Seatle School Board Meeting 1272016 Part 2

We are ready to go into public testimony.

So the rules for public testimony are on the screen and I would ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

I would note that the board does not take public comments on items related to personnel or individually named staff.

I would also like to note that each speaker has a two-minute speaking time.

It's not very long so you have to be pretty concise.

When the two minutes have ended please conclude your remarks.

Ms. Ritchie will read off the testimony speakers.

Thank you.

Felicia Vasey, Melissa Westbrook, and Chris Jackins.

Alright, good afternoon everyone.

Thanks for having me here tonight.

My name is Felicia Bazy and I am the ASG president at Garfield High School.

I join you all here today to plead our case of concerns.

One of our deepest concerns is funding for our school.

The reason we are really concerned about funding is because insufficient funding is causing so many divisions within the walls of our high school.

Our APP classes are predominantly Caucasians and those students have been tracked by that way for the time, from the time they were in elementary or middle school.

Yes testing into APP is available to all students and for those students who do not test in they are able to appeal by private assessment but those who struggle financially do not have such resources.

We are going through a time that students who are not academically privileged are struggling in every single classroom at our school and do not have access to the honors and APP track.

In the midst of these days Garfield is deeply impacted by racial issues and more integrated classes will lead to not only better academic results but diverse friendships and better understanding as well.

When we walk into the building you can see the impact that these racial issues have on our student body.

It is disheartening as a student to see this going on.

I believe if we have sufficient funding we would be able to provide resources to help our students that are struggling.

We live in a country that is advancing every year and high schools are expected to produce students who are ready to take on the real world.

Access for all to academic support and technology is critical for our success.

Even if you fail single class high schools do not have the resources to provide credit retrieval in order for students to graduate.

I believe that the school board not only needs to start retrieval in order for students to graduate.

think the school board needs to start thinking about how to fund the basic core but they need to go beyond that and provide rich classes and electives in which students are engaged because they are motivated by this subject.

We ask that the board look at every possible way to channel as much money into programs that dismantle structural racism and support all of our hard-working students to help them succeed.

This is what I, the students and administrators feel is best for our school, our community and our society.

Thank you.

Good evening, several points tonight.

I am hoping the board will look at what was voted on by the previous board in regards to Licton Springs K8.

It was to have a full complement of classrooms at the new middle school to support growth.

Otherwise it looks like staff is trying to create failure for that program and cost the district a lot of money by running a small 150 student school.

The budget, much to my surprise I've been told by communications that if I want to report on the breakdown of the budget deficit I have to file a public disclosure request.

The district is saying it's in dire straits and yet will not provide the transparency as to why.

Number three, the superintendent's contract raise.

There was no link to this item when I checked this morning.

The link only came up this afternoon but that is too late under posting rules.

The public must have the opportunity to examine items the board will be voting on.

The link says that the two members of the board are recommending a COLA increase for the superintendent of 1.8%.

His base salary is $289,878.75.

Under community engagement it says not applicable.

It says there was research done on salaries from other superintendents yet none of that data is attached to the bar.

If this is about him walking, let him.

We have the capable Steve Nilsen in second in command.

I cannot believe anyone can with a straight face and that kind of salary believe that you will have any support from the public or parents when you come and say that big cuts must be made to schools and their personnel.

To say I am aghast and disillusioned is putting it mildly.

My name is Chris Jackins Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the contract with the superintendent, the superintendent has pursued outside consulting contracts while employed by the district.

Are the value and nature of such contracts publicly reported?

On the student assignment plan three points number one the district should reopen Indian heritage school which had native education as its central focus.

Number two Licton Springs has some native elements but it is not such a school to become such a school would amount to closing the original alternative school which would be wrong.

Number three the district should keep these issues in mind when placing schools at new sites.

On the contract to Bassetti Architects for BEX V capital levy planning, three points.

Number one, the principal architect of this firm while he was chair of the city landmarks board once gave the district landmarks advice for a school project while employed by the district on the same project.

Number two, does this firm have any qualms about the district's request to be exempt from all city landmarks regulations?

Number three, should the district pay for landmarks expertise if the district plans to be exempted from landmarks regulations?

Please vote no on this contract.

On amending policy 4237, three points.

Number one, this action would increase commercial advertising at public schools.

Number two, until board policies were reversed five years ago such advertising was prohibited.

Number three, please don't sell commercial access to public school students.

Please vote no.

Thank you.

Klepanoff Hills, Madeline Stavley, Sage Enright.

Thank you for allowing me to speak today.

My name is Betsy Klebanoff-Hills, I'm the mother of Jack a 7th grader currently enrolled in the HCC program at Hamilton.

I'm here representing 112 classmates 72 of which are HCC kids in the cohort being geo split to the new Eagle Staff school.

My purpose is to urge you to support and vote in favor of the amendment to the assignment plan allowing grandfathering 8th graders.

Grandfathering is the right thing to do because it ensures the well-being of these kids by allowing them to remain in a well-established and thriving program with their friends.

they want to finish what they started.

According to the principal at the new Eagle Staff school she is committed to quote unquote the fidelity of HCC but it is unclear how and what programs will actually be able to be provided.

HCC is protected under Washington state law and it would be horribly unfair and stressful for my son and his friends to be sent to a school where they may or may not have programs all the while knowing his friends back at Hamilton that they started with are getting what they need.

Unfortunately this is an all too realistic scenario because of the enormous budget crisis emailed out by the superintendent last week and we know we all know opening a new school requires an enormous amount of logistics decisions resources and money.

It's a huge task with lots of stakeholders.

Unfortunately those stakeholders are our kids.

I propose seeing grandfather as a positive option because it is an opportunity to consolidate resources, reduce risk and ensure equity.

You already have the programs in place at Hamilton so there is no reason to reinvent the wheel.

And the kids are guaranteed to be provided the best education you can provide without additional resources.

Therefore I ask you to see grandfathering as a positive solution that enables you to cross the needs of these kids off your enormous to-do list.

It's a solution and no longer another issue needing to be resolved.

Further it gives the principal a year to plan and establish a great program for her rising seventh graders.

Grandfathering allows you to take comfort in the fact that you have followed your strategic plan providing the best equitable education possible.

Thank you.

I'm just going to leave that.

My name is Madeline Stavely and I've been a teacher at Licton Springs for the last 15 years.

Until this year I have always taught a multi-grade class.

This was not by choice.

This is what we had to do given our staffing numbers from the school district.

We have been assigned seven rooms at the new Eagle Staff building so I'm guessing staff envision continuing the multi-grade trend that they have kind of set our school on.

Multi-grades are problematic for two main reasons.

First, you end up with a huge range of ability in one classroom.

My classroom last year was a very typical example.

Of the 25 students, 64% were below grade level in reading, 4% were at grade level and 32% were above grade level.

For the kids who are struggling readers and writers it's more effective to have clear learning targets that all students are working on throughout the day.

With multi-grade they would hear the third-grade targets, then the fourth-grade targets, then the fourth-grade challenge targets.

It gets too wordy and too confusing and this is just the dilemma with reading.

I'm not talking about math or science or social studies.

Secondly, it is very challenging to plan for two grades, two sets of standards, two separate curriculums for each subject in a way that is meaningful for kids especially with a significant number needing remedial instruction in reading and literacy and math.

There is not time to cover both grade levels in one year so you end up with less depth and breadth when covering content.

Well things are different this year we have mitigation funding so the first time K-6 is in a single grade level classroom.

I mean single grade levels and one thing we can do right away is double our instruction time in math.

I teach third grade math in the morning and then again in the afternoon.

when we have our additional class they are all third graders I'm aware of who you know what happened in the morning and who needs extra help in the afternoon.

During my planning time and lunch I can prep so that all kids get targeted instruction twice a day and this is just the benefit in math.

Please help us continue our work of closing the achievement gap for Native American and non-native learners.

We really would appreciate 14 rooms at the Robert Eagle Staff building.

Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Sage Enright and I am a student at Garfield high school and alum at Pinehurst K-8 or now known as Licton Springs.

School hasn't always been easy for me.

In the fourth grade I was not able to read and quickly I rose to academic success through the help of Licton Springs and the 101 attention you get at Licton Springs.

Even through continuous threats of the closure of the school.

The unique inclusive philosophy of social justice and the social mindfulness at Licton Springs really created a supportive environment that made that really made me feel that I mattered and that increased my academic success greatly.

I am now as I said a Garfield student and I am also a running start student at Seattle Central colleges so I'm taking college courses making me ahead of other high school students.

This school needs to be placed in a building in Licton Springs neighborhood because the Native American cultural ties with the school.

It needs more than seven rooms it's currently assigned in order to be successful.

They need a designated special education room for one on one work.

They also need more rooms to successfully operate a middle school.

Ideally they need 14 rooms and I'm sure that the school will continue to produce academic success such as yourself, myself.

I would recommend that this school changed my life and that is why this is so important to me.

Vanessa Brannon, Ellie Ratcliffe.

and Mark Brannan.

Hi, my name is Vanessa Brannan.

I am the mom of two SPS students.

My son is a fourth grader at Licton Springs.

This is his second year at the school.

He is autistic and he is in the special ed program access.

I am here to request that you strongly consider giving Licton Springs the additional seven rooms we need to bring it up to a total of 14 rooms at the new Robert Eagle Staff building.

There are many reasons why our school needs this additional space in this very specific location but I really want to talk about the special needs programming.

When Licton Springs was given seven classrooms at Robert Eagle Staff they did not have the access program as part of the school but in 2015 the program was added and many children including my son were brought to that school.

Many of those kids were brought to Licton Springs because of traumatic experiences in their old schools.

His previous school was out of compliance for special education and many of the other kids in the access program here came from similarly difficult situations.

Right now the seven room assignment does not include any space for access at all for the program to continue at the new site.

In addition we have no class space for our special ed resource room or our title one lab room.

We know that you as a board are dedicated to closing the achievement gap because Licton Springs student population includes 32% special needs students Providing adequate space for these programs is one of the most important ways to achieve this.

In addition these extra aids in these rooms are benefiting all of the students not just our special ed kids.

The other way is to provide space for single grade classrooms for the elementary and middle ed students.

In previous years they were combined as Madeline talked about.

My son was in her class as part of the third and fourth grade last year and he was struggling significantly in math.

This year just in the last four months in the single grade classroom he has risen to the second in his grade for math.

My son's autism diagnosis was a big blow to our family.

So many of our hopes and dreams for him were dashed and yet over the past year and a half at Licton Springs he's blossomed in ways we never thought we would see.

So please help Licton Springs to continue to change kids lives.

Hi I'm Ellie Ratliff and I cede my time to Rachel Shirley of White Mountain Apache Edgewater clan.

Good evening thank you for hearing us.

I'm Rachel Shirley and I'm here tonight in solidarity and I'm also here to emphasize the importance of this school and its programs that it provides to our children.

In particular the Native American aspect and the access program.

Licton Springs is an all-inclusive culturally responsive school.

Their motto is writing scene to justice, learning with joy and building future.

The mission is a creative holistic experiential learning environment and that is what my daughter Emma needs and I'm sure what other children need as well.

My child is Native American and she is dyslexic which means she learns differently from the majority.

The teachers and staff of Licton Springs are not afraid to embrace this challenge.

In fact they confidently step up every day where other schools have made it a problem Without this school it would be a significant gap in my child's education.

The access program is an inclusion program which means most of the students spend a majority of learning time in general ed.

However, a key component for the program's success is a dedicated individualized space where these children can receive academic and social instruction as well as much needed break times A place where they can have a safe and quiet time and relax from the stresses of school.

These children try so hard every single day to live up to our expectations, our standards and our goals.

Let us live up to theirs and give them the tools and the space they need to meet these expectations.

And in doing so we secure a strong, vibrant, inclusive school community that gives our community greater value.

Thank you guys so much for listening.

My name is Mark Brennan thank you for taking my comments today.

My daughter attends Daniel Bagley elementary school we live in North Seattle that's our neighborhood school.

My son is at Licton Springs and we feel very fortunate that he is there right now.

I just want to share some data that the principal shared with me the prior week because it was eye-opening for me. 30% of the students at Licton Springs are native.

32% of the students are in special ed.

10% are homeless and I take that to mean that they are Title I LAP and more than 50% are on free and reduced lunch.

This is a unique learning community and they need equity.

They need to help.

I've heard many of you speak tonight about the opportunity gap, or I heard recently about the achievement gap, and the distinction is a little unclear to me still, but I know that in this space that we've been allocated of these seven rooms, it's not enough room for these kids to succeed.

We need those 14 rooms.

We are so excited about the learning community at Licton Springs we've even considered bringing our daughter there because we want them to be at the same school.

They're our community we want to go to the school that is close that is in this location that was the promised location.

We can't drive somewhere else to a school across town and we can't fit into the seven rooms.

Please allocate 16 rooms for Licton Springs.

Taryn Grove, John Chapman, Alexandra Porter.

I'm new to this.

I'm Taryn Grove mom to Quinn and Reed.

Since the launch of EGLE staff was announced we've been expecting it will be done in such a way as to preserve the strength of our community.

Recently my expectations have faltered as I've learned about the implications of the growth boundary plan.

I've learned Whitman's enrollment will drop by 366 students next year and sustain excess capacity for the foreseeable future.

A third of the new HCC student body is requesting that they grandfather at their current school.

Greenwood and Broderick Thompson tonight are asking to be fed back into Whitman.

And Licton Springs is requesting additional space at Eagle Staff which we all want them to have.

I personally am watching my community fracture as groups splinter off hoping to achieve relief for the pain that they fear will come if they do not advocate for themselves.

There have been secret meetings and angry emails between previously cohesive groups that one position harms another.

Quinn from Hamilton HCC and Reed rising to Whitman have a legitimate reason to fight, not On January 4 you are charged with updating the student assignment plan to modify HCC pathways.

I am here to suggest an off-the-wall idea with the potential to resolve a number of the concerns raised tonight.

Launch the new highly capable cohort at Whitman middle school.

Launching it at Whitman will bring together the growing group of Whitman area families split between two middle schools.

It will lessen the blow to Whitman programming by bringing enrollment back to a more stable long-term number and if done along with other feeder changes they will return Whitman to its current levels of programming.

It will free up capacity to honor commitments made to Licton Springs at Eagle Staff.

It will minimize impacts to the new HC cohort should you approve the grandfathering amendment.

And above all launching the cohort at Whitman will help keep the North Seattle school community intact and ensure continued strong programming and a rich educational experience for each and every student regardless of which school they attend for years to come.

We are stronger together.

Thank you.

Hi my name is John Chapman I have a junior at the center school and an eighth grader who will graduate this year from Licton Springs.

In the past three years Licton Springs has taken on the challenge of building a learning community that serves Seattle's urban native community.

And this is not something that comes with an off-the-shelf solution.

When our tribal schools in the area, when they've opened schools, it takes about an average of three years of engagement and planning before they even open their doors.

And we've been doing this sort of on the fly, learning as we go, and we're working with a population that comes from hundreds of tribes across the nation, across the continent.

We focus strongly on recruiting native students which has built our population to 30% of the school.

We've made some mistakes we've had to rethink some long-held traditions like our multi-grade classrooms.

In the past three years our teachers have implemented tribal sovereignty curriculum throughout the school, collaborated with the educators in UW on a culturally responsive science curriculum.

We have a new science teacher that's doing rigorous culturally responsive E-STEM.

We have an art curriculum written in conjunction with Coast Salish artists and we have a STEAM collaboration between the art teacher and the science teacher.

They're doing place-based, kids are doing place-based artwork in their science observation field sites.

We have a librarian who is a woman of color who is a robotics expert and is busting through stereotypes of what a scientist is.

And we continue to have a rigorous middle school program that has kids doing research and writing comparable to high school, better than some kids get in high school.

And we are wrapping all that with trauma-informed practices and dealing with our traumatized students.

We have built the foundation for a strong and vibrant school that will grow and serve Seattle students.

So if our enrollment is not at what we would like it to be right now that's because we know we have a foundation that will build and grow in this community.

Thank you.

My name is Alexandra Porter and I'm standing here tonight as a concerned parent and community member.

I've emailed each of the board members directly as well a detail of what I'm going to speak with tonight.

But I'm personally tonight asking that the board give 14 rooms to Licton Springs at the new Robert Eagle Staff location and I can boldly say with 100% confidence that Licton Springs needs the 14 rooms.

And in return I can also give 100% reassurance that we will be able to create enrollment growth to fill that space to capacity.

I'm asking you to take pause in the decision-making process of room assignments over the next month and to contact our community to fully understand how it is I can stand here tonight and say such bold statements with absolute honest truth.

I'm also asking the board to take the time to grasp the role Licton Springs has for our underserved and underprivileged children in our communities which is 75% of our current enrollment.

We need the 14 rooms to continue serving them and to be able to grow to serve a larger part of our community.

So please ask yourselves where is the equity in allocating resources and does the board see right now the unique opportunity at hand to support success among natives, the FRL kids, students with special needs along with many of our children who haven't been thriving at the more classic public schools.

So in a nutshell giving us only seven rooms is sort of like putting Licton Springs in hospice.

If you look at the race and equity tool that the board uses when making policy and decisions you can see that only having seven rooms will negatively impact 75% of our school.

So I would like to take that negative statistic and reword it with positivity.

Having 14 rooms will positively impact the populations that need the most support in order to achieve success.

So 14 rooms will take Licton Springs out of hospice and allow our program to remain vital in serving those in need.

So finally I would like to bring to light the unjust irony that one of the largest issues at hand is that we are discussing a Native American sacred location, a Native American school covered in murals with Native American icons and yet on the inside it's a Native American program which is being marginalized and minimalized with the lack of equity.

Thank you.

Our next three speakers will be Sharon Peasley, Monica Greenberg and Kathleen Durham.

Greetings board and Dr. Nyland.

I'm Sharon Peasley former school board director.

Please amend the student assignment plan to give Licton Springs K8 at least 14 rooms in the Eagle Staff building.

The school board voted in 2013 to give the school 14 rooms at Lincoln with enrollment up to 350 students to be moved to Wilson Pacific.

The current plan to move the schools into six rooms or seven at Eagle Staff makes no sense.

It's impossible to fit a nine grade school into six or seven rooms.

Ten rooms may be under consideration as a compromise but the school needs at least 14 rooms so that it has a classroom for every grade.

Three resource rooms, a computer lab and an art room.

These rooms are in constant use every day.

Sharing them with a comprehensive middle school would severely restrict access and require elementary schools to navigate a sprawling middle school.

Most importantly this isn't necessary.

Enrollment projections show Whitman far below capacity for more than five years.

By redirecting one or two schools to Whitman instead of Eagle Staff there will easily be at least 14 rooms for Licton Springs.

Is any other K-8 in the district expected to combine grades or to function without special ed rooms, an art room or a computer lab?

The fact that Licton Springs is a Title I lab school focused on native students entitles it to more resources according to the policy on race and equity.

So why is it being denied the space it needs?

SPS has invested approximately $6 million to save the native murals at Wilson Pacific and to create a token space for the Licton Springs schools.

It's time to move beyond tokenism and make a serious commitment to this school and its students many of whom are Native American.

Please keep the promise made by the board and give Licton Springs at least 14 rooms at Eagle Staff.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Monica Greenberg my son Sammy is a kindergartner at Licton Springs K8 and guess what?

I am here to ask you to make changes to the student assignment plan at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School so that 14 classrooms can be provided there for Licton Springs K8.

We agree that every student in Seattle deserves the space and the place to succeed.

Our place is at Licton Springs.

but I believe that our school needs more space at Robert Eagle Staff for all of our students to succeed.

I could go on in great detail about my own personal concerns and my own precious snowflake, trust me I really can, but that is not my primary reason for being here.

Our native students deserve to have the place and the space that they need to succeed at Robert Eagle Staff.

I've been asked to share some words from one of our native parents who couldn't be here tonight.

She writes, my name is Amy Markisham, I am an enrolled Makah tribal member as is my son, a first grader at Licton Springs.

I also have two granddaughters in kindergarten and second grade.

We have always been active in the native community and invested in student success.

We live in Licton Springs.

We want our children to be part of a school with a native focus and a social justice curriculum.

We placed our students at Licton Springs at Lincoln with the commitment being that we would eventually be in the Licton Springs community.

We are not alone.

We currently occupy 14 rooms at Lincoln and the seven classrooms allotted at Robert Eagle Staff are not adequate for educational success.

The school and community deserve a real chance to grow.

Please honor your commitment to native student success, be warriors and fight for our children.

Don't perpetuate the wrongs native people have experienced in the name of education and help our students to have a school where they can thrive and grow.

Thank you for your time, that's from her and also thank you for your time from me.

Good evening my name is Kathleen Durham I have three Seattle Public Schools students the oldest of whom is a seventh grader at Hamilton.

I'm here to express my ardent support for the grandfathering amendment that's been proposed to the student assignment plan.

I could also tell you about my precious snowflake and she's precious but everyone's snowflake is precious.

What I'm here to talk to you today about is the impact that's going to happen to these eighth graders is quite a small number of kids who are going to be grossly impacted by this change.

Changes in school assignments are significant disruption to students and their families.

This amendment to grandfather these students would mitigate some of that disruption for these rising 8th graders who have invested quite a bit of time and energy in making friendships, achieving academic goals and progressing through language and music programs that will not be in place for them as 8th graders in the new Eagle Staff middle school.

The unique predicament of these rising 8th graders forced to switch schools is also significant.

In the case of the students going from Hamilton to Eagle Staff they will be going to a brand-new school that is already expected to be over enrolled with no history and little preparation for these programs that they have been pursuing for the last two years.

Such as music and sports and language immersion in addition to academic opportunities.

students at Whitman because of under enrollment are being allowed to stay but our students will be forced to go making a very small eighth-grade cohort.

I have a rising sixth-grader who is going to be going to Eagle Staff next year and I am fully committed to the success of that school.

I am fully committed to the success of that middle school experience for her and for her compatriots but I'm also committed to the opportunity for my 8th, 7th grader, rising 8th grader to continue at Hamilton.

She has formed friendships, she has come out of her shell in these years and I ask you to do the right thing and act in the best interest of these students.

This small group of 8th graders will make very little difference to Eagle Staff but this grandfathering amendment will make a huge impact on their lives so I ask you to support the amendment.

Next is Renee Remlinger T, Gloria Villa and Stan Cohen.

Hi I'm Renee Remlinger T. First of all I just want to say thank you for all the work you do.

You have a hard job and many of us appreciate what you're doing for us.

I'm the parent of a fourth grader at Cascadia who we think will go to Robert Eagle Staff middle school when she starts middle school.

My family is very excited for her to have that experience.

It's going to be a new vibrant exciting and no doubt excellent school that will be comprehensive And there's lots to look forward to.

And I also support grandfathering 8th graders not only for my 7th grader who is at Hamilton but across the district.

The Washington kids who are supposed to go to Meany, there are Eckstein and Jams kids who are supposed to go to Eagle Staff.

This is about a lot of 8th graders.

So many families and I ask you to please support the grandfathering amendment the student assignment plan.

Thinking about your strategic plan and your mission to make student centered decisions which here is a printout from your website strategic plan the first bold is our students come first.

Thinking about that and the equity Decisions based on equity and ensuring basic education needs are met for all students in the schools.

No one should get anything more and no one should get anything less than another.

Grandfathering 8th graders will allow you to do just that, follow your mission and honor it.

All Whitman students have been told that they can stay at Whitman 6th, 7th and 8th graders because there is space there.

It would be equitable if all the other rising 8th graders could stay at their schools.

I've been in the HCC community for four years and I witnessed the split happen with jams and it's known that it was especially hard on those 8th graders academically, the principal had to scramble for funding to make sure they got the right classes for their just right basic education and also socially emotionally.

So some say you should follow best practices and follow that but today you can make a different decision and actually do something that works better.

What I wanted to do today and I'm running out of time is just provide some quotes of kids because this is about 12 and 13-year-olds.

I have five different kids who have told me why they want to stay at Hamilton.

The bottom line is they want to continue in the community they've been in.

They want to look forward and follow through on the eighth-grade things they get to do at that school.

Yeah and then the last thing is a ninth grader said eighth grade is when she really got to blossom and deepen relationships with friends and students so thank you for listening today.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Gloria Villa I am the mother of an 8th grader and a 6th grader at Hamilton International in the HCC program.

I come to here today because I feel that the board believes that each child matters and that its number one goal is to excellence and equity.

While I feel the grandfathering should only apply to all students or to none of the students I believe that all Northwest HCC students should be able to stay at Hamilton or all should leave together to be at Eagle Staff.

I feel that it's not equitable that a select group be allowed to stay and another group that is also already there not be allowed to stay.

My daughter is a sixth grader currently right now.

She reminded me that she had struggled this year learning all the new school, the rules, the layout, the teachers, the environment and making many new friends that would not be joining her at Eagle Staff.

After several months she felt that she had finally felt like it was her school.

She did not want to have to do that again because it had been exhausting and she had worked so hard at it.

So who's to say whose strain is greater sixth graders or seventh graders when each child matters?

I'm hoping that you will consider either allowing all the Northwest HCC students to stay together or to have them leave together.

I feel that this is equitable and what the board supports and its commitment to each child matters and to its excellence and equity goal.

I also feel that we want a robust HCC program and only by being together and working on a single school that would help it be successful.

So I really encourage you to really look at what you're doing whether it's splitting up and allowing only certain students to be the ones that are included.

I feel that we should focus on inclusion for all and this amendment is about inclusion for only some.

Thank you.

Next is Stan Cohen followed by James Bristow.

Mr. Cohen.

I would then move to James Bristow please.

Board President that concludes the testimony list for this evening.

We are at 18 I'm sorry that was 17 speakers.

Is there anybody else who would like to speak tonight?

We are welcome to, we have three additional spots then if anyone else would like to come forward to speak.

That appears to conclude our public comment section of the meeting.

Thank you all very much for coming.

So now we will proceed on to the board comments.

Director Harris would you like to speak first?

$47.4 million.

That is the amount today of the McCleary fines and sanctions of $100,000 per day as ordered by the Washington State Supreme Court.

Thank you to the Garfield representative Ms. Mackley.

Thank you as well to the Garfield student testifier Ms. Felicia Daisy.

Thank you.

It is hugely important to hear.

from our students boots on the ground and appreciate very much and I hope we see you again and I hope we see you commenting on board policies this next year.

Thank you to all that have testified and have called written and shown up at the various meetings work sessions and community engagement meetings and at the board retreat last Saturday.

Thank you to our teachers and staff who every day try to meet the needs and challenges of our students under extraordinary circumstances and in the face of many many unfunded mandates.

Thank you to the folks on the community engagement task force.

We are making progress.

We are not there yet and frankly it will take and will be a culture change.

But we are excited by the possibilities here and we need your input from the public.

and to Carrie Campbell especially from whom I get far too many emails after 9 PM at night.

Thank you to the staff for the two by twos and the other opportunities to work with staff to collaborate and move forward on our terribly valuable initiatives.

Thank you to my fellow executive committee members and the opportunity to work as a team.

Betty I hope it's been good for you as a president and a leader.

It's been good for me.

Thank you.

Thank you to my friend and councilmember Lisa Herbold for her adding to the city budget funds to assist childcare providers that might be displaced as a result of our capacity crises.

Remember January through March of last year.

Painful painful memories.

Thank you to Teresa Hale board office manager you are a star and I wish you the best on your transfer to human relations.

I will miss your cashews and great attitude and support.

Here's the hard part.

There has been an op ed piece published recently by one of our colleagues That suggests this board has been cavalier regarding amendments to the boundary changes at our last meeting with the implication that the amendments were quote willy-nilly and provided at the last minute cost $1 million and that by spending the $9 million underspend in addressing staff requests earlier this summer to focus on goals including the opportunity gap closing initiatives, MTSS A and B and system fixes was irresponsible.

And that somehow these actions pit the North end against the South end needs.

I respectfully disagree.

The board has been consistently requesting on several occasions more details on how the $9 million has been spent thus far.

and for the detail to back up the $1 million estimates.

And any increased costs for the initiatives passed by this board.

We have received estimates without the bases for reaching these estimates.

We will keep trying.

I will defend anyone's first amendment rights to speak out but would respectfully suggest there are more collaborative ways to do so and would appreciate accuracy being a touchstone.

I also appreciate that we have brought for Superintendent Nyland's evaluation and contract to the table this evening.

To Superintendent Larry, you are a class act.

and your service and candor have been extremely appreciated by this board member and I look forward to working with you and continuing to work with you for the next year.

Thank you.

I also appreciate the work done by outside counsel Patty Eaks and Lindsay Munt and working with the entire board through this process and with Director Blanford and myself to negotiate the contract before you this evening.

I was lucky enough to attend the core plus symposium yesterday which addresses CTE pathways and is a consortium of lots of good folks that provides alternative pathways for our students that can provide living wage jobs in hugely necessary positions throughout our fine city or as Director Burke says Seattle ready.

We saw an extraordinary video from the Rainier Beach high school Port of Seattle internship program.

which I hope we can emphasize on our website and see more of that we've already reached out to the Port of Seattle to do so.

To my colleagues and constituents thank you for the honor of serving you, have made mistakes and look forward to working collaboratively in expanding our circle, replicating success, closing the opportunity gap and to meeting Seattle students and family needs for every child.

from the Boren K7 community we hear you on tier 3 we are working hard.

My next community meeting will be at the Delridge library December 17 from 1 to 3 PM.

Happiest of holidays and let's reach out and recognize that the holidays are not necessarily happy for everyone and we need to reach out to help our neighbors.

Thank you so much.

Anyone else like to make some comments?

Director Burke.

Let's see if I can navigate my notes.

Director Harris did a great job with the gratitude and so I'd like to just ditto that and it's kind of an easy way out but she did it so eloquently that I don't want to overdo it but I do want to thank our guest on the board Ms. Mackley and her colleague at Garfield Ms. Bazy for bringing forward the concerns from their school and also getting a window into what we do.

Just as a side note when you are interested in some of the things that go on and you read through that student rights and responsibilities handbook the SRR handbook that is policy work.

And so when you're doing policy work it feels sometimes not very dramatic but those are the sort of things that can be really influential they set guideposts for all of our students, all of our leaders, all of our buildings to follow.

And so I really wanted to Especially thank you for the work that you and the Garfield community did to provide feedback on that.

I wanted to also put another point of thank you and recognition on our schools of distinction.

This is such a show of support or of just amazingness for lack of a better word for the leadership of our principals.

for the focus of our educators and for the support of the families at these schools.

And you know there are some people that are doing some things right and we want, they model our educational best practices, they provide us success stories that we can draw on and so I wanted to put out a thank you for that as well.

A special note of gratitude for outgoing President Patu.

You're amazing.

You serve with empathy.

candor, your commitment to students and closing the equity gap and saying what's on your mind is inspiring so thank you for that.

I want to mention, I had an opportunity and a special thanks to Wyeth Jesse and Carrie Hanson who were running an MTSS work session.

This was a group of department and building leaders putting their heads together to institutionalize the multi-tiered system of support.

And so we look up on the walls at our schools of distinction but we are trying to take that and make it systemwide.

And so this group is, they are looking for ways to take, extract the highest value, the highest leverage practices from these schools pull them together along with implementation guides and tools and help deploy it through the rest of the district.

So I know that that work is slow moving sometimes and doesn't have a lot of visibility so that's why I was really appreciative and wanted to publicly thank Wyeth and his team for letting me kind of see inside the factory while they're making that all happen.

I want to also build on Dr. Nyland and Leslie Harris, Director Harris's comments about yesterday's meeting at the manufacturing and industrial Council.

We got to hear from outgoing state superintendent Randy Dorn.

and superintendent elect Chris Rickdahl about their ideas in education and how career and technical education can build on that.

How it can be a gap closing strategy, how critical it is.

And it was really special to me that our skill center was front and center in that.

Rainier Beach high school and one of our students, one of our own who successfully carried out an internship with the Port of Seattle.

So I think the prestigious and dedicated folks in that room really further highlights to me how important that is as an educational tool.

Budget, this is a tough challenge that we face and you know it's easy to spend but it's hard to save, it's hard to cut.

And so my ask is that people attend the budget community meetings that are coming up and share the struggle.

Because it's pretty easy to say oh well you know we shouldn't cut that, we shouldn't cut this.

But we have to make some tough prioritization.

And so getting authentic community input to help us with that is really valuable.

And I also ask that people recognize that we will get through this and we will get through it together.

You've heard a couple times from my colleagues the idea of holding hands as we go through this and although it's going to feel sometimes like we have to pit one program against another, one school against another, if we focus on our commitment and our elbow grease and maybe not worry quite as much about the dollars while we have to cut some cut some things or make some tough choices.

Keep the positive mindset.

For the Licton Springs community, I've had the pleasure of meeting with principal Murka and some of the staff touring the school and hearing firsthand the story, the challenges of the program right now in its 14 rooms and what that would look like or could look like or couldn't look like.

in the Robert Eagle Staff building with six rooms plus a developmental special ed room.

And it was clear to me from that that the plan as it stands is not really workable.

So I'm committed to figuring out how we can find a good plan that doesn't crowd the program out, that provides the opportunity for Licton Springs to succeed in the new Robert Eagle Staff site and I want for the school community as well to think creatively about how we can do that because The board director hat when I put that on and think about fiscal responsibility for the entire district I can't in good conscience put a school with 150 students in 14 large full-size classrooms.

If there are other students that have needs and that are that vacant space just doesn't flow well for me.

But if we can think creatively about how the program can have individualized spaces, how the program can have a growth trajectory so that it's not choked out.

Let's look at some sort of a compromise position and I'm enthusiastic about trying to help the community find that so that we're not overextending on budget but we're not choking out this program because the work that's happening in those schools in those classrooms that's where the amazing stuff really happens it's not up here from the dais.

I think I will hold most of my discussion around the student assignment plan to introduction on that topic but I thank the community who has provided input and want to bring everybody's attention to the amendments some of them have just been introduced today so if we don't have an opportunity to dialogue on them I want to be very explicit that these amendments represent a vehicle by which we can communicate and talk about options.

And over the next month between today when we introduce and January 4 when we vote on the student assignment plan I remain wide open to hearing feedback from community and understanding what are the points of pain, what are the unintended consequences and making adjustments as needed.

To that end I have a community meeting scheduled which has not been posted but will be shortly.

Greenwood public library on this Saturday December 10 from 4 o'clock to 545. I welcome people to come to that and I'm trying to schedule a second one probably for December 31 so that we can break in the new years.

I want to have a second meeting before the final approval of this so that will also be posted shortly.

Thank you very much.

my happy new year to everyone.

Director Geary.

Thank you everybody for coming to the board meeting I always appreciate seeing everybody who takes the time to come to South Soto to talk to us.

Thank you Betty.

I guess the hardest thing about thanking Betty for her presidency or Director Patu is that it sounds like she's leaving us and she's not.

So we will get to thank her continue to be thankful for all the great attributes that she brings to our board and so it just, thanks for still being here too.

Thank you Teresa, I will miss you, she's my new wave music partner in the boardroom and so I'll have to seek her out and we can talk about 80s music together.

But it's those little things, it's the smiles that people bring to us day to day as we go through the district that I think we all appreciate and keeps us excited about our jobs and so every person that we meet is an opportunity for a relationship and somebody to connect with on a deeper or a different level as well and we just have to remember that.

There will be new people coming in and so while I will miss you.

Teresa, I know our next person will have some unique attribute.

Anybody who comes to work in the district comes here because they care about the education of our children and we have to always hold onto that in everything we do even when we are at odds with the people around us.

That we have to know that ultimately somewhere we share that common core and that keeps us moving forward and hopefully with a smile on our faces we deal with one another.

Thank you Ms. Mackie for coming.

Not always easy to sit up in front of a group of people and put together coherent thoughts in a linear matter and have nobody answer to you.

It's not a discussion as you saw and sometimes that's a little odd.

But I appreciate what you said and I heard what you said and along with your fellow student Ms. Bazy Felicia.

The thing I love about Garfield is that I have such faith that as we face hard times your student body contends, continues to formulate the questions that we need to grapple with.

And no it's not always your job to have the answer and no we don't always come up with the best answer.

But that relationship has to continue.

And your community does such a good job of continuing to bring those questions to us.

But you also I think do a great job of grappling within your community on those.

And you don't just look at the status quo as the way things have to be.

And so I just appreciate that about Garfield and while It would be lovely to give you more money to solve all the problems that were identified.

We would love to do that with every school and we hear every week or every month from those schools.

I know that your community will do the best as there are hard times to come up with answers to these hard questions and so we support you in that, we know you are doing that and we recognize how hard that is and how it is hard to create unity when there are such big issues, hard issues coming down.

So we have to do that as well across the whole district.

But thank you for coming.

The schools of distinction, it is so much fun, it is a bright spot.

We look at our banners, we hear about them at so many of our meetings and I'm going to just sort of piggyback on what Director Burke said and that's share the work.

Let's not reinvent the wheel.

In hard times we have to continue to do what's working and figure out ways to eliminate what isn't.

So thank you for all the work that you have done within your communities and I know it's the strong leadership but we also hear from the parent groups in those schools and what they bring and how they wrap around their schools and they protect their schools.

And that gets to a comment, well I'm going to address the idea of the boundaries decision and I'm going to tie that into Licton Springs as well.

Because when we made amendments on the boundaries I had in great mind the Olympic Hills Elementary community and how that is one of our schools of distinction and one that we are very very proud of.

And we know that strong communities support the kids and you see great results from that.

And that when we have hard decisions to make around capacity and around budget I guess I am not personally willing to make it on the backs of our kids who are identified as of color or members of the achievement gap or free and reduced lunch all the different labels that we put on kids that identify the gaps that we see.

And so I don't know if it's fiscally responsible or morally responsible to make sure that you're putting those kids first and you're protecting those communities.

And I will tend to go, nobody has ever accused me of being overly fiscally responsible but I let that morality guide me.

And so when I hear from the Licton streams community and yes I heard very clearly that we are looking at 32% special ed, 30% Native American, more than 50% free and reduced lunch and once again we are looking at solving a problem on communities that we have identified and labeled they are our achievement gap communities and there are vulnerable communities and there are also the communities that historically seem to be the ones that are easiest to move around.

And when you move students around their education suffers.

If you treat them as the ones just because they are smaller, they are less vocal, they are easier to put in some place, if you don't respect the integrity of their programs then you've just contributed to the problem that you're just giving mouth service to.

So I hear you Licton Springs and it seems to me that your community has been identified for a long time and at some point somebody decided to put an access program in there as well.

So at one point knowing that you're going to Robert Eagle Staff there was a decision to increase your population with a community that needs a separate educational environment.

That was on us.

That was a decision we made as a district knowing the future of that program.

So we need to honor that it was our job to have the foreseeability of meeting the needs of this school.

Because we as a board who went through a process to say we weren't going to let schools or programs disappear through attrition but that we were going to be purposeful and mindful about it.

And I am feeling again that pressure.

We are not being mindful.

We are not being respectful of our past decisions.

I appreciate our board, former board director coming and talking to us to give us her perspective on the decisions she thought she was making.

So I say that so that we as a district can continue to think and I think you can see where I'm going to go in terms of trying to figure out and listen and work with Director Burke to figure out how to make this work.

But we need to make it work because we had the foreseeability problem and it's our job to protect the communities that we create.

And welcome to our new leaders and our new board.

I have great faith in you to work on the behest of our students and on the behest of all of our employees and our district leaders and making sure that we are doing our best to make them excited about coming and doing this work with us every day.

So let's look for ways to market commend the positive and grow together.

And happy holidays to everybody.

Thank you.

First I would like to say thank you to Ms. Mackley and her colleague for sharing with us your insights about your school.

And always appreciate comments from our students because we are here because of you.

So we really appreciate the fact that you are able to come out here and share with us your ideas and what is it that you have that you feel that we need to look at.

So thank you again for being here.

I specifically like to say thank you to some of the staff person that I felt that whenever I needed their assistance or need information that they would always come back to me with a phone call or they would email me or they would text me because that's one of my frustrations is when I can't find the information right away for me to be able to tell a community person or a parent that needed information.

sometime I get panicky to the point where I am calling constantly to make sure that I find someone.

But these two people actually have always been right there when I need them and that is Peggy McEvoy and Flip Herden for always coming to my rescue when I need them for information in terms of transportation or boundaries or anything that has to do with enrollment.

So I want to say thank you so much for that support.

I also want to thank Eric McCurdy and Pat McCarthy for their support of keeping our stadium intact and helping us about, giving us ideas about the new renovation that we are hoping in 2019 for our stadium.

They are the one that is down there all in that end of the of the field and they kind of keep an eye out on everything that's going on in terms of what's happening with our stadium and so I appreciate their watchful eye in terms of that area of actually something that we don't hear much about but I thank them for keeping an eye out for us.

I also would like to say thank you to to Mayor Murray for his work in helping us to eliminate opportunity gap.

We know that in the past we have not had a great relationship with the city but I think that because we need each other this year has been a great year for us to move forward and just hearing him say we're here to help support you in whatever way we can.

I think that's what it's all about.

You know we support each other in the work that we do because we're always needing support.

We can't do it by ourselves when things don't go right.

We need people on our right, people on our left and those who we can actually be able to come across.

And he's made a very clear statement that they are there to help support us in this time of crisis when we are looking at a very high deficit for our school and I appreciate his effort in terms of reaching out to us.

I want to thank you to Chapelle Dwayne Chappell for always being there for us as a district.

Whenever we need help we call Dwayne Chappell.

And he's always been there.

It's great.

I always tell the mayor that was the best thing you ever did was hire Dwayne Chappell.

Because when we need him he's always there to explain to the city how Seattle Public Schools, how we can make, you know we can relate to the various areas that happens in our schools.

So it's always great to have someone in there that we know that we can count on and I appreciate that support.

I also would like to say thank you to my children.

They have been the support and the core of the work that I do.

when I come home and feeling depressed they're the one that tells me mom it's okay you can keep going because you've been doing it forever.

And so you know I want to also thank them because within my own district they provide a lot of support in the southeast in the various schools in my district and I want to say thank you to them because they are my assistants and my help in terms of what I do in the community.

And so I also wanted to say thank you again to for always being there for me when I fall flat on my face.

Make sure Sue, remember Erin if you need help.

And also Teresa, I know I've already said thank you to you already but I don't know what I'm going to do without you.

I always, when I come to the board I expect to see you because I know that if I have a question that I can't answer, Teresa you're always there.

So thank you so much for all the work that you do and also I want to say for Lytton Springs Originally in 2013 it was Sharon Peasley and I that actually made the recommendation to actually provide space for Lipton spring in the new Eagle Staff building.

We were hoping that that continued statement and also that the board had passed to say that yes we are going to provide space for Lipton spring.

I didn't realize though that they are only getting seven rooms to provide them that education They have 150 kids and I hear that a lot.

But you have to realize it's 150 kids with various needs.

We have to look at it from that perspective.

We're not just looking at 150 kids body-wise but the needs that each one of those kids have, those are the needs we have to look at.

So providing them 14th room is actually would be the ideal thing to do because that was at least in my mind that's what we had specified when we originally passed that amendment to be able or that actually that particular area to be able to provide them with the space that they needed so they can have their program there and also be able to provide the native specification that they actually is a part of their program.

We don't have a Native American program specifically for that particular group and I think that Lifton Springs has done a great job in actually bringing them in in terms of actually welcoming the families and being a part of that particular program.

So, I'm hoping that as we look and continue to hear what's going on with the spring I would really like for us to look at how important it is that we provide 14 rooms for that school.

Especially for the needs of the kids that are actually in that particular school.

So hopefully that we can be able to look at that and make some correction and also I wanted to say congratulations to our new executive team.

I believe in all three of you and hopefully that you will do a great job leading us through especially in this time when we are at a deficit.

So congratulations and lots of luck.

Director Blanford.

I'll endeavor to be brief with my remarks.

I'd like to thank the audience as well for coming and testifying today or just listening in.

It's always appreciated and we listen very closely to what you have to say.

My thanks also to Elise as well as Felicia who testified about Garfield high school.

I'm very proud to be the director that that has Garfield in my district.

I take great pride in and hear frequently from alumni of that school who have a great great fondness and great pride in the school and as you shared and others have shared their willingness to kind of prompt the questions that we need to grapple with.

I spoke before about a book that I read recently that described a high school that is very similar to Garfield High School and some of the challenges that are faced in that school.

and would love to have further dialogue with you about that and I'll tell you in a little while when my next community meeting is scheduled so hopefully you'll have the opportunity to attend.

I will also tell you that policymaking I have discovered is not very exciting to watch And so there are lots of opportunities for you to observe what we do.

They are not the most interesting things in the world for you to observe but I think it is incumbent on students in Seattle as well as our community to be paying attention to what we do so that there is accountability for us.

and there's opportunity for students and community members, parents, business interests to all weigh in because the decisions that we make have a profound influence and effect on the lives of everybody that lives in this city.

And so I think there's a kind of a mutual responsibility that we have to our community as well as the community does to us.

My thanks also to the schools of distinction that were recognized earlier today.

It is a huge lift to get to that place and so the leaders who were here we can't heap enough praise on them for the work that they have done and their staffs have done to get to that level and so I again want to thank them.

I received an email or a phone call a couple weeks ago, a week and a half ago from an employee of the district who worked very closely with my daughter when she was a first, second, third grader at Beacon Hill international school.

And she was sharing with me, she's at a new school now and she was sharing with me kind of a crisis situation that I've heard playing out recently in many of our schools and that is immigrant families feeling very uncomfortable about the kind of political climate that we live in these days.

And she shared with me The reason that she saw it as a crisis is she had talked to a number of parents who were uncomfortable actually coming into the schools because of fear that they would be rounded up.

There are rumors out there about that issue.

And knowing what I know about the importance of adults and particularly parents and families being in our buildings and helping our students and helping our teachers, that to me is a red flag.

It's something that we need to address and so I called our communications office and had some conversation about what could potentially be done.

And I'm really happy, I don't believe that I'm the person responsible for this at all, but I'm really happy to announce that there is a community meeting that is scheduled to address this very issue that is set for Saturday of this week from 10 o'clock to 1 o'clock at Denny International Middle School.

And at that event there are experts that will provide information on immigration and the rights of immigrants, safety in our schools, how to have challenging conversations or how to have conversations, hopefully they are not challenging but conversations with your child during these challenging and uncertain times, anti-bullying and a parent toolkit and family safety plans.

So again that is at Denny International Middle School.

Saturday of this week from 10 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

And my hope is that that will be the first of many conversations that the district is sponsoring around the city so that we can deescalate some of the rumor mill and the anxiety that our immigrant families rightly are concerned about.

And so I just want to give a huge shout out to all of the staff that has anything to do with doing this because I feel like it's hugely responsive to the needs of our students and our families.

I had the opportunity yesterday to listen to Dr. Abe give his presentation, Superintendent Nyland spoke a little bit about that presentation he was speaking in front of our principal corps yesterday and his talk about racism in the city of Seattle was very well received I think, I believe, by the principals.

Many of them came up to me to talk about that particular issue.

After that was done we heard a fabulous presentation about our LGBTQ students and the policies and practices that our schools are responsible for implementing to ensure that they have a level of safety and comfort in our schools and so I shout out frequently to the aptly named Lisa Love but as usual she did an incredible job of sharing information with our principals so that they could take it back to their schools.

Ronald Boy also participated in that presentation and did a fabulous job.

After they were done the difficult, a difficult part of the conversation commenced and JoLynn Berge did a fabulous job of sharing the details of our deficit and potential budget cuts.

She was she stood in the line of fire as she received a number of questions from principals who wanted to know the impacts of this potential cuts on their individual schools and she was very informative and very nuanced in her responses.

She didn't go too far because this is an evolving situation and so I just wanted to appreciate her for the work that she did.

And I also want to join with my school board colleagues in appreciating our president, President Patu for her leadership over the course of this last year.

It has been a challenging year in many ways and we are all pleased and thankful for your leadership.

I mentioned my community meetings and I have one scheduled for January 7 at 10 starting at 10 o'clock and going until noon and also one on February 4 at the same time and both of those are at the Douglas truth library so not terribly far from Garfield high school that's at 23rd and Yesler.

And I encourage you to bring, to come and to bring any of your friends that you want to wrap with the school board director.

And lastly I will finish my remarks by admitting that I am the person, I am the person who is responsible for the article that Director Harris referenced.

And I take great pride in the fact that I wrote that article because I felt like I needed to surface some issues that were not being surfaced and because I have great anxiety about the impact of the potential budget cuts that we are seeing or that we are anticipating and the negative consequences that they would have, the detrimental and disproportionate consequences that they would have on our schools that are most vulnerable.

I, we could go back and forth on this issue.

I take great solace in the fact that when I was in this room yesterday talking with principals I had so many principals that came up to me at one point or another and thanked me for making the comments that I had made.

And I've gotten responses back from a number of parents and families in our community as well as you know even got a response back from one of my professors at the University of Washington who said you were paying attention to what we were teaching while you were at school.

And so I take all of that as solace.

I know that it's difficult to have difficult conversations and sometimes it's not pleasant and people feel slighted and angry and I apologize for that but as I said I stand by what I said.

and rather than going back and forth on this I will take the guidance of the First Lady of the United States of America and I will choose to go high.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ and Táˀc kulé-wit thank you and good evening.

First of all Elyse Mackie thank you for coming here and sharing your words.

I can tell it was definitely a struggle but I remember too the first time I had to get up and speak to somebody, it is a struggle but keep it up, keep going.

The first time, I don't know if it's your first time but as you get going you get better and better and I found out that then people start acknowledging you and listening to you and say here's someone that knows what they're talking about.

I feel like you do know what you're talking about right now because as a student sharing here's my voice, here's what I've experienced and please respect that as this is my perspective.

So keep it up.

Also to your classmate who looks like she left, thank you for sharing Garfield high school's experience and glad to see that they've elected some good representatives there.

Theresa Hale, thank you for your service, it being your last board meeting.

Although I feel kind of slighted, I don't know if I got there after Leslie, I've never seen any Cashews.

Did I miss something?

Okay, I have to remember to get there a little bit sooner.

Thank you to all the schools of distinction.

I think it's definitely a reflection of the leadership there, the teachers, the counselors, the whole staff that makes that building run and we also acknowledge the students that are there as well.

Because as I, my years in education, one fellow that I work with at the University of Washington He's had this motto that he used to always say, your attitude determines your altitude.

So I think if the school can really encourage those students, motivate those students to really achieve and be achievers and the students buy into that, they will succeed.

And I think they will succeed because another one of his mottos is what works is work because once we get our students willing to do the work, willing to make that commitment that yes I can better and improve myself, that's you know more than half a battle that then they will see I am doing this to make myself a better person in the community and make society better.

And also maybe share my perspectives that are different from others.

So congratulations to those schools.

Former President Betty Patu thank you for your leadership this past year as I think maybe for the four new directors this past year it's been a fast but wonderful year and under your leadership you gave us that vision and guidance I think hopefully this next executive board members Sue and Leslie are looking forward to serving you and serving with you as well so that we can continue improving this school district because it will never be done.

It's a job that's always going to have to be worked on and the staff here that you know will definitely need you and I appreciate that you're here.

You know you're here as more hours than I am as a board member and I appreciate what you do to keep the school district running.

We've got some difficult times ahead of us but we will persevere and get through and I also want to thank actually Carrie Campbell for her presentation this Saturday where she actually asked us to look around the room, find someone and look them in the eye and write something that you appreciate of them.

And I think we need to do that more often.

Because again when people know that you're appreciated, again that helps their attitude.

And we'll go all together in the right direction.

So thank you Carrie for that.

I enjoyed doing it.

And I shared a comment with Stephon and appreciate the work that he has done.

Then again just this past year thank you to the fellow board members for getting me through this first year.

As I said I can't believe it's already been a year that we've been here on the board for the newcomers.

An even bigger thank you again to the district staff and the support that you provided for us.

And I did want to mention or get into as far as Licton Springs and the space that they have currently at Lincoln and the space that they have currently at Robert Eagle Staff and I think about that amendment that I heard or the bar back in 2013 and it brings to mind the word sympathetic construction.

As a lecturer at the University of Washington in American Indian studies I use that word because it comes up many times in treaties.

Treaties signed between the US government and the United States.

Sympathetic construction means the terms of that treaty are to be interpreted as in a sense in this case the American Indians expected them to be.

Not in the terms of what the United States said they were but in the terms that the Indians that signed it thought they went.

So I think let's look at that what happened back there in 2013 what were the intentions of that board action report?

And if we can honor that I, you know let's see what we can do.

Because Director Burke mentioned something about let's work together and see if we can compromise.

I unfortunately have the experience where the compromise usually comes at the detriment of the underserved.

Okay let's compromise, let's take something away from the underserved.

Can we as a school board, school district somehow see how can we compromise in favor of those underserved communities so we can help eliminate that opportunity gap?

And one way that I see that possibly can do it is what we did again at the University of Washington.

When I 200 passed when they said you can use racial, gender, other orientations for in our case admissions.

Our Native American staff and faculty stood up and said wait a minute.

American Indians aren't a racial group.

They are a political group.

And so we are able to push that if someone provided documentation that they are a federally recognized tribe then yes we can give them special consideration because again that isn't a racial identity that's a political identity.

So that's something I would like to see can we explore that to try to find funding for an American Indian high school.

To find funding to give space to Licton Springs so they can grow.

I don't have any committee meetings planned for right now but I will be at the Cedar Park committee meeting on Thursday, December 15. I will be coming from operations meeting so I will be late.

But I do plan to attend the Cedar Park committee meeting to talk about Cedar Park and the plans for that site as an option school.

Make sure I got all my notes taken care of.

And just finally again Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ thank you all and let's have a great next year coming for year number two.

Thank you.

Okay that leaves me.

I also would like to thank the two Garfield students who came tonight and spoke to us, Elyse Mackley and Felicia Bazey.

You brought forth interesting and important points about your school And in answer to Elise's question, what do we do with the comments and the questions that are brought to us from our students?

Well, we start to think about them and then sometimes we respond right here in the director's comments and sometimes they evolve into some sort of action.

So you can certainly follow up with us if there's something in particular you'd like us to respond to.

But it's always very helpful for us to hear directly from students.

I also want to commend our schools of distinction and at the board retreat we talked about what can we do to replicate all our success stories and we have our schools of distinction and we have our outlier schools that are doing almost magical things but really it's hard work.

and we want to recognize those but we also know that we have other great things going on in some schools that haven't necessarily been recognized and it might be just some program or some approach or some philosophy and we encourage these schools to come forth and share with us what they're doing so all our other schools can learn from them and we're talking about how to do that in a more formalized manner, have schools come to us at the board have representatives from schools come to us at board meetings and present to us so that we can all learn from what they're doing.

Because we know that there's a lot of great work going on out there and there's a lot of creativity and these banners just represent some of it.

Regarding the bell times I'm pleased to hear that Pegi and her staff have been sharpening the pencil on how to make the two tiers possible or more affordable.

So, thank you for looking at that.

There's a great deal of interest in that and it could serve a lot of purposes in terms of the 10 minutes and the 20 minutes that we have to add to our school day.

So, it could be really helpful in many levels and also our student-athletes who currently now are being impacted by late days.

So, I know this is something that we'll have to consider in terms of the larger budget but I love the direction it's moving in in terms of becoming more affordable.

We have on the agenda tonight two narratives, one for the superintendent evaluation and the other one for the board self-evaluation.

So just by way of background, the superintendent's evaluation was discussed in a public work session last Wednesday, November 30. The board self-evaluation includes a summary of the discussion board directors had on Tuesday, November 22 about the 2015-16 goals of the previous year.

These goals included budget monitoring, community engagement and cultural responsiveness and they were carried forward from the previous year with some modifications to the specific goal language.

I want to thank Directors Blanford and Pinkham for taking the lead on finalizing the narrative for the board self-evaluation.

So while we have been evaluating the board we also evaluate the superintendent and in a way we are evaluating the district.

And we have many challenges in front of us and so because of that we looked at the goals, all of our goals and said are we meeting our goals?

And in some places we are but in other places we are falling short and we tried to be pretty candid about that and constructive.

And I think that we, if you take a look at what we said about the board's own work, you know we weren't overly glossy about that either.

We know we have a lot of hard work to do but I think we have a good team in place to do that work.

So, in a way, so we are also looking at the budget as we prepare for a possible doomsday scenario next year but in a way looking at the budget is another way of evaluating the district because it is a way of looking at what we do, why we do it, whether we are putting our resources in the right place.

So, I strongly encourage all members of the community to get involved with our budget discussions because we have to make some potentially hard decisions.

And it's a way for you to weigh in and let us know what are the fundamentals that we should be focusing on if we have to make difficult decisions where can we make them.

And it's an important discussion for all of us to have.

Regarding the testimony on Licton Springs And you know I share the concern of my colleagues about the promises that we've made and whether we can keep our promises.

I thought Director Geary made a very important point which is the school has actually evolved since when it was first placed at Lincoln and it has other components to it.

I think the special ed students are in a way additions.

to the school and so we have to look at how things have changed since the initial plans were made and we should be adjusting to the new possibilities with that school.

It's so wonderful to hear people like John Chapman talk about the school.

It's very exciting to hear about the diversity of what they're trying to do and how they're doing it from the Salish artists and the It's just every aspect of it that is so creative.

If that school can grow that would be fantastic and so I think we do need to take a look at what was promised and what's feasible.

We are demanding a lot of one school in terms of the building and so we have to keep that in mind.

So, hearing the other testimony about what to do about eighth graders, it was helpful as well.

It also reminds us what it takes to build a school.

It's not just a numbers game, how many kids can fit in a building, it's also what do you do to fill it with some kind of spirit, some kind of place, environment, nurturing environment.

What's going to go into that?

And so my question to staff is what sort of assurances and resources is the district putting into the schools that we are opening?

And the ones right now I'm talking about are the Robert Eagle staff and then Meany middle school.

What are we able to promise these families?

What kind of resources can we give them?

Because if we can have that conversation I think it will be a lot more reassuring for people whose students are being sent to those schools to know that we have a commitment to make sure those schools will be worthwhile places for them.

I will be having my next community meeting this Saturday from 11 to 1 at the Magnolia library.

And let me see what else.

Oh regarding these amendments so Director Burke and I and Director Pinkham we put some amendments on to the student assignment plan tonight with the hope that we can hear from everybody between now and our final vote.

Two of my amendments were actually carryovers from the growth boundary discussion and so you would have heard of them before back in November but I still would love to get some more feedback so those of you who are interested or impacted by any of these amendments please contact us between now and January and let us know your thoughts on whether these seem like they would be helpful changes to the plan.

And I think I'm just going to conclude with just a little aspirational message and that is you know as board president I am going to request that the board members that we each respect each other, that we respect our colleagues and that we do not misrepresent anyone's actions or motives.

I know there are times when we disagree but there are ways to handle disagreement that is constructive and I would like to think that we all can feel that we can speak in our meetings and our work sessions openly when we disagree with each other on what we are doing.

To do it in a less than transparent way or to do it in a one-way fashion where others don't really have a chance to respond is not really a constructive way for us to work as a team.

I would also like to say that as a journalist I still value accuracy and I still think it matters despite current world and national events.

And I would hope that whenever any of us talk about whatever the board has done or the district has done we try to be as accurate as possible.

Thank you.

All right so that concludes the board comments and we now move on to the action portion of our meeting.

All right the first item is the superintendent's employment agreement.

The employment agreement duration and salary.

Madam President, we move that the board approve the amendment to the superintendent's employment agreement to increase the superintendent's base salary by the cost of living or COLA amount 1.8% as set forth in the attachment to the board action report or BAR.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

I second that motion.

All right, did this go to a committee?

I don't believe it did go to a committee.

All right, well perhaps it was, does anyone recall whether this officially went through a committee, whether this committee report

I don't believe the specific item went through a board committee obviously there was discussions amongst the board in executive session around this work but it was not a bar that was brought to a committee.

Thank you.

All right are there any questions or comments about this item?

Director Harris.

I very very much appreciate the thoughtfulness of this board and the superintendent getting to this place in time.

I appreciate that there are those out there that would prefer that we do something different.

But I believe we reached consensus.

I believe that we had good reasons for said consensus and I believe that the continuity of this district is paramount.

I also appreciate very much the superintendent not asking for a raise over the COLA that all the rest of the employees of this district received.

I thought that that was an extraordinarily gracious move.

and I thought that it was representative of our difficult work and our budget doomsday scenario.

Director Burke.

This may be a point of personal privilege or I defer to the chair but recognizing that this bar is the employment agreement and salary discussion I wanted to put a couple of comments that I didn't include in my presentation.

director comments around the evaluation component just because this is sort of related so with your permission.

I just wanted to say that it continues to be a pleasure working with Dr. Nyland that you know I found him to be extremely hardworking, committed And I hope that other folks that might have had a different experience or a different impression have the opportunity to work with him in a one-on-one or a smaller environment when he goes into educator mode and starts drawing up on the whiteboard or takes out the notepad and starts making a diagram of relationships or describes a past story or past experience that's extremely relevant.

So I've learned a huge amount and I thank you for your leadership and your education for me as well as what you've done for the district.

Any other comments or questions?

Director Patu.

I too would like to add to what Director Burke has actually said.

Being president of the board you work very closely with your superintendent and I do appreciate the support of the work that he did and also how we were able to work together and agreed on most things.

We didn't even argue, as a matter of fact.

We just discussed and I think that having him to be a good listener and be able to take comments and coming up with strategies and how do you look at things a little differently.

It's quite a breath of fresh air to actually have him tell you exactly how he feels.

So I really want to say to him thank you so much for all the hard work that you did, moving us to a place where we can actually continue on the work that has already been started because of your initiative and hopefully that you know that we've learned from each other.

But I wanted to say thank you so much for all that you have done for the Seattle Public Schools and the kids of this district.

Director Geary.

And I'll just simply say thank you as well for always putting the, the needs of our students first and foremost and sharing that vision with so many of our board directors and working so hard as we each bring our own perspective and our own hopes for the students of our district even if they don't always align with what we have made as our goals we each have our individual hopes and desires as well.

And while trying to keep us on focus but also acknowledging that our other ideas have value and seeing ways to try to make them work is very much appreciated.

Okay I have a question for legal counsel and I also have a comment for Dr. Nyland.

I too would like to thank Dr. Nyland for all of your work and I look forward to continuing to work with you and as we line up our arrows as you often point out to us we need to do.

Thank you so much.

So General Counsel during public comment, a comment was brought up about the timeliness of when this bar was posted and the details of it not being made public until today.

Now that is not ideal so I am a little concerned about that however can you speak to what the legal ramifications are of this particular action and the board's responsibility and the public's responsibility within this action?

Yes, certainly Noel Treat General Counsel and I did hear that comment in public testimony.

And yes, as you know your policy does provide that generally the agenda and bars will be posted three days in advance of a meeting.

There are some exceptions built into that policy.

So that's the general approach and that's generally what we try to do.

There is however a pretty significant safety valve in that policy which essentially says even if you aren't able to post in time and you don't post in accordance with the policy action you take or changes to the agenda you make at a meeting are still valid after being voted on.

And that's consistent with the state open public meetings act which also says even if you don't meet agenda timelines the action you take in a meeting is still valid.

So legally that does allow you to vote on this item tonight.

And then it is my understanding also that the evaluation of the superintendent and anything which the public can weigh in on that is somewhat limited.

I mean they can certainly contact us and I believe it was known that we were in the process of doing this and so there was the opportunity to weigh in on any potential outcomes.

So I don't want the public to think that we were not open to hearing from them but I also want them to understand the limitations of what we can do in terms of public input in a matter like this.

Can you speak to that?

Yeah no I think that's correct this is one of the things that you know the superintendent is your employee and you're entitled to have executive sessions and things to discuss you know the more you know some of the more confidential personnel matters as you work through and of course contract negotiations or something that occur outside of a public forum.

The other thing I'd note for you is that while the bar itself didn't go to a committee you did have the agenda item go through executive committee We noted in that executive committee meeting that the bar because of the timing of negotiations and things probably was going to get posted late and so you did have a public discussion about that and there was public notice via the executive committee that this item was on your agenda for tonight and coming to the board.

And then my final comment will be in the future can we do this in such a way where we don't post so late so it doesn't really seem like we are trying to do something in a less than transparent manner.

Yeah, you certainly can and you can think about how you build out your schedule for action and negotiation next time around.

Thank you very much.

If there are no further questions or comments I will now ask Ms. Ritchie for the roll call.

Director Harris aye Director Pinkham aye Director Patu aye Director Blanford aye Director Burke aye Director Geary aye Director Peters aye.

This motion passed unanimously.

Thank you.

So we are now moving on to our second action item of the evening and our final action item but not our final item.

And that is the BEX IV learning phase 2 through bid number B06691 and RFP 0662 to Thornton CW government and Troxel for purchase of classroom technology.

May I hear from the chairperson of ops?

Sorry may I have a motion?

Thank you Teresa.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute purchase orders through bid number B06691 and RFP 03662 with Thornburg, Apple, B&H photo video, CDW government and Troxel for a total amount of $3,093,676.39 over the 2016-17 fiscal year.

Plus school board briefing slash proposed action report Washington state sales tax as detailed in the draft purchase agreements attached to the board action report with any minor additions, deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the purchase orders.

I second that motion.

The operations committee heard this item on October 20 and moved it forward for approval.

Thank you.

Are there any questions or comments about this item?

I'll just reintroduce myself John Kroll the new chief information officer and Colleen Halverson who is the interim director of technology support services.

Just wanted to remind the board that this is from the BEX IV levy capital funds directed for the purchase of computers and that this is also the second round of funds to go towards classroom technology.

49 schools were done in the first round and this is the second round of 49 schools.

Has anything changed since introduction?

No changes.

Director Burke.

I want to thank you for, well first we are happy to have you here joining us and this is our first chance to spend some money with you in a larger way or for you to help us spend some money and so I just wanted to reaffirm some comments that I have made in the past and so my directors will, my colleagues will think I am a broken record here but I just want to reemphasize that when we are looking at technology even if it is just a technology renewal that we have eyes forward on not just replacing computer with like or replacing computer with upgrade but that we are thinking big about the technology role in education and that we are investing that dollar, each dollar in something that truly leverages things for our students and that we are not just looking at something that puts them in front of screens but things that put them in front of equipment where they get their hands on.

I'm happy to see cameras here, video items.

But I think, when I think technology I also think technology in manufacturing, technology in, you know I had the chance to visit the skills center and see some of the technology in like the nutrition services.

So when we think about technology and we are thinking about renewals if we can find places where as we renew we are pushing forward and I just want to, I know that we have had this discussion before but I wanted to share that with you again.

Thank you.

Noted.

Any other comments or questions?

All right seeing none Ms. Ritchie roll call please.

Director Pinkham.

Aye.

Director Patu.

Aye.

Director Blanford.

Aye.

Director Burke.

Aye.

Director Geary.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

Director Peters.

Aye.

This motion passed unanimously.

Thank you very much.

So the board is now going to take a break before the introduction items.

So a 10 minute break?

A five minute break?

A 10 minute break.

So we will see you back in 10 minutes.