School Board Meeting May 23, 2018 Pt 1. Audio resumes after 2 min.

finance.

Deputy Superintendent Stephen Nielsen was recently recognized by the Washington Association of School Business Officials known as WASBO with the John Geneft Outstanding Service to K-12 Education Award.

Stephen was recognized for continued commitment and advocacy for education funding.

Stephen is highly respected for his knowledge and leadership in K-12 finance.

He has been involved in every major K-12 funding policy and has been a member of every statewide funding committee for the last 20 years.

Stephen's financial policy expertise is often called upon by legislators and statewide associations during legislative sessions.

Please join me in recognizing and honoring Deputy Superintendent Stephen Nielsen.

Thank you and as you can tell I have work to do because we're still not done and we've been doing it for 20 years plus.

I would like to also recognize our terrific nurses in our district and one of our funding challenges is we are grossly underfunded for the nurses that are doing wonderful work on our schools.

We have a total of 81 just for the funding commercial we're funded for nine so we use our levy resources to add to that.

Would ask the legislature for additional resources because of the importance of nurses and what they do for our students in many areas So Maria DeBell is here excuse me Marie DeBell is here to share a little bit about our nurses Thank you for being here

Thank you very much.

Thank you for recognizing School Nurse Appreciation Week.

School nurses as a group value professional growth to improve their own practice and today I'd like to introduce two of our nurses who have done just that.

Cherokee Bowman.

Cherokee is a classified nurse who recently received her associate's degree in nursing and is now an RN.

And I'd like to bring up Lisa.

Lisa Oles is a bachelor of science in nursing and she recently earned her national board certification as a school nurse.

And two nurses who are not here today, Scott Scoglin, he recently received a master's degree in nursing from the University of Washington.

And Meg Courtney is a classified nurse who then became a certificated nurse, a wonderful way of recognizing growth.

And she received her baccalaureate in nursing from WGU.

Pat Sander executive director coordinated school health.

I also want to honor Marie DeBelle today because Marie has recently informed us of us of her retirement on August 31st.

And so I want to at least recognize the work that Marie has done the last few years as manager for our student health services program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The DeBell family has given this district in this city a great deal.

So thank you Marie.

We also want to honor our substitute teachers.

Substitute teachers make life in a classroom extremely value added.

They are there on the average of about a tenth of the time for students education as our staff is going through professional development activities as they're doing other things in their building based on their schedule substitutes are an integral part of the success of our students.

And we thank you so much for all of what you do and the.

Association highlights schools who create sub friendly environments that means that every year you get to choose a few and highlight them.

And this year it is Greenwood Elementary Leschi Rainier View Hamilton Middle School McClure Orca K-8 Franklin High School and Ballard High School.

Those schools have gone above and beyond to make places substitute friendly.

That doesn't mean everyone does.

They just get extra out accolades.

So I'd like to invite Peter Henry up to speak a bit about our substitutes.

Thank you Peter.

Great.

OK well thanks very much.

Peter Henry president of the substitutes association and I brought my chairing section along.

And I'll actually co-present this this award.

So this is the time where it's not really teacher appreciation day it's school appreciation day.

And the one thing there is we've heard that there's a lot of schools.

Why didn't my school get the sub friendly award this year.

I know we called out eight but that doesn't mean there's only eight sub friendly schools.

There's probably a lot more.

And so we.

need you know we need people to promote those particular schools.

So this is like an advertisement here.

You know if you are from a school and you really think you're treating subs really well talk to the subs and ask them to recognize you.

And you know I really I really want to do that.

So right.

I'll read my statement here and then I will call on Doris Brevoort who's also a sub and she'll read another statement.

As you said approximately 10 percent of a student's time is spent.

with substitute teachers in my case since I taught the whole year as a sub you know they are getting their 10 percent all at once.

And other substitute educators who are equally important the paras especially and also the SEOPs others being a substitute is so much more than merely making sure there is an adult present in a room with children.

Whether we are there for a single day or in a long term assignment we are there to promote students education in the best way we can.

And this depends crucially on the relationship we have with the building administration and staff.

So as in years past we're honoring the schools as being especially sub friendly where we feel we are most effective.

Right.

It's not about the schools being nice to sub it's about us forming a professional and collegial environment so we can be our most effective selves.

And if your school's not on the list we know we've missed several and we encourage staff at all schools to reach out to subs and ask for their support next year.

Hint hint.

And here's Doris.

Thank you so much.

Good evening members of the board and colleagues.

I'm Dr. Doris Brevoort also representing the Seattle Substitute Association in our presentation of sub friendly awards.

I retired after 25 years as a school counselor and teacher and I've been a substitute in numerous buildings over the past several years since my retirement and this sub friendly presentation recognizing many schools The many ways the schools plan and provide for substitutes coming to the buildings so substitutes guest teachers can enter their posts as prepared and positive as possible.

Every step along the way adds up to a good day for the substitute for the students and the building as a whole.

We appreciate planning and communication on part of all the teachers we are standing in for.

School secretaries who offer greetings and orientation finding the room key custodians who are friendly welcomes from administrators who stop by our classrooms to ask how things are going.

Today we're recognizing schools who are identified by substitutes as providing consistent support for subs.

And thank you all so very much in all the buildings.

More than just our experience in these buildings we thank everyone throughout the buildings who lend a hand an ear or a smile to make substitutes as part of the building for the day.

Each moment of outreach as we do our best to cover the bases for the educators who cannot be there today is appreciated and helps us to make a positive experience for the teachers and the students.

The district could not run without guest teachers.

We're happy to play this role in the big picture of school success.

And as always it takes a village.

We thank you again for welcoming and supporting us as we serve you.

So we've got this lovely certificate and a beautiful plastic frame.

And here we go.

So if we could join the subs for a photo please and are there any nurses left so yes great so what we'll do is we'll do two photos first we'll do the substitutes and then the nurses so join down here please.

All right, ready?

One, two, three.

Let's take three.

One more.

We have a long agenda tonight so I'm going to keep my remarks short.

We always report out on our improved systems and some of the things that we're doing and just to highlight one of them.

We have started information technology advisory committee went through an extensive vetting process.

We had over 150 applicants with outstanding resumes to fill slots for less than a dozen community members.

It was a very difficult.

process because we would be stronger with all 100 plus people in the room.

Therefore we will draw on their expertise in other areas.

Nevertheless yes and they're just some tremendous folks from our community willing to help us with that and systems improvement around technology and we're very excited about the opportunity.

We want to thank all of our community members for engaging in the school and family community survey.

We use that to instruct us on how to improve systems.

We also want to recognize that there are a number of other task force opportunities.

If you look on our Web site you will see opportunity to engage with us in many different areas.

So please do that and please become engaged.

to the district.

It's a good idea.

Next we want to talk about some good news.

We had a annual scholarship award ceremony in May and that recognizes graduates who are approaching the end of the school year then Director Harris and Mack were able to attend and honor 26 recipients of scholarships who have overcome significant life challenges.

There are stunning people with amazing stories and they are a inspiration to all of us as we look forward to how we help each of them and all of their peers be successful in life.

We have some state champions in the district.

As we always do, the Hazel Wolf K-8 team took home first place in the Mathematics, Engineering, Science, and Achievement, that's the MESA competition at Microsoft Conference Center on May 19th.

They are going to represent our state in Philadelphia in June, so we wish them well and know they will do well.

We also have, and sitting among us tonight, Ashley Nair from Franklin.

The Franklin High School recently won the nationals in the mock trial competition, that it would be the nationals in the mock trial competition.

Members of this team, including Aislinn, who's joining us tonight, are people who become leaders in our community and leaders in the world.

Among them, Governor Gary Locke, and went on to become Secretary of Commerce and also Ambassador to China.

So you have opportunity ahead of you.

Start learning Chinese soon.

And we just want to honor you for all of that effort.

Finally we also want to thank among our many celebrations of the Seattle Foundation and the Seahawks including Doug Baldwin for donating student books to Leschi so that the books have a better reflection of the student population and a more accurate representation of their history and we want to thank them very much.

And again because of the length of the meeting this concludes my remarks.

OK student presentations this evening.

We have an opportunity to watch videos from students at Whitman Middle School.

I'll invite directors to take a seat out front and also would advise folks that may be listening via audio that our current channel 26 broadcasting is not working.

They're working on it as I speak and it should be available for streaming on YouTube tomorrow.

Thank you.

So I know you have a full agenda so I'll try to keep it short.

My name's Christopher King.

I run the video production program at Whitman.

I believe we're the only full time video production program at a middle school which wouldn't be possible without the support of our principal.

It's fantastic.

If the kids desire they have teach sixth seventh and eighth grade and if they desire they have the desire and the talent they can actually take it all three grades.

6th, 7th, and 8th, after which they're ready to go to Hollywood, basically.

But since they don't drive, they go to Ballard.

Almost as good.

So I brought some samples.

From 6th grade, we have a book trailer where the students need to visualize a book in their head and make a movie trailer for it.

And then we have two 6th grade book trailers.

They need to choose a book that has not been made into a movie.

And seventh grade, we have a door story, which is sort of what it sounds like.

They have to build a story around a door.

And that's where they practice match cutting and cutting on the action.

And then finally, from the eighth grade advanced class, we have two visual storytelling projects.

So enjoy it.

I'm going to go turn off the lights.

We had some technical difficulties with this earlier as we were preparing we thought we got it to work.

But I suggest we circle back to this.

We'll call our tech folks maybe do some board comments or board reports and then we'll circle back.

Well we're nimble and we will indeed circle back around.

I would like to hear committee reports from committee chairs if I might.

Director Mack and then Director Burke.

I have two updates one for legislative and also for Ops.

I'll just do both.

Good evening.

So I had the opportunity this last weekend Friday and Saturday to spend two days straight with my colleagues across the state at the WSSDA legislative committee meeting.

WSSDA is an organization like the organization that honored Mr. Nielsen here a bit ago.

It's the school directors association.

And every year they set a legislative platform and and support advocacy at the state level.

Those two days were really interesting and engaging.

We had legislators visit talk about what happened last session as well as really robust conversations around issues like school safety and what what are we going to take stands on for this upcoming legislative session as a statewide body.

So that was really exciting to be a part of that and interesting work.

And for Ops we've been super duper busy as usual.

We had our meeting a couple of weeks ago.

Lots of action items today.

Intro items.

Some things of interest.

There's a there's going to be a transportation task force that's going to be organized and that's starting to get formed soon.

I don't know exactly when it's going to come out but dealing with some of our transportation related issues we're going to have a task force working on that.

We were continuing to move forward in the process on our next operation and our next capital levy the BEX V levy.

We've got a number of meetings scheduled out into the future around that including the facilities master plan.

Two weeks ago we approved a board task force to support our efforts on the facilities master plan.

And we'll be hopefully getting out the advertisement for that task force tomorrow.

So if you're interested in participating hopefully you will.

see that and apply expected to be open for a couple of weeks and meetings would start in June with the work of that task force is going to be really short term and fast and it's really focusing on two kind of specific aspects of the facilities master plan the capacity analysis.

So like where do we need buildings and seats across the city.

As well as our.

Scoring our priorities of the board's priorities.

So that we can hopefully make the best decisions possible on what will go on Tupac's.

Which will be on the ballot in February.

And.

So excited about those things coming up.

Our next meeting is on the 9th a couple weeks from now and I think that's about it.

Thank you.

Director Burke.

Well we get to continue to get to do fun stuff lively stuff on the curriculum instruction policy committee you'll see a few of them today.

The ones you'll see by name board action reports on the student rights and responsibilities handbook and approval of the highly capable plan that are going to come to the board for introduction.

We get standing agenda items around the formula for success which rotates through essentially the different components of it the three pillars the MTSS pillar the EOG pillar and the PAR pillar.

So we get regular updates and last cycle we got a report from Brent Jones on the work around smart goal 2. And we also get a regular update on the 24 credits and instructional materials adoptions.

So some of the the other things that are in the works that will come to policy and this ties in with the instructional the instructional technology advisory committee that Deputy Superintendent Nielsen spoke about.

We have four electronic learning policies that are sort of interrelated sort of independent that are being evaluated by the committee but also will be part of the this task force as we really try to identify what's the right way to deliver electronic learning.

Where's the value where the risks put the right controls in place.

So that's going to be interesting work over the next few months.

And we had a report on civics.

Primarily around the work of mock elections in all of our high school or all of our schools essentially K-12.

We've had a an optional program to do that for the last several years.

And there's more and more desire both among directors and we've heard from students we've heard from from educators as well about trying to use the election process as a vehicle to engage students around critical issues key issues and to back into a lot of the elements of civics and civic engagement.

So that I think every year that gets more robust in our schools.

We don't have anything that is a mandated curricular element but I think the the desire to put something more formal in place that is an easy to access resource is building a lot of enthusiasm.

We also got an update on the Naviance implementation and that will be there's going to be an update coming out in the Friday memo for directors that describes what that's going to look like.

I think most folks have heard about it but more clarity around what that adoption or what that implementation looks like and specifically how families opt out where the engagement points for that.

Looking forward we have some more exciting stuff.

We have our our one of our favorite topics CSIP's continuous school improvement plans that we call the annual approval of schools that's coming to the committee next month on June 12th.

We also are getting a report and we'll be discussing the policy on alternative learning experiences ALE schools.

Looking beyond that in subsequent months we have a policy a long standing policy on the books called A02 that is our performance management policy and it's a it's a sort of a sort element of a bygone era that's partially used but not really used where we put schools in different performance tiers essentially and use that as a mechanism to determine how much we can you know how to support schools how to provide things for schools and I think we've shifted.

I think in a positive way from a a sort of a numerical performance model to an equity model where we're addressing more of the needs of schools as compared to something that could be construed as punitive.

So that's going to be probably a fairly significant body of work to look into.

And then just to bookend that there's going to be a formal adoption of the since time memorial curriculum for native education and that's being prepared right now by staff and we'll be coming through the next C&I policy policy committee meeting.

And right now we're looking at how it relates to assessments and professional development funding.

Director Pinkham A&F please.

Thank you.

Yes we had our monthly meeting on Monday May 14th and I think Director Mack was appreciative that we went beyond 630. It isn't just operations that take so long.

It was a very full meeting.

We had a number of bars that will be some discussing tonight with introduction.

A lot of good news is about accepting some money from some grants.

Others requiring the payments that were mandatory required to have.

which some of the things that include the risk management families and education levy the best start for kids grant HIV education grant.

Kins of the Middle with the National Foundation very appreciative of their continued support.

Looking at the LSI consulting for HR success factors and recruiting it's a good way that we're actually increasing how fast we can actually get people on board and streamline our services and I think HR and Dr. Codd are very appreciative of what we're able to do with those.

Special education related services again mandatory things that we have to pay for Seattle Children's Hospital and also a Head Start grant application for preschool that we're looking at.

We also included some special attention items.

We do have our annual head start report that was presented to us at the meeting.

Information purposes only with us taking over the Lake City property again we are looking at making contracts with the subcontractor to handle the leasing and paperwork for us.

Other items of note I think that we also know our budget hearing.

We are looking to having a public hearing sometime towards the end of June.

Hopefully well in advance before we actually vote on the budget on July 11th.

So we want to make sure you get the word out to our public.

Come to these hearings let us know what you think about the budgets that we have so far so that by the time we vote on it we'll hopefully have heard your voices and address any issues and concerns the best that we can.

Regular agenda items just a monthly financial update also looking at how we can look at our levy what we should go for as far as per pupil costs in case it stays at its current level or might be raised.

Upcoming for us in June include looking at maintaining staff student boundaries insurance and student insurance policies.

And as I said of course our budget for the 18 19 school year.

The next meeting will be June 11th 2018. If you can attend please do so.

Also as far as other audits we do have coming up in June a couple of schools audits will be presented to our A&F committee including Cleveland and Center School.

And as noted I think we also have some other audits that will be presented to the board next Tuesday May 29th.

And that's what I have for A&F Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

Any other committee reports at this time.

OK.

Ms. Ramirez could you check to see whether the video snafu is fixed at this point please.

It appears so.

Let's try for try number two here.

Thank you.

Wow wow wow wow.

Great things are happening in our schools.

Thank you to Whitman Middle School and thank you to all the students that put yourselves out there and made those terrific films for us.

Thank you again.

Ashley Nair.

Ashley Nair is the newly elected 2018 19 associated student body president and the member of the Franklin High School mock trial team national title winner.

You have the floor.

Tell us about yourself.

Tell us about your school.

Tell us what you think we need to know.

OK.

I'm Ashley Nair as you probably already know.

I I'm a part of the Franklin mock trial team.

This was my first year actually.

And I was usually the defendant.

So I was always the bad guy.

But.

I this experience that I experienced with Franklin mock trial was a completely different experience that I've ever had with Franklin.

I've always played sports.

I played volleyball in ninth grade and ultimate Frisbee and I used to play basketball as well.

But joining mock trial gave me a new perspective on life at Franklin.

It made me it.

allowed me to meet new people and just live a different way.

And I think that.

what we do at Franklin is we we have this like inclusiveness that's that's everywhere that you go anywhere at Franklin any classroom any any floor you go to you always feel included and comfortable and so when I went into the mock trial room.

I didn't I didn't know how it was going to be but of course it was it's Franklin.

It's going to be like that.

So it's it was really inclusive and welcoming and it was just a great experience.

And we went from districts to nationals without winning or without sorry losing a single trial.

So we lost a couple of ballots here and there but we won every single trial.

And that team is like my family now and I just feel like that's what Franklin's all about.

And This year has really really validated that.

And yeah so as you said I'm the newly elected ASB president really excited because I know that there's a lot of things that can change at Franklin but it's just adding on to what a great school it is.

And so I'm really excited to work with the new students and work with everyone the teachers the staff The staff there is really amazing so I think they're going to make it a great experience next year.

So yeah I'm really excited.

What do we need to know as board members from your perspective.

Things to change or.

OK.

I have one little comment.

It's warm right now and we're really enjoying the sun but in the winter it's really cold at Franklin.

We even have pictures of people with blankets on and I know myself I have to layer up a lot.

So I think that heating in our school could change.

But we all we all know share blankets and everything so we're good there but.

I think the heating can change.

And I just think that I just want everyone to know I want the world to know that Franklin is such an amazing place.

It's such an amazing place it's inclusive and welcoming and loving and caring everywhere you go at Franklin you find someone that will.

like enwrap themselves in you and love you and want you to do your best.

And it's it's amazing to feel like that that you have somebody every single day.

So I just I really love Franklin and I think that everyone should know how great of a place that Franklin is.

Terrific.

Thank you very much.

OK we have reached the consent portion of tonight's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda please.

I move the consent agenda.

I second the motion.

There you go.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved and seconded.

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

Seeing none.

All signify passing the consent agenda by saying aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

OK.

It is time check 5 0 8 public testimony starts at 5 30. This is the time for board comments.

Who would like to go first.

Director DeWolf please.

Thank you President Harris.

Just first wanted to again give some more appreciation to our guest teachers and superhero nurses.

I distinctly remember experiences visiting our school nurse to try to go home and I know that they were always very good about keeping me at school.

We'll also wanted to thank the students and staff at Daniel Begley Elementary for inviting me to their monthly assembly a couple weeks ago and special thanks to Jet who wrote a letter to the school board as well as his parents and the library and their Miss Roach.

I was really grateful to spend some time hearing just about the incredible month of learning and fun that they've had there and also had an opportunity to share about my love of reading my experience opening a library during my experience in the Peace Corps and then finally being able to finally deliver those 40 plus sci fi books from authors of color that Jet had written about.

And then also thank you to students and staff from Washington Middle School namely Ms. Hill's English class and Principal Fulmer for also having me at Washington Middle School to share more about why reading is important and then also deliver the remaining 40 plus books from authors of color and then just special thanks to Elliott Bay Book Company for being supportive and donating those.

I just spent the last three days in Yakima attending the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance's conference on ending homelessness with a full day focused on student homelessness.

This is a rhetorical question because obviously people don't respond back but if you've ever been tent camping there are 125 unsheltered students in the 2016 2017 school year.

Those unsheltered students live in cars parks campgrounds temporary trailers and abandoned buildings.

I'm probably going to go camping in a couple weekends and I can't imagine doing any work or homework or anything productive in a tent for example.

So.

Obviously this is a crisis and just want to bring this up at each of our meetings.

OSPI released the report last month in April that last year totaling 4280 students had experienced homelessness within Seattle Public Schools.

708 of those are unaccompanied and like I said 125 of those are unsheltered.

Looking forward to meeting the great folks at tomorrow's African-American male advisory committee meeting and then the last just announcement next Friday.

President Harris and I and obviously the full board and staff here at John Stanford Center will be raising the.

pride flag as well as the trans pride flag.

The flag raising ceremony will serve as a visual symbol of our commitment and will be flown during the entire month of June.

This will be the first time this has happened at a district building.

So we're really excited to just elevate illuminate and make visible our LGBTQ students here at Seattle Public Schools.

Thank you.

Director Geary please.

Well welcome Ashley.

Thank you for your comments.

I had the pleasure of visiting Franklin when we were doing the superintendent interviews and could definitely feel the welcoming atmosphere.

But beyond that being the inquiry just curious minds willing to engage with each other with us looking to the future and supporting one another.

So I and you asked for warmer.

rooms.

So love your school as well.

Thank you for coming and sharing about it.

Dr. Jones Brent Jones and I had an opportunity to go.

We're doing what we call an EOG listening tour and we had a chance to visit Eckstein.

So thank you to the Eckstein community.

We had a room of about 12 students or so maybe 12 to 15 students join us for some time.

And we asked them different questions about what would make their experience better because I believe I can speak for this board that many of us share a commitment to elevating student voice and actively going out to listen to them and include them in our decision making process here.

And so this was one of the steps that we took and we asked them questions about what would draw them into school and we asked them how we could.

increase the sense of feeling respected.

And I just wanted to share a few of the highlights of some of the things they told us because it was even surprising to Principal Stirk some of the things that they said.

With regard to respect I thought a really interesting piece that they brought up was that they said that they would feel respected if their teachers faithfully used Schoology.

And and it was just that was an eye opener for me because they want to do their work and it isn't always on the classrooms time.

Sometimes it has to be available for them and that if they're going to be held accountable to showing up they want the schools to hold themselves accountable for making the information available as they say it's going to be.

So I thought that was a really important point.

They ask that teachers limit sarcasm and they recognize that without a deep relationship with that person it's confusing and hurtful.

These are kids that they're not adults.

Middle schoolers in particular there sometimes don't know if they're coming or going.

And they ask that if teachers have feedback to give to students do it in private because it's even uncomfortable for them and they don't feel respected if another student is treated in what they feel an unfair or inappropriate way.

And they ask that negative comments not be generalized to the whole classroom because that's confusing.

But that if a teacher has criticisms that they make sure that they do it kindly and in private with that student.

And I know it's hard, and they recognize that it's hard because teachers are people too.

They did say that.

And everybody doesn't have good days, but it's a good reminder.

And in terms of piquing their interest and making school more interesting for them, they asked that we mix it up.

Students like it when teachers use different approaches.

They talked about mock trials.

They talked about period fashion shows.

They talked about working with other classes and combining work so that they could get out and meet their classmates and even between different grade levels.

They they asked for that.

It keeps them engaged it keeps them awake.

One student even said could we have different classes at different times every day.

I said that may be a scheduling nightmare but she just said you know just even at a different time of day it would just create a different attitude in my class.

So I thought that was really interesting.

And mostly everybody said they please Go out of our way to make education relevant to their day today.

So if you're teaching about China three centuries ago tell them why it matters.

Tell them why that's important today every day.

And I and for me I think it just again it ties into an ethnic studies approach not only just one course at one time in their educational career.

but that we are weaving in all the time about the relevance and the importance of what we are teaching them.

We teach so much and if we could tie it back today and get people to recognize how that information pertains today how the people of different cultures over time has built up to this moment for us.

So it was good to have that dovetailing and it was also good to hear their voices and we assured them that we're going to be continuing to do that.

I continue to have my Tuesday morning meetings at Zoka on Blakely from 8 to 9 30 most Tuesdays.

I'm there.

I post if I'm going to be there I post if I'm not going to be there.

We're hearing more I'm hearing more and more and actually have met been asked to meet privately with people about.

The private funding of our public schools through PTA dollars and I feel the urgency throughout our city on us coming up with some type of way to address the inequity of this.

So I do believe that that is something that ultimately we're going to address from the ground up because we have to have our parents and our communities asking for it.

But I just I hear you.

I appreciate so much the people who are coming forward.

If other people are interested in that I'm contact me and I will put you in touch with the group that is working on it.

I'm going to meet with the Alliance for Education and talk about that make sure that they have Whatever thoughts they can have for helping PTAs share dollars.

We're researching into the researching into what's happening in other communities but I feel that urgency out in the community.

So let's just keep moving it forward because I think we'll get to a good solution if we if we create it organically throughout our district with everybody's involvement and voice at the table.

Thank you to our nurses and our substitute teachers.

I don't recall being a frequent flyer but certainly my daughter is and has been all during elementary school.

So I do know the importance of the nurse and their willingness to talk to parents listen to parents and encourage kids to get back to school whenever they can.

So thanks everybody.

Director Burke.

I'll pile on as well around the nurses and the subs.

You know we regularly talk about how excited we are for our educators and our building leaders and you know I think it's absolutely imperative that we recognize all of the elements that make our system successful.

You know the parapros the nurses the subs that you know that it's just it does take a village.

So thank you for to the district staff for helping elevate that and to my colleagues on the board for celebrating it.

I want to give a second shout out for the Whitman middle school videographers that are amazing.

It was really entertaining and I was kind of sad to actually have it end so we had to come back up here and go through our our Roberts rules again.

Ashley and welcome.

We're glad to have you.

And I haven't spent as much time in Franklin as I'd like but I knew I crossed paths with a couple of the educators from there and so I do know the passion the enthusiasm and it's an amazing environment.

And I want to say when people come to us and we ask them what can we do to help.

And they say our school's amazing our climate's amazing our education's amazing but it's kind of cold and we have to have blankets.

That would be wonderful.

So that's thank you for sharing that.

We'll see what we can do about the climate control but I'm I'm thrilled the educational environment is is firing on all cylinders.

I want to welcome Kerry Campbell back.

We're you know we we regularly celebrate our communications team and we celebrate our communications team when Carrie wasn't back but we want to celebrate her coming back as well and you know dump even more work on them now.

So welcome back.

We're glad to see you.

And I want to give a shout out to Brent Jones and the entire team.

You know in the race and equity department and I'm not even sure how many different departments are involved in this.

I think lots but the we got an annual report for policy 0 0 3 0 our our race and equity policy.

And regularly we as a board say this this goal this this EOG you know we talk about the initials we talk about raising up African-American students we talk you know it's it feels very abstract.

And this annual report for folks that haven't seen it.

It is multiple pages of very specific very targeted very tactical.

things that have been or are being implemented.

And so when this came to exec committee we we really complimented the team on it and actually recommended that they glam it up a little bit put some some photos of students on it and send it to places like WSSDA Council of Great City Schools.

Because these are the places that are that are calling us up and say legislature the state legislature other districts that don't quite have the same enlightened views.

And so that's I think that's going to see a little bit more public view once it's even even more kind of visually enhanced.

But for those of you who haven't seen it definitely drill into the exec committee materials because it's a great read.

Also I want to celebrate the information technology advisory committee.

First meeting on that was on Monday of this week and it was mind blowing.

I was I was talking with John Kroll our CIO before the meeting and he was asking me well what do you think about the agenda and I said well that that looks very.

ambitious which is a word that I learned here referring to agendas.

And he he went through it.

He provided a lot of a lot of background material for the attendees.

There are 10 folks from community there are 10 folks from the educate from our educator ranks educators and administrators.

And then there are two students that are part of the committee.

And what a neat bunch of people asking hard questions.

It's going to be super super powerful.

Just as an example one of the questions that came up in conversation was how can how can technology and technology experts help us connect all of the the community passion and activism and volunteerism with our actual needs.

How can we use our databases and and social media and things to.

to really connect our needs with our our strengths in the city.

And I think that's a great it's I think something that we've also talked about as a board and as individuals so the community is asking the same questions and I think they're going to help us with this lift.

And then one more task force advanced learning task force just so everyone is clear on that.

This is currently collecting applications.

This is this task force is going to be looking both at the the guiding principles in collaboration with the board and then the the service models and then the identification and then looking at how to put those elements back into policy.

So this is foundational work around our advanced learning and our equity and braiding this together.

So if it sounds exciting and if you haven't applied yet the deadline to apply is tomorrow at noon.

Repeat tomorrow at noon to get applications in to be on that group of people doing absolutely stellar and critical work.

As a I have a community meeting on June 9th from 4 to 5 30 p.m.

Greenwood Public Library.

It's still in the unconfirmed but as soon as it's confirmed in the next day or two I'll get it on the calendar.

And then I just want to also remind folks that we have a board retreat on June 2nd.

And this is a great time to come in and see the board kind of footloose and fancy free.

You don't actually get to participate too much but you'll get to listen in and we'll drag in in some places and certainly talk during breaks.

So I hope that people we can get broader and broader community engagement in our board retreats and in our smart goal development as we look forward in future meetings and years.

So I have.

Thank you.

Next up quickly before public testimony starts in five minutes.

Director Pinkham.

Thank you and good evening.

For some reason I feel like we haven't been here a while.

I've been kind of drowned at the University of Washington.

I just gave my second midterm today and students took an extra 10 minutes even though I said time to go.

Let's go.

But congratulations to our new nationally certified nurses.

It's a pity that we can't have every nurse in every school that we have.

Because their value to make sure that our students are healthy and being taken care of.

And unfortunately many of our students they if they don't have that health insurance and health care that the nurse provides may be the only resource.

Thank you to our substitute teachers.

Sorry to all the subs my previous years when I was in high school I know I gave substitutes a bad time.

You know change my name or do things that probably wouldn't be too proud.

Yeah one of those I was one of those.

Congratulations on your recognition award.

Franklin High School Ashley.

Good job with the mock trial and you said this was your first year.

And what year are you?

And what year are you in school?

Junior.

So next year repeat.

Congratulations on that.

You know the winning nationals for high school especially with mock trials is amazing.

The Whitman middle school in your videos.

Fantastic.

Actually recognize one of the gentlemen Nyland Mural.

I've known of his family but lost touch with them.

It's good to see that they are doing well in school.

Nate thank you for your service and looking forward to your next journey.

I hope you have good luck on your next journey.

It's a pleasure having you here.

Kerry Campbell welcome back.

Boy this seems like things are changing fast here.

I unfortunately do not have another community meeting planned.

My weekends and stuff are full with UW graduation and Seattle School District graduations but I.

Lasagna.

I heard I heard about that.

And Betty asked me to cover one of her graduations.

I'm looking forward to going down to South Shore and being with their graduates this coming year.

And congratulations to all our students that are graduating this year.

Those that are moving up from eighth grade into high school and those that are moving on to middle school changes for our students.

It can be a tough thing but it also hopefully kind of that rites of passage as we're making it on to the next level.

So we'll celebrate all of you as the year comes to an end and hope everyone enjoys their summer.

I know we're going to have one more meeting here before school's out but I just want to pass that on.

So I'm just trying to fill up some time here now Leslie for you because I want to save some of my comments for later.

I wish I had a joke but I.

Again I don't say that for Rick.

Do you have any jokes Rick for us.

No.

But I'll save other comments for after public testimony.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ Thank you.

OK.

Terrific.

Let's take a two minute stretch break before public testimony at 530.

you.

you

Back on schedule.

We have now reached 530 p.m.

and we're going to public testimony next.

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

We do not take public comments on items related to personnel or individually named staff.

I will rule you out of order.

Please do not make me do that.

The majority of the speaker's time must be spent on the topic he or she has indicated they wish to speak about and also like to note the speaker has two minutes.

The yellow light will come on when you have 30 seconds to go.

So start wrapping your comments up at that point.

Ms Shek please read the first three speakers please.

First up for public testimony we have Ricky Bondock followed by Chris Jackins and Owen Richards.

Hello everyone.

I'm Ricky Bondock current ASU president of Franklin High School.

I'd just like to start off by saying Franklin is an amazing school.

I've been here all four years.

I've been a student athlete my whole high school career playing multiple sports throughout the year football wrestling and track.

Some of my future plans I plan on going to S.U.

and studying business.

But.

I'd like to add on to what Ashley talked about and our many accomplishments.

First thing is.

We recently won the Molly Moon Sunday June challenge here.

We were actually here a couple of weeks ago with Molly Moon and we won that.

Also I could give a quick shout out to the girls frisbee team.

They also won their championship which is pretty crazy.

Some things I'd like to talk about are going back to what Ashton was talking about being cold in school throughout the fall winter and a little bit of the spring.

Many students have brought blankets to school really big puffy jackets even when it's 60 degrees outside it feels like 40 inside the school.

This has been a problem this I've talked to many students about this and it says that they feel very uncomfortable in school.

Yes Franklin does have a very warm atmosphere but for many students it's hard to learn.

While being cold and shivering it's hard to write down or do a test it's hard to think.

And another thing is the windows at Franklin.

Many students have joked about this but I think it's a very serious matter.

And yes Franklin is a very old school and many of our windows are broken but some windows when you put them up they do not go back down.

Yes.

Thank you.

My name is Chris Jackins box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4 on the contract for the student data portable portal.

Do students and families have the right to examine and delete entries from the data portal.

On the Cleveland field lighting project five points.

Number one the district hired an outside examiner to produce a report for the superintendent on recommendations regarding environmental review for this project based on the state environmental policy act or SEPA.

Number two the examiner recommended that the district avoid scheduling athletic field events when other concurrent school events exceed 85 percent parking usage.

Number three the examiner stated quote the responsible SEPA official should seriously consider recusing herself from future environmental review that is associated with her work on the bell times task force unquote.

Number four the superintendent rejected both of these recommendations.

Number five this action by the superintendent harms the Cleveland neighborhood and it harms public confidence in the independence of district environmental review.

On Licton Springs K-8 please resolve space issues at the school.

on Native American educational programming.

Please quickly support a board action to reestablish a school in the tradition of the district's previous Indian heritage high school.

Thank you.

After Owen Richards we will have Brian Terry followed by Suzanne Mayer and Andy Jensen.

Hi Owen Richards proud parent of four public school Seattle Public School students two of whom have gone all the way through and two of whom are in the program currently.

So this testimony is to request that SPS improve student safety by.

reviewing and updating SPS policy 32 42 44 which is corporal punishment and policy 52 81 related to staff disciplinary action.

And this is I want to make some reference to a personnel issue but it's not.

I will make do that.

There are no no specific references.

OK.

Absolutely not.

So the issue is that.

I think that there is in the current corporal punishment provisions, there is a provision that if the teacher is found to have done something that harms a student, investigators can still find that they are allowed to return to the classroom if they did not willfully inflict pain.

And we have found through personal experience with one of our children in a classroom that that issue is something that We believe that the student the school district needs to review to to see if there is some way to improve that issue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Thank you for supporting equity in advanced learning.

In our schools today a white student is 20 times more likely than a black student to be identified as highly capable.

This leads to highly segregated classrooms that send a clear message to all of our students.

White students are more capable and more deserving.

This gross racial inequity stems from a heavy bias in our decision making process.

Somehow in advanced learning the needs of privileged students trump those of underprivileged students.

Every program review so far has come to the same conclusion.

The best way to meet the needs of highly capable students who are privileged is by excluding those who are underprivileged.

Some justify this discrimination by claiming that underprivileged students are not as capable.

However state law clearly addresses this by mandating that we identify students across all populations.

Others justify the exclusion by claiming that the academic needs of privileged students are more difficult to meet in neighborhood classrooms and so they are more deserving of a special program.

Not only is there no evidence of this but it also violates district policy.

We will never overcome a 20 to 1 racial inequity until we change our outdated attitudes about highly capable underprivileged students.

In compliance with state law and district policy we must find and serve these students by desegregating our program.

We can send a new message to our students.

All of you are capable and deserving.

Thank you.

Susan.

Andy.

Shanna Brown.

After Shanna we will have Sabrina Burr followed by Shanika Russell.

Hello my name is Shanna Brown.

I am a Snohomish still Guamish Squaxin Puyallup Muckleshoot Tulalip Snoqualmie Indian and I'm the proud granddaughter of John and Blanche Hoptowit Craig.

I'm also the parent of two SPS students and I grew up on the Yakima reservation where I didn't belong and I knew what it was like and I That's why I became a teacher to make sure that all natives are visible represented supported and honored in their schools.

I'm a member of the parent advisory committee for Title 6 but I'm not here to represent them.

I don't speak for them.

I'm a teacher at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School but I'm not talking for them.

I'm not representing them.

I'm here because I'm tired.

of people claiming that they speak for me when it comes to native students native needs.

I'm tired quite frankly of the bullying that's been happening and that's what it is and so we might as well call it that.

When someone purports to speak for an entire community they don't.

That's impossible.

I'm tired of only one voice being listened to and one that yells insults and misrepresents the work that I'm very proud of.

I'm very proud of the work that the district has done.

Today we have 430 teachers and librarians that have been trained in STI.

And we have more to follow with high school teachers being trained next year.

We have a district of our we have a district budget of over seven hundred fifty thousand dollars for our native program.

And that's the district funds not the title funds.

We have so many things to be proud of.

And we are responsible for all of our native students.

We have tried segregating our native students and it doesn't work.

My parents or my grandparents were boarding school kids.

It didn't work for them.

So I implore you please.

We already have a native focus K-8 and we need to make sure that we are meeting the needs of all of our students.

Thank you.

Sabrina.

Shinneka.

After Shinneka will be Shannon Crowley followed by Kevin Gallagher and Kim McCormick.

Good afternoon.

My name is Shanika Russell and I work for the family support program.

I'd like to talk to you about the importance of the program and how it's directly aligned with SPS's strategic plan.

As it stands today the family support program are at 11 elementary schools two high schools and two assigned to central office to support schools without family support workers.

We need to expand.

In 2004 we had 51 family support workers supporting 71 schools.

The needs of our community are much higher and we have a quarter of the staff if the family support program never turns away students families and other building staff without family support workers.

It is critical that the family support program be included in Seattle Public Schools general fund because we are irreplaceable part of the historical and current efforts to eliminate the opportunity gap.

Staff members are building points of contacts for students and families experiencing homelessness foster care and our Native American students and families.

The pipeline to prison epidemic and the gentrification of our city is further margin light further marginalizing black brown and native populations which feed directly into our efforts with the EOG.

Family support worker staff are involved in the following, African American Advisory Committee, Race and Equity Support to the EOG, Native American Education and Ethnic Studies, Family Engagement Task Force, and also our work is involving trauma-informed practices.

Family support workers ensure equitable access to a barrier free education.

We provide wraparound services case management access to food clothing rental support utility support transportation health care and much more.

This allows students to focus their attention on academics.

Most family support workers are from the community and speak various languages.

This promotes the district's effort of equitable of a workforce equity.

Family support workers are credible messengers to the community who build relationships and trust as a member of the family support program.

I am humbly asking the school board to begin the conversations of financially investing in the family support program through Seattle Public Schools money.

Thank you.

I would like to give you guys this little thing we passed out.

Is that all right.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Shannon Crowley.

I'm a fifth grade teacher at San Isidro Elementary School and I am a white woman teaching at one of the most diverse schools in the state of Washington.

And I'm blessed to be a white woman in that very diverse school.

So it broke my heart this past Monday when When one of my Muslim students who is celebrating observing the holy month of Ramadan broke down in front of his laptop during ESPA testing.

He was tired.

He was hungry and he was thirsty.

Our brains don't work when they're dehydrated.

Our brains don't work when they are hungry or tired.

And yet as a district and as a teacher we are complicit in promoting institutionalized racism when we force our Muslim students to test in high stakes testing during the month of Ramadan.

It's not fair to them.

It may not be as apparent in elementary school but let's think about the 11th graders whose future earning potential and their ability to go on for further education may hinge on this test.

It's not fair.

It's inequitable.

There's an injustice here.

By the way Ramadan falls at about the same time next year during our ESPA testing window.

We need to fix this.

This is not fair.

This evening I heard.

I heard you talk about how students need to feel respected.

I'm pretty sure that many of our Muslim students don't feel respected during this month of Ramadan when we're forcing them to undergo something that will affect their future when they're not performing at their academic best because they're trying to be closer to their God.

I'm sure that we didn't take into consideration race and equity during the discussion.

However the dates were come up with for this test.

It needs to be fixed.

After Kevin we will have Kim McCormick.

Hello my name is Kevin G Gallagher kindergarten teacher at Bryant Elementary.

I speak today in the hopes of garnering your support and wisdom in a decision to help Seattle Public Schools be more inclusive in a long overlooked area.

To paraphrase Dr. Seuss Dr. Seuss is the Lorax.

I've come to speak for the Jews and the Muslims.

Despite HR policies to the contrary, SPS does support one religion over others.

We operate on a Christian bias calendar and always have.

No Christian family ever has to decide for the high holiday of Christmas whether to send their children to school or not.

But Jewish families and Muslim families and staff make that decision every single year for their high holidays.

So in practice, SPS does favor one religion, Christianity, over others.

It really is a Christmas vacation.

For years I've told my students and families that I make a personal commitment to them that I will teach nothing new on the high holidays of Yom Kippur Rosh Hashanah the first day of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.

I know of no other teacher in Seattle who does that.

But for two of the last three years the SPS calendar has made that impossible for me.

Why.

Because the first day of kindergarten in 2016 was the first day of Ramadan.

So the message to all Seattle Muslim families was welcome to Seattle but not on the first day of school.

In September 2018, we will tell our incoming Seattle Jewish families the exact same message for Rosh Hashanah.

We're just going to move on without you.

I began communicating this message to district administration in November 2017. I wrote to the superintendent my area administrator that silence is the same message I received from them.

Please I ask for your advocacy and help to move SPS equity beyond a race only focus and to respect more students families and staff in our schools.

Time will not permit me to give you more details on other ideas but my name is Kevin G Gallagher and I want to work with you in examining this.

Please contact me.

Thank you for your time and service.

OK.

Hello my name is Kim McCormick.

I have two kids in SPS one at Nathan Hale and one at Jane Addams middle school.

Two afternoons per week I serve as a traffic safety volunteer assisting kids walking across the street between Hale and Jane Addams.

I'm speaking today because I'm tired of my kids telling me about the accidents they see on their way to school.

Last week there was a vehicle collision involving kids at the intersection of Northeast 115th Street and 35th Avenue Northeast.

This morning a Jane Addams student was the victim of a hit and run accident at the very same intersection.

Thankfully he was OK.

Nathan Hale and Jane Adams are located across the street from each other.

The combined campuses run approximately from south of 110th Street up to 115th Street along.

So 35th Avenue Northeast runs along the east side of those campuses with Jane Adams being about a block from 35th.

So the designated school zone along 35th Avenue Northeast is very, very narrow.

It doesn't span that entire region.

In fact, it doesn't even include the intersection that a lot of kids, including mine, use there at Northeast 115th Street.

and 35th Avenue Northeast.

So what I would like you guys to do is to partner with SDOT to reevaluate and extend the Jane Addams and Nathan Hill school zones and implement safety measures accordingly, such as speed cameras, stoplights, and pedestrian activated flashing lights at key intersections because the bottom line here is that school traffic planning in this area has not kept up with the enrollment growth in the area as well as the transition to a neighborhood assignment at Jane Addams.

Thank you.

This concludes the public sign up list.

OK we are back to board comments.

Director Mack please.

I first want to say I so again I I public testimony is my favorite part of the evening usually because I really appreciate folks.

bringing forward the issues so that we can find ways to address them in regards to the most recent traffic issues.

There is a safe routes to school committee that is a partnership that it's a city sponsored organization that has representatives from all the agencies across our district including the county SDOT so forth.

That is the whole reason they exist is to address these sorts of things.

So I'd like to suggest I hope this is OK.

Peggy if we can ping that and you can circle back with Kim to get more details and get that on moving forward.

So thank you so much for bringing that forward.

I also really appreciate the.

Awareness of our calendar not honoring the Muslim holidays and that that's an issue we need to address.

So thank you for bringing that forward.

The Whitman students the videos.

Oh my gosh.

Amazing.

They also have really great choice in music.

I was kind of blasted back to high school when we were watching that so it was lovely.

I had the opportunity this last week to visit Ballard High.

I was invited by the formidable Tuesday Chambers the librarian there and it was an amazing three four hours with students touring around the building and so forth.

We talked about all sorts of issues a lot related to the library and how important that space is how grateful they are that they got a hundred thousand dollar grant to do some upgrades to that space to make it more usable but still keeping all of the books.

And the students that came and took their time to talk with me and share their thoughts.

Nell Baker Sophia Dresner and Olivia Noel engaging students.

I also got to meet with the representatives from the STAR committee the students and teachers against racism the students there Mercedes Sadie Allie and Emma.

Super passionate and we're asking amazing questions around how to how to be even more effective in their advocacy on these issues.

And so I'm grateful that they are doing that work they're speaking up and I just I'm in awe actually of the passion these students have.

The other group that just blew me away was the representatives from the school newspaper.

The Talisman if you haven't ever seen this newspaper let me hold it up.

This is like a professionally written newspaper.

It is amazing.

This issue in fact was recently given the award at the National Student Press Association in San Francisco as the second best of show.

winning awards it's online.

You can also get a subscription for thirty five bucks and get it sent to your house.

The students that met with me that the editor Eleanor Dudley and Samantha Goldstein who's the who does their treasure related work said that this this class and this doing the newspaper was.

was so impactful to their lives in so many different ways because they learned across genres.

They were learning about history and current events and politics and graphic design.

And so these sorts of classes are the ultimate project based CTE learning in my opinion and it's just so exciting to see that in action.

They also these students.

They're busy.

They were advocating last year.

and helped get passed the student free speech bill which is I believe the first in the nation where students have rights to free speech protected in our state law.

The bill was sponsored by Senator Fain was passed last session.

So that to me again I'm in awe of these students and the amazing work that they're doing and how engaged they are.

I also then met with Lucas and Thomas and Kalen.

These are gentlemen who.

who wanted to talk about how important reading was to them and how you know it was perceived to them to not be cool and how they've been trying to shift that perspective in their school that reading is cool.

Learning is cool and they set up their own times to go and read to students at Salmon Bay Elementary to share their love of reading.

And at the AP history class they asked me some really good questions.

One they wanted to know specifically what's going on with the science curriculum for next year and they're concerned around that still.

But the second one which raised an issue and is John Kroll in the room.

I just I wanted to to bring this up and ping it as an issue that might need more investigation and that is that.

They told me that their Schoology and their Office 365 systems don't work at home.

usually that they have an issue with actually getting online and getting logged in and that in many of their classes their teachers don't know how to use the technology effectively.

So we have some issues around implementation of these wonderful systems that we have.

And I just wanted to kind of bring that up as added to the list of projects to be working on.

But I really appreciated them bringing that up and talking about that.

I get to go visit the center school tomorrow and super excited to meet with those students as well.

I had my community meeting a few weeks ago and it was a super duper sunny day so nobody was there for the first 15 minutes and I thought I was going to go home and enjoy the sun myself but then two people showed up and they both wanted to talk about.

The overcrowding at Robert Eagle Staff and Licton Springs and the issue there and they they both had a very broad perspective around wanting to make sure the solution is good for all students.

And I really appreciate that they were looking for coming up with solutions for next year and the years in the future to alleviate the overcrowding in a way that serves both schools effectively.

They talked about how they hope that there will be increased sharing of the building space next year and work on that as well as you know they're anxious to kind of find out whether or not we can move some wait lists and that sort of thing.

So my understanding is staff is still working on those things and that in the next few weeks we may have a better picture of what needs to happen for next year.

And then we are in the process of figuring out potential boundary changes for the year following to help address that.

I don't have a community meeting set for June and yet and I am going to try to do that but it's an incredibly busy time.

We have a number of ops related BEX related as well as there's two community meetings in about the Magnolia.

opening and the boundaries there which impact all of Queen Anne and Magnolia.

Those are happening in a couple of weeks.

I want to say the 31st and the 1st but it's online so I apologize for not having a date off the top of my head.

And the last thing I wanted to let you know about is that I finally got a new Facebook page up.

So if you're interested in finding out you know maybe when I'm having meetings or interesting things that I've posted or sharing I have an actual page that you can go to Eden Mack is the page.

So thank you and next.

Director Patu.

Congratulations to all the nurses.

I appreciate all their help because we know that without our nurses there'll be no one there to nurture our kids our students in our school.

So thank you to all the nurses and congratulations.

Well deserved.

So I want to say thank you to all our substitute teachers.

You're always I feel that you know that you guys are always there to step in because give our break to our regular teachers when they're not there.

But you know I think that I want to say thank you for being able to come and be a substitute in whatever school that needs your help and services.

And hopefully that all schools will be able to treat you with respect knowing that it's hard to be a substitute teacher at a school when when you're actually just coming in to get to know the kids.

So hopefully that'll be one of my goals in the Southeast is to make sure that all our schools actually treat our substitute with a lot of respect and hopefully more welcoming atmosphere.

And I also want to say congratulations to Stephen for his awards.

Well deserved.

It's always great when one of our own actually gets awarded for the things that we all do because I think that it takes all of us to be to make this school a successful school for our kids because each one of us have something to offer.

Nate.

I don't know when you're going to be leaving but I just want to say that I'm going to miss you.

When I come to the to the board office you're the first face that I see.

And usually when I'm in awe and trying to find something I know that I can always ask you where it is or what is it I need to do and you always have an answer for me.

So I'm definitely going to miss you and hopefully in your next venture that you're actually you know wherever you're going to be you'll be successful and God bless.

I'm actually this week has been a just a visiting week for me at the schools just to make sure that that people know there is a board director in the southeast.

So usually on a regular basis I would just try to go to one of my schools and just Enjoy what's going on there.

And so far the work that's being done in a lot of schools I visit has been amazing just to watch kids interaction and watch the teachers really do their thing.

So I want to say thank you to all the teachers and everyone that's involved in the school because without you we would not be able to sit here and actually be able to talk about all the great things that's happening in Seattle Public Schools.

My next community meeting actually will be is always on the last Saturday of the month.

It's at Rock and Tour at 930 in the morning.

And so far I've had some great meetings.

And usually we start off with eating first and then we get to the meetings.

It's one of our mornings that I look forward to.

to get up and be able to come down there and be able to wait for community and parents to come and meet so we can be able to have a really great conversation about what is it that we can do together to make this school district the best that we can.

Because I know that we can't do it by ourselves but together we can actually come up with great ideas of how to be able to provide the best opportunities for all our children.

I wanted to also say that you know to all my board directors who are sitting up here.

Thank you for all the work that you do because every day we always tend to think about what is it that we can do even better to really provide opportunities for all our kids.

And also I want to say that.

It's at first I thought about what am I doing up here.

You know as a board director somebody asked me that more than once.

But then I realize I'm up here because I want to make a difference because I really want to see all our kids get the best education that we can.

I have a lot of grandchildren and that's another reason why I'm on this board to make sure that all my grandkids get the best education that they can so they can give back to our communities.

So I actually want to say thank you to all the board directors are up here for all the great work that you guys do.

I don't think we tell each other that enough because without you there would be no Seattle Public Schools because we provide that opportunity to be able to sit up here and do the hard work by being able to figure out what do we need to do to make this school a better school for all our kids.

So thank you for allowing me to be up here and also thank you to my colleagues.

Are there other directors who would like to respond to public testimony at this time.

Director Burke.

I would just like to respond to two two points.

First of all I've I've I'll publicly state my embarrassment for not going out and introducing myself to Shana earlier.

I've wanted to do that for about three and a half years or two and a half years.

So we'll catch up at some point.

And then around the assessment calendar for our interferences with all of the different things that it could potentially interfere with.

And I'm going to be completely nonspecific in general there.

I just want to put the word out you know both for us to acknowledge as a board our responsibility.

But then also to share that that is there's an assessment calendar that's developed jointly between Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Education Association.

So I just want to thank our educators for helping bring that forward and making sure that in addition to informing us that they help run that through the SEA.

representation as well so that we can we can all keep our eyes on that because I think as as the you know the culture awakens in all of us that sort of an awareness is going to really help our students.

Harris.

Any other comments.

Director Pinkham.

Thank you.

So let's do some of the comments that were shared by our public tonight.

And some past presentations that I've heard there's the word structures comes up for me when our structures in a sense are kind of failing our students.

You know what's wrong is such as the testing calendar it's failing some of our students.

Not all of our students can be prepared for testing if they're observing Some of the cultural practices you know University of Washington they changed their start date one year they said no we just got to do it.

So there's some things we just got to do to make sure that we're acknowledging all the richness of our students what they bring.

And if they're not at their top of the game when we're testing What can we do?

What can how can our structures work with their needs?

So as we work with SEA and to make sure we're testing at appropriate times for everyone or do we have to have separate test times to accommodate those needs?

Those are conversations that we need to go need to have and make sure that all our students are aware of it.

On the native focus school.

I my vision that it would be an option school and not all natives would expect to be going there and that you can opt in or out of it.

And it's for me that having to see students come there is not a bash on our current Indian education services.

They're doing a fantastic job.

Since time immemorial that you know Shannon what you did we were going to see a C&I officially adopted.

Yes it's a state mandated thing but for us to take that forward let's make this even firmer that we are going to officially adopt this because I know some of our teachers out there didn't even know about it.

OK.

The state passes mandated and but no one knew about it.

How do we get it instigated.

So what they're doing with Gail Morris is they're doing something for our students.

But when we look at our own data we're still not doing the best that we can for our native students.

So that's what I see this native focus school helping to do that.

And if students have that desire to stay where they're at Great that didn't help them out and keep it going.

But we have other students that need that support that cultural identity that identity safety.

And for me when I look at all the data that we get shared with us from our schools and seeing how they're performing we have a list down African-American white Asian Hispanic.

American Indian students are missing.

And when we ask why they say oh they're so small we can't report the numbers.

And that's a shame because then our structures are marginalizing our students saying they don't exist in a sense.

So Director DeWolf up here we've been saying at least acknowledge hey the numbers are too small we can't share it.

But you know some of the data we have we just leave them out.

So with the native focus school my hope is that we start seeing numbers that we can measure.

Here's a significant number of students at a school that are of Native descent Native Hawaiians descent where our numbers are too small in other schools.

I can say here's how these students are doing and go from there to make sure we're serving all our students and giving the best that we can.

And one of the things talking with Director DeWolf unfortunately I think there is some animosity in our native community that we have to bring us together.

You know not to be fighting each other.

And thank you for coming here sharing your words and just makes me feel we we got to address this issue.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ Thank you.

OK.

Last hopefully not least.

I echo the thanks of my colleagues and I thank my colleagues.

It is frustrating work but it's a blast to do it with such good people and it's really a privilege.

Several things.

One I do have a community meeting Saturday Delridge library three to five and we are serving lasagna and all of those of y'all that keep promising to show up I expect to see you.

And we have a rowdy and a good time.

And and I.

I look forward to seeing your smiling faces for good conversation.

In addition to the thank yous that have already been expressed to the Garfield jazz folks.

They had their gala last Saturday night and it was mind blowingly awesome.

Director DeWolf was able to attend with his husband and we had a blast and principal Ted Howard Had a great conversation about dress codes and about that wonderful tension between administrative oversight and building based management and the fact that Ted Howard will be the new past president.

So we opened some good thoughtful fun conversations there and these kids were awe inspiring.

Pathfinder K through 8. who had their LGBTQ dinner last Thursday night.

Thank you associate superintendent Tolley for coming.

I missed you by five minutes because I was down here in a meeting and to Lisa Love who always delivers extraordinary work and to Kelly Aramaki the executive director for that school.

And the rest of y'all were invited but very very busy as we all are.

Last night I had the opportunity to join Arts Corps the King County youth execs and SOAR and Secretary of State Kim Wyman out in White Center to talk about.

Youth Empowerment and voting.

And it was a terrific evening.

And needless to say Kim Wyman being from a different party than I.

She and I had a wonderfully profound conversation.

But but the fact remains if folks don't vote we get what we ask for and that's frankly unacceptable.

And I think some of the folks in Washington D.C.

are living proof of that.

John Krull Rick Burke and the ITAC task force had the opportunity to welcome and sit in for about a half hour.

It is off to a hell of a start.

There was so much talent in that room.

It is extraordinary.

And the fact that we still have 120 names and contact information of the folks we did not pick.

We're coming for you.

We'll find you a place to help us and we appreciate your stepping forward.

That's right.

To the scholarship committee this room was full to the rafters.

Tears were had.

Joy was had.

And it's one of the best things that we do in this district is to award and reward and the retired teachers association who has raised over a million dollars for our scholarship fund.

I mean I'm telling you that is a hell of a benchmark.

And we're going to move the plaques that are out in the lobby.

over here so that you can actually read those names and hopefully we'll have a book that has a story of those names soon as well.

Speaking of the lobby if you came in through the back door there you saw the West Seattle high school students photography exhibit.

All that took folks was two e-mails and teams coming together to make it happen.

So if you got a good idea put it out there on e-mail.

Folks are willing to help you make it happen.

I was out at West Seattle High School for their CTE night.

I said wow we need to lift this up.

Teamsters came together facilities came together the arts folks came together and it happened.

And we really do need to be celebrating the good things and using that lobby as a gallery.

Thank you to Mr. Baldwin and the Seahawks.

Larry is out at Cleveland tonight picking up an award.

That's why we have the esteemed award winner deputy superintendent Stephen Nielsen and it's nice to see that other people recognize your brilliance.

And if they had a award for a sense of humor you'd win that too.

Even in the worst of times down here we're talking about budgets.

He still comes at it with a smile and with a teamwork attitude and it's hugely appreciated.

Personally thank you to the Nathan Hale horticulture program who had their plant sale a week and a half ago.

And I cleaned up and next year you want to be there.

The deals are great.

The quality is great and it's a way to support again one of our CTE programs and to lift up.

Mr. Jackins you made a comment about the fact that we have a substantial budget surplus 2018 19. It may look that way but 2019 20 2020 21 suck big not good and it would be irresponsible of us to spend away with a surplus when we know that McCleary is in fact fake news and we have no guarantee that we will be passing our levies in February 2019. Keeps me awake at night.

Mr. Gallagher please reach out to SPS directors at Seattle schools dot org and let's see what we can do working together.

The points that you raise are fundamentally profound and appreciate you coming down to talk about it.

With respect to testing without food or drink because of cultural practices acknowledge need to change it and we'll figure out a way to do that.

Other issues.

that I am working on would like to see more consistency in our community outreach for task forces and standing committees so that we do in fact reach folks that we haven't heard from before that we use the community engagement tool with gusto as opposed to bikes checking.

It needs to be systemic.

And we need to walk our talk on that.

A lot of good people work very hard on that system and we need to honor that work.

Santa's Lowe's auction is next Saturday night and last year's was a blast and Santa's Lowe's has high needs.

So check them out on their website and come on down.

It will be a good time.

Last I want to say thank you to my family and my employers.

This job takes a lot of extra effort.

We're big folks.

We knew that going in.

No one's whining but having the grace and the space to be able to do good work really deserves a shout out and a thank you because you miss dinners.

You miss family outings.

At work you ask your team members to pitch in for you especially if you work for a small employer especially if you are running the team like Director Burke does and especially if Director DeWolf and all of us are working real hard.

But but.

Shout out and thank you.

And thank you to the staff who are holding hands and making us look good.

And we're working towards progress.

We are going to take 15 minutes.

We will reconvene at 635. I might add that we have four intro items and 21 action items.

Oh baby.

They protect me from myself.

My feet are small.

There you go.

And we have a scheduled adjournment of 8 p.m.

tonight.

So folks I'm hoping we'll keep their comments cogent and short.

Thank you.