It's at 7 p.m.
So I just want to at least again for our audience watching online and otherwise note that each of these items were brought forward at our last meeting for introduction.
We spent a good deal of time discussing and asking questions and hearing from staff.
So given as well as the committee process so given that prior robust discussion Don't necessarily think we need to revisit or rehash things are already on the record but please do elevate any new questions or concerns.
So OK let's begin with action item number one.
Do I have a motion.
I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute an agreement with DynTech Inc. to provide a metropolitan wide area network elementary hardware upgrade with one year support for a total not to exceed amount of two million hundred ninety four thousand three hundred and sixty four dollars and eighty nine cents.
Do I have a second.
You have a second.
I'm like still.
And this came forward to the Audit and Finance Committee on November 4th for approval.
So do directors have any comments or questions from our last regular board meeting.
Director Mack.
Yeah my question is just to clarify for the record the what was updated since introduction.
Chief Berge take it away.
So the last part of the title the words that were added are at the end it says of which an amount of an estimated amount is one million ninety thousand five hundred and five dollars and four cents is federal E-rate funding resulting in a net cost in the amount of one million one hundred and three thousand eight hundred fifty nine point eight five.
That was added.
Thank you.
Are there any other directors with comments or questions.
Okay seeing none Ms. Shek please take it away.
Director Hampson aye Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Harris aye Director DeWolf aye.
This motion is passed unanimously.
Thank you.
Action item number two.
Do I have a motion.
I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to accept the city of Seattle fresh fruit and vegetable program program grant funding in the amount of up to four hundred seventy three thousand five hundred and twenty five dollars to fund the nutrition program and 20 district schools and also authorize the superintendent to take any necessary steps to implement this action.
Second.
This came through Ops on November 7th for consideration.
Do board directors have any questions or comments.
I have a comment.
Director Hampson.
So I just wanted to point out this particular BAR provided board action report provided a good reference to what I would consider further down the line equity analysis.
I believe I have a copy of the BAR in front of me. in discussion of here we go.
I will just read it because I did make a note of it.
Director will prioritize sourcing locally grown produce from women or minority owned businesses using appropriate procurement methods and up to four purchases or transactions of fruit and vegetable snacks.
Well the nutrition services director will make every effort to source locally and source from women or minority owned businesses snack menu items may vary and non local substitutions may be made if the nutrition services director at their discretion determines that such a variance or substitution is warranted.
I appreciate that level of equity analysis and just wanted to hold that up as a standard for me.
And because whereas in.
Well I guess we'll talk about it on item 3. I'll bring up a sort of situation where I'm not finding that.
But so thank you whoever provided that additional information about that equity analysis.
And just for clarification that's in the agreement on page 5 for folks.
Director Mack.
Yeah I actually seeing that it was brought forward for consideration I'm not seeing a notation and trying to remember Why was it consideration.
Did we not have the dollar amount in there.
I don't have.
I have the minutes.
Mr. Podesta do you recall why it was consideration and not approval.
It was for consideration because there was some language cleaned up clarifying that it was a grant not a contract.
from the minutes it says and I you know I'm so grateful to our minutes.
Jennifer who does amazing minutes.
It said that we asked staff to confirm that the with legal that the language is appropriate for accepting the grant funds I believe.
And.
And the revisions were made prior to introduction.
Excellent.
OK.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Are there any more questions or comments from directors.
Seeing none.
Ms. Shek I'll take it.
Let it go to you.
You can have the mic.
Director Hersey.
aye Dr. Rankin aye Dr. Rivera-Smith aye Dr. Harris aye Dr. Mack aye Dr. Hampson aye Dr. DeWolf aye this motion is passed unanimously.
Thank you.
Now move on to action item number three.
Do I have a motion.
I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute AE architectural what's the E stand for engineering contract P 16 27 with NAC architecture and the amount of five million ten thousand four hundred and sixty two dollars plus reimbursable expenses of thirty five thousand dollars for architectural and engineering services.
The total contract amount of five million forty five thousand four hundred and sixty two dollars is for the Kimball Elementary School project with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the contract.
Second.
And this came through Ops on November 7th for approval.
Do I have any.
Are there any questions or comments from board directors.
Again when we update since introductions just want to kind of call out what that is and the reason for it and looking over the BAR what I'm recalling was that one of the directors from our last meeting requested to have clarification around the reimbursable expenses if they're included in the total or if they're not.
And then there's a so there's a large section in the BAR that clarifies exactly what that means and how that plays out in terms of what's included in which number.
And is that the only correction.
Mr. Podesta.
or addition not correction but.
Yes the the BAR breaks out the direct expenses and indirect expenses into two amounts and so the question I believe was what are allowable expenses allowable reimbursable expenses.
So the contract boilerplate has been inserted into the BAR which is and this is true for item 4 as well that it's just the list of allowable reimbursable expenses.
Thank you very much.
Thank you Chief Podesta.
Any other comments or questions from board directors.
Director Hampson.
Yes I'm just trying to pull up the BAR.
So regarding the contract and how it's presented in the BAR with respect to equity analysis I noted that there is a superintendent procedure There's not much discussion either it's listed I can't remember if it's listed as not applicable or limited.
Relevance as I said in my earlier comments from my perspective you'd have to make a really strong case for equity analysis to not be relevant for me as a school board director.
And there is a superintendent procedure for selection of firms specifically architecture and engineering from 2012. So it's quite dated.
providing opportunities to minority and women owned firms and as part of an outreach process for minority and women owned firms staff shall.
And then there's a list one through four the last of which is to update this list every two years.
And so I'm wondering that's the kind of thing that I'm wondering why that doesn't come forward in the BAR and was that part of this process.
This is where an action item I wasn't here for the intro item when it would have been a better time to ask that question.
But so.
That type of outreach recruiting does occur as part of the solicitation for architecture and engineering contracts.
I think staff on these contract board actions has interpreted equity analysis as the.
using the district's analysis toolkit with regard to the decision to do the body of work that to how does the project affect equity and that what it's trying to state is that was done as part of the project selection.
overall to do the Kimball project and how it was prioritized.
I but your point is well taken and we can certainly include how we've reached out to women minority businesses as part of recruiting for the contract board actions and in the operations committee we're actually looking at.
the contract board action process a little bit and that can be a step we can certainly provide more detail there.
So I think just to add I think is that that's something particularly maybe an exec committee we can explore around helping provide guidance on how to make this more robust and utilize those processes too.
We want to represent the equity work that we are doing and then be able to acknowledge where there are gaps.
And it's difficult to do that if that information.
No your point is well taken.
Again I think it's the context that this was viewed in when the and you'll find this language in a lot of capital contract board action reports.
Thank you.
Director Harris and Director Mack.
Glad glad to see your acquiescence if you will to that comment.
You know not only are we supposed to provide equity analysis for services and programs delivered to our students but when we ask the voters for over a billion dollars we have to be leaders in this work.
And number seven I thank you Director Hampson for bringing this up.
Frankly it grates the hell out of me it feels like box checking.
This motion was not put through the process of an equity analysis the selection of projects in the BEX V program was not was designed to provide equitable access to safe school facilities across the city.
Our role is leaders and modelers.
We need to do better and and Lord knows I haven't been at Ops in the last year or two but in the last four years I've only seen one listing of women in minority business ownership and that was three years ago and frankly our outreach efforts to make our list more robust were pretty weak and that's a bandwidth issue.
I think.
kind of social equity programs related to contracting will be a natural outgrowth of our discussion about student and community workforce agreements because frankly the district is lacking some infrastructure for those types of services as part of our public works contracting process which is something we're going to have to face up to.
Thank you Chief Podesta and I think you've at least heard it from here from the dais and again we also have our conversation about board goals on Saturday too.
So I think this might be a really great easy first goal to really dive and just either how we utilize the analysis and I think potential other conversations I've been stirring at least for the last few months or is this board action report template actually working for us and so might be something we can add to that in the board goals.
Director Mack.
Yeah I I am grateful that Director Hampson took a dive into the policies and procedures and actually looked that up because and the number is 62 2 0 SP.
She's like me.
And so it's yay.
I'm excited to have a kindred spirit on the board.
But I also think that it's really you know she's highlighting a disconnect between existing policy and procedures that we have that are not being circled back into the analysis process and that in fact these things are supposed to be done or they are being done and we we have a disconnect.
And so as part of the board goal conversation around the racial equity analysis and how that's being done.
I'd just like to.
ask that we ensure that that is including a review of our policies and procedures that we may not even be thinking of and actually kind of maybe create a matrix that's like here is you know a way that.
or these are policies that could be referenced in these contexts.
So I just thank you for bringing that up.
I think this has been well communicated I just want to make sure particularly as we think about this Kimball item action number three it is 715 and I want to make sure people get home.
And so if anybody has any more things about Kimball Elementary and I saw Superintendent Juneau.
I would just add thank you for this conversation.
It's something that we've actually been talking about too.
And I think it's a good conversation to have.
We staff have been having this conversation about how to flesh this out.
I know Director Harris you've also talked about the fiscal analysis and so we have had conversation about some of that as well.
So I think it's a ripe conversation.
The other thing I would point out is I've been meeting with different departments throughout central administration.
And I think we do a better job because there is a lot of work actually happening.
I just met with Richard Best's team and they actually are really diving into the strategic plan and what that means to them department by department.
And they have started putting forward conversations with architecture and construction firms that are coming to them about racial equity which is a surprise to a lot of the contractors coming into the room.
And they're actually talking about instituting during the architecture and construction presentations to get the bids and what that process looks like is actually having them do a racial equity presentation as a part of the work as well.
And so.
We need to be better at communicating actually what is happening and not be so brief about where we've been.
And so I just want you to know as a body that our departments are working on a very deep level.
We can communicate it better and I think it's a good conversation for us to have.
So thank you.
Thank you Superintendent Juneau Director Rankin.
Yeah so following that just to tie it back to our students.
Actually so I before I was elected attended both the conversation that Ryan Calkins at the Port Commission Ryan Calkins had and hosted around maritime trades and also the.
The summit mentioned earlier that was hosted by Seattle Public Schools Skills Center in the same location and particularly in the maritime conversation.
We there was a lot of discussion around diversifying the you know people coming into that position and the need that not only to address equity in hiring practices and and also encouraging a more diverse population of students to to.
Seek out those jobs but the need on the industry side to as you know the older generations retire and the way that they need to adapt their practice and policy and industry culture to be ready to welcome our diverse students.
So I just thought that was awesome.
Nice that that seems to be working on on all levels and it comes back to our kids too so.
Thanks Director Rankin and I would just maybe request Superintendent Juneau can you just share some of that work in the Friday memo just again to kind of communicate where we are and then I think it sounds like a conversation that the Ops Committee can also think about particularly in the contracting process to improve that.
And again I think we should elevate this on as a board goal.
So if any more directors have board questions or comments particularly as it pertains to item actually item number three the Kimball Elementary.
Okay Ms. Shek roll call please.
Director Hersey aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Rankin aye Director Hampson aye Director Mack aye Director Harris aye Director DeWolf aye.
This motion is passed unanimously.
All right.
Action item number four.
Do I have a motion.
I move that the school board authorize A the superintendent to execute execute architecture and engineering contract P 1 6 6 6 unfortunate number with Miller Hayashi architects in the amount of two million two hundred and thirty one thousand nine hundred and sixty two plus reimbursable expenses of thirty thousand dollars for architectural and engineering services for the West Seattle Elementary School addition and renovation project with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the contract and B to allow transfer of 4.4 million from the K-3 class size reduction grant to the West Seattle Elementary School renovation and addition project to construct a 12 classroom addition.
Second.
Thank you.
And this came through Ops on November 7th for approval.
Do I have any board director questions or comments.
And I think probably the same concern from actually number three applies here too.
Director Mack.
Yeah and just you know for the record the same updated clarification around the reimbursable expenses was made to this as well.
Are there any board questions or comments.
Director Rivera-Smith.
I just wanted to address a concern we had from our public testimony concerning the public meetings to address environmental reviews.
Are we in fact not doing those or how do we decide when we do and when we don't.
It sounds like our statement is that they're not required but.
They're not required and we have been again trying to streamline the overall project process and the SEPA process and found that the you know taking public comment the way we do via mail and other forms was easier really to to analyze and was was more fruitful.
So yeah we are not having a voluntary SEPA hearing for or a SEPA public meeting for each project.
So we're gathering that public information or comments in other what so what forms are we doing that in then.
We take them via email via postcard we send postcards to radius around each project site and encourage comments that way via mail or email or telephone.
Thank you.
Well maybe again so maybe it's a conversation we can have later too about about the benefits and cost benefit analysis I'm sure of that.
Thank you.
Well it's it sounds like Chief Podesta we are still gathering public comment and public input and we are following the law.
So thank you.
Are there any other questions or comments.
Director Mack.
Does this contract or this program is this discussed in any in either of the.
Mr. Podesta I'm sorry I'm trying to remember the names of the advisory committees they're actually run by the city and not us.
But there's the there's there's is it the school's traffic safety committee.
But there's one that there's the safe routes to schools program.
And is this part of that.
And I'm just wondering whether or not the advisory committees are whether or not.
Are you looking at our A&E contract or the intro item.
Oh I apologize.
I thought we were on this next one.
I think Director Mack's really excited about number one and the next.
I'm trying to move the meeting forward.
Apologies.
Are there any more comments or questions from board directors.
Okay seeing none Ms Shek roll call please.
Director Harris aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Rankin aye Director Mack aye Director Hersey aye Director Hampson aye Director DeWolf aye this motion is passed unanimously.
Thank you.
Great work everyone.
So we'll now move to the introduction portion of the agenda.
Introduction item number one is approval of amendments to add cycling and pedestrian safety education for 6th 7th and 8th grades to the Seattle Department of Transportation SDOT let's go bike and pedestrian safety education program.
This came through C&I November 12th for approval.
So.
I was the C&I chair so I won't call it myself.
But if any of the other directors that were there have any at least anything to add particularly as it pertains to this BAR that would be coming forward.
And if not I want to at least also just recognize we have Chief DeBacker here and I would invite you to speak a little bit about this item.
Thank you President DeWolf.
The Let's Go program currently provides physical education teachers with the resources and training needed to implement an in-school bicycle and pedestrian safety program for students in grades 3 4 and 5. That's currently in place.
The bar in front of you tonight.
is asking for an expansion of that to grades 6 7 and 8. It would be still through through SDOT Seattle Department of Transportation and it would go through the Cascade Bicycle Club.
This is a program that has been in Seattle Public Schools since around 2015. It is a program that we have expanded over the past couple of years and this is a very good move forward in that it's expanding up to the middle school levels.
Thank you Chief DeBacker.
Any board questions or comments.
Director Hampson.
I have a couple they're related to my prior comments by and large.
So I'll just state them at once and then you can answer them all together.
I can ask each one subsequently.
So there is a discussion of equity.
It's not clear.
I would consider it cursory in that it's it's still not clear to me.
There's just sort of this statement of.
We have to get away from this.
Well it's available to everybody so therefore it's equitable.
That's not equity.
That's equality.
And so my question is how will this program be equitably available in the district.
How are we going to select the schools.
How are we making sure that it gets to students who otherwise don't have bikes.
or don't have access to any safety equipment for their bikes.
I'm not sure.
Cascade Bicycle Club has actually come in and out of my school community.
So I know they've had some changes and to take that equity question one step further is what is the because they come out and they do this this work in schools with students.
So they're our partner.
They're an important partner.
What is their board makeup.
What is their commitment to racial equity in particular.
What does their board look like.
What does their staff look like.
Particularly the staff that are teaching students.
These are the questions that I think as Chief Podesta had mentioned or maybe it was you Superintendent Juneau that.
We need to make sure that that our partners are able to provide this information to us to be consistent with our strategic plan in order to to be in partnership with us.
So those are the questions that I have about that.
Those different layers and and the other is about.
The buy in at the at the local level who's in terms well and actually I can't there's something else.
Another thought I had about that that I need to think about that.
So I'll let you answer the first question.
Cascade Bike Club provides the bikes and then they provide the training to the physical education teachers and then our own physical education teachers teach that to the students.
So there's not a direct cascade is not teaching our students.
They're actually providing the bikes and the training to our teachers to do that.
I do not know the makeup of their organization as to their equity makeup.
In terms of how our schools are chosen it's available to all middle schools so this will be make it available to all middle schools and it's on a basis of where schools sign up and we every school signs up and it's on a first come first serve basis.
But the intent is that every school will be served during the time frame of that program.
So during this spring semester.
So just as well now I know what the buy in part was because I know that sometimes schools that need it most can be left out if they happen to have a staff person who isn't the one that is going to buy in or for some reason they're the thought process is well these kids don't have bikes to ride so why wouldn't you know why would we do this program.
And that's another thing to sort of consider in terms of access to bikes after the fact.
They used to do more to create opportunities for kids to own bikes through repair and and then we had children's provides helmets but that whole part of the equation is necessary for this to be for them to be true participants in the program meaning they're not just.
learning how to be safe riding bikes when they have them at school but then that there's other ways to give them access to bicycles as a form of transportation particularly to and from school outside of the program if they don't have access to bikes.
Yeah we can address that as we come back with this for action in January.
Lori Dunn who oversees this program I know she's listening right now so she's probably making notes of how we can add that into the the action item.
Thank you.
And I just want to use this as a point.
I think too it would be really helpful particularly and again With some of us new directors I think it'd be really helpful to just send questions prior to either this meeting or the action meeting so we can bring those up again because I think part of it too is I'll make sure they're prepared because some of these questions are really great.
I want to make sure you've had a chance.
So just as a suggestion that something to get into the practice soon for January.
But if there's questions Chief DeBacker is the one to go with this.
So Director Mack.
As I'm reading the title and the purpose it sounds to me like there's a grant there's grant money coming in and there's contracts going out but the language doesn't reference the grant or the acceptance of the grant.
And so I have a question around that that kind of came that came up that was one of the questions on a previous BAR that there's there's two things that is happening in this.
board action both the acceptance of the grant and the implementation of the contract.
So reading this I actually I I I'm asking because I think.
I think I know the answer that it does actually need to be clarifying somehow that the grant is being accepted as well that there's that other piece and I'm also not clear of like what the grant is how much money is coming in and how much is going out.
So is this what this is.
Are we accepting a grant from who.
And we're doing that board action of accepting that grant and we have these contracts that are going out in this way and it seems like a two step thing that the grant piece is not actually clear in the BAR.
I just want to provide clarification if I understand that this agreement came through in July 2015 which would have been before any of us board directors as far as an agreement.
So maybe the grant was already accepted previously.
I don't know.
It's.
You are correct there.
There is money coming in from SDOT so that will come in to Seattle Public Schools.
We will then send that money to Cascade Bike Club to then distribute the bikes and do the training with our teachers.
So it is it's simply a flow through.
And so can we clarify that in the language there that there's grant dollars and clarify when the grant was officially accepted by the board and if we need to actually take that action.
I think it is in the fiscal impact revenue source section at the further down at least if I'm reading it correctly 2015 was when we when we originally went into the agreement July and I think this is coming for us because you're doing this as a two hundred sixty four thousand dollar bar as opposed to coming back in a year from now with these less than two hundred fifty thousand dollar amounts right.
Right.
There's some previous amounts that did not meet that threshold so they did not have to come before the board.
This one is above that.
amount but our board policy requires that we accept grants.
And so I'm just not clear on have we done that and clarifying that in the language.
We will get that done.
Thank you.
Director Harris.
One of my favorite topics traumatic brain injury.
I know that Harborview has a great deal of county money for safety and helmets and I wonder and I I don't wonder I know in my heart of hearts that Lori Dunn is on top of this.
So if we could focus on the issue of helmets and maybe leverage that with the Harborview programs that I don't want to set children up for sadness or families.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any other board comments or questions.
Director Rankin.
Thanks.
I can maybe look this up later too.
So we don't take up time but I was wondering about the relationship between this and bike to school month that happens in the spring.
If there's any kind of overlap or kind of continuation of how that works and who.
But that's something I can maybe find out offline.
I mean and this is also intro portion so these I mean this is the time to bring those on the record and I think particularly too as you can tell Chief DeBacker is writing stuff down.
So this is a great opportunity to ask those questions.
The question I have is are we particularly through the partnership agreement we signed with the City of Seattle in November of 2017 are we able to are we actually providing any input or expertise from our perspective on any of the Vision Zero any of the Vision Zero Vision Zero work the bike master plan any of our safe.
How are we being a part of those conversations.
Do you know.
Yeah Lori Dunn has been involved in many of those conversations in her work as as our health educator for Seattle Public Schools.
So she's been in those conversations.
And transportation.
I believe so.
I will.
I don't know for sure on that one.
So transportation that work is brought up by the city's school traffic safety committee that Director Mack brought up and transportation and risk management and SDOT and the Seattle Police Department and multiple.
parts of the district and other agencies get together and that feeds into some of the work on the safe routes to school program there.
There's more we can do along that front but we do have input.
Thank you.
And if directors have any more questions or comments also just encourage you to send questions to Chief DeBacker and if you can share those out in the Friday memo at least before the next board meeting if anything comes up that would be great to share.
May I. Yes Director Harris.
And when you send questions to staff one of the things that was beyond hugely helpful to me in my role as president was to be copied.
So we don't model silo behavior and we can act more as a team and we can leverage off of each other.
And and if if we don't do that.
We're setting ourselves up to be less than and the rule of three.
Keeping your colleagues in the loop.
The president the chair of the committee.
I cannot tell you how big a difference it makes and I believe the superintendent is going to talk about being blindsided by herself.
Not blindsided but I would like to also just harken back to our 16-20 conversations and I did send out even to the new directors.
We sort of have a lined out process as is.
So 1620 is how it currently is and then our current tools that we use in order to implement that 1620. So that should be all in your inboxes from a couple of weeks ago.
And so in addition when you're emailing staff if you would just CC the president and CC me and Sherry Cox that would be helpful because we can preempt a lot of stuff I think that way and gather information quicker and then we're all in the loop.
So.
And on the Friday memo are you.
I think I may have recalled a process where you were including which which director asked the question and then answering those questions.
That's how we're doing it now.
Right.
Yeah.
So if we can we can we can also see that kind of enumerated in the Friday memo.
Director Rankin did you have anything to say before we.
Adjourned.
No I can.
All right.
So there being no further business to come before the board this regular board meeting is now adjourned at 7 38 p.m.