begin by welcoming Lauren Foti.
She is our Interim Board Office Administrator.
Is Lauren here in the room?
I can't quite see everybody.
Okay, there she is.
And so you can see Lauren over here up at the front learning how it works.
And she will be working with Kathy Pham in transitioning into the Interim Customer Service who, excuse me, as Kathy Pham is transitioning into the interim customer service manager slash district ombudsman position.
So a couple of pieces of information there, an announcement.
Ms. Foti grew up in Gig Harbor and is a Western Washington University alum and holds an MBA.
She most recently worked at several universities in higher education management and we are very happy to have Ms. Foti join our team.
So welcome.
All right with that why don't we go ahead and she can learn how to do the roll call.
Absolutely.
Director Blanford.
Present.
Director Martin-Morris.
Here.
Director Patu.
Here.
Director Peasley.
Here.
Director Peters.
Here.
Director Carr.
Here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And with that let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Alright thank you and the next item on the agenda is recognitions.
We don't have any of those today so we will save what we have for our next meeting and similarly with student presentations we don't have those tonight and we will pick those up starting next month.
So with that I will turn to Dr. Nyland and ask if he would like to make his superintendent comments.
I would.
Thank you.
Good evening.
Welcome.
Updates.
School started last week and I've had the opportunity to be in seven of our schools and that's always both exciting and then it's also what would I say.
It's interesting to find out what schools kind of feature what what you recognize and what you notice when you walk in the door.
When I went to Whitman Middle School, they had 30 workers out front.
They had 50 volunteers getting oriented.
There was no place to park.
I finally got into the building.
It took a while to find the principal.
They were getting ready to have a delegation of 15 students arriving from Japan momentarily.
And the principal says, no, no, we'll take you on a tour.
And they took me on a tour of the building and showed me how they were very intentional about where sixth grade classes were held, one end of the building, so that they could have shorter passing times, less time for kids to get in trouble, and save time for an activity period at the beginning of the day where they could teach social emotional skills.
And it went like that.
through the whole building, just very, very, very intentional and thoughtful about how they could maximize every moment of learning time.
At Ballard, they were very intentional about welcoming students.
So they had red and white stars up all over the building.
And I don't know what they have, 1,700 students or something like that.
They had to look throughout the entire building to find their name and take the star down and go put it on their locker.
And then as I went to classrooms, something that you don't often see at high school, the teachers all had students with name placards out so that the students could learn each other's names.
And then Kevin Weinkopf, the principal, leads the link crew work.
And so he had 250 freshmen in the gym in groups of 10. And they were playing name tag so that they would learn the names of the 10 students in their group so that they would have at least 10 students and their two upper class leaders that knew their name.
So, wow.
And then I had a chance to start the first hour of the first day at Chief Sealth, where they did the same kind of thing with Link Crew.
And I thought back to my days as a ninth grader at Roosevelt High School and kind of coming in from a border part of the attendance area, so I knew nobody.
And kind of all of the upperclassmen looking cool and definitely not looking out for the freshmen.
So lots of good work being done in our schools.
We have a little bit less than 53,000 students in school according to our enrollment counts.
That's up from last year but down a little bit from what our projections are.
So we'll as we have the last couple of years we'll have to monitor that from a budget standpoint.
to see what the impact of that is on our budget.
We did add almost 100 teachers from last year to this year, partly in anticipation of enrollment growth and partly from the class size initiative teachers funded by the legislature.
15 of those teachers there was not quite enough room in the buildings for them.
And so they're being utilized as intervention or support teachers within the building as a process of the principal working with staff to figure out how best to deploy those teachers.
As I visited Beacon Hill, it's an open concept school and they have three open concept areas where they have four classrooms.
So challenging to have three, you really have to work on your low talking voice to have three classrooms of students in kind of one large open space and then to put a fourth class in that area is challenging.
And then at Thurgood Marshall, they had created a classroom and they were keeping it small, about 20, but it was about half the size of a typical classroom.
So, and then we have had to notify two of our daycare providers that they'll no longer be able to have dedicated space in a building.
Hopefully we can accommodate them with some before and after school space, but it will mean that somebody will have put things in a locker and get them out and put them back away at the end of the day.
Regarding the strike, I'd like to thank our two bargaining teams that worked many, many, many, many long hours, especially over those two weekends, the Labor Day weekend and then the weekend right after school would have started.
And then we finally reached an agreement about 7 a.m.
on Tuesday morning.
So look forward to working with SEA on the many initiatives that we agreed to in the contract.
And certainly glad to have everybody back at work.
Thanks as well to the city of Seattle.
They partner with us on emergency management and preparedness in many areas and they stepped up during the strike to provide extra places for students to go and coordinated with us in terms of providing lunches and snacks to students.
Highlights from the tentative agreement with SEA include compensation.
14.5% increase over the next three years including COLA.
Some partnership work around the issues of equity, expanding our race and equity teams by about 10 schools per year and then working on the professional development that will support a fair and more equitable discipline.
Recess, we agreed that K-5 students would all have at least 30 minutes of recess during the school day.
In year 3 of the contract we will be extending the instructional day by 20 minutes.
The teacher day remains at 7.5 hours.
In terms of evaluation, we have had growth ratings and those will be eliminated in kind of we'll be working together on a peer assistance review process with SEA.
We agreed that we would work together on an assessment calendar trying to recognize kind of balancing the amount of assessment that we really need and the amount of time that that takes.
Special ed caseloads were balanced out.
In some cases some were raised, some were lowered, some were added.
CTE, career and technical education advisors, stipends were added to make sure that there were at least three per high school.
And then some career ladder position was added in the area of math, science, PE, and the arts.
SEA ratified the agreement.
We'll be bringing it back to the school board for their approval on October 7th.
In order to bring it before the board for approval we need to complete the red line version, the salary schedule, and then we need to talk about a calendar for making up the lost days.
We hope to have the calendar ready within a few days.
October 9th will most likely be a school day.
The day between the semesters, I think it's January 30th, will probably be a school day.
The two quote-unquote snow days in June will likely be school days, and that leaves two more days to be fit into the schedule somewhere, either to come from vacations in the middle of the year or added on at the end of the year.
And all of that means that graduations most likely will all have to be rescheduled.
State law says that we can let students graduate five days before the end of the school year, but no more than five days before the end of the school year.
I think we have a slide here on smarter balanced assessments.
We've had some questions about when those results will be available to parents.
We just got them last week and in some cases we have to track down the student because they're now in a different school if they've transitioned from one level to the next.
I asked for this slide but I didn't look at it beforehand.
So the first slide I think shows the bright bold lines should be our scores and the fainter lines should be state scores.
So thanks to the good work that staff and teachers have done over the last several years.
We have been working on the college and career standards, the higher college level standards that replaced our 10th grade standards that we had in place up until now.
And I think that's apparent from this slide.
And the next slide, let's see, I have some comments here.
Where are they?
I think I lost my place here.
Anyway, we did well on the Smarter Balanced and the scores previously were in the 70s on the 10th grade standard.
Now they're all in the 60s on a, at least for the students that took the test, on this 12th grade or college level standard.
So certainly proud of our students and our staff.
We've got a couple of federal issues that we've been addressing.
One of them is FERPA.
FERPA is the Family and Education Rights and Privacy Act that requires us, kind of like all of those things that we get in our mail from our banks and everybody else telling us what their privacy rules are.
So we're trying to figure that out.
If parents opt out and say that they don't want directory information released on their child, it's really easy.
We just have to do what the parents said, and we can throw away the form after the end of the year.
But that means that you opt out of things like getting your picture in the annual.
Then it gets really complicated.
So there's about a half a dozen things that parents might want to opt in for.
even though they might opt out of having directory information.
And the challenge is that for everyone that they opt in for, we have to keep those records for seven years.
So we're trying to figure it out in terms of how do we manage this paperwork, how do we do that without creating a nightmare for clerical staff, and how to respect parents' wishes.
So we'll keep working on that one.
The other one that the federal government is helping us out with is, I guess, because of all of the robocalls that we get at home on our phones from sales and marketing people, the FCC has written a rule saying that we're also included in that rule.
And so we can no longer send our robocalls unless it's an emergency.
All right, thanks.
So we're trying to work through that one.
It's really a handicap.
We were just getting good at using it, and probably in some cases we were overusing it.
But for many, many of our parents, especially our ELL parents, it was a lifesaver.
It was just a perfect way to communicate in that somebody could translate the message, and we could hit send, and it would go to that hundred set of families of that language group.
and not to others.
And now we're just really stymied.
So we're trying to figure out what that would look like.
Lots of listening opportunities coming up.
First one we'll highlight is not ours, but one that we hope everybody takes advantage of.
The Senate Education Committee is going on a statewide tour holding seven community meetings around the state.
And I believe that the one closest to us is in Renton at the Puget Sound Educational Service District.
And I believe that it's on October 19th, although as I look at that, I'm not sure that's correct.
But we will post the correct information in the comments.
And the questions that they're asking are just really really close to what our labor negotiations were around in Seattle.
So the first question is should we have localized salaries.
The second one is should school districts be allowed to do what we're doing now which is to supplement the state salaries that Technically we're on a state salary schedule from 35 years ago, the last time the legislature dealt with this issue and the last time they promised to fully fund salaries.
They're now funding about 70 to 75 percent of salaries statewide and we're using probably half of our levy to support salaries for teachers and for others.
The third area is levies.
So I guess if you do something like this, if you say that the state doesn't fully fund salaries, but school districts help out a lot by using their local levies, but we're not supposed to, then the state is in the business of trying to figure out where would we get the money to pay for salaries?
Why don't we take it from local levies?
So that's the third question that they want to know about.
And then the last question is how long should the transition be, which I hadn't noticed that one until I looked at it.
And I think that's very appropriate in that the last time they did this, 35 years ago, they gave Everett a 6% pay boost compared to everybody else in the state.
Governor Gregoire started to transition a few years back and Everett's now down to 5%.
So it's been a 35-year transition period and they haven't begun to address the inequities that were in place 35 years ago.
So transition question is a good one.
We will be doing our normal work.
Each fall we set a legislative agenda for work with our legislature.
We'll be bringing that before the board at our next board meeting, October 7th as a first reading and then an adoption at the second board meeting in October.
And we will be including, in addition to our previous points, we'll be including these two issues of salaries and levies.
The Seattle Times by the way I believe on Sunday had an excellent overview of the legislature's review of salaries in 2012 and pointed out that.
Even with the recent negotiated settlement in Seattle and the huge boost that we put on top of state salaries with local levy funds, we were still just a little bit short of what the state said should be in place for every teacher statewide across Washington.
And as part of that work for October 7th we'll bring forward for a fourth year in a row a resolution asking the board to urge the legislature to do their job and to step up and fully fund McCleary as required by law.
We have levies, two levies that will be on the February 2016 ballot.
One will be around BTA, buildings, technology and academics, athletics.
And the other one will be around our maintenance and operations which covers about 25% of our entire operating budget for the district.
We'll be having a series of community meetings over the next few days looking for input on those.
Particularly for the BTA, the board met in a work study session last week and said we need to step up in two areas.
We need to certainly take care of our aging buildings and look at safety considerations.
But in addition to that, we need to continue to work on capacity issues.
And then for technology, even though we have been funding technology, we've funded it maybe at a level of about half what our surrounding neighbors have funded theirs and the board said we should look at increasing that amount.
So that decision will come before the board in the next few weeks and will go on the ballot in February.
We also have a series of meetings coming up around, I want to say this one very carefully, boundary changes and student assignment priorities.
The boundary changes are not anything, how do I say this?
They're the boundary changes that the board approved two years ago, but are being phased in.
So yes, they'll be.
new when they happen but they're not new news compared with what the board has already set in place.
So we're not proposing any surprise changes to boundaries that haven't been already discussed a lot.
So this is more a series of information meetings for those parts of the district that still have changes coming under that plan from two years ago in terms of the student assignment plan.
There are some tweaks proposed in the student assignment plan that has to do with priority waiting lists that you get if you want to transfer your student to an assignment different than the one that has been given to you by the district.
Bell Times is also going out with some more or less I guess more firmly defined options.
And the board also dealt with that in a work study session a few weeks ago asking for a no cost alternative that would still allow us to move forward with later bell times for high school.
And I believe that staff has been able to do that and that's being vetted with schools and it will go out for community comment here in the next few days.
And down to the good news.
I had the opportunity to meet with Rotary.
I think I did that.
We did the TA at 7 a.m.
I didn't stay quite that long.
I stayed until about 2.30 in the morning and then our two teams finalized all of the details and then I was giving a speech, bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8am in the morning with Rotary.
And so that was, it's always a great group, they do a wonderful set of scholarships for students that otherwise might not get scholarships.
So it was just a delightful conversation about our SBA results and how they can continue to support students in the district.
Yesterday we had the opportunity to meet with our equity race advisory committee.
And they did three wonderful recognitions.
They recognized Senator John McCoy for his work on Since Time Immemorial, which is a native-based curriculum that's now required for all districts in Washington.
They recognized the staff from our district who had been instrumental in the resolution a year ago for recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day.
We'll have a report for you at the next board meeting October 7th on what we're doing with a little bit more lead time from last year to help schools celebrate that day in schools.
And then they recognized Rainier Beach for their international baccalaureate for all program so I think one of the things that makes Rainier Beach's program unique is that when they say IB some schools do that as kind of a magnet program and we have IB kids and then we have other kids.
Rainier Beach says it's IB for each and every student and they really follow through on that and it's made a huge difference in their graduation rate.
And their next one up is, and we're going to do that for special ed and ELL students.
So not only do the kids take the test or take the IB course, they pass it and earn credit.
So wonderful recognition by the Equity Race Advisory Committee.
And then the Metro Classic was held I guess two weekends ago now, a week and a half ago.
Wall-to-wall football from Friday evening all day Saturday and all of the Metro teams have an opportunity to play at least one other Metro team.
So kudos to Eric McCurdy for this now the second year of reviving an old tradition that had been in abeyance for a while.
So that concludes my update I am requesting that action item number one board policy number 3405 student wellness be delayed to the October 7th board meeting so that we can review the collective bargaining agreement language to ensure that the new policy supports the collective bargaining agreement that we just are in the process of bringing forward to that same board meeting.
So thank you.
Thank you.
All right, the next item on our agenda is student comments.
And like the student presentations, we don't have those for this evening.
And we'll look to our October meetings to resume those items.
So with that, we've now reached the action portion of the agenda.
I'd like to address staff's request to amend the agenda.
Do directors have any further questions about what's been proposed?
Oh and looking at Director McLaren reminds me that I wanted to be sure that the team noted that Director McLaren has joined us.
We will welcome her.
She came not at 445 but 425 so if we could have the record reflect that that would be great.
Director Peasley.
Are we on the consent agenda yet?
We are on a motion to amend the agenda.
Okay no questions.
All right so I'm not seeing any questions so I'll entertain a motion to amend the agenda to delay action item number one adopting board policy number 3405 to the October 7 meeting of the board.
So moved.
I second the motion.
So with that if I could call on Ms. Pham for the vote please.
Director Patu.
Aye.
Director Peasley.
Aye.
Director Peters.
Aye.
Director Blanford.
Aye.
Director Martin-Morris.
Aye.
Director McLaren.
Aye.
Director Karr.
Aye.
This motion has passed unanimously.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
So that does now bring us to the consent agenda.
And so we'll lead by asking do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda?
Director Patu.
I like to remove the highly capable student program annual plan.
Thank you.
Any other requests?
All right.
So with that let's take a vote on the remaining consent agenda items.
Am I getting this right Teresa?
Thank you.
Sometimes these are tricky to navigate.
If so now we have a motion to if I could have a motion to approve the amended consent agenda.
So moved.
Seconded.
Is that sufficient.
Teresa or do I need to go back and read the whole title.
All right.
All right.
So it's been moved and seconded.
So with that we would go ahead and take the vote to approve the amended consent agenda.
So all those in favor say aye.
Aye.
All those opposed say nay.
All right.
And so now we would read the item that has been removed into the record and have it seconded and then we can discuss the item.
So if we could look to Director Peasley to read that item into the record.
I move, excuse me, I move that the board approve the highly capable student program annual plan as submitted to the office of superintendent of public instruction for school year 2015-16 to support highly capable services and the district's gifted eligibility identification process and that the school board authorize the superintendent to apply for the grant and to accept and use these grant funds With any minor additions, deletions or modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent.
I second the motion.
Thank you.
And this item had previously been introduced and discussed so I think at this point let's go to directors for what questions or comments that they have please.
So let's start with Director Patu.
I actually pulled this item out because there was a lot of questions, a lot of emails that were sent in from a variety of parents concerning that they did not have an opportunity to weigh in on the highly capable plan so I wanted to just find out if that's true or why didn't we involve the parents and community in this conversation.
Well, it was presented at the C&I meeting in August and then it was discussed at introduction at the last board meeting.
Board members asked several questions which our office has responded to as part of the Friday memos.
So, if there are other questions.
I mean it has been out there since August.
I guess my question is was there any community engagement in terms of actually getting parents and community to come in and actually have an opportunity to put in their inputs and discuss this capable plan, highly capable plan here.
And that was the comments that I received from a lot of the emails that they did not have an opportunity to weigh in on this plan.
Were there particular items that were brought up that you would like me to respond to?
Not necessarily, they just were very upset that they were not a part of the conversation.
And my question is did we give the community an opportunity to wade in on this plan before we actually finalized it?
There was no formal community engagement thing beyond what happened at CNI and at the introduction last month.
So can I jump in?
Yes.
I think I remember this coming up at introduction and refresh my memory because It's not as sharp as it could be tonight.
I thought I remembered we discussed the fact that this was around the administration of the program, not the nuts and bolts of what we offer, how we offer it, but more the envelope around the structure of the program.
So could you comment on that?
Because that's how I remembered it.
Sure.
Yeah this is Shawna Heath, Executive Director of Curriculum Instruction.
This is the annual plan that allows us to submit to OSPI sort of the administrative guidelines that then in turn allows us to receive the money to support the program and the service.
Right and it doesn't change any of the existing service offerings without public engagement.
I mean this is just again kind of the structure of the program administration not the mechanics of the actual program itself.
Yes I think that's an accurate characterization.
There was one question that came up about the procedures, the superintendent procedures which were discussed in the community last fall before the superintendent signed them in January.
One of the questions was about an updated version signed in June.
The only difference between the version signed in January and the one in June was two words because the SES had not been properly identified to mean socioeconomic status.
And so that was the only change in the June 1st version.
I think I saw some other hands.
Go to Director Peasley and then to Director Martin-Morris.
Yeah, we did receive a number of emails and I forwarded one of them to Michael Tully.
I'm sorry about that.
I should have forwarded it to you.
But there are questions about the screening and about accuracy of the report or inconsistencies within the report.
Yes, I can respond to that.
Okay, do you want me to read some of the questions?
Certainly.
Okay.
On page 5 the plan indicates that Seattle Public Schools does not use a screening process.
On page 6 the district has provided information about cognitive assessment measures used to identify highly capable students.
Both the COGAT screening form and the COGAT full battery are to be used to identify students in grades K-12.
Can advanced learning confirm that nominated students will be administered both of these tests?
So that is one question.
Okay, the first part of that question is about do we screen out students using the screen.
Screen is one of those words that works in both directions and the language specifically on the form says that the referral process could include a method to screen out students who do not qualify for the highly capable program based on clear and current evidence.
That is right above the place where we check either yes or no.
And the answer to that is no.
We do not screen students out.
We screen students in.
That's why we do the second grade screening.
So it's a, I think there's a lot of, confusion and misunderstanding about that, we use it to screen children into the program, not to keep them out.
There were two other questions.
Also on page 6 the district reports that the results of state assessments will be used to measure academic achievements for students in grades K-12.
This cannot be correct because there are no state assessments for grades K-2 and 9 and state assessments will not be administered to students in grade 11 who met or exceeded the college and career readiness scores on tests taken in 10th grade.
The plan also indicates that students in grades K-12 will be assessed using measure of academic progress.
I believe schools are only required to administer the map to students in grades K-2.
So I'm not quite sure what the question is in there but maybe you could provide some clarification.
Yes I think so.
This form was completed in June, no in July.
July 27th I think and at that time the district assessment schedule had not yet been published but I looked at those questions in a different way.
We serve children who come in from all over the country and all over the world.
And so I take this to mean what academic achievement measures do we look at?
And so if they bring in something from a state that has state assessments in kindergarten or in grade 11 or whatever it might be, that information is factored into our eligibility decision.
So, I mean, we could change it so that it becomes Seattle specific and in which case instead of state assessments K through 12, we would say 3 through 8. That's a change we could easily make.
But I felt that the other was more inclusive since we do get children from all over the country.
And for the second part of that, the MAP exams, In some districts they use MAP exams up through 8th grade or even higher.
So I did not want to limit our assessment measures to just what we do here.
But I could do that, in which case we would say measures of academic progress K1 and 2, but there are some schools that still use it at other grade levels.
So I felt to be inclusive was more important than to be exact on those particular figures.
Those I would call, you know, insubstantial or not substantive changes.
that one change about whether the procedure should be dated January 12th or June 1st is again not a substantive change, but we could certainly make that change if you would recommend that.
The reason that we're bringing this forward is that it requires a signature and we have to submit to the state the minutes from this meeting at which it's approved in order to access the $500,000.
All right so let's go to Director Martin Morris and then to Director McLaren.
I guess this is more of a comment than it is a question.
This is I guess this is a form that is required by the state of Washington.
It is not so the word plan is kind of a misnomer.
It's really not a plan.
It is an application.
It really is a grant application is really what it is. to the state to say give us the money because we're doing these things as prescribed in the form that is being presented to the state for approval.
That's really all that this is about.
So around the community input that's not where community input comes in in the grant application itself which is what this is.
Yes I agree with that assessment.
Director McLaren.
So just to build on what you said I wanted to point out from the curriculum and instruction committee this is a routine item.
We have approved this each year as Director Martin-Morris says it's an application for grant funds to support our screening processes and we do it every year.
And I missed the gate where I usually ask the committee chair about the committee recommendation and please if you would be willing to do that, that would be great.
This was heard by the curriculum and adoption.
Wow, it's been a while since we've been here.
Curriculum and instruction committee and was moved forward for approval for the full board.
Thank you.
Any other questions or comments?
All right so it's been read into the record, moved and approved so we will go to a vote.
Ms. Spam.
Director Blanford.
Aye.
Director Martin-Morris.
Aye.
Director McLaren.
Aye.
Director Patu.
Aye.
Director Peasley.
Aye.
Director Peters.
Aye.
Director Karr.
Aye.
This motion has passed unanimously.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
So that I'm lost in my agenda here.
Bear with me a moment.
All right so that completes the consent agenda.
The next item on the agenda is public testimony and the clock shows us just after 5 o'clock.
And so we'll go by the clock there on the wall and we will jump right into public testimony.
All right, so the rules of public testimony are on the screen.
And I would ask that you, that speakers are respectful of these rules.
I would note that the board does not take public comment on issues related to personnel or individually named staff.
I would also like to note that each speaker has a two minute speaking time.
When the two minutes have ended, please conclude your remarks.
What I will do is call three names at a time.
If people could, the next speaker could kind of be cued to come forward as the first person speaking.
And so we will start with David Posner.
I know I get your name wrong every single time.
I'm so sorry.
Followed by Leslie Harris and Carol Simmons.
I get it my whole life, so no problem.
0 for 3 on that one.
Good afternoon yes I am David Posner I am currently a substitute teacher for the Seattle School District.
I wanted to just briefly say I strongly support the resolution declaring a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions for elementary students.
But I want to talk today about something that's related but slightly different or a different aspect of it and it's the practice of withholding participation from certain instructional activities due to non-compliant disrespectful or disruptive behavior.
Behaviors which don't qualify as suspendable but are discipline by definition and I don't know if you have the handout that I prepared.
So on the back are the RCW and WAC But I'm going to kind of work off the front.
So these are facts.
Students are denied participation in recess field trips to specialist classes such as music, art, and PE due to behavior.
You know, I don't need to read this.
You can read this yourself.
We've talked about this before.
This does occur.
What I've come to realize with the help of speaking with an attorney, my daughter, that this practice violates state policy, OSPI policy.
The definition, first of all, these withdrawals, these withholdings and denials are by definition They are disciplinary actions.
Two and three require that principals and staff meet, develop consistent policies, and ensure that those policies are enforced consistently.
So if every teacher in a given school decides to follow a policy that allows recess to be withheld, that would be consistent.
But that doesn't happen.
And then finally and most importantly perhaps from a procedural perspective is that this data must be submitted to the state data system.
And there's no data collected because these are undocumented disciplinary actions.
So that puts the district out of compliance.
So students are entitled to due process.
That's what these steps outline.
By continuing to allow this process to continue, we allow the district, the district continues to be out of compliance.
Thank you very much.
All right, next is Leslie Harris, followed by Carol Simmons and Chris Jackins.
Thank you.
I have a question of the board chair before I step in it, if I might.
Yes, go ahead.
Is it a process question?
This is, in fact, a process question.
I would like to spend a paragraph on the personnel report.
And if I don't use a name, am I within?
the rules for public testimony, or should I go talk to Mr. Cerqui and ask for guidance?
If you're on the fringe of it, I would suggest you do the latter.
If you can make the point without calling out a name, then go ahead and proceed.
Let me check with Mr. Cerqui, if I might, so that I don't offend.
All right.
Thank you.
If you're OK with that, why don't we switch you and Carol Simmons, if that's all right?
So we'll let Carol go next, and then we'll come back to you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for your flexibility.
In 1975, the first disproportionality task force recommended the elimination of suspensions for all grade levels.
Subsequent task forces have made the same recommendation as the disproportionality data did not improve.
This recommendation was never implemented in the schools.
In 2014-15, almost 3,000 students were suspended from Seattle Public Schools.
Almost 600 of these students were elementary children.
Black, Latino, Native American, and Samoan students continued to receive the most disproportionate suspensions, often at four times the rate of white students for the same offense.
Since 1975, it was documented that many of these suspensions were subjective and only deemed necessary from the eye of the beholder.
Many of these suspensions were for misunderstanding of cultural differences that were perceived as defiant and or disruptive conduct.
Suspensions also included non-violent offenses, such as rule breaking, failure to thrive, and non-attendance that disproportionately affected children of color, special education students, and ELL learners.
This was brought to the school board's attention since 1975. Don't you think that it's about time we did something to correct this and implement it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right the next speaker is Chris Jackins followed by Jana Robbins and Anthony Shoecraft and we will slot the speaker we skipped whatever point she's back in the auditorium.
My name is Chris Jackins Box 84063 Seattle 98124 of the Nathan Hale $500,000 settlement of construction issues.
The settlement agreement was signed on August 28 by an assistant superintendent.
It seems like the school board should have voted on the settlement before the district signed it.
On the personnel report, three points.
Number one, the district's longtime general counsel Ron English has announced his retirement.
Number two, I sat on the opposite side of the table for Mr. English on a number of issues where I would have wished that the district's policies had been better.
Number three, Mr. English gave many years of skillful service to the district and I respectfully wish to thank him for his work.
On amending board policy 1010, this action would reduce the full board's oversight role.
On the consent decree and settlement regarding accessibility of the district's website, two points.
Number one, the plaintiffs in the court action against the district are parent Noel Nightingale and the National Federation of the Blind.
I wish to express my thanks to these plaintiffs and their attorneys for their efforts.
Number two, please provide reports at future school board meetings on these issues.
On the boards of distinction application, two points.
Number one, the board is applying to be considered for an honor by the Washington State School Directors Association or WASDA.
Number two, the application from WSSDA indicates that boards will receive points toward the honor by attending WSSDA events.
This sounds self-serving.
Please vote no on this item.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next is Jana Robbins, Anthony Shoecraft, Elizabeth Fleck.
Good evening.
Almost a year ago students and parents came to principals, the superintendent, executive directors and the school board with concerns about children not having enough time to eat their lunches or move their bodies during the school day.
We were told by this board and many district officials to be patient that a wellness task force was working on a wellness policy for 18 months and would bring their recommendations in June 2015. So, at the next board meeting you will vote on the adoption of this policy.
We have recently learned from task force members however that the policy you approve will not have the strongest language that they crafted.
Their wellness statements included the word will which is a clear directive.
The policy the board will vote on now includes should statements.
Should is more of a suggestion than a policy.
So here are our questions we'd like addressed during board comments.
What does it take to get the stronger task force version in front of the board for a vote?
Basic needs to eat and play are not shoulds but musts.
How will the wellness policy be implemented and what accountability measures are there to ensure schools follow it?
What is the status of developing a districtwide recess policy that protects and values and defines recess outside of bargaining agreements that expire?
What is being done this year to ensure all schools are scheduling at least 25 to 30 minute lunches so students can be guaranteed their 20 minutes of seated lunchtime?
Our lunch and recess group is compiling lunch and recess data and I've heard lunches are still only 20 minutes long total.
So with transitions, hot lunch lines, students still don't have 20 seated minutes to eat.
Thank you for answering our questions.
Thank you.
All right, Leslie Harris has come back into the auditorium, so we will go ahead and let her speak next, and then she will be followed by Anthony Shoecraft and Elizabeth Fleck.
Thank you.
Leslie Harris.
I am a parent, community member, 13-year veteran of PTSA and several years on BLT, and I'm a candidate.
Number one, I'm confused, and I hope that the directors can comment on some of my questions in their comments.
Why is an employee who resigned after an administrative investigation on the payroll until January 1, 2016, as is listed on the payroll and the personnel report?
This is the same employee who received a $50,000 raise for a new job recently.
There are no documents or explanations.
This is the same employee who refused to negotiate with South Seattle College for rent for Middle College High School three years ago after which time Middle College High School at South Seattle was evicted.
With Director McLaren's assistance we got Middle College High School reinstated over at High Point.
I would suggest to you that money talks and that $28,000 a year as was referenced for the rent in Middle College High School could probably be usurped several times on that employee's retirement and or being on the payroll.
Two, I don't understand why we're hiring a SPED contractor for $500,000.
when we've hired folks down here at the John Stanford Center in the SPED department but we have upped the ratios for kids and teachers and IAs out in the schools.
Three, absolutely in favor of COLAs for clerical staff at the John Stanford Center.
I think it's terrific.
I do hope however that the board will take a look at the optics of healthy raises for senior staff and where is FACMAC?
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right, so now we are to Anthony Shoecraft, followed by Elizabeth Fleck and Sabrina Burr.
Good evening, board.
My name is Anthony Shoecraft.
I'm a local community member and advocate.
I serve as the Director of Engagement and Equity for CCER.
That's the Community Center for Education Results.
And as you know, you're a key partner in the Roadmap Project.
We are the staffing entity for the Roadmap Project, a collective impact initiative, really focused on driving serious change in education, created a career in South Seattle and South King County.
I'm also a member of the Seattle Public Schools Black Male Think Tank, but most importantly, I'm a very proud elementary age parent.
Go Sea Dragons, my parent, my little daughter is at South Shore.
I'm here to express the Roadmap Project support for the resolution called for a moratorium on out-of-school suspension.
First, I'd like to thank the courageous leadership of Director Martin Morris for moving this very critical measure forward.
Our project, including our Advocates Caucus, places a very high priority on eliminating discipline disproportionality in all of our schools and our districts, and we view it as a key strategy for getting to our 2020 goal of doubling the number of students that are on track to graduate from college or earn some kind of career credential by the year 2020. I've made copies of the support letter that we emailed to you yesterday.
I won't go into all the dense data, but I will say that the impact of this measure will influence the lives of many young, many lives, young lives, particularly students in the south end of the district, students like me in particular.
And with it seeking to mitigate the aggressive and disproportionately applied tactics and policies towards students of color is a good thing for our students in the south end.
As a graduate of this district I stand before you having survived the very real material structural consequences and emotional consequences of these practices and I got to say now I'm on the other side of things now as a professional and disheartened that our district is still struggling with this some 20 years later and yet with that myself along with a vast list of partners of the roadmap project urge passage of the motion and we also are encouraged by this motion with it wanting to mitigate the impacts of these practices.
We stand with you as in the shared enterprise of this work and really look forward to joining you in the community engagement aspects of its successful implementation.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Elizabeth Fleck, Sabrina Burr, Mary Patterson.
Is Elizabeth Fleck here?
All right why don't we move on then to Sabrina Burr, Mary Patterson and then Rebecca Brito.
Good evening school board directors and Superintendent Nyland.
I did email you what didn't fit in my two-minute testimony, so I hope you take time to read.
everything that I have to say about the resolution on ending in school suspension through grade 5 for reasons of not being of a violent nature.
For many years Seattle Public Schools has been victimizing families by practices that we know that we can do better.
We know that through trauma-based teaching and that we can change how we discipline our kids and that we know that when we send kids out of school that they don't learn but they also get into more trouble as my sixth grade daughter told me when I told her I was testifying here tonight.
We have to partner with families and stop problematizing families and students.
We are one of the biggest contributors to the pipeline to prison network and we can do better.
My brother was a victim of the system and he was killed in 1998 in downtown Seattle.
The knife that pierced his heart was not the first injury to his heart.
The first injury was by this institution.
He dropped out of school at Dunlap.
He didn't physically drop out until Rainier Beach.
But the atrocity started at Mountlake Elementary.
That's been four decades and we still do this today.
So I ask you to build capacity to work with families and communities and to resolve this situation so that we can make sure the brilliance in every child is honored and that we contribute to the society of citizens who have great innovation and contributions who can take the jobs that we are not qualifying kids for today.
I thank you for all that you do and I ask you to vote in favor.
Thank you.
Mary Patterson, Rebecca Brito, Rebecca Vo.
Mary Patterson.
I don't see Mary Patterson.
How about Rebecca Brito?
And then followed by Rebecca Vo.
If I'm saying that name right.
Thanks for giving me time to speak today.
My name is Rebecca Brito.
You can pull that out if you want.
It's fine.
I am here to talk about the wellness initiative going forth.
I became involved in parent advocacy for our students as my daughter was denied recess because I neglected to sign a reading log or we didn't get our homework done and I strongly feel that disciplinary action that prevents children from experiencing physical relief going outside, being social is a detriment to not only the students, the classroom, the classroom community.
I'm also concerned about the type of lunches that are being served in our schools.
I think that Items that are made up specifically for the economics of school lunch that are high in carbohydrates and sodium are not beneficial to the children's bodies and their abilities to participate in the classroom at their optimum ability.
I said that I was brought in under those conditions as a parent advocate.
I joined an awesome group on Facebook called Lunch and Recess Matters.
That was a gateway group for group that I now lead.
I am a lead facilitator in Soup for Teachers.
I want you to know that parent organization is not anonymous.
That we are a very consorted and organized effort to bring positive change to the district.
And tonight I would like the opportunity to share our mission statement with you.
Soup for Teachers builds community among educators, families, and schools throughout the Seattle Public School System as they advocate for positive change across the district.
We encourage collaboration and foster connection to strengthen our schools, our communities, and our city.
I think it would behoove the Seattle Public School Board and all administration to make a better effort to engage with parent groups that want positive change.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Can I just do a check with Ms. Pham?
I noticed the bell didn't go off.
The light was flashing.
Do we have a?
Oh, OK.
All right.
I just wanted to be sure I wasn't cutting someone off when they still had time left.
All right.
So thank you.
So I'm guessing this is Rebecca Vo, and you'll be have an opportunity to correct me.
I say Vaux, but Americans can say Vaux.
OK.
And then just for the record following her is Dale Bright and Sean Harris Kempf.
So your time will start when you start speaking.
Good evening.
Rebecca Vaux, parent of two at Hazel Wolf K8.
Thank you directors for your op-ed in the Seattle Times entitled There is no money left on September 15th.
The last few weeks, though disruptive to students and families, have done a lot to raise awareness about the chronic underfunding of education in this state.
Many parents learned about McCleary for the first time while others realized its full ramifications.
Your article helped many see what they didn't know, and now there is outrage, fury, and much discussion among parents about how they can be heard in Olympia.
The state is in contempt of court and being sanctioned $100,000 per day, and still they've made very little movement toward meeting their paramount duty.
You said, I quote, this is what the McCleary ruling looks like on the ground at the local school level, and we need the public to demand this funding mess be fixed now.
We need the legislature to step up to fully fund basic education.
We heard you.
In response to your call, a handful of parents formed a new group called Washington's Paramount Duty.
We started with five people in a coffee shop.
Ten days later, we have over 2,200 members and counting, all wanting this mess to be fixed.
Our mission is to compel Washington State to amply fund basic education and swiftly fulfill its paramount duty.
And we need your voice again to help meet this mission that you clearly share with us.
Last week our children delivered a letter to this building addressed to you.
In it, we asked you to adopt the resolution proposed by the Network for Excellence in Washington Schools, calling on our state officials to promptly and fully comply with the Supreme Court's orders in the McCleary case.
As you know, SPS is a member of NEWS and the SPS lead council serves on the NEWS board.
NEWS is asking its members to adopt this new resolution that was drafted after the court's contempt sanctions in August.
Please adopt this resolution at your next board meeting.
As the biggest district in the state, SPS can and should demonstrate strong leadership here.
As educators, education administrators, and parents, we're all in this lack of funding hole together, and our voices are stronger when we speak in unison.
So please don't delay.
As you said, the time to act is now.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Dale Bright, Sean Harris-Kempf, and Rochelle Dickerson.
Superintendent, Directors, my name is Dale Bright.
I'm the Political Director for Labor's Local 242. In February of this year we asked Rebound to survey three of the projects that have recently completed by on construction on schools for Seattle Public Schools.
Projects were Arbor Heights Elementary.
The apprenticeship attained on that job was 0% utilization.
James Adams Middle School repurposing and seismic improvements attained a 2.4% apprenticeship utilization.
Historic Horace Mann School attained a 7.34%.
The state passed in 2010 a requirement that all school construction attain 15% apprenticeship utilization.
These are opportunities for our community access to the trades.
Recently with the City of Seattle we found this problem a few years ago and they passed priority hire.
provides opportunity to community members who are underrepresented in the construction industry to come into the trades, gives them access to our jobs.
That's really important.
I'd like to have someone come in and present to you about the City of Seattle's Priority Hire Program and how we can serve the community with these projects.
Because apprenticeship utilization is an extension of the state educational system, provides good careers.
Not everyone is on a college path.
And I'd appreciate it if you guys would look at this and get back to me.
I would love to present to you on Priority Hire in the City of Seattle.
Thank you very much.
Sean Harris-Kampf, Rochelle Dickerson, Thomas Liggett and then there are a couple of spots if someone would like to speak and has not yet signed up you can do so up here at the front.
So Sean Harris-Kampf.
All right, so we will move to the next person, which is Rochelle Dickerson, again, followed by Thomas Liggett.
And if there are others that would like to speak, you can go sign up.
I want to make sure you can hear me really well before I start.
Pull it up close.
OK.
There you go.
Before my timer starts.
Yep, thank you.
I cannot fully express the pride I felt supporting the educators and families over the past two weeks of contract negotiations.
The organization Soup for Teachers, now nearly 3,000 strong, was recently formed as a reaction to the media's insistence and school district message that the issues educators raised during contract negotiations were solely about wages.
They felt it imperative that the public be reminded that our educators are, for the most part, hardworking, amazing individuals whose sole focus is imparting knowledge and socialization to our children.
Super teachers made it possible for people to connect and galvanize badly needed support around our striking educators.
Throughout the month of September, they were constantly told what cannot be done with this amazing community.
First they were told they couldn't get the parent community to support the educators at all.
Then the media would side with SPS and support would wane.
Then they heard they couldn't generate cross-district school support because of long-standing social and economic divides between North and South Seattle.
And then they were told they couldn't or shouldn't get families to welcome the teachers back to school with Sunday's vote looming, that they should stop talking about the strike.
And when school began, old resentments would resurface and the support system would collapse.
The opposite is happening.
Without the educators, your jobs and my presence here would be meaningless, and yet they always seem to be your last priority.
Soup for Teachers only flipped a switch.
The public, by a large majority, agreed with what they were saying and answered the call.
The community came together over this past two weeks to support the people on the front lines of our children's education.
Educators in our opinion are rock stars.
Resisting being beaten down by the disrespectful yet absent administration meant to support them.
We absolutely refuse to allow the media in the district's administration to paint the teachers as greedy slackers because we know better.
Thank you.
And the next person, the last person that signed up is Thomas Liggett and I see him coming to the podium so we'll let him speak for two minutes.
If there are other speakers to speak please go up and see Ms. Pham at the desk up here.
I cede my time to Rochelle Dickerson.
So I'm going to have to stop you there.
We only let each person have one speaking slot.
So you can see to someone else.
That is not what your rules say.
That is not what they say.
Ms.
Carr, please allow me to speak.
Let me clarify.
There is nobody left to speak.
You have two minutes left of your time.
It's my understanding, Teresa, that each person gets two minutes.
You can have, if you've got something written that you want him to read, that's perfectly fine.
No, you have two minutes to listen to me.
This is ridiculous.
You have two minutes to listen to me.
All right, so here's what we're going to do.
At this point, we're going to take a quick break.
The meeting is going to be recessed, and we will reconvene and pick up where we left off.
No, no, I'm going to give my speech.
During contract negotiations, I noticed