Seattle School Board Meeting - Dec 16, 2020

We'll be calling the board meeting to order in a moment.

Could we please hold comments while SPS-TV takes us live.

After a 5-second pause I will call us to order.

This is Director Hampson.

I am now calling the December 16th 2020 Regular Board Meeting to order at 330 p.m.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Director DeWolf.

Director DeWolf.

Present.

Director Harris.

Present.

Director Hersey.

Here.

Director Mack here.

Director Rankin here.

Director Rivera-Smith present.

And Director Hampson here.

Superintendent Juneau is also joining us for today's meeting and additional staff will be briefing the board as we move through the agenda.

This meeting is being held remotely per the governor's proclamation prohibiting meetings such as this one from being held in-person.

Public is being provided remote access today by phone and through SPS-TV by broadcast and streaming on YouTube.

To facilitate this meeting I will ask all participants to ensure you are muted when you are not speaking.

Staff may be muting participants to address feedback and ensure we can hear directors and staff.

I will now turn it over to Superintendent Juneau for her comments.

Thank you so much.

I guess people are still listening to Governor Inslee.

If everyone who's listening to Governor Inslee could mute their their phones that would be helpful.

So I just want to give I'll be brief today just about staff changes.

As you know I appointed two new cabinet level leaders last week and I just want to take a couple minutes to thank Dr. DeBacker for her service to Seattle Public Schools and to just give a really quick introduction of our new central administration leaders and just want to thank Dr. DeBacker for saying yes two years ago to join Seattle Public Schools as the chief academic officer.

Done a lot of great work.

She's ushered in new science curriculum a lot of professional development a shift to remote learning summer schools.

Just a lot of work has happened under her leadership and I just want to take a moment and thank her for everything that she's provided for Seattle Public Schools families school communities students our educators.

You know I want to thank her for her tenacity her smarts her humor and her grace during one of the most challenging moments in the history of public education.

Her leadership will be missed but like me she knows that she's leaving her division in very good hands.

And with that I just want to say thanks to Keisha Scarlett for saying yes for taking the helm as the new Chief Academic Officer.

As you know she's currently the Chief of Equity Partnerships and Engagement.

Keisha's a multi-generational resident of Seattle and a graduate of Seattle Public Schools.

She has vast educational experiences ranging from an early career in STEM at Boeing to working as a STEM teacher at Mercer Middle School.

She was the Principal of South Shore Pre-K-8 Human Resource Director and in her current position as Chief Equity Partnerships and Engagement Division has really pushed central administration to really and throughout the district really to really keep racial equity at the forefront and to build partnerships across the city.

She's dedicated her career to advocating for and creating academic opportunities and environments that tap into the inherent brilliance of students particularly those furthest from educational justice.

She's on a mission to normalize Black excellence and to eliminate opportunity gaps.

And she pushes our system to do better and be better for young people.

And to fill Dr. Scarlett's former position as you heard that I have appointed James Bush to lead the Equity Partnerships and Engagement Division for the past four years.

He has served as the.

Executive Director of School and Community Partnerships.

And under his leadership we have secured $130 million in City's Family Education Preschool and Promise Grants that support 30 schools through 2026. Opened 18 emergency child care sites in Spring 2020 and 47 child care centers this school year that serve 2,000 students daily.

He's helped build institutional alignment between Seattle Public Schools and low-income housing partners.

He's developed a variety of data resources to support partner organizations in tracking monitoring and supporting our students.

Prior to joining Seattle Public Schools he served as the Neighborhood Programs Manager at the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods where he managed a variety of community building programs and has served as a key leader in the City of Seattle Race and Social Justice Initiative for three of Seattle's mayors.

And I just want to point out that it's really a testament to the overall strength and excellence of our staff that we currently have that we can fill these positions with such high caliber individuals.

We're very fortunate that Dr. DeBacker has been here the past couple of years and that Dr. Scarlett and James have accepted their new roles and will continue to lead our district during these challenging times.

So please join me in welcoming and thanking Dr. DeBacker and welcoming Dr. Keisha Scarlett and Mr. James Bush to senior leadership.

Okay.

We've now reached the consent portion of today's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

I move.

Sorry I'm still getting my notes pulled up here.

One second.

I move to approve the consent agenda.

Is there a second.

Second.

The approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Director Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

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

Hearing none.

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

Those opposed.

The consent agenda has passed unanimously.

Let's see.

We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda and it is not yet 345 p.m.

I would ask if any committee chairs would like to give their board committee reports now in lieu of taking a recess to keep the meeting going.

We will then begin testimony at 345 p.m.

and come back to committee reports as needed.

I will go first to Operations Chair Director Mack.

Yes good evening.

Wasn't wasn't quite prepared to go first but I will go ahead.

And do my best to be succinct and not ramble on too long.

We had our last meeting on December 3rd where we covered quite a few things.

I believe some some of those things are on introduction tonight.

Our next meeting is on the 14th for our regular Operations Committee meeting but we have now scheduled and I think you're all aware of a Operations Committee meeting of the whole and I believe that is on the 3rd.

I'm sorry if I'm getting the date incorrectly.

No it's it cannot be the 3rd January.

It's within that first week though and please refer to the calendar for that meeting.

That committee of the whole is going to be focused on the Student Assignment Transition Plan for next year.

And the boundaries around Mercer Middle School so that we can move those items forward before open enrollment happens and get those decisions made.

So the timeline is a little tight.

My understanding is that staff has been hosting numerous community meetings around these proposals And that committee meeting of the whole we as a full board will discuss the proposal and then it'll be introduced at the next January board meeting two weeks later.

So there'll still be time for conversation and process once that happens.

One of the items that came in front of us at the last meeting was the Traffic Safety Committee.

And that committee which is actually a committee that is a City of Seattle sponsored committee and we have staff and community members that sit on that but it is not one of our advisory committees.

They have done an amazing job of creating a document around school site planning guidance for traffic safety to support the planning process of buildings early on.

to ensure that those projects are considering traffic safety as the as they're as they're developing.

It was really great to see that presentation and the full actual document is is in the in the packet if you want to take a look at it.

And the next meeting is not But the agenda is not finalized but it will be in early January and we'll see you at the community meeting of the whole in early January.

Thank you.

Okay I'll go next to Director Rivera I'm sorry Director Rankin for Student Work Supports for General Instruction.

Yeah thanks.

We had our December meeting on the 8th of this month and some of which we discussed are on the agenda for today.

Some new course additions that are really exciting and it was great to hear from the content area managers about those things.

Exciting stuff about Black Studies and Black Education as well.

And course additions in alignment with the our recent resolution in support of LGBTQIA plus students.

So good stuff.

We also in committee let's see this past Spring When we began talking about the Students Rights and Responsibilities Handbook for this year it's an annual item.

There was some questions and concerns from board directors around aligning making sure that the handbook and student guidance aligned with some of our upcoming initiatives around supporting Black students and some some of our values around discipline and such.

And we asked at that time that the student Rights and Responsibilities Annual Item come to the board sooner in the year than it has.

And so thank you to staff for responding to that request.

And we got kind of an introduction to the work that's going on for for next year's at this month's committee meeting.

which is is great and so I'll just encourage my my board colleagues to if you have any questions or comments or things you're wondering about the that Erin Romanek and staff are ready and willing to chat with you or receive questions as that work moves forward.

We also had a very very helpful update from the Digital Learning Department that I just wanted to again say thank you.

And for that and if if if folks are interested you can let's see that memo would be in the meeting materials which you can request from the board office and and I'll try to post some of the information as well.

It was a really nice overview of some work and questions that have come in.

I think someone else is unmuted.

Questions about the digital space and tools and concerns that have come in kind of bits and pieces.

We were able to get that update all at all at once in one one place in one memo.

So big thank you to that for that.

And that That is I think the update from from committee.

We'll have more we'll have more coming in this meeting.

Thank you very much to both chairs.

We will next go to public testimony as it is 345. 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 time to a later speaker on the testimony list or waiting list the person to 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 time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or wait 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 Hampson.

Quick logistical note.

Speakers please remain muted until your name is called to provide testimony.

When your name is called please be sure you have unmuted on the device you are calling from and also press star-6 to unmute yourself on the conference call line.

Each speaker has a 2-minute speaking time and a chime will sound when your time is exhausted and then the next speaker will be called.

First on today's testimony list is Leilani Norman.

Leilani if you're on you can go ahead.

Go ahead.

Yes we can.

Hello my name is Yellow Buffalo Stone Woman.

I'm my English name is Leilani Norman.

I would like to talk about the good expectations that I feel like the Seattle School District needs in a superintendent.

I feel like us Native students deserve to be heard and need to be able to under be understood.

We are tired of asking for respect due to the recent superintendent.

We need someone who knows how to connect with our community is able to show that they care and is able to help other our communities with funding.

We are sick and tired of trying to ask for respect when we're just being ignored.

In our next leader we deserve to be able to connect with our superintendent and to be able to help one another and to be able to make my and the other students around me.

We deserve to be heard and we deserve to be able to help make that change as well not to be blocked off from our from our dreams and expectations that we want for the rest of our future.

As well as our programs at Clear Sky I feel like they need to fund help fund Clear Sky and help connect with Clear Sky as well.

We need more recognization from the next speaker in attendance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Wilson-Jones please call the next speaker.

Next is Kayla Harstad.

Kayla Harstad.

Can you hear me.

We can hear you.

Go ahead Kayla.

My name is Kayla Harstad.

I am Turtle Mountain Chippewa and Assiniboine Sioux.

I'm a junior at Ingram and I'm here to offer Indigenous student perspective on what style of leadership and qualities I would want to lead our public education institution.

Seattle Public Schools has a unique opportunity to start a new chapter with the future superintendent.

Leadership qualities that would be most supportive of reaching marginalized students include a leader willing to interact in the community.

A leader willing to join our Native community in feasts gatherings community events.

A leader with roots and connections with culture and community.

I would like a leader that is open honest transparent willing to grow and learn from students and is compassionate and fair.

A leader willing to admit when they make mistakes and own up to their failures while striving to do better and not have a hidden agenda political ambitions or fall presences.

Some priorities I hope the new superintendent will focus on is enhancing Indian education accountability to parents students and community.

Lead Indian ed by example through active engagement with Indigenous students and families.

Increase resources in order to provide support like they're supposed to.

Seek out more perspectives from Black and Indigenous families to guide decision making.

Working closely with BIPOC youth to develop the creative ways to address the achievement gap.

A student leadership council selected by students and community and not district staff.

I hope to see more schools focusing on teaching about Indigenous resilience contributions success and triumphs.

And to conclude I am looking forward to the future that we feel hopeful that our elected public servants Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors will start a new chapter titled The New Beginnings.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Staff will please call the next speaker.

Next is Cherise Gaffney.

Cherise Gaffney.

Hi.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Hi my name is Cherise Gaffney.

I have a 13-year-old at Whitman and a 15-year-old at Ingram.

I'm here to ask the board to make a plan for all grades to return to in-person school this school year as soon as it is safe to do so.

We are in the middle of a mental health crisis for children and teens that is exacerbated by the trauma and the isolation of online school.

We know that students need school resources in-person teacher interaction and peer-based learning.

And the idea that's being advanced by some that it is more equitable to just keep kids home defies logic and is not credible.

You the board have the authority and the responsibility to act with the urgency that this student mental health crisis demands.

An outdoor learning a pilot project for a handful of classes is a distraction from bargaining on real solutions.

Kindergarten and first grade is not enough.

We need a plan to get every grade back to in-person school this year for those families who choose it.

SPS should make a plan now.

Negotiate with its partners now and get buildings ready now so that schools are ready to open when public health numbers are met.

Telling families that it's too hard to shuffle schedules to rehire bus drivers fix HVAC.

Telling us that it isn't worth doing for the last few months of school or that continued isolation is somehow better than disrupting schedules.

All of that fails to recognize how traumatic this situation is for the vast majority of your students.

I urge the board to identify return-to-school goals and negotiate with your union.

Telling family partners

and invest in safety measures for teachers and students now so schools are ready to open as soon as possible.

Please act with the urgency that this situation demands of you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will you please call the next speaker.

Next is Emily Cherkin.

Emily Cherkin.

Good afternoon.

My name is Emily Chirk and I'm a parent educator and screen time expert.

Four young people under 18 died by suicide in October.

Moments ago pediatrician Dr. Danielle Zerr shared that 50 percent of kids 11 to 17 have thought about self-harm or suicide in the past two weeks.

King County has released a health advisory stating that suicide rates throughout our population may rise as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

SPS families need to know there is a district plan to return to the classroom sooner rather than later if families choose.

I have heard the argument that if we send kids to school they and our teachers will die of COVID.

How well however it is a false choice that in order to keep teachers and students safe safe we must embrace 100 percent remote learning.

Of course we must protect teachers.

Other districts have shown that there are safe ways to return to the classroom.

I am an educator and I am also a concerned parent.

Anti-science fear-mongering doesn't help children or teachers.

Both deserve to be safe from COVID from isolation and from mental health crises.

The district must address this.

The recommendations made by Inslee and Reichfeld just an hour ago have opened the door to move forward now.

Tonight please provide a clear date-based timeline before approving this BAR.

I continue to struggle to understand why this district is willing to ask so much of families and teachers yet seems unwilling to do the meaningful uncomfortable work of thinking outside of the box to better serve all families in this city during this crisis.

Nine months into this pandemic I remain astonished by the disconnect between your claim to value equity above all else while you continue to make decisions that negatively impact those furthest from educational justice.

As I said in my testimony in September as a result of this continued failure to think outside of the box and do difficult work you are further exacerbating the very inequity you claim to prioritize and that is inexcusable.

It is vitally important to have a clear plan for a return to hybrid or in-person learning as soon as possible for all students.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will you please call the next speaker.

Next is Alexandra Owens.

Alexandra Owens.

Hi can you can you hear me.

Yes.

Go ahead Alexandra.

Thank you.

I'm the mother of a middle schooler in Seattle schools.

Last week we started a Facebook group for Seattle parents and teachers to talk about reopening SPS for all kids this year as public health metrics allow in the hybrid model.

It's a private group but we have close to a thousand members already.

I am very concerned about the lack of a plan to get all kids back to school this year.

Keeping the vast majority of SPS kids in remote learning for 18 months is not okay.

I am deeply worried about remote learning because the quality of education is inferior.

I am deeply worried about remote learning because it's making our kids sedentary and contributing to depression and isolation.

But mainly I am worried about remote learning because I was a teacher a public school teacher in New Orleans and Los Angeles and I care deeply about equity and I know that remote learning exacerbates the educational gap between low-income kids and more affluent kids every single day.

We don't see the kids who are disengaged and falling behind.

Teachers are working hard but this is beyond their control.

We don't see the dropouts.

We don't see the kids who are being abused because they aren't in school.

I have heard from directors that between 20 and 30 percent of middle school kids middle and high school kids are not logging on at all.

They are completely disengaged.

Their futures are on the line and that is not okay.

If we care about equity we will figure this out.

SPS will vote on a plan to bring pre-K through first grade back starting in April.

That is not sufficient.

And SEA opposes that plan.

I am a strong supporter of unions but SEA seems much more interested in saying no than getting kids back to school and that is not okay.

A thousand members of our Facebook group want to help.

We are emailing the ledge and asking them to approve an emergency supplemental budget to fund reopening.

Please don't say it's not worth it to implement the hybrid model for a few months.

It is.

My sister is an administrator in Baltimore where every school has to have a plan to pivot to the hybrid model in two weeks when public health numbers allow.

They have 25 schools open now for the most at-risk kids.

They have a union.

They have old buildings.

Why can't Seattle do that.

We have to figure this out.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones please call the next speaker.

Next is Chris Jackins.

Chris Jackins.

Hello.

We can hear you.

My name is Chris Jackins Box 84063 Seattle 98124. My compliments to the speakers today.

On the reopening plan.

Four points.

Number one the district's remote learning software sharing student images and data in ways that appear to violate federal law FERPA.

The district should cease these apparently illegal actions.

Number two the two and a half month timeline should be shorter with partial rollout sooner and coronavirus levels allow it.

Number three the proposal needs coordination with the outdoor education proposal.

Number four the resolution includes waivers of board policy made in August.

These waivers need review not an automatic rollover.

On final acceptance of the Queen Anne Elementary School project.

Three points.

Number one board members often celebrate final acceptance of such projects.

Number two at Queen Anne the district forgot to include a sewer connection.

To fix this omission the district removed a large tree from the city landmarked boulevard.

Is the board celebrating this part of the project too.

Number three at Kimball the district wants to remove 40 percent of the significant trees.

At Northgate the district wants to shrink the playground by half.

The board should change these plans not celebrate them.

On personnel changes two points.

Number one.

Chief Academic Officer Diane DeBacker is leaving the district.

I wish to thank Ms. DeBacker for her good work for the district.

Number two Superintendent Denise Juneau announced that she would leave the district in June.

I wish to thank Superintendent Juneau for her good work for the district.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will you please call the next speaker.

Next is Skylar Pond.

Skylar Pond.

You may need to press star-6 to unmute your phone on the conference line.

Moving to the next speaker on today's list.

Sabrina Burr.

Sabrina Burr.

First of all I also would like to thank Diane DeBacker and Denise Juneau for their service even though Denise will be with us.

But I do want to say that I am in favor of approving Resolution 2020-21-4-1 in its entirety.

I just got off the phone and did the governor's press conference.

and ask for some very particular things for Seattle Public Schools especially for some more funding.

But one of the other things that I talked about is a meeting I had today at Lafayette where two African-American young men were not getting the same treatment as their first cousins who have more of their Turkish look.

We came to a positive resolve.

But we have to make sure that we take care of the social and emotional needs of our kids now.

Some are wanting to go back to school.

For some kids they're thriving.

But what is missing is family engagement.

How we work with our families especially those furthest from educational justice and those who are We just need our services.

And what I realize is these teachers did not have the skill around family engagement and so it created trauma to families.

We've had an educator commit suicide.

We've had a student commit suicide.

And I know several parents have.

And so we really have to put our kids first.

Like I just told the governor the most valuable resource that we have in Washington State is our kids.

And I need Seattle Public Schools to put that to action because we are about people and position and we're not about kids in classrooms.

And we need to make it about teachers students and parents as the partner with the students.

It's very very important.

So let's make sure we get this right and put our students first.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Please call the next speaker Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Sarah Sense-Wilson.

Sarah Sense-Wilson.

I want to take a moment to wish Denise Juneau the best with her future endeavors.

We are at a pivotal point in time a crossroads with our public education system.

New beginnings is possible if you all are willing to have a shared vision with our Seattle community.

Members of our community want to usher in new leadership with the following recommendations and with consideration to both budget shortfalls and our COVID pandemic.

Number one overhaul the strategic plan.

Number two start planning healing gatherings and restorative justice sessions with students parents and community.

Number three negotiate an MOA with our multicultural community accountability coalition.

Number 4 external audits of Title 1 and Title 6. 5 overhaul the special education department.

We need administration dedicated to providing services to IEP 504 students.

It is well documented that the SPED department operates and functions to reject postpone and defend administrators and with no effective mechanism for holding staff accountable.

Number 6 eliminate the position of superintendent advisor.

Number 7 eliminate the position of board liaison.

Dedicate those funds towards compensation to youth parents and community members who donate their expertise towards Seattle Public Schools Committee participation.

Number 8 cap the superintendent salary at $150,000 and eliminate the superintendent bonuses.

Number 9. Community participation in decision-making for new superintendent hire.

Do not waste public dollars to contract with a talent search.

And finally thank you to the board members whom chose to stand on the right side of history this time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would you please call the next speaker Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Giselle Jenkins.

Giselle Jenkins.

Giselle Jenkins.

Go ahead.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Okay.

Hi I'm Giselle Asamoah from Ingram High School and a descendant from the Aleut tribe.

We see progress in SPS having that Denise Juneau is resigning from her position.

Now that we have an opportunity with our new superintendent these are the policies we need enforced to make SPS better for students and teachers.

We ask that the new upcoming new superintendent assures consent largely being taught in flash standing for family life and sexual health and enforces policies around sexual harassment that occurs in SPS schools.

We need teachers to be trained in protocol and take the matter seriously.

Schools need to raise awareness about sexual harassment and abuse so that students can identify and prevent these acts occurring against others.

More than half of Native American women have been sexually assaulted including over a third who have been raped during their lifetime.

A rate of rape for Native women is nearly 2.5 times higher than for a White woman according to the National Institute of Justice study.

This reflects a devaluation of Native women and girls in our society and thus our schools.

As a student in SPS no topic including anything about sexual violence and how it is not accepted in any way shape or form by staff nor students was in FLASH.

Not a single thing was brought up about the forms of sexual harassment and assault and why consent for any sort of body-to-body contact is enforced.

FLASH needs to be updated and match more more relevant subjects.

The topic of sexual harassment and standing against it is needed in the curriculum.

We encourage having student voices put in topics discussed in FLASH.

We need to better foster societal and school culture where sexual harassment and violence is not accepted.

It needs to be beyond class agreement but carried out in action too.

Teachers and students can be leaders in ending sexual violence by voicing that this behavior is unacceptable.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones please call the next speaker.

Next is Gia Tran.

Gia Tran.

Hi my name is Gia Chen.

I will be reading the testimony written by Hunter Scherbeck part of the Standing Rock Tribe and a high school senior.

This is it.

Today I am suggesting recommendations for Native education during COVID-19.

These suggestions are based on research and in consultation with professionals and the Native communities.

According to the Society for Research and Child Development SRCD Native students experience an increased degree of vulnerability due to negative consequences of COVID resulting in further distancing our Native students from educational equity.

Interestingly enough while research and common sense point to establishing a strategy for sharing resources for the most vulnerable we see in Seattle a multitude of barriers for Native students.

The apparent lack of a comprehensive strategy to bridge district community and student needs has been exposed by the prolonged and protracted neglect of our district leadership under the watchful eye of all elected officials.

According to SRCD ongoing inequitable conditions may be experienced as interlocking systems of oppression increasing the chance of poor educational outcomes for Native students.

Furthermore it is noted that evidence supports what Native people have always known.

Connections with Native culture and community protect and buffer children from the trauma of inequity.

We suggest SPS establish a plan to engage Native community and Native-led SBOs to develop a multifaceted strategy to reach self-identified Native students enrolled in SPS for bridging resources support and connection to best mitigate the impact of COVID-19 for our students and families.

SPS may start by acknowledging the harm that has been committed against our community by way of ongoing failures to address issues raised and ignored by students and families.

Okay thank you.

Do we have any additional speakers Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Yes.

Next is Erin Okuno.

Erin Okuno.

Erin are you on the line.

Yes.

Many of thank you.

Many of us are concerned with the upcoming leadership change.

Under Superintendent Juneau's leadership there has been more focus on students furthest from educational justice including the start of the African-American Male Achievement Department.

Many of these efforts need time to find their footing and will require executive leadership to see them through to their highest possibility.

Many of us are also wondering what the board's plans are to transition in executive leadership.

During the last leader superintendent search board members made it very clear that they were community was only allowed to participate in the process in very defined and ways.

Family and student voice was not entered in this in that process and we hope that will change in this upcoming search.

The loudest in voices including from organizations including from organizations served as proxies at times which is not good community engagement and nor should that be a substitute.

We hope that you will release your timeline and the general process for the selection very soon so that we can work with you to to find good ways to engage.

During during the last few years Superintendent Juneau has done a lot more community engagement and we appreciate this.

Thank you.

Having to constantly restart and rebuild these relationships erodes the confidence and trust in the institution itself.

So we hope that we can also see the cycles of churn through people stop and that we can also work to center students educators and families because they deserve stable leadership and a balanced working relationship with all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones please call the next speaker.

Next is Bea Balkin-Foster.

Bea Balkin-Foster.

Which translated means sun-had-dressed woman.

I was given this name by Isaac Don Eagle during Sundance at Sitting Bull's Place.

My name is a gift of what I strive to live up to.

My English name is Boo Balkin-Foster.

I'm Apache and adopted Makah.

This is my 26th year as an educator in Seattle Public Schools.

And only the second time my friend asked for public testimony.

I've watched the last few weeks and months have been filled with a range of thoughts and emotions.

Everything from disgust to anger.

It is sad that greatest employers never shared their good deeds or accomplishments because another would speak for them.

Tonight I would like to speak on behalf of Superintendent Juneau.

Not because she needs my support because she certainly does not as she is capable in her own right but because I believe it is my responsibility.

I know what it is like to have the truth twisted be talked about and unsupported all while be creeping at great loss.

I also know what it's like to be an honorable woman in spite of it all.

I see this in Superintendent Juneau.

As you can imagine in my 26 years in Seattle schools I've seen many things.

Under Superintendent Juneau's direction I've seen more women specifically women of color placed in leadership positions bringing a perspective that has never been before.

I watched the Youth Advisory Board develop and their recommendations implemented increasing engagement for our students.

And I have been bullied as an educator as she expanded the success of Tkachi's and opened a second classroom thereby creating a space for our Indigenous students the first people of this land to have a place of belonging and academic success.

It is through Superintendent Juneau's ongoing support at addressing students furthest from educational justice move from a phrase to a reality.

I know this because I am humbled to be part of this process today in my classroom and time with students.

Superintendent Juneau as a lifelong educator as a parent and perhaps most importantly as a Native woman I thank you for your leadership.

Thank you for being an example of an honorable warrior for my own two young daughters and countless others.

It is my privilege to speak highly of you because I know of what I see.

You are a warrior.

I thank you and I raise my hand to you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones please call the next speaker.

Next is Brooke Stromme.

Brooke Stromme.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to negatively impact our Native community.

UNEA conducted a survey with the goal of finding out what families are most in need of.

I will report our findings with the hope that you'll join us in the effort to meet these needs.

When asked what have been the most helpful services UNEA has provided these were the most common responses.

Consistent assistance with groceries and supplies.

Tutoring.

School supplies.

Tech equipment such as printers laptops and headphones.

Offering gift cards for students to earn through activities and trainings and winter coats.

When asked what services they have received from SBS or TUCIDA half reported not receiving any.

For the other half these were the most common responses.

Some support with groceries.

Textbook deliveries.

Tutoring.

Some family supports.

When asked how SBS can better support their youth these were some of the responses.

Letting families know about UNEA and other organizations that provide essential supports.

One parent included this question.

Why didn't my family know about UNEA before.

Acknowledging and acting on the unique needs of multicultural families.

Advocating for special education services and connecting students with IEP's and 504 plans with greater academic support.

Providing an apology for what the district has put their children through.

When asked what their top priorities or most pressing needs are at this time this is what we found.

The most common priority named was consistent grocery support and the others most commonly named were tutoring help with transportation cheaper Wi-Fi technology traditional medicine life skills trainings and programs like Clear Sky.

This is just a snapshot of the basic needs that are not being met.

We suggest Indian ed seek creative ways to meet these needs.

In addition improve and increase lines of communication between families and connect them with UNEA and other organizations providing COVID relief.

In addition accept valuable resources offered by organizations like UNEA.

Recently UNEA offered to Trucita winter coats to share with Native SPS families and received no response.

Why is that.

We also challenge the district to delve into what Indian Ed is and is not doing.

Why have some families not received any resources or services from Trucita.

What funding are they dedicating to providing support and COVID-19 relief toward those high-risk Native students and their families.

Ultimately we are working and living in the same community and share common goals.

To uplift our youth.

Ensure their needs are met.

And do everything possible.

Thank you for your time.

Next is Manuela Slye.

Manuela Slye.

Manuela.

You may need to press star-6 to unmute under on the conference line.

Moving to the next speaker.

Can you hear me now.

Oh yes we can hear you.

I'm here.

Sorry about that.

Can you hear me.

Go ahead Manuela.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Manuela Slye President of Seattle Council PTSA.

I'm here today to state some of our council's recommendations recently made to Seattle Public Schools leadership on behalf of students parents and teachers.

In regards of in-person return to school.

Number 1 hire a COVID-19 SAR or expert to guide reopening decisions to serve as a liaison between the district and the health department and to act as a mediator with the labor unions.

Number 2. urgent plan and vision for support for special education students English learners and other students furthest from educational justice.

In regards of student safety and abuse in our school system.

Number one HR and personnel accountability measures that include topics such as the speed of investigations.

Number two development of clear and streamlined ways to report incidents of abuse racism bias et cetera.

efforts to implement restorative justice practices.

Number three plan process and procedures being implemented to address retaliation such as investigations being done by a third outside party.

Number four a review of investigation and discipline policies and practices should be completed possibly in coordination with OSPI.

Determine the level of offense of for which no higher is possible.

and ensure it is legally reinforceable and part of any termination agreement including resignation.

Finally deeper due diligence on the future appointment of principals and greater engagement to include community staff and faculty.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Joseph Hardy.

Joseph Hardy.

Hello.

Can you hear me.

Yes go ahead.

Yes we can.

Hello.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Joseph Hardy.

I am the head boys basketball coach at Ingraham High School.

I'm here to request that Seattle Public Schools make it possible for permits to be obtained for education-based athletic workouts to continue outdoors.

The state's guidelines allow education-based athletics to have workouts outside with restrictions until January 23rd.

Our our program has workouts that take place 3 days a week and we get anywhere from 12 to 25 kids that show up in this December weather each day.

The outdoor area at our school has only 2 hoops with no roof and no lights.

We can't start our workouts until 4 p.m.

so that leaves us about 30 to 40 minutes of daylight on a sunny day and if it's raining we must cancel.

Our athletic director has been trying daily to get us set up with a better outdoor situation.

But obtaining a permit for us to use at another Seattle Public School hasn't been easy.

We aren't asking to go indoors.

We understand and respect every safety protocol currently with the pandemic.

What we are asking to do though is to be able to relocate to another Seattle Public School for example Hazel Wolf or Bryant Elementary that has a roof over their outdoor basketball hoops and also has lights so we can continue to continue to provide our student-athletes a safe outlet to be around their teammates and peers.

We've been denied the chance to go elsewhere continuously.

By allowing access to another school's outdoor facilities this will keep the morale of our kids extremely high.

Keep them physically and mentally active.

The permits have been extremely hard to come by for what seems like a very easy approval.

We are currently at we're asking the same thing.

We're asking to do the same thing we are currently doing.

Being outside in pods with masks on just to be able to do that at another SPS school outside with a roof and lights.

The kids see all these other states completing their fall sports and beginning of the winter sports and we're at a time when it's very important to keep our kids positive mentally.

It's important that we do all we can safely to make sure we are providing the best and safest experience for our student-athletes.

When it comes to our workouts it's easy to see how excited they are.

But most importantly I speak with the teachers and it's proven that their grades of participation in online classes have improved dramatically and they've been able to consistently come to workouts.

Please reconsider and issue permits for education-based athletics.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Ja'Keesa Lawrence-Smalls.

Jaquisia Lawrence-Smalls.

Jaquisia Lawrence-Smalls you may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Oh go ahead.

Sorry.

Hello.

This is Jaquisia Lawrence-Smalls.

I just would like for Seattle Public Schools to start taking accountability when it comes to racism and racial bias when it comes to especially African-American boys of color.

My youngest son was put in a dark quiet room at the age of 3. The Seattle Public Schools first do not take accountability of that.

They are not keeping information when parents are giving vital information to them regarding their child.

They are also not giving information to especially parents of color when it comes to needs and things that they can do when it comes to assisting children with especially my son's not one of my kids is non-verbal.

So I would like for them to take accountability of that.

And just because a child has a disability that doesn't mean that you count them out.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Christine Tang.

Christine Tang.

Christine if you're on the line you may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Christine Tang.

Moving to our next speaker.

Catherine Seguin or Seguin.

Catherine Seguin.

I see somebody is unmuted.

Is that Christine or Catherine.

Moving to the next speaker on the list.

Janice White.

Janice White.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Yes.

Can you.

Yes.

Thank you.

I am president of the Special Education PTSA which supports the work of Seattle Council PTSA on the anti-racism policy and supports the change needed to make sure that all of our children are safe when they go to school.

As a White mother with privilege who also has a child with autism.

I am also here because these practices that after the fact the district calls egregious and unacceptable have been happening for years to children with disabilities.

In second grade when my son had a meltdown the assistant principal came and videotaped it on her personal cell phone so she would have evidence of his out-of-control behavior.

That same year an SPS security guard removed him from a place he went to calm down when he was dysregulated causing a massive meltdown which led to him being placed in an isolation room.

The next year when he had an issue with his teacher that teacher picked him up carried him out to the hall and threw him against the wall.

In fourth grade I was called to school one day to find my son on the floor with the principal standing over him and about to put him into a prohibited hold until I yelled down the hall get your hands off my child.

What happened after all of these incidents.

My child started running away from school.

One day the school called the police on him and he refused to go to school at all.

We were able to sue and as a result transfer him to one of the schools in the district that has a positive inclusive culture and is accepting of children like him.

Today he is a straight-A student in high school who has not had a single behavioral incident in over three years.

I will continue to come before you and advocate on this issue because the experiences of Jalil and of other BIPOC children who suffer even more because of the intersection of race and disability need to be heard and they deserve to learn in an environment where they can be successful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones could you see if there's anybody we missed before we go to the waitlist.

Checking back for Skylar Pond.

Skylar Pond.

Skylar on the line you may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Okay then moving to Christine Tang again.

Is Christine on the line.

Catherine Suguin or Suguin.

Yes this is Catherine Suguin.

Can you hear me.

Go ahead Catherine.

Yes.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Catherine Sagan.

I have four children in Seattle Public Schools.

Two are in high school and two are in middle school.

I would like to speak about the recently released Pulse survey.

First I believe it is totally unacceptable to take the pulse of the SPS community in October and deliver those results to us in December.

We are in a crisis.

Our children are crisis learning and our teachers are crisis teaching.

Your review of the survey states quote the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more important than ever to check in regularly with students families and educators.

Please Seattle Public Schools take our pulse again and deliver the result in a manner that reflects the crisis that we are in.

I have teenagers and I can guarantee you that their experience in December is significantly worse than their experience in October.

I call it the slow fade.

They are sleeping more.

Contacting friends less.

Missing more assignments.

Turning off their cameras more and exercising less.

They are disengaging and feeling less hopeful about their academics and their social environment.

You are not serving any of the students in Seattle Public Schools regardless of skin color by dragging your feet on reopening schools.

You are serving yourselves the teachers union and the more popular narrative in Seattle which is that Seattle that schools cannot be reopened safely.

Finally I would like to request that you apply more effort to get all children back to school for second semester.

There are models where this is working in Washington state.

The mental health impact on the older students is disproportional.

Please act with urgency.

Do not wave the white flag on this school year for secondary students.

With the vaccine rollout and spring weather around the corner Seattle Schools is about to look very silly with so many students languishing in remote learning.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Next is Meredith McCray.

Meredith McCray.

Meredith Mackray.

You may need to press star-6.

Go ahead.

We can hear you.

Hi there.

I am a Seattle mother of a 5-year-old 3-year-old and 8-month-old and my daughter and a daughter of lifelong Washington State teacher and union member.

I'm testifying today because I feel our kids have been completely forgotten by state and local leadership.

My daughter started kindergarten this September and yet has set has yet to set foot in her classroom or has met her teacher or classmates in person.

She is bright eager to learn and friendly.

At the start of the year she was thrilled to get to her school supplies ecstatic at the opportunity for any social interaction after six months in quarantine.

As the weeks went on however her enthusiasm waned and my heart broke as she became increasingly checked out watching many of the videos intended to teach her to read and write.

While she painstakingly worked through a 10-minute long pre-recorded video she burst into tears saying I'll never learn to write.

Teaching a child to read and write through a screen is not only completely in contrast to how the brain naturally processes information but borderlines uncruel when these kids begin internalizing their own failure to learn in this way that is not set up to be successful from the start.

My daughter is a neurotypical child.

My friends with kids with learning challenges are beyond distraught at how difficult remote school is for them.

The goals of kindergarten are to teach kids social skills and the building blocks of reading and writing and now SPS is completely failing.

This is not the fault of the teaching staff.

My daughter has the most incredible teachers who are working harder than ever.

I hear directly from my dad who is the current public school teacher about how difficult teaching remotely is.

No this is the fault of the leadership.

We now know that elementary schools with precautions in place can be very safe for students and teachers.

We also know how damaging remote learning has been for many of our children and families.

It is imperative that we follow the advice of the scientific and medical community and reopen schools.

43 other states have figured out how to send elementary students back and yet I have heard of no such set plan for Seattle whatsoever for even next fall.

With all the bickering between leadership our kids have been completely forgotten.

The lack of communication from the board or the district leaves me to believe that our kids will be left to fend for themselves.

As the rest of the world advances their education through in-person learning.

Thank you.

Ms.

Wilson-Jones.

The final speaker on today's list is Juliana Rigg Hilliard.

Juliana Rigg Hilliard.

Hi can you hear me.

Yes.

Hi can you hear me.

Yes.

Okay great.

Hi.

Thanks for getting me on the waitlist.

No surprise I'm sure to those of you that I'm calling about student safety.

I attended every one of your community meetings and asked you all the same question.

And you all responded in the affirmative that you would support an independent review unit for people having reports to make about student abuse happening in schools.

And I just want to strongly encourage that process because I find it very important that at West Woodland Elementary where my my kids are we had a teacher there who parents made reports about abuse happening for 25 years and Those reports are hard to find and that teacher remained in his position for that whole time.

And so I'd like to encourage a process which removes barriers to reporting and that allows for a neutral body to review those reports outside of HR and outside of the administration.

The second thing that I'd like to encourage is I hear a lot of talk about restorative justice and I understand from the community meetings and learning from you that it's a priority of the district.

However am I poking around and trying to find out how to have restorative justice practices come even to West Woodland Elementary where student abuse occurred.

That happens from the principal has to ask for it or be in conversation with the district administrators.

And in my opinion I think it's on the school district.

It's their responsibility your responsibility to come into schools where there has been damage done to community and to children who have witnessed abuse and to kids who have been abused.

And that that process of having a principal liaison is broken and that I think that you need to have a more robust system in place to put restorative justice practices where schools and students have been abused.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Madeline.

That concludes today's testimony list.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

So we've now come officially to the Board Committee Reports section of the agenda.

We'll hear we've already heard from Directors Rankin and Director Mack from Operations and Curriculum and Instruction.

And I will now provide some brief comments about both our Audit and Finance Committee meeting and our Executive Committee meeting and ask any of my fellow board members or committee members to weigh in if you'd like.

So on Monday December 7th we met at our Audit and Finance Committee meeting and discussed the annual hiring report Much of which was also was was heard by I believe heard by the board and we had we had a couple of opportunities to delve into that pretty deeply and that was incredibly informative and appreciated.

Lots of good information provided and data provided.

There's been some some real strides made in terms of hiring goals for teachers and other staff of color as well as some clear areas of potential opportunity where we haven't touched yet.

So appreciated those.

Also our annual financial report which we also the board has access to and then the rest was most of our standing agenda items monthly budget and discussing our work plan wrap up for this year and moving into next.

And we also I believe we had some some brief discussion about budget but then we also had our budget work session.

If you haven't heard that I encourage you to.

It's a critical time for constituents to be up to speed on what the things are that the board is considering in terms of our budget.

And we have multiple work sessions coming up and just a huge gratitude to all of our community members that have been participating in the participatory budgeting.

I know that's been a very informative process for us and we'll be excited to hear what it's been like for you as we start looking at planning for that for next year.

I don't know if anybody just brief give a brief moment if anybody wants to add anything that we talked about that you think is critical.

at the Audit and Finance Committee meeting.

And then as far as Executive Committee most of that will be talked about today with respect to our board goals.

Some discussion there as follow-up to our retreat.

And then adoption of Board Policy 6225 use of electronic signature.

We will talk about that.

I had some really appreciate our Executive Director Rainey Swan from the Principals Association coming to speak to us and ask some really good questions and provide us an update on what their discussions have been and the issues that they're tackling as a board.

And another update from Director I mean I'm sorry Chief of Communications Carrie Campbell on the content management system.

And that's there's some really great insights that they've gotten by going pretty deep into community and speaking directly with those that utilize our our website and with those that work with families that use websites use our school district website.

The one anecdote that I was very interested to hear about was when they surveyed students directly the extent to which they were concerned about their their parents being able to have easy access to the website and be able to use it well.

So that was we appreciated that update.

And then a brief update on our own goals with respect to the community engagement template.

And then just briefly talked about planning for working towards progress in the range of policies that have to do with the board superintendent relationship the responsibilities and authority of the board versus the superintendent and how and then associated WSSDA model policies working towards getting to some best practices there and some work that will be really critical as we move into our search for a new superintendent.

And then we briefly talked about government relations.

And unless somebody from the Executive Committee wants to add anything to that Director Rivera-Smith or Director Hersey I think that pretty much sums up our our first executive our first meeting as the executive team for for this year.

And with that we now move to the action items on today's agenda.

So the first action item is Approving Resolution Number 2020 slash I'm sorry yeah slash 21-4.1 Restating and Conditionally Amending the Reopening Resolution Reopening Plan and Remote Learning Model Previously Adopted for the 2020-21 school year.

Before I ask for a A motion for this.

I just want to check in with legal counsel.

Can I go ahead with a motion for this Chief Narver.

Yes you can.

Okay.

May I have a motion for this item.

Absolutely.

I move that the school board approve resolution number 2020-21-4.1 restating and conditionally amending the reopening plan and remote learning model previously adopted for the 2020-2021 school year.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

This item has been moved by Director Hersey seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

This item did not go through committee and is on the agenda for introduction and action today.

I believe we will have a staff briefing but I just want to check in again with Chief Narver Do we want to go ahead and proceed given some of the updates that we got from the Governor I just want to pause now and see if this isn't if we want to go ahead and move through this presentation and the consideration of this resolution as well as the amendment.

Or are there things we need to take into consideration that have been that come out of the governor's office today.

No I think the right way to proceed would be for Chief of Staff Cox to make the staff presentation.

At that point it would be in order if you wanted to introduce the amendment.

And then as part of the board's discussion the effect of what was announced by the governor this afternoon can be discussed and staff can answer questions about the effect that the new new announcement from the governor's office would have on board consideration of this resolution.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

With that then we will start with this the staff briefing and then I'll ask for the amendments.

So we will discuss the underlying item and any amendments at once and then at once do you mean by at once do we mean at the same at the same time or do we mean one after the other.

And then we will vote on the amendments followed by a vote on the underlying item.

Sorry Director Hampson Greg Narver again was that a question to me about.

Yeah I think some of the language got got mixed up here.

So we're going to we're going to discuss the we're going to have the presentation and then the then I'll present the underlying item.

Correct.

the the amendment.

And then we'll vote on the amendment and then the underlying item.

That is correct.

Correct.

Okay.

Chief of Staff Sherri Kokx I believe will be providing the staff briefing.

Thank you President Hampson and good afternoon directors.

This is Sherri Kokx Chief of Staff here to present Superintendent Juneau's in-person reopening plan and BAR with this amendment and the OSPI plan as well.

While I'm presenting this information and the documents today the in-person reopening of our schools is truly a cross-divisional effort.

This work touches every chief's division and they are here tonight to answer any questions that I cannot answer for you.

I'm here today to share Superintendent Juneau's recommendation to the school board that pre-K through first grade students and students receiving special education services in the moderate to intensive service pathways return to a 5-day per week of in-person learning to begin on March 1st.

This is approximately 9,000 students in grades pre-K through first grade and approximately 2,000 students receiving these special education services.

If you're doing some quick math this is about a fifth of our Seattle Public Schools students.

The latest research shows that schools are no longer the super-spreader sites that we once feared.

In fact today Governor Inslee made some made a proclamation and he made some announcements and I'll try to inject where he made those in our presentation tonight.

In fact our state recommends that younger students be prioritized for in-person instruction.

The Department of Health states that a safe return to in-person learning includes wearing masks physical distancing in the classroom improved ventilation enhanced sanitation and grouping kids in cohorts to limit their exposure.

We are already implementing some of these measures in our buildings and standby ready to operationalize all of those requirements.

We have adequate cleaning and safety supplies to move ahead preparing our classrooms to implement Superintendent Juneau's recommendation.

It's important to note that this recommendation is contingent on what was previously referred to as the Department of Health's decision tree for provisions of in-person learning among K-12 students at public and private schools.

Now it's being referred to as the Department of Health and Safety's measures and the L&I requirements.

What was called the decision tree still has 3 levels high medium and low and the range is calculated at the county level and COVID-19 activity is measured by the number of cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period along with other key health indicators such as the percentage of positive tests and trends in cases or hospitalizations.

This recommendation would only be implemented if on February 22nd 2021 the COVID transmission levels in King County are within the moderate or low ranges on the latest version of the Department of Health's health and safety measures and L&I requirements.

If transmission levels are still high on February 22nd Superintendent Juneau will determine that we may or may not return to in-person services proposed for this group of students.

And previously we were holding that she would not recommend it but based on the governor's recommendations today that even in the high category the youngest learners should return to school.

So why did we pick the pre-K through 1st grade.

Staff made this determination to focus on pre-K through 1st grade students including Head Start students based on a number of factors including the academic and developmental needs of our youngest learners.

We know that students this age learn best through inquiry and social connections.

This decision was also based on current staffing and funding.

We simply do not have enough money or staff available to meet the cohort requirements for additional grades at this time.

And we can only lift the operations and facilities getting those facilities ready to bring back the number of students in our elementary and K-8 schools.

We see this as a phased-in in-person re-entry as an opportunity to continue to build public trust for educators school leaders and families.

As we quickly develop a system equipped to support one-fifth of our students we will continuously assess and determine if we can consider an expansion into additional grades or groups of students.

Why students in the moderate and intensive service pathways.

Staff made this decision based on feedback from families and case managers as well as a review of IEP goals and national trends.

We know that students receiving these services have multiple goal areas and receive multiple services.

We believe that in-person learning will mitigate the loss of learning and services that these students require to thrive.

We will be surveying.

are pre-K through first grade families and families of students in the moderate to intensive pathways about their intent to return to in-person or to remain in remote learning in January and again in February.

These numbers will assist with staff's planning.

This in-person reopening comes with an estimated cost of 18.1 million dollars.

We'll have a better estimate after we survey families and after the 2021 legislative session ends.

We are hopeful that the state will change the transportation funding formula which could offset some of these transportation costs.

And while we know that 18.1 million dollars is a lot Staff believe that not returning to in-person instruction for these students comes at a much greater cost to the social emotional mental and academic health of our students.

We remain steadfast in our commitment to the physical well-being of staff and students.

However we must also lift up the physical the importance of these students' social emotional and mental well-being and their academic health.

Our engagement teams in June our child care providers who I want to just give a huge shout out because they stepped up immediately when this crisis hit and opened their doors for students of first responders health care workers and other essential.

So thank you to those folks.

And our equity analysis all point us in a direction to return pre-K through first grade students and students in the moderate and intensive special education pathways to in-person instruction.

Couple of things I do want to note.

One thing to note is that in the resolution it still says on or about February 22nd.

The intent was to align the BAR and the resolution language but in an effort to get this in front of you today I missed that.

And so however if a director would like to strike the on or about language you can offer amendment to do so.

And the other thing is that based on the governor's guidance today I might also suggest that we include high in the return to school category for pre-K through first grade students and students in the moderate and intensive special education pathways.

Before you today is the BAR asking for your approval of the amended reopening resolution 2020-21-4.1 and conditionally amending the SPS 2020-21 reopening plan for OSPI.

With that I conclude my remarks and I'm happy to take questions.

Thank you.

Okay so we're going to now move to amendments.

And so I'll be making Amendment Number 1. I move that this is Director Hampson that the school board approve Amendment 1 to the Board Action Report titled Approving Resolution Number 2020-21-4.1 Restating and Conditionally Amending the Reopening Resolution Reopening Plan and Remote Learning Model Previously Adopted for the 2020-21 school year and Substitute Proposed Substitute Resolution Number 2020-21-4.1 is attached to this amendment.

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

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Is there a second for Amendment 1. Amendment 1 has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Hersey.

As the sponsor I'll now speak to Amendment 1. Based on what I heard at the well first let me just back up and state that the turnaround as Chief Kokx just spoke to was extremely short on this.

And we did not get a version of the resolution proposed by staff until it was posted on Friday.

And So there has not been much time to consider and I think that in given that this is in fact a board resolution that we are required to provide in the instance that we are changing our in-person model that it's incumbent that we try to reflect the directives and the expectations of the board as we move into any in-person any additional or expanding in-person scenarios.

So I did my best to try to capture what I'd heard at our retreat at our work session and from community input that's been pretty extensive.

And many thanks to our partners at Seattle Council PTSA for supporting us and bringing those forward.

And and I believe even in some ways looking ahead and more consistent with things we heard from the Governor today that it's a little bit more encompassing in terms of things that we put forth in August but that are still not fully in process or realized.

Confirming our commitment to Pre-K through 1 and those intensive special education pathways but also making very clear the other groups of students to which we owe a particular focus starting as soon as possible.

And in particular if we are to provide additional in-person opportunities which we have allowed for through outdoor and community spaces that that be ramped up as as as quickly as possible.

So I'm happy to take questions on that.

I don't know if Director Rankin worked with me on this a little bit.

It's again a very short time frame.

If she wants to add anything to this I'll let her take the floor momentarily.

I mean for a moment.

Director Rankin do you want to add anything or should I just keep going.

So then I'll go to directors for questions and discussion on Amendment 1 and the underlying item before we move to the vote on the amendment.

So we can ask questions about both this the the amendment and the the under the underlying item.

And I want to thank directors who submitted their comments directly to staff.

Those revisions came back yesterday and not seeing sufficient revisions I wanted to make sure that we had an alternative.

And then we have some other things to consider obviously with the the governor's proclamation today those considerations that literally dropped right before we started this meeting.

And then also that we we do have a backstop with the potential to meet tomorrow as well on the matter.

So with that I'm going to go ahead and go to to Director DeWolf to ask questions either on the amendment or the underlying item.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Hampson.

My my first question is can you just clarify the value add to approving this amendment over the underlying.

Well as I said the attempt was to make sure that we were clear about what aspects of work the original resolution states that everything in the prior resolution from August is still in effect.

But there are many things that have evolved during that time and I thought given the kind of general lack of clarity of the and ambiguity of the scenario that we're operating in that it was it was very imperative that the the board emphasize underline and update anything in the amendment or in the resolution to which we still want to provide direction and particularly as it pertains to bringing students back in person in any way shape or form.

So I guess my other question is is there value to holding this conversation until tomorrow when the governor's in your in your in your view is it better to hold this until tomorrow so we can basically absorb what has just come down from.

I think that we might be able to make some improvements between now and tomorrow.

And and instead of reflecting on guidance from June that we would be reflecting guidance from today.

So.

personally I think that there is but I'm I'm interested to hear how other directors feel.

I think more than anything we need to leave tomorrow with a directive to to staff to begin bargaining.

But as I've said to other staff and community members that I don't in any way want to surprise our labor partners with any expectations once bargaining has started.

And since we wouldn't meet until the 13th of January anything that that I feel that we need to be transparent about this is our opportunity to do that before bargaining begins which is what this allows with respect to the change in working conditions that would be for pre-K-1.

And I think that there hasn't been enough clarity and trust about The items such as outdoor and special education and this and then now intensive pathways that that we've really truly been on the same page.

So I wanted to provide as much clarity about our expectations as possible in the areas where we may have been less clear in our prior resolution and that we're starting the year that way.

There is the option to simplify and pull away anything that doesn't pertain to pre-K through one and intensive pathways.

That's the other choice which is what the original staff resolution kind of goes to is just that those simple possibilities which which are based on you know kind of the data that we were provided and then our feedback in both work session and in our retreat about where we were.

And I'm very interested to hear where where all board members are at this point all those things considered.

Okay.

I think that's all my questions for now.

I may have another after after this round.

Okay.

Do you want to ask questions of Chief Kokx.

No.

No.

Okay.

All right.

Director Harris.

Well I would be happy to give you a motion to table this till time certain tomorrow so that we can filter and understand the good governor's newest directive.

I feel very uncomfortable passing something when I haven't had a chance to read it or listen to it as yet.

And I think we would do well to do that.

Last thing I want's another meeting but I sure would like to have that underpinning and foundation.

The second question concern that I have I thought we were already bargaining with our friends at SEA.

And I guess I need that clarifying from Chief Kokx not Chief Kokx Chief Codd please.

Director Harris this is oh Dr. Codd you are on the line.

Sorry I thought you were not in here too late.

Go ahead.

Yes I am here.

I am here.

So we we are not bargaining with SEA until we get direction from the board about what needs to be So we've already bargained the current MOU.

We're operationalizing that MOU.

So until something about the reopening of school phased-in process changes there's nothing for us to bargain.

I'd respectfully disagree with you but thank you for your answer.

Okay.

So I appreciate your offer for a motion let me just get through directors to hear from everyone and then maybe come back around to you with that in case there's other other directors have questions that that they would like to ask before that we consider that.

So then I'll go to Director Hersey.

Yeah I mean I think I'm in the same position given the governor's announcements today.

I think it makes sense to.

table this and have a more robust conversation when we've been able to unpack the implications of those announcements.

So I'll hold any comments until we have more clarity around what this means for the system.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

Director Mack.

Yep.

Slow to the button.

Apologies.

Can you hear me okay.

Yep.

Okay great.

I listened to the governor's proclamation and information and I reviewed the resolution that was drafted in the BAR that was sent that was posted on Friday.

Had some conversations around some of the things that left big questions in my mind.

about how this gets operationalized.

And one of the things that's a pretty drastic change is that the metric for bringing in the youngest learners and they defined it as K-5 and through middle school I believe and they said that bringing back high school students was riskier and that they weren't recommending that it that their metric has changed pretty dramatically to 350 cases per thousand which is much higher than it was previously and I think Ms. Cox mentioned that in her presentation.

But my my biggest concern my largest concern that has me Having sleepless nights is that the governor's statement and recommendation to have all students back in person as soon as possible did not give a reality check to the fact that in order to provide social distancing in our buildings We essentially need depending on how you count it twice the number of buildings and right now we have 104 twice the number of buildings to operationalize this or half the students going half the time.

And those numbers may be a little off because I pulled up the data that Mr. Podesta sent to us in a memo following our retreat where we had robust conversations on this about the reality of going back to in-person in a safe manner requires social distancing which effectively requires a reduction in class size.

And a reduction in class size means two things.

that are massive massive to our budget that we don't have budget for and I I feel a little frustrated that the recognition from OSPI and the governor's office wasn't provided that we need twice the number of buildings and more teachers to reduce the class size to those cohort sizes effectively.

So I am fully fully fully on board with the fact that what we're doing now is insufficient.

It is we have lots of students that are in crisis.

The mental health of our students we need to get them back in buildings.

And we have a very physical challenge of not enough building space.

And certainly not enough budget to to provide the number of teachers to to make it work.

And on top of that since the beginning of the school year we have lost in enrollment 2,000 students which account which which equals $23 million I believe is what Chief Berge stated.

So I do think we need to figure out how we can pull a rabbit out of the hat and get more students back in our buildings.

And I would like to see serving more students than the current proposal of K-1 and special ed.

English language learners aren't in that in the superintendent's proposal.

And you know there's a there's a number of other groups of students that Director Hampson has mentioned in her proposal in the amendment.

But the the brass tacks operationalizing how quickly when and where and where are we going to get the money for the additional teachers that will be required.

And do we need to hire more teachers halfway through the school year.

These these these questions of actually how we operationalize are real.

We can't just pass a resolution of something that's getting a torpedo or a budget.

So I am very much in support of having additional questions answered tonight by staff about what's really possible and how can we potentially get to a place where we have a realistic plan that gets more students back in in buildings.

And at the present time the resolution that was proposed I think is insufficient to meeting that goal and doesn't completely it doesn't put the path forward to getting more students than the ones that are listed in in buildings.

And the amendment I'm not sure whether or not it is operationalized.

We need some clarity on exactly how many students we're talking about.

We're talking about you know the 6th graders what does that mean for our buildings.

And the numbers that Fred presented the middle school the enrollment is close to 10,000 students and our capacity under physical distancing is 3,000.

That's a third.

So we we actually have to get into that brass tacks of like Where can these students go.

How do we pay for and assign teachers.

And I I I I'm concerned about putting the cart before the horse with you know potentially passing the amendment tonight without clarity about how we come up with the millions and millions of dollars and the building space and we set up you know hybrid One day a week.

You know I don't I don't know how we do this.

And the plans we have in place in front of us are not clear enough.

So I would I would support tabling it but I would like to have some additional conversation about how we are going to go about asking our legislators and the governor to actually fund this and what are we going to do about the lack of building space as well as the rest of the details and get the plan actually mapped out in a way that's reasonable.

Thank you.

Thanks Director Mack.

Let me hear before any staff weigh in on that let me go to Director Rankin and and we'll we'll see what where we are with the tabling and and whether or not we want to listen to some any of those answers or feedback from staff.

I think probably we'll have some questions about what what we need for tomorrow.

So let me hear from Director Rankin please.

Thank you.

I yeah I would be in support of our additional comments from from staff right now and then having the next 22 hours or whatever to kind of absorb what's in front of us and the recommendation or and the new the new announcements and I think give give you know community pass and SEA at least a brief window to to communicate with us if they can before we actually vote.

So that that being said I have one big big piece that's that I am wondering is you know we can make a lot of different assumptions based on staffing and students.

And I know the models from HR that came that they worked on over the summer for staffing numbers and such came with a certain set of assumptions of students that that would choose to remain remote and staff that wouldn't be available for in-person and whatnot.

But now that we're at the point where we're voting on it's not theoretical anymore.

It's this is this is the next thing that will happen.

It seems really critical to me that we immediately survey families and not in a what do you think how do you feel but very specific per each school.

If your student had the opportunity to be provided in-person instruction would you would you participate yes or no.

And you know I don't know if that would need to break down a little bit in terms of saying you know would you if it was one afternoon a week.

Would you if it was twice a week.

Would you if it was every day.

You know I don't know what what scenarios we need to ask but I think it's a little you know our Our underlying assumptions about numbers of students could just be totally off.

And I think that as we move forward we have to know really what students and families would participate and what wouldn't so that we're not just either planning for a large number of students that don't come or or missing some other piece.

The other thing that I'm wondering about is in New York They increased in-person services based on families that had had to answer you know in the fall if they would take the opportunity to come back in person yes or no and did not allow that to be updated.

And their thinking of course was oh students furthest from educational justice students of color we have to get them back in person.

And they're now end up ending up serving mostly White families.

in-person and so I would like us to be more thoughtful and deliberate about our staffing resources and just what we actually want to be providing and make sure that the students that are available that anyway I think you know what I'm saying.

So the for staffing for Pre-K 1 for all day every day in order to space those students out and and have you know the smaller class sizes the additional staffing are any of those is that all like IA's or does that include specialists like PCP or you know ART PE library and if it does what happens to their workload or expectations for what they are currently providing for the rest of their school population while we're remote.

I have that question.

And and then I'll just say also that the Chief Cox's introduction of this was more clear to me That I'll just the original resolution felt very final with just these small groups of students and which is partly why I support the the amendments to make it clear that as we can you know we want to provide more opportunities to students to more groups of students.

And so Chief Kokx your your introduction of the item was clearer that that is also the intention of the recommendation from the district.

So between today and tomorrow aligning aligning those things and kind of making that more clear would be appreciated.

Thank you Director Rankin.

And if staff if you can just hold and make those notes and then I'll give you a chance to respond to all of that once we determine whether or not we're going to delay the vote to table.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi thanks.

So yeah I'll start with likewise.

I feel that we could gain value from holding off on our decision tonight because I honestly I have not had a chance to read this.

I mean all the way through it came out at about 3 p.m.

today and I know it had to go through some steps to get to us.

At the same time though I did not get a chance to read it thoroughly so I am not even clear what the difference is between it and the original resolution.

I very briefly can tell it's got just more specifics pulled from the original August resolution regarding outdoor ed.

But I can't tell yet if there's anything additionally added that wasn't in the August one.

Anyways I'm needling this home right now.

I would really appreciate time to read it over tonight and then cover it more tomorrow because I'm not sure even if staff then had a chance to look at it closely.

I'd be curious if they have and if they have have any opinions on the operational outlook of the items in the substitute resolution.

Anyways but yeah with with Governor today that really threw us all for a loop I think.

And it was great that he did that but at the same time it was too close to this meeting to really absorb and and get it get it in our heads about what what we need to adjust here.

And I appreciate the new outlook to get more students in.

That is something definitely I know a lot of us feel very passionately about and we know we have a lot of families who those students are in crisis and students are struggling.

We need to do more.

We need to act urgently.

But we need to do it right.

I don't think acting tonight urgently is the answer.

I think that we need to really do take time to process.

My questions and I know I have a chance to ask the staff too.

I think going back to when Chief Kokx introduced the original resolution.

So I'm looking back through my notes what I wanted to ask her about that.

So it sounds like Chief Kokx you do acknowledge that We can bring back students in even in the high category that by the governor's orders that we understand tonight we acknowledge that even in the high bringing in those students for the youngest learners and the the pathways that that is that is something we understand would be called for.

Director Hampson would you like me to answer this question now or not.

Is that the extent of your questions Director Rivera-Smith.

While then I'm going back to did staff have a chance to look at the substitute resolution and if they have any comments on the outlook for that operationally or budget or any way they'd like to comment on it.

Okay.

So why doesn't staff go ahead and provide any brief responses to what's been brought up and or let us know that you'll that assuming that we come back tomorrow.

that you can provide it at that time if it's not something you have access to now.

All right.

Thank you.

This is Chief Kokx again.

Director Rivera-Smith I'm going to start with you.

The my our understanding and again we were listening at 230 right before this meeting is that in the what now is considered the high range is greater than 350 per 100,000 that it still says it says that elementary students can come back in small groups.

meaning 15 or fewer students.

And so for us our our issue goes to what Director Mack was discussing is that when we look at our staffing The presentation that we brought to you tonight is because is limited because we have enough staff for pre-K through first grade students to be in the smaller class sizes because of the way we've staffed our schools.

We do have enough to make that happen.

We will not be using PCP staff.

and we will not be using librarians.

However we will be using interventionists and ELL teachers to get to that 15 to 1 ratio for the pre-K through 1 recommendation.

And so you know while while we would love to bring more students back at this point our capacity in our buildings and our staffing capacity is what's limiting are the limiting factors and of course the dollars that would allow us to buy more staffing should we be able to hire that many.

And so to Director Director Mack's point we we have brought to you what we can with current staffing levels operationalize as far as staffing and capacity.

I think that gets to your question Lisa and I think it goes in support of what Director Mack was was pushing on as far as the governor's recommending 15 or fewer students.

And if you remember our staffing for our middle and high schools is 1 to 28 or 1 to 30 students.

And so we would have to be breaking those classrooms in half.

Director Rankin you asked I had mentioned in my comments that we will be surveying our our families in pre-K through first grade as well as our families with special education students in those pathways that I had mentioned.

We will that survey will roll out first thing when we return to school in January.

And with a very intentional plan school by school on how we will reach out to those families.

And it will be an intent to enroll type or an intent to enroll in person or an intent to remain in remote.

with a little more teeth than a just do you think you want to come back or not.

And then we would also do another survey as the time gets closer to March 1st to capture that data again to just ensure that we are staffed appropriately.

Transportation is ready to roll et cetera.

So I think I did not capture any other questions at this time.

Chief Parks.

Oh sorry.

Chief Parks one question that I.

Just a minute Director Rankin.

Sorry.

Next time put your hand up.

That I would love would like to get confirmation on with respect to I've heard two different numbers tonight and at other times.

around the number of childcare that we have in Seattle Public Schools and the number of students that we have.

And I've heard 2,000 and 1,000 and those two numbers make me think that we have 2,000 students in childcare in our buildings.

And I'd like to know if possible by tomorrow what percentage of those will need to leave because with the pre-K with our pre-K-1 proposal and and then how in terms of the buildings right that where they they can't share the space where they're not they're in shared space.

And then if we have 2,000 total and 1,000 are SPS students that means we have 1,000 students that are non-SPS students in our child care programs and that's something that I also would like to get confirmation on but doesn't need to be answered right now.

Director Rankin what was your.

Director Hampson can I just address one of those.

Yeah.

One part of that.

As we had mentioned in our presentation last Saturday we believe we have the physical capacity in our buildings for the pre-K through first grade students.

without removing the majority of the child care in our buildings.

And we can try to capture what percentage or what number of those students are SPS.

I mean I know at least two buildings that can't do it right.

So just what are the total number of buildings where they're going to have to either really diminish the space that the child care has to something you know tiny 15 or or you know basically such that they might have to seek new space.

I think that it's in support of our partners at PASS that it's helpful for us to have that full information.

And the other piece of that well let me go ahead Director Rankin you had a follow-up question quickly.

Yeah thank you.

And I can get the answer now or tomorrow.

If the staffing required for pre-K through 1 includes EL support and interventionists I am wondering about the students who are in grades 2-5 that are supported by those educators and what happens to those needs.

And then I would just add on that the assuming that we table this till tomorrow because it sounds like that's where we're headed that the space constraints.

My understanding is that we do have some opportunities in the form of empty spaces such as the convention center and other kind of public-private spaces that we could spread into.

And I'd like to know if under the information that the governor's provided the extent to which we might you know in a very much a phased way look at taking advantage of that even under a high-risk situation.

But you don't need to respond to that right now.

So that takes me back to Director Harris.

Would you like are you still interested in making your motion.

Most definitely.

I move that we table or postpone this motion and its amendment until tomorrow at X time.

I don't have it handy with me right now but I believe that we've scheduled some time for this eventuality.

Yes that's a 4 o'clock Ms. Wilson-Jones correct.

That is correct.

Okay is that.

At 4 p.m.

tomorrow and further that the staff alerts board directors as to any considerations and or changes to the current BAR and its amendment as a result of the Governor's press conference today.

Is there a second for that motion if that's our time.

Was that Director Rankin.

Okay the motion to table until tomorrow at 4 p.m.

at the previously scheduled board session special session has been made by Director Harris and seconded by Director Rankin.

Can I get the roll call please Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Director Hampson this is Chief Kokx.

I just wanted to point out that Chief Berge is noting that she will not have a fiscal analysis by tomorrow's 4 o'clock meeting on the resolution that you put forward.

Okay.

So is that to say that it shouldn't be substantively different than what was already put forward in August or what was put forward in this resolution.

Chief Berge do you want to address that.

Yeah.

President Hanson what I'm what I'm worried about and I haven't read the amendment thoroughly but there's a lot of other special populations.

I don't know what it means when we say serve those students so I just don't have a good way to cost that out yet.

And I'll and I'll provide these other two comments just generally speaking.

If the legislature fixes transportation for us which I think there's a good chance that that happens but we won't know until March probably.

And if we get something from the feds which we won't know before this decision needs to make be made there is a chance that we will be you know in a lot better position.

So.

Okay well and just for clarity as the person who presented that amendment that the intention was to simply where we has we had talked about certain certain student populations being priority and being served through outdoor and in-person or outdoor and community-based in-person opportunities that those groups would be priorities for those.

I didn't.

make any statements beyond that or at least that wasn't the intent in the resolution but rather restating that more clearly and being very specific about some some populations that it's become clear need greater focus.

And so the intent was not to make it service any differently than it had been presented in August in terms of providing if we had in fact done pilots you know sooner that we would have been serving arguably more of those students by now.

So that's the where that comes from.

If if there is something different then I'm happy to talk to you about that online just to see if there's something different to that.

But it shouldn't the expectation is not that it would require anything additional than what we had talked about at the at the beginning of the year.

Okay so can we get to the roll call please.

Director Mack you had your hand up and put it down so are we good with the roll call.

Okay go ahead Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I'm calling the roll on the motion to postpone this action item and the amendment to tomorrow's meeting.

Director Rivera-Smith aye Director DeWolf Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Hampson aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Okay thank you.

We will now move to Action Item Number 2. Approving a Grant Award from the Washington State Department of Education of Enterprise Services CARES Act Fund for Devices.

May I have a motion for this item.

Yes indeed.

Give me one moment.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to accept a grant award from the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services from the Federal CARES Act in the amount of $1,865,949 with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to accept this grant award.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

This item has been moved by Director Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

This item did not go through committee and is on the and it is on the agenda for introduction and action today.

Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes.

Thank you President Hampson.

So this grant would approve funds from the Federal CARES Act that we just found out about via the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services.

So it provides funding for 4,350 laptops and 103 iPads for Seattle Public Schools.

These devices had to be ordered the week of December 2nd and must be received by December 31st which is part of the whole deal with the state working with the vendors.

So the vendors have to guarantee that.

So after consulting with President Hampson the orders were placed and this BAR was brought straight to the board meeting for intro and action.

I think that there's a deadline for the dollars in the state level and they waited until the last minute to push them out to school districts.

But we are happy that we are getting additional devices.

I would be happy to take questions.

Thank you.

Okay.

And I know that I just want to add and I know that you were particularly careful to make sure when this offer initially was seen that that it wasn't necessarily going to be something that we could that was going to be good for our students.

And we're able to hold out for devices that were in fact going to be very functional for our students which is critical at this time.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you to staff.

We had to push we had to push the state quite a bit to say the lower level devices that you're trying to give us aren't going to work.

So it all worked out.

Okay.

So we'll go for questions starting with Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi thank you JoLynn.

I'm wondering what did ITAC help help in deciding what types of devices to purchase.

No they they they did not.

I mean this was like our basic we just went back to our basic specs that we've been using.

So maybe I don't know that they had in particular helped us spec spec that per se.

We had to you know try to work with what the state was able to offer.

Thank you.

Yeah no further questions right now.

Thank you.

Okay Director Rankin.

I don't have any questions.

Go to the next person.

Thanks.

I'm sorry Director Mack.

Yeah.

Okay so 4,000 laptops and I think you said 300 iPads.

103. Okay I have the number backwards.

My question is about what that number kind of means to the overall number of students and the devices they have in hand.

I mean I I understand that we've managed to or at least I believe that we've gotten all students' devices.

However are these intended to help support the ones that are not working very well and that perhaps at this point in time we need share out to families that if their device is not working very well that they should return it and get a new one.

Is that something that will be happening with this additional these additional numbers or are these actually back-filling for students that don't have them.

So all students have devices right now.

And we continue to work through.

We would not want any student that doesn't have a device working well to wait.

Right.

They were to contact us right away and we make it work.

So these devices will replace others that we had listed.

We had the BAR a previous BAR that we had brought that talked about we wanted authority to order another 5500. What this does is it really enables us to pause that order.

And this would take its place.

So we had ordered enough for everyone.

We have everyone with working devices.

This will just help that phase out as we work through some of the older ones or as we have have ongoing issues throughout this year.

Okay great.

Thank you.

That's all.

Thank you Director.

Okay.

Thanks Director Mack.

Director Hersey.

I don't have any real questions.

I'm just increasingly thankful to staff for not only advocating for the devices that our students need but also working swiftly with us to make sure that we are taking advantage of every dollar that is available to us considering our current financial outlook.

So a huge shout out to staff.

Big thank you.

Excited to get these devices in the hands of students as quickly as we can.

Okay.

Thank you Director Hersey.

Director Harris.

No questions.

Big gratitude.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf.

No questions here.

Just thanks to Chief Berge and her team.

I'm grateful that we could receive some additional CARES Act funding.

I think just for clarity for our audience CARES Act came out I think in March or April and so this is This is kind of the pace of things so I think just just to set expectations for how long funding does get to us and even in a crisis.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And if you're having trouble with your device take it to the one of the tech centers.

Okay.

Can we do roll call please.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I'm sorry I don't have any further questions.

Thank you.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Director DeWolf.

Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye This motion has passed unanimously.

Okay.

Thank you again Chief Berge and staff.

We will now move to Introduction Item 1 Adoption of 2021 Board Goals and Objectives.

I will introduce this BAR today as the sponsor.

I hope what you see before you in the BAR is representative of the conversations that we had in the retreat We were viewed again as an executive team and committee and the only addition other than doing my best to capture everyone's kind of additional clarification and comments about the items.

I know Director Rivera-Smith you know was wanted to point out the communication being both intra-board between board and staff and then between board and community.

And then there's there are some metrics that are provided.

And the other point of discussion that we had in executive committee was that we should expand though not an official part of the the BAR or the the goals document that we could create a slightly more detailed set of metric specifics that will as executive committee that will help drive these these goals as we move through the year and establish kind of a timeline for those.

So with that I don't know if Director Hersey or Director Rivera-Smith do you have anything to add to that conversation we had about the board goals.

No not at this time.

Okay.

So then I will go starting with Director DeWolf do you have questions.

No questions just a comment.

Thank you to the directors for putting this together.

I I do know how hard it is to kind of synthesize the many kind of ideas from our board.

So I appreciate where we land.

I really think this is both achievable ambitious and I'm grateful for the work on that.

Thank you directors.

Okay.

Director Harris.

Good to go.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Director Hersey anything else upon reflection.

No.

Still good.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Mack.

Yeah I appreciate the simplicity here and I it looks to me as if it captured our collective goals of working together.

So thank you.

No questions.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Just thanks for putting this together.

And I there's a bit of a parallel I think to where we are with curriculum and focusing on some priority standards.

This feels relevant and appropriate that you know we have a lot of work.

Now and coming and getting some of these basic structural pieces I think will just serve us really well.

So thanks for the thoughtful work going into this.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Yeah no not much more to add.

I think simple is the key word here.

We were going for something a little more manageable this year as our 2020 goals were quite robust and we accomplished most of them so we can do that.

But I know this year ahead of us is going to be busy so I appreciate the thought that you all put together here.

And I am happy with the outcome.

Thank you.

Thank you to everyone.

for this I personally have found it to be helpful just having gone through these goals now as a as a board together a full board and then also in committee I found myself referring back to these goals already and speaking with constituents and have found it a very easy reference point.

And so I hope that it it serves us well all of us well in that same capacity and therefore you know also drives our focus towards those goals and look forward to flushing these things out with you all over the course of the year.

So with that we will move to the next introduction item.

Adoption of Board Policy Number 6225 Use of Electronic Signature.

Chief Legal Counsel Greg Narver I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes I will.

Good afternoon.

This is Chief Legal Counsel Greg Narver.

I am here to introduce along with Miss Wilson-Jones a proposed new board policy number 6225 which would authorize the use of electronic signatures on district documents.

We're bringing this new policy forward because of a statute passed by the legislature earlier this year called the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act which asks government agencies to among other things determine whether they will or won't use electronic signatures.

I'll note that the district already has effectively made a determination that we will.

We do have a Superintendent Procedure 4070SP which states the district will accept electronic signatures.

And beyond that like the rest of the world as a practical matter we've largely moved to electronic signatures throughout the pandemic as have all the counterparties that we're dealing with.

But WSSDA has recommended that school districts adopt a policy formally authorizing electronic signatures and that's what this one does.

Two points I'll make before any questions.

I noted this in an email to the board.

The WSSDA model policy is a lot longer than the one that Ms. Wilson-Jones and I have drafted and it includes a lot of provisions that go well beyond what's required in the statute.

For example they were suggesting that we specify which specific electronic signature providers were authorized to use.

Ms. Wilson-Jones and I didn't didn't include those.

The law doesn't require it and we're in a world of fast-changing technology.

I guess I thought we didn't want to have to come back and amend the policy if new electronic platforms are developed.

But I did want you to know that there was this WSSDA policy was more extensive than what we're putting before you this evening.

One last just legal point.

You'll see that the proposed policy that's attached to the BAR references a federal statute the Electronic Signatures and Global and Electronic Commerce Act.

That's there because while every state has its own version of a statute authorizing electronic signatures as a matter of constitutional law only the federal government can regulate interstate commerce.

And so this is a statute that Congress passed in 2000 as a counterpart to those state laws and it authorizes the use of electronic signatures in interstate commerce.

So to the effect that the district is doing anything that could be characterized as interstate commerce this is the statute that provides that authorization and the guidance for that.

And that's why it's referenced in the statute.

And with that I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Okay thank you.

And this came before the Executive Committee and we had a brief but extensive discussion about it.

And I think the question that I had had was about you know making sure that we were didn't need to clarify the difference between this and an electronic signature on a on an email and it sounds like we do not have to make that distinction.

and other directors had a few additional questions but I think this will certainly make things a lot more streamlined and clear for us.

And I believe we teed up some perspective.

We'll be doing trying to do our assuming that this passes we'll be trying to do our elect or our annual I forget what they're called.

Ms. Wilson-Jones can maybe chalk my memory.

We have some form we all need to fill out.

Conflict of interest is what I'm trying to say.

And that'll be a good chance for us to try this out using the electronic signature app if you haven't already done that before.

So with that I will turn it over to questions from Director DeWolf.

No questions here.

This is straightforward.

Thank you for your work on this Greg and Ellie.

Director Harris.

Oh I love getting with the time.

Terrific.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

None for me.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

Yeah no questions and I would assume this probably could move into the consent agenda if you hadn't already thought about that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

No questions for me.

Thanks.

And Director Rivera-Smith.

Yeah I feel like I should give a harder time about this for all our old-fashioned people out there but but I get that it is it is necessary and important.

So thank you Greg for all your work bringing this forward.

No questions.

Thank you.

Okay thank you.

We will now move to Introduction Item Number 3. Approval of Courses with New Content for the Secondary Course Catalog.

This came through Student Supports Curriculum and Instruction December on December 8th for approval.

Chief Academic Officer Dr. Diane DeBacker I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes.

Thank you President Hampson.

This is Diane DeBacker Chief Academic Officer.

All of you were here last year when a similar BAR came through.

This BAR is required by Superintendent Procedure 2026 and any new courses that we want to put in our high school catalog for the coming year have to be approved by the board.

There are other courses that are revised that will also be taken care of with the course catalog but those revised courses do not have to come through the board.

So before you today you have details on 7 courses that are recommended to be new to this to the course catalog in the coming year.

And many of these courses have come from resolutions that the board has passed in the past few months.

The I want to highlight that 3 of the new courses are related to the resolution from the LGBTQIA resolution.

So you are going to see a course for LGBTQIA World History 3 LGBTQIA Introduction to Literature and Composition ELA 9A and 9B and a third course for American Literature and Composition 11A and 11B.

Those courses you might be wondering how we are developing those.

We are developing those collaboratively with people within the district.

And so we are working with three schools with NOVA leading the way.

Franklin and Interagency.

So staff from those schools and also students will be involved in helping us shape these courses.

Another new course that you'll see in the BAR is the Black Studies U.S. History course.

Again that course also is coming about because of a resolution.

The resolution that was passed in June affirming Seattle Public Schools commitment to Black students.

included a call for a creation of a Black Studies course.

So this is our first step in proposing the addition of Black Studies U.S. History A and B.

This course will count as an 11th grade U.S. history requirement and we plan to offer it second semester of this coming school year.

It will be a district-wide offering as you know because we're in remote learning.

We don't have to do this per school.

We can offer it district-wide as people can sign on to that course.

That is something new.

for Seattle Public Schools.

We will be identifying a teacher for that course.

That work is coming under the supervision and the guidance of Director Manal Al-Ansi our Director of Racial Equity Advancement.

She will be leading that particular one.

Caleb Perkins and Kathleen Vasquez will also be partnering with Manal Manal to make sure that anything on the CA&I side is taken care of there.

You'll also see a couple other new courses and those courses have been initiated by teachers who want to introduce new courses.

So the ones that I mentioned before were initiated by resolution.

But you'll also see a course on global climate.

You'll see a course on I mean global warming excuse me.

And so that is what you have in front of you tonight.

With that I will take any questions.

Great.

Thank you.

Let's start at the top.

I'm sorry.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

As the Director Rankin the chair for this.

I don't have questions.

I do want to note my excitement for these these courses and and also note the direct the direct impact of of board resolutions that you know the the stated values and priorities and that that very quickly came reflected back in new course offerings.

Another thing that we talked about in committee that I wanted to point out is the potential that we have in or the need that we have in the remote setting to allow students to access courses online.

But the potential that we have to develop policy and practice around You know making unique courses available to students across the district without having to have it be offered by somebody in their building.

There is exciting potential here to give more students access to different levels of advanced courses or courses where there's a particular expert or or or and and or to to also preserve more specialized courses that maybe don't have the enrollment they need at one school but by combining them we could save that resource.

So there's there's just some in addition to the excitement of these great courses that will be available to our students there's also some implications for future distance distance or intra-building learning that doesn't involve transportation.

So just wanted to point that out.

Thank you.

Director let's go back to the top of the order.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you Director Hampson.

First Chief DeBacker thank you for your service and for being part of the SPS family.

I appreciate the work that you put in.

And as far as this this introduction item tonight I just have to say I kind of my It took my breath away.

I think that particularly the work around LGBTQ courses our Black Studies course and even a course in anti-racism.

These are exciting additions to our course catalog and I know that our community when we share this and when they learn about this we'll celebrate that.

And I just thank Director Rankin for seeing this through and making sure the resolution was followed through on and to my directors for voting on that resolution back in June.

I have no questions other than to say this is so impressive and I'm so grateful to be able to vote on this.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Sorry go ahead Chief Director.

Just one comment.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

I think you are correct in that this is This is a pretty historic moment in Seattle Public Schools as you look at these seven courses that are offering that are being offered in terms of diversity in terms of anti-racism.

So thank you for recognizing that and for promoting it.

Okay.

Director Harris.

I echo and expand on Director The Wolf comments I am beyond pleased to see this and I am continuing to hold my breath to see new courses in Ethnic Studies and I certainly hope we can make up for last time for the last three and a half years for Ethnic Studies and get those courses both embedded in K-12 pre-K-12 curricula and offer specific high school courses Much like we've done with Black Studies.

And Dr. DeBacker I still think you're the bomb.

I think we're going to miss you and I'm sorry we're going to lose you.

But I've been to Kansas before I'm going to come again.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Harris.

It's still in the same place right in the middle of the country.

You can find us we'll be happy to welcome you.

Thank you Director Harris.

Director Hersey.

Yeah there's not much more that I can add other than just sheer excitement to get these offerings up and ready for our students to take advantage of.

Thank you to the huge lift for senior staff and everyone else who has had hands on getting these across the finish line.

So just again big gratitude big thank you and excited to see this move forward.

Thank you Director Mack.

Yeah hi sorry I have to check my mic again.

Can you hear me okay.

Yes we can.

Thank you.

Dr. DeBacker I echo the sadness we'll be losing you.

I really appreciate the work that you've done here with the district.

And thank you.

This BAR is very very exciting to get these courses.

A couple of quick questions around first My assumption is that each of these will count towards the requirements for ELA or history or whatever they are.

And this is these are not electives.

These are courses that will count as required courses in those subject areas.

Yes Director Mack.

Most of them the the LGBTQIA courses yes and the Black Study courses yes.

The the Global Warming A&B Health Topics for Honors and the Anti-Racism and Civic Engagement.

I'm I'm looking at the BAR right now.

I'm going to have to double check on that.

I will get back to you.

I believe all three of those that I just mentioned they're all electives.

So they do count for graduation requirements but they count in the elective categories and not in the core content areas.

It seems to me as if anti-racism and civic engagement could count in the.

social studies area and the global warming certainly in science and health topics as well.

So I'm I'm wondering about the decision not to have them be you know providing the required credits.

And and if you could get back to us on on that.

Has it having the other ones count as credits in those subject areas I think is is meaningful.

Electives you know there's not as much space in people's schedules to take electives.

And so yeah thank you for looking into that and then getting back to us on that.

My other question is around the last bullet point just above the list of courses around suspending updating over 150 existing courses.

And I looked through the BAR and I couldn't find the list of those.

So it sounds like we are actually eliminating 100 or suspending and I didn't see that list.

And am I missing something.

No we don't typically put the suspended list in the BAR.

We can provide that to you.

Most of those to be honest are in the fine arts area and areas where the courses are just out of date or or quite frankly weren't appropriate to be offered anymore.

So we've been doing that over the past couple of years essentially cleaning up this course catalog.

It's an — Yeah I really appreciate that.

I appreciate the work on cleaning up the course catalog because it has just you know over however many years that the district's been in existence it's just we've added courses and not subtracted.

So cleaning it up I think is great.

But I think it would be helpful to see that list of what's going away.

since we are approving the course catalog and that this is a missing bit of information and I'd appreciate seeing that when we act upon this.

If that's okay.

Thank you.

That's all.

Really appreciate the work.

Director Mack on we can provide that that course cleanup list to you separately maybe in a Friday email but But 2026 doesn't require us to bring that with this BAR so I want to make sure that we kind of keep the BAR clean and just provide you with that with the cleanup in a separate communication.

So just for clarity the policy requires that we approve new courses but it doesn't require our approval to delete old courses.

That is correct.

That's a little I don't know problematic but yeah I'm I'm okay with getting it sent in a Friday memo.

But from a course catalog approval standpoint it's a little odd that there's an approval on new ones but not on deletions.

So yeah just just stating that and putting that into the brain of the Curriculum and Instruction Committee thought process on the on any future policy work on that policy.

Thanks.

Thanks very much.

That's all.

Okay.

Director Rankin.

Oh you already went.

I'm sorry Director Rivera-Smith.

Diane I'm so sad that you're leaving us.

I guess this is probably your last meeting and last BAR so I'll try not to be too sad but I'm happy for you too that you're going to go home because I know you miss it and I know that you've served us so well.

So thank you again.

Thank you for bringing this one this BAR to us.

It's it's really exciting and not just about being responsive to the board and our resolutions but it's also responsive to educators who have brought forth these courses and it shows just how much how much they have to share with our students outside of their normal courses and their usual work that they are thinking big and finding ways to expose our students to so many more experiences and knowledge.

I'm really excited about that we have the college and high schools courses because I didn't even know about these until recently and I love that these are courses where students can earn college credits early through the University of Washington and it's so awesome.

I'm really excited about the global warming class.

Because as many of you know it ties into a resolution that Director DeWolf and I are bringing forth next month to operations about clean energy for SPS schools.

So all these things are again super exciting to hear about and learn about.

And thank you so much for all your work on this Diane.

Going to miss you.

Thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

Okay.

And that just leaves me and I just wanted to I only had one question.

which is about the course is called Global Warming.

Are we I've been corrected before using the term global warming versus climate change.

I'm just wondering if that was discussed and what the kind of context or result of that discussion was if there was one.

Thank you.

Thank you President Hampson.

That was a teacher-initiated course and that was the course title that the teacher who submitted this that's the title that they attached to it.

So and it's also UW college college course title as well.

So college high school.

So we.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Not at our discretion for the most part.

Okay no and I appreciate that there's the UW connection and I did note that and that gave me a little bit of comfort.

I'm guessing they're probably it's probably been around for a while and therefore represents kind of the older ways of talking about it.

I don't personally have an issue using the term global warming but I know that for folks that are that are trying to kind of stay on top of the latest the context of the latest terminology can be a really important thing.

So I just wanted to to pose the question.

And then yeah I think that this is a really when this is approved ultimately which I know it will easily.

Actually I think I'm not supposed to say that but but it obviously has strong support.

I appreciate the how quickly some of these things as Director Rankin said came from from resolution into being and these are things that have been demanded by our community and by our students.

And so I think it shows that we can in fact be responsive and that as I said with with the outdoor and community-based learning that that you are going to have a legacy here with ushering these things through and in the penultimate moment in your in your tenure here.

And so I hope and I'd love to hear in five years how you reflect back on that and see where your your impact was in making helping make these things happen in Seattle Public Schools.

So appreciate your responsiveness on these things in the last months in the midst of really really difficult times.

So that's all for me.

Thank you President Hampson and thank you to all the board members.

If I could take just a moment of personal privilege.

Absolutely.

I just I do want to say thank you to each and every one of you for welcoming me to to Seattle a few years ago.

I have had an absolute blast in this city and with the school district and I consider it a privilege to have worked with each and every one of you and you will see me again in Seattle.

My husband and I are great sports fans so we will be back to see the Seahawks and the Mariners when spectators are allowed again.

And yeah I will be keeping an eye on what's happening in Seattle Public Schools and look with it with great pride and honor that I was here at this time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you Chief DeBacker.

Okay we will now move to Introduction Item Number 4. Approve the Purchase of Comprehensive Insurance and Support for iPads.

This item did not go through committee.

Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes thank you Director President Hampson.

So this BAR would approve the purchase of AppleCare Plus for iPads that we have purchased.

We did not purchase AppleCare Plus at the time of that we made those purchases but we've now determined that this would be beneficial and cost-effective and we don't have other options which is what we were looking at.

We've been negotiating this with Apple who agreed to cover these devices retroactive back to the date of purchase.

Apple did state they could only hold this offer open through January because their pricing structure changes during the calendar year.

There and there were no committee meetings being held in time to get this completed to meet the Apple deadline.

So after consulting with President Hampson that's why it's being brought for introduction straight to introduction and then we are asking for action on January 13th.

AppleCare Plus offers several benefits which are outlined on page 2 of the BAR.

And with that I would be happy to take questions.

Thank you.

And yes we did discuss this and I'm grateful that you were able to find a solution for these items in a pinch.

It is a great product and the extent to which we can protect our investment I think is absolutely critical at this particular time budgetarily and in general anyway.

So with that I will turn it over to Director DeWolf for questions.

No questions at this time.

Thank you Chief Berge.

Director Harris.

Just a big thank you.

Director Hersey.

None for me at this time.

Director Mack.

Just a quick clarification on the future budgets that are being crafted for purchases of iPads in the future.

Can I assume that this cost will be built into that in the future going forward.

And this is just covering all the ones that we've we've currently purchased.

That's correct.

And the CARES Act that we just talked about the 103 there are coming with AppleCare Plus as well.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

I do not have any questions.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

One question.

So did will these enable the students who use these devices to go directly to Apple for support with their device or would they still go through our IT support.

There will be some support especially upon when they started up.

So that's my understanding is that there is an access support line that they can call with general knowledge and technical support.

If it gets Seattle specific like Seesaw or Schoology or something like that they'll have to come to us.

But it will be another helpline that they can call for general iPad support.

No that's great.

That's great to hear that that would maybe alleviate the load on our our system a little bit.

Great.

Thank you.

No other questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

We will now move to Introduction Item Number 5 Enhanced Cleaning for COVID-19 In-Person Instruction at Elementary and K-8 Schools.

This came through Ops on December 3rd for consideration.

We will start with Director Mack Chair of Operations.

Can we go ahead and start with the staff presentation.

Oh I'm sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Chief Podesta would you like to brief us.

Happily.

This is Chief Operations Officer Fred Podesta.

We have actually talked about this before.

We are proposing that the board authorize staff to execute two kind of large-scale janitorial contracts to provide backup custodial services for practices that are really specific to operating in the COVID environment that we have constant through-the-day cleaning of high-touch areas that we clean restrooms a minimum of three times a day.

That we have extra cleaning capacity associated with in-classroom meal service.

that we do higher levels of disinfecting in areas where we provide meal sites for meal distribution and that we have capacity on hand to disinfect parts of buildings after a confirmed COVID case.

And also this is the kind of also a last resort measure.

We have staffing issues amongst our own custodial staff and need to fill gaps here and there.

This is really seen as a backstop.

We put the $2.8 million amount that we put in the BAR really reflects cleaning district-wide at full-capacity buildings and that we could do that with either contract.

We're proposing to get two just so we have kind of strength and depth and the There is no guaranteed amount of service required from this vendor.

This is really to kind of deepen our bench depending on as we bring students more into building what our needs truly depend what our needs truly end up being.

And if we again there is no guaranteed payment or guaranteed level of service depending on what the circumstances on the ground actually end up being.

And with that I'll be happy to take any questions.

Okay.

Director DeWolf.

And did you want to go to Director Mack first as the committee chair.

Sorry.

You had your chance.

I'm just kidding.

It's a long meeting.

I can't believe we're already three hours in.

Okay.

Director Mack.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Podesta for that presentation.

We did have a good discussion in committee about this item.

Just for clarification around the cost this item was not originally put into our budget.

So this goes above and beyond what our original budget is for cleaning for this current school year.

Correct.

That's correct.

And a subset of this is reflected in the BAR associated with the reopening which is and the scale of this is much larger than might be necessary.

We just want to make sure the contract had capacity depending on the mix of services that we end up providing but it is all this enhanced cleaning whether it's through these contracts or staff there are tasks that were not in our base budget.

This is these are things that we're not planning for.

And just for clarification from Ms. Berge where where are we finding these dollars from.

Straight from the fund balance.

Unless we get CARES we could get CARES Act money or if the if the feds do something where we can qualify these expenditures that's possible as well but not known at this time.

Which feeding into our fund balance impacts next year and the year after etc.

Okay.

Thank you.

I just wanted to provide that clarification for folks.

That's all I have to say at this point.

No other questions.

Look forward to any questions from directors.

Okay.

Director DeWolf.

Thanks Director Hampson.

My question is just around just curiosity maybe from Chief Podesta around the implications or the impact on our on our union partners who are already providing similar services in our schools.

What if any or any issues come up from that.

We started this discussion with our 609 members last spring and they understood the nature of the situation that we're in now and the uncertainty and the need to perhaps You know reach a peak demand in a one-time kind of non-precedent setting situation.

And that's why we're trying to focus the work on things that at least now are not part of our regular practice.

Like you know multiple cleaning of door handles in common areas and banister railings and you know and this volume of bathroom cleaning.

You know if it becomes a regular practice in whatever the new normal is that's a different situation.

But we've we've had discussions with our labor partners and they recognize and I think support keeping our buildings safe and having that capacity on tap.

And again none of this work is guaranteed if we can find ways to do it in-house.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Questions for Director DeWolf.

And in fact we haven't been able to fill our 609 slots for several years have we.

You know that's gotten better.

We've gotten you know the labor market is a bit different.

The needs in other commercial spaces are different.

So yes we've historically had challenges.

We've made some improvements recently but it's that's another another certain consideration we had for being ready to be able to tap into another resource if we needed it.

Okay well as long as 609 is okay with this I'm okay with this.

And as far as our new normal goes I certainly hope that in the future in the new normal that our classrooms are cleaned more often than every three days.

I I always wonder about our students being vectors and the flu and and and our staff time non-worldwide pandemic.

And we have more pride than that and I think we owe it to our staff and students that we clean more often than every three days.

As has been the case for a decade I think.

In any event if 609 is good with it I'm good with it.

Thank you.

Director Mack I'm sorry here we go again.

Let's go to Director Rankin.

Did you skip Director Hersey.

Yes.

Director Hersey go ahead.

It's all good.

No worries.

No worries at all.

I don't really have as many questions as much as a statement while I support us moving forward with expanding our cleaning services obviously in the face of the pandemic.

As we discussed in committee I'm actually thoroughly upset at the fact that we had numerous Black-owned businesses reach out to us in interest of supporting the district at the onset of the pandemic.

But we did not do in my opinion a thorough enough job reaching out to businesses that are BIPOC-owned with a specific focus on Black businesses.

Even though quite frankly we know they exist and the only the only metric that we use to identify those businesses when asked about this question in committee was WEMBI.

So I'm going to have a hard time supporting this just because moving forward we need to do a better job if we're going to be serious about our strategic plan and targeted universalism.

We need to be looking for every opportunity that we can to work more closely with our Black community not only inside of our system but outside of our system as well.

So that's where I'm at.

But thank you for the work that's gone into this.

And I appreciate your comments here and in committee Director Hersey.

I I think and and we'll see as as this develops if There are other opportunities.

This is a little bit of an awkward situation that we're asking for a firm with to propose a significant amount of capacity and may not get any work given the nature of this.

But as the situation progresses and we have perhaps more targeted work where we're not asking someone to compete for something that may not lead to anything.

We can probably I agree we can do a better job of outreach and thinking about those contracting opportunities.

So thank you.

Yeah and thanks for that feedback.

Okay and then to Director Rankin.

Thanks.

Yeah in committee when we talked about this my questions were more along the lines of Director DeWolf and Director Harris about labor agreements and and and understanding you know that this is really a in case to add capacity.

But having had a little bit more time between the committee meeting and now my question now is about the the what we know more now about the virus and how it's transmitted than when this RFP went out in July.

It's it's pretty clear and I think unanimously accepted that it's a that this is a respiratory respiratory respiratory transmitted by respiratory means as opposed to by surface contact.

So my question is if the the RFP potential protocols that have been laid out about you know number of times a bathroom is cleaned or what surfaces and stuff.

If there is any thought into taking another look at that based on the fact that excessive cleaning of surfaces is actually you know I mean when we have like norovirus or something like absolutely yes but This is such a different thing and really the consensus seems to be that handwashing is the best protection.

And I'm not suggesting that you know we sit back and let you know three times or every three days be okay.

But but I also am wondering if some of the the the frequency of some of the things that are in this right now are more than is warranted.

Yes and we're we're looking for ways to kind of rationalize this.

If you compare numbers our enhanced cleaning costs that we've put in the BAR associated with the current reopening proposal is a smaller number than this contract and it includes some staff because yes when we started this process we wanted to make sure contractually we had the ability to tap as much as we need to.

We expect to and there are some things that are definitely different than regular operations like in-meal in-classroom meal service that we definitely need to think about a little bit differently.

But yeah we are not interested in doing more of this than this that is necessary.

We also don't want to get caught short.

Yeah.

Well and I'm thinking in terms too of you know we don't want to spend spend money that might be better spent elsewhere.

But I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thanks Beth.

Thanks for all the information here.

And I do I think it's important to focus on the fact that we do clean once every three days right now and if we come back in person I don't think anyone's going to feel safe.

with that schedule.

So I appreciate that we want to look towards daily cleaning.

I think that's super important.

I'm wondering how much because this is a not to exceed which is also important to remember that I get that this is not necessarily promising that money.

It is not to exceed that.

But how does this work budgetarily.

Like if we do approve this and it's for What is it 2 million.

I'm scrolling back to 2,800,000.

Is that money then held and can't be used elsewhere.

It's not really like budgeted for necessarily right.

We don't lock that money away that we can't still spend money where we do need it more immediately correct.

Yes.

We wouldn't encumber this money or set it aside until we understood the true costs.

Yeah.

Okay.

No that's I think that's good for us all to for our community to realize too that we're not we are we're committing that we might need the money for the cleaning but it's a long way.

I also this.

Director Mack and Chief Berge noted that in any case this is money we don't really have since.

So it's it doesn't really open up new possibilities if we don't spend it.

And but it's also I realized from so I was trying to listen to the governor's announcement earlier.

It was like it's right before this meeting.

So but I caught something in that he said there was going to now be some health and safety protocols that are binding requirements.

So I imagine we'll need to be keeping a look out for that.

I don't know if you've already you probably didn't get a chance to look more into it yet either because you were in this meeting.

That's just my thinking that you know this that has also support this BAR in making sure we have that money ready for whatever those extra requirements might be.

But I know we'll learn more.

So and this is just intro so we still have time to to hash that around and figure out before I vote so.

But yeah I appreciate the work here and look forward to learning more about the requirements coming from the governor in relation to this BAR.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And for my part I would echo the wanting to make sure that we're prioritizing the cleaning and other health metrics as is appropriate for what we know now about the disease as opposed to 6 months ago.

And and yes of course we were always kind of limited in the extent of our cleaning.

And if that's you know when we look at it that this is a disease that operates much more like the flu And the fluid also doesn't do good things within our communities.

That's kind of the one of the upsides of all this is reducing some of that transmission.

And so are we looking at a permanent increase in in cleaning.

And then so that's something that that we want to be looking at long term and from a budgeting perspective as we look out you know for not just next year but the next couple of years as we make decisions now that affect those future years.

But then also.

from a procurement standpoint to the extent that we're not able to hire internally and are going to external contractors that we really need to be practicing our values in our procurement and that those processes are really clear and transparent and those companies have a clear pathway to be on on whatever list they need to be on so that they get wind of RFPs and RFQs.

is is a huge priority I think for for this board.

So other than that I don't have anything else.

I know you're going to be with us for a minute on our we're going to go over to Introduction Item Number 5 but we'll be coming back to you Chief Podesta.

Oh no this is actually sorry no the next one's Chief Berge but it came through Ops.

So we will now move to Introduction Item Number 6. Approving a contract for RFP 07-2094 PRI slash DID phone circuits with MAGNA V LLC came through Ops December 3rd for approval.

And so Chief Berge's briefing us on this one.

Is that correct.

Correct.

So this BAR is for landline service for all of our buildings.

Basically this is our phone bill.

It provides phone lines for classrooms and staff in all buildings and the dial tones needed for 9-1-1 which gives first responders call location.

So an RFP was completed and MAGNA V was selected.

This contract would provide phone service for 3 years expandable to 5 years and with years 4 and 5 they would be re-evaluated based on performance current market costs and technology.

And that concludes my remarks and I'm happy to answer questions.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

No questions here.

Director Harris.

Question for Berge please.

Are you saying that right now our phone lines don't have 911 location information.

No they do.

What I'm saying is it's important we keep phone lines.

We can't eliminate landlines.

Okay thank you.

Director Hersey.

No questions for me.

And then Director Rankin.

I didn't I didn't ask the roll.

Sorry I forgot you again.

I'm sucking at this tonight.

Director.

Long meetings and yeah I don't blame you I understand.

We a couple of years ago refurbished all of our actual phones the actual I'm not and I'm not sure if this is mentioned in the BAR or not but just for board directors knowledge that the phone system was really really old and this phone system we've got now has been updated.

It also integrates with.

email and all of that.

So just wanted you guys to know it actually I think it works pretty effectively.

And I don't have any additional questions.

Just appreciate staying on top of making sure that we have access to 9-1-1 and pay our phone bill.

Kind of need to do that.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Rankin.

No questions.

Thanks.

Director Rivera-Smith.

No questions.

Thank you.

Okay and I didn't have any additional questions.

So the next set of items we're all going to be with Chief Podesta.

I know there's a couple of these towards the end that we can combine.

How many of these can we present simultaneously Chief Podesta.

I think items 10 and 11 are final instructions and can be together.

Okay.

So I'll let you let's see.

So this next item is get back to the right page.

Sorry.

Number 7. So this is BTA IV Approval of Capacity Management Actions for the 2021-22 school year.

Came through Ops December 3rd for approval.

Go ahead take it away Chief Podesta.

Thank you.

The board policy H13 Capacity Management requires an annual report to the board about capacity management actions that we recommend and In this context capacity management actions are placing portables at buildings or converting space existing space in a building to classrooms.

It is not a capacity addition like other classroom additions that you've heard for other capital projects.

It's given the conditions that we're in it's a little bit difficult to forecast our capacity management needs for the 21-22 school year.

And the nature of these projects like I said since they're somewhat temporary actions are summer projects so we would propose keeping the process going so we have the authority this coming summer to take actions if any are needed.

We are relying on enrollment projections for November 2019 which we understand are not necessarily reliable but gives us a sense of a potential bottom line We've identified two issues one at Broadview Thompson and one at Hamilton where one additional classroom action may be required and then would request authority to take to again authorize funds to support nine other potential classroom temporary classroom additions as needed across the system depending on you know when we have more reliable information at after open enrollment is complete.

And again that would allow us to maintain a schedule where we could take these actions if necessary in the summer before the 21-22 school year.

We typically allow some flexibility on an annual basis since we never have a completely precise picture.

And again ask the board for authority for kind of a scale of overall actions we might need to take and then we'll finalize these as the picture clarifies in the coming school year.

I'm happy to take any questions you might have.

Okay I'll go to Director Mack.

Yes thank you.

You know based on the fact that we have approximately 2,000 fewer students across the district this year over last year which is a bit of anomaly and assuming it's related to the COVID environment.

Utilizing last year's data to work through these projections appropriately to me makes sense.

And the feedback loop that Mr. Podesta was just mentioning I think that's also critical to acknowledge that we do have a feedback loop on this is that post-open enrollment the report would come back to Ops As special attention kind of as an update of like what actually is likely to happen based on the analysis at that point of what what needs to happen after open enrollment.

And it's it gets more clear like which students are actually showing up in which buildings.

It's not perfect at that point either.

We still have movement over the summer but we we we will get an update of some sort.

at that time and this is just the first step of approving the ability to make those changes if they're necessary.

And with that appreciate any questions that directors may have.

Okay we'll go now to Director DeWolf.

Thank you.

No questions here.

Director Hersey.

I mean Harris.

Thank you.

No questions.

Director Hersey.

I heard a none for me so correct me if that's wrong.

Director Rankin.

No I think I can reread the materials and and You can probably answer my question myself.

Thanks.

Director Rivera-Smith.

No questions.

Thank you.

Okay and I don't have any questions.

Thanks for that additional information Director Mack.

That moves us now to the Introduction Item Number 8 BEX V Award Contract K1395 to Perform Master Planning Services for BTA V Capital Levy Planning.

This came through Ops on December 3rd for approval.

Back to you Chief Podesta.

Thank you.

As we discussed at our work session on the 9th we are beginning levy planning for the BTA V levy.

And at this point we would enter into this contract with Mallum Architects for master planning to support this.

And in this context the specific tasks around master planning would be to support based on our facilities assessment for sites that may be candidate for capital investments to understand geotechnical information regarding soils conditions environmental you know preliminary environmental assessments and developing to some extent site-specific master plans which are really a conceptual layout of the site and also help us determine if interim sites would be necessary of major construction.

So as we work with the board to understand potential projects and what their potential costs might be we need to have some high-level concepts about what the project would look like.

If we would need to relocate students which really relates to the layout if you know we're doing a classroom additionary model or new construction.

And so this contract authorizes Malum to help us get these master planning concepts together for potential candidate projects for the levy so we can give the board a better idea of and working with a hand-in-hand with a cost estimator get an idea of what the potential costs might be with projects that are being considered as part of the plan.

That will conclude my remarks and I'm happy to take questions if you have them.

Thank you.

Over to you Director Mack.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I'd also add that for previous levies this process has been done and is as necessary part of the kind of costing and identify identifying potential projects large projects and those documents actually sit in the boardroom.

So if you ever end up back in there you can flip through them.

And just for clarification Mr. Podesta if there were projects that were master planned in the previous processes I'm assuming that the they would not be duplicating that work again that it would be fresh eyes on the ones that need it or just a refresh.

Not duplicating what was done.

There would be some assessment as you know as anything about the previous master plan that needs to be updated.

But no this would focus on projects where we we didn't have a current master plan.

Great.

Thank you.

So look forward to any questions from directors.

Okay.

Director DeWolf.

No questions.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Would these folks be working with the master planning committee that is stood up now.

They might.

They would certainly probably do some process discussion explaining what how the process works and then as input is asked of that committee The products of these efforts would certainly be discussed.

And also with the BEX V Oversight Committee.

I would you know the BEX Oversight yes at the point that they comment on I would think cost estimates I'm sure they'll get a presentation of kind of where our proposed projects are going and we would certainly get their input as well as kind of a quality assurance check on the resulting cost estimates or other considerations.

Okay I just want to make sure that we're taking advantage of some of the brilliance of the volunteers that are gifting their time and expertise to us.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Hersey.

Yeah no questions for me at this time.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

No questions thanks.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Yeah no questions thanks.

I appreciate the scope of the work that this contract takes on.

I'm looking at it right now about from preliminary concepts to concept refinement community outreach board meeting and documentation.

So I appreciate that and what's been done to to better up this contract.

And I have no other questions.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you Chief Podesta.

I think the only question that I have obviously there's you know the engagement which is critical.

I'm just wondering in terms of The the contract itself what either protections or allowances are there for kind of major overlay shifts.

Meaning they'll come in knowing that we're starting with a you know an equity-tiered analysis but that you know must have come in in the middle of prior processes.

But so what if there's something else like I'm thinking of some of the stuff that's coming forward that Director DeWolf and Director Rivera-Smith are bringing forward with respect to you know climate change neutrality.

And is that is there enough flexibility kind of built in or maybe you know not too much flexibility built in so that the process ends up being kind of railroaded or stopped altogether.

What's what's kind of how does that filter in.

And I haven't had a chance to look since I thought of the question so it may be in here and I'm not ready yet.

You know I the products of this work are pretty high level.

And so and certainly since staff had also been conducting at least in that case sustainability work.

So I think that thinking most certainly factored in and and that's why we're working with the board on these guiding principles that we started talking about at the work session was to make sure that at the high level those those things are baked into producing these master planning documents which again are are kind of concepts for potential projects.

They are not a design.

You know there there's still plenty of room later.

And so and you know the the resulting cost estimates and other project proposals that would be considered by the board will you know there certainly will be kind of a plus or minus factor as the list gets refined.

So I don't believe that the master I think the master planning process helps clarify things but it it's not a selection process.

It's just a try to develop potential candidate projects the thinking about them beyond too vague an idea so it's hard to make decisions.

But but I don't think this this will lead to things that lock you in lock the board in in their decision making or you know create constraints to how the projects get ultimately designed later.

Well and President Hampson if I could also add something that I think is confusing in the language that we use around this.

The Ward Facilities Master Plan that and the you know the policy that we adopted last year is district-wide master planning.

This is actually kind of focused on project-specific master planning.

So it's still high level.

planning but it's the master planning of a specific site more that's more the focus.

So it gets a little confusing when we say master planning and this is not actually doing the you know comprehensive analysis over the full-on facility master plan.

Staff actually helps produce that and update it.

These master plans are project-specific.

I I I'm right in that correct.

And thank you for that point of clarification.

I think a really good concept to help understand this is that this is the level that if we know well this project if it goes forward is probably building a new building and you know taking into account our district-wide kind of educational specifications thinking about well the new building would probably be this scale.

This allows you to make decisions like well do you need to plan for an interim site.

You know with the master plan for the site say well you could maybe build you could do construction and keep students on site while you're building the new building.

That's the level of work that comes out of this stage.

It really is a conceptual picture of how the project might move forward.

It is not a design of the project.

So it's basically it's site-based master planning.

Yes it's about how we're going to lay out the site not not a master plan for all our facilities.

So that's a quick kind of clarification that Director Mack brought up.

Okay.

And how things work in versus how things work in relationship to each other.

This is how things work in relationship to their localized environment.

Exactly.

Okay.

Okay.

That's helpful.

Thank you.

Fun stuff.

Okay.

We will now move to Introduction Item Number 9 BTA III slash BEX IV Approval of Budget Transfer and Award Construction Contract for the Lafayette Elementary School Seismic Fire Sprinkler and HVAC Upgrades Project which came through Ops on December 3rd for approval.

Chief Podesta.

Thank you.

Again this is a construction project.

There are three major pieces of work to construct seismic bracing in building corridors and classroom walls to install a system-wide fire suppression system.

and to replace some HVAC components and mechanical HVAC units in classrooms and on rooftop equipment.

There is a budget transfer obviously.

This is a you know originally conceived in BEX III and BEX IV so the estimate then didn't quite capture the full construction costs which are now a bit higher than were envisioned when a decade ago.

And so we'll transfer some funds to allow this work to proceed and award the contract.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

I almost called you Director DeMack.

I'll take it.

It's fine.

DeMack.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So just also for a little bit more context to around seismic upgrades.

A it's a safety thing.

And additionally there's a bit of a refresh in those spaces in the building where the seismic upgrade is made.

So these sorts of projects are smaller in cost.

They're not full retrofits on buildings but they do provide not only increased safety but also a little bit of a refresh to the building.

And so just want folks to think of that as well and look forward to any additional questions that directors may have.

Okay.

Director DeWolf.

Thanks Director Hampson.

No questions at this time.

Okay.

Director Harris.

I'm good.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

I'm good as well.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

I'm fine.

Thanks.

And Director Rivera-Smith.

No questions.

Thank you.

Okay we are good to go.

I think we are at the point where we can do 10 and 11 together because they're both acceptances.

Is that right Chief Podesta.

That's correct.

These allow the board to.

Oh sorry let me just read them off.

So this is Introduction Items Item Number 10. BEX Number 4 Final Acceptance of Contract P5096 with Hensel Phelps Construction for the Queen Anne Elementary School Classroom and Gymnasium Addition Project which came through Ops on December 3rd for approval.

And Introduction Item Number 11 BEX 4 slash BTA IV Resolution 2020 slash 21-6 Final Acceptance of Contract P5084 with lidded construction for the Lincoln High School modernization and addition project which came through Ops on December 3rd for approval as well.

Take it away Chief Podesta.

Yes thank you.

And again final acceptance allows us to close the contract file it with the state and release any bonds or retainage that might and that might be that we might be holding for the contractor.

This is for two projects that were completed in the summer of 2019. One was an addition to Queen Anne Elementary School of 8 classrooms a gymnasium and administrative suite.

And the other you'll all remember was a modernization of Lincoln High School.

And again both projects were completed on time and were the buildings are operating well.

The Lincoln High School project had a reasonable number of changes given the age of the building and its historical status.

And we're ready to close these contracts out and continue to operate these buildings.

Take it away Director Mack.

Yay final acceptance.

I don't have any further questions or comments.

I look forward to anyone else's questions and comments.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf.

I actually I take that back.

Were there specific questions that came forward in public comment related to these final.

There was.

I just want to make sure we close a loop on those questions that came to us.

In public comment it was pointed out that some trees were removed that weren't originally planned to be removed as part of the Queen Anne Elementary School addition because the original project design assumed that the project would connect to a sanitary sewer that had that existed.

When we got into construction we found that the depth and the design of the sanitary sewer connection did not conform to the as-built drawings that were supplied by Seattle Public Utilities so we had to design and construct a new connection and that did displace some trees that hadn't been in the original plan.

It wasn't that the connection hadn't been forgotten or not thought of it just had to be changed because of conditions once the excavation started.

Thank you.

Look forward to other directors questions.

Director DeWolf.

No questions here.

Director Harris.

I'm good.

Thanks.

Director Hersey.

None for me.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

No questions.

Thanks.

Director Harris-Smith.

No questions.

Thank you.

And no questions for me.

Thank you so much.

Chief Podesta.

Okay we have now come to the board comments section of the agenda.

Before we move into general comments I have an announcement of completed internal audits.

Board Procedure 6550BP Internal Audit requires an announcement of completed internal audits.

As the Audit and Finance Committee Chair I'm announcing that at the December 1st Quarterly Audit and Finance Committee meeting the Office of Internal Audit presented a follow-up internal audit report on segregation of duties related to procurement.

All findings and recommendations are discussed at a public Audit and Finance Committee meeting and the completed reports are available online at the Office of Internal Audit's public web page.

Click on Departments and Services under the Directory tab and click on Internal Audit.

And while you're there please explore explore other informative documents that our Internal Audit team has provided there for your perusal.

And thank you to Andrew Medina for and his crew for that work.

And now we will go to board comments starting with Director DeWolf.

Thank you Director Hampson.

I think I just want to at least for the first thing I want to say is thank you to President Manuela Slye the Seattle Council PTSA for organizing our numerous community meetings across the city over the course of the last few weeks.

I was really grateful to have over 100 folks attend my community meeting on December 3rd and and just want to give a shout out to the community and our partners at SEA and PASS and really the support of the board for really bringing energy to the conversation around the SBA interim assessments and was really happy to see the decision this week by the district.

So just want to give big props and congrats and gratitude to not only Seattle Council PTSA and all their members but also our community for stepping up and really telling us very explicitly and what they need from us and was really happy to see that movement came their way.

So that's all I have to say.

And again just want to thank Chief DeBacker for for her work and really excited about that that BAR coming next year.

Thanks.

Okay.

Director Harris.

Okay.

Let me ping off of what.

Director DeWolf had to say about the SBA interim testing.

I still am uncomfortable with how the city will be choosing their data points and I'm extraordinarily uncomfortable with principals making these decisions school by school.

I think I've been fairly consistent about wanting a school system as opposed to a system of schools.

And that one's zip code should not define one's either working conditions or education.

So I I very much would like a Friday memo in clear cogent non-edu speak language as to how we are handling the deal requirements for Title 1 school grants.

I am thrilled about the course catalog.

I am still gobsmacked and devastated that we have not been able to move ethnic studies forward.

And it's my hope with the job announcement posted that we can make up for lost time and that we can do some reconciliation about the hurts of the past because those are adult issues not student issues.

I also appreciate that the rest of the directors have accepted the gracious invitation of Seattle Council PTSA to set up Zoom meetings.

I will be having a Zoom meeting on January 9th at 3 p.m.

Stay tuned for my board page for the pre-registration.

And let me say that I have read every one of your emails.

I do not have the time to respond individually.

And that I appreciate the anxiety and the psychological and social emotional components of life in a pandemic.

And I hope that we can get folks back to school safely.

I hope that we can work with our labor partners and we don't put people's risk lives at risk.

And I hope that our governor and our Superintendent of Public Instruction do a better job of communicating with we mere board members that hold the heavy responsibility of making these decisions.

With all due respect to the Governor who I like who I campaigned for and to the Superintendent of Public Instruction feeling a little blindsided here and not real happy about it.

Happy holidays.

Happy Hanukkah.

Soon to be Merry Christmas etc.

And stay safe folks.

And and we are listening and honored to be in this position with such terrific colleagues.

Diane DeBacker Dr. Diane DeBacker especially because of the Wall Street Journal craziness this last week and the Very ugly pushback from the editor of the Wall Street Journal.

You earned the title of Dr. DeBacker but you're Dr. DeBacker the bomb to me.

And congratulations to Chief Scarlett and to Mr. Bush.

I look forward to working with you.

I look forward to continuing to work with you.