I'll coordinate a recess so that can all be nicely transitioned.
I'll coordinate a recess so we can make sure that there's a clean transition for that.
But thank you for the heads up.
Welcome to the March 11th 2020 regular board meeting.
First we want to acknowledge that we live in a city and we live and go to school in a city that is the ancestral homeland to the Duwamish people the Muckleshoot Nation and the Suquamish Nation.
We acknowledge them as custodians of this land since time immemorial as guests and in many of our cases as settlers on this land we extend our deepest gratitude and respect to their ancestors and elders past present and future.
Now we'll move to the roll call portion of tonight's agenda.
Ms. Loffelman roll call please.
Director Mack here.
Director Hersey here.
Director Rivera-Smith here.
Director Rankin here.
Director DeWolf here.
I note that Director Harris is not present and oh Director Hampson.
Here.
And Miss and Director Harris has messaged me and said she's on her way should be here shortly.
Okay no one moment please.
In the interest in the safety in the interest of the safety and well-being of Seattle Public Schools community staff and directors several steps are being taken tonight to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
First the board may choose to waive the provisions and board policy and procedure that guarantee members of the public the right to address the board in person at board meetings.
If such a vote passes no member of the public will be permitted to address the board in person from the podium tonight until further notice.
Second should such a vote pass written testimony received from individuals on the testimony list and as applicable the waitlist will be read into the record subject to a two minute two minute time limit for up to 20 testimonies.
All written testimony will be provided to the board.
At this point as stated on the agenda for tonight I will offer a motion to waive the provisions and board policy and procedure that that provide specifically for in-person public testimony.
So.
I move that the board waive the provisions in board policy 1 4 3 0 and board procedure 1 4 3 3 0 BP that provide for in-person public testimony and that the board not accept in-person public testimony until further notice.
The decision to reinstate in in-person public testimony will be made by the board president in consultation with the executive committee and on the guidance of our public health officials.
Do I have a second.
I will open this up for a roll call vote.
Ms. Loffelman could you please call the roll call on this motion.
Director Hampson aye Director Harris excuse me Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith abstain Director DeWolf aye This motion has passed by a vote of 5 0 1. Thank you Miss Bennett.
As noted in the motion just passed the board will not accept in-person public testimony until further notice including during tonight's board meeting.
When we come to the public testimony portion of tonight's meeting written testimony will be read into the record and as background the board office thank you to the board office for your outreach and communication with the folks on the list.
The availability of options sorry going forward the availability of options to provide in-person or written public testimony will be stated on the posted regular board meeting agenda.
The decision whether or not to hold public testimony will be informed by public health recommendations.
As I was saying as background we did accept I think up to we we did outreach both yesterday and today to all the folks on the list and we received I think 19 or 20 email written testimonies in at into the board office.
And so at that time we will read those into the record.
To make sure that we're still hearing from the folks that sign up on our public comment portion.
I will turn it over now to Superintendent Juneau for your comments this evening.
Thank you President DeWolf.
I actually don't have a lot of comments because we've been really consumed with our response to COVID-19 in the district and have really been just coordinating with a lot of our partners.
different agencies government agencies and so I really believe that you know we had to we we had a call today to close our district for 14 days and I was just on a call with the governor as well with other regional superintendents and there's an expectation that there may be a call coming from on high at some point in the next couple of days.
They didn't.
exactly say when but the duration of the time of that will also be announced.
And they weren't really clear on what that might look like but they know that they will have to do something with schools eventually.
So I do believe that we made the right call in this instance that with the.
With one of our staff members being a confirmed case knowing that our educators and what we had a press conference today one of the things I mentioned at the press conference was when all other governmental agencies and other businesses start to tell their workers they can telecommute not travel stay home and yet continue to send their children to school and with the expectation that educators step up to the plate and be in those spaces.
It provides a perception of devaluing our public educators and that's a really hard place for a lot of people to be in.
And so in addition to the health crisis and our our ability to close down to prevent the spread at least slow it down for now.
I just wanted to make sure that we were also making that announcement that there will be more conversations across the city about the value of public education.
I think we're about to see the value of public education to the city and the services it provides.
It's not just an education hub but it is a place where people have access to social services.
that our most vulnerable families need those services that we have a strategic plan that is based in racial equity.
And when we are making these decisions that's what makes it super super difficult.
But I just want our educators in this district everywhere from the bus driver to here to the boardroom and everywhere in between and classroom teachers and school leaders to know how much we appreciate their leadership during this health crisis and know that this district values you.
This district hears you and this district will continue to support you because we know that the work you do matters.
It matters not to the just to the children of this city but it matters to every workplace every nook and cranny of this city and neighborhood and we As a public education system we weave the tapestry of this city and our public educators are the leaders in that.
And so I just want to thank them for that and know to our students as well that this was not a decision that was made lightly and we plan to work with our other government and elected leaders to make sure that we can get you back into the classroom as soon as possible.
We know there are a lot of issues to work out graduation requirements.
But we are committed to making sure you seniors walk across the stage and receive that diploma from Seattle Public Schools because we know how important it is.
And so we will continue to push the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction at the state level to make sure we can work all those issues out.
So I just want everybody to know there's a lot of moving pieces.
We'll continue to stay on top of it and we'll communicate daily.
Thanks.
Thank you Superintendent Juneau.
We're really grateful for your leadership in this time.
I would now like to invite the board directors to share any work they're doing within their committees or liaison work that they would like to report at this time and just kind of giving the gravity of today just encourage my colleagues to be really brief and concise and specific to the to the board committee or liaison work that you're doing.
So do we want to start with A&F Director Hampson would you like to share first.
Sure.
Director Rankin are you would you be prepared.
Just any updates from committee and if not OK so none from C&I any from Director Mack.
Do you have any updates or committee reports from Ops.
I do.
Thank you.
We've actually had quite a few meetings.
We had two in February and we actually have three Ops committee meetings in March.
We added meetings because of the.
the need to have the presentations around the design schematics for a number of our schools.
And so let's see on February 6th we had a regular op meeting which was full.
And then on February 13th we got to see the Northgate Elementary Schools design.
I encourage you all to go to the packet and take a look at the PowerPoint to get a perspective on the great work that's going on into designing that building.
And then on March 2nd, we had another special operations committee meeting, which was focused on the thematic design for Bueland, as well as West Woodland.
Very early on in the coronavirus situation.
So we also added an update about what operationally was going on at the time and staff provided a really robust clarity around all those various things that were being put into place and things that we were doing to try to keep students safe during that time.
Our next meeting is going to be.
This Thursday tomorrow I do it will be next door in the board meet room.
I do plan to actually attend in person and encourage my committee members Director Rankin and Director Hersey if you'd like to call in instead you're welcome to do that as well.
But I do plan to be there tomorrow.
It is a very full agenda.
And it has been posted.
We're doing.
We're actually getting policy 6900 and 6901 in board action format.
So we're getting close to bringing that to the full board.
We have another few other policies that we're going to be discussing including the parent guardian administration of marijuana for medical purposes.
And.
There's a number of other kind of operational related topics and look forward to that tomorrow.
And I think that I think that's basically all the updates I've got for now.
Thank you.
Thank you so much Director Mack really appreciate you.
Director Hampson.
So we had an internal a quarterly internal audit meeting last week and it was a relatively brief meeting.
We did go over the updates on audit response from a number of different departments.
Nothing that was particularly substantive.
The larger part of the conversation had to do with what we.
are looking forward to in terms of having quite a bit more cohesiveness between our internal audit division better alignment with our executive staff in terms of the the administrative reporting as well as better alignment with our enterprise risk management.
And we and I discussed the fact that per our committee allowances for audit and finance that we will be looking to add a few community subject matter expertise in the area with with expertise in the areas of audit finance and human resources.
They would be non-voting members for our Audit and Finance Committee but would help us significantly bolster the expertise that we have on committee so we will be looking to draft those.
job descriptions and get those out to community and hope that there will be some interest in providing that volunteer service.
I think it's a really important one that will provide some really important continuity to the Audit and Finance Committee which as I said does have responsibility for.
Audit finance and human resources and that's about it.
And that's been is that been done before in our history we've had experts as part of our.
Not to my knowledge.
My understanding is it has not.
Interesting.
OK.
Well thank you A&F.
Anything from C&I.
And we haven't had a C&I meeting since last board board meeting.
But we are setting we're looking at the work plan for the rest of the year and setting priorities.
So directors Hersey and Rivera-Smith sent me their interests or wish list or priorities that they had and I had some of my own set those to Erin Bennett in the board office and every.
Every year there's requirements that have to be looked at that are driven by the state in terms of policy.
So that goes into the calendar first and then we can work some of our other ones in.
So I don't have anything specific I just I guess I just wanted to share that that's that's happening and getting kind of firmed up for the year and I'm excited to work on improving some stuff.
Yeah.
Thank you Director Rankin.
Yeah so just for context too so given we had winter break we had a pretty busy first few weeks then we had February without a board meeting where we weren't meeting a bunch and obviously snow and now coronavirus we've really had probably some of the.
fewest number of meetings at this time of year.
So I really appreciate everybody's patience and one of the for the audience too is each of the committee creates a work plan based on as Liza said both state kind of policy revisions and needs and then also emerging issues and things that we can.
take care of through those committees.
So I'm just really grateful for everybody's collaboration on sending in those as part of our conversation later I won't talk too much about board goals.
The executive committee is asking for one of our board goals to allow for some continuity and some consistency and kind of a all arrows aligned toward one goal with our work plans and so I thank everybody for their help on that.
They're very robust and ambitious and I'm looking forward to celebrating a very busy year at the end in 2020. We do not have a student joining us tonight at the dais so we actually are going to be moving to the consent portion of tonight's agenda.
May I have a motion for the consent agenda.
I move approval of the consent agenda.
The motion.
Approval of the consent agenda has been moved and seconded.
Do any directors have items they would like to remove from the consent agenda.
I would like to remove item number four from the consent agenda.
Item number four is removed.
Any others.
Seeing none I will let Director Hampson take it from here.
I move approval of the consent agenda as amended.
All those in favor.
Thank you.
Ms. Loffelman can you do the roll call.
Oh I'm sorry.
Thank you.
All those in favor.
Aye.
All those opposed.
Any abstains.
Thank you.
Okay so we will begin first with item number four as the first item removed from the consent agenda.
So do I have a motion for for this item from Director Hampson.
Contract.
School board authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with Herff Jones in an amount not to exceed four hundred thousand dollars including three Optional annual extensions for the management and classroom support and the preparation and printing of middle school and high school yearbooks in the form of the draft agreement presented to the school board with any minor additions deletions and modification deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the contract.
And this came through C&I for approval.
So I'll ask directors if you have any comments or questions and thank you Chief DeBacker for being at the podium at the ready.
So open it up to directors Director Rivera-Smith you removed it.
Do you have comments questions concerns.
Yes.
I just wanted to double check.
So I understand back last year February 27th 2019 at the time we had when this contract was up at that time we had a community member Muhammad Azmath came gave a testimony.
He is the owner of a local printing company And I know in our efforts to give contracts to more minority and women owned businesses.
This was a great you know an asset here to somebody who is local minority owned business who was who wanted to bid on this bid for this contract.
At the time he'd missed the window but I understood there was going to be communications with him for this following year which is now.
So I'm just wondering if you know if he was contacted.
He was contacted last year.
Dr. Kinoshita visited with him after that and told him how he could get on the bidders list and what to do for that.
So he was contacted.
I mean was he.
Obviously I wasn't there but I understand he was going to be contacted this year when they went out the requests for bids.
So you have any idea.
Was he on one of the people we reached out to at the time or.
I don't we did not reach out to him specifically if he was on the builders exchange is what she was instructed to do if he wanted to be on the bidders list then he would have been included.
OK.
And I like I said I just wanted to point out because I know we are trying we're making trying to make efforts to bring in minority and women owned businesses for these contracts.
So I wanted to check on that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay so seeing no further questions comments or concerns Miss Loffelman roll call.
Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director DeWolf aye this motion has passed unanimously.
Thank you.
We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda and per the board's earlier action and consistent with the information provided on the posted agenda we will not be taking in-person public testimony tonight or until further notice.
Instead written testimony received from individuals on the testimony list and as applicable the waitlist will be read into the record subject to a two minute time limit for up to 20 testimonies.
All written testimony received has been provided to the board.
Ms. Loffelman will be calling the names of those who have submitted written testimony as ordered on the agenda for up to 20 written testimonials.
Each testimony will be limited to two minutes and Ms. Loffelman will signal when the time is expired.
I think we'll also have a notification on the light in front of us and we will take turns reading through the testimony.
And so I will queue up Director Harris to start us off on reading written testimony into the record in lieu of in-person.
Thank you Director Harris take it away.
Hi my name is Cleo Welch and I am a junior at Franklin High School.
I am also a member of the Franklin mock trial team mock trial has historically been dominated by small private schools in the Seattle area.
But for the last two years our diverse female dominated my mock trial team has placed first at the state competition for the past two years we have Also gone undefeated at nationals.
We have beat teams from all over Washington and from all over the country.
We are from Franklin High School a south end public school in Seattle.
In February of this year two of our teams tied for first place at the district competition.
We are the only Seattle Public School that placed high enough to advance the state.
But we are also the only school prevented from competing this year due to recent Seattle Public School restrictions.
We have worked nonstop since the beginning of summer to prepare for this opportunity.
We have put in countless hours in and outside of school and given that the state competition has not been canceled yet.
We ask for an exception to the restriction and a chance to compete this year.
Please help us maintain our legacy at Franklin mock trial program and our legacy as a Seattle Public School.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This is from Sadie Gray.
Good evening.
My name is Sadie Gray and I am a member and co-captain of Franklin High School's varsity mock trial team as members of Franklin High School's award winning mock trial team.
We have been working since the summer to analyze witness statements and case law for the district state and national competitions.
We've worked incredibly hard to write memorize and present a comprehensive case including pretrial motions opening statements direct and cross examinations and closing arguments.
We've worked so hard for so long that our two varsity teams placed first and second in the King County district competitions and have won the final round at state for the past two years.
However this year's ban on overnight field trips would prohibit our diverse all women team from going to compete for first place and equity at the state competition.
We cannot help but draw a comparison to the basketball state competition that took place over the course of four days last weekend and was put on by the Metro League.
It seems illogical to us that even though the circumstances are analogous sports are allowed to continue with their competitions and we are not just like the basketball state competition state for us is not put on by the school board but by the YMCA.
We are the only SPS school invited to state just like Garfield was the only SPS team in the final round at Tacoma Dome and liability for safety at the competition will fall to the YMCA not SPS.
We have been invited to compete on behalf of Franklin and as a representative of Seattle Public Schools and it would be unfair to prohibit us from attending based on a moratorium that was not applied to the Garfield basketball team.
We ask that you make the only fair decision and give us an exception to the new rules limiting overnight field trips.
Thank you for your consideration.
I will be reading testimony from Eric Ijeoma.
My name is Eric Ijeoma.
I am a member of the NAACP Youth Council.
Usually I come here to speak on behalf of the council's demands but today I'm speaking on an ongoing situation at my school.
Today West Seattle High School's restorative justice program is at risk.
Ms. A is our school's restorative justice coordinator.
We recently lost our levy.
Therefore we are struggling to fund basic things such as tutors counselors and restorative justice.
This district states that diversity and equity are priorities to them and has even listed African-American male achievement as a goal in the strategic plan.
I am asking you to please put actions to these words.
Here is the opportunity.
Ms. A and our restorative justice program at West Seattle High School is essential to the foundation of the student body and a model to the Seattle Public School District and other districts nationwide.
Many schools have yet to implement a restorative justice program but looks but looks towards successful ones to follow and looking at how we've started establishing leaders to help assist in leading circle talks and creating safe spaces safe places.
We are succeeding.
Not only that but I can see and understand the potential that restorative justice in our school has to grow and progress into further furthering equity and diversity within the walls of our school.
Ms. A has created a community for students mainly those of marginalized groups that they haven't had before.
Further furthermore the tutoring is run by graduation specialists.
Those who come into the tutoring center are mainly students of color.
As you can see this has a direct correlation to the goal of African-American male achievement.
The loss of this outside levy is going to set our school our school back years disregarding all the progress we've made.
Please fund West Seattle High School to support our restorative justice program tutoring center and counseling staff.
This is as much as a school level concern as it is a district concern.
Thank you.
And Director Harris I think the red means they've just withdrawn.
We did have a number of people withdraw today just for context.
So after the news hit about school closure many of these people responded and said they were there withdrawing their testimony.
My name is Chris Jackins box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4 on approval of instructional materials committee IMC members.
IMC members recommend curriculum to the board board policy 2015 states 8. This is not just wording in quotes whose meeting is changeable by the board.
State law RCW 28A.320.230 paren 1 paren small f states recommendations excuse me.
Fair enough.
Thank you sir.
On the BEX V new in lieu replacement option for Rainier Beach High School replacement project.
Two points.
One district data indicates that replacement would cost 20 times more than renovation.
Two.
A duly diligent board would examine and require a formal report on this gross disparity in cost.
Please vote no on the yearbooks contract with Herff Jones last year for the same contract that provided contact information the district for a specific local small printing business that is minority and women owned.
February 27 2019 this year.
This business was not contacted.
Please delay action on this contract on refinancing the district headquarters debt.
Three points.
One the resolution 2019 20 — 25 states that money from the capital projects fund may be used to repay the new bonds to the original plans approved by the board did not allow such a use of capital funds.
Three the resolution states quote The district is not authorized to levy taxes to pay principal and interest on this bond.
Page 10 paragraph 2. Yet the district indicated that the 2019 BEX V levy contained debt payments for the district headquarters and on the warehouse agreement two points one the board report states that the district quote use closed school buildings to store surplus furniture in the past end quote.
But the district no longer has closed schools because quote they have all reopened end quote to actually a number of closed schools were idiotically sold by the district.
Thank you.
Director Rankin.
This is from Sabrina Burr.
First I want to say thank you for your leadership for working to be intentional to get things right for children staff families and the communities that we serve.
We are in unprecedented times district wise and as a global community.
I want to applaud you on your board goals and for clearly stating a pro pro black agenda.
As you know racism is the birth defect of America and before 1700 there was not such a thing as the white race all over the globe colonialism.
and the great lie is destroying our humanity.
So as we work to shape and implement our strategic plan we must remember that you are also working to restore our humanity and to expose the truth from the lie.
As a district we have lost our way because somewhere down the road we took our focus off kids in classrooms and shifted to people in positions.
We must focus on what is best for students and teachers as we close our doors for at least the next 14 days.
How do we leverage our power and positions to support them and their needs.
How will we calm their fear with facts.
How will we use our words to build.
How will we address their needs with resources.
How will we as a district use the power of all our powerful partnerships to fill in the gaps that will emerge.
How will we use our words and communication to build and unite the communities that we serve.
Our students and staff are fearful fear and idle time are a dangerous thing.
How will we communicate about mental health habits practices and emergency resources.
So much is still unknown.
How will we use resources in an equitable way to engage families.
How will we identify the need or even capture the story of this experience.
All over the district we are realizing things in many buildings are far worse than we realized.
Just last week a teacher who boldly and overtly bullied my grandniece after just returning from administrative leave for physical harming of another student.
Unfortunately he is not alone and we also have principals in buildings abusing their power towards staff students and family members.
Many staff and students are feeling the trauma of what our shift to people in positions has caused in this time of fear and uncertainty.
How do we consider the needs of these individuals as well.
You have buildings with leaders who are wrong and dangerous for those buildings and communities they are trusted to lead.
How will we give extra support and guidance to ensure we are taking care of their needs.
This is a time like no other.
This is an opportunity for us to embrace our humanity regardless of Earth suit or zip code.
Schools might be closed but the learning sharing supporting loving and communicating must remain open together.
How will we make it happen.
Thank you.
This is from Alani Seals I hope I'm saying that correctly.
My name is Alani Seals and I am the Trailblazers program lead coordinator.
First I would like to thank the school board members the superintendent Dr. Keisha Scarlett and James Bush for taking the time to read my personal letters as well as the letters of our students parents and program supporters.
I am an undergraduate student at the University of Washington And if my American ethnic studies education has taught me anything it's taught me the power of community support and education for students of color regardless of age.
I appreciate the school board for investing investigating our situation and hearing our voices and I deeply appreciate all the people that have rallied around our program.
I'd like to mainly address Dr. Keisha Scarlett's response to my personal letter.
Despite your concerns I would still like to urge you to talk with district administration about reinstating trailblazers and SPS and hold them accountable for doing what's right.
No matter the issues we face at one of our sites which is in fact the only site we had trouble at.
It was no cause to banish our program from all of Seattle Public Schools.
This is not fair.
This is not just.
This is directly against school 6 and goal 7 of the strategic plan.
Please reckon with the response you sent me and my peers.
Please do not say that culturally responsive spaces are needed while backing a system that banished that said space without just cause or previous corrective action.
I love to see women of color especially black women and black men in positions of power but it truly hurts when my own take the side of the oppressor in such a fashion.
Thank you for listening to my concerns.
Alani Seals.
Thank you.
Next up is Beth Paul Russell.
Hello my name is Beth Paul Russell and I'm a parent of Franklin High School's mock trial team student Annabelle Russell.
A couple of weeks ago her team participated in district competitions and our two top teams placed first and second in those competitions.
Franklin along with Seattle Preparatory as well as East Lake High School qualified to compete at our state competition.
Currently we are not able to go to state because of the restrictions SPS has placed on overnight field trips.
We would like to emphasize the YMCA has taken full legal responsibility for competing mock trial teams and their health and safety.
They are aware of the dangers of coronavirus and have taken precautions such as disinfecting the courtrooms and canceling events such as the dance and the student mixer as well as the award ceremony.
We would like to point out that no professional legal trials have been canceled.
We would like to emphasize that the mock trial state competition would not involve any physical contact with any persons other than our own teammates of whom we are in contact with in class every single day regardless.
We believe that it is only equitable for the board to allow our all female team a chance to compete at the state competitions the weekend of March 20th to defend our title and represent our school as well as our district.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Dear Seattle school board directors my name is Mia Twan and my daughter Cleo Welch is a member of the Franklin High School mock trial team.
The team is seeking an exemption to the SPS current ban on overnight travel for school related events.
I am writing to express my support of their request for an exemption if the state competition still takes place.
My child and her teammates understand the risks to their health they are taking if they are to attend the state competition but feel strongly that the choice should be theirs to make.
I'm sure others have spoken about the importance of Mock Trial to Franklin High School and the legacy of the program to its students and alumni.
It is a major pride point and launching pad for so many current and former students into college and beyond.
This diverse all-girl team has what it takes to win the nationals competition as it did in 2018 and wants the chance to do so again.
We all find ourselves in a challenging and fluid situation right now and I appreciate how difficult it must be to make sound decisions that please everybody.
It's impossible.
What I'm asking is to give the students and their families the choice to decide for ourselves.
Thank you.
Sincerely Mia Twan.
Thank you.
This is from Christiana Gutierrez.
Hi I am the proud parent of a Franklin High School mock trial team member that placed first and second at the YMCA district tournament in late February.
The only SPS public school to earn a spot in the state competition.
My daughter and her team members represent the best mock trial teams in the nation placing second last year and winning the national title in 2018. The students commit themselves tirelessly to mock trial putting in more than 10 extra hours a week to prepare and perfect their craft.
Please grant an exception to the field trip ban so they can compete at state and have a chance to compete at nationals.
As well as the other district top teams are not as the other district top teams are not restricted from competing at this time.
The competition is a non SPS event.
The competition is taking steps to minimize risk and the competition is small gatherings of individuals in individual courtrooms.
There will be no large gatherings as those events have been suspended so the competition can still go on.
Please grant an exception.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely Christina Gutierrez.
Thank you.
From Ava Donnie.
So far the district has allowed athletic events and competitions to occur despite COVID-19 Franklin mock trial.
is a team like no other sports team.
We've tried out.
We've all made varsity and we've all practiced extensively putting in many hours a week in order to succeed.
There is no logical reason to allow athletics to continue and to ban us from participating in state.
Franklin mock trial team has won state the past two years and we deserve another shot to make Seattle Public Schools proud.
Thank you.
I think this is the last one.
My name is Jayla Willis and I am a member of the Franklin mock trial team.
Currently our team has been prohibited from moving on to the state competition after we have come in first and second place in the district wide competition.
We are asking for an exception to be able to attend state mock trial involves having little to no physical contact with others.
We have our own materials meaning that we would not have to share or come into contact with anyone else's belongings.
Compared to activities such as basketball mock trial has little to no risk of spreading any type of virus because we are not close enough nor do we touch several surfaces nor do we come into physical contact with people because of the low risk nature of mock trial and the safety precautions already being taken by the YMCA to prevent large gatherings.
We ask that we get an exception and be able to move on to the state competition and once again make Seattle Public Schools proud at a state level.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This is from.
Yeah.
Thank you to directors for reading our public testimony into the record and thank you to folks for being flexible and gracious with us in this time and we're really grateful that you did send in your comments and just want to make sure that very clear for myself that.
We are absolutely proud of the Franklin High School mock trial team no matter what.
So I just want you to know that we are really proud of the work you've done.
I am so humbled by your not only doing work in school but out and recognize that you put in a lot of hard work and so really really proud of you.
That does conclude our public testimony for the meeting.
I wanted to give a moment for Director Mack to join us in the into the meeting.
It is now 5. Would you like to take a quick break while we get that or can you get her on the phone.
Thank you Miss Loffelman.
Well Miss Loffelman is getting the phone ready.
I just wanted to share my remarks from the press conference which is just as important here just so folks in our audience can hear that message too.
I want to first thank our educators custodial staff administration community partners and school communities for help for your help in this critical time.
I also want to give special thanks to our communications and crisis response team for daily updates and getting information out to our students families and community.
As you know earlier today Seattle Public Schools informed our 35000 families 12000 staff members 53000 students that will be closing 104 schools in our district for a minimum of 14 calendar days to mitigate this crisis.
Our schools are providing world class education while also serving the critical needs of our families.
I want to acknowledge the extreme burden this causes to our students learning our families ability to make decisions and to our workforce.
While the impact of this isn't fully known this is the best decision the district can make based on public health guidance and to mitigate future risks to our students families and communities.
This decision didn't come lightly and we believe it is the right decision at this time.
I want to make I want to also take this moment to speak directly to young people.
We are taking this issue very seriously and working with the district OSPI and the state on some of the key questions that you are asking including the impacts of graduating on time 24 credits and assessments.
We also know you have questions about extracurricular activities and missed instructional time and impacts on grades.
We are taking all of this into account and we welcome your stories and feedback.
Please send those to school board at Seattle schools dot org.
In times of great need our students have stepped up before to fight for a just response to the climate emergency to fight against gun violence and to stand up for black lives to name a few.
Today I'm calling on every single one of the young people who are a part of the Seattle Public Schools family to step up again.
Today young people and students you need to be leaders too in self-care and community care.
Take care of yourself by washing your hands and staying healthy.
Check in on your friends and loved ones and lend a hand to a neighbor in need.
Small moments of taking care of yourself and each other will have a lasting and meaningful ripple effect on our collective health.
You need to be leaders too with your friends in your neighborhoods and in your school communities if we're going to effectively navigate this time together.
We need you to.
Thank you.
We have now come to the board comments section of the agenda.
So for tonight's agenda directors are encouraged to offer comments if they are relevant to the agenda item to wait for that agenda item.
But as you know it's our common practice.
So if you have board comments that you'd like to share now we will open it up for that and then we'll move to our action items.
So do we have any directors that wanted to make any comments tonight.
Director Rivera-Smith.
I'll go first.
Thank you everybody for being here.
I don't I.
It's not lost on me though kind of the.
that we are warning everyone in our schools not to have gatherings of 10 or more and we're still holding these meetings so I'm kind of questioning if we're setting a good example for that.
But as you know we've talked about I understand how important these meetings are.
Definitely not downplaying the importance of these meetings.
I just want us to think about as we go forward whether or not it's a good idea to keep doing these in person with those just because we've given that.
you know feedback to the rest of our district.
So it would be good to model that.
But we're here and I'm glad and I'm glad that we were able to read the public testimony and to the record.
Today is a big day.
Obviously we made a big decision and I commend Superintendent Juneau for coming to that today because I know that wasn't easy.
I know there's a lot of pressure.
We've gotten a lot of emails.
I think everybody for those emails letting us know how they feel about you know the schools remaining open and some were actually good.
Some people were very happy that we kept the schools open as long as we did.
So I know that we served a good need there in doing so and now we are going to be home for a while.
I encourage everybody to share resources as they can with people in need share as well as online resources to keep people keep students engaging during these two weeks in whatever way they can.
I assume that a lot of us are going to be full you know toning back our meeting our schedule to be out and be out in the community.
But I still do hope to keep in contact with people either via email or phone calls.
So please don't hesitate to reach out.
Still want to hear from everybody still want to know how everyone's feeling and be responsive to that.
So that's all I have heard to say tonight.
Thanks Director Rivera-Smith any other directors.
Director Hersey.
Just really quickly I want to give my abundance of appreciation to.
Superintendent Juneau in handling the situation and our response team here at the district.
This has been no small feat and especially with our communications around things that are just developing so quickly.
I think we're setting a new standard with how we are getting information out to our families.
So big kudos big thank you.
I think also I want to elevate that.
I am very concerned about the food security for our students who depend on us for resources that go beyond their education.
And I know that we are working on plans to make sure that folks have access to food and to various other resources.
And so sharing that out with the same communication as clearly and as fast as possible is a top priority for me and I hope that we can get behind that as a district and I know that we will.
Additionally if there are resources or things that you need please do not hesitate to reach out and ask and even if we as a district and as a system may not necessarily be able to provide it.
We can definitely connect you with someone who might.
So please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
We are a team in this especially as we look forward to the next two weeks.
These are going to be very trying confusing times and.
Approaching it from a nature of abundance and care and compassion I know is the position that everybody on this dais and everybody in this room is taking.
So please do not hesitate to contact us.
We are here to support and we see you we care for you and we look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you Director.
Director Harris and Director Hampson.
There will be no District 6 March 21st 2020 community meeting because the High Point library has closed and probably not appropriate in any event.
As soon as we have a clearer picture we'll get them ramped up for the next three months and we'll get back on the lasagna schedule.
With respect to Franklin mock trial team.
It is my sincere hope that Superintendent Juneau State Superintendent of Public Instruction Reykdal Governor Inslee and the YMCA leadership figure out a way to continue the state competition until the COVID-19 scenario is clearer and to also convince the national mock trial competition to stay on hold until we have clearer facts putting our children in planes etc. for a national competition seems highly irresponsible to me and I think we've seen what great collaboration can do.
And I echo the comments of my colleagues on huge thanks to our superintendent and to our staff for walking us through and threading the needle here because we have been getting conflicting information from all levels of government including the gentleman if you can call it that in the White House.
And I'm really proud of our response and we've received well over 100 emails about half and half.
People are very passionate about this as well they should be.
This this is very serious business.
The World Health Organization named it a pandemic today and it reminds me of the rock and roll song that says you don't know what you have until it's gone.
And I believe the fact that school districts who have been the recipient of more and more unfunded mandates Every day social services food security counseling health care you name it.
And so very many of them unfunded but we try and we try hard with what we're given.
I think this is a real welcome wake up call to what we in fact do in fact do.
Of note Director Hersey and I were very pleased to attend a briefing by the city of Seattle levy oversight committee and staff preschool partnership.
We heard about the awards we heard about the folks that didn't get the awards concerns were had candid conversations were had and for As much poking back at the city as I have done which has been plenty especially with respect to the Seattle preschool partnership and moving towards an inclusion program which you'll recall Director Geary and I sponsored a resolution for a task force.
I think it was our first resolution and we I think we made a difference and I look forward to seeing a goal for more inclusion Seattle preschool partnerships and let us know and to our staff we make jokes about it.
This is your job title dot dot dot and other duties as assigned and our staff has really stepped up and beyond thankful and proud.
Thank you.
Director Rankin.
My community meeting is also canceled.
It was scheduled for this Saturday from 3 to 5 at the Lake City Library and we got notice a couple of days ago that the library was canceling all of their community reservations.
I would be happy to try doing like a Facebook live or Skype meeting or something if anybody out there is interested message me let me know or email me so we can try to figure something out.
But of course our emails are always open to questions and concerns.
Otherwise I also want to acknowledge and thank our superintendent and district leadership All of these things happening happening in real time.
All of the questions and concerns that we've got from parents and community members were often the same questions we were asking because we're all sort of hitting these different spots and worries at the same time.
And I just really really appreciate the diligence of Seattle Public Schools leadership to try to make sure to get consistent information out dependable to know that families are going to get a letter every night.
It's it's hard to do that.
It's hard to not only communicate what you're trying to communicate but then also to communicate that you are communicating and and to do that under the communication staff by the way is a staff of five.
four or five and things were translated into multiple languages audio audio recordings emails videos.
So.
I just just huge shout out shout out to everybody that was working extremely hard with no behind the truly behind the scenes down here as as in our buildings our educators and support staff were also taking on a lot of extra duties and.
and the great uncertainty that is around us because it's a totally brand new thing for everybody.
So yeah.
So now we shift from planning for keeping buildings clean and open to what if we close to now that we're closed how do we support our families and staff and plan for you know an indeterminate amount of.
educational time to make up for in addition to food and support and care and all of these things.
I.
I'm actually by nature a super anxious person but something about uncertainty and and work and all hands on deck kind of calms me in a weird way.
This is really unprecedented.
It's totally unpredictable.
And what Director Hanson and I have been talking about is the discomfort around uncertainty.
and how that is a much more challenging place for some people to sit in.
And I'm not going to say you shouldn't be uncomfortable because it is hard but we are going to be in a place of uncertainty for what happens next for a while.
So I know that the school closures brought today brought a lot of relief to people who had been worried about having their kids exposed having people in the community.
But I also want to highlight that for some people the stress and anxiety is going to start now.
I was talking to my I have my younger son has lung chronic lung issues so I was talking to her this morning about his risk and keeping him safe.
And something that she mentioned was that as she's seen private schools and other places close her patients from those other schools she has noticed an upswing in their anxiety.
It seems more serious to a lot of kids now that schools are closed and that is going to be really scary for them.
So I don't know I just want to say to for us all to just be mindful and take really good care of each other and be aware that.
Fear and uncertainty is scary and it's normal to be worried.
And also that while you're practicing social distancing, to not allow yourself to become to become completely isolated and reach out to each other especially especially really struck with the challenge that this is going to be for a lot of families with kids with special needs who are under the care of experts and assistants and therapists and a lot of specialists all day.
Those kids and those families have.
a lot a lot on a good day.
And I'm really really for for parents of kids of kids with disabilities.
I don't know what we can do if we can't do anything.
Please let us know.
And for those of you who know parents with kids with disabilities please reach out to them.
This is going to be extremely trying and challenging and frustrating and scary to try to you know a lot of us think about you know well what about 11th grade math and what about this and that.
And the stakes are a lot higher.
for some of our families and they're going to be the ones that are the most out of reach from the support that they usually have in this time.
So I just want to say that and hope that we can find a way to wrap ourselves around those families.
On the flip side I almost immediately received a bunch of texts and e-mails of people saying how do we support our food food insecure families.
We're coordinating where's a good meeting spot.
What is SPS doing and how can we tap in.
So that was.
But really just I mean like almost you know 15 minutes probably after the email went out to families my phone started lighting up not with oh my God school is closed but OK.
What do you need us to do.
So thank you for that.
And we're going to all just figure it out.
Thanks.
Thank you Director Rankin Director Hampson.
Nikari Wina Pinagigi to all of our staff at every level that have been working tirelessly this past I don't even know how long it's been now.
I know it's been a very short period of time in an actual calendar days and clock hours and minutes but has certainly felt like a very long time.
And yet we also know that much of the work is just beginning.
I'm really really proud to have been a part of the leadership in this school district that has supported us at least getting to this point in this crisis.
And now we have to figure out how to keep our kids safe.
We have 53. thousand children who are largely asymptomatic and and without any real occupation to keep them focused during the day to keep them safe.
And that's going to be on all of us as community members to make sure that we figure out how to make all that work within the confines of a very very new world.
I almost said odor I meant order of of social distancing.
And I think with that comes the one thing that I was really worrying about our senior staff here and the toll on their emotional.
Beans and as well as many of the community members that I was hearing from in terms of having to manage through this level of ambiguity.
And I just want to acknowledge how deeply difficult that is for so many.
And I really struggled to find good resources I wanted to find things to share with community to say oh here's things that we can do.
My my go to is always to help others is how I make myself feel less anxious in those situations.
But it was it was it was tough it was tough to find good information about how to support each other and how to support our children in an incredibly ambiguous time where we truly have no idea what the next couple of weeks are going to bring and we don't know After that what's going to come.
We don't know exactly how we're going to make sure that our high school students are getting their credits that they're graduating on time their their futures are at stake and I'm deeply concerned about that.
We don't know how our kids are going to be cared for.
It's.
how we're going to pull together the extent that we're going to or we're going to be able to pull together.
We don't know what the long term impacts are going to be economically I'm very worried about our small businesses.
I was heartened to hear that we are encouraged to still frequent small businesses and I think that that is something that we can do but.
I think it's important that we find ways to acknowledge the ambiguity with one another the difficulty of it.
Talk about the fear the fear of the unknown and that we we work with through that with our with our kids and the kids in our communities and in our neighborhoods and any opportunity that we have to talk to them about it.
It's going to be a really important.
Part of this learning process for us depending on your level of privilege you may be used to different different levels of ambiguity in your life.
And it's it's something that we can.
Take advantage of in terms of creating additional resilience that our kids are definitely going to need going forward.
I know that there is in terms of the desire to help my phone and my text were blowing up immediately after the announcement.
I know people want to help and I I'm just going to ask people to give us a beat to even have a conversation.
It's the first time we're together since this announcement and I know staff is going to have to shift.
We have sort of a community and family engagement piece that we're going to have to look at now and then also this kind of this mental health and keeping kids safe piece and who are our partners and.
Can we work with parks.
Can we have kids outside in structured environments and outdoor areas.
How are we going to do all this.
We need just a just one beat to try to get something together so we can funnel people into the the proper channels.
I hope that folks will remain enthusiastic about doing that but also give us a moment to get that organized and.
I really appreciated the calls that we got from community to try to stay to not feed into the panic.
It definitely does not hurt our kids.
This is not a time for division or even to the extent that our our past failings maybe get highlighted in terms of systems at times like this.
We have no other choice than to pull together and move forward in the best way possible.
So I encourage everyone to try to keep that that attitude going forward.
We can we can you know start arguing about stuff again hopefully in a couple of months and disagreeing about things but this is a time this is an opportunity for us to come together and agree about what we need to do to take care of our kids and our communities and our elders and so.
I am honored to have the opportunity to be here and trying to provide what little leadership I can in this very difficult time.
Thank you so much.
Thanks Director Hampson.
Director Harris.
Just a real quick shout out to our retreat last Saturday and since time immemorial.
That felt like a month ago.
Gail and Shawna.
Walked us through but a piece of since time immemorial training.
It was beyond extraordinary.
I'm looking forward to seeing and using some of the resources there's a full library over at Meany Middle School but their leadership both in writing the curriculum getting the statute passed And helping us learn up is just so critical and I encourage anyone especially our staff and teachers when we're back online with professional development to avail yourself for this training.
It's awesome.
Thank you Director Harris.
Director Mack would you like to share any board comments.
Yeah.
Since I'm in the box tonight I'll be I hope to be relatively brief.
I appreciate all of the comments and the thank you's and the recognition to the hard work that staff have been doing in the difficult situation that we're in and decisions that we needed to make.
Really appreciate all the communication and the responsiveness.
And.
I concur with the decision to you know support our community in making this decision.
And at the same time that during this process there's you know things that have been highlighted to me around work overall in the district that we need to continue working on.
Everyone knows we are still underfunded from the state.
And.
One of those impacts that has a longstanding impact is that we've been underfunded on maintenance of our buildings and actually funding cleaning for our buildings.
And so that to me was one issue that got a little more highlighted during this process that I'll continue looking towards the future of how can we more robustly support the ongoing maintenance in our buildings.
And the other issue that.
has gotten a bit more urgency for me as to get our technology planning policy in place so that we can get to a place where we are ready to provide distance learning for all of our students in a situation like this.
And unfortunately we're not there yet.
And but I think that we we.
We have the opportunity to do so.
We have the BTA levy coming up and we have ongoing work that we can continue doing now to make improvements in that area.
So I appreciate all the comments that everyone has made and all of the hard work going into it and you know the continued work that we're going to continue doing even though school will be closed will we will be continuing to move forward on all these initiatives that We need to move forward on.
So appreciate all of you for being there today and all of the staff for all of the hard work keeping our kids safe and healthy and happy no school day tomorrow.
Thanks Director Mack.
Director Rivera-Smith you said you had one more.
I had just one more thing I wanted to throw out there.
Actually give a little shout out for that in the hours since the schools we decided that we were going to be closing the schools.
Some parents have already put together a Facebook page is called the SPS COVID-19 school closure parent survival page.
It's a page for parents and SPS students who wish to share information about SPS and school responses.
It's already got 645 members so people are already getting there and sharing lots of information.
It's not a school district page just to be very clear.
It's not run by SPS or any other organization it's parents.
So everyone who is interested is welcome to look that up.
Search Facebook for SPS COVID-19 school closure parent survival page.
Thanks.
Thanks Director Rivera-Smith Director Rankin.
Director Mack was talking about staff and work and closure and everything.
I just want to I don't know share or remind people that while our school buildings are closed.
This building is not closed.
This is like a snow day and central office staff will still be here every day continuing to do the work that they have been doing and the additional work of what's happening and responding to this health crisis.
So I just when we talk about schools being closed it's our buildings where our students are.
This building keeps going and all the people in it.
And thank you.
OK so we are at 530 so curious if people want to take a break or if we can head right into our action items.
What do you get.
What do you feel.
Take a 10 minute break.
OK we'll take a 10 minute recess.
Thank you.