Our current PAC has a long history of commitment and advocacy, not only on native issues, but in educational issues.

And please consider us one of your team members.

And we will make ourselves available for partnership but please consider us and we would kindly request that you respect us as your team member and come to us as one of your points of contact.

Thank you.

So we are going to look at the Seattle Public Schools Native American education update.

I did present this a few weeks ago.

I left out one slide and I did put it in.

Let me get used to this.

There it is.

Native updates, our successes, challenges, next steps and data.

Successes, we had an additional 100 506 forms to bring our Title VII numbers from 368 students to 460 students this last year.

I currently have over 200 506 forms sitting on my desk right now that we haven't even gotten to from the beginning of this year.

We are hoping at least 100 of them are great.

We hired a secondary liaison to work primarily with high school students but also this person supports middle school students as well.

Gabe went with us on a field trip to Hiebold Cultural Center up in Tulalip on November 20th for Native American History Month to look at Matika Wilbur's amazing photography exhibit that she's doing on the 566 tribes here in the United States.

Our secondary liaison is someone that's new to our team.

This is something we haven't had and I don't know if any of my predecessors have had this in the past but he's very busy.

He's in all high schools.

He does a lot of work on high school credit retrieval.

He looks at attendance.

He looks at truancy discipline and we notify parents as soon as we know that their child needs our support in the schools.

Some of the challenges that we face are getting the 506 forms correctly completed the first time.

And what I mean by that is, you know, when we send those home, it's hard to fill it out correctly.

Oftentimes our families don't like to put their enrollment number on that.

We understand that's a private issue.

And so we spend a lot of time driving to schools and driving to homes just to get little information to put on those 506 forms.

Another challenge is there's not enough Title VII staff to meet the academic needs of all of our Native American and Alaskan Native students who need assistance and advocacy.

Five regions, we're currently at a staff of five and I barely get out to schools because I'm doing so much work here in the office.

Another challenge is transportation for after-school programs.

We saw that our after-school programs helps our students turn in their homework and attend school and we saw an improvement in their grades.

I'm not talking about the tests or the data but we saw improvements in their grades.

Our next steps are to create Create an enrollment admissions checklist, a box that asks if the families are Native American or Alaskan Native to better identify our students.

We lose them in a multiracial box.

We want to work in more high schools to track and support more Native students through attendance, grades, course completion, and discipline.

Transportation again is an issue and it limits our students participation on field trips, after school programs, coming to our PAC meetings, coming to our cultural events.

A lot of our families don't have vehicles.

I wanted to talk a little bit, whoops, sorry.

about the Since Time Immemorial.

It's Senate Bill 5433. We've had a lot of success in this so far this year.

August 25th, we trained about 35 teachers.

September 1st, 42. October 13th, 61 librarians.

We have another training December 10th, where we will train 40 teachers for the middle school social studies instructional materials adoption.

We're really excited about this.

So look at the new social studies book so that we can help teachers align since time immemorial with that.

We have another one on a Saturday January 23rd where we will have registration for 40 more middle school teachers and then we have one to be determined.

We're hoping to complete that by the end of February.

I think it turned it off.

We're looking at this data on academic achievement.

I look at the data and I looked at the scores went down on all students.

I'm not.

I'm not happy with the data but I don't know like how do we all improve it?

How do we get the buildings and the schools to help improvement not only for native students but for all students as well?

I think this is really very important because when I get up here it feels like it's always like what about native students?

I think it should be looked at for all students.

How do we raise the scores for all the kids that are in the lower brackets down there and you know I'm looking at the reading, looking at math.

You know I've asked people to come in, sit with our students, mentor our students, help our students with math problems.

One person can't hit all the schools, the middle schools and high schools to help students.

You know so we find resources in the schools if we can get the students to go to the after school programs within their schools, on time graduation.

Again, you know, I'm looking how the line dropped on the 10th graders passing all required tests for graduation.

This is a huge problem.

Most of our students that we work with don't pass the math portion of it.

The on-time graduation there is a little light as Director Peters pointed out when I presented this in the curriculum instruction committee meeting that there is a trajectory upwards for graduation for native students.

You know it does give some hope you know and again I just want to say I don't want to place all my eggs in data on tests.

I know that this is really important but we also want to look at how they are succeeding Native learners are all students learning in the classroom.

I think that's equally important.

Special education.

Special education, as you can see.

We are at the top of the list at 32%.

I don't know how much I can speak to that.

I spend a lot of time in IEP meetings.

I spend a lot of time with parents who have children in special education.

And our after school programs.

Again here are what we have so far.

Highland Park, John Muir, Whitman Middle School, primarily 6th graders.

We're hoping to get in at Licton Springs.

Transportation is a huge issue there.

South Shore.

We're working with schools out in Washington.

We're getting some training around that with our after school programs.

It's been great.

It's very demanding.

We are funded for our after school program through a city grant.

This grant allows us to buy food for our students.

Our federal fundings do not allow us to so it's really important you know that we get into the schools and we're able to buy the food and the cultural stuff that we do with our students in the after school program as well.

All of our after school programs provide culturally enriched homework support and academic interventions.

And right now that's what I have.

I put it back there, sorry.

Are there any questions?

Thank you Gail.

I have some questions which I have some challenges definitely.

As far as when you identify and the data that you have, is that just the 506 numbers or is it any student that identified as American Indian, Alaskan Native?

Well we identify through enrollment first of all and we have something under 470 students that self-identify or parents do.

We have somewhere around 3,000 in the multiracial box and mostly we get it through the front of the office staff in school to say hey we have a Native American kid Here attending is there a way that you can come and meet them, give them academic support, we ask them for their names, their parents names and we call the parents because we don't move into the classroom without talking to parents first.

And definitely appreciate the training that you're doing for teachers.

Any consideration to pass it on to administration and possibly the board here?

We hope to, you're certainly invited.

We have many trainings coming up.

We do want to make people aware about the trainings that we do.

We have it uploaded.

We talk about it all the time.

We invite anybody to attend.

When we trained the 61 librarians at Washington Middle School there was about 10 other staff members and teachers that were from Central and other schools that just popped in to do the training and they loved it.

They all get a book from a local author Sandra Segundo and she is a paraprofessional at South Shore K8 and it's called Killer Whale Eyes and so we want to give people who attend our trainings a book from a local native author to bring into their classrooms and share with their students.

So we have incentives to give and we do hope to train and we'd love to have you shoot me an email, we'll tell you when the dates are, you can audit the class.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ thank you.

Do any other board directors have any questions?

Director Peters.

I basically have a couple of comments.

Gail I wanted to thank you for bringing various data points to us because it's important to look at the graduation rates, the identifications for special ed and not overemphasize the test scores as you said.

And especially that particular graph shows that the entire district did not, I mean the trend was down on the new test that everybody took.

I think we have to look at that data with extreme caution because it was a new test and there was a lot of I believe discriminatory elements embedded in that test and so I wouldn't look to that as a major indicator.

But it is so important to look at those other trajectories and to see what we are doing right, the ones that are trending in the right direction and to keep a very sharp focus on the ones that are still not where we want them to be.

I agree, thank you.

And also while he's still here I wanted to thank Gabe for your wonderful wonderful speech.

If you have that written if you could send that to us I would love to be able to put that up on our website.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Thank you.

Part of being new is to be learned up on the various communities.

And I think I'm a little confused with United I'm going to get this wrong and I apologize in advance, United Urban Education Alliance, are they part of your parent advisory as well and where does the grant we heard two or three board meetings ago come in?

Do you in your silo administer that grant?

No so they are an Urban Native Education Alliance or UNEA and I believe they have several grants I'm not sure which of all they are but let me stay in order of your questions.

No they are not part of the Title VII program they are a community-based organization however they do work with native students, NCIL public schools, grades K-12 they have a wonderful like a culture program, language program, basketball program, they do some homework support.

It's a nice organization and they meet at Nathan Hale.

And I don't know and I'm wondering if the grant you're talking about was when the woman came up here and talked about gifted and talented native students.

I believe so.

That's a Bill and Melinda Gates grant that Margaret Moore and John Chapman from the Licton Springs community secured to do some professional development at Licton Springs K8 and probably other things.

I'm not fully aware of what their grant specifies.

Follow up then on that if I might.

Is there interconnectedness between your department and UNEA and should there be more?

They, well maybe someone can help me with that.

They do run a program with Seattle Public Schools.

They do, are very interested in Seattle Public Schools.

I'm not really quite, thank you.

Bernardo Ruiz, Director of School Family Partnerships, Equity and Race Relations.

So we value the partnership we have with the UNEA.

UNEA is one of the seven or more native focused community based organizations with which we partner and we work collaboratively.

Obviously there is always more we could do to partner with all of them.

UNEA is one of the many organizations that are providing valuable services for our children that we as a district cannot provide.

So we are looking forward to strengthening partnerships with all of our native community-based organizations.

Some of the parents that we have that are members of the PAC were past or current also members of UNEA and they are always welcome to attend the Parents Advisory Committee meeting.

But I do not work at all with UNEA.

I'm not familiar with what they do.

Like I said, I have a kindergartner, so I might need more information.

But I will tell you that there is not one organization in Seattle that speaks for all native people.

Community-based organizations are great and wonderful when we work collaboratively.

But none of us, if anyone stands before you and says, I speak for all natives in the Seattle community, That's wrong.

I only speak for myself.

I can't speak for everyone, but I will welcome you to collaborate with us to ensure student success.

That's what the Parent Advisory Committee, it's how we walk in the world.

I'm here with my PAC vice president, and we work in collaboration.

I support her, I stand beside her, and I will lift up anyone that will work with me to ensure student success.

By the way, I was in special ed.

I'm a chemical engineer.

I'm an organic chemist.

I went through Seattle Public Schools.

But more importantly, that doesn't define me special.

It did not define who I am.

So I look at test scores and I say, oh, there's opportunity here.

And when you talk about mentoring kids, I've mentored not only directors, executive directors.

I've worked with congressmen and senators.

We're all in it together.

And I'm talking just as a community member.

I will work with anyone, as long as you work with me to ensure success.

And I'm selfish.

I want more engineers.

I want more technology folks.

I want more scientists.

That's the world I understand.

I understand math.

I can teach you geometry in beadwork.

Not a problem.

I can look at the algorithms that exist creating a basket.

That's not a problem.

that work with me.

That's what we're here for.

That's why I'm working with Gail.

We're here to work with you.

And as far as UNEA, they're all welcome to come to our meetings at any time at any moment.

Any more board, Director Burke?

I just had a quick follow-up question aligned with what Director Pinkham was saying.

There's, I believe, I've heard that there's some potential challenges with demographic identification.

And I'm curious, it didn't come up in your slides, is that an area that you're looking for the board to collaborate on or some additional clarification?

What we would like to do is on the enrollment form is where on the first page were asked very specific questions to put on there are you Native American or Alaska Native or identify.

It's the first thing that you see.

Special ed box is on that first page as well.

And I think as a group who have a government to government relationship through treaties I think that that would be an appropriate place to put a box for our Native American and Alaska Native students and families to see instead of trying to navigate through you know I'm Caucasian, I'm Hispanic and I'm Native and then pretty soon you're all over the place on that sheet when you're identifying who you are and because this is a federal grant is very important that we figure out who the students are and we spend a lot of time looking in schools, talking to teachers, talking to families, going to events.

We take 506 forms to events with us.

Are you native?

Are you in Seattle Public Schools?

Can you please fill this out?

We try to capture and we are looking for an easier way so we are not spending all of our time just sifting through data, cherry picking out of the multiracial box.

It's time consuming and I could definitely be doing more with my time than going through that multiracial box.

So yes that would be something I would love to collaborate with.

I think that would make it easier because that's how we get funding as Dr. Nyland had said earlier on a very small budget we have turned a piece of fry bread this size to this size so that we can reach out to everybody and we do but we would like it to be more simple.

Director Blanford.

It seems to me that that issue that we've discussed this on several occasions now the self-identification and whether or not our forms are appropriate seems to me that this begs for because other districts are surely grappling with the same challenge that we figure out what is the language that is most effective in getting native students to identify.

And then if it requires that there be some change in policy then I think we would be amenable to that but it seems to me that that would be something that could be handled inside of you know superintendent procedures or something.

It wouldn't require board action.

I would look forward to hearing how that issue is resolved.

I hope we can move past just being upset about the fact that we are not getting the number of students that we want and move to some action that we can evaluate the results of.

That is my wish as well.

Director Harris.

Segwaying off of what Director Blanford had to say, what would be the appropriate way to that addressed and come back to the board to cross the T, dot the I, make sure you get the resources you need to move this forward.

What kind of an action plan do we want for a return date to the board?

I would love to have it done by beginning of 2016 but you know I think too in talking with enrollment services they feel like this is a simple fix as well like let's just do this but to get from let's just do this to actually putting it on the enrollment form that's where I'm not connecting the pieces or I'm not finding the right people to help me connect those pieces.

I found in my life if I set a deadline and I've got something to work back from I'm more highly successful and I wonder if it's appropriate that we make some kind of a motion for this to be reported back in 60 days.

I'll be glad to take that on administratively and get a report back to the board in 60 days.

There's one issue with regard to the enrollment form.

And then there's a whole bunch of other issues that probably are part of a legislative agenda for Congress in terms of how we count.

So I mean they have to be an enrolled member and that's a challenge for us because many of our students come from all over the United States and many are not part of an enrolled tribe.

So we want to know who they are regardless so that we can figure out how best to serve them.

And we want to qualify for a little bit of federal money for any of the students that we can certainly.

Dr. Pinkham.

Yes and what I want to address too is just for your information I was a board member or was active in UNEA as a board member but when the elections came up I stepped aside.

So we will hopefully continue to work with UNEA, Huchoosedah, and other native based programs.

Emma said you know we can't just rely on one voice and say that's good for all Native Americans or just for any population that we look at just hearing just one voice.

And also one thing I want to mention about the data when we do look at data I would also like to see if we can look at what were the range of the test scores not necessarily how many failed.

I want to also be sure we celebrate those that succeeded.

Yes.

I just wanted to clarify in terms of if you're proposing a fix in 60 days I mean an idea of what that would entail that what my hope would be at the building level is what it looks like is that when we talk to our administration about as the native rep at our school and we want to know who the native students are right now it shows with one exception it shows zero even though I know that we have six 506 forms turned in two of which are my kids.

and then I know the families because I know the families but I can't find them in the system.

They appear as zeros in the system when we look them up.

It's impossible to find them.

So I can't locally even serve those kids because I can't access them.

We can't even work together to get these families together because they show up as zeros and I can't identify them with our own principal and administration so that It also comes up now that we have time in memorial curriculum and the students, we want for the teachers to be able to recognize the tribes that the children are from in their classes.

If you're going to be speaking about their tribe, it's really important that you recognize that student and give them a chance to speak on behalf of their tribe.

And the teachers can't do that if they can't identify those students and what tribe they're with.

So I've been literally running down the street chasing after parents that I know are native and giving them 506 forms and trying to hook them up with various services and I'm just one person in one small school and we have this all over the district and we can't even get the information about those students because the system doesn't allow the secretary and the office to sort that way.

They're all in the multiracial box and we have to go child by child by child and see which on the screen which boxes they checked.

So it's administratively incredibly time-consuming.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for listening to us.

Thank you so much for the report for the parent committee work and for the great report from Nathan Hale.

Current updates, the school board recently has set two levies on the ballot for February 9. One of those is the operations levy that pays for 25% of all of our day-to-day operating expenses.

The other one is the BTA levy that pays for buildings.

Probably a change in this levy over the previous ones is that it's previously paid for remodels and we still desperately need that for I think it's 60% of our schools are more than 50 years old.

But we also need added space and so this levy includes some of the added space as well, as well as moving on the areas of technology, athletics and academics.

And there is a flyer at the back that gives the information on that levy and what it includes.

We also have, I guess as of today I think it's ESEA authorization, reauthorization has moved at least into the pipeline where it could, should be voted on before the Christmas break.

The ESEA is the elementary and secondary education act it was kind of originally known as no child left behind and it's now 14 years old and seven years past due for reauthorization.

And we kind of all of us know at some level a little bit about no child left behind and the testing that it brings with us and the identification of schools for intervention.

And so it hasn't been voted on yet.

Patty Murray was here at Dearborn Park not long ago to announce the progress that had been made.

So they've come through the conference committee.

She was successful in brokering a deal in the Senate and then brokering a deal for the House and then a conference committee bill.

So she says they'll vote on it before Christmas and she'll prevail on the president to sign it.

It would mean that we don't have to send out the letters every fall anymore telling everybody that all of our schools are failing when in fact they are not.

It still would require testing in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school.

It would still require disaggregated test scores and it would still require the state to identify low-performing schools and provide support and intervention for those schools.

So I'm hopeful, more hopeful than I've been in the last seven years that this will be the year that Congress addresses this issue.

Also since the last board meeting the Supreme Court has reaffirmed their decision that charter schools as presently formulated are unconstitutional in Washington.

We have in the first place, it was the first charter in Washington and in Seattle.

They serve 95 students.

Summit is the second charter school in Seattle, one of maybe 15 statewide.

And they currently serve about 130 high school students.

We think that those two schools may have enough grant funds or corporate donors to help serve students through the rest of this year.

But we remain ready to work with them to bring those students back into Seattle Public Schools.

Brief update on the deaf and hard of hearing program.

We do now have a full-time supervisor for deaf and hard of hearing.

Their next meeting for the deaf and hard of hearing community meeting is scheduled for December 16 at 530 here in this auditorium.

We have been partnering with the childhood deafness and hearing loss program for the last two years and will continue to work with them and engage parents.

Advanced learning has been taking steps to try to address some disproportionality in terms of the underrepresented populations that are admitted to the gifted program.

Over the last period of time they have more than doubled the increase in the number of historically underrepresented students.

In addition, kind of a separate topic.

Advanced learning is making two changes.

One is listening to the concerns about students and whether they have to qualify in both reading and math.

And changing that to say that you can qualify separately in either reading or math.

And then continuing to work on the state mandate that we provide advanced learning options in all of our schools.

The other issue that we are working on with advanced learning as well as special ed and many other departments is earlier notifications for parents.

So that we can A, let parents know earlier where their student will be attending in the following year.

B, that we can get on with doing the hiring process earlier and be into the marketplace earlier to get the first batch of new hires each spring.

I think Dan Gallagher is here somewhere tonight.

He's done a great job of growing our science and our STEM program and as a result of that there's been two grants, one from the National Science Foundation and one from the Department of Education.

That new funding is doing great things to support teachers both in Seattle as well as I think in some of our neighboring districts.

It will also allow us to make Dan the director of the STEM program and he will be overseeing the increase in STEM as well as the district's science, career and technical education, visual and performing arts.

Some of the listening opportunities recently I had the opportunity to be at Ingram and Garfield this past week.

Ingram was showcasing their work on inclusion.

They've hired some new special ed staff and they have assigned those staff to work in partnership with regular classroom teachers to support special ed students in regular classrooms.

So we had the opportunity as we visited classrooms to visit specific classrooms where the students were part of that inclusion process along with the staff and it led to some great conversations about okay after having done the logistics to include the students now what does it look like To actually include the students in the conversation and in participating in many cases hands-on learning in the classrooms.

I noted that similar issues for our ELL students and as we try to engage.

more of our underrepresented students in closing opportunity gaps.

So a key research component is how we engage student voice and how we give students the opportunity to exercise that voice in class.

Garfield showcased their gigantic mural that goes all the way around their commons area and gives a history of the school as well as the diversity in the community as well as the success of so many Garfield grads.

So it's just a great celebration of diversity and celebration of the opportunities and what students can become at Garfield.

Connection to our presentation that we just heard from regarding native education, Bernardo Ruiz and I had the opportunity to meet with representatives of many of those seven groups that represent native students and native community in Seattle.

and talk together about what is it that we could do together to support native students and some of those things were to figure out I suppose part of this issue we were just talking about is identifying students.

I guess we have some.

I'm blanking on the family privacy issues.

On the one hand we certainly want to know who the students are and we want the students to identify and connect with one another but we have to do that in legal ways to protect family privacy.

But that was one of the interests of that group was in many cases.

At the most literal level we've got 500 native students in 100 schools.

So that's, they're not all evenly scattered but that's 5 to 0 on one end, 5 to maybe 20 or 30 or 40 at the other end.

And if we don't know who they are, they oftentimes don't know who they are.

So that was an issue of interest to the group that gathered.

Knowing what each of the seven groups do and how to refer from one group to the other was a point of interest.

Parent education, inviting parents in to participate in the since time immemorial curriculum.

A lot of other good suggestions from that group and we pledge to meet again hopefully before the holidays.

begin to develop at least two or three of those key ideas on how we can work together.

Yesterday was one of the days principals have committed to meet monthly to work on professional development and how we move forward on the board approved goals on closing the opportunity gap.

So the morning was spent on Learning about microaggressions and what we can do to prevent that from happening in our schools and in our classrooms.

Microaggressions are those subtle or sometimes not so subtle put downs that we might give to students.

that communicate to students that they are less important or that they are less capable of learning.

So we've now had two days in June, three days in August, and a day each in each month since the start of the school year.

Huge commitment on the part of principals to come together and talk about important issues of how we close opportunity gaps and how we learn from each other to make that happen.

Several items of good news.

Franklin got a major donation from the Opus Foundation.

Rainier View has a big participation coming up December 7th through 13th, computer science education week.

They will be doing a huge school assembly on Monday and they are getting a special visit from an important personage from Microsoft and some support for their technology work.

Ballard High School, if you ever have the opportunity to visit, get to the library and a little bit beyond.

Their filmmaking program is incredible.

They've won awards statewide and nationally in too many categories to count.

They have some winning students, Coleman Anderson, Leo Pfeiffer, Sharak Manabe, Megan Tahale, that have been recognized for a national award.

They receive a cash award, validation by renowned mentors, and great opportunities for their future.

Ballard is one of only two schools nationwide to have four winners.

Other school was Los Angeles County School of Arts in the heart of filmmaking country.

I mentioned already that Senator Murray was here and warmly welcomed at Dearborn Park and we also got to see a great presentation by the acrobat team that performed for Senator Murray at the school.

Also in relationship to closing the opportunity gap two of our schools Rainier Beach and Rainier I had the opportunity to present at the National Alliance of Black School Educators.

They are two of our eight outliers that are moving, closing the gap in Seattle more than others that we are trying to steal from, learn good ideas from.

And they were mobbed in this presentation.

So standing room only and lots of people standing in line to talk with them about the good work that they are doing in their schools.

We've received preliminary information with regard to schools of distinction.

We have 11 banners across the wall over here for honorees from a year ago.

We've been notified that this year we have 12 schools that have been named as schools of distinction and OSPI will announce the specific names of each of the schools on Monday.

I think December 7th, whenever that is.

I want to call out one more time Dwayne Chappell has done amazing work along with the staff and the community at Rainier Beach raising graduation rates 25% kind of building that positive growth mindset in students, IB for all.

And he'll be moving on at the end of the month to take over the director of the city's department of education and early learning.

So we'll greatly miss Dwayne on our end but he's not going far and we'll look forward to continuing to partner with him as he moves into that city role.

And it's with mixed emotions that I would recognize Charles Wright.

He has served as deputy here for the last two and a half years and he's announced his resignation and plans to stay in the area and pursue other alternatives.

I want to thank Charles personally, he's been a true gift to me as I have come in new to the district.

He's given me that opportunity to learn the different departments and work with him as we've tried to clarify the work that needs to be done here.

He will leave a long legacy that I won't be able to do justice to but the service-based budgeting process to bring order and coherence and a sense of priority to how we do budgeting for a $750 million budget has been huge.

His focus on continuous quality improvement and improving our systems has been big.

The survey work that we've done with principals around customer service, the surveys that we've done with district office staff, he's been the champion of that work, lifting it up and asking us to do focus groups around that.

And we've now been in that cycle enough times, I think that's the third time through for the principal.

Survey work that is now starting to show that the departments here at the district level are benefiting from that information, meeting with principals and making some adjustments that principals are noticing and recognizing.

Probably one of the toughest and most important pieces has been raising up an office of civil rights, recognizing the issues of Title IX, harassment, intimidation, bullying, and disproportionality and bringing together a staff that we are excited about.

The committee task force has done great work under Charles leadership this last year.

And they will be going out to the school community here soon with several pieces that families and schools can do to support that work.

In addition, Charles has been our lead with partnerships with the preschool program, with the city.

Seattle Housing Authority that has had some national recognition for the partnership between the school district and the Seattle Housing Authority.

About 12% of our students live in housing authority projects.

And I could go on but we will greatly miss Charles and wish him the very best in his future endeavors.

We do not have student comments this evening.

This portion is set aside for when we have a student representative sitting at the dais with the board.

As we do not have one this evening, there is no student to give comment.

The students present for public testimony will have the first spot during the public testimony portion of the agenda.

As this is a new board the previous executive committee requested that no action items be moved to the consent agenda in order to allow the new directors the opportunity to hear the staff presentations and to vote on each item.

I will now call for a motion on the consent agenda.

Before we do the consent agenda vote, we have now reached the action portion of the agenda.

I understand that our director has a request to amend the agenda to remove an item.

I will now turn to Director Geary to make her motion and speak to her request.

I move to amend the agenda to remove action item number two amending board policy number 3246 and repealing board policy number 3247 those that are dealing with the isolation and restraint board policy.

Director Harris seconds the motion.

Thank you.

Do directors have any questions on this request?

I would now call for the roll call on the motion to amend the agenda.

Ms. Foley please call the roll.

Director Blanford.

Aye.

Director Burke.

Aye.

Director Geary.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

Director Peters.

Aye.

Director Pinkham.

Aye.

Director Patu.

Aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Now we are going to go into the consent agenda.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

I second.

Point of inquiry.

Director Harris.

My question is we have a new majority on this board.

And these are items that came from the last board, at least number one, the minutes of these meetings.

So how is it that we deal with that?

I had a similar question when I came onto the board and what I was told, and I see John Cerqui coming forward, so instead I'll let the legal person answer that question.

I will try to John Sirk reacting general counsel.

So for this item at the last school board meeting which if I have my dates correct on the November 18th I do believe Director Burke was present for the entire meeting so he could act as a quorum on that vote.

The board policies that you've adopted kind of modified Robert's rules that there is a quorum because seven of you are here.

If you abstain from voting that does not count as a no vote so then you go to if there is a sufficient number of yes votes so if there is two yes votes and one no then that matter would pass two to one.

Director Harris.

I don't want to put up impotence, I don't want to put up walls here to do our business But it doesn't make sense to me that if we weren't here that we would be approving same.

So I completely agree and understand that how could you vote and approve something that you weren't in attendance at a meeting so I would recommend that you abstain from voting on that.

If there's not a majority of votes to approve the item then we would have unofficial minutes that we would post for that particular board item.

Thank you.

So we are now doing a roll call.

This portion is usually handled by a voice vote so all those in favor and so if you would like to include language all those who abstain and we will do our best to capture the numbers between the three votes.

So all those in favor.

Aye.

All those abstain.

Aye.

That motion would pass.

We pass don't we?

The motion passed by a vote of 4-3.

4-0-3 I apologize.

So the vote passed 4-3.

Now we are actually going to our public testimony.

As we have reached the public testimony portion of the agenda and it is not well it is actually it is after five o'clock so we will start our public speaking.

If a speaker goes over the two minute time and does not immediately conclude their remarks please keep your remark to two minutes and when you're over your two minute please conclude your remark so that way there's other chance for others to come in and speak.

So our first, we're going to call three names.

And please if I destroy your name, please forgive me.

Maddie Kennard and Shadrick Johnson, Roslyn Seal, Chris Jenkins.

Jenkins.

You might go ahead and start.

Hi my name is Maddie Kennard and I'm the all school president at Garfield High School.

To the new board members welcome and to all of you thank you for being here and for representing the students of Seattle.

Today we'd like to remind you that every decision that you make impacts us the students and we want you to know who we are.

Hello my name is Shedra Johnson I am the Garfield Black Student Union President.

Quickly I would like to say I could be taking this time to address the firing of one of our teachers, one of our faculty members in discussing the issues of standardized testing.

What I want to talk about quickly in my quick time is that at Garfield we are trying to unite everyone.

We have 38% white, 28% African American or black.

18% Asian and 8% Hispanic or Latino.

We want to see our kids at our school for equality and we're searching for opportunities such as combining the clubs with ASG, Associated Student Government and Black Student Union coming together to make a change in our own school and to bring together each different races.

Another issue that we have at Garfield is youth homelessness.

We've realized that many of our students are facing this injustice.

And at Garfield alone, there are 115 students without a permanent home.

The mayor has recently declared homelessness in the city of Seattle as a state of emergency.

And our PTSA has begun work on programs here at Garfield to benefit our homeless youth.

So we're calling on you, our school board, to implement more programs in our schools to support these homeless youth.

On paper, you might see 650 students on free or reduced lunch, but we see 650 students who don't know where they're going to eat dinner and if they'll be able to go to the dance or the game or if they'll have enough money to buy materials for their social studies project.

So by recognizing the reality of these statistics, we can move forward and adequately address them.

I know that there are many outside pressures, including parents and teachers, political organizations that influence your decisions.

But I want to remind you that we, the students, are the ones who are directly affected.

Please, when you make decisions, remember our faces.

Remember the students that we represent.

Ask us.

My email is mkonardo at gmail.com.

That's M-K-E-N-N-A-R-D-O.

at gmail.com and we'll write back to you and give the student voice.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Roslyn Shea, ceding my time to Cody Choi.

Hello, my name is Cody Choi.

As we welcome in the new year and you as a new board, let us take the time to address the serious issues that have been going on with Middle College High School and the threat against alternative educational programming as a whole.

Although Seattle Public Schools insists on their desire for restorative justice programming and to close the achievement gap, attacks attempting to destroy the district's one and only successful social justice program have been made.

Last spring the West Seattle high point location was suddenly closed as well as the removal of adequate veteran teachers who taught using an approach in critical pedagogy.

As of more recently last week my humanities teacher was put on administrative leave out of nowhere leaving myself and the other students at IWL school for social justice alone and vulnerable.

We are now expected to follow a privatized technocentric model of education focused on the memorization and regurgitation of facts.

If students like us who were once unsuccessful in standardized school models become critically engaged and productive young scholars, then what are the logistics in placing us back into those oppressive systems that made us feel less than worthy of our own education?

As a returning student who is privileged enough to experience what real engaged pedagogy is, I cannot hold any grievances any longer.

These attempts to divide and conquer the school have hurt us students in more ways than you can fathom.

Our confidence in the school as well as ourselves have been destroyed.

Our sanity and tolerance of life once again questionable and most importantly our educational transcendence has been on hold, crumpled and thrown to the floor like thin fragile paper.

If the district really is insistent on closing the achievement gap, then give me back my teachers, my school, and the hope I had for my educational future.

As of now, you hold the power to bring these crimes to justice, and as students, parents, and teachers, we look to you in hopes that you will be accountable to these issues.

To quote civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.

You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.

You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride.

You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

We are not afraid, and we are not through always.

Thank you.

Next three will be Janice White, Savannah Johnson, Carol Simmons.

My name is Chris Jackins, Box 84063, Seattle 98124. On Board Policy 3246, Use of Reasonable Force, documents state that physical force may be used to protect property.

Previously, the reference was only to district property.

On a field trip to say New Jersey is it legal for the district to use force to protect non-district property?

On board policy 2170 career and technical education previous policies referenced language like encourage all students to participate.

Such language seems to have been dropped.

On alternative learning programs one report states that out of district students are not assessed at their district of residence.

Does this comply with state regulations?

On annual approval of schools please allow more time for public access to these reports.

On certifying unavailability of facilities in contiguous districts.

Detailed supporting documents are not included.

On Olympic Hills contract costs An increase in cost is being justified because of high groundwater but this issue was previously known.

On bell times the board vote on bell times appears to have violated board policy 6890 and state law.

The public notice did not comply with board policy and an appeal which had previously been filed on the adequacy of the environmental impact statement has not been heard by the superintendent.

On district reports, skipping the date of profile report this December would mark the third consecutive year that the district would have failed to provide this report.

Thank you.

Thank you for removing policy 3246 from tonight's agenda.

On the assumption that you will be considering another version of it at a future meeting, however, I decided to go ahead and testify.

Last session, the state legislature passed SHB 1240, which includes the following statement.

The legislature declares that it is the policy of the state of Washington to prohibit the planned use of aversive interventions, to promote positive interventions when a student with disabilities is determined to need specially designed instruction to address behavior, and to prohibit schools from physically restraining or isolating any student except when the student's behavior poses an imminent likelihood of serious harm to that student or another person.

There was a significant need for this legislation.

Students with disabilities around the state, including in Seattle, have been harmed by isolation and restraint.

My son...

who has autism and is also an advanced learner, refused to attend 20 weeks of school in third and fourth grades after he was physically restrained at school.

One of his classmates last year was restrained 13 times in six weeks and started running away from school to avoid being restrained.

He ran away 14 times and was lost by the school four times.

And imagine being called to school as a parent to find your nine-year-old child face down on the floor, handcuffed with his arms behind his back and three police officers standing over him.

Yes, this happened last year in a Seattle public school.

When policy 3246 comes before you again in the future, I think the policy statement we need would declare that we are going to change the culture in our schools and instead of using physical restraint and isolation, instead of calling 911, the school board will direct the district to use evidence-based systems that focus on positive behavioral interventions and support.

Thank you.

I'm Savannah Jamerson and I'd like to cede my time to Oscar Oberlin.

Hey so I'd like to speak again on Ida B. Wells and High Point Middle College.

I just want to reiterate that what's been done has kind of thrown everybody at the school out of whack and just by abruptly removing teachers it affects everybody's lives.

Secondly, what it does is it reinvents education.

Something that has been built up from 15 to 20 years of hard work has been now replaced by standardized text.

This is not something that the school has stood for and it officially makes it not that school anymore.

So you've taken things like the readings from Frederick Douglass, Frederick Engels, Howard Zinn, books that are given to people, and now you say you can't have that anymore.

Right?

You can't learn that anymore.

Now you have to have a textbook.

That's not what this school was founded on.

And what we were asking for is for you to tell us first why our teachers have been removed, and then have a proposal.

Bring it up here.

and vote on it to bring back our teachers.

It's really not more complicated than that.

Am I mistaken?

So we want to know when that's going to happen.

And we also are planning to attend on December 14th to demand that.

But we just really need to know why.

Why?

What have they done?

What have they done to harm you?

Again, I must reiterate, you're destroying social justice education.

You're replacing it with standardized text.

It's not acceptable.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Carol Simmons, Mary Griffin, Eliza Rankin, and Catherine A. George.

Greetings.

Please review the promises made to restore Indian Heritage High School.

It is not enough to preserve murals or name a building after a native leader or attempt to assimilate native students in existing schools.

Members of the Native community have rallied, testified, demonstrated, and met with school board members, principals, superintendents, and staff for years.

Indian Heritage School has not been revitalized.

Promises remain broken.

Also, restore Middle College at High Point and keep Ida Weld School on the University of Washington campus.

The University of Washington wants it to remain there and says it is a Seattle School District decision.

Before Thanksgiving, without warning, students lost two highly respected teachers from that school.

As an administrator, I evaluated one of those teachers.

She was one of the finest teachers I have ever supervised.

I have some experience in this field having been a teacher, counselor, and administrator in Seattle Public Schools for over 30 years and a professor at several universities teaching teachers.

I hold a doctorate in education and a superintendent's credential and I'm older than Methuselah.

Alternative education has always suffered by the district closing programs including Middle College, Second Mile, African American Academy, Indian Heritage, John Marshall Alternative School and others.

As you know, these programs provide effective learning experiences for many students.

So please restore Middle College and Indian Heritage School and honor the promises made so that many more students will successfully graduate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Mary Griffin.

I am the parent of a student who experiences disabilities.

I really want to thank you for listening to the parents about removing 3246 from the agenda.

Five long years and four special education directors and three school superintendents ago, I came before this board to tell you about my newly adopted son, who had been subjected to the repeated use of prone restraint by his inadequately trained special education teacher and staff.

You don't have a personal relationship with my son, but you all have personal relationships with your own children.

I want you to close your eyes and imagine your child coming home from school and telling you that because of how the teacher was laying on top of him repeatedly every day that he couldn't breathe and he was afraid he was going to die.

It is premature to have put this policy in front of the board for six reasons.

First, rulemaking of House Substitute Bill 1240 has not completed.

Two, the new policy is not a significant improvement over the old one.

Three, the new policy uses different language than the new law.

That's confusing.

Four, the superintendent's procedure that it refers to twice has not been put in front of the board.

Five, appropriate vetting with the Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council has not occurred.

Six, lastly, the new policy does not reflect the spirit of the new law, which was to emphasize prevention, prohibit aversive interventions, and to apply to all students.

For these reasons and more, I am grateful that you took that off the agenda.

Additionally, in reference to renumbering of 3247 to 3246B, this is totally inappropriate as it legitimizes interventions that are now illegal.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good evening.

To the new board members welcome and congratulations and to all of you thank you.

Your positions are unpaid which I hope they told you.

And the time commitment and pressure that come with the job are significant and yet here you all are.

Thank you for your willingness to take this on and for your dedication to the education of the children of Seattle.

Soup for Teachers shares your commitment to public education.

Our grassroots organization is over 3,000 members strong and growing every day.

We encourage you to look to our community as a partner to enhance, analyze, and critique district data, to give voice to issues that may be under the radar, and to amplify concerns that are often stifled or ignored by the bureaucratic process as it now exists.

We are acutely aware of the tensions and mutual distrust that has existed between parents and community members, the board, and the administration.

Our hope is this newly formed board will move forward with us in the spirit of mutual respect and collaboration to end the culture of disunity and make real progress towards true community engagement and positive results.

Right out of the gates we have a great opportunity.

Alternative learning experiences are on the agenda today but there's no mention of Middle College High School.

Families were informed right before Thanksgiving that staff members at Middle College High School at Ida B. Wells at University of Washington have been placed on paid administrative leave with no further information.

Middle College High Point closed last spring with no communication from the district to the school community and now it appears they're trying to shut down Ida B. Wells also.

You'll be told that the district can do this without your approval because they're just closing sites not the whole school and that Middle College isn't closing.

But the sites at Northgate and Seattle University don't follow the model of social justice education that is the Middle College legacy.

Instead they employ computer based instruction with lowered standards and academic expectations.

For all intents and purposes the Middle College high school for social justice and community engagement is being destroyed.

Please work with the community that loves and needs this school to save this unique vital school from being pushed aside in favor of standardization.

Thank you.

I'm Kathy George I'm an attorney in Seattle and I'm speaking tonight as one of the many children's advocates who worked to get House Bill 1240 enacted into law and I want to congratulate Director Geary for the best first motion ever.

Thank you.

The proposal regarding implementation of House Bill 1240 does need work.

House Bill 1240 requires each school district to adopt policies providing for the least amount of restraint and isolation appropriate to protect safety in emergencies and the proposal as of today would not accomplish that mandate.

It would leave in place a superintendent procedure that still authorizes aversive intervention plans and those have been outlawed by House Bill 1240. Also the proposal as of today provided for the minimum amount of actions, such actions meaning restraint and isolation, but it should also address the minimum amount of force used within each incident of restraint and isolation.

Also, the proposal refers vaguely to restraint or other uses of physical force without limiting what kinds of force are permissible.

It should clearly prohibit extreme tactics such as prone restraint, use of tasers, use of handcuffs.

The proposal is also inconsistent with House Bill 1240 in that it actually loosens some of the restrictions you have in place now.

For example, your existing policy requires the staff to try to de-escalate a student's behavior before using restraint for any reason, whereas the proposal would require de-escalation only for property damage.

Thank you.

Good evening my name is Paul Hubert I'm a father of a first grade student in Spanish at Dearborn Park International School.

It was a great opportunity last year to enter Dearborn Park in kindergarten at the formation of the dual language immersion program.

First grade began this fall with no Spanish teacher.

To keep the immersion program going the instructional assistant who is fluent in Spanish took the lead in the class with various substitute teachers in the room to provide the presence of a certified teacher.

However, none of the substitutes have been proficient in Spanish so the IA has been in charge the entire time.

This has left the 50 plus students lacking both academic progress and a smoothly managed classroom for nearly three months.

The situation has resulted in our children not even having parent teacher conferences this fall.

I fear that many students will have difficulty catching up academically while others may develop discipline issues from lacking consistent clear leadership.

A native Spanish speaking teacher has been volunteering in the class for several weeks in the hope of being hired.

Our principal has been working with the district administrators to get him a conditional certification.

I ask you to expedite this process so our children have stability in the class.

Please help resolve this issue so we do not have a lost year.

Dearborn Park's two language tracks, Spanish and Mandarin will have the same challenge of finding qualified faculty every year as the immersion program moves up from one grade to the next.

It is clear from our experience this year and throughout the dual language schools in the district that hiring is a consistent problem.

Language immersion programs are very popular here and throughout the country and we need to stay aggressive in bringing in the faculty needed to make this program a success.

This means recruiting and hiring throughout the year.

I urge the board to lead by giving all necessary resources and direction to recruit and hire qualified teachers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome the newly elected directors and thank all the directors for their service to the school district.

My name is Jennifer Monaghan-DeMella and I'm a parent of two children at McDonald international school and I wish to speak to some of the wonderful opportunities that the international program has to offer.

Did you know that international elementary schools typically have some of the highest wait lists in the district?

Did you know that SPS has more than 132 different languages spoken at schools?

Did you know that the international schools in Seattle are based on a simple premise that everyone is a language learner and this variety of languages and culture just further enriches the experience?

Did you know that studies have shown that dual language learners have higher test scores than their monolistic peers?

Did you know that studies have shown that ELL students learn better in a dual language program?

Did you know that English language speakers who are learning foreign language learn better in a dual language program?

Did you know that a global focused education helps reduce incidents of bullying in our schools by showing that our children that that which is different is not another but an opportunity to learn and be curious?

Did you know that international schools are great opportunities to close the opportunity gap as well as truly prepare students for a global economy.

But to do all of this these schools need to be accessible to all which means there needs to be more than just the five elementary, three middle school and two high schools which have been designated.

It also means that we need teachers.

We at McDonald went through the school last year with minus four language teachers.

Now we are starting again this year at Dearborn Park.

These are brilliant programs.

These are wonderful programs that prepare students.

And we need to be very very proactive.

We need to start hiring far sooner.

And I invite you to come to these schools.

Experience what is happening here.

It is a great opportunity for everyone, students, teachers alike.

But please support the hiring.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Laura Kramer.

Vicki Pinkham.

Enel Polinovich.

Thank you.

Okay.

Can you hear me now?

Hi, I think all of you know that my name is Laura Gramer.

I'm a parent of two boys.

One under this chair is over there.

And right now, my oldest son right now, he's in the preschool, which is the ASL English bilingual program.

I have to say, I want to thank the last two parents because they, I do kind of, I said a lot of things they have said I wanted to say tonight, but at least it gives me an opportunity to talk about other things.

I just want to welcome all the new board people and I hope that we can do push for change because we definitely do need it.

And I will be visiting all of your district meetings when I can.

I also want to ask again, what I try to ask is to keep the board, to keep pushing Seattle Public Schools to make sure we have communication and transparency.

I do have some concerns about that.

Hold on bud.

No, later.

No.

He wants to show you his car.

Thank you.

One I want to know why was it so hard for Seattle Public Schools to give the program evaluation report that was done last spring.

I know there was me and several other parents we kept asking for it then we finally got it like on a Friday before we had a meeting which was going to happen like four days later.

What was kind of like perplexing was a few hours after they released the report they are canceled the meeting.

That was conspicuous to me.

And the second thing is when I wanted to visit the school, because Brett will probably be going to kindergarten next year, I was disencouraged from going to that school.

So I think there's a lot of transparency and communication that are not happening right now.

The other thing that's about TAP, they have a lot of work that they need to do.

They moved classrooms.

The room that they're in is like a cave.

There are no windows.

So I don't know why they moved students with disabilities into a cave.

Why are you putting the kids with disabilities in a place where they can't be seen?

The other thing I have to, there's a lot of other stuff.

I'm also concerned that students are not getting free.

Please conclude your remarks.

Okay.

Students are not getting free and opposed to public education and you need to address that.

Also, I have to say, I do not want to stand right there if the program be like this right now.

I also invite all of you to come to the December 15th meeting so you can talk to the parents and see what we're dealing with.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Vicki Pinkham.

Yesterday I witnessed four board members take an oath of office.

Each one of you agreed to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the state of Washington.

With that said the previous board voted to violate board policy 6890 and the state law.

for the late bell implementation that's going to take place next year 2016-2017.

I would like to encourage this board to abide by the constitution that they agreed to uphold.

The late bell is scheduled for 2016 for some schools not all.

This will affect numerous low income families as they will need to seek before and after school childcare.

It will affect after school sports and having many students walking home in the dark.

My husband and I have two daughters and we both work not because we want to but because we have to.

Our daughter walks 2.4 miles.

and putting her in the dark after four o'clock by herself is unconstitutional.

We love our daughters and I am asking you to reconsider the late bell implementation for 2016 because it is unconstitutional and we are prepared to file the necessary fees to sue the board for the unconstitutionally voted prematurely.

And I hope that the new board, my husband included, will take into consideration that they promised to uphold the constitution.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Christie Shapcott, Melissa Westbrook and David Sandler.

The UW Middle College was such a hopeful school.

Now it is depressing to even walk into because every single one of our staff members, all three of them were removed.

Mr. Agour, Ms. Thompson and Phillip P. Page The three people who made the school amazing are now gone.

Two of them were removed last week and one at the beginning of the year.

It feels incredibly sad that the school I knew and loved is gone.

So many students wouldn't have gone to college and future opportunities without these three incredible people.

Using one specific person for example, Elliot Liedergelen, said that he wouldn't have gone on to college if it wasn't for Mr. Agor.

There are so many other cases like this in our school.

So please bring Mr. Agoura, Ms. Thompson, and Phillip E. Page back or so many people will never go on to a life to do greater things.

If we aren't helped, our school will fall apart and so many students, including myself, will be forgotten and abandoned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Christy Schapka and my daughter Nyree is a first grader at Dearborn Park International School in Southeast Seattle.

This past year for her sixth birthday in lieu of presents for my daughter we asked families to purchase a book to be donated to the school's library.

Nyree was not exactly thrilled with this proposition but with time she warmed up to the idea.

In the end she was so pleased to take a photo with her librarian and the dozen or so books that were donated in her honor.

Her seventh birthday is not until May, but she is already telling me about the Spanish language early reader book she would like to have donated to her library.

Nearly every night for the last month, she has wanted to read me a beginning level book in Spanish.

She loves showing off how she can roll her R's.

Her excitement of learning to read in two languages is a fun process to witness.

SPS's motto is every student, every classroom, every day.

I wish that motto could come visit the chaos that is a first grade Spanish classroom at Dearborn Park right now.

Over three months into the school year, we are still lacking a certificated teacher for the class.

As my friend Paul said, Felipe has been volunteering in the classroom for the past month while we've been trying to get him the emergency credentials he needs to become a teacher.

Felipe is a trained secondary school teacher in Spain, so although he's not an exact match, he is the closest thing we've had to a qualified candidate.

With the rise of popularity in dual language programs in schools across the country, there's a need to be much more proactive and to attend dual language job fairs and conferences and aggressively recruit these individuals, or the quality of our dual language immersion programs is going to falter and ultimately fail.

We have a staff member at Dearborn Park with personal ties to Puerto Rico who would like to be able to travel to recruit elementary teachers from this area however she has been told there is no funding for this type of recruitment even if she is willing to do it on her own outside of the scope of her responsibilities.

Dearborn Park is a high need school with 90% free and reduced lunch and 95% nonwhite white population.

How is the school district meeting that stated top priority of equity by dropping this program so undefended on our school?

How are we going to keep our children on track?

Don't our kids deserve better than that?

The SB motto seems to indicate so.

Thank you.

Melissa Westbrook.

David Sandler.

My name is David Sandler in solidarity with middle college high school.

I cede my time to Eske.

Hello, I'm Ezgi, and as of September 2015, I've been attending Ida B. Wells Middle College.

When I first walked into Ida B. Wells, I fell in love with it, the engaged pedagogy.

I learned so many things, and I actually felt like I was applying myself.

And I've never felt that way about school before.

And recently, two of my teachers have been taken away from me.

Two of the most amazing people I have had the opportunity to meet It just doesn't make sense to me, and I'd really like to have that education.

I want to be able to thrive, and I've never felt so alive in a school system before.

And not only me, but so many different people, so many students feel this way.

We are the people.

We are the community.

I don't understand why our voices haven't been heard yet.

But we'll be back.

We'll bring more people.

This is not over.

We just want our teachers back.

We want school.

We want to learn.

We want to thrive.

We want to succeed.

We want education.

I know that a lot of people feel this way.

You can hear it in my voice.

I just want to learn.

I want to succeed.

I've had a hard time in high school.

The system, the normal high schools, just doesn't work for me.

And it doesn't work for a lot of people.

I can't think in a box.

You know, I shouldn't be forced to sit on a computer and learn that way.

That doesn't excite me.

That doesn't drive.

It just doesn't work for me.

It doesn't work.

We just want to know why.

We want our teachers back.

That's all we want.

Please and thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Laverne Smitheason, and I was asked to speak by my daughter who attends Middle College, of course.

I'm also an alternative school alumni of sorts.

I went to Summit K-12, and Summit suffered the same thing that Ida B. Wells did.

The Seattle Public School District decided to destroy the school.

They removed teachers.

And they caused an extreme amount of pain to a lot of people.

My education was definitely impacted.

And when I left the school and went to another, I went to South Whidbey High School after that, I dropped out rather than continuing on.

And this is what's going to happen with most of these kids.

They're going to leave because the education that they get at these other schools isn't going to be good.

It's not going to be an education.

And it's, I have been angry at the Seattle Public Schools for 27 years because of this.

Really angry.

And I hope that these kids are angry and I hope their parents are and I hope that you people realize that it's your choice whether you throw these kids away or not.

Thank you.

Nick Anthony.

Hello, my name is Nick, and I'm a Ida B. Wells alumni.

And I have to say, if it wasn't for Ida B. Wells, I'm pretty confident I would be a high school dropout, like a lot of my other past students.

High school did not work in a public, in a normal way.

Wow.

So teachers like Mr. Rigor and Ms. Thompson and Phillip have been taken away.

These are amazing people that are teaching truth to the people and not creating students that are just ready to be in the workforce and only know enough to not question the system that we are put into.

Oh, so I graduated when I was 20. So I was a super, super senior.

And yeah, I wouldn't be a graduate and trying to actually elevate myself and put myself into a higher place.

I wasn't sure where I was going to be three years ago.

and now I have a higher hope for the future and a lot of my students that I've gotten to really know can say the same thing and it's a great feeling and it shouldn't be taken away.

Just for some standardization of I think there should be some diversity in education and truth being taught to the youth.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I'd like to see Melissa Westbrook as an audience.

Do we have time for one more?

We have one.

You can go, this is the last spot so you can go right.

This is the last spot.

I want to congratulate all the new incoming board members.

I wasn't here to see the people being sworn in yesterday and I want to congratulate you guys for getting into those positions but I have to talk about my school, Ida B. Wells.

I'm an alumni, just graduated last year.

And I spoke to the school board and I actually got to sit with most of you guys last year and I got to experience what it's like for people to come up and express their emotions and their passion for their schools and stuff and I want to come up and I want to say one thing is that If it wasn't for Mr. Gore and Ms. Thompson I wouldn't be here.

I wouldn't be up here standing here and protesting to you guys because I wouldn't have, they gave me that drive, they gave me that passion to come up and fight for social justice, fight for what's right.

And I want to repeat something that I said last year that I think you guys should know and especially for the new incoming board members is that I am here to challenge you tonight in making very important decisions that can affect students like me.

I once sat among the school board like I said and I am very familiar with some of you but now that I know that whatever it is that you are doing I don't know what it is, I don't know what your motives are but whatever it is you are destroying the very foundation that has brought so many students to be successful and to come up here and talk like I am.

and these are scholarly and passionate teachers and now they're gone.

It's all of a sudden and I don't know why it is.

I wish I did.

I wish I did know why but so far it's all up in the air.

And there's a quote that I want to say is that Education is an act of love and thus an act of courage and it cannot fear the analysis of reality or under the pain of revealing itself as schools as a farce.

Please conclude your remark.

Seattle Public Schools has a chance to be part of that creative discussion.

He's like and right now you're giving lip service and you've always have for the past couple of years and right now with what I want to say.

Please conclude your remark.

When you take away my teachers, the teachers that brought me here to be able to say these things, no one else will be able to do what I do and learn what I've learned.

Thank you.

of our speakers now we're going to go into the board comments but before we go into the board comments I would like to say that the board of 2014-2015 self-evaluation literature is posted to the agenda for today's meeting per the version approved at the November 19 executive committee of the whole meeting.

So now who would be the first?

This is our board comments.

Don't all go at once.

Director Burke.

Hi there.

First I want to mention we are continuing the legacy of many previous boards.

We are over schedule, over time and running late so I am going to try to be brief.

Long meetings is the norm.

consistent.

So having testified before the board in the past I want to share to all the people who gave public testimony how powerful it is.

It's different.

Being up here and hearing your story versus being in the audience and hearing your story.

And I just I want to say I'm grateful that you're willing to share.

I really appreciate the tone that was set by the pathfinder choir at the beginning of the meeting.

It helps take the edge off the nerves for a director's first meeting.

Thank you for that.

I really appreciated the message of unity and action from Ms. Kennard and Mr. Johnson of Garfield high school.

I think that also set a nice frame for a lot of the work that we have to do.

And the students willing to take that action to take it upon themselves to make the world a better place really helps remind us what we're doing here and why we're doing it.

I also want to say thanks so much to the students of Middle College.

I hope that as we move forward we can really find a common vision which embraces individuality and academics and supports the ongoing success of Middle College.

So some of the administrative stuff, I haven't set up community meetings yet but I do plan to have something in place for January and once I have a place figured out I'll have that up on the district website.

I will ask the community to bear with us as we ask a lot of questions and figure out how to do this and get on boarded to the public, to the staff.

It's going to be a little question rich for a while as we get up to speed.

And I'm thrilled at the chance to work with my new board colleagues.

Some of whom I got to know better on the campaign trail and some of whom I've known before.

This is going to be a lot of fun and we're going to do the right thing for the students of Seattle.

Director Harris.

Leslie Harris District 6 West Seattle and South Park.

I recognize many friendly faces.

I am delighted and honored to be here and for those of y'all that helped me get here thank you ever so much.

Those of y'all that weren't thrilled about the idea I hope you learn to love me.

The middle college high school program is particularly near and dear to my heart.

I am convinced that that program then at South Seattle College saved my foster, my niece's life.

I can count another five young people who are now thriving.

who went through that program and I was honored to attend the graduation ceremonies for several years in a row.

I was honored to work with my predecessor director McLaren when middle college high school was evicted from South Seattle College because this school district's then general counsel chose not to respond to requests to negotiate rent.

So we fixed that and we went to high point.

We still don't know what happened.

I'm tenacious.

I ferret out facts for a living.

I get rid of barriers for a living.

I believe in early mediation.

I believe in a great deal of communication and transparency.

I've been promised that by the senior staff here now that I have been sworn in.

I do find it highly, highly ironic At the same time we are pushing initiatives to close the achievement gap.

To address African-American males as a priority.

To address restorative justice as a priority.

to work with other jurisdictions like cities and counties and colleges.

If you will recall many of you were in the audience out in southeast Seattle last summer when there were well over 300 people asking questions and giving their testimony and there were darn few Seattle Public Schools folks there.

If we are going to build bridges we need to listen to our other jurisdictions as well.

When you have city council members and county council members standing up with you it's worth listening.

I want to know where is the community input other than you brave souls continuing to come back again and again and again to tell your truths that you are not throwaway kids.

I thought that the change of curriculum belonged to the board of directors.

I find it ironic that we just went through a curriculum adoption process for history and it appears and again without transparency it's hard to know It appears that our curriculum at middle college, high school, social justice, etc. is being changed substantially.

Know that I am committed.

Know that I am committable on this topic to be continued.

Additionally, the irony is that we are going to approve alternative learning experiences tonight.

Interagency is part of that.

Another alternative program.

Why is Middle College not an ALE as well?

So we are way full of questions.

My hope is that we can talk about things like early mediation, people can waive their privacy rights, work with the representatives of the Seattle Education Association and we can get to a place that we are all good with.

and I feel very strongly that after the last six months of learning and working with the folks up here that we will not give up and I also believe that there are very good administrators in the room and they have promised answers and we're going to work with them and it's going to happen.

What's going to happen I don't know but you'll at least get some answers.

I hope to have my first community meeting in the afternoon of December 19 and I'm going to try and have my meetings in West Seattle at one of the libraries and have them later in the day so when people want to speak to more than one board member they can ride circuit.

Pathfinder alternative K-8, another program Dear and near to my heart, my daughter went there and I still feel a part of that community and their choir.

Be still my heart, I remember those guys as kindergartners and it just feels so good to watch them grow up and be terrific citizens.

More to follow but this is exciting.

And I can't thank you all enough for being here to help us lift the boat for all our kids.

I too kind of want to echo middle college, thank you for being here and sharing your voice.

Indian heritage is actually a school too that is near and dear to me that I would like to see come back as well so where we go from here as a board with Seven people up here, four of us are new.

I think we're going to, like you, do what we can to make the changes so our community voices are heard.

I want to thank Gail Morris for her presentation because again native education is very again dear to me as well.

My two daughters in the schools here.

Carol Simons, thank you for your support.

Glad you're here to provide input and for our offices and cabinets will be working here.

I do want to give you a heads up that I did have some questions that I didn't have a chance to get to you about some of the action items that we will be reviewing this meeting.

And thank you for pronouncing Vicki Pinkham's name correctly.

I do want to thank all of the people that testified today.

As always it's valuable to have the input of the community informing our decisions.

And particularly to Gabe who gave a passion, impassioned testimony around Native American education.

I especially appreciated that.

I wanted to thank the Pathfire Pathfinder choir who provided an excellent start to the meeting and particularly their harmonies and the fact that they used the word syncopation in the song that they were singing about syncopation was pretty inspiring I think.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the annual LGBTQ family dinner.

that was held at the World School and I've had the opportunity to attend that for the last couple of years and I wanted to single out the aptly named Lisa Love who puts that together every year and encourage my colleagues on the board to attend it.

It's a fabulous dinner and a great opportunity to show support to our families, particularly our families that have students that are struggling or dealing with those issues.

I won't go too much further.

I have a community meeting that will be scheduled sometime in January.

We had a cross wires for December and so I won't have a meeting in December but we'll start up again in January and we'll share that, the particulars of that with the staff so that that can be publicized appropriately.

And finally both to my two colleagues who somehow we now are the veterans which after two years I can hardly believe that we're veterans.

Director Patu has been here a lot longer but Director Peters and I have gone from newbies to veterans in pretty short order.

It seems like a strange thing but particularly to the four new directors, directors Gary, Harris, Burke and Pinkham congratulations on your electoral victories.

The work just begins I would love to the extent that I'm possible to that it is possible to be a colleague and a supporter and a mentor in any way that I can and I look forward to working with all four of you.

So thank you.

Director Peters.

Okay well I also want to give a shout out to the student from Nathan Hale who gave a speech earlier today.

He was very rich and inspiring.

He was a very accomplished and eloquent fellow.

And you know it's always very powerful when students come and speak to us because there's something very authentic about what you bring to us and I really appreciate that.

As mentioned earlier we were serenaded by the Pathfinder K8 choir and they did a wonderful job as well.

My next community meeting will likely be December 12 but I just need to verify that at my previous meeting.

The issue of interest for people there was the bell times initiative and the possibility of some flexibility for some of the schools that are in the later tier.

who would like to be in an earlier tier and the other way around and so there is flexibility worked into our standards to do that and so I encourage schools that are interested in doing that to, I think the next step is to talk to their principals and also they can contact the board about what the process is.

And let's see.

To the students from Garfield who came and spoke to us about the homeless population in your school, thank you for that reminder especially in this time of year when we think about how we can help others.

I would like to know what we do have as supports for our homeless students and if there is more that we can and should be doing.

So that is a question I will direct to staff.

I see staff nodding and so I would love to hear more about what we can do.

And if there is anything that you need from the board in order to implement something.

Let's see.

To the middle college students.

You know you spoke some very eloquent words tonight, we are not afraid, we are not throwaways, and that's absolutely right.

And so many people have come to the board in the last six months I think it is now, telling us what wonderful school Middle College is and truly what a life-saving school it is.

And so I'm very troubled by what's happening to be quite honest and I'm worried about what I see unfortunately as a trend in our district where we do not seem to find a way to support our alternative education locations whether they are schools or programs.

This is not something that the board had a direct hand in to be honest.

It is something that is done at an administrative level and a staff level and it comes to us as it comes to you.

And I'm very perplexed by this.

If there are some rules that need to be followed, some some forms that need to be filled out, some qualifications that need to be met, then let's do it.

Let's do whatever we can because clearly these are valuable places for our students, students who otherwise would not be able to manage in our standard high schools.

Another topic that you all brought forth tonight is the whole concern about standardization.

I share your concerns.

There has been a national trend towards standardization and an effort towards accountability and that only goes so far and at a certain point it totally quashes the creativity and individuality of our students.

And those are not, if we do that to our students they will not be ready for the future.

They will not be ready for college and career.

They will be able to check out boxes and do well perhaps on standardized tests.

But that is not a life skill.

So along with Director Harris you have my support in an effort to find out what we can do to restore your school and make it strong again.

On the issue that was brought up by Chris Jackins about the data profile summary I understand that is something that we used to provide as a district and I would be interested in knowing what it would take to provide that again.

I don't know if that comes out of teaching and learning or whether that is something that comes out of a different department but if staff could report back to us on what it would take to have that valuable information provided to the board again especially as we are talking about such important issues as you know disproportionality and equity this is very important data for us to have.

So I think that is all I have for you tonight.

Oh finally I would like to warmly welcome our four new colleagues.

I actually welcomed you before a couple of times and I look forward to working with a very energized new board.

Thank you.

Director Geary.

Well hello and I am very much honored to be one of your new school board directors.

This is a very new experience for me and summarizing this, everybody has done it so eloquently and I don't want to repeat again what I've noticed in listening to the beautiful music provided to us by Pathfinder and listening to the students of Middle College and Garfield and hearing about the Native American program I see the common thread of all of these things as we recognize is providing an educational environment that teaches something beyond a standardized education forum where you are being taught to the test where we are looking at providing immersion in language, in social justice, in Native American and that is something the history and time immemorial I still look forward to participating and listening to that curriculum and I look forward to that being shared with all of our students so that they can have their mind brought into the point of looking at the world through a different lens.

And that is what I know that you students from middle college have so appreciated about your education.

That finally it was presented to you through a lens that made things seem exciting and possible.

And so whether it be the arts or social justice or Native American curriculum or language immersion, Those are things I will continue to champion.

I will continue to champion for all of our students a place where they feel safe and where they want to learn day in and day out.

And I'm very proud to have brought my motion earlier to table the isolation and restraint because While that was presented as a form board policy I do believe that Seattle Public Schools can do something better than just adopt that which is handed to us as a form, as a template.

Because we need to think about our social emotional learning and our social justice and our special education and closing the pipeline to prison when we talk about A policy that's dealing with the discipline of our children.

Because there are reasons that kids feel pushed out of our schools.

And there is a fury that embodies in their soul that causes them to act out.

And we shouldn't be restraining and isolating them.

We should be asking them where does that come from?

And what can we do to make you feel welcome and safe in your schools?

So I will continue to do that.

And I wanted to give a particular shout out as well to the student from Garfield who talked about their active efforts to break down the social barriers that have been institutionalized in their school in part by our hands by labeling and segregating our students.

And then they accept those labels as their identity and they create their own structures around themselves.

And they go on and perpetuate the isolation that has been set up through our labeling.

And so to Garfield, kudos to you for breaking that down and looking for ways to unify your government.

I could not be prouder of our students.

So again, I'm honored.

Thank you for having me here.

And in terms of the logistics, I too am going to try for a 12-19 meeting, so keep your eye out for that.

Hopefully find a place for that in the morning.

I have some greater flexibility because of my schedule, daily schedule, and so if people need to meet with me individually as well as I can during the school day, please contact me and we'll see what we can do.

to meet and talk about your issues.

Thank you.

I would like to say thank you to the Pathfinder K-8 Choir for an amazing performance.

And also want to thank you to everyone who came tonight to speak on behalf of their passion.

Most of all, I would like to thank all the Middle College students who spoke with a lot of passion.

I feel you.

I know how that is like because I've worked in those areas for 30 years.

And no, you're not throwaways.

There's a lot.

A lot more that's ahead of you.

So thank you for sharing that with us.

I also want to thank you to Gabe and Gail for the wonderful report for the Native Americans.

His report, just really sharing your heartfelt history with us.

I think that was amazing.

We need to hear more of our students sharing their culture and what it takes to bring us all together.

Today is a very exciting day for Seattle Public Schools.

Why?

Because we have four new board directors who will take a journey with us into the world of educating 53,000 students.

In this world you will need to have strength, courage, truth and most of all faith and compassion.

It is these two's that will help you on your journey.

As a board director for six years, it was always my goal to find ways to make changes in areas that was critical in bringing success for all our students.

Many of us so often talk about changes and not realizing that change is easier said than done.

Because to make changes, we have to change the way we look at things.

Believing that a few caring people can change the world.

Progress is impossible without change.

If we can no longer able to change the situation we are challenged to change ourselves.

Must be the change you wish to see.

I am so looking forward to this new board because there is so much work to do.

Having the opportunity to make changes will be easy as long as you have a team that believes in success for all 53,000 students and the faith to do the impossible.

It is going to take all of us to bring about this change.

So welcome new board directors for your test is now at hand.

Every school, every class, every day.

Thank you.

We're going to take a break.

You have to do the vote first.

Okay.

All right.

Director Pinkham.

Yeah I too before I forget just want to put on the record that my first community meeting I'm still going to arrange will be in January for district one.

Okay we're now going to go to the next phase of our agenda.

We will now move to the action portion of the agenda.

The first item is the election of officers.

As the secretary of the board who presides over the election process I will now turn the gavel over to Superintendent Nyland.

Thank you.

Before I open the floor for nominations I will review the election steps.

Thank you.

My one two minute opportunity.

For each of the officer positions, president, vice president, and member at large, I will take nominations from the board.

A second is not required for the nomination but can be made.

After all of the nominations are made for a given position the board will vote for each position and the voting is done in order of the nominations.

The voting will conclude at the point when one nomination gets four or more votes.

After the president has been elected we will move on to the election for the vice president and then the member at large.

At the conclusion of the election process each new officer will have an opportunity to provide their remarks and then as we were just discussing after we have concluded the election process we will take a break partly because we need one and partly to make the transition for those who are elected to the officer roles for president and vice president.

So with that I would say that nominations are now in order for the office of president.

Are there nominations for president?

Director Peters.

I would like to nominate Betty Patu for president.

Betty Patu has been nominated for president.

Are there any other.

I second that nomination.

Thank you.

Are there any other nominations for president?

Are there any other nominations for president?

Hearing none I would ask that we take a roll call vote.

Might I ask for acclamation?

All those in favor of electing Betty Patu as President of the Board of Directors say aye.

Superintendent Nyland will do a roll call for the election please.

Ms. Feldy would be happy to do that for us.

Director Blanford.

Aye.

Director Burke.

Aye.

Director Geary.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

Director Peters.

Aye.

Director Pinkham.

Aye.

Director Patu.

Aye.

Director Patu has been elected by President of a vote of 7-0.

Congratulations.

Are there nominations for Vice President for the Board?

Director Harris.

I nominate Sue Peters vice president.

I second.

Are there any other nominations for vice president?

Are there any other nominations for vice president?

Hearing none we will ask for a roll call vote.

election of Director Peters as vice president of the board.

Director Pinkham.

Aye.

Director Blanford.

Aye.

Director Burke.

Aye.

Director Geary.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

Director Patu.

Aye.

Director Peters.

Aye.

Director Peters has been elected vice president by a vote of 7-0.

Nominations are now in order for the office of member at large who serves with the president and the vice president on the executive committee.

Are there nominations for member at large?

Director Burke.

I would like to nominate Leslie Harris for member at large.

Leslie Harris has been nominated for director at large.

I second the nomination.

And seconded.

Are there any other nominations for director at large?

Not to step on your toes Leslie but I do want to do a self nomination.

Director Pinkham has nominated himself for that role.

Are there any other nominations for member at large?

Hearing none.

We'll take the roll call vote first on the motion to elect Director Harris as member at large.

Can we do the roll call vote please?

Director Patu.

Aye.

Director Peters.

Aye.

Director Pinkham.

Nay.

Director Blanford.

Nay.

Director Burke.

Aye.

Director Geary.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

So Director Harris has been elected member at large by a vote of 5-2.

Thank you.

We are now going to take a 10 minute break.

Oh what is it?