OK, I'd like to return back to our candidates.
This environment reminds me of a school board meeting during the breaks, and I love that.
The community is conversing.
I'm sure it's all about education, maybe a little bit of catch up, maybe a little bit of what's happening next weekend or what happened last weekend.
And while people are getting settled, I want to highlight these forms.
We're grateful that you're here to listen and to share your questions.
We're even more grateful that you find one of these forms, which are in the blue buckets here at the table in the front, and also in a table in the lobby.
And the names of the candidates are on it, a link to our website where you can provide feedback, and your comments on which of these amazing folks should be your next D7 director are really greatly appreciated.
So we've been through 10 questions so far.
I want to congratulate our candidates and thank them and maybe give them a quick round of applause for that.
But we still have more than a few left in our bin.
So our plan now is we're going to jump back into your questions until 8.40 PM, at which time the candidates will have their closing statement.
So that's about an hour and 15 minutes of questions.
before closing statements and I will turn the mic back over to Angelina to moderate.
Angelina Riley So we are obviously back from our break and we will be resuming with questions.
Question 11 what things will factor in your decision making process as a member of the school board.
Candidate Smith.
What things will factor in your decision making process in your decision making process as a member of the school board.
Thank you.
So first off racial equity.
I really appreciate the Seattle Public Schools as being a lead an innovator around our racial equity policy 0 0 3 0. I really appreciate and my opportunities to be on committees and advisories and at school that those conversations are happening.
I appreciate how our partnership and our relationship with the SEA with our racial equity teams at the school.
So that to me will be consistent when I'm thinking about making decisions on the board.
In addition to that I would like to know how does this impact community.
Where is the community voice in this decision that we would be making.
We have some tough decisions to make for myself I only get one vote.
on a plethora of things I also want to look at where is the research.
How is this playing out a different in different districts.
I would like to also consider what is the ultimate impact on the students furthest from educational justice because sometimes a decision just seems like it just is common sense and it just makes sense.
And even with our best intentions we have to think about what harm might be being caused.
We're trying to do the best work and bring the best work but what kind of harm.
So I want to think about that as well.
And also at the end of the day what is this going to be on our budget.
Can we afford it.
And what sacrifices are going to need to be made.
Thank you.
Candidate Van Arcken.
The two lenses that I will view all my decision making through are racial equity and inclusion.
And so some of the things when I think about racial equity are how can we reallocate funding for schools more equitably.
How can we ensure that academic outcomes we don't have disparate academic outcomes.
How can we reduce.
Differences in discipline rates graduation college entrance rates advanced learning participation lunch and recess time like racial disparities affect basically everything in our entire district.
And then inclusion.
I want to make sure that all students feel valued in school.
For instance I want to look at our field trip policy right now.
Sometimes our children who are in wheelchairs get left behind while the rest of their class goes on a field trip and it's it just pains me to think how that child must feel being left behind while the rest of his class goes to a field trip.
I want to look at like our calendar of activities.
I think that the district should produce a calendar and make sure that we don't hold curriculum nights on Yom Kippur for instance.
We should like the district should have a calendar that makes it really easy for everyone at all of our schools to keep that in mind when they're planning activities.
Thanks.
Candidate Hersey.
Yes.
So making sure that racial equity in the students furthest away from educational justice are the primary lens in which I would conduct all of my votes and work.
Community voice is also incredibly important.
Taking a look at our budget making sure that we can you know implement policy or program sustainably and if there's not enough money going to the legislature and getting it right.
But for me also since I'm a teacher we use rubrics in order to grade things right.
So I ask myself does this policy or whatever it is we might be voting on perpetuate mitigate alleviate or eliminate Barriers on the basis of race and educational justice for students.
Being able to make those pragmatic decisions and also leaning on my fellow board directors because we are not.
in this alone.
We're also going to have to understand the multiple multiple perspectives that all of our teammates bring to the table when we are thinking about decision making.
I have to understand that I need to get the feedback from the community.
I need to get the expertise of my fellow board directors and I also need to get the understanding of the issue as in-depth as possible.
Right.
So understanding and building consistence and also making sure that community voice is elevated to a level of which it is appreciated and those people winning their voice feel appreciated is a high priority for me and will continue to be a high priority if I'm appointed to the board.
Question number 12 comes from a resident of District 7. We often hear the executive directors of school have oversights of principals when it comes to special education but when it comes to special education they seem to defer to the part to the Department of Education of Special Education which has no authority in buildings and can only advise and walks on eggshells with principals and executive directors.
In this situation our students with disabilities are falling through cracks.
So are their teachers.
What is your analysis of this situation and what will you do to encourage Superintendent Juneau to resolve this long-standing problem that results in chronic second-class citizenship of our students with disabilities in our schools?
Candidate Van Arcken.
I know that special education is dramatically underfunded both at the state level and even though we spend a lot of money levy money on it at the district level it's still not enough.
I'm not intimately familiar with the issue of executive directors versus.
the Department of Special Education and how that all works.
But I'm committed to learning more about the needs of our special education students.
I have been endorsed by the present and past presidents of the special education PTSA and I have committed to going to every special education PTSA meeting this year so I can learn more about the needs.
I know that that some things that the special education community has talked about is the needing for training and credentials for teachers and paraprofessionals and best practices the accountability in the provision of services ending the use of restraint isolation and police intervention and universal dyslexia screening.
So those are some of the things that I've been thinking about how we can fund those for our students.
Thanks.
Candidate Hersey.
Yeah so to provide a little bit more context on what's going on here I think that this is really an issue of scarcity.
Right.
So to provide context Seattle Public Schools spends about one hundred and forty million dollars on special education a year and the state reimburses us for a portion of that money about eighty million dollars.
But that means that we still have sixty million dollars to make up and that often comes from other places with inside of our budget.
And what I really think needs to happen is that we need to secure more special education funding to make sure that these issues of scarcity don't impact our students especially those furthest away from educational justice.
But also we need to take better care of our resources and start and stop the over tracking of black and brown students into special education environments making sure that we and we can do that by figuring out ways not only to recruit and retain more teachers of color but also providing training and more resources so that.
Educators can make sure that they are only recommending students into special education environments that need that extra support.
So it really comes down to those two things eliminating the scarcity by achieving more money and going to the legislator to ask for it which I have experience doing but then also making sure that we are being better stewards of our resources and not putting kids who don't belong in special education environments in them in the first place especially black and brown students and those furthest away from educational justice.
Candidate Smith.
Thank you.
Yes special education is a mess in Seattle Public Schools.
Seattle Public Schools has just gotten itself to the point where it was being sanctioned from the federal government to try to get itself into compliance.
It's a hot mess but it's also a hot mess in Washington State.
We've worked hard to get full funding for education for our schools a McCleary Act we got the levy yet special education is still underfunded and it hurts our native community more than any other community.
And the sad part about it is that the folks who tend to work with our special education students which I don't even like the term special education students can we change the name at the least.
Can we put a resolution together at the least and stop calling our kids special education students so they don't feel dumbed down in the classroom just because they learn differently.
That's the least that we can do.
But what I'm trying to say is that we are going to be in a constraint to a certain extent because the underfunding around special education comes to where it attacks our paraeducators and our paraeducators are the ones who tend to work more largely with our special education students whether it's pull out or whether it's in the classroom.
So we as a district and me if appointed as a director will seriously take a look at that.
Yes we got to go to Olympia and fight for some money.
We got to.
We have to.
We don't have an option in that.
So I've been in Olympia I know what the culture is like in Olympia.
I'm there I talk to legislators all the time not just about education but criminal justice reform.
I teach people and facilitate workshops about how to effectively communicate with legislators.
So I'm ready to go do the work in Olympia and ready to do the work for our students.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Before I start with this next question I ask that we hold our applause before a candidate speaks just so we can get through more questions.
This next question question number 13 comes from a District 7 resident.
How will you go about learning the needs of all District 7 school students and schools build relationships with staff and constituents and do the research and absorb all the information necessary to effectively represent District 7. Candidate Hersey.
Great question.
Thank you for it.
My biggest thing is community.
I love talking to people but not only talking to people I love learning from people because I strive to be a lifelong learner and it's what I expect from my students in my classroom as well.
If I had to come up with some actionable steps it would first be understanding how our constituents in District 7 want to communicate.
What is the best way to reach them.
And again as I mentioned earlier finding ways to meet them where they're at.
And then after that making sure that whatever way we choose to communicate with them that it's sustainable and that it's not just looking for an opportunity to say that we had somebody at that table but they know that their seat is for them.
and that they are welcome and that they are going to be here and their voices are going to be heard.
Continuing on that doing building visits.
I love spending time in schools because I spend my entire day in a school throughout the week going and visiting and seeing what's going on in classrooms that we can celebrate.
And that's a key word there.
Things that we can celebrate.
Oftentimes people come to the school board and they're really upset and I understand that especially when we're talking about our kids.
We need to make sure that we get things right.
But we also need to celebrate.
We need to find opportunities to really elevate and highlight the things that are going well.
What can we do to make sure that our students feel valued.
What can we do to make sure that our community feels heard.
And what can we do to make sure that we as board directors are engaging with our community in a way that is sustainable and makes sense for them.
And I will be a board director who champions those things.
Thank you.
Angelina Riley Candidate Smith.
Well I would like to strengthen what I already do in terms of trying to make connections in community.
Whether they're getting the appointment or not I continue I will I plan to continue to stay steadfast.
in being active in community and partnering to have community voice because I already know like at the schools where my children are I need to be in solidarity and collaboration with those other families.
It's not just about my black children.
It's not just about my black students but I should be advocating for that community because that's the box in which I sit in.
But I'm always having to work in collaboration so that we can move forward together we can be in success together.
I've been reaching out to folks from over the years that have been the Asian-American community the East African community already saying I need you to step into the leadership.
If I am appointed I need your voice.
I'm going to share my power.
I have one voice but it's not it's not just about me.
So I just want to say I will be there if someone invites me to a community event I would like to go but I plan to take school tours I plan to place an advisory together.
I'm trying to network with the other candidates who did not make it to the top three to say will you please continue to bring your leadership for District 7. I plan to collaborate not only collaborating with community but definitely must collaborate with the other board members and be a team member to get this work done.
Thank you.
Candidate Van Arcken.
So when I first got involved in the Seattle School District it was when the district wanted to change the boundary for Mabel Elementary and disproportionately displaced children of color.
And so I collaborated with neighbors such as Machiko.
Hi.
And we didn't think that our neighbors knew about what was going on and so we made flyers in different languages and we went door to door all around our neighborhood so folks would know about what was going on.
And as I said before I think that the district should put together a task force on community engagement and have a blueprint for when change needs to happen in District 7 or in other underserved areas.
They need to know what to do.
They can't rely on some people to make flyers on their own and go door to door.
They need to know what to do on their own.
And that could involve having certain cultural brokers who know different communities and can communicate more effectively in those communities with different languages to spread the word.
And personally I would also love to visit all the schools in District 7. I promise I will do that and go to all the community events as well.
Thank you.
Question number 14 comes from a resident of District 7. Who is missing from the district's definition of those furthest from educational justice.
Candidate Smith.
I mean we have a list of who we consider who's furthest from educational justice.
We think about first of all the historic marginalized groups that actually tend to be based on race.
We think about our families with students with who learn differently who are considered to have IEPs are in the special education realm.
There's so many categories.
Our homeless students our students who are dealing with trauma.
I think that our students who are furthest from educational justice are the ones who tend to always get kicked out so who are over disciplined.
I mean there is a gamut and I think that I would I don't want to pause because I need more than 90 seconds to answer this question but that is dependent on who you are how this looks for your child and what you think is most important to get them to educational success.
I just feel like the priorities right now should be kind of categorized around race because within the racial category you will find that the homeless population tend to be African-American.
You will find when you're thinking about our gender issues it is going to be our transgender black women or black females.
who are mostly impacted.
So the issues furthest from educational justice is the gamut but we need to focus on some of the historical categories and then look at those categories within who are still even further from justice within that within that category.
Thank you.
Candidate van Arcken So the strategic plan talks about students who are furthest from educational justice and uses a target targeted universalism approach to focus on african-american males and And like Imaijo was saying I think there are some there's some missing components there in terms of intersectionality.
I don't when I read the strategic plan I don't read anything about our English language learners.
I don't read anything about our our special education students or LGBTQ students and I.
I think that, for instance, a student who is both special education and an English language learner might be further from educational justice in terms of If they're an English language learner and they're dyslexic we we might not discover that they're dyslexic until much later and they need more help than just being in just being special education or an English language learner alone.
And so I think that students who.
fall into multiple categories of folks that we've been underserving are those furthest from educational justice.
Candidate Hersey.
So there are two ways that I think about this and I want to lean toward first the historic marginalization of black and brown individuals students in special education environments English language learners And those are who we identify primarily as those furthest away from educational justice.
But our strategic plan doesn't tell a single story.
We also have to understand that there are individuals outside of these groups and also individuals inside of these groups who we might not necessarily look at immediately and identify as being an individual furthest away from educational justice.
We have to have a clear understanding of what's going on not only within our buildings but within our community because in order to do the job that we have all signed up to do that we have all put our name in the hat to accomplish.
We have to try our best to figure out what are the stories of everyone.
Now we are focused on those furthest away from educational justice and as a black man I can appreciate that but that doesn't mean that we are only serving those students.
We have to appreciate the fact that while we do have these labels and these attempts in order to serve specific communities that that doesn't omit us from serving individual students as well.
And the only way that we can do that is that if we have board directors who are working closely with our communities not only on the professional side but also in the personal side going into buildings hearing the stories of individuals and really figuring out who are the students that need us and what do they need.
And I will be a board director who is committed to finding out what our students need.
Question number 15 comes from a resident of District 7. One of the only high schools that is truly considered diverse is Chief Seattle in Seattle is Chief Sealth.
Chief Sealth high schools are that are not.
Southeast high schools are not diverse when you think about it that they don't have a balance for or mix of student backgrounds.
Do you have any low cost suggestions that suggestions on making schools like Franklin Rainier Beach and Cleveland more diverse than what they currently are.
Would those ideas also work for Ballard and Roosevelt.
Candidate Van Arcken.
So I think that one low cost solution to making our schools less segregated is to change the attendance area boundaries.
And I know it's a really big deal to change attendance area boundaries.
I've seen it happen.
Parents get very upset about it and folks like to have predictability about where they go to school.
But I think there is a higher purpose of.
desegregating our schools.
Seattle schools are are terribly segregated.
And as we look at boundaries I think we should look at making sure that every school has the right number of students going to it.
Right now we have some schools that are.
Terribly over capacity and we have kids in ancient portables and we have other schools that are under capacity and we're not moving the waitlist and They don't even get the funding they need and there's there's more room available in those buildings and And it's kind of crazy if you think about it.
And I don't think that we can make each and every high school perfectly reflect the diversity of the district.
But as we look at those attendance area boundaries we should purposely be shifting them to make each school more diverse.
Thanks.
Candidate Hersey.
First I don't know if I necessarily agree with the fact that the high schools mentioned in the question aren't diverse.
I think that those high schools specifically are some of the most diverse schools and celebrate that diversity in a number of ways.
Diversity is not limited to the color of your skin first.
Second when we're thinking about how are we making our communities more sustainable and more lively for all people really what that comes down to is our crushing income inequality because there are not enough affordable housing units on every side of this city to make sure that anyone who wants to live in a specific area can afford to live in a specific area.
The ability or excuse me the scope of the board director's position to make that more accessible.
I don't really know how it fits in per se.
That'd be something that I'd be interested in studying.
But I think that from my personal perspective looking at ways that we can work with our city council and the legislature to elevate the stories like you know whoever submitted that question who obviously feels that there is not enough diversity going on in several of our high schools.
How can we figure out to make sustainable solutions to ensure that our city is more affordable.
I'm willing to have conversations like that and use my you know privilege as a board director to carry those stories forward to the appropriate bodies.
But I just don't agree with the fact that those aforementioned high schools are not diverse.
I think that that's just wholly inaccurate.
Candidate Smith.
Thank you.
I would agree.
I do think that currently any the schools that were listed are primary schools in Southeast Seattle Southeast Seattle is the most diverse community in the city has the most diverse zip codes languages spoken is so diverse out here so.
in our state so I'm not sure where the if the question the intention behind the question is how I'm about to answer it but I will say that gentrification is currently moving and shrinking the diversity within our schools.
Now as candidate Hersey shared the diversity is not just what your complexion or your racial or ethnic background but gentrification is definitely the neighborhoods moving south and our schools are becoming wider and wider and wider and the conversations that are happening at the schools the conversation is that they're the schools are becoming two tiered.
There's a conversation like if you were at Garfield right the historical two school system or Leschi because you have your highly capable and then you have your regular learning students.
But I'm starting to see some of that in Southeast where there's not even an advanced learning program there and it's just basically because of the way the neighborhood is shifting.
So if Seattle Public Schools has an opportunity and as a director trying to have influence to.
shift the conversation or do something to have a voice in some of the zoning and building that can keep our families here to keep our family to keep our schools rich with diversity then I would definitely support that.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from a resident of District 7. Describe your experience working to end the school to prison pipeline.
Candidate Hersey.
So the second graders that I teach every single day The school to prison pipeline is something that hits incredibly close to home for me Just because it's actually the reason that I got into teaching second grade in the first place because when I first moved here coming from working in the US Department of Health and Human Services.
I wanted to teach high school or government civics but none of those jobs were available.
So someone really pushed me to consider teaching elementary and after doing my research and really doing some deep soul searching I decided on second grade because as you know if a boy of color especially an African-American male is not reading on grade level by the third grade they are exponentially more likely to be involved with the criminal justice system in some capacity.
So I figured that I wanted to be on the cutting edge of that work by teaching second grade and focusing on reading and especially math in order to better position my students to take advantage of this growing economy and to make sure that their chances of being involved with the criminal justice system are as low as possible.
Not only that, I work directly in a form of an after school program through my scout troop.
We spend so much time with our boys.
We have meetings every Sunday.
We take them out on adventures at least once a month and they know that I am accessible to them whenever they need something.
It might be a ride to a football game.
It might be to come help them with their homework it might be to work with them on something.
But I am directly on the front lines of not only mitigating the school to prison pipeline but eliminating it for my scouts and for my students every single day.
And I'm going to continue to do that and I'm excited to do that in the capacity as a board director as well.
Candidate Smith.
Thank you.
The school to prison pipeline is a machine in itself within our our educational system which many of us would probably believe that is not set up for the success of all students.
So what I do first and foremost as a parent as I shared earlier is try to set up and have relationships with the teachers to better understand my child in the classroom understand their personality so they're not so quick to discipline them for reasons of them just being themselves.
That's first and foremost.
I also talk with the principals and with the educators themselves to say what are we looking at.
How do you how are we addressing bias.
in the classroom.
How do you defining respect or was disrespectful for these reasons of kicking our students out.
So as a parent I definitely and foremost advocate for my own child within the system.
I definitely work and volunteer my time within the District of Seattle Public Schools to understand the current policy so that we can say well how do we shift this and navigate this so that it's not impacting our students in such a detrimental way.
As an advisor in the South King County Discipline Coalition we provide trainings of families to say what are your rights what are your discipline rights.
I try to partner with our race and equity advisory where they help to shape our know your rights and student responsibilities so families can have a better understanding of what it means or what their rights are and why their kids should be disciplined and how they should be disciplined.
Volunteer my time to go advocate with families when they're doing the appeal process when they just need some support.
Like I said within the district and outside of the district just to help them learn their rights give them a sense of what the outcomes can be.
So I do this every day on a daily basis.
It's my passion and I think it's the right thing to do.
Thank you.
Candidate van Arcken.
First I wanted to say that there are men of color in my family who have been failed by our schools and have been involved in the criminal justice system.
One of them only went to juvenile detention but the other one ended up in jail and in prison and has been homeless.
So I want to work to end the school to prison pipeline.
I.
We have we already have de-escalation techniques that are being taught in our schools but they're not being taught to to all the teachers in our schools.
I think that we should start using a restorative justice model for discipline and we should start with those teachers who refer the most children of color for discipline.
I think right now the community passageways team is with the Seattle Police Department a bit north on Rainier Avenue talking about some of the work that they do.
I know they're available to do circles with teachers who refer a lot of children of color for discipline and I've been impressed with the stories of some of the work that they've done.
We need racial equity and implicit bias training for all of our staff.
We need an ethnic studies curriculum in our schools and I think we need to make it a graduation requirement for all students.
Thanks.
Angelina Riley Question 17. Board Director Scott Pickham recently put forward a proposal to reopen Indian Heritage High School and the African-American Academy.
The proposal did not pass.
Do you support reopening these schools.
Candidate Smith.
You know I don't have an opinion as of right now.
I'll be 100 percent honest.
I just want to say my value is to be authentic and I will commit to be honest and transparent.
with the community.
I don't have a position on it as of right now.
I'm still trying to learn more about it and I'm just thinking about the district.
I would love to see another African-American Academy.
First and foremost that's what I would say.
Reopening that one in particular I don't know but I would love to see that happen again because I've had stories and talked to known have family members and talked to people who've had great success to be in a school that.
is a great model for welcoming environments loving on the children supporting the children to making sure and have having high expectations for those students.
That's what I know for a fact that was happening at African-American Academy.
So to have something like that again I think the district should highly consider doing that again.
I know my understanding of what happened at Licton Springs was complicated is not my place to you know not being from the Native American community is not my place to talk about it.
But again I would like to look at this a little bit more deeper to see well what are the constraints around it.
I see benefits but what are the real constraints.
Thank you.
Candidate Van Arcken.
I really appreciate that Director Pinkham brought up the African-American Academy and the Indian Heritage High School because like I was saying before those were option schools that have been closed by former superintendents.
And I suspect some of the reasons they were closed were not valid reasons.
I think they probably used some sort of test scores based on biased tests to justify those closures.
As I recall, the Indian Heritage High School was starved of funds and was moved around.
And we sometimes just shuffle these schools around and expect expect them to survive move after move and have all the families just go go with them and continue to to go year after year.
And we haven't given them a fair shake.
And again I would look at what are we doing with our option schools.
Who are we serving with our option schools.
I when we're closing the ones that serve our students who are furthest from educational justice and leaving the others open.
What are we saying to our families about who it is that we value in this system.
And I would love to take a look at whether there's enough students where where these schools would go.
I that's the sort of work I would love to do operationally.
Can we get those students in those schools and make them viable.
Thank you.
Candidate Hersey.
Yes.
So I think this comes down to ideals and reality right.
Ideally yes I would love to see those schools reopen.
But when we have a conversation in reality the conversation gets a little bit more complex.
I think that it's hard for me to make any type of policy recommendation or decision especially because in this position I'll have all of the information in front of me.
But I think what we have to take into consideration if we were to have this hypothetical conversation is again going back to that rubric.
Does it eliminate mitigate alleviate or eliminate perpetuate racial injustice, especially for those students furthest away from educational justice, but also we have to think about what does that mean for the schools that are going to pull those students away and Does that mean that those schools are going to be defunded.
What is their enrollment going to look like.
How is this going to play out.
And if it doesn't happen in an equitable way then we've actually created more problems than we anticipated.
Right.
So I'm not saying necessarily whether it be a good idea or a bad idea.
Again ideally I think it would be amazing but I would have to have all the information in front of me in order to make an informed decision and act as a fiduciary on behalf of the students and the taxpayers in Seattle.
Because we really also have to take into account that we are grossly underfunded.
We do not have enough money in special education.
We do not have enough money for so many other programs and it seems to me that reopening a high school at this point would be an incredibly tough challenge.
One that if community voice said is something that is a priority for them I would champion.
But we also just have to be cognizant of the reality of the issue and be able to make decisions with all of the information in front of us.
Question number 18 comes from a resident of District 7. Should Teach for America be invited back into Southeast schools.
Candidate Van Arcken.
Teach for America was briefly in our schools.
I believe there were Teach for America students at Aki Kurose Middle School and I do not support Teach for America in Seattle Public Schools.
I support a well-paid, fully professional workforce teaching our students, especially teaching our students furthest from educational justice.
And I also have concerns about Teach for America as an organization.
I think it was ProPublica did a story about six months ago about how they found that Teach for America was actually giving charter schools more money than public schools to to take Teach for America students.
I think it's absolutely going in the wrong direction to for us to.
bring amateur educators into our schools though I will also say that a lot of the educators who have come from Teach for America are some of our most talented educators and I deeply appreciate their service.
Thank you.
Candidate Hersey.
Yeah personally I don't think that Teach for America has a place in Southeast schools and I'm saying that as an alumni of Teach for America and make no mistake.
OK.
I think that I totally agree.
Teach for America is problematic especially in certain communities and it definitely did not work in Seattle.
And I want to be clear.
Teach for America just because you know an individual goes through that program doesn't necessarily spell any type of outcome for what type of teacher they are going to be.
It depends largely on the individual.
But does Teach More America work for Southeast Seattle.
Probably not.
Okay.
So I just want to make that clear.
But I also want to say that I am in favor of getting more teachers of color in the schools that need it most whether it be through the Seattle Teacher Residency Program figuring out how can we recruit and retain teachers of color and teachers that look like our students.
So that's what I think I really would rather focus on than thinking about whether Teach More America should be allowed in Southeast schools and it necessary and it wouldn't just be in Southeast schools if Teach More America came to Seattle Public Schools it would be all schools.
So let's make that clear.
But also I do not think that Teach for America is a good fit for Seattle.
Candidate Smith.
Thank you.
My understanding of Teach for America I don't I don't support Teach for America in terms of the the amateur background I would say that the teachers would have coming to the students furthest from educational justice.
We need strong educators.
But with that said the Seattle teach teachers program I would like to see something of a similar model where there is support and I feel like we do have a similar model.
I've had teachers come into Dearborn Park who've come through that pathway who are new but they have the support and the coaching to get them through so that they can be valued in our school and not just you know there for a short term and then leave.
And at the same time they're getting a decent salary.
So I just think that there's we have a model in place that's better I hope that we can make our model more robust and more rigorous to get more teachers of color into our schools across the district.
All our students across the district can definitely benefit from a teacher of color an African-American Latina Latinx teacher across the district because that is really what's going to make the difference in our relationships and breaking down bias and breaking down cultural difference.
Thank you.
Question number 19. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing our public schools right now and what and what is your plan to address it.
Candidate Hersey.
The opportunity gap.
Plain and simple.
And I think that as I've said before the opportunity gap is multifaceted.
It brings in issues of students experiencing homelessness students experiencing hunger.
students experiencing so many things that many of us in this room couldn't possibly even imagine and some of us I'm sure very well could because they're living those experiences right now.
And I think that again as I've stated many times before some of the key ways to fix those issues are to first provide and retain educators that look like our students.
We need to figure out our nutritional system especially because a lot of our students depend on our schools for as their main source of nutrition so we need to make sure that we get that right.
We also need to think about what are we doing to work more closely with other state and local agencies to fill some of those gaps.
Right.
How do we connect more students who are experiencing homelessness with stable housing.
How do we connect more students who need mental health services with counselors which we need to fund and go to the legislature to fight for.
And what can we do to make sure that we are looking at the opportunity gap as the multifaceted issue that it is and what is within our scope and what is within our priority set to make sure that we not only make actionable solutions but sustainable ones as well.
I will be a board director who's focused on not just putting a band-aid fix on things just to you know say that I did something.
but rather focused on what are we doing to actually upend these systemic issues and what are we doing to make sure that when we do make a fix for it it's sustainable and that we can afford it and that it's actually going to have the intended outcome.
Candidate Smith.
Thank you.
My response is institutionalized racism institutionalized racism.
That is the belly of what perpetuates our opportunity gap our underachievement our neglect of our students who are furthest from educational justice.
It is the reason why let me just say white supremacy.
It is the reason why we have such historical opportunity gaps in the first place.
It is a system that set up.
For some to make it and others not for those that have for some that have resources and others not for some that have privilege and others not.
So with that being said we first have to just acknowledge that's the reality that we're under in our education system here at Seattle Public Schools.
And then when we as we get our professional development the trainings around racial bias and racial equity and all those different things at the end of the day let's look at all of our students.
I mean across the board all of our students with high expectations.
Look into their brilliance and support them for success.
That's what we need to do.
So priorities around that would be the welcoming environments.
I think that is such a low cost option that we can do.
Say hello to your students.
Say hello don't first time you see them when they come on door if they're late don't remind them that they're late.
They know that they're late.
Say hello.
How are you doing.
I'm glad that you're here and send them on to their classroom.
Let's give our families an opportunity to understand what is the best way to set your student up for success and give them the tools to do so.
The overdiscipline I think that plays a large role into the institutionalized racism because it's saying that we really don't want you here.
We have low expectations of you.
You're a distraction.
Get out of here.
We need to stop the overdiscipline of our students who are furthest from educational justice.
Thank you.
Candidate Van Arcken.
The biggest challenge in our district right now is the opportunity gap.
In order to address the opportunity gap it is a multifaceted issue.
We need a more culturally responsive workforce.
We need.
To increase our number of educators of color like I've said I support the Academy of Raising Educators Seattle teacher residency.
We need racial equity and implicit bias training for all of our staff.
Ethnic studies curriculum needs to be a graduation requirement and I know it's easy to talk about adding graduation requirements when there are already so many graduation requirements.
And I'm willing to go on the record and say I would investigate trading our fine arts requirement for graduation for our for an ethnic studies requirement because we have I know that fine arts classes help keep kids in school but I believe an ethnic studies class would as well and I would be willing to work on that analysis and see if That is something we could trade because I think it's so important.
Thank you.
Question 20. How do you envision improvement in addressing kids with both advanced learning needs and learning disabilities so they're not forced to choose between those needs.
Candidate Smith.
Heard the term what twice exceptional which I would like to say of these labels that we keep giving our students.
I think all of our students are exceptional.
This is where I think that the district should highly consider and as a board director if appointed should really look at allowing families to place or enroll their student in a school that best fits their students needs and that may be out of their neighborhood district.
It might mean we have to accommodate allowing some shift in enrollment.
I just believe that when it comes to meeting the needs of our students we really need to do that just as a parent with an IEP and dealing with dyslexia and understand that the district or my school I would say is maybe not the best school to accommodate those needs and having to go outside of Seattle Public Schools to look for support and resources.
I think it'd be a great benefit to say this school might be has the staff and is better equipped to support your student.
Would you like an option to go there.
So I think that we should look into some flexibility options when it comes to addressing the needs of students who have different learning abilities and fall into different categories.
That is my solution.
Thank you.
Angelina Riley Candidate Van Arcken.
Right now we are dramatically underserving children throughout our district in terms of advanced learning.
Right now the highly capable cohort is the basically the only avenue for advanced learning for our students and we need to start providing advanced learning in all of our neighborhood schools.
And when we do that children who are in resource or in access We'll be able to use those resources in those schools in addition to accessing advanced learning in their neighborhood schools.
Thanks.
Candidate Hersey.
Yes.
So last year in my class I had a student who I would probably identify as twice exceptional though we don't really use that term as much in a federal way.
And this was a situation where the student was incredibly excitable and you know just had a great time in class but much to the dismay and distraction of some of her peers.
However what I think the real question here is is how do we equip every classroom with the best practices necessary to accommodate a student at any school.
Right.
How do we make sure that any leader of any educational environment is prepared to take and teach any child that comes their way.
Now I'm not saying that that is going to be possible within any of our lifetimes but what I'm saying is we should the way that we think about that issue the way that we have this conversation not necessarily what are we doing to accommodate one student or an individual but rather what are we doing to make sure that sustainably moving forward how can we better equip our educators and our building staff and our administration to handle and to accommodate and to love and to teach any child that walks through their door.
Right.
What are we doing to make sure that every school in Seattle is capable of handling any child in Seattle because that is the goal of public education.
And I think that really changing the way we have that conversation is going to be a key part of the solution in order to get that done.
Question 21 comes from a resident of District 7. How they will be accessible to parents and advocate for their concerns with the district.
Candidate van Arcken.
I plan to be the most engaged school board director that I've known of in the years that I've been watching the school district.
I will be available.
So.
I recently left my job and if I were to get this position I would commit to working this as my full time job for the duration of this appointment.
And so the what that would allow me to do is to there's so many events that happen during the workday I've realized in the last two months that I haven't had a job.
Like the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition meetings happen on Thursday afternoons once a month and they are amazing opportunities to talk to people who are doing all sorts of things in District 7. I will have community meetings twice a month.
I will rotate them around the area.
I want to meet with people.
I want to meet with groups who.
don't speak English as their first language.
I want to have meetings at the Romo Community Center.
I want to have meetings at the Somali Services Center.
I will be willing to meet with folks across the district anytime.
Thanks.
Candidate Hersey.
So one of the best parts about living in Columbia City is that very quickly you get to know everybody.
And I love my community for it.
There's nothing better than sitting out on my front porch and seeing my neighbors go by and striking up a quick conversation.
And I think that really having that drive and that understanding of how do we build community is really important.
Right.
Because moving from a place like Mississippi to Seattle you can imagine is pretty different.
And in my few years here I've done what I think to be a great job of building that community in order to understand my community.
But what we really have to focus on is using the lessons that I have learned from the classroom working directly with parents for the last three years and how to engage them in their child's learning I think is going to translate well to the board.
I believe hosting community meetings at convenient times and convenient places that are accessible by public transport like the light rail in places that actually have parking so it's not a hassle to get to but also being highly responsive to email and however they're connecting with us.
I need to be available in order to figure out what the issues are that my community cares about so I can bring those voices to the board.
Right.
I also need to be looking for opportunities that I might not necessarily know right now.
Maybe there's an opportunity to connect with my community in a better way but I would not be able to know that unless I am looking for those opportunities.
So again I'm not only going to be in a position to act on things that I already know, but I'm also going to be in a position to where I'm going to be looking to learn.
How can I best communicate with my community and continue to communicate with my community in the way that I've been doing for the past several years?
Candidate Smith.
Thank you.
I definitely will make myself available as to community as well as be in community.
I believe to be honest that I already do that.
There are a lot of families who do not come to the schools.
They're not comfortable in the schools.
They don't feel welcomed in the school.
So oftentimes you do not get a chance to engage with that base.
There's a lot of families who are not going to come down to John Stanford or who believe that they even came to a school board meeting is not going to make a difference.
So my job is to be with the community where they're at.
Go where is comfortable and feel safe for them.
So to strengthen the relationships that I already have where there's a CBO relationship a community organization or where there is actually a family.
I'm at the gym I'm at the community centers I'm at the grocery store and I talk to people all the time about education.
So I feel like I live sleep eat education because I know how important it is because it's so valuable to be engaged but oftentimes for those families who do not feel comfortable or safe as of yet they see me and have seen me as a person who will authentically and safely represent them when I am at the district at a board meeting or an advisory meeting.
Also I can't be at every single place.
So that's why I need community to come with me.
I need to have relationships with the leaders who are already in the community.
I'm not trying to play politics and come there and smile and shake your hand and nod my head.
That's not meaningful and that is fake.
I want to hear have authentic relationship meaningful relationships something that matters so that you know when I go back to the district I'm really going to make a difference.
Thank you.
Question number 22 comes from a resident of District 7. Are you aware that Rainier Beach sophomores don't receive a full year of history.
Candidate Hersey.
You know I've heard something like that as I've been touring around Rainier Beach and speaking with Gloria who is the PTSA president of Rainier Beach High School.
And you know I would need to look more into it because I don't teach at Rainier Beach and I don't know what's actually going on.
But if that is the case then that is shameful.
We need to figure out what are we doing to better support our curriculum needs of our students ensuring that they don't only learn history but they learn their history as it pertains specifically to them.
And I think that that largely gets done after we adopt the ethnic studies curriculum along with a lot of other pieces that we are looking at you know going forward making sure that individual students in classrooms have what they need in order to be successful in terms of having access to history curriculum.
And you know as a teacher I know the importance of that.
We need to be teaching our students accurate history and history that reflects their lived experiences.
And I'm going to be a board director who champions making sure that that curriculum is available to students and is actually being implemented in classrooms in a way that supports their understanding and that's going to help them grow and be better functioning members of our society.
Candidate Smith.
I really appreciate that question and no I was not aware and I'm actually I feel some kind of way I'm really disappointed to even hear about that right now and I would like to learn more about why that's happening.
I'm wondering if that's a resource issue was it under enrollment they couldn't keep a staff person or they could only afford a class part time I'm.
I would like to know more about that.
When I think about a school that has been furthest from educational justice it is Rainier Beach and I would say elementary school I would think of Emerson Elementary School like those are two schools that have historically been where families are just like I'm not going there to this day even with.
With the highlight the IB program and other opportunities at Rainier Beach it just has a reputation that people don't want to send their children there.
And I think that that's very sad and that was systemically set up because of the community that has been there historically.
Things are starting to change for Rainier Beach.
And with regard to the building we have the levy funds to make have a better building but then I wonder what community is going to be here by the time that building who's really going to benefit from this opportunity of a new building and a cleaner fresher look.
Yeah I'm really sad to hear that.
And then as a I don't not even as a director I'm ready to get busy and find out how we need to make a change right now.
That's just unacceptable.
Thank you.
Candidate Van Arcken.
So I didn't know that sophomores were not getting a full year of history.
And I wonder if that's because the projections from last February were so wrong.
And Rainier Beach was one of the hardest hit high schools in terms of them not having the teachers they need because the district got the projections wrong.
I've had about a billion conversations about Rainier Beach High School with a former international baccalaureate coordinator, Colin Pierce, and I've learned a lot about the school and the amazing work that is done here.
The IB program here was started by the community for the community and it's an amazing success story of what students can achieve when high expectations.
We have high expectations for them and an amazing curriculum for them.
As a District 7 board member I would want to solidify funding for the IB program here at Rainier Beach.
I would want to work with the city to find out what levy funds can we use to make sure that they have the funding they need year after year.
And I know that some of the instructors here spend their time going after grants and that takes time away from them to be able to provide instruction to the students here.
And also when they get those grants It's subject to like a 7 percent tax by the district for compliance.
So I would want to see if we can not have the district tax the grants that the school gets.
Thanks.
Question number 23. What do you think about school uniform uniform policies.
Candidate Smith.
I guess this is a follow up question around the dress code that we had addressed previously in the sense that I'm saying I support some of the flexibility that's happening around dress codes with regards of uniforms.
I think that should be a family or a school body decision at a previous school.
We would take get parent input around uniforms or not because for a lot of families for who are scarce with resources they would prefer a uniform or rather than having to not have a uniform.
So I just think it should be a little bit more of a school based choice.
I think again I do support the flexibility and with regard to allowing students to kind of wear what they need to wear but we have to look at the racial equity lens and cultural lens around dress code in general because there's still bias that is embedded in that and what is acceptable and what is not.
Thank you.
I don't think it should be a school choice.
I don't think there's a place for uniforms in a public school district.
I think that school uniforms are not fair to our special education students are neurologically diverse students who might not be comfortable wearing whatever uniform the school chooses.
And because I support full inclusion for our children with special needs.
I do not support uniforms in our schools.
Thanks.
Candidate Hersey.
I don't support uniforms but I think if this question came to the board in some capacity I would be more interested in looking at the problem that the school is trying to fix with uniforms and seeing if uniforms would even be an actionable solution to figure out a solution to that problem.
Yeah.
Question 24 comes from a resident of District 7. What experience do you have with special education in Seattle Public Schools and how services are delivered.
Candidate Van Arcken.
I'm a member of the special education community and I understand that we have levels of service.
I believe they're called resource access and focus.
They that corresponds to the level of intensity of services needed.
I would work very closely with our special education community to understand the prioritization of their needs because I know that special education that the needs are very great and the funds are always limited.
And so I would want to make sure that I understood exactly what the community thought needed to happen and I would work tirelessly with them to make sure those those needs were addressed.
As I said before I know that some of the things the community has said needs changing our training credentials for teachers accountability to make sure that when when an IEP says that students are supposed to get a certain service that they actually get that service.
But because I think a lot of the times things exist on paper and they don't exist in reality.
And it sounds like there might be an issue in terms of passing the buck where the building teams might prefer to send those issues off to the special education department where we all know things actually happen in buildings here in this district.
Thanks.
Candidate Hersey.
Yeah, so many of my scouts actually have IEPs.
And at the beginning of every year, I try to set up a meeting with their teacher, or at least a phone call, to get an understanding of what strategies they're using in the classroom so that I can use those same skill sets and those same things out on the trail and at campsites, just in case my scouts need support.
So I know firsthand, as a teacher and as an educator, as a scoutmaster, how important those things are.
I think that what the key there is is consistency.
Right.
So I try to use those same strategies in order to be consistent so that the student knows what is a predictable outcome for whatever might happen.
Right.
So that we can be better supporters of those students in whatever situation they might be.
And what I think that really tells the story of is that special education is grossly underfunded.
And my experience working directly with special education the special education community in Seattle's public schools is working with their teachers in lobbying for more special education funding in Olympia on behalf of the Washington Education Association.
So I believe that that pretty much sums up my experience working directly with educators and directly with families around special education and I'm excited to continue that work if appointed to the board.
Candidate Smith.
Thank you.
My experiences with special education is as a parent and as an advocate understanding what that process looks like.
The fear of even thinking about going into that system when we know that system is so closely aligned with the school to prison pipeline and the complications of even if your child is evaluated You don't even quite know all the time what the actual issue is and the cost that it takes to go outside of the district to try to figure out what the actual issue is so that you could support your student and support your child.
I know the complications around that.
Go into your medical provider you're referred out.
Go talk to your medical provider.
But then the medical providers like we can't help you because your insurance doesn't cover the costs and it's extremely expensive.
So trying to figure out it's very frustrating as a parent to try to figure out how to best support my child.
So I know that firsthand as just as a parent and then sitting at these meetings there's needs to be the district needs to provide and as a director I would love to lead on this provide an avenue of really bringing awareness and education of how do you even have an IEP meeting with your teacher and the special education staff or what have you.
How do you be effective in that.
And what should you walk away with knowing because you go in there lost a lot of the times you're supposed to sign a piece of paper just to say you came to the meeting but you should also sign a piece of paper saying you agree with the plan and sometimes they don't even set that up for you.
So there's so much work is so complicated but I'm just saying it's very frustrating for families and we need to do better and I want to support families in education and awareness.
Thank you.
Question number 25 is from a resident of District 7. Do all Seattle Public Schools middle and high schools currently offer similar course offerings and does that matter.
Candidate Hersey.
I'm not sure.
I would definitely need to take a look.
I would imagine if it's anything like Federal Way the answer is no because it depends on the expertise of the staff that you have teaching there.
But what I would really like to see is more consistency to make sure that all students have access to an equitable education regardless of what building they might happen to go to for their education.
I think that largely we.
could be doing a better job of making sure that that access is something that is available to students.
And that would be something that I'd be interested in taking a deeper look at as a board director to make sure that our students are getting what they need regardless of their zip code in order to break down some of those barriers within the opportunity gap.
Candidate Smith.
I would most definitely say no.
Thank you to the person who submitted the question about Rainier Beach in the history of the lack of a year long history class.
That's clearly no.
But also in my experience years past as a parent at Garfield High School just who even received an opportunity to take chemistry versus the basic science classes and some of those offerings are not even offered at other schools.
I'm aware of that just as a parent who's had to navigate the system and also having to advocate within the school what classes my student was able or my child was able to take.
But also in addition as a parent looking at the school options that are in Southeast Seattle I'm just going to say I love Aki Kurose and I've talked to Dr. Williams before and was trying to think about what what were the differences between Aki and Mercer which is where my son goes and what was actually being offered.
There's definitely an enrollment difference so the resources or what could be offered at the schools varies but.
There is more opportunity early on for like language classes at Mercer rather than at Aki and this is within the same district.
I definitely would as a director if appointed would try to propose to have something that streamline so that families don't have to make these choices where we're already having this divide for North versus South across the district but we're also having a divide within our district.
Thank you.
Angelina Riley Candidate Van Arcken.
So no our middle schools and high schools do not offer similar course offerings.
And I think it's a huge inequity in our system.
It's up to the principals what courses are offered.
But ultimately, obviously, it's all based on funding.
And in our district, funding follows the students.
So the more students that a school has, the more funding they get for teachers, for the courses.
But the thing is, is that the district ultimately decides how many students can go to each school.
in terms of how they draw the boundaries around each school.
And so we need to look at how the boundaries are drawn for each school and make sure that each school has enough students going to it.
So if we're going to keep a weighted staffing standard with dollars following the students.
Every high school and middle school has to have enough students to be able to provide the same level of courses.
And right now, it's the Southeast that suffers from this practice.
Rainier Beach has a larger capacity than it has students and that means they don't have enough money to fund all the classes that students need.
And what happens then is students then go to running start to get the classes they need and then the school gets even less funding and it ends up being a vicious circle that harms our students.
Thanks.
Question 26. Do you think sweetened beverage taxes should be increased to promote food nutrition justice in Seattle schools.
Candidate Smith.
I'm going to say no.
And the reason I'm going to say no is because we have a upside down tax code in our state And that the burden even if we're saying we want to have healthier foods and we want to say we want to do something better for our students the burden falls onto low income families and oftentimes families of color.
So I'm going to say no.
I appreciate that I can.
Well people still spend the money but I could appreciate that I could use that excuse for my own children and say we can't afford that pop right there.
But at the end of the day I'm with amongst other families and community who are just trying to make ends meet and trying to have healthy food and to tax us even more, it's just a burden and it's a hardship and I don't think it's necessary.
Thank you.
Candidate Van Arcken.
My answer is yes.
The city of Seattle does have a sweetened beverage tax in place and that tax was intended to provide healthy food options for under resourced communities.
And I think that funding healthy food in our under resourced schools would be a fantastic use of those resources.
Candidate Hersey.
Yeah so I'm going to say absolutely not because in fact I actually served as a community spokesperson for Measure I 1634 last last election cycle which basically said that Washington State could not raise taxes on food and beverages outside of Seattle.
Let me tell you the reason why.
Because when we talk about things like soda taxes first they don't work.
Second.
They they disproportionately affect communities of color.
So what you're telling me is that by raising these taxes we are going to tax communities of color disproportionately and then use that money to make healthy food options for those same communities that's backward.
What we need to do is impose other taxes but that's getting into legislative policy.
But what we need to figure out is how can we use the resources that we have and figuring out who does the tax burden actually need to be placed on instead of communities of color in order to get this stuff done.
Because it is certainly not going to happen by continuing to regressively tax our families that need our support the most.
So no I do not support any type of tax raising that disproportionately affects communities of color.
Thank you, candidates.
That concludes our time for questions this evening.
It is time now for closing statements.
Candidates, you each have one minute, starting with candidate Smith.
Thank you again you all for being here.
I'm going to stay seated.
Thank you all for being here.
I just again want to share with you all that I am not here for political stature.
I am here to be of service to our community and to our students.
I am here to make sure that the foundation of our board our school board is representative of a voice that is often not at the table.
I'm here to make sure that there's a racial equity lens that is placed on all of our decisions.
I am here to make sure that our strategic plan is successful and play and is followed through.
So I'm not here just for the two terms unless somebody was to elect me out.
I'm here to see it all the way through.
I wanted to share I'm not big on name dropping but I too was endorsed by the SEA.
I too have been endorsed by Amy Park with Families of Color Seattle.
I have a few other endorsements that Larry Gossett our King County council member.
Endorsed by our Seattle Council PTSA President Manuela.
I've done a lot of work in the district and I want to just reiterate that I am ready to go and ready to move and make change.
Thank you.
Candidate Hersey.
Ashe Ashe Ashe.
Thank you so much everybody for being here tonight.
Coming to spaces like this give me so much energy to go back to my classroom tomorrow and continuing to work in the interest of the students furthest away from educational justice.
As I think about how this process has played out I'm reminded of a few things.
Very clearly our strategic plan centers African-American males at the heart of our strategic plan in order to mitigate some of the experiences facing people of color.
I think about with Director Patu's departure there is no longer a public school educator voice on the board and I'm thinking about going forward.
How can we do a better job of engaging everybody in this room and everybody outside of these walls and making sure that our policy gets it done for students.
If appointed I will be a board director not only for District 7 but for Seattle and especially for our students furthest away from educational justice.
Because I bring the lived experiences of a man of color of a teacher and as a resident of this great city and I'm ready to work with you to get this done.
Thank you for being here and thank you for your support.
Candidate Van Arcken.
First I wanted to say thank you all for coming here for three hours.
Please keep showing up.
And thanks for listening to me speak about how I've worked for six years to increase equity in this district from working as Southeast Area Director of Seattle Council PTSA to working on equitable boundaries to committing our district to eliminating all racial disparities in advanced learning.
I believe our district is at a turning point.
We finally have a bold strategic plan that focuses on students who have always been overlooked and now we need determined people to work day in and day out to make that plan a reality.
And I believe I have the experience and the commitment to succeed in that job.
Thank you so much.
And that concludes the responses from our candidates.
Thank you candidates.
I will now turn things over to our board president Harris.
I'm sorry.
I want a standing ovation for Angelina.
It's days like this that truly do give me hope.
And that's fuel to run on.
And I also want to say thank you to our candidates.
Y'all have been working hard.
You've been putting yourself out there.
It's not an easy task.
And we so very much appreciate it.
And we won with the three of you.
And again, I remind you, if you're not appointed, we know where you live.
And you're in the family.
You don't get out.
We have comment cards.
We really would like your feedback, because again, communication is two-way, and we can learn from where we've been.
So please do take the time to fill this out.
Online feedback is due by 8 AM on September 16. And on September 18th the school board will vote on an appointment to the district 7 seat during the regular school board meeting which begins at 4 15 at the John Stanford Center auditorium.
The candidate that is selected will be immediately sworn in.
All three of our candidates will be briefed on the action and resolution items on that meeting so that you can make informed thoughtful robust choices and we will welcome you with open arms.
I also want to say a huge thank you to our John Stanford staff.
Remember that this is a working board.
It is a board of directors that are working exceptionally hard, but we cannot lift without the assistance of our staff.
And a special shout out, and I'm going to get in trouble and pay back for this, for Ellie Wilson-Jones and for Aaron Bennett and the rest of the John Stanford staff.
And this special meeting of the board is adjourned at 8.45 p.m.
Thank you all for being here.