Seattle School Board Meeting - Feb 9, 2022

This is President Hersey.

I am now calling the February 9th, 2022 regular board meeting to order at 4.15 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones, the roll call, please.

Vice President Hampson.

Here.

Director Harris.

Present.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

Director Sarju.

Present.

Director Song-Moritz.

Present.

And President Hersey.

Here.

Okay.

This meeting is being held remotely consistent with the governor's proclamation on open public meetings.

that publicly is being provided remote access today through SPS-TV by broadcast and streaming on YouTube and by phone consistent with the Governor's proclamation on open public meetings.

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

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

We can't hear you, Brent, or at least I can't.

All right, we will keep going and we'll double back to Superintendent Jones in just a moment.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda?

This is Director Hampson.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Do we have a second?

This is Michelle talking.

Can you hear me?

No worries.

No worries.

Okay.

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

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

I do.

Okay, I think I saw Director Harris's hand first and then we will move to Director Rivera-Smith.

Lowering my hand first, I would like to move number five approval of the student assignment transition plan for 2022-23 off the consent agenda, please.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Rivera-Smith, is that congruent with what you were going to do or do you have another item?

That's the same one.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Okay.

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

I move approval of the consent agenda as amended.

Second.

Fantastic.

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

All those in favor, or wait, hold on one second.

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

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Fantastic.

This passes unanimously.

Okay, we will now move into items removed from the consent agenda.

Okay.

All right, so we are going to be taking a look.

Superintendent Jones, are you back?

Do you have sound now?

Can you hear me now?

Yes, we can hear you now.

So let's, Greg, do we need to do anything special to go to Superintendent Jones and then come back?

I don't believe so.

No, I think that's your call to make.

Okay, fantastic.

So let's go ahead and hear from Superintendent Jones and then we will address the items removed from the consent agenda.

Take it away, Superintendent Jones.

My apologies about the technical difficulty.

Let me start out by saying thank you to the Seattle residents.

by the overwhelming support they had for our BTA and EPO levy.

We are just honored that you all have entrusted us with the resources that we need to continue the good work that we're doing at Seattle Public Schools.

So thank you.

Today we will hear from a few members of the public later in remembrance of Billy Frank Jr.

I look forward to honoring him at our next regular board meeting on March 2nd.

And as I normally do, I want to talk a little bit about student outcome-focused governance.

You know, our strategic plan, Seattle Excellence, identifies the need to prioritize academic outcomes for African-American males.

Our goals and guardrails that are embedded in that plan reflect the priorities, and we set the metrics for monitoring our progress to meeting those goals.

Our African-American Male Achievement Office is working closely with Black families to bring those voices into our schools.

So Seattle Excellence, Goals and Guardrails, our African-American Achievement Plans, they explicitly state our intention to make our systems so that they work for African-American males.

This is our system improvement model.

Over time, our system has not generated the ideal outcomes for African-American males, and this has to change.

So all of our planning, every goal and guardrail, every work plan, every corner of my cabinet is about changing that trajectory.

The board, you the board, have embraced the goals and guardrails that express this value and vision of our community, and you have tasked me with changing that trajectory.

Next week, we will do another progress monitoring session as a step to ensure the clarity of where we are and what strategies we will use to meet our targets.

You know, our Black families are telling us loudly and clearly that their students need cultural safety, strong identity, and a diverse teaching staff.

And that correlation between safety, cultural identity, and learning is backed up by years of academic research.

So listening to our families, embracing culture, building a diverse workforce, these are the strategies that we're going to invest in improving academic outcomes.

These will change that trajectory.

So on February 1st, my cabinet kicked off Black History Month.

This was a celebration that embraces the Black lives and part of cultivating a strong cultural identity among African American students.

I'd like to take a few minutes to share the power of that celebration from the SPS kickoff to Black History Month.

Lift every voice and sing

Today marks the first day of Black History Month in 2022, but your celebration does not have to be limited or confined to February, so I just want to emphasize that.

Use today and use this month as a kickstart to celebrating Black Lives Love legacy for the rest of the year.

Quote from Ulsa Davis because it resonates for me and I hope you know that.

I find in being black a thing of beauty, a joy, a strength, a secret cup of gladness.

I hope you all see that when you encounter me because when I know how to love myself, I love others better.

Thank you.

Well, I appreciate how the young people are stepping up, asking for more, and they're pushing us.

And that's how we should all move every day to make sure we keep them in our front and center in designing the best education for them.

And the last thing I want to say is Shirley Chisholm had a quote that said, a tremendous amount of talent is lost to society because they wore a skirt.

And I want to just change that to a tremendous amount of talent is lost to society because of the color of our skin.

And so I want you to name that and love our babies.

And we commit today to have the moral obligation to make sure that we're doing right by our babies every day.

In celebrating Black life, love, and legacy, it's important to analyze the systems that hinder our ability and take space to celebrate all three.

In this time where our communities are more socially distant than ever, Opportunities to connect and celebrate in spaces like this is a gift.

Let's recognize this opportunity as a gift and pass it forward and figure out opportunities where we can pass it on.

It's been this time of time with our kids throughout the rest of this month and the rest of this year and every day moving forward.

The Black Space Manifesto is an amazing document.

It's a set of leadership principles.

I think there's some guidelines.

Maybe there's some goals and some guardrails in there.

Right, Dr. Jones?

I'm in here.

And there's some beautiful pieces in here.

So I'm just going to pick a couple of them that stand out for me.

One of them is create circles and not lines.

Move at the speed of trust.

Celebrate, catalyze, and amplify Black joy.

Center lived experience.

Promote excellence.

Manifest the future.

The value of this month is that it lets us know on an annual basis we matter, we still rise, and we are still strong.

Affirming the identity and the strength and the power of our Black students and staff evokes a movement of seeing all people in their best light with love.

In the spirit of love, life, and legacy, we raise the Pan-African, Black liberation, Afro-American, universal

African flag.

We are fueled by their efforts so that we can go on and make greater progress.

My hope is that you'll take this moment and commit.

Everybody say commit.

not just celebrate, but commit to the theme that we're going to love and work more boldly together, that we're going to challenge each other in that love, that we're going to live with grace and take our place in history.

May we forever stand true to our God, true to our native land.

So in the spirit of life, love, and legacy, I can Complete my remarks and back to you board.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for that Superintendent Jones.

What a moving opportunity to be reminded of the importance of not only this month but the entire year.

Returning back to our agenda, may I have a motion for the item that was removed from the consent agenda which was number five.

I move that the school board approve the student assignment plan for 2022 to 23 as attached to the board action report.

Second.

Fantastic, thank you.

Before we go to Director Harris, is there someone on staff who could speak to this?

Just to tee it up a little bit.

If not, we will move directly to Director Harris.

All right.

Go ahead, Director Harris.

I pulled this off of the consent calendar because I believe that it deserves more transparency for the members of the public, families and indeed this week voters.

Thank you, voters on the two levies.

Yay.

This is significant stuff, and I think that having something other than what went through committee be front and center is appropriate.

I also have some questions about consulting and involve under community engagement.

And I know that community engagement is paramount in everyone's mind.

Thank you.

All right so we should go ahead and be prepared for Director Harris to ask her questions and then we will go to other directors as they have them.

Again is there someone on staff who can stand to answer Director Harris's questions?

Director Hersey.

We will.

I will try to find someone to answer those questions immediately.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

And I was director Jones.

I was just coming.

Superintendent Jones.

I was just gonna say that I believe, um.

Um.

Ashley Davis is online, and I'm sure Fred Podesta is too.

So we're working on who's best to answer that right now.

Take your time.

Yes.

Executive Director Davies would be the appropriate person and she is joined the meeting.

So I'm not sure if she's having trouble connecting.

So I'll try to check with her offline.

There is no rush.

Hi, this is Ashley Davies.

So is the question in regards to the student assignment transition plan being on the consent agenda and the engagement that was done?

No, no, no, no.

I don't even think Director Harris has even asked her specific questions yet, so I'm going to turn it over to her.

Okay, got it.

Great.

Those are my concerns.

I think that the student assignment transition plan is terribly important.

I think that it deserves a public record and a recap and I do have questions about what community engagement was done.

Thank you.

So do you have the one question about what community engagement is done?

I'm just trying to understand so that we can make sure that you get the information that you need.

So are you only looking for a report back on what community engagement was done?

That would be correct and again I think that for transparency and accountability purposes This particular item doesn't belong on the consent agenda.

Thank you.

All right, Director Davies, if you could speak to the community engagement around this item, that would be incredibly helpful.

Sure, so the pieces that are included in the student assignment transition plan going for action today include some information that we have gotten feedback from over the course of many years, so we don't have any specific engagement Um.

As it relates to the changes that we've done around the move rules.

The other pieces that are change that are updated within the plan are, uh, several, which are just updates to language and terminology that have already been addressed outside of this intro to action is updated information around the virtual option pilot program.

And so I can will be able to share more information about it when it comes back for discussion around action.

But the clarifying pieces that are in there and again a change from intro to action identifies the fact that there will no longer be the option for the virtual option pilot program at Queen Anne in pre K through five and that the virtual option will be incorporated at Cascade Parent Partnership for grades K through 12 for the 22 23 school year, and that's consistent with the fact that this year was a pilot for us to, um.

offer a virtual option, and given current enrollment and anticipated enrollment for the coming school year, we have decided to have that all under Cascade Parent Partnership.

All right, thank you, Director Davies.

I saw Director Sarju's hand first, and then we will move on to Director Song-Muritz.

I think to go back to what Director Harris said, specifically around community engagement, when I look at number six, there are one, two, three, four things.

The following tier of community engagement, not applicable.

That's not community engagement.

Inform, that's not community engagement.

I'm not sure what consult and involve means.

but I'm really sure that collaborate is actually the true definition, includes the true definition of community engagement.

And so I think part of the transparency has to be we can't just call something community engagement and think that people are not paying attention.

Like consulting and involving, I'm not even sure as a board director what that means, But I do know what collaborate means because that's what I do in my day job with community.

I know what it looks like.

I know what it feels like.

I know what it sounds like.

And so I think it's important for parents and the public because if we try to sell, inform as community engagement or consult and involve, there are many people who are not going to buy that.

and I think that that's really important.

So I think maybe structurally we need to to think about how we define community engagement and get really clear on that.

So when we're talking with parents, our families in the district, that they understand what we mean but honestly I don't understand what consult and involve means and how that is actually community engagement.

in the specifically in the context of this.

And maybe this is not the time to have that discussion, but I do think it's really important that we we begin to get really clear about what real authentic community engagement is.

We're not going to be successful in our work related to student outcomes focused governance if we're not.

Okay, I see a couple of other hands up, Director Samaritz, and then we will go to Director Rivera-Smith.

I just want to make sure I understand it.

Right now we are voting on whether or not to approve the student assignment transition plan.

Is that correct?

We will get there in just a second.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, opportunity for questions.

I think my concern here is that Between the last time this item was, uh, introduced and today there is a pretty significant program change.

And, um, you know, while it may not influence my decision whether or not to Improve approve this this plan.

Um.

I have reservations about what kind of communication strategy there will be around this big program change.

And so it does give me a little bit of pause.

I feel confused how this ended up in here without discussion until this point.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Um, so I was going to like, I guess, look at her.

So I was gonna pull this, um, because I wanted to give actually a chance to tell us what the updates were since introduction, which it sounds like.

The updates are aside from what we saw at introduction.

They are about the, uh, the OPP.

Is that correct?

Actually, about the extent of the changes since introduction.

That is correct.

And I wanted, but I also wanted to circle back because we had a pretty good discussion at introduction about this item.

With questions from director.

Hampson and Director Rankin.

And so between since that meeting, I did have a good discussion with Director Davies and Assistant Superintendent Podesta regarding our role in the Student Assignment Transition Plan and how we can utilize it as we do evaluate and make changes to all of our systems in our district.

in our efforts to be anti-racist and to be more inclusive and available to our students for those from educational justice.

So I just want to let everyone know we did have a discussion and I don't know if Dr. Davies wants to comment on it herself but for my part I understand that we are going to be doing deeper dives of the student assignment transition plan in the operations committee because there's lots of sections.

It's a very dense document.

You look at it and it's got a piece of everything.

Something in that document touches every part of our district because it's where our students are going based on their programs, their schools, their needs.

So really what from our discretion we were thinking would be valuable was taking those sections and going through them in a series of operations committee meetings.

again, like we have a section for advanced learning, section for a specialist, section for international schools, and option schools and so on.

So again, it's a document that is actually very hard to read because it's very dense and it's very deep.

And it changes almost every year, thus the transition part of every year.

We're transitioning to a new version almost, but I do appreciate again those questions and comments two weeks ago.

and wanted to definitely touch in with Ashley about what we can do and how we can look at this in ways that will make our district more equitable.

So Dr. Davis did you want to maybe add on to that at all?

I would just echo the comments that you made especially around being able to break down the student assignment transition plan.

I think that allowing the board the opportunity to have a better understanding of it because, as you mentioned, it is a complex document.

There's a lot in there and it's essentially a collection of district programs, services, and policy that help that are supposed to be set up to help navigate how families move through the district, right?

And so it includes information that lives outside of enrollment, but it is a document that holds all that information.

And so being able to go through it, talk about each piece, and critically go through it also, you know, we've talked about being able to do that with a lens towards racial equity as we continue to commit to as a district.

So I think that doing that and being able to move through it that way will be helpful.

for the board to get a better understanding of the different elements of it, and for staff to be able to walk through with the board in ways that we can talk about the things that we might want to make changes around or things that do need additional consultation and collaboration with our communities.

Okay, I see Director Rankin's hand.

Thank you.

Yeah, I have a just a quick comment related to what came up.

I reviewed the changes as much as I could before this meeting, although got updated again after after I saw them the first time.

And I feel like in terms of transparency, we had a fairly I do want to.

Uh what's the word?

Um not insignificant conversation around this is as an introduction item.

Um so, uh, just want to sort of push back a little bit on things being hidden because we did.

This was discussed very in a public meeting, but I do Um, and just kind of make an observation, and I know that's a conversation for another time, but in terms of the pilot program for the virtual program, if people were not fully paying attention, they might be alarmed to hear that it's moving, and I just wanted to sort of nip that in the bud and say that what's in the transition plan is an operational housing thing.

It's the program was always a pilot for this year.

It's not being canceled.

There's no changes before the end of the school year, but it as stated in here, instead of being under administratively under Queen Anne Elementary, it's going to be housed under Cascade Parent Partnership.

So before anybody Misunderstand something and it spreads like wildfire on Facebook or something.

It will still exist, especially shifted.

But the observation that I want to make is something I've seen in the past is confusion among board and staff and the public about what's a school and what's a program and when the board should be informed about changes or not.

And so while in this case, I don't think there's a significant impact on family experience and access since it's will remain a virtual program that people can often do.

I just kind of want us to think think about.

How we might you know how we make sure that board directors are not hearing about a change in a program that they don't have a chance to ask questions about in a operational capacity when it may be just just for everybody's better understanding what what's a program?

What's a school?

I like I said, I don't want to get into that now because that's not what this item is about, but it's something that comes up.

So another time.

I don't know where is appropriate, but especially as we have new board members just to make sure that people aren't feeling surprised by by changes.

Okay, we're gonna go now to, um, Assistant Superintendent Pedroza, and then we will loop back to Board Directors.

I'm going to go to Vice President Hampson because we have not heard from her yet, and then we will end on Director Harris.

So Assistant Superintendent Pedroza, the floor is yours.

Yeah I just wanted to address just a couple of talking points around the VOP option.

I want just to share remind thank you Director Hanson you kind of like set me up in a great way you said many of the things I was going to say.

So I'll just share it is as she said it is a program so we can talk about that and we did ensure that it will be actually a one-year program with a review We are looking because one of the things we heard very clearly from community is we needed to have some type of option, some type of option to address some of these significant components for some of our students who do require some type of remote learning option and many of them might not be related to COVID but some of them might be related to wellness issues, anxiety, depression, other things or even just choice that students and families wanted a choice.

So in thinking about that the decision has been to pursue and continue the model but to in order because we can't we can't sustain these types of programming in these these really small enrollment situations for the long term.

So what the district is really trying to do is think about a two to three year strategy for a virtual remote learning option that is sustainable and can be sustained over the next two to three years and even longer.

So that's what it is.

It's a combination of the enrollment pieces, the programmatic components, and then also a long-term strategy that is fiscally sound and that still provides an option for our families.

So I just wanted to state that as part of the decision making and making that transition.

and then expanding the 6-12 to a pre-K-12 option in partnership with Cascade Parent Partnership Programming.

So I just wanted to add those components to this conversation.

Thank you for letting me add that.

Thank you.

Director Hampson.

Yeah, I just wanted to kind of clarify and and bring the level back to what is direct and Director Rankin gets credit for that.

I didn't say anything of note as of yet for those comments that came before Associate Superintendent Pedroza.

But what I believe we're doing here is we are making we are approving the changes to the student assignment plan.

And so I'll take full accountability for having brought up the fact during our last conversation, which was very robust at intro that I do not believe that the student assignment plan is consistent with how it I don't believe that we have been presented a student assignment plan that is aligned with student outcomes as a whole.

I don't believe that it is aligned with with student outcomes that we seek.

I believe it requires significant changes.

I also believe our staff are aware of the fact that it needs significant changes and much of that has been delineated by other directors and by staff just now.

And so as much as as I am dissatisfied with the student assignment plan, I am more than than happy with the changes that are being proposed.

I don't even really necessarily think that they come rise to the level of board approval because they're not such a massive change to the overall plan.

And I think we should consider whether if we're really going to be focused on what it pertains to student outcomes, whether we should be making decisions around student assignment.

whether that's the role of staff and the superintendent.

So again, not particularly.

I'm not with my what will be my vote on this, saying that I believe that this represents what we need it to be.

However, there's no way that we could have done the necessary level engagement level of engagement as Dr. Sarju talked about, which is not what's represented in our board action report format, to really look at those deeper, more problematic issues that we need to solve.

Hopefully in the coming year, because I know we are now a little bit behind from where we would like to be, and I would like to be able to sign off on a student assignment plan next year that is making those really strong directional moves consistent with student outcomes.

Thank you.

Thank you to staff.

Thank you, Director Hampson.

We will now return to Director Harris before we move on to the vote.

No additional questions.

Luring my hand and turning on my mic.

Thank you.

I don't believe I used the word hidden.

And I believe that this is important enough that we have this conversation, and I appreciate the robust discussion very much.

I am disappointed, though, that the answer with respect to community engagement is over several years but is not referenced.

And I'm concerned that our community and or family engagement deals a little bit like box checking.

Now I will appreciate that the program placement is moving from one school to another.

I appreciate that it's not sustainable.

I appreciate that I will be voting for this but the community engagement and family engagement piece I'm hoping we can do a better job of and I'm hoping that we can work with other departments on that.

with respect to making sure that these changes get out there.

Thank you very much.

All right.

The only comment that I will take the opportunity to share is that I really want to know for us as a system like when we say community engagement like what do we mean by that right because in some ways Director Harris is very much so correct but in other ways I also see where staff is coming from with their approach here especially during the pandemic And so my question for everybody as we think about this, and this might be an opportunity for us as a leadership team and directors with their committees to have some robust discussion.

Because when we say community engagement, that's a very nebulous word, right?

Are we talking about like engaging online?

Are we talking about surveys?

Are we talking about feedback?

because that bar for what community engagement should be and should look like is going to be different for every single person that we ask.

And even though we have guidelines and metrics around some of the things that we do in terms of community engagement, it's not a one size fits all type deal.

And what I don't want us to fall into is the trap of the way that some individuals will utilize community engagement and weaponize it into a means of derailing, disrupting, x, y, and z.

So I just want us to be really clear moving forward what are going to be the expectations around community engagement on the front end because directors don't want to be in the position of asking staff questions like what community engagement was done and then getting the answer that we got right but also we have had thorough discussion about this there there have been opportunities in committee and whatnot and so I just want to I even feel as you know the chair of this board that we don't have a really clear understanding of what the bar is for community engagement that staff needs to reach because unless we have a really explicit conversation about what that is then it's always going to be box checking because it's almost like shooting in the dark right.

So I think that that is definitely something that we need to revisit especially in the time of the pandemic given the fact that we have so many more resources at our disposal in terms of community engagement and what's possible and engagement and access has has in many ways for many parents increased right But I also just want to make it very clear that when we ask these types of questions ensuring that staff have the opportunity to be prepared to answer them you know with with the fullest ability that they possibly can is also critical.

So thank you Director Harris for bringing this up.

Really appreciate as well the robust conversation.

I see that Director Davies has her hand up so I will go to her finally and then we will move on to the vote.

Thank you.

I just had one last thing to add to kind of transition us into the extending conversation that we'll continue to have in the operations committee about the different elements of the student assignment transition plan, but I think what was just discussed in this conversation is exactly why being able to take it to committee and break it down into pieces and walk through it together allows us the ability the board to work in partnership to better understand not only the contents of the document, but how we can work together to bring forward our commitments as a district.

I'll just over the past many years while I've been here, having to share the student assignment transition plan, there's a lot in there, and it's a document that holds different policies that have big impacts across the system.

And despite the fact that the plan doesn't dictate the policies, maybe determined, discussed, developed in other departments, it is important for us to be able to understand and have sufficient time to be able to talk about it and talk through it.

And so I will just say again, I think the plan of being able to bring it through committee and have time and break it down is going to really help us do many of the things that we talked about here in this discussion.

Thank you, Ms. Davies.

I believe that is an excellent capstone for this discussion.

Again, gratitude, Director Harris, for pulling it.

The conversation was robust.

OK, so let's go ahead and move to the vote.

Ms. Wilson-Jones, will you call the roll?

Director Sarju.

For the moment, I say aye.

Director Sang-Moretz.

Aye.

Vice President Hampson.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

Director Rankin.

Aye.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Aye.

President Hersey.

Aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you, Miss Wilson-Jones.

Okay.

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

We will begin with Audit and Finance and that report will be coming from Director Hampson.

I do not have anything to report other than we meet Monday at 8 a.m.

and we will be having, as I mentioned at our last meeting, a discussion about changes to the sexual harassment policy, so for those that want to listen in and get an update on that, please listen in at 8 a.m.

on Monday, the 18th, Valentine's Day, I mean the 18th, the 14th, sorry, at 8 a.m., that's where the 8 comes from.

And other than that, I believe we have, there'll be a big our usual budget briefing and financial briefing.

And there's one other item on the agenda that's eluding me right now, but that's it from me for now.

Thanks.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

We will now move to the Executive Committee.

We are in a similar position.

Our next meeting will be on February the 16th at 8 a.m.

Please feel free to join us.

We will be getting a very general update on our superintendent search process.

We will not have a substantive feedback on exactly what information was gathered, but we will have some information on how many survey responses we got, who was contacted, and it'll be a good opportunity to ask some clarifying questions to our search firm, HYA.

So if folks want to engage with us in that way, I would just say please email your Director of Choice if you have any specific questions and we will do our best to get those things answered.

Next, we will move on to the Operations Committee and that report will be coming from Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

We have also not had an operations committee meeting since our last board meeting, since my last committee report, but our February meeting is scheduled for tomorrow.

At its new time, we're moving from 8.30 to 4.30.

We're now 4.30 p.m.

and we'll have several board action reports for construction contracts and budget transfers, most notably to award the Montlake Modernization and Addition School Project for the Eckstein Middle School Science Classroom Improvement Project for the West Seattle Elementary School Renovation and Addition Project and for the Van Asselt School Addition Project.

We also have three final acceptances for the Adams Elementary School Fire Sprinkler Upgrade Project for the seismic improvements at Beacon Hill, Maple, Whitworth slash Orca K-8, and for the Bobby Thompson Seismic Improvement Project.

on the less technical side of our agenda.

We'll also have three special attention items.

One of them will be the transportation contract update and then an update or information on a revised superintendent procedures 6810, which is the natural resources conservation policy.

And then we'll have a DTA levy update.

So maybe a little celebration.

Fantastic.

Thank you, Director Rivera-Smith.

And finally, we will have the report from the Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee from Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Do you want me to give up?

Sorry, maybe it's on the agenda.

Legislative update now, too?

You are correct.

It is on the agenda.

And I will come with you.

You can just do both.

That's fine.

Okay.

I'm not trying to skip the order.

I don't have it in front of me.

There is no order.

Okay.

Um, as far as student services curriculum instruction, we have our next our February meeting next week on Tuesday.

Um, we have some regular standing items.

Math math curriculum adoption update for K five.

Um, some of our our, uh, reading goals.

Um, so we're going to be talking about.

A couple of, uh, legally required policies.

Um high school rigorous course enrollment is one of those we've talked about a little bit already.

It's coming back through committee.

Uh.

Two policies went around students experiencing homelessness and students in the foster care system came to our committee before and we talked about it and some And then a couple of pretty routine things that I'm going to try to keep brief and committee and send right to the full board to have a discussion.

If needed around some some routine.

Routine items.

Um.

That is pretty much that for curriculum instruction for the legislative update.

Um we are about halfway through the session.

Um, and I have a draft here of an email that I was going to send off to all school board directors as an update for this week, and so I'll just give it to you now, and I'm happy to also put anything in writing if you all want it.

Um, but so bills need to pass out of their wherever they originated.

So if it's a House bill or if it's the Senate bill, they need to pass out of those chambers by February 15th.

And so last week was a bit of a mad dash with committees and meetings with legislators and things, and this week is a little bit of a lull in terms of public engagement.

While the chambers are each focused on floor votes, moving each bills out of their respective chamber so the other chamber can take a look at it.

So this week is a little bit of a Um.

Slight slight.

Well, it feels quieter.

Um.

So, uh, any bill that hasn't passed out of their committee or the fiscal committee are now dead for this session.

Um and so there's a was double watch list that's been updated.

It's significantly shorter than before the cut off because a

Okay, clear.

Okay, good.

I got a little thing popped up that says bad connection.

So we had some really good testimony last week in committees or the week before from other WASDA members for enrollment stabilization, transportation funding and the prototypical school model bills.

including our own Dr. Jones.

Dr. Jones testified in the Senate Ways and Means Committee along with some other superintendents from around the state and talked about how important the enrollment stabilization bill is for our students.

I can't remember if I said in an update here or not that out of the 295 districts in Washington state, 230 including Seattle have experienced a pretty significant decline in enrollment over the last two years.

and what the enrollment stabilization bill would do is maintain our level of funding for staff and services at its current or its 2019. Where they're going to pick the time is still kind of being talked about, but basically, we have fewer students now.

because of the decline in enrollment than we did going into the pandemic.

But as we all know, there's no shortage of work to be done and support needed.

And so this bill would support the majority of districts in our state who would like to and need to keep staffing and services in place as they are in spite of the decline in enrollment because enrollment is funded or school districts are funded by the state on a per pupil allocation formula.

And something that I want to take an opportunity to say also about the allocation formula is that the allocation formula is simply the manner by which the state, based on the prototypical school model, the manner by which the state distributes funds to all school districts.

It doesn't reflect the cost to educate one child in one year.

So there's a little bit of a miscommunication happening out there about that stable funding the enrollment stabilization bill funds empty seats.

And that's just and that that family should be able to take that money and go somewhere else with it.

We're not funding empty seats because that is not how much it costs to fund a full seat.

It's an allocation method.

Of the funds.

It is not a it's not distribution based on cost.

So, for example, if you have a classroom of 32 students and one of those students is gone.

and their seat is empty, you can't take 132nd of the teacher out of that classroom.

You still need that full teacher in that classroom.

And so this talking point about funding empty seats is really misleading and ultimately very damaging, especially for smaller districts in our state.

And I will also add a huge thank you to the voters of Seattle and thank you to Schools First and a big, big thank you to Samantha Fogg and JoLynn Berge, our very own JoLynn Berge, and Samantha Fogg from Seattle Council PTSA for the tireless amount of work they did to inform local school communities and PTAs about how the levy works and what's being funded.

It sounds like, yay, all this money is coming in, but really those local levies maintain regular standard operations that are really critical and same with enrollment stabilization and changes to the prototypical school model.

It's not actually going to add suddenly add a whole bunch more services and staffing.

It's really to preserve what we have now.

So there's a bigger conversation about how we are funded by the state and how other districts are funded by the state and a lot of districts In the state also were not, um, did not get the support they needed from their communities to pass their levees.

And especially for smaller districts that rely on those local levees for all kinds of student supports for building improvements.

Earthquake retrofitting tsunami protection.

They're having to go another cycle without the supports for their students, and that's really, really tough.

So Um, one of the thing I'll add the in the past week through WASDA as the legislative representative for the board, I attended meetings with, um Legislators from.

All seven of the of the legislative districts in our city and invited fellow directors to join me, and I was and Rivera-Smith for some of those.

We had a really positive response from a lot of our legislators about the work that Seattle is doing, a lot of appreciation about the tremendous amount of work that has been done in response to COVID.

And what I most especially want to share is that in our conversations there was a lot of really positive response and not only willingness but active desire to between now and the next session, which is a budget session, get into some really more deep conversations about education funding, especially special education.

So I'm very excited and looking forward to spending more time with legislators when the session is over and they have a bit more time.

And so I'm looking forward to engaging in those conversations and continuing our talk about you know, not just saying full funding, but what do we want to fund?

What do we need?

What does that mean?

And how do we communicate that to the community and to this legislature to make sure that our schools have the resources that they need and also in supportive districts, other districts around the state.

So that was a long update.

Next week, next time, I promise I'll be shorter.

Last week was a big week in the state and

Okay, thank you very much for that robust update, Director Rankin.

We will next go to public testimony.

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

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

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

I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

First testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website.

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

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

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

and time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins.

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

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

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

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones will read off the testimony speakers.

Thank you, President Hersey.

For those providing testimony today, we do have quite a few people on the phone providing testimony.

So please, when you hear your name called, press star six and that will unmute you on the conference call line.

Also, make sure that you have unmuted on the device you are calling from so that we can hear you.

I will be sounding the two minute timer.

with a, you'll hear a chiming sound when your time is exhausted.

The first speaker on today's testimony list is Yasha Carpentier.

Yasha Carpentier.

Hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Can you hear me?

This is Yasha.

Yes, we can hear you, Yasha.

Okay, thank you.

Dear school board members, my name is Yasha and I've been an SPS parent for 20 years.

We appreciate the tough situation you are in.

While we parents are frustrated, you have a state governor and superintendent making unilateral decisions over your head and we recognize this is not easy for you.

Nevertheless, children are our first priority.

The risk of serious harm to kids from COVID is statistically very low.

The downsides of forced masking are high.

In Seattle right now, there are kids with no memory of ever having seen a teacher or classmate unmasked.

Kids desperately need the language cues and social feedback that come from seeing human faces.

Without this, their test scores and their emotional development are suffering.

They are suffering.

Why is it to further reduce a COVID risk that to them already approaches zero?

Prior to 2020, kids were never masked over regular flu viruses that are riskier to them than COVID.

Is it to make grownups feel safer?

This is not a good reason to put kids through this ordeal, and it should never be kids' responsibility to protect us as adults or as their parents.

Two years ago, there were many unknowns about COVID.

There was no way to craft perfect policies, and we understand you are doing the best you can.

Thank you for leading through this uncertainty.

But now, two years later, it's time to lift this burden from children.

So we ask you please help make WSSDA membership optional.

Help Washington join the majority of states that have come out against the Antiparent National School Board Association.

Make a firm statement that parents are the primary stakeholders in their children's future.

Thank you.

The next speaker on today's testimony list is Kayla Harstad.

Kayla Harstad.

Hi, can you hear me?

We can hear you, Kayla.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, Kayla, we can hear you.

Hi, my name is Kayla Harstad.

I'm Turtle Mountain Chippewa and I'm a senior at Ingraham High School.

I'm here to advocate for Seattle Public Schools to designate March 9th as Billy Finn Junior Day.

Billy Frank Jr.

Day Resolution, which was crafted by UNEA Youth and Leadership Council, calls for supporting the designation of March 9th as a day of remembrance, celebration, and recognition in honor of life, legacy, and achievements of Billy Frank Jr.

This day needs to be recognized because as an Indigenous student, when we do hear about Indigenous people in school, it is in the context of history, trauma, and oppression that Indigenous people have endured and survived.

I want to hear more than that, and I want to celebrate the triumph that we face to the achievements of Billy Frank Jr.

The Urban Native American Club at Ingraham High School, which was re-established this year, is a club where we are able to be culturally connected and have a place where we can learn about our traditions and history.

As a club, we should have a person in our community who represents us.

With the designated day of March 9th as Billy Frank Junior Day, the hope is to learn about Indigenous heroes and sheroes of both now and the past whose work and wisdom can act as an inspiration for Indigenous students and all students.

It is important for us Indigenous students to have a person who represents us annually.

We should be able to celebrate someone who is a representation of our own culture and who shows many attributes to what a great hero is today.

Not only will this day be for us, but it's important for other communities to learn about Billy Frank Jr. and his achievements as well.

We need to recognize Billy Frank Junior Day every March 9th not just once so all Seattle Public Schools students and staff can learn and celebrate.

The Seattle Public Schools commitment to equity and inclusion by formally adopting March 9th as Billy Frank Junior Day will bring a step towards inclusion that we need to have.

I urge the Seattle Public School Board to support effort in designing designated March 9th as Billy Frank Junior Day.

It is important now than ever for Seattle Public Schools to celebrate the first people of this land.

Thank you.

The next speaker on today's testimony list is Giselle Jenkins.

Giselle Jenkins.

Hi.

We can hear you.

Okay, good.

Hi.

I'm a junior at Ingram high school and a descendant of the Unangan tribe.

I believe SPS needs to make a change namely to increase representation and celebration of Native Americans within their schools.

Having Billy Frank Junior Day celebrated in my school annually would bring the change needed by recognizing and honoring a Coast Salish hero who did a great deal for the Indigenous community here in Washington.

Interns from UNEA created a petition to advocate for SPS to recognize and celebrate Billy Frank Jr. officially every March 9th.

These are some of the reasons community members provided for why they signed the petition to pass Billy Frank Jr.

Day.

I'm signing this because Billy Frank Jr.' 's courage to fight for treaty rights, environmental realization, and conversation, tribal sovereignty, and social justice.

We must protect the sacred and the indigenous people must lead.

Representation matters even more so to the indigenous members of our community who are so often ignored, erased, and degraded.

This action is being asked of us as indigenous youth.

It's not enough, but it is a start.

We need to do better to listen and learn to those whose lands we occupy.

It is important to recognize and pay tribute and learn from indigenous communities that has shaped our country and the PNW in particular.

Billy Frank Jr. to me represents a pioneer who brought fish to our people, community, and my family, and which we have been traditionally eating for centuries.

We should all be grateful for his efforts we depend on today.

My hope is that we continue to foster his beliefs to our young so they can provide us the sustenance for their people tomorrow.

Billy Frank Jr. is a modern day hero and we all need to know his dynamic leadership and activism.

I Giselle Jenkins urge Seattle Public School to listen to the words of the community to support the renewal of Billy Frank Jr. as an annual celebration.

Thank you.

The next speaker on today's testimony list is Mackenzie J. Tetrick.

Mackenzie J. Pietrek.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

All right, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

My name is Mackenzie Tetrick.

I'm Otoe, Missouri.

I'm 17 and recently graduated early from Middle College High School.

My freshman year was attended at Ballard High, but the lack of awareness and education for my culture's history while attending Seattle Public Schools has remained prevalent for me since the third grade.

Seattle Public Schools lacks a great amount of Indigenous and cultural education, and the history we are taught is subjective and biased.

This deceives us into acknowledging only one perspective, a perspective that is often prejudice in order to gain redemption in history.

It's sickening that in 2022 Indigenous people are so wrongfully depicted.

Our history is broken apart and distorted into a biased narrative.

This needs young people to sympathize colonizers for their genocide because the ones they killed, raped, and lied to are depicted as the villains.

This alone contributes greatly to the encouragement of systemic racism in our public school system.

Seattle Public Schools failed in providing you with the truthful history we all should have learned.

Indigenous people were our first farmers healers and inventors.

Our school system should bring light to the truth of our people but also expand on our culture and how our ways have greatly supported our earth and its people.

Clear Sky Academy provides students with a variety of cultural education and experiences, including hands-on activities, unbiased textbooks, learning from indigenous artists and storytellers, and participating in cultural events.

Clear Sky has showed me how to be involved and educate myself and my community's culture.

All should be provided this experience as part of the general education system.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Gina Tran.

Gina Tran.

Hi, I'm reading a statement by SPS parent Marina Redwoman enrolled Northern Cheyenne.

Native American students do not receive equitable support from Seattle Public Schools to ensure their academic success.

Native students in SPS are more likely to face disciplinary actions than their white peers less likely to graduate high school and are largely absent from SPS's highly capable program.

American Indian slash Alaskan Native students are identified in SPS's student well-being recovery plan as a group needing additional time, support, and or extracurricular activities for academic growth.

While this identification serves as a starting point, the delivery of resources is not being felt by these students and their families.

The few programs and offerings through SPS intended for Indigenous students are underfunded and lack the infrastructure required to affect meaningful positive change.

We need our SPS teachers trained in Indigenous cultural competency to engage with our students and maintain a flexible and self-correcting approach to instruction.

We need culturally relevant instruction, lessons, plan, and events We need Native teachers, Native education and family resources that offer wraparound services and holistic approach to supporting our students through the unique challenges that being an Indigenous person in a white city presents.

We need these programs available in all neighborhoods and funded in perpetuity.

We need better proactivity and support from the Seattle Promise Program for our students.

UNEA is also requesting SPS post the Huchasada Indian Education Report for 2020 and 2021 for transparency and accountability.

Furthermore we would like a report on the board appointed Native liaison.

Who do they represent.

Who appoints them or are they elected to represent SPS Native students.

What is their purpose and how do they engage our urban community.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Chris Jackins.

Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins, Box 84063, Seattle 98124. My compliments to other public speakers today.

Nice job.

On the consent agenda, the board is continuing to deliberately vote on the consent agenda prior to allowing public comment.

Not a single board member should be silently going along with such actions, which are disrespectful of the public and which reduce board due diligence.

Please vote no.

On roof repair at four schools, the board report references local independent labor.

Does this mean that the board is endorsing the use of nonunion labor on these projects?

Please vote no.

On the student assignment transition plan, the district should offer transportation to all students who live outside their school's walk zone.

Please vote no.

As you know, you've already gone through these items before my testimony.

On the Alki and John Rogers contracts, the documents reference soil hazards but not subsurface cultural resources.

Please vote no.

On the personnel report, five points.

Number one, the report contains a list of requested approvals for teachers assigned to classes other than in their areas of endorsement.

Number two, the report notes that state law requires a formal vote of approval by the board for each such teacher.

Number three, however, many of the requested approvals have dates from five months ago.

Number four, are such references simply informational for a continuing reapproval for the second semester?

Number five, if not, it makes it appear that the board is being asked for approval after the fact.

Is this legal?

Please vote no.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jessica Meads.

Jessica Meads.

Hi.

Can you hear me.

Yes we can hear you.

Perfect.

Greetings Seattle School Board members.

I want to start by saying thank you for your service to our children.

My name is Jessica Meads.

I'm an SPS parent and I'm representing the Washington Parent Alliance also known as WAPA.

Parents in our organization have become aware of unlawful behavior characterized by operating under the color of law.

This is a new concept to many of us, but explains much of the cognitive dissonance Washington State parents and other citizens have experienced over the past two years.

The color of law pertains to the attempt by government officials to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights and privileges by pretending to have rights superseding the rights of its citizens.

These acts of pretending are punishable by imprisonment and or lawsuit.

We have learned that the governor cannot make law even in an emergency.

The Secretary of Health, OSPI or WSSDA cannot make law nor any other entity outside of our legislature.

Instead of attacking school boards, well-meaning parents across the country should be working with the boards to help uncover those entities using the color of law that forced school board members to do their dirty work.

In this way, these entities keep themselves safe from harm but endanger school board members with lawsuits and imprisonment.

This has got to stop.

It is a cold, calculated abuse of public servants.

Members of the board, you have received inquiries via U.S.

Post over the past weeks, which we believe will help clarify who is doing what to whom, as well as a way forward for decision-making and fine education for our children.

Again, thank you for your service.

The next speaker is Jennifer Fernandez.

Jennifer Fernandez.

OK.

We can hear you, Jennifer.

OK, you can hear me, I think.

Yeah.

Yes.

Okay, great.

Hi there.

I'm Jennifer Fernandez.

I'm a parent of Seattle students for 22 years.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

Never before in history of Washington has your job been so difficult.

I extend my gratitude for your service.

Many districts across the state including Seattle and others in King County have been served public disclosure request documents by thousands of parents statewide who have come together as a unified voice.

We recognize that there's a fundamental conflict of interest between school government and parents.

School government has a vested interest in the system as a whole, while parents have a vested interest in the children.

We have identified that the source of this conflict may stem from the fact that our local school boards have been forced to give away increasingly more decision-making authority to Washington state We, the people, founded this country with a structure that was designed to keep the greatest authority at the local level of government, yet our governor and state agencies have made unilateral decisions for the whole population while ignoring the voices of local school boards and parents.

The documents mailed to you are our first act of helping you, our local school board, take back your rightful authority to determine what's best to represent the parents of this district.

Please use these public disclosure requests as an opportunity to educate yourselves and us so we can better understand the entanglement we find ourselves in with OSPI, WSSDA, and other state agencies who are overstepping their lawful boundaries.

I request you do the following.

One, support legislation to make WASDA membership optional.

Two, strongly urge WASDA to withdraw membership from the National School Boards Association following the majority of states in the U.S.

Three, pass a resolution that parents are the primary stakeholders in our children's future.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jeff Beauvoir.

Jeff Beauvoir.

Hello, school board members.

Thank you.

I appreciate your time.

This is Seattle Parents speaking.

We have all empathy for the tough decisions you have to make and the situation you're in.

What is the risk of serious harm to a child from COVID?

We know it's very small at their age, something like 0.001% on average once infected.

The hypothetical risk reduction of masking from 0.001 to 0.000 is tiny.

On a pie chart, you'd have to zoom in and squint really hard to see that difference.

That's how little protection masks would provide if they even worked, but they don't.

Doctors on CNN now tell us that our understanding has improved.

Masks have no impact other than to deprive kids of oxygen, make them feel toxic, deprive them of seeing their friends and teachers' faces for two years.

That's a very high price.

Might be worth it if kids were at serious risk and if masks provided solid protection, but neither of those things is true.

So please join the many other jurisdictions that have recently announced the end of this policy.

Make masks optional.

Help make WSSDA membership optional.

Help Washington join the majority of states that have come out against the Antiparent National School Boards Association.

make a firm statement that parents are the primary stakeholders in their children's future.

And parents will stand with you if you do that.

Thanks for your time.

The next speaker is Heather Stratz.

Heather Stratz.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good evening Seattle School Board members and thank you for your service to our children.

My name is Heather Stratz and I'm a Seattle parent and I'm representing the Washington Parents Alliance.

Parents in our organization have become aware of unlawful behavior characterized by operating under the color of law.

This is a new concept to many of us including myself that explains much of the cognitive dissonance Washington State parents and other citizens have experienced over the last two years.

The color of law pertains to the attempt by our government officials to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights and privileges by pretending to have rights superseding the rights of we, the people.

These acts of pretending are punishable by imprisonment or lawsuit.

We have learned that the governor cannot make law, even in an emergency.

The Secretary of Health cannot make law.

OSPI or WASDA cannot make law, nor any other entity outside of our legislature.

This is where well-meaning parents like myself across the nation have been mistaken.

Instead of condemning school boards, we should be working together with you, the school boards, to help uncover those that are using this color of law to force you to do their dirty work.

While these entities force school boards to do their dirty work, they are keeping themselves safe from harm, but you, the school board members, are at risk for legal action.

This has got to stop.

is a cold abuse of public servants such as yourselves who very often serve our students with little or no pay.

You've received inquiries through the U.S.

Postal Service over the past week and we believe with help clarify who's doing what to whom and a way to move forward with decision making and improving our education to our children.

Thank you again for your service.

The next speaker is Whitney Mack.

Whitney Mack.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Thank you.

I'm a Seattle parent and first I just want to say thank you so much for your service to our children.

We really appreciate it.

I'm here to reiterate the concerns of my fellow Washington Parent Alliance members in communicating our awareness of unlawful behavior characterized by operating under the color of the law, which is defined as any attempt by government officials to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights and privileges by pretending to have rights superseding those of said citizens, and this is punishable by imprisonment and or lawsuit.

It is our desire to work with the school boards to help uncover the entities using the color of the law to coerce unknowing school board members to do their dirty work.

It is highly concerning to myself and fellow parents that government officials are able to shield themselves from liability by endangering you, the school board members, with lawsuits or imprisonment.

And our hope as parents is to put a stop to this cold, calculated abuse of public servants who are serving our students selflessly.

We, parents and school board members, are partners in the desire to create the best and safest learning environment for our children so that they can thrive socially, mentally, emotionally, and in their education.

Yet it's imperative that school board members understand their liability for being complicit in doing the bidding of government officials like the governor, the Secretary of Health, OSPI, or WSSDA, who cannot make law, nor any other entity outside our legislature.

You have received letters from the WAPA over the U.S.

Post past week, which we think will help clarify for you how to best serve the needs of our children, which currently are being disregarded in the name of public health, not background law or the most recent science.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Sarah Sense Wilson.

Sarah Sense Wilson.

Good day.

My name is Sarah Stence-Wilson.

I'm co-founder and chair of the Urban Native Education Alliance.

UNEA is the largest, longest-running, grassroots, community-based, student-centered, Native-led organization supporting Indian Ed in Seattle.

Our organization successfully launched a model pilot project, Clear Sky Academy, in partnership with Yellowwood Academy to provide OSPI credit courses in Common Core, required social studies, and fine arts.

All 22 multi-district students earned credit for their coursework.

However, Garfield High School was the only school to deny an Indigenous student Yellowwood Academy transcript credit.

The unwarranted denial of credit approval led to an appeal process requiring multiple emails several meetings, phone calls, complaints filed spanning a six-month period before the appeal was finally approved and credit granted for credit earned.

The district's inconsistent application of approval for legitimate out-of-district transcript credit is problematic and contradicts the district's efforts to diversify academic opportunities by manufacturing barriers for students furthest from educational justice.

In addition, Garfield High School does not celebrate Native Heritage Month.

There's no cultural enrichment opportunities.

There's no representation, visible or tangible culturally responsive resources or support for Indigenous students.

Students are entitled to experience identity affirming and culturally responsive schools where they can thrive academically, socially, emotionally and culturally.

UNEA supports the renewal and the district-wide celebration of Billy Frank Jr.

Day March 9th.

We urge the board to make this day an annual celebration.

Thank you so kindly.

The next speaker is Rachel Reber.

Rachel Reber.

Good evening.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Okay perfect.

I just said it was unmuted.

So good evening school board members.

My name is Rachel Riber.

I am currently a working mother of two young children here in the Seattle School District.

My children have personally never known a school environment that they're not math.

My oldest daughter who is currently in the first grade is just beginning to shut down at this point in school because Her teachers are sounding muffled, she told me the other night.

My littlest daughter who's in pre-K, she's four, she no longer wants to go to school because the teachers can't hear her behind her mask, she told me.

I'm personally tired and exhausted by our outdated COVID policies here in Seattle and across our state, and they're really harming our children and our families.

I think it's really odd that we can go to a cracking game with no masks and thousands of people, but our kids are masked all day.

I'm speaking here tonight as part of a parent in the Washington Parents Alliance that wants masks to be optional, and we want to partner with the school board here to make that happen.

I recently learned as board members, your hands have been really tied in more ways on decision-making here locally.

And instead, those decisions have been given to the Washington State School Directors Association, WASDA, and other state agencies.

I know you all are aware, we talked about it earlier on this call, how many children have withdrawn from Washington schools.

The last they checked, it was about 55,000 for this year.

If these outdated policies, including mask mandates, are upheld and, Lord forbid, COVID vaccines get required for our kids, we're going to lose more and more children in our public schools, mine included.

I, along with many other parents across the city, have mailed documents to you outlining ways we can act here locally to change these outdated policies.

Please use these public disclosure requests so we can better understand the entanglement we find ourselves in with OSPI, WSSDA, and other state agencies who are really overstepping their boundaries.

I really urge you and request that we could do the following.

Make masks optional.

Turn down potential COVID vaccine mandates for children here.

Support legislation to make WSSDA membership optional.

I'd really urge you, WSSDA, to withdraw membership from the National School Board Association.

and pass a resolution that parents are the primary stakeholders in our children's future.

I thank you for your service and I know we can make a change here in Seattle.

The next speaker is Akecheta Taken Alive.

Akecheta Taken Alive.

The next speaker is Akecheta Taken Alive.

If you are on the line, please press star six to unmute.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Hello, I greet you with a warm heart.

My name is Akecheta Taken Alive.

I come from the Standing Rock tribe and I'm asking for the board to renew Billy Frank Jr.

Day because he is an excellent Native role model to Native children in school.

And, you know, going through the school system, I've been to a lot, but mainly Seattle Public, there was not a whole lot of Native education.

And I love that that's starting to change now.

So I was just asking for that.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Christy DeVater.

Christy DeVater.

Christy if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

I am not seeing the phone number that Christy signed up on.

Moving to the next speaker.

Joseph.

Apologies Joseph I didn't get your last name.

Joseph who is speaking about Indian education.

We can hear you, Joseph.

Yes, we can hear you.

the additional broad non-profit organization that uplifts and empowers Native youths through cultural tradition and academic success.

Members of the Clear Sky Youth Council would like to propose a joint effort to offer a SBS resolution honoring Bird Friend Union Day.

The resolution calls for supporting the designation of March 9th as a day of progress, celebration, and recognition.

In order of the life legacy.

Oh, hello.

We can hear you.

You can go ahead.

Tribal fishing rights during the fish wars.

The fish wars took place in the 1960s and 70s and began when Billy Frank Jr. was arrested multiple times and put in jail for practicing the trade right of fishing in the Missoula River.

He introduced a series of fishings that led to the Bolt decision, which confirmed that Washington state and tribes were entitled to half of each year's fish harvest.

Redefine Jr.' 's courage and dedication to fight for jury rights is an inspiration to me.

It is important for more people to know about Redefine Jr. and his story as a lawyer and jury rights activist whose story still lives on.

That is why we urge CHAMP public schools to take into consideration Billy Craig Junior Day as a permanent official day of organization.

We encourage you to recognize our resolution taking into consideration that on Billy Craig Junior Day on March 9th for all to celebrate their achievements in protecting the land, water, and salmon.

This day should be a day of celebration for not only indigenous communities but other communities.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Laura Marie Rivera.

Laura Marie Rivera.

Laura Marie Rivera, please press star six to unmute.

Laura Marie Rivera.

Okay, I'm not seeing that phone number.

Moving to the next speaker, Kristen Justice.

Kristen Justice.

Kristen Justice.

Please press star six if you're on the line.

Not seeing that number either.

Moving on to star Star.

I didn't get your last name, but I believe you're on the line.

Good evening.

My name is star night.

Yeah, thank you for your time this evening.

Um.

Seattle Public schools have the responsibility to provide equitable My son is more than halfway through his education provided by Seattle Public Schools and has yet to receive appropriate and sufficient resources.

My son has never had a Native American principal My son has never had a Native American teacher.

My son has never had a Native American instructional assistant.

My son has never sat in Seattle Public Schools classrooms that acknowledged Native Americans as anything other than historical figures from long ago past.

Native youth experience more adverse childhood experiences and have the lowest graduation rates in the nation, creating and maintaining connections to Native culture buffer children from the trauma of inequity.

I'm sorry, inequality.

These connections have been limited and almost non-existent due to social distancing and loss of parents, grandparents, and elders to COVID-19.

Erasing the identity of Native American students ensures a negative outcome.

More than ever before in the history of this nation, education is not only the key to economic success, but also to basic survival.

My son is vulnerable to poor educational outcome because his needs are not being acknowledged or met.

Thank you so much for your time tonight.

The next speaker is Kayla Luft, who I inadvertently skipped over.

Kayla Luft, please press star six to unmute if you're on the line.

Hi, everyone.

Are you able to hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Yes, my name is Kayla Luft.

You can refer to me with they, she or he pronouns.

I am the education manager for Friends of North Creek Forest, which is a small nonprofit in Bothell.

Speaking to you all today just to pitch our programs.

So we host K-12 field trips alongside various other programs.

Most of our field trips are science-based, but we can also host art, literature, history, and other lessons.

We often host events that work toward the next generation science standards by facilitating student projects in the forest over several field trips.

We help students develop questions they have about the environment, gather data, and supply field equipment for their projects.

All of our programs are free because we are funded by grants and donations.

So far we've mostly served schools in the North Shore, Lake Washington and Edmond school districts, as well as local private schools and homeschool groups.

We can host in North Creek Forest, which is where we are based, or we can visit a school, a park closer to you, or host virtual lessons.

And we have some transportation stipends available to award select schools in need for bus costs.

We host field trips all throughout the school year, lengths ranging from 30 minutes on a campus or virtually and up to five hours in our forest.

We host education events to educate our community so North Creek Forest can be preserved for future generations and also teach others about the importance of urban natural spaces.

If you're interested in talking about our programs, you can contact me at Kayla L at Friends North Creek Forest dot org or visit our website at Friends North Creek Forest dot org and find my contact information there.

Thank you for your time.

I'm going to briefly go back through each of our speakers who we did not hear from earlier, but I don't believe they're on the line.

Christy DeVader.

Laura Marie Rivera.

And if you do hear your name, please press star six.

And Kristen Justice.

President Hersey, that concludes today's testimony list.

All right, thank you very much, Ms. Wilson-Jones.

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

approval of the amended 2021-22 superintendent evaluation documents.

May I have a motion for this item?

I move that the board approve the amended 2021-22 superintendent evaluation documents as attached to the board action report.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

I second this motion.

It doesn't matter if it's me or Lisa.

No, no, it doesn't matter.

But we typically, just as board practice, the member at large is the one to do it.

But any second will do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So this item has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith and Sarju.

This item is on the agenda for intro and action today and did not move through committee.

As the sponsor, I'll speak to the item.

It updates the superintendent evaluation tool, which the board approved in November.

The tool included evaluation in three domains related to the superintendent school climate survey.

Data was not yet available to use set targets for the evaluation when the board approved the tool.

So those targets were left blank with the understanding that the board would take action to update once data was made available.

Attached to this bar is an amended tool with performance targets in the three school climate domains based on the survey data collected in November to December of 2021. No other targets or domains have been changed.

Now for directors who have any comments or questions on this item or other directors before we move on to the vote.

Any comments, questions, concerns?

All right, seeing none, Ms. Wilson-Jones, will you go ahead and call the roll?

Oh wait, hold on, we have some, we have a couple, we have a couple, I see you.

Director Rivera-Smith, I think I saw your hand first and then we'll go to Director Samaritz.

Thank you.

I wanted to just, I'm worried that maybe I'm just not reading this correctly, but I look at this, the charts on this, on the attachment to the bar, I don't, sorry, I'm trying to look at it on the screen at the same time.

Goals in it don't match the goals from our goals and guardrails.

The first one does, but two and three and four do not.

So what am I missing?

Do we have Miss Worth on the call?

Yes, hi.

Can you all hear me?

Yes.

Okay, great.

So the evaluation for the superintendent, because we are in an interim and implementation phase, includes some of the goals that were previously enumerated in Seattle Excellence.

as well as student outcomes focused implementation goals.

And then the next version of the superintendent evaluation would align specifically with the goals and guardrails.

So the goal two that you see here is pulled from Seattle Excellence as we had metrics available for that particular goal area.

And then in the future, it would align with the interim metrics for the guardrails that are currently under development.

So what about three and four?

Yes, so three and four are the goals around student outcomes focused governance implementation.

So the board leadership made the decision to evaluate the effectiveness and fidelity of the implementation of student outcomes focused governance as we are in this transition year.

Uh, refresh my memory when we made that decision?

Uh, during the discussion on the November, uh, the original discussion of the superintendent evaluation tool around the November, uh, 17th approval, November 3rd was introduction, I believe.

Okay.

You're speaking about regular board meeting or executive committee?

The items were discussed during both.

And so you said the next version.

When is the next version?

So the next version would be approved by the board once a permanent superintendent has been selected and the evaluation tool set for the 2022-23 school year.

So this one is coming up for this one.

We're going to be using this one in the late spring, correct?

Yes.

And the next evaluation would be sometime in 2022 23.

I for the for the next superintendent or for the permanent superintendent and the next tool that's aligned with student outcomes focused governance.

Yes.

Thank you.

I don't think I have enough questions right now.

Thanks.

Thank you, Director Rivera-Smith.

Director Samaritz.

Thank you.

I just wanted to make an observation that When I was looking at some of these climate goals, I did a quick check of some of the CSIPs, and it doesn't seem like there's real alignment.

And I understand that we're in a transition year, but I kind of urge my colleagues that when we do evaluate our interim superintendent in May, that we keep that in mind and try to focus more on the implementation goals.

Thank you.

Okay, we will have to have some discussion.

regarding that because we want to make sure that we are aligned and that our superintendent has a clear understanding of what he's going to be evaluated on.

Thank you for that.

President Hersey, sorry, this is Director Rankin.

I just missed the end of what Director Songbird said.

Could you just repeat the last, you said encourage us to focus on and then I missed what you said.

Oh, I encourage us to focus on the implementation parts of it because I just the timing of the CSIPs.

I think they were submitted before these goals were identified.

And I'm just wondering if that would be challenging for our interim superintendent to make progress on the climate goals when they're not reflected in the CSIPs.

and I understand that we are in a transition year.

So I just wanted to make that observation because this is where I personally got a little confused.

And I just stating my encouragement that as a board, when we're evaluating our interim superintendent's performance, that we focus on the implementation instead.

Thank you.

Thanks for repeating that.

And thanks for asking that clarification, because I definitely misheard what you said at the end here, Director Samaritz.

Okay, Director Hampson.

Sorry yeah no I just in response to that just wanted to note that so just to be really clear um and which is I think uh always hard for the for new directors that weren't here for the process that we had when we approved the superintendent evaluation.

We've been in a difficult scenario, not just because of having an interim superintendent, but also because of COVID and not even having the metrics, right, because of there not being any metrics which we had previously had as part of our original goals under the strategic plan.

So but when we get to the level of see if steps and the connection of that to, um, goals and guardrails and the format so we want to make sure that other directors have the that we will be using of which this is a hybrid, right?

Because we're not there yet to evaluate the superintendent based on what we set up is very focused goals connected with guardrails.

And then there's their interim goals and guardrails, which are due to us in March, which would further delineate the ways in which we would evaluate the superintendent.

And so CSIPs might be part of that, but that gets down to a much deeper level than.

that's been set up in this evaluation, so we can't add on things later to be evaluated that we didn't already approve.

Okay, Fantastic.

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

I have a comment, which is just that we will be getting another update around the CSIP process in April or May.

I think since we had this year's CSIP, we pushed from September, I think, to November.

And so we were scheduled to have an update coming through my committee we're going to push that to give a little bit more space to incorporate these things.

So I'm sure some of these things are being thought about in connection as well.

Mm hmm.

Okay.

Fantastic.

Thank you for that.

All right, Miss Wilson Jones.

Will you call the role, please?

Director Rivera Smith.

Hi.

Director Song Moritz.

Aye.

Vice President Hampson.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

Director Rankin.

Aye.

President Hersey.

Aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you, Ms. Wilson-Jones.

All right, let's get centered here.

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

Before we move into individual comments, I would first note that the annual board director and senior staff ethics disclosure forms are completed and posted for public viewing on the agenda.

OK, so let's begin with Director Hampson.

I don't have any comments tonight, thank you.

Thank you, Director Hampson.

Director Harris.

I do have comments.

And as per usual, I have been cautioned not to make some of them, but I will do so anyway, because I feel strongly that I was elected to speak my truth.

With respect to the reams of paper that all of us board directors received at home.

I wonder if that is the most effective tool that advocates for their position can make and use.

I have spent my entire career defending folks' First Amendment rights to speak out.

I appreciate that The reams of paper that we all receive from individual folks is absolutely legal under the law.

I am beyond curious, however, of who Washington Parents Alliance is.

Is that a lobbying organization?

Is it a 501c3 or a 501c4 organization?

And I'm wondering about the effectiveness of threatening school board members with prison and lawsuits.

We get emails every day by the dozens, and this is not a new subject for me.

I have often stated in my public comments that copies of letters might not be the most effective if one doesn't tell us who they are, where their children are, what their children's ages are.

And I'm having difficulty understanding the, quote unquote, color of law recitations.

Having spent 40 years in the legal system, I'm having trouble understanding these assertions.

threatening prison and lawsuits doesn't seem to me to be an effective way to collaborate with the board of directors.

And of course, I only speak as an individual.

The board president speaks for the board.

But I dare say that we're all tired to use some of the phraseology that we heard about this evening in testimony.

And I guess particularly the one that struck me the most was testimony that suggested that parents and school board directors have a quote unquote conflict of interest.

Your school board directors here are here for students, and I don't see the conflict of interest.

And unless I'm hugely mistaken, and I often am, I don't see where the Washington State School Directors Association has any legal authority to tell us what to do.

So I've got some problems with some of the factual statements that are made.

And I would suggest to you that there are better ways to go about this lobbying effort.

But again, that is absolutely your right.

I would also like to know what the Washington Parents Alliance organization stands for other than COVID masking.

And I invite you to email me leslie.harris at seattleschools.org.

For more positive thanks and gratitude, Kayla Perkins, Daniel Goldsman and anyone else that helped with the KUOW ads in drive time.

I often tease people at the district that I'm going to crash my car when I hear about information that I didn't know about before.

But the Seattle Skills Center advertisements earlier this week made my day and I thank you for that.

And I think that we need to do more of that sort of advertising and recruiting.

And I might add, I drive by 10 signs every morning when I drive off of West Seattle Island for charter schools.

I think we need to up our game.

I think we need to be loud and proud, much like the over 75% passage that I read about this morning, and I hope it's going up, of our school levies.

We do a lot of things that we need improvement on, but the citizens of Seattle are behind us.

And thank goodness that they are, because otherwise, 25% of our operating budget.

And it's already rough times, because again, McCleary is, in fact, fake news.

The mentoring program that I read about this week hits me to my core and congratulations on every Seattle Public Schools staff person that is participating in that.

And I could not be more thrilled by that because I believe that mentoring is the way that we address the opportunity gap.

And it's it's been my thought since before I ran for the school board.

and was elected.

To Ms. Sarah Sense-Wilson, tonight is the first time that I heard that we were not crediting courses.

I invite you to reach out to me about that.

I'm distressed that it took months in appeals.

I do understand our accreditation issues.

I helped vote for those policies, but I was completely and utterly unaware of this issue, and I'm distressed by that.

Last, to the North Creek Forest folks and Kayla, thank you for your testimony.

And I wonder if there is not opportunity there to use the Cleveland Memorial Forest and, of course, the Fort Lawton land that we're in negotiations over so that we can have a really robust environmental education situation.

I think we have a lot of opportunity both for environmental science education and certainly for outdoor education.

Again, I love my colleagues and it's an honor and a privilege to serve.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Director Harris.

We will now go on to Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi, thank you.

So first, of course, thank you to all of our public testimony speakers, especially to our students, many of which shared their request for us to renew our Billy Frank Jr.

Day Resolution from last year.

As one of the co-sponsors of that resolution, I support the request, and I will connect with Director Hampson, who is our Tribal Nations liaison, and who also co-sponsored last year's resolution, to discuss that.

So thank you for that.

Okay.

Well, I don't have so much time, so I wanted to just let you know of something I had the pleasure of doing this week and I think will lead to more things to be said and done, but I met this week, had the pleasure of meeting with the NAACP Youth Council to begin discussions with them on the creation of a student voice policy for Seattle Public Schools.

I mentioned this off and on, but it's something that I'm excited to get to work with them on and it's something I believe students and schools.

And while I also believe that the systems policy will actually pair really well with I recently adopted.

Board policy 12 50, which creates school boards, student members.

Um, and I also believe that the student voice policy will actually pair really well with I recently adopted.

Board policy 12 50, which creates school boards, student members.

because as my fellow school board members know, there are many areas of the system that the board directors don't actually ever touch.

We are not on nor do we oversee BLTs.

We are not involved in hiring committees.

We're not involved in staff or building meter evaluations.

And these are just a few of the areas where I and the students I've spoken with believe students should have roles in.

So that is something more to come on that I'm sure.

In other news, I saw this afternoon that Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal issued a recommendation to the Governor and to the health department to make masks a local health department decision for students in K-12 schools.

I have many feelings about that but what I really want to emphasize are two things.

One that at this time masks are still required in Seattle public schools so please do not send your child to school without a mask based on that recommendation you might have heard today.

Two, the school masking requirement is ultimately a decision of the governor.

And if he decides to make it a local health department decision, it's then a local health department decision.

So my point is that we are many steps away from it being or ever being a local school board district decision.

So we look to the governor for that.

I'm sure more will be coming.

I also want to share really sad news that we had a member of our community, Steve Goldblatt, passed away on Monday.

Steve Goldblatt was an integral part of Seattle Schools' success in both our BEX and our BTA capital levies.

He is a member of our BEX BTA oversight committee, I think, since the beginning.

His wisdom, guidance, humor, and laughter will be missed on that committee for sure.

Another member, we have another one where Steve Taggi shared that Steve remained a great teacher to the end and leaves an incalculable legacy in our industry.

I was privileged to have seen him in action in a variety of settings and he was the same in all of them.

Insightful, curious, generous, and all with a sense of humor.

we can only hope some of that rubbed off on all of us so thank you um to Steve for his um like I said his um how much he gave for our district over the years I'm I know it's sad and I I know that we all appreciated him and um hope his family wishes family peace so that is all I have to say for tonight thank you.

Okay, thank you, Director Rivera-Smith.

We will now move on to Director Rankin.

I don't have a whole lot else to add that I didn't already say in my legislative and committee updates.

Yeah, I look forward to, in addition to what I talked about in the updates, speaking with legislators and other folks about civic education and governance structures and how we can increase access to that, access for advocates and students and families to understanding governance in our state.

I think following along with what Director Harris was saying about effective advocacy, the more We can help folks understand the process of how decisions are made and where they can engage and how we are represented by free and fair open elections.

And I'd love to get more PTA folks involved in legislative session just in general, do less fundraising, raise funds by advocating to the state to increase equitable funding throughout the state instead of selling car wash tickets, for example.

But also in terms of advocacy, just in terms of being the curriculum and instruction committee chair, seems like we need a real heavy lift and increase in civic education.

in our communities and yeah.

Okay, thank you Director Sardieu.

Thank you.

I just, I only have a couple comments and I want to say thank you to my American Indian Alaska Native siblings for your testimony and advocacy around Billy Frank Jr.

Day.

And I'm going to share a quote.

I recently participated in a workshop and it's common standard procedure to do land acknowledgement, but this one was different.

And it really captured for me why I chose to run for school board.

I'm only gonna read the second part of it.

And this is from a program at the University of Washington.

And it says, we explicitly acknowledge the historical trauma caused by colonialism that led to policies that were harmful to families and communities.

We honor all parents, both past and present, as they move through this world, raising their children and navigating the challenging experiences they face with resilience and strength.

And so as we think about whose land we're on, to have the students speak and testify to honoring one of our local leaders.

His impact is still with us today and shows up in many different places.

And I just want to acknowledge that you represent leaders of the future by engaging in positive and constructive political discourse and advocating for things that matter.

So I appreciate you taking your time out today.

You could have been doing many other things, but you chose to wait until your turn to testify, and for that I am grateful.

Thank you, Director Samaritz.

Thank you.

Thank you to the voters.

I'm very excited to have this mandate to serve our 50,000 students.

Thank you to our students and community members for their public testimony today for making March 9th Billy Frank Jr.

Day.

And I look forward to supporting this and working together to honor the local and national legacy of Billy Frank Jr.

With regard to the student assignment transition plan that we had earlier, and I understand in this scenario that the boxes were checked.

A program change is not a board decision.

An item that was introduced to the board two weeks ago gets put up for a vote at the next meeting.

But I do push back and the situation that we had a robust conversation two weeks ago about the program change because this was a shift from a K through five virtual program at Queen Anne Elementary to the K through 12 program as cascade parent partnership program that was not in the draft that we saw two weeks ago.

And I know that I'm not a decision maker here, but these are two schools in my district district for and I would really appreciate you in enabling me to support your communications and transition plan with more information and data on how this decision was made and how the change will proceed.

Um, two weeks ago, the U.

S Supreme Court announced that it was going to be making a decision on whether race conscious admissions programs at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina are lawful.

And I'm bringing this up because as we have courageous conversations about race and education as a district, I see this backdrop of continued harm from perpetuating the model minority myth.

The plain fact is the model minority myth harms everyone.

And as we're doing the work to right the harms to our students for their educational justice, this is my ask that we are intentional and thoughtful when we use terminology to describe demographic groups.

We should not refer to demographic groups or ethnicities with terms that they would not use to self-identify.

I'm going to give an example, and I'm not saying that this example came from our district, but I have seen it used in community, and it's the term Northern Asian.

This is not a term that presumably Japanese, Korean, and Chinese communities would use to describe themselves.

And instead, it serves to perpetuate the model minority myth and thereby perpetuates white supremacy.

Remember, when everyone is free, until everyone is free, no one is free.

And barring from Dr. Keisha Scarlett and the introductory video for Black History Month.

Let's make circles, not lines.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Song-Muritz.

I will keep my comments very brief.

I am eternally grateful for the voters of Seattle for helping us to continue to support our children collectively, especially during a time when there is an immense lack of resources for not only systems, but people and individuals.

The continued commitment to our students, both financially and from a standpoint of community, is greatly appreciated.

And I believe for us at this point, Directors, it is now how are we going to utilize this mandate that has been handed to us in order to serve our children to do that in the most effective way possible.

and I believe under the leadership of Dr. Jones up until this point.

as well as the board that we currently have, it is a clear sign that we have a commitment to not only serving every single child in this district, but also using and utilizing a specific focus on those who are furthest away from educational justice, a specific focus on Black boys and teens within our system, and it's clear that our community agrees with us in that fact.

So with that, It is 623 and there being no further business on the agenda, going once, going twice.

All right.

This meeting stands adjourned at 623 p.m.

Thank you all very much.

Have a wonderful evening and I will see you next time.

Thanks all.

Take care.

Good night.