School Board Meeting 3152017 Part 1

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Let's see Director Harris is on her way I think she's stuck in a bit of traffic and I believe Director Blanford will not be able to join us tonight due to a work obligation.

So Ms. Ritchie the roll call please.

Here.

Director Geary here.

Director Patu here.

Director Pinkham here.

Director Peters here.

Thank you.

Let's all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay I'm now going to hand the mic over to Dr. Nyland.

Nyland.

All right good evening.

We will start as we usually do with recognitions.

I'm delighted to have the opportunity to recognize Christine McLean and Kate Eads who've done awesome work for us going above and beyond in terms of providing books for Mary's place and a lot of our homeless children so I had the opportunity to go out and read with kids at Mary's place north of Northgate off of Aurora and saw the eagerness of the kids and got to see and appreciate just a little bit of the incredible work that has been done.

So they recognize the need to have books for kids during the time that they were not in school and then came up with this great partnership across the city to have parents and others contribute to the process.

And the story got picked up a variety of places I think went viral ended up with hundreds of books donated from different different places.

So I would invite Christine and Kate to come and talk a little bit about the program and then after they're done we'll invite the board to come down and take a picture with them and give them a plaque.

Hello my name is Christine McLean and I am the teacher librarian at North Beach Elementary and since November Kate and I have been working with the help of North Beach students and the support of our principals and the financial support from a widening circle of generous locals to provide our students who are in transitional housing with quality reading resources.

The Mary's Place leveled library project has raised nearly $3,000 for new books, $1,000 in direct book donations from an online wish list and received around 1,000 used books.

And that number is growing every day.

We have pulled the books that were sitting unread at the Mary's Place shelters and taken them back to our libraries and homes to weed and level before returning to what has grown to four Mary's Place shelter libraries across the city.

We are also supplying tent cities with book bins for both children and adults and are working on expanding into other shelters and networks to reach all our students who are currently experiencing homelessness.

Prior to my time at North Beach I was the librarian at a school in the Bellevue school district with demographics similar to those at Northgate Elementary.

The 10 years I served in Bellevue allowed me to become keenly aware of equity issues surrounding access to resources that my students faced compared to their peers at other schools in Bellevue.

I believe strongly in Seattle's mission of providing equitable access to opportunities for every student and that we all have a role to play in making this vision a reality.

So when Kate told me about her idea to expand the reach of her library to provide greater access to reading materials for her students I knew that not only did I want to get involved but that the project could also include my students in a meaningful way.

The partnership of North Beach and Northgate has opened the doors to not only positively impacting Northgate's homeless students but it has impacted the North Beach students who are able to have an authentic experience of exploring the needs of others beyond their North Beach community.

The demographics of North Beach and Northgate are very different.

Participation in this project for fifth graders from North Beach has had a lasting impact and my students have been inquiring about additional ways that they might be able to help out others in need and have been empowered with feeling that they are able to make a positive difference in their community.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Kate Eads I'm the teacher librarian at Northgate.

This work started as just part of my job of reaching my Northgate students in order to provide them with the resources they need as so many teacher librarians strive to do.

But it grew beyond just my students has brought attention to the needs of our Seattle students currently experiencing homelessness.

and has developed into a personal quest to provide every student in transitional living situations with the learning resources they need outside of school hours.

Outside of the inspiration none of this work could have happened without partnership.

Any educator in this district will confirm that every child is their student.

Together North Beach and Northgate librarians are stepping out of our routines, our comfort zones and our experience to expand the boundaries of our libraries.

We have come from incredibly different schools when looking at demographics yet we share the motivating goal of lifting our students, all of our city's children to reaching the highest expectations we hold for all of them.

This pointed goal is what allowed us to be a success.

and it is the formula for all future school partnerships.

Members of unique communities supported by their administration bringing their individual and community strengths together to find solutions to even the most challenging situations.

A particular message that I wish more people could hear and it is why I've been a stickler for collecting only the highest quality books for this collection.

The preconceived notions or stereotypes that we may have for our students who are currently experiencing homelessness reduce the expectations we hold for them.

With lower expectations I am concerned that we consider less than our best to be acceptable from the quality of our interactions to the resources we provide.

And when we provide less we deny our students the opportunity to achieve more and we confirm the narrative that we have created for them.

We can do better and in this case it's beginning in our libraries.

Thank you Superintendent Nyland for your thoughtful support, even joining the weekly story time at Mary's place.

Story time has been a piece of this project that connects the extended Northgate staff with our students in a more personal way than we are afforded at school.

All pieces of this project have given us so many in the city an opportunity to extend a hand to show love for our children and to practice responding to every student need with dignity.

Thank you all for your support.

Thank you.

I'd also like to introduce Julie Cox principal at North Beach and Katie Pearl principal at Northgate and invite you to come up and join the board up here as we give the certificates.

Julie was unable to join us today.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Wow.

All right.

We need a picture of that.

All right.

Thank you again for incredible work to change the narrative and look out for our children that need our help.

One more recognition that we will do as part of the fitness program for our board members to go back and forth here.

We've been recognizing premier partners, we are blessed with literally hundreds of community-based organizations that partner with us in many many many different ways.

And we have a dozen or more that either contribute considerable amounts of money or considerable amounts of staff time and do so in a way that is very closely aligned to the work that we do.

So tonight we want to recognize the YMCA.

They provide child care youth development and intensive academic support at many of our school locations.

And they're a very integral part of our summer staircase learning program where we provide reading math and those fun activities that are connected to reading and math that keep students engaged excited enthused and coming back each day.

So with that I'll introduce James Bush director of school and community partnerships and he'll add a little bit more detail to all of the great things that the YMCA does to support our children.

Thank you Dr. Nyland and school board members for the opportunity to recognize another one of our premier partners.

The Y has been a child care provider for more than 30 years and in 1999 the Y began to strengthen expand the partnerships with SPS to include academic and social and emotional supports.

The work started at one middle school and since expanded to include elementary, middle and high school programming in 16 schools.

The Y is currently partnering in 23 of our schools and serves over 3000 students in total in elementary, middle school and high school and pre-K.

I want to leave all of the time, the remaining time for Erica Mullen executive director of education initiatives and Bob Gilbertson president CEO for the YMCA of greater Seattle to come up and actually share the details of the project and they have another young lady who is also going to join us.

She is a former program participant, she is a graduate of Cleveland high school and she is now serving as a coordinator at the Cleveland high school program so it's an amazing way that folks and young people stay connected to the work that they do and are passionate about their connections with the Y and our students in Seattle Public Schools so with that I would like to pass the mic to Erica and Bob.

Thank you for all the work that you do.

Thank you.

So as a product of Seattle Public Schools we are excited to spend the majority of my career with the YMCA in partnership and service to Seattle Public Schools and our students.

So as James shared we are currently working in about 23 schools serving lots of young people both in all ages in childcare roles but also really supporting academic and social emotional learning One of the programs and Dr. Nyland referred to our summer learning programs that's one of our great partnerships in 2017 we will have 10 different summer learning sites, some in collaboration with the summer staircase program, some funded by the families and education levy and several that are funded through our donors.

And it's a great collaboration where we bring in certificated teachers to do math and literacy but then also the great enrichment field trips, hands-on learning opportunities so that our young people finish their summer ready to learn but also with a great story to tell.

So our summer staircase partnership has been really kind of the epitome of collaboration where we share resources, have YMCA staff and Seattle Public Schools staff training together throughout the spring, planning the program and then implementing in both the academic and the enrichment space.

So really kind of co-leading that together with the ultimate goal to make sure that all of our young people have what they need.

So again we are so excited to be strong partners with Seattle Public Schools is important to us as an organization and we feel like it's a great way to strengthen our community.

I'm going to pass it over to Childu who again is also a product of Seattle Public Schools and was in YMCA programs and is now taking on the staff role and mentor.

Thank you.

My name is Jalte Hussein.

I'm a third year student at the University of Washington studying education and political science.

I was fortunate enough to come across the Y back in sixth grade.

I came here about 10 years ago from Kenya.

And the first afterschool program that I joined was a girls afterschool program with the YMCA and I was fortunate enough to come across that girls group that helped me adjust to school.

Throughout high school I worked with other several afterschool YMCA programs and after graduating someone from Cleveland high school reached out to me and told me that there was a position open with the Y.

And I jumped at the opportunity because I know how much impact that had on me and I worked in the summer program and then now I'm a program supervisor and also just supporting young people academically and socially adjust to school and yeah so thank you.

I'm not sure I can top that.

I wish that I had gone to Seattle Public Schools.

I didn't.

But I think the essence of partnership is when there is shared goals and shared objectives.

And so our mission statement is to build a community that is is especially geared towards helping everyone reach their potential especially young people in spirit, mind and body.

And so many of the programs that we have have physical activity as well as academic work and social emotional and so that's our connection in this and we feel like our mission lines up very well with the school system and that's why this partnership has gone on so long and has worked so well so thank you very much.

Thank you again and we'll invite the board members down to congratulate you in person.

Right, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.

Again thank you to the YMCA.

That concludes my recognition items for now and I'll be back under the superintendent comments to talk about Cleveland and recognize them under the superintendent comments.

Thank you Dr. Nyland.

So we now move on to one of the most fun parts of our meeting and that is the student presentations.

And today our guests are coming to us from Orca K-8 and it's the Young Artists Academy.

So I invite Superintendent Nyland and the board to come sit in the audience and enjoy this performance.

Good evening.

Let's try this again because we are excited to be here.

Good evening.

Thank you.

My name is Toya Taylor and I am the founder of WE Act, present and perform.

And today you will see original pieces by the Young Artists Academy from South Shore pre-K through 8th as well as Orca K through 8th.

What we do in the Young Artists Academy is we teach young scholars how to be or come from the back of the classroom or who have felt like they had to be silent to learn to be the leadership in the front of the classroom.

We are breaking the silence so that we break the school to prison pipeline and we create the school to entrepreneurship pipeline, the school to higher education pipeline, the school to policymakers.

pipeline, and ultimately leadership.

The speeches you will hear today are all original speeches.

They are unapologetic, they are in their vernacular, their words and their emotional connection to what is going on in our community.

I want to thank my co-teachers from ORCA who are here today and have taken time out of their schedule.

to come and support our young people, our artists from the Young Artists Academy.

And WEAP is in six schools, Orca K-8, South Shore Pre-K-8, Summit Sierra Charter School, Summit Olympus Charter School, and Southern Heights Elementary.

Now I've taken up enough of your time, I want you to feel free when they do their speeches to clap for them, to celebrate them, and acknowledge them.

So I'm going to call to the stage our Orca K-8 Young Artist Academy.

Imagine a world where we pass the carbon dioxide limit and our icy parts of the world are endangered, including polar bears, penguins, and even creatures that are in the water because of the CO2 that's being absorbed.

This world is currently happening right now.

You guys might be asking, how would a future look like?

Well, it does not look pretty.

If it was 1 Celsius degrees warmer, the Arctic would start to unfreeze, causing endangerment to the warm-blooded animals.

Hurricanes start to form around the South Hemisphere of the Earth, destroying most of Australia and huge floodings in Asia.

Now, when it increases by 1 Celsius degrees warmer, we would lose about 7,000 glaciers, bringing the Earth down from 9% of glaciers on the planet from 10%.

But the hurricane is going to be much more dangerous.

The population would increase but their lifespan would stay the same from two to three hours.

The prediction of great destruction of Australia will be in 2030. The Asia flooding will destroy over 5000 homes and kill over hundreds of people.

Now if it was two Celsius degrees warmer there would be new forests growing in Canada.

Amazon River will be blazing hot and photosynthesis will be off track and deadly.

Canada has four square miles of snow and it will drop down to 2.8 square miles meaning a 70 percent loss of snow to newborn growing trees.

Meanwhile the Amazon River will be completely dried up causing fires spreading across South America.

Photosynthesis produces 170 million metric tons of carbohydrates and pretty soon they will start to be failing which actually would start to produce CO2 instead of oxygen.

causing all life on earth in trouble.

In conclusion, our world can be a better place than now.

We need everyone to make a change towards global warming before it's too late.

We are the future to a better world.

Thank you.

My name is Kamal Aiden and I'm in the sixth grade.

I will be talking about homelessness.

I will never forget that day I saw a mother of three children begging for food.

One of the kids was a tiny baby in a stroller.

The other two could not have been older than five years old and they both had a sign that said anything will help.

Imagine all the other families in the world who are sleeping out there.

Imagine how it must feel.

But no matter how hard it is they wake up every morning believing that their lives will get better.

Look at all those parents out there striving to get food for their children.

But we can change this if we all unite as a community.

There are many ways we can help as a community.

One way is by donating to food to by donating to food drives.

Another way is by helping build shelter homes for them.

But did you know that Seattle only has 21 shelter homes while other places like Denver have 31 shelter homes.

And they have 642 42,000 people while we have 659,000.

That is 3,000 less than we do and they have 10 more shelter homes.

I think we should change that to give the homeless more homes.

In conclusion I think homelessness is a very serious thing that everyone should care about because every day we see a homeless person begging for food with dirty ripped up clothes and it is very sad.

But we can change this if we all unite as a community.

Thank you.

My name is Nicholas Nagle and I'm in eighth grade at ORCA K-8.

Today I would like to talk to you about homelessness and affordable housing.

Tonight there will be over 564,000 people sleeping on the streets of our country.

Imagine that.

On any given night there will be over half a million people with no place to go.

Of this number over 36% are families struggling to stay together amidst massive of people and over 40% are people with disabilities that can no longer support themselves.

So how did this happen?

Homelessness is a complex subject involving many social factors.

Drug addiction and unemployment are certainly parts of the picture but for now I would like to talk about affordable housing.

When an area with low-income housing is redeveloped with high-income housing the process is called gentrification.

As an area becomes more and more gentrified the price of property skyrockets and housing that was once affordable is now out of reach to many low-income families.

Here in Seattle a notable example of this is South Lake Union which has undergone major redevelopment.

What was once a neighborhood of cheap apartments has has been swept away in favor of high priced condominiums.

Under a plan proposed by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray developers were to include low income units within the neighborhood.

However however that plan has stalled.

The Seattle Times reported on April 26th 2016 that developers are using state laws to threaten lawsuits against that are largely disabling this plan.

The result is displacement of low income families who further compete for limited amounts of rental units in the Seattle area.

Now I would like to move on to a more personal perspective.

I live on First Hill.

I see the effects of homelessness almost every day.

Almost every space that provides shelter is occupied.

I often see people sleeping under the awning of my building.

On my way to school, past Dearborn and Rainier, I see homeless camp after homeless camp.

The problem is staggering.

Whenever I see this I can't help but ask one question.

Is this my future?

Hi my name is Samuel and I am in seventh grade.

Have you ever wondered what you would be like in five to 10 years?

Have you ever wondered how tall you're going to be?

Have you ever wondered where you're going to end up?

Or have you ever wondered if you're going to work at a billion dollar company like Microsoft?

To be honest I have never gone a day without asking myself these types of questions.

Someday I hope to be an actor a lawyer or a CEO.

Right right now I am working to be a CEO.

One way I am working working on that is working with the student council to bring clean water to Haiti.

I feel like this is important to me because it brings because clean water is a basic need in our everyday lives to survive.

I feel like this will be helpful in the future for me to be a CEO because it involves partnership and leadership.

I feel like my future is going to be okay except for the place I live in.

Planet Earth has war, diseases and pollution.

Did you know that if we keep up with the pollution in the ocean that all ocean life will die by 2048?

To me it's crazy.

I honestly don't feel comfortable living in this world.

I honestly felt like flying to going on a rocket ship and flying to the next planet available.

But a man one day told me that if I don't like the world I live in I could change it and I could start now.

So from this point on I will try my best to become a world-changing mastermind.

Tell people to stop polluting and tell people to stop fighting for the sake of the world and my future.

Thank you.

Before you go, oh okay all right.

Okay then I'll call you guys back later to just say one more thing okay?

Hello my name is Sophia and I'm in the sixth grade.

And my speech is called United.

United States of America.

United is the first word in our country's name.

But are we really, I mean, united as one whole country?

Because I really don't think so.

We have a president that doesn't care of others.

We have police that are judging and putting men and women of color in jail for no reason at all.

I wonder if they just do it for the sake of it.

We have sexists that are putting women who have earned the right to be powerful below them to make sure they won't be overruled.

We have children who don't want to be who they are, who are scared of who their beautiful skin that sparkles in the sunlight no one is more beautiful than themselves.

All these things are not what makes us united.

All these things are hurtful, depressing and damaging.

Most of all scary.

staring to see that the world is so divided.

I know gay people who are proud of who they are but are scared to see what the world will do when they release themselves.

I know children of immigrants who are too scared to go home from school because they wonder if their parents will still be there.

When I was five years old, I wondered what life would be like without my parents.

But now, I've been scared to leave the house to go to school because I don't know what might happen.

United States of America.

No, more like divided States of America.

I'm frightened, frightened to see what the world will be like in the future.

I'm frightened to see what world my children to come will be in.

But I hope I'll teach them to love anyone no matter the skin color.

Black, tan, white, blue.

And I hope my children come lead great people and be great leaders.

And I hope they'll build a better and greater world than we ever did.

And I hope I'll still be able to see it happen.

United States of America.

United is the first word in our country's name.

And I hope it will be.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Ny'Asia Posey and I'm in sixth grade.

My piece is called Dear President I believe in freedom.

Dear President Trump congratulations on the wall you're building to keep people out.

But trust me one way or another they will find their way in.

Oh and another thing.

Good job on going from OK to one of the most hated men I know.

You may be the president of the United States but you will never ever be my president because I believe in freedom.

I believe in the rights of the people but I don't believe in you.

I don't believe in white supremacy and I don't believe in disrespecting people because they're different.

Sincerely, the little girl who believes America can do better.

Hi my name is Alexis and I am in the eighth grade.

As I walk up the stairs of the funeral home with my brother and my sister and my dad by my side I get the urge to cry myself to sleep.

But I can't.

I can't.

I have to be strong for mine.

Waking up from a bad dream, crying because you know mama isn't going to be there to tell you it's alright baby just go back to sleep.

The nightmares lying beneath my pillows because the dream catcher mama gave me and said no nightmares are going to hurt my baby no more.

Isn't going to remove the vivid image of my father holding mama in his arms giving his love and air to her.

Crying out come on baby come on don't leave me.

Daddy is in his chair drinking his heart out because mama isn't going to be there to tell him that it's going to be all right.

Baby girl struggling to live without her mama because daddy isn't able to get his baby to open up to him.

Sisters working two jobs and going to school because mama isn't going to be there to take care of daddy brother and baby girl.

Brothers taking so many antidepressants that he might overdose because mama isn't going to be there to calm him down.

This bad dream that I because of this bad dream I now live in I hurt myself because mama because mama isn't there for me.

Baby girls crying out to mama saying I'm going to be there with you soon.

Baby girls crying because mama lied to her.

Mama told her I'll never leave your side.

Daddy's crying because baby girl keeps breaking down crying for her mama.

Sister's crying because she doesn't know how to take care of baby girl daddy and brother without mama.

Brothers crying because mama was so excited to see brother graduate because of through all these hard years.

But she was taken away from him.

Baby girl is baby girl grabs the phone hoping mom will pick up.

But all she hears is I'm sorry.

The number you have reached is not in service or temporary disconnected.

The number you have reached is not available right now.

This is a recording.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Rena Mateja I'm in sixth grade and the title of my piece is called a bad dream.

Everyone has a bad dream but not everyone is fortunate enough to wake up from it.

You see not everyone can wake up from this bad dream that lives in your bloodstream eating away at your soul.

Not everyone Not everyone can hear your cries for help shouting at the top of your lungs.

And not everyone understands you and has your back.

And it's like you're living in a bad dream that never gets better.

Living it over and over again, hoping and praying.

Take me now, I am irrelevant, no one needs me.

And not everyone understands their worth.

But trust me, everyone has worth.

You can change your bad dream, make it into a good one.

Now your bloodstream is a little more complicated.

It was never your enemy in the first place.

You just thought it was.

You just felt the pain of healing your soul and your battle scars.

And the people that tried to help you couldn't because you shut them out a long time ago.

And the rest of the people knew you had the courage and strength to solve your problems without them.

And you were right.

No one can understand you.

but they can definitely relate to what you are going through.

And at times it may feel like no one has your back but they are just looking out for you in your best interest.

You see society puts people through this process that sticks a label on you telling you that you are strong.

But you have to do things yourself and if you don't you are a coward.

But that is not true.

You are strong, but one day you will run into that one person that will show you there is way more to life than negativity and doubts.

And that people purposely go through battles to make them stronger and more unique.

Because in the end, everyone has a bad dream, but we will find everyone's good one, starting with you.

Hello my name is Rama and I'm in eighth grade and my piece is called broken.

I'm broken.

I've been scarred for way too long.

These swans will not heal.

At least not in peace.

I'm broken.

I've tried calling for help but nobody seems to hear me.

Am I talking too low or do you just choose to ignore me?

I'm broken.

I might be smiling but the truth is inside I'm dying.

You might not feel it but I can feel my blood rising.

I can feel my heart fighting.

Trying to survive in this cruel world you call society.

I'm broken.

I try to stay positive even at the hardest moments.

Try to tell myself I can do it even when people told me I can't do it.

I'm broken.

I'm locked up in a golden cage that when you look at it from the outside you'd say that's one world I'd like to be a part of.

Not knowing how cold the bar feels every time you try to break free.

But don't worry one day I will break free and you won't be able to hurt me.

Your effortless strides won't be able to kill me because you can't kill what's already been killed and you can't break what's already been broken.

I'm broken.

Wait, hold up, I'm not broken.

Matter of fact, I've just been born.

I just came to life.

14 years isn't long.

14 years isn't long enough to be shattered.

I'm not broken.

My feet are not defeated.

As you can see, they walk with confidence.

I'm not broken.

My voice is not snapped.

I'm pretty sure you can hear me.

My brain is not damaged.

I can think about my own responsibilities.

My sight is not blurry, I see clearly.

And my heart, my heart is not weak, it's as lively as it'll ever be.

I'm not broken, just living my own unique life.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jaleah Bucray and I'm in sixth grade.

The title of my poem is called Hey You.

Hey you, yes you, you probably don't know me do you?

You're probably thinking she has a big forehead, but how about you think about what's inside instead.

You're probably being sarcastic and thinking she has lungs inside of her, but it's okay I like being sarcastic too I'm sure.

No, I'm talking about the things that I do, not the way I look.

It's okay if you are shy.

I believe that one day you will make friends.

I believe that one day you will meet the person who will change your life.

So don't judge people by the way they look.

Just because someone only has nine fingers doesn't mean they're weird.

Just because someone wears glasses doesn't mean they're a nerd.

Don't be depressed because someone is bullying you.

They are only jealous of how awesome you are.

So hey you, yes you, you probably don't know me and that's okay because I'm working on me.

You should start thinking about what's true.

You should start thinking about the one and only you.

Thanks.

So thank you for spending that extra time with us.

That was Orca and South Shore and I just want to say on May 6, save the date, we have our second annual oratory competition where over 35 young people from fourth grade to 12th grade will be competing in an oratory competition hosted by South Shore through WEAP.

So we would love, love to see all of you there.

Thank you.

I actually want to invite all of the students back up because I just want to have you all introduce yourselves.

Just your first name and your grade.

And while everyone's coming back up here I want to thank you all for these powerful thought provoking performances.

You all did a fantastic job.

Hi I'm Nicholas and I'm in eighth grade.

My name's Kamal and I'm in the sixth grade.

My name is Mason I'm in eighth grade.

My name is Samuel and I'm in seventh grade.

My name is Lofia Espinosa and I'm in the sixth grade.

My name is Ny'Asia Posey and I'm also in the sixth grade.

My name is Alexis and I'm in the eighth grade.

My name is Rina Mataja and I'm in the seventh grade.

My name is Rama and I'm in eighth grade.

My name is Julia and I'm in sixth grade.

Peters Thank you all very much.