Seattle School Board Meeting April 21, 2021

This is Director Hampson.

I'm now calling the April 21st 2021 Regular Board Meeting to order at 330 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

We would like to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will you call the roll please.

Director DeWolf.

Present.

Director Dury.

Present.

Director Harris.

Director Harris will be joining us later in the meeting.

Hopefully she has a work conflict.

Director Hersey.

Here.

Director Rankin.

Director Rankin.

It looks like we do not quite yet have Director Rankin on the line.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

And President Hampson.

Here.

Superintendent Juneau is also joining us for today's meeting her very last with us at Seattle Public Schools.

And additional staff will be briefing us briefing the board as we move through the agenda.

As we begin this meeting I would also like to welcome Makayla Marie Morris from the Student Advisory Board and Center School.

She will be providing student comments later in the meeting.

This meeting is being held remotely consistent with the governor's proclamation on open public meetings.

The public is being provided remote access today by phone and through SPS-TV by broadcast and streaming on YouTube.

To facilitate this meeting I will ask participants to ensure you are muted when you are not speaking.

Staff may be muting participants to address feedback and ensure we can hear directors and staff.

I will now turn it over to Superintendent Juneau for her comments.

Good to be here with everybody.

So thanks for that.

It is my last meeting and thought I would go old school and show some slides like we used to do when we were in real in-person in real life.

But I just kind of want to do a top 10 list of sorts of things over the last few years that have been pretty significant growth for the district and that things that we should be super proud of of having accomplished and so Next slide please.

As you all know after engaging with thousands of Seattle students families and community members we did create a strategic plan that centers on African-American and Black boys and teens and their families.

Most of the other accomplishments I mean that was one of the first things that happened and so most of the other accomplishments actually spring from this work.

Next slide please.

Please note the bold theory of action that you all are familiar with that we continue and we continue to lead the way for other urban districts throughout the United States and just super proud of this strategic plan and the implementation process that we went through.

Next slide.

And of course as we're all familiar with our four priorities.

I've actually on Before I depart I've been sitting with the team leads on each of these priority areas and hearing sort of the work that's happened in the past.

Catching up on where we are currently and then where they think they're going.

And I just you know have been super impressed with everything that's happened and just really want to thank them for all they've done.

I mean they stayed the course throughout the pandemic.

They stayed the course throughout tons of politics.

because they know that this was the right work to do.

And just really want to thank those team leads in each of those areas.

When I hear of from them through the work of the collaboration the racial equity focus family student and staff engagement and systems thinking that has happened on each of these priorities I just really am inspired by all that's been accomplished in a really short amount of time.

Next slide.

Of course the creation of the African-American Male Achievement Office and the philanthropic work to support to support it.

Dr. the work of Dr. Williams and her team and the Student Kings that as we continue to hear from lead the nation.

We raised close to three million dollars through our philanthropy partners to support this work.

Those partners see the promise in this work and they're excited to continue to work with Seattle Public Schools to achieve real change.

The African-American Male Achievement Office is creating culture conditions competencies and community connections to support African-American students in Seattle Public Schools.

And it's just really a fun team a great team.

And I know that you've seen them in a lot of spaces as well of the good the good work they're happening.

Next slide.

Directly from a goal in Seattle Excellence comes the work to create safe and welcoming schools.

You'll note that this work is making a positive impact on the discipline statistics for African-American male teens.

And just really want to give a shout out to Chief Jessee for his leadership in this work.

It's not easy.

It's you know pulling a lot of levers and getting people to really aim the ship in the same direction.

Some good leadership there that has provided some really great outcomes.

So thank you Chief Jessee for your leadership there.

Next slide.

The creation of the Superintendent Student Advisory Board.

It's exciting to hear Makayla's in the room tonight to give updates and her perspective on what's been going on.

This group has shared their thoughts on several district decisions.

There had not been a Student Advisory Board for the district prior to my coming in and so that's always been really important to put student voice at the center of everything we're doing.

And they continue to share their thoughts including on the reopening of in-person instruction advanced learning and student surveys.

And in fact this district now has a system of including student voice and decision making including Student Advisory Board the African-American Male Achievement Student Leadership Council the NAACP Youth Council and of course the board's recent adoption to appoint student representatives to the board.

To just visiting students during school visits and hearing their perspectives on things that we're doing.

We should all really be proud of our leadership efforts to put students at the center of all that we do.

It really does make a difference and I know that that work will continue.

We have awesome students all across this district.

that consistently remind us that they are why we are here.

We're here to be working on their behalf.

Next slide.

The enhanced hiring of staff of color throughout the organization.

I would also here like to give a shout out to Dr. Codd for her leadership in this work.

This is also her last school board meeting before she heads out.

This includes the Teach Seattle Lead Seattle and Support Seattle Recruitment Campaign.

The Academy of Rising Educators.

The Seattle Teacher Residency.

And there's just so much more going on in that area of our organization that is really positive and you know human resources literally changing the face of our district.

And so we should be really proud of the work that's happened there.

Next slide.

The ability of this large organization to refocus its energy and resources to support families and students basic needs starting in March 2020 and continue throughout this pandemic.

I mean just the lifting of our meal sites.

The distribution of all the technology of making sure that students had a device.

Our partnerships that were created with Amazon and Fair Start and so many others.

C-City.

The learning packets that got lifted.

The childcare sites.

All those videos that our educators helped to create.

You can see that those teacher-generated videos at the very beginning of our remote learning were viewed over 308,000 times.

And I just think that there's been a lot of goodwill built during this pandemic learning time for Seattle Public Schools and learned that there are people want to partner with us.

They want us to be successful and really look forward to Watching that sort of continue as well.

Next slide.

We passed significant levies dollars that help us with our general operations and our taxpayers also came through with capital dollars so our team can create beautiful learning spaces for our communities and students.

And on this slide is just a list of Some of the buildings that got built the additions that were put onto our buildings some of the ribbon cuttings that some of us got to be a part of and just our capital team is doing really phenomenal work.

If you haven't been able to be in some of these new spaces you need to go visit because it's some I mean super lucky Seattle is super lucky I think with with the spaces that a lot of our students are able to learn in and You know the Rainier Beach High School is on the docket and things are going to be moving forward on so many other spaces.

And when our buildings get redone they really do reflect what our students deserve.

And so just really proud of the work that's happening there.

And that wouldn't be possible without our taxpayers.

And so just really want to thank the Seattle community as well.

Next slide.

New course offerings aligned with Seattle Excellence.

This is the beginning of an exciting new way that Seattle Public Schools can deliver these important courses to students district-wide.

Something that we did during remote learning that we can keep as a positive outcome that is a benefit to both our students and the system.

This picture is kind of out of place but it's just me and Gail Morris who I've really enjoyed getting to know as our manager of Native Education.

She does great work a lot of work and this is just sort of our picture where she was giving me some tribal salmon and I was giving back her some bison.

So we were just saying it's a good trade from the coast to the to the plains.

Next slide.

I really want to thank my team.

Thanks to the small cabinet.

This team works super hard.

We also have a lot of fun together.

They have made me a better leader.

And I am just really grateful for them.

I'm grateful for their families who allow them to give so much time to Seattle Public Schools and just really grateful for the work that they put in in the long hours.

Additionally a good leader helps to create other good leaders.

Over the past few years several small cabinet members have taken or are taking the top job in other districts.

4 superintendents at least maybe 5. Chief Wyeth Jessee is going to be Superintendent at a different Washington School District after serving as my Chief of Schools and Continuous Improvement.

Dr. Clover Codd is moving on to California after serving as my Chief of Human Resources.

Dr. Brent Jones is making his return after serving as my Chief of Equity Partnerships and Engagement.

Dr. Flip Herndon became the Superintendent of Tukwila School District after serving as my Chief of Operations.

And finally although Dr. Pedroza is a finalist for the superintendent position at a different school district she still has a couple of steps remaining but we all know that they will be lucky to get her.

I feel really fortunate to have been a part of their leadership journeys and I know that there are several others on small cabinet who are also destined for superintendencies in the future.

Next slide.

Finally the number 10. Or number one however you want to put it in order.

All of the work to return our students to in-person instruction.

The looks on the faces of our students as they step back into our buildings that really was priceless.

I just want to thank the operations teams the negotiation teams the entire organization for this safe return to in-person instruction.

It was quite the day.

It's a good way for me to be leaving and I feel like we've Seeing our way through pandemic learning we made an adjustment to remote learning and now people are starting to dip their toe back into in-person.

And it sort of really went off without a lot of major issues.

I mean sometimes at the beginning of school we hear of a lot of different challenges but there was a lot of groundwork and a lot of runway that was laid in order to get to this day.

And so it went as smoothly as possibly can for a return to school in the middle of a pandemic and that was just because of the work that the teams put in.

And so just really want to thank everybody for making that huge lift.

I feel really good about getting the students who want to be back in school in school and I think it lays a good track for the return to school in the fall that we've learned a lot of lessons.

We'll continue to learn lessons about how things can be better as the engagement with families continues on.

to return to school in the fall.

And last slide.

Finally I just want to thank everybody who helped with my learning during my journey here at Seattle Public Schools.

I will look back on this chapter of my career with great pride about the work that got done on behalf of students.

I have a week remaining in my superintendent tenure and I plan to run through the tape to finalize the transition to Dr. Jones and to leave him in as good a space as possible for him to continue the story of Seattle Public Schools.

And after that you can find me on LinkedIn.

So thanks everybody.

Appreciate it.

Thank you so much Superintendent Juneau.

I just want to take this moment to say thank you for your service.

I can't express the extent to which the role of superintendent in this district or any other district Particularly during this really crushingly difficult political and social times that that we are in is surviving that is no small feat.

And and so and I want to just note some of the things that I've that I've appreciated in your tenure at Seattle Public Schools.

Most notably the carrying the torch for for racial equity.

Upholding the priorities of the community and staff development.

strategic plan is is high on that list as you spoke about that you were willing to put on a cape for the Super Readers Program and to inspire young readers.

I know I was one of many people that that appreciated your sense of humor.

Actually I'm a huge fan of your of your jokes and and bringing humor to to the to the district and that sense of joy associated with with reading and being willing to to be a little bit silly to to get kids inspired to to learn and to read.

And also in particular as you spoke of the openness of engagement with students we are definitely in a new era of engagement with students.

And that's something that you've always remained open with myself and fellow directors about getting students engaged.

That's never been something that.

that you've been at all shied away from and so I appreciate that that openness immensely and it has been something that has allowed us to have much greater student voice which we're about to hear from next.

is Student Voice which as you said as you noted the board plans to expand with new board members.

Thanks to Directors Hersey and DeWolf for making sure that working with NAACP Youth Coalition to make sure that that happened.

And then also making some really hard and difficult decisions at the beginning of the pandemic when others were were unsure.

You know we sort of we led the way.

in terms of closing down to make sure that folks were staying home safely.

All those things those decisions look very different now but I can say with absolute certainty that I was appreciated the strength of your role in making that decision and moving us into a remote model over a year ago when we when we made that first shift.

So I know other directors will have things to say at the during their comment opportunities so we won't go into that in detail now as we're going to get back to centering students.

And so I'm going to start with turning this over to Center School student Mikayla Marie Morris.

She's the Vice President on her school's ASB.

She is Center's Student Advisory Board representative and when she isn't in school she's participating in architecture and interior design programs around the city.

Mikayla are you with us.

Yes, I am.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes, take it away.

Thanks for the intro.

I am excited to be here with you guys at this afternoon.

I'm sure you all know that it has been the first few days of in-person education and I am sure you are all eager to hear how it is going.

So most students are excited to be back in person and seeing their friends.

They've noted that it's still socially challenging in other ways such as like some kids still aren't coming in.

You could have all of your friend group not come in and others are waiting on their second dose of the vaccine before they can come in.

Many students are also worried about COVID especially as the new strains of youth cases or the new strains arise and youth cases skyrocket.

But schools are cleaner than they used to be.

There are rules to put put in place to keep them safe.

I think many students who are taking online classes note that the classes got quite a bit shorter.

They feel like they're losing education.

And thinking about the demographic of kids who are going in most of the students we looked at in the poll surveys who wanted to stay home or people of color.

Due to inequity issues which is kind of sad.

I've noticed with the shorter classes as well that teachers are more likely to give students asynchronous work during those classes instead of actually teaching which isn't everyone's learning style and a lot of students are struggling with that.

Normally it would be fine but I feel like it's become a constant thing where the teacher begins to just hand it out because it's the easy thing to do.

At the same time students who are going in-person feel like there is too much time because they are not getting taught any new content.

It feels unnecessarily repetitive and they're questioning what the point of going back is.

Since it doesn't really feel like they're learning anything they don't feel encouraged to keep going to in-person school.

Commuting is a really big struggle for Center specifically but I'm sure it's all across the district that's an issue.

At Center we come from all over the district so many think it's laughable that we're given 45 minutes to commute to school.

The majority of whom I've seen coming from West Seattle where traffic is increasingly worse than it was before we left with the bridge down.

And the main streets getting torn up and the side streets closed.

So now we have to wait for many buses that are considered full that would have been okay to board before.

And we never would have waited till the last 45 minutes before school started to get on the bus, not to mention eat and get on the bus to get to school.

So I would be not surprised to hear that many of the students aren't actually eating on their way to school and that they're just stressing out and getting themselves to school.

I think many students that stay online are also upset about the schedule change.

It was kind of felt as intrusive because the schedule was flipped around a lot on us at the beginning of the school year and it just happened again.

Running start students in particular are struggling because we have to learn the new bell schedule if we were even told at all.

And their classes could now overlap when they didn't overlap before.

So that's a point of contention with many Running Start students.

Students are very happy about the amount of PPE available for everyone at the school I've been told.

Students are happy to have in-person help from their teachers again.

There's no question getting lost in translation over the Internet.

They're glad to see that they have enough space so that they're not super worried about you know being up on people and getting COVID.

And they're glad to see their friends again.

Thanks so much for giving me your time.

all I have.

Mikayla thank you so much for that extensive probably not even close to exhaustive list of pros and cons to coming back to these first couple of days in person for for 6-12.

And I'm sure that directors are have taken in everything that you said and are have lots of thoughts and feelings about that.

And I just can't tell you how much I appreciate you sharing those insights those concerns.

Again the pros and cons.

And please stay and feel free to to ask questions and participate in the board discussion as we move through the agenda.

And stay in touch with us.

Your voices like yours are are incredibly critical and you've certainly given me plenty to think about as we move through these next weeks trying to get better at this in-person model for the few short weeks that we have it.

So so thanks again.

I'm going to actually turn now to my Vice President of the board our Vice President of the board your Vice President of the board Director Brandon Hersey to talk about and just note this.

Oh I'm sorry.

And I also want to note that Director Rankin arrived at 331 p.m.

So she is is here.

And when Director Harris is able to join us I will note her arrival as well.

Yesterday marked a remarkable event in the an era of justice or injustice I should say a very long era of injustice that that continues and yet something important happened yesterday and I wanted to pass the mic to Vice President Hersey to give us his thoughts.

on the conviction of the officer that killed that killed George Floyd that has now been convicted of his murder.

Would you like to take the mic for a minute and reflect on that.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

And for everyone listening it's been a challenging year.

It's been a challenging lifetime for many of our students.

And it was really interesting to watch the verdict come in and immediately everybody on social media and in so many other places were let me turn my camera on.

Immediately so many folks on social media and other places were saying yes this is a moment for celebration.

This is a moment of justice.

This is a moment of opportunity for us to pat ourselves on the back.

Someone is not on mute.

Cashel can you.

Oh there we go.

There we go.

Thank you.

And for so many of us it just wasn't that right.

This I have a really hard time looking at what transpired yesterday as justice.

And I want folks to be able because this is the conversation that our children are having especially our young teens.

Because there is a there is a big difference between justice and what happened yesterday.

Justice would have been if George could have walked away from that encounter.

And I need everybody to sit with that.

Justice would have been if that encounter never happened to begin with.

What happened yesterday was accountability and justice and accountability cannot be the same.

And when I think about the work that we're doing to remove police officers from our schools to close the school-to-prison pipeline and all of the demands from our young people for justice This is an opportunity for us to ask ourselves as well is what we're doing creating educational justice or are we actually taking steps and being accountable to our students and their needs and what they've been telling us right.

Because accountability is reactive.

If we want to create justice we have to be proactive.

We have to.

squarely focus everything we do on our Black students.

We have to squarely focus our entire system actually utilizing targeted universalism and relating everything back to our strategic plan.

Because as so many of our students watched that verdict yesterday and saw so many folks begin to celebrate many of our students saw that as an opportunity to exhale but not one that deserves to be celebrated.

It's an opportunity for us to take stock and really take a look at the country that we are living in where we are celebrating the fact that a man who killed a Black man in cold blood in the street a police officer who murdered a Black man we are celebrating that he is being held accountable for that murder.

So as we move forward and as our country moves forward the challenge is to not let up and to take our foot off the gas here.

Because if we're really going to be an anti-racist institution if we're as about our business as we say we are then there is still much more work to be done.

And I am really proud and excited of the leadership of Dr. Jones and this board to push us toward that work.

But playtime is over.

If we are going to be serious about actually living up to the standards of equity that we set for ourselves now is the time.

Thank you very much for your time.

I really appreciate it.

Pina Geegee Vice President Hersey I I'm so grateful to you for sharing those words and and using up your emotional energy to put that forth that when I sat to try to write comments that might be relevant.

And the first thing that I wrote was justice for George Floyd and my immediate thought was this isn't justice.

Justice would be his life living breathing watching his daughter grow up.

And and so you're right about the the justice versus accountability and the very critical ways in which that plays into our focus and striving for educational justice and how that compares with accountability.

And it's something that we need to be very very very much central to in our thinking.

And so I'm just very appreciative for your crystallization of that concept and ask that we all carry that forward in our in our thinking.

today and as our we are going to be looking at us very specifically at specific student outcomes focused on our strategic plan.

So we're about to do the work today of putting that into into action for the next last couple of years of this strategic plan.

So with that I will get back on script and Take us next to the what is now the consent portion of today's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

Yes absolutely.

I move for approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Vice President Hersey and seconded by.

Director Rivera-Smith.

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

Seeing none.

All those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying aye.

The consent agenda has passed unanimously.

We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda.

We will be taking public testimony by teleconference today as stated on the agenda.

For any speakers watching through SPS-TV please call in now to ensure you are on the phone line when your name is called.

Board Procedure 1430BP provides the rules for testimony and I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

First testimony testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website.

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones and only one person should speak at a time.

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called.

The total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers and time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins.

In order to maximize opportunities for others to address the board each speaker is allowed only one speaking slot per meeting.

If a speaker cedes time to a later speaker on the testimony list or waiting list the person to whom time was ceded will not be called to provide testimony again later in the meeting as there is only one speaking slot per person.

Those who do not wish to have time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or wait list.

Finally the majority of the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they indicated they wish to speak about.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

We'll read off the testimony speakers.

Thank you President Hampson.

Speakers please remain muted until your name is called to provide testimony.

When your name is called please be sure you have unmuted on your phone and then also press star-6 to unmute yourself on the conference call line.

Each speaker will have a 2-minute speaking time and a chime will sound when your time is exhausted and the next speaker will then be called.

First on today's public testimony list is Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins.

Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the consent agenda please schedule public testimony prior to the consent agenda.

On the authorization for a reduction in force the report should provide a range of possible cuts.

On amending board policy 2190 highly capable services.

Six points.

Number one I am not convinced that the board and the district are prepared to deliver better education.

Number two the report concedes that superintendent procedures to implement some aspects of the plan have not been written.

Number three the report cites a quote successful history of implementing change unquote with regard to a prior transition to neighborhood schools and with respect to current remote teaching and learning.

Four in fact the cutting of transportation from the neighborhood schools plan reduced choice and increased racial imbalance.

according to a court ruling on an appeal I helped file.

Number five and the board should not be reassured by the results from remote learning.

Number six the board has not even tried to reopen the African-American Academy and the Indian Heritage High School.

Please vote no on the highly capable services proposal.

On the school board recall recall charge one is quote failed to adequately oversee timely provision of in-person education during the pandemic compared to other districts unquote.

The court ruling stated quote this court finds Charge 1 to be factually sufficient unquote.

On personnel changes.

Senior District Staff Member Clover Codd is leaving the district.

I wish to thank Ms. Codd for her service to Seattle Public Schools and my thanks to Superintendent Juneau.

Thank you.

Next for testimony is Clifford Meier.

Clifford Meier.

Clifford Meier.

Hi.

First I want to thank the board members and all of our district staff for serving our children in this extraordinary and difficult time.

I have two children who have been provided highly capable services at Thurgood Marshall Elementary and Washington Middle School.

And so I'm speaking today to the proposed proposed revision to Policy 2190. First I do want to endorse the changes that would push much harder on the district to end the decades of racist student identification policies for highly capable services.

These have been called out for many years.

Maybe at this important moment in our country's history SPS will finally become an anti-racist organization in how it treats this set of children who have different academic and social emotional needs.

However the proposed changes that we see today move beyond that and set a commitment to providing services in every single school in the district.

That may be where the board and district should be soon but not yet.

I have two particular areas of concern.

Number one this proposed policy is not following the recommendations of the 2018 Advanced Learning Task Force.

And number two the policy does not provide the board with an assurance of accountability to make sure that the district really will properly serve the thousands of students who need highly capable services in order to receive what the state calls a fair and appropriate basic education.

Regarding the task force recommendations Numbers 6 and 7 are quite clear saying that the district should not move forward with changes to the current delivery model without clear evidence that the new proposed model or models are effective.

While the district's timeline has a very very clear indication of how it expects to move forward it is not showing within that timeline how it would be evaluating the success of its first one school then five school pilot within the elementary schools.

This is not adequate.

I also want to make sure that you are aware that accountability is not built into this set of policies.

There is nothing in here saying exactly what the board can expect.

That is particularly important and I urge you to ensure very specific data-based metrics and other factors by which the district will know the success of Highly Capable Services.

Thank you very much.

Next for public testimony is Megan Hazen.

Megan Hazen.

Megan.

Can you hear me.

We can yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

I wanted to speak against accepting the changes for 21-90 by addressing the many ways that it falls short.

The lack of a detailed proposal for a non-cohort service model the weakening of the state's definition of HICAP and the utter lack of engagement to learn what is needed for HICAP education.

However I do believe it'll be more productive to look forward.

I'm asking SPS take a leadership role in declaring strong support for HICAP students.

The law that HICAP students must be served exists for a reason.

These students have well-defined atypical cognitive development which is expressed in complex ways.

They are not merely high achieving and they are not often well-served by typical teaching methods.

The research on this is clear.

The law exists because when teachers are not trained in the specific needs of these students and leadership does not explicitly demand that they are served they are not served.

There is very little in these recent discussions around HICAP that acknowledges this.

But make no mistake.

SPS fails these students when they're not protected by policy 2190. Historically HICAP students are not well served outside the cohort.

They are at best neglected and at worst abused in a system that lacks resources to serve them and also has tacit permission to vilify them.

HICAP parents want to improve the HICAP service model but do not want to see it eliminated.

If SPS wants to move forward with renegotiating this policy and eliminating the cohort The district must from top down express the importance of serving HICAP students and providing their basic education.

Leaders must stop scapegoating HICAP families.

New systems must be developed and further must be developed with full collaborative engagement including allowing actual feedback from HICAP families.

SPS must lead in training their staff in HICAP learning.

SPS must find a way of holding their schools accountable for actually providing the programming and behavior required to succeed in this service.

I can't stop this board from moving prematurely to remove the only system we have of serving high cap students but please I am begging you to do better in designing a way forward.

And you have to move quickly.

Our students don't have a lot of time to wait for the adults to figure this out.

Thank you.

Next for public testimony is Kathleen Lendvay.

Kathleen Lendvay.

Are you able to hear me.

Yes.

Great.

I have I'm speaking also on Policy 2190 and I have read and learned about the proposed changes on highly capable services and I see promise in some of the ideas presented.

But that promise demands that I imagine the new proposed services model in a different district.

A district with clear accountability for managing this change.

A district with leaders who genuinely believe in offering robust advanced learning to challenge highly capable students and identifying every student who could benefit.

A district that will actually do the work to fix our highly capable program rather than call it good based on the optics of a policy vote.

This is not our district.

Voting for this change without the culture change leadership support and accountability structures to make it work is wrong.

The board's decision last year to approve TAF at Washington Middle School provides a preview of how this change will go.

While district leadership and the board got to pat themselves on the back for adopting a bold change students and teachers were left holding the bag.

Last year's change to Policy 2190 promised continued HC services in a blended model.

But almost a year into the program nobody can describe what HC Services means at Washington Middle School or how to access those services.

Nobody is accountable for HC Services in the school.

So it simply hasn't happened.

Neither the Advanced Learning Office nor the school administration have the ownership or accountability to deliver on the board's promises.

And teachers are left with families who were promised something without teachers receiving any of the training standards or communications about what and how to deliver it.

It's a disservice to the students in our district to pass a policy change without the organizational capacity to make it a reality.

In this district at this time a vote yes on this policy change is effectively a vote to just discontinue highly capable services and also to discontinue acknowledging highly capable students.

Thank you for your time.

Next for public testimony is Brian Terry.

Brian Terry.

Hi can you hear me.

Yes.

Good afternoon.

Please approve the proposed amendments to School Board Policy 2190. In our district today a White student is six times more likely than a Black student to be identified as highly capable.

The mostly White classrooms that this creates are often placed next to mostly Black neighborhood classrooms.

This sends a clear message to all of our students.

White students are more capable and more deserving.

Today's program admits students who are already performing significantly advanced work rather than those with the potential to perform advanced work effectively excluding those students who have the most to gain from advanced learning services.

It is time for us to make it a priority to serve all of our highly capable students and to eliminate The white supremacy culture in our schools.

Please support Amendment 2190. Thank you.

Next for public testimony is John Persak.

John Persak.

John Persak.

You may need to press star-6 to unmute on the conference call line.

John Persak one more time.

Pastar 6 if you're on the line.

Okay moving to our next speaker Laura Marie Rivera.

Laura Marie Rivera.

Laura Marie Rivera.

Can you hear me now.

Yes we can hear you Laura.

Oh.

Hi.

This is Laura Marie.

The language that we use is important.

As an educator and a citizen it matters.

Just like discussed today with the use of the words justice and accountability it matters.

Of course there's a difference between gifted and highly capable.

And I find that in this district and in a lot of these meetings they're often used interchangeably.

In the interest of time I'd like to ask people to Google these words so we can practice using them correctly.

These words matter.

And along those lines we need to look thoughtfully and critically about calling these programs and their recipients and advocates racist.

The existence of HICAP students and the need for HICAP programming are not racist constructs.

However in Seattle Public Schools they exist in a district replete with systemic racism and if imprecise language is used that implies that HICAP itself is racist then great harm is done to the students who are both HICAP and not cis male White students.

SPS must be very clear that changes to programming are to address their longstanding and underlying racist structure and behavior not to deny the existence or the rights of HICAP students themselves.

And so I end with an ask that you commit to serving the special needs of HICAP and gifted students from all over the district and support them with the money and programming and training that these commitments will require.

Thank you.

Next for testimony is Robin Reid.

Robin Reid.

Hello.

My name is Robin Reid.

I am the parent of a 6th grader.

I'm asking that the board and the district begin preparations now to offer the option of full-time in-person instruction for all students in September.

It's increasingly clear that full in-time per in-person instruction will be the norm across the country by this fall.

In San Francisco which has managed COVID in ways very similar to Seattle the district has committed to full-time in-person learning in the fall.

Other large school districts have done the same from Boston to New York to City to Chicago.

There's a good reason for this.

We know much more about the spread of COVID now than we did a year ago and we have studies from the past year showing that when students and teachers wear masks COVID transmission in schools is extraordinarily low.

Public health leaders including the CDC support full-time in-person school.

The Director of the CDC Rochelle Walensky recently said come September 2021 schools should be full-fledged in-person and all of our children back in the classroom.

Why do I want students to return to the classroom full-time.

While I understand that remote education has been adequate for some students and a positive experience for a few it's been distinctly worse for many others my child included.

Online school for my 6th grader has been work and stress and a demand for focus on a screen for hours every day with none of the interaction spontaneity or fun of in-person school.

Despite his efforts ours and his teachers it was a disaster.

I watched the joy drain out of him and I sincerely worry that he would never want to learn again.

And I think Michaela Morris's comments today really highlight clearly some of the drawbacks of the hybrid model.

Transit challenges and limited time for teachers to introduce new material and having to divide their attention between online students and in-person students mean that hybrid education is compromised education.

We are not doing enough for our students.

STS needs to begin planning a full-time option now anticipating additional guidance from the state requiring it.

Without planning now you commit to the same scramble and challenges you faced last month preparing for hybrid education.

I've seen many Facebook posts from you Director Hampson stating that the Governor's proclamation left too little time to plan the rollout of hybrid education in an equitable way.

Don't let that happen with full-time in-person school.

You need to start planning to ensure equity access and safety now.

Thank you.

Next is Janice White.

Janice White.

Hi.

Hi.

Can you hear me.

We can.

Thank you.

It's Janice White President of the Seattle Special Education PTSA.

Today I want to highlight some of the challenges facing students with disabilities as a result of the transition to either hybrid or remote learning.

Although we've heard repeatedly all school year about the district prioritizing students with disabilities the reality for many of our students is very different.

Consider these actual experiences.

the high school student in an intensive service pathway who will be spending half of his school day in the building down the hall from his Gen Ed class being taught in person but attending the class via laptop because the school failed to account for him when planning space for the Gen Ed class.

The elementary student who needs one-to-one support but whose family has been told that the IA can only be within 6 feet for 15 seconds when the student is in person.

The high school student who attends general education classes with push and support whose family was presented with a revised IEP on the eve of hybrid learning that reduced his IEP services by 90 percent.

The elementary student whose gen ed classes are now scheduled at the same time as her special ed services forcing the family to choose between their student being included with her gen ed peers for instruction or receiving special ed services.

These stories.

And more demonstrate the operational failure of the district to treat students with IEPs as general education students first.

Prioritize their needs.

And as well it demonstrates the lack of an inclusive culture in our schools.

Please read the April 14th article in the South Seattle Emerald entitled SPS educators confront issues of race and disability as students return to schools.

Several dedicated educators are quoted in the article about their concern that the about the that the overwhelming need for inclusion of Black and Brown students with disabilities is being overlooked.

The article cites a 2017 study showing that 55 percent of Black students with disabilities are arrested before the age of 28. We need a cultural shift embracing inclusion and rejecting ableism along with racism.

We ask for district leaders to set this vision and then hold staff accountable to implement an anti-racist and anti-ableist culture in our district our schools and our classrooms.

Thank you very much.

Next is Elias Kass.

Elias Kass.

Elias Kass.

Elias you may need to press star-6 to unmute if you are on the conference call line.

Can you hear me now.

We can yes.

Thank you.

My name is Dr. Elias Kass.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I am a pediatric primary care provider in Lake City.

My son is in kindergarten and he has been thrilled to be able to attend school in our neighborhood school building for the first time.

For 2 hours and 45 minutes he's able to experience the novelty of being in the same room as his teacher being able to see and play with his classmates and raise his physical hand instead of his virtual hand.

At the end of the two hours and 45 minutes I leave my clinic drive to his school wait in a line of 100 cars to pick him up and drive him to a different elementary school for child care because there's no child care at his school and there is no transportation to the other school.

His school has done a beautiful job with the restrictions and the requirements of this modified school day but this is not enough.

He actually needs to be in actual school for the entire day.

And my patients also need to be in school for the entire day.

And patients and families need to be able to plan for the fall.

I beg you to commit to full in-person school options in the fall.

We need that strong commitment in order to be willing to stick with this district and to give this district another chance.

We need to know that this district will do what it takes to secure the funding needed to provide school in-school buildings.

We need to know that the new superintendent is committed to in-person school.

That the new chiefs are committed to in-person school.

And we can't wait until late August to know what's coming.

to know how many hours our kids will be in school whether or not there'll be child care whether or not there'll be transportation.

Our kids are not autonomous learning units.

They're part of families with other kids schedules to figure out and with adults whose livelihoods are increasingly at stake when they have to leave work in the middle of the morning.

We need to know that the commitment is there and that we're working towards a common goal something beyond the absolute legal minimum.

This district is an enormous complicated system with many many moving parts.

It's hard to get everything lined up that it will be absolutely impossible without the desire and commitment to do it.

Please rely on the guidance of the CDC the AAP the Department of Health and the experience of the thousands of other school districts who have achieved full in-person schooling.

We can do it too.

Thank you.

Next is Cherise Gaffney.

Cherise Gaffney.

Hi can you hear me.

Yes.

Thank you.

Earlier this month The CDC's director said that by September all schools should be fully open for in-person learning and no longer remote.

And yet fall planning isn't even on your agenda today.

For elementary students 64 percent of families opted for in-person including half of students furthest from educational justice.

I expect those numbers are higher for secondary students.

And we know that just by reopening this spring we will increase community trust in schools.

That increased trust together with widespread vaccines for all adults and most secondary students will naturally drive more demand for a return to full-time school in September.

When the vast majority of families from all demographics are ready what is SPS doing to make sure it meets families where they are.

It's time for SPS to plan a return to full in-person school for fall.

Students need real in-person teaching that finally starts helping the students for whom remote learning is just not accessible.

Those students have been left on their own for over a year now.

And the result is a generation of Seattle Public School students who are anxious and isolated.

Disconnected from their teachers and their peers.

Those students haven't failed.

The adults have failed them.

Until SPS provides in-person school that does not rely on remote instruction and until SPS insists on teachers providing actual new instruction in-person we know that a good portion of our students across SPS's communities will continue to fall through the cracks.

SPS and this board should be leading the charge on full reopening as advocates of those students not being dragged by desperate parents and health officials.

This board needs to act now to direct SPS to build a full-time in-person reopening plan so that you're actually ready this time.

No more excuses.

Next for testimony is Anne Goodchild.

Anne Goodchild.

Ann Goodchild.

If you're on the line.

Oh did I just hear Ann.

Yeah.

Can you hear me.

Yes we can.

Okay great.

Yeah.

Hi.

Thank you.

I'm a Seattle Public Schools parent and educator myself and have had kids in the system for a decade or so and always try to you know help out and do what I can.

I'm asking you today simply to communicate with families regarding your plans for fall.

I feel silly really having to ask you to do that given that your mandate and responsibility of Seattle Public Schools is to provide reasonable education for all of Seattle's students.

But I think you've heard from other participants today that your community does not have faith and confidence in your ability to provide in-person education for students in the fall and and and really have lost track of your intent.

I know it's been a difficult year for everyone.

It's certainly been a difficult year for our family and we're really limping along.

Everyone is trying to make the best of a tough situation.

But what has happened in the last year is not a reasonable education educational option for our family remote learning.

And we are we desperately await a return to in-person instruction.

I'm you know we try to be patient with everyone who has to adapt as well.

But I think that your community has lost confidence in the school district's commitment to do that.

There is a big question as to whether or not you hold as a priority returning students to in-person instruction when it is safe to do so.

The reason for that is very scant communication from Seattle Public Schools.

Official communication.

I really don't know what's happening.

I know there's no opening task force.

I don't know what happened to the outdoor options.

There is no agenda item on the school board meetings about reopening.

As an active participant trying to listen I hear nothing official about school reopening.

And evidence suggests a mandate from the governor was required for any movement.

The other thing we do see is combative and confusing messages on social media by the school board director.

And so in the absence of formal communication from SPS people rely on that as a form of communication which has caused confusion and distress.

So I simply ask for your faith for sharing your decision making for being transparent about your goals and allowing community members to know what they can expect as they plan for their families this fall.

Next for testimony is Arlie Kabu.

Arlie Kabu.

Hi can you hear me now.

Yes we can.

Okay thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm speaking as the parent of two SPS Elementary students and as a local family physician.

I have seen the stress and strain on my own children as well as my patients and their families that over a year of fully remote school has caused.

We the parents have fought tirelessly to get SPS kids back in person.

Yet it took a governor's order for SPS and SEA to do the bare minimum required by that order and not even the minimum for our middle and high school students.

Failing to open schools sooner and more completely is shameful and criminal.

I implore you to right this wrong.

Put aside the politics and the fear.

Be our advocates and do what is best for our kids.

Plan now and commit to full-time in-person school this fall.

SPS has already proven to be woefully behind nationally and locally in this regard.

This must change.

Most urban districts nationwide are already back full-time or have committed to full-time for the fall.

Local private schools have as well.

Your number one priority must and should be educating our children full-time in-person.

Stop pretending that hybrid and virtual learning is good enough.

It is not.

Please pull yourselves together.

Get organized.

Make a plan.

Communicate that plan to us and make full-time in-person learning happen for the fall.

Thank you for your time.

Next for testimony is James David Dack.

James David Dack.

James are you on the line.

If you're on the line you may need to press star-6 to unmute.

Okay moving to the next speaker.

Madeline Madeline Kogut.

Madeline Kogut.

Madeline is that you.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Okay.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

My name is Maddie Kogut and I'm an 11th grader at Ingram High School.

I would just like to say please plan to reopen full-time in-person in the fall.

High school students need contact with teachers and other students.

It's not working to be alone looking at a screen.

It's impacting our academics and our mental health and the signs shows that we can go back safely to in-person full-time.

Thank you.

Next for testimony is Rose Bellini.

Rose Bellini.

Hi.

Can you hear me.

We can.

Hi.

I'm the parent of a current second grader.

Recently I went to the SPS website and I clicked on About Us I read we believe it is essential to place the interests of students above all others in every decision we make.

We believe it is our responsibility to do whatever it takes to ensure that every child regardless of race gender socioeconomic status language proficiency learning style or disability achieves their highest level.

While enduring a horrendous year of remote school and now a bare minimum hybrid model one cannot believe that this board or SPS was or is doing whatever it takes for every child.

If it were the case my child would be safely learning from a teacher in a classroom five days per week.

Families would not be further burdened to solve for problems that SPS could and should have anticipated.

Remote learning and hybrid learning are not by any stretch of the imagination equated with excellence for the majority of students here or anywhere.

Hybrid models are not celebrated as somehow a best of both worlds scenario and the risk benefit analysis they were based on no longer applies in our current reality.

I want this board and SPS administrators to do whatever it takes.

so that the interests of my child your child everyone's child are urgently placed first with an immediate pivot to planning for full-time in-person learning for Fall 2021. However imperfect the system might be one cannot fix known problems demonstrate improvement and instill trust in those who are wary if there are not open classrooms in which to carry out that work.

I demand this board break its cycle of inaction cease passing the buck and blaming others.

I call on you to take the responsibility granted and assume an immediate problem-solving mindset aimed at offering a full-time in-person learning scenario for all who want it in Fall 2021. The time has long passed for the work of SPS to be anything but a fully focused commitment to efficiently design negotiate and execute a plan that provides the opportunity owed to our children to attend school in person every day.

I may not know or care if my child is behind but I do know that you certainly are.

Thank you.

Next for testimony is Arianna Farrell.

Arianna Farrell.

Arianna Farrell.

Arianna I can see that you're on the line I believe but we are not able to hear you.

One more time Arianna Farrell.

And I'll I'll go back through the names we missed at the end of the list.

So moving to our next speaker Lisa White.

Lisa White.

Hear me.

Is this Lisa.

This is Lisa.

Can you hear me.

We can.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

My name is Lisa White.

I'm the parent of an 11th grader in Seattle Public School.

I would just like to say what many others have said.

Please start planning now for full-time in-person school in the fall.

As you know the CDC expects it the science supports it and other districts are already planning for it and in fact doing it now.

Teachers have been vaccinated and by late summer students in middle and high school will likely have the opportunity to be vaccinated as well.

High school students have been struggling academically and emotionally during remote school.

Teenagers are not meant to be alone in front of a computer.

They need contact with teachers and classmates and social interaction more than just a few hours two days a week.

Remote learning was a response to an emergency situation.

It was not meant to persist indefinitely.

We know it is not an adequate substitute for in-person learning.

We have learned a lot about about how COVID spreads and doesn't spread and how to function safely wearing masks.

There is no justifiable scientific reason to keep schools remote or even hybrid in the fall.

Remote and hybrid plans are both hurting students.

We're not asking for anything unreasonable.

It is possible to plan to go back in-person safely in the fall given the CDC guidelines science experience and vaccine.

Schools around the region state and nation have been going back successfully.

We don't need to reinvent the wheel.

We're asking you to look around at what other districts are doing and to do what it takes to help students thrive and succeed.

Currently they are falling behind and struggling.

SPS begins bargaining with the Teachers Union for the next year's schedule in May.

Please make sure that SPS and the union bargain a solution that includes full-time in-person learning consistent with science and the vaccine schedule to address student mental health needs.

Students have suffered academically socially socially and emotionally long enough.

Thank you.

Next for testimony is Ryle Goodrich.

Ryle Goodrich.

Ryle if you're on the line please press star-6 to unmute.

Ryle Goodrich.

Moving to the next speaker.

Carrie Kaplan.

Carrie Kaplan.

Is that Carri.

Hi.

I'd like to just end this with trying to bring everyone together on trying to move forward to reopening our schools and in full in the fall.

I'd like to speak us to all to to come together not to act as adversaries in the path to school reopening.

School is a tool to allow our children to celebrate their differences and use them to promote a healthy and diverse society.

Science engagement creativity resolution communication conscientiousness and collaboration are all educational and life skills we can agree on that will move us in the right direction.

These are some of the paths forward in reopening and strengthening our schools.

And what a wonderful opportunity for us to role model these approaches for our kids and not to be in conflict with each other.

Barriers and conflicts that we have as COVID our struggles But they are also a path for us to grow together and to become more effective educators.

I met with some of the board members a couple of weeks ago and they expressed frustration with the governor superintendent mayor and parents.

When I have spoken to those who the board members are frustrated with it comes back the same.

I'd like to propose that we all say that we are sorry for the ways we have failed our kids and have failed each other and move on.

There needs to be a path forward that is transparent forthcoming civilized fair safe and effective in bringing our kids back full time in the fall.

I hope and I believe we are capable.

I will start with the science.

This is from the CDC.

Evidence suggests that many K-12 schools that have strictly implemented prevention strategies have been able to safely open for in-person instruction and remain open.

The absence of in-person education options might disadvantage children from all backgrounds particularly children of low resource communities who might be at educational disadvantage.

Now I hope that we can take a look at some of these goal-setting strategies I mentioned and focus on self-reflection and forgiveness and move forward to work together to reopen the schools in full in the fall.

Thank you.

President Hampson that was the end of the testimony list but I can go back through the names that we missed in case anybody was having technical issues.

Yeah why don't you go through one more time.

Okay.

Beginning with and if your name was on the list and we didn't catch you before you can press star-6 now to unmute and hopefully we can catch you in this round.

John Persak.

John Persak.

If you're on the line please press star-6.

Moving to the next speaker.

James David Dack.

James David Dack.

Moving on.

Ariana Farrell.

Ariana Farrell.

And then finally Ryo Goodrich.

Ryo Goodrich.

President Hampson that concludes the testimony list and I don't see any of the numbers that those individuals gave us on today's call.

Okay.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

That concludes our public testimony for the meeting.

We will move now to items that were removed.

I'm sorry we don't have any items removed for the consent agenda.

We will now move to Introduction Item Number 1. Rename and Amend School Board Policy Number 2190 Highly Capable Services and Advanced Learning Programs.

SSC&I otherwise known as Student Services Curriculum and Instruction on April 6th for consideration.

Chief of Support Student Support Services Dr. Concie Pedroza I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes I will.

Thank you.

I also have with me here today Program Manager Deni Berry and at the end we're going to be available to answer questions from the board.

So good evening school board directors and the community.

I'm here to not only present the BAR for 2190 Highly Capable Services and Advanced Learning Programs but to offer a few thoughts for reflection about our legacy as leaders in our system towards anti-racist practices and accountability especially in light of the history of this policy being brought forward several times earlier.

Dr. Kendi states and I quote Americans have been long trained to see the deficiencies of people rather than policy.

It's a pretty easy mistake to make.

People are in our faces.

Policies are distant.

We are particularly poor at seeing the policies lurking behind the struggles of people." End quote. And I just wanted to give us some thoughts of reflection that in critical race theory there are several tenets that we have centered in our racial equity learning as a system over the years. The permanence of racism. The counter-storytelling and counter-narratives. Whiteness as property. Interest convergence. And critique of liberalism. So I want to just start with saying that Policy 2190 and its language specifically around revisioning our services our classrooms and our schools requires us to examine where policy meets social justice and anti-racist actions. This cannot be a moment of interest convergence in this moment. And I turn to a paragraph out of the Harvard Review which highlighted Dr. Derrick Bell's theory of interest convergence that the rights of Black people only advance when they converge with the interests of White people. 25 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown versus Board of Education Bell argued that the holding cannot be understood without some consideration of the decision's values to Whites not simply those concerned about the immorality of racial inequality but also those in policymaking positions able to see the economic and political advances at home and abroad that would follow abandonment of segregation." End quote.

Historically in Seattle Public Schools as evidenced by our own Seattle Public School data students of color have not benefited from many of the Seattle system's policies and procedures including the one before you today.

And I know that the entire system and educators in our system as well as our school board are deeply committed to to really supporting systemic changes to support anti-racist actions.

And that it's going to take a lot of time and effort and accountability.

For this Policy Review 21-9 the I'm just going to highlight some information and reminders and things that many of the community know very well.

One and this is documented very well documented.

This program and our service design was developed over the current model.

was developed over 40 years ago in order to combat White flight as documented in district emails noted in archives published in two local newspapers.

The program was designed for White students and was not designed to support Black excellence or our students furthest from educational justice.

Next point that there are people in our community who philosophically believe that the current policy as-is is the only way to do appropriately advanced learning in Seattle Public Schools.

If this policy advances tonight and the changes that we hope it will do to create a newer system it will take an entire community and a commitment from our entire system to re-educate and unpack our entire community not only as to the why this is happening and why we need to do these changes but the research behind the changes and then also to provide those systemic strategies and structures in place to ensure that we continue to improve our system So that every student that is in these services highly capable services benefits from rigorous instruction.

And many of our students from diversity of our backgrounds and cultures they've shared with us over and over again that they want to experience rigorous learning but they want it aligned with our values of anti-racism that allows students participate with their whole identities and then takes into account a decolonization approach to the material to material.

And furthermore it's important that we shift our focus on talent development for our students furthest from educational justice.

And our department has been committed with weekly racial equity training for the past two years and to continue to design changes and enhance their systems and their procedures and their learning in taking a targeted universalism approach.

And then finally I just want to another point I want to add is that research and national practices have a broad range of services and processes that we are learning from and incorporating into our system.

We are using experts in gifted and Black student success such as Dr. Collins to support our efforts and shift our practices.

We are committed to having experts such as these in community to guide us as we continue to design process and procedures.

Our district.

has a history of listening to those who don't represent the students we are intending to serve with their ex all with all information and expertise in all things education including but not limited to educational needs of Black and Brown students.

We have we the Advanced Learning Department Student Services Department we have done intentional work to prioritize learnings from students researchers families and practitioners who represent the Black and Brown students we intend to serve.

And we believe that the work we have done over the past two years will support these students and that all of our students will be served through these recommendations and student changes.

In closing I want to I I met with the Highly Capable and Racial Equity Advisory Committee and I promised them to share one last thought from them.

They do not believe that this policy even goes far enough for them because it's not calling out the harm to Black and Brown students in our system.

by our actions of gatekeeping and centering Whiteness in past policies and implementation.

They want us to know that that in order for us as a system Seattle Public Schools to build trust with families of color is to ensure our procedures hold our system accountable provide specific anti-racist training to the educators and staff and that we continue to refine and draft procedures with the advisories group oversight and recommendation and looking and input and feedback to ensure that we are providing the systemic changes that we are set here on forward to change.

They believe and I believe as well that if we're not specific with our strategies and systems that we will always be in danger no matter what system we create which policy we design or which procedure we design that we could end up creating an unjust system similar to this one.

So it's really important.

that we continue to do those procedural work those accountable works that we need to do to provide those changes as we continue to develop some of our systems in place with the practitioners group the work that's ongoing currently.

This is the only way we can rebuild trust with our families of color.

Thank you.

I'm ready for your questions.

Thank you Dr. Pedroza.

I will go first to the Chair of our Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee Director Rankin.

Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Pedroza.

So this policy has been kind of on the docket for some time and ebbed and flowed and been delayed because of previous instructions from the Governor to focus only on essential business responsive to COVID.

So I think this was even was this last maybe even a year ago.

So we've had there's been a lot of kind of back and forth between movement and standstill.

But I just I want to thank you Dr. Pedroza and your department for continuing to reach out to community members continuing to not give up on this.

Keep bringing it forward.

And I also we in order to support the board and making sure that that we all have the information that we need there were two-by-twos offered and not everyone has been able to participate in one yet.

So I just kind of want to remind my colleagues that that opportunity is available.

So if there are more if there because our this is introduction now so between now and when this item comes before us for action if anybody feels the need for to take us up on that offer of two-by-twos and get some have some more time to ask some more in-depth questions or provide feedback to staff from your communities.

Let us know.

And I'm I hope I'm not speaking out of turn Dr. Pedroza.

I'm sure we will we will try to make sure that we can accommodate that in people's schedules.

We will prioritize that.

Absolutely.

Great.

But I kind of figured figured it out.

Yes we will.

So just a reminder that that is available.

I wanted to acknowledge some of the speakers from public testimony and and just say a little bit about this in general and acknowledge the very real fear and concern that A change in this model is going to mean everybody just goes back to their regular classroom and we hope for the best.

I I want to acknowledge that that is a real fear for parents for families of kids who struggle to be recognized and to engage with education in a in maybe their neighborhood school or general education classroom.

I plan to between now and action bring forth an amendment that that addresses what Dr. Pedroza was talking about in terms of accountability from families of color that we don't just recreate a different segregated system that doesn't serve students.

But I want to include in that also the accountability for the services that was that was mentioned in in in comments and that I've heard concerns about just in general because as we've you know talked about a lot all the best intentions they don't mean anything if we don't have the procedure and then we don't have the accountability.

So for some further context I also want to help people understand or remind folks that the changes being proposed are over 5 years.

Not it's not sudden.

And that the culture shift needed is is real and it was it was mentioned by some folks in testimony and we've talked about it.

Seattle Public Schools and it may or may not be used be unique to Seattle Public Schools but we have as a system somehow conditioned staff teachers families to believe that their child if their child has a need beyond a certain scope of general education whether that be Advanced Learning Highly Capable Special Education.

We have created this structure that requires specialists all over the place and requires students to go elsewhere to be served as for the individuals they are.

And that's not best practice.

Washington State as a state is 44th in the country for inclusive practices.

We serve fewer students.

with special education needs in inclusive settings than 43 other states.

And I'm bringing this up because a lot of what some of our speakers were talking about are students who are what's called twice exceptional which is exceptional cognitive and academic capabilities and in need of special education services.

or or having other disabilities.

We have sort of given we have codified this sense in all of our buildings that certain types of children do not belong in a general education classroom and have to go to another classroom or to another school to be recognized for who they are and receive education.

And so I just wanted to and it's not So we have as as Director Hersey said earlier playtime's over.

Like all of our students are all of our students.

There may be additional support needed.

There may be additional services needed.

But the idea that some students can only be served by some people somewhere else is the shift that we have to take.

We're done saying this is not my student.

This is that person's student.

This student what is this student doing in this classroom.

Where's the person who's supposed to be taking care of them.

Now that doesn't mean that everybody just gets crammed back in the same building with one teacher who's struggling to meet all of these needs.

But it does mean that we have to make that big shift that we don't we as a system can no longer say oh students in my class don't read ahead of grade level.

If you read ahead of grade level you have to go to a different school.

That's not okay.

That student's part of your class.

And they deserve to be challenged and excited and engaged just like anybody else.

The same with a student who is behind grade level.

That support needs to come in for them but they're still part of the general education classroom.

And so that is a big philosophical shift that we have all been conditioned that this is the only way this will work and the only way students can be served.

And it's not the case in other districts.

And we know it's not the case in terms of what research shows is best practice.

And so I I just kind of want to contextualize that this is for me anyway about much more than only advanced learning and highly capable that and the things that we need for accountability in this are for all of us to hold the entire system top to bottom accountable for meeting the individual needs of students and embracing them for who they are in order to provide them with the most appropriate education that we can and to have them be fully included members of their community.

So I'm just kind of saying that to say it it the the policy change is what is going to direct the district to make the changes that some some of our commenters are concerned about.

That we can't wait till everything's perfect to then do the policy because You know the policy is what's going to tell the district this is what we're doing now.

And so it is a bit of a leap of faith and I do think that we can do it.

We have such awesome educators.

We have such incredible families and we just have to hold ourselves to this and also know that it's not going to happen overnight and it is going to take work and time.

And this policy change will allow us hopefully to do that.

Okay we're going to go now to Director Hersey.

I don't have any questions.

Mostly just you know in undying regard for Dr. Pedroza and the work that's gone into this.

As a second grade teacher like I know firsthand that there are neurologically diverse children.

There are definitely children in our system who need specialized learning environments.

No one's saying that they don't.

But what we are saying is that for a long time we have been taking very or at least attempting to take very large steps toward making our learning environments more equitable making them more inclusive and making them more accessible to our students across so many different classrooms.

So all I will say is as we are embarking on this journey given all of the comment that we've heard tonight many of those folks I've been able to share space with in different opportunities over the past couple of years.

is that this is going to be a process as many folks admit it to is necessary and one that we as a system also have to be able to deliver on this this lofty ideal that we've set for ourselves that we're going to be able to serve everybody in their individual classrooms.

And so both of those things are true.

We need to make sure that we're serving all students and we also need to hold ourselves accountable to making sure that we're going to say that this new model is the direction in which we're headed.

that we are doing everything in our power to ensure that it is the best possible version of that model.

So again excited for the work that's gone into this.

Thank you Dr. Pedroza and I'll pass on to the next director.

Okay thank you Director Hersey.

Director Dury.

I don't have any questions.

I do want to say that I'm I too I echo what has been said.

I appreciate the context that Dr. Pedroza and Director Rankin have provided for us.

And and I I also think that this is exactly in alignment with the board policy move to student outcome-based Governance and and I look forward to working in in alignment with that and ensuring that the accountability piece is there in the in the procedures and that we are setting the policy and the guardrails to make sure that all students are being are accessing their greatest level of success.

So thank you all.

And has Director Harris been able to join us.

I don't think I see her number.

Okay Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Rankin and Chief Pedroza regarding all the information you shared with us.

It was really reassuring to hear your acknowledgement that it's going to take a culture shift.

And it's just like I said why we're doing this but how it's going to happen and that commitment.

to following it up with the training and research it's going to need.

I wanted to ask just if I could regarding the change of the policy name.

I was wondering if you could explain why we're removing advanced learning from that.

One of the and I'll just explain briefly and then Ms. Berry can also add.

You know one of the shifts we're making is in regards to services and being really thoughtful about our goal is to provide services for students.

of through highly and highly capable services and in alignment with the state the state law as well.

So we're trying to be in alignment with the state using policy and then also about programming.

I mean if you think about programs in itself those already set up in terms of sort of like again this almost self-contained type of environment right.

We want those we do recognize that sometimes that has to happen for some students but it doesn't necessarily happen like all periods of the day all the time.

And the goal is to make sure that we really work with schools that they can provide services to the students in multiple ways.

I also have Ms. Berry here that can also answer additional questions.

Okay I think that was covered sufficiently.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

I only have another question so and bear with me here.

This is I'm always hoping and I don't know if you could it might be some another staff member but somebody could tell us what happened to that class size reduction that was that was promised in 2014 with passage of I-1351.

Initiative 1351 is while it's still amended.

for a typical school funding model formula to lower class sizes in all grades and provide additional class size reductions in high poverty schools.

I know that Governor Inslee signed legislation delaying the initiative school implementation back in 2015 and which was limited for four years.

But the first biennium by which the legislator was to provide the funding for the across staffing increases was changed to 2019-21 biennium with full funding required by the end of 21-23 biennium.

So anyways background I'm just wondering if anybody can tell me where we are with that.

And I will say now that I'm asking because I think we can all agree that MPSS and differentiated learning is aided when class sizes are smaller.

And so I'm just trying to gauge if smaller class sizes might be come into play as you roll out this 5 or 6 year plan here.

So if anybody can tell me where that is that would be helpful.

I don't have the answer for that right now.

It's something we can get to you.

Right.

And so I I understand the question now so I'm writing it down.

And then but we'll get to it that question and answering that.

But I think we can I'll work with my team to provide an answer for you.

I don't have that answer.

Yeah I know I thought maybe I don't know if it's Ellie or someone else.

Jolie if we might.

Chief Berge can probably answer that question pretty quickly.

Chief Berge.

Yep we're nowhere.

It's not funded.

That's where we're at.

Yeah I know I suspected but I was hoping that there's been something going on.

I just like I said I think it would add to our community's confidence in the success of this plan knowing that that would come into play at some point.

But I know we're not in charge of that.

We're just kind of waiting.

Right now.

That's correct.

None of 1351 has not been funded and there are no plans for that.

Got you got you.

Well hopefully that's something we can keep advocating for as a district for the community because that would definitely like I said I think that would just that would come into play in so many of our programs and our schools as a whole right.

I mean I know that K-3 cass sizes is funded as far as our schools go.

We do have we do get some of those dollars and we have put that to work in our schools.

And the capital improvements.

So anyway I was just asking.

I appreciate all the work.

I know that this has been a long road.

It has been about a year and a half since the committee picked this up and did not pass it through.

But I think it's changed since then too.

I think it definitely has grown and evolved.

So it's a better plan today than it was then.

I hope you're around to help us see it through.

Can't see I know that that's a big gap.

But you know it would be helpful.

It would be great.

Either way I know we have a lot of dedication to this.

And again we're going to it's going to be an ongoing process of getting all of our staff and communities on board with the changes and the trust building so.

I do want to add.

Can I just add something to that just a little bit.

I think for one of the things I will say the reason why I feel very confident about this policy coming through is this this policy isn't just owned by Advanced Learning right.

It's actually become a policy that's now sort of we've done so much collaboration with the C&I department.

This the work we've been doing has been hand-in-hand with principals middle school principals elementary principals.

They've they've advised us given us feedback.

They sit on all the committees.

They sit on the advisory committee.

They sit they we've had monthly meetings with them.

So on the instructional side of the house We're all in alignment and we're all linked arms with this.

And so I just want to share that this is this is one of I can honestly say full commitment.

This is a district systemic embracing of this policy moving forward.

Concie Dr. Concie Pedroza doesn't it's not her it's it's a district policy.

So I just want to share that with the team because I feel really confident that this has really been the baton has I'm going to use Dr. Scarlett's analogy of picking up the baton They have picked up the baton and we're all actually they're not letting go.

We're actually holding it all together.

So we're all holding it together.

And there's and I'll just say share an example of that.

So one example of that is our our science department right.

Our science department's been now they've been working with our our advanced learning department's been working with the science department.

working with highly capable teachers in middle school science to develop some of those those those the works and strategies.

But as an offshoot from that to say this isn't just about an advanced learning initiative now our special ed department is working with that same science department to provide those curricular work and supports and trainings for teachers as well.

So I just want to share that that that's an example of things that we're doing together collectively together.

And so it is it is a it is a we policy.

I'm just I'm just sharing it is definitely a we policy.

Thank you.

That is good to hear and I.

And I believe that that that is a commitment and a shared a shared aspiration for all of us to get this happening.

And I appreciate Director Rankin mentioned an amendment that sounds like it's coming for as far as the accountability portion.

I will be I look forward to seeing what that entails.

So thank you all.

Oh go ahead.

No I was going to say it was a very important point with the highly capable racial equity advisory group.

That was the number one point and I agree with them 100 percent.

Okay thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

Director DeWolf.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you.

Yes thank you.

Sorry my dogs were making noise.

So I have just a couple quick questions and I want to just reiterate something that Director Rankin mentioned which is that we have engaged with this conversation for a long time.

And I know that you've conducted some some shorter one-on-one two-on-two discussions with directors and we had a really really good discussion at our SSC&I committee meeting.

So I just wanted to elevate a couple of questions I had because I know we have a lot of folks paying attention and listening tonight.

So my first one is just around can you clarify what was done for community engagement because I think that there's some misinformation that somehow we didn't do community engagement but as I understand it there was some pretty extensive community engagement so I would love you to clarify for folks what that looked like.

We actually actually if you go into the page so in the document that's online there's actually a community engagement page that talks about additional community engagement.

So we went out into communities various organizations but we also went to schools and we met with school teams as well.

develop that it's actually linked on the page.

So all the engagement we've done because that came out of I'll just share that came out of the recommendations from a year and a half ago is to make sure we've done community engagement.

And if people want to see an example I'll just give an example that's highlighted of some of the community engagement and the presentations we've done in community.

CSEC actually recorded the engagement session we did and it's actually posted on their Facebook page that anyone can view.

But we were at Thurgood Marshall.

We've been at Cascadia.

We've been at all the different schools most of our pathway schools.

We've met with the Black families from Thurgood Marshall.

We've met we've continued to work with our advisory group.

We've worked with you know community CSIC D7 and the Indian Our Indian Advice Parent Advisory Group we've done we've gone out to different community but it is listed and it is posted.

And if there is a broken link or something that I'm not aware of I'll make sure that we get that corrected.

But that information is online.

May I also add that this is just the start.

The communication and trust building with our community and families and staff is paramount to moving something of this magnitude forward.

We're committed to that.

And it's not going to stop.

We have we have more we've got more planned for next year.

It's going to continue because as because we still have work to do right.

We still have some work to do.

So we have to provide updates to the community as we continue to go.

Understood.

Thank you so much Dr. De Rosa.

My other question too and just to kind of point of a point about that is I'm really excited for bringing on Dr. Brent Jones because I know that his leadership will will be really pivotal during this time.

So I know that that will be helpful throughout throughout this whole process as well.

The other final thing I wanted to ask is if you can clarify the timeline.

I think people think that this is some sort of a it's going to happen tomorrow and then everybody's life's going to change.

But as I understand it one of the most important parts that I think has attracted some directors on this board who are a little bit tentative about this type of proposal was the the long arc of transition to this too.

So if you could just share a little bit more about that for folks that would be very helpful.

Yes I'll start and then I'll let Ms. Berry add anything that I've forgotten because sometimes we need to tag team.

The timeline actually and I so I'm a parent in the system right.

And so when we actually choose services and supports for our children there is an expectation that our students continue with those services.

So we've we carefully thought out a system where we transition over time and so We need to we still need to develop some of our procedures and processes.

We've got many of them in place but there's some refinement we have to do.

There's some other things we need to continue.

We got to test them.

We also have to test them and make sure that they're actually getting the results that we want to get with these these services and procedures that we're designing.

So there's all those pieces that have to happen.

But it's going to be happening one grade level at a time.

I don't want to use the term I hate to use the term it's the term we use often but you know give me another term for transitioning but we're going to be phasing things through one year at a time.

And so if you currently are in the cohort model for example I'll just use that as an example and in a pathway your child will continue in that pathway through the system.

And so that is what we will continue to do and we will continue to communicate.

And then eventually though as we begin to move some of our services and many of our services into neighborhood schools and build out that model and training and supports for teachers along the way we will actually then move up those.

And in those places where there is a cohort classroom or a cohort school we would have to do some work.

This might impact a school like when you're thinking of one of our North End schools that it's a whole school.

There would have to be a conversation about then what happens to the school but it would eventually become one of the neighborhood schools in the area.

But then again just a reminder to the community that too has to go in front of the board for a board vote to make sure that those things happen too.

So there's there's a lot of board time there'll be a lot of board time to sort of work through some of these things.

So for one other thing we're doing is refining our procedures.

So we'll have to do a submit another draft on those.

And board will be part of those processes along the way.

So everything's going to be iterative.

It's not going to be a it's not going to be a change a swift change.

If your family is in the model that we have currently designed that is the model you will remain in until your child transitions until their next into their next grade level or I mean not next but their next school or transition period.

And Concie if I could.

Can I add one more thing that I think is really important.

is that next year is a year that we're doing some pilots and it will be the following year 22-23 when all K-1's across the district have this implementation with support.

That's all my questions.

I the only thing I'll just final comment I'll say is when we had a rich discussion about this in the SSC&I committee a couple of weeks ago I was really surprised to hear Director Harris fairly enthusiastic about the development and the long work that you have all put in to take feedback and really orient this policy change in a way that I think satisfies the concerns and needs that are brought up from community and the board.

So I just thank you for all your incredible work Dr. Pedroza and Ms. Berry.

I look forward to supporting this and I'll pass it to the next director.

Thank you Director DeWolf and I do feel badly that Director Harris can't be joining us to to speak to this as I know she'd have appreciate having that opportunity and will will but she had some really major work obligations she could not get out of which is always a difficulty with our during during the day times during the workday times for our board meetings.

As far as my questions I am very appreciative of having been as a board member well both actually as a community member prior to even being on a board having staff come to our Native Parent Advisory Committee meetings to talk about even the prospect of bringing this forward.

So I know that this has been a very targeted very long-term process and that the as was was indicated that the roll out or unrolling and rolling back up into neighborhood schools process is over a very long period of time with ample opportunity to ensure that we effectively develop services within our buildings.

And for me one of the things that's always remained the loss amongst not just the lack of access for students furthest from educational justice which is is ubiquitous but also the the loss of opportunity for students who are highly capable.

I'm still not a big fan of that term but highly capable in one particular area but not all areas.

And we'll never be able to provide those services or as Director Rankin described at the beginning to have that inclusionary perspective which is in fact best practice where you know a student who who might really struggle in in literacy but but Excel and mathematics would have equitable access to advanced learning opportunities.

And I think that that's absolutely critical.

We've are at a point or got to a point within my academic career as a young person that we saw kind of the erasure individuals that didn't have the ability to succeed in all things.

You know there sort of became one flavor of student that was going to get accepted into colleges and really in many ways I feel like just became an achievement culture rather than than an inspiring and inspired culture or inspirational culture.

And and really focused on the true depth of understanding of any particular subject.

Some students are going to be jocks of all jocks and jills and of all trades and be able to excel in those things.

But that that's that's been a hard thing to see students feel like they're not if they're not smart if they're if they're not you know excelling in all things.

And that's just simply not not the case.

And from a cultural standpoint one of the reasons I appreciated staff coming out to our parent meetings is to hear you know from a cultural and a values perspective how differently different communities actually view the notion of quote unquote advanced learning or highly capable or giftedness.

And there really are substantial differences in how we view those things.

And so I know that it took a tremendous amount of work and bravery.

Dr. Pedroza for you and your staff and all other departments to bring this all together.

And it's been an impressive process of a well-communicated process and particularly to those communities that we're trying to actually finally serve that have remained unserved entirely with our advanced learning model or underserved at best.

And so I just want to give out my appreciation to you all for continuing to move this forward.

It is something that is a long time coming and I look very much forward to voting yes for this when it comes up for action next time.

So thank you.

And as always I'm happy to answer questions and talk to school communities about it as well.

And then the hard work begins.

And we do need to be held accountable to the specific outcomes for students that have access to or don't have access to or access these these programs.

So which is again what we're going to talk about at the end of the tonight's session which is student outcomes focused priorities and governance.

And I and I think that this particular shift is is going to be something that we're going to be paying very close attention to and I so appreciate all the work that has gone into this.

Thank you.

Okay.

And I know you've taken it's hard.

It's a very very hard transition and everything you stated at the beginning Dr. Pedroza in terms of the critical race theory was really well received from from my part.

And with that I think I will move us on to the next item.

Thank you so much for your time with that.

And I was trying just a little bit to buy some time in case Director Harris was able to jump on but she wasn't.

So we'll move on to Introduction Item Number 2. BEX IV BTA IV Resolution 2020-21-23 Acceptance of the Building Commissioning Report for the Daniel Bagley Elementary School Addition Project.

This came through Ops on April 1st for approval.

Chief Chief of Operations Fred Podesta I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes.

Thank you President Hampson.

On July of 2020 our capital team completed a project at Bagley Elementary.

It was a modernization of the historic part of the building and an addition of eight classrooms and a gymnasium.

What this action does is accept a commissioning report.

Commissioning is a quality assurance process by which an independent commissioning agent verifies and documents that the new constructions mechanical systems and electrical systems are correctly installed and they work as intended and that they can be well-maintained.

That process is complete.

The systems have been verified and the board approving a resolution to accept that commissioning report allows us to complete the deform process as it's known by the office of by OSP OSPI because this has state funding in it and it'll help us secure about two million dollars of state funding by accepting this commissioning report.

Happy to entertain any questions the board may have.

And we'll go first to Chair of our Operations Committee Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson and great to see you Fred.

I hope you had a restful break.

This came through the Operations Committee.

We voted 3-0 to approve this to the board.

And as I understand it this is fairly technical or procedural.

The alternative Just to clarify for folks would be could put the district in a position such that we will not receive state funding assistance that is available for this project.

So I do support it and look forward to any other questions from directors.

Okay we'll go to Director Hersey.

I don't have any questions on this item.

Thank you.

Director Dury.

No questions.

Thank you.

Assuming Director Harris is not with us yet.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

No I don't really have any questions but definitely just thanks to Fred and all that he did the work on the building.

It's beautiful.

I was able to be there.

for the ribbon cutting act for the school and it is gorgeous and look forward to our students enjoying it for years to come.

So thank you.

Director Rankin.

I do not have any questions but I also I will just say in response to Director DeWolf very kind greeting to Chief Podesta.

I do not think he had a restful break.

And so yeah.

Thanks Brent.

No questions about this item.

And no questions from me.

So with that we will move on to the next item which I believe is also we're going to come back to you Chief Podesta.

This is Introduction Item Number 3 BEX V Final Acceptance of Contract P5140 with FieldTurf USA for the Athletic Field Improvements at Ballard High School.

This came through Ops on April 1st and was recommended for approval.

Chief Podesta.

Thanks again.

This is somewhat similar to the last action.

This is just accepting a contract with a contractor who made improvements at Ballard High School at the athletic fields as the board is aware.

We typically renew athletic fields on roughly a decade-long basis so the last improvements at Ballard High School had been in 2008. And this body of work was to demolish the previous field to restore the underlying base install soccer goals install a new foundation and a new synthetic turf athletic field with cork and sand natural products not rubber which we talked about before in these sessions.

And the project architect in this case kind of provides our independent quality assurance and is recommending that we accept the process or accept the contract and release any retainage left with the contractor.

And this is again somewhat a technical step required by the Washington Administrative Code with regards to our district public works contracts.

And again it's fields in place.

The project was done well within its budget and the work is complete so we should accept it.

Thank you.

And Director DeWolf we'll go first to you as Chair of the Office Committee.

Thank you President Hampson and thank you again Chief Podesta.

As Fred said this is fairly procedural.

This is mostly just a celebration of completing the work so fairly straightforward and looking forward to supporting it.

Director Hersey.

No questions for me.

Looking forward to supporting.

Thank you.

Director Dury.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

I have one question.

So when was when was this work completed.

Excuse me.

When was the work completed.

In the summer at the end of last summer.

Okay.

Okay.

I saw that the contractors when your warranty period ends in August of this year so I was trying to say like well we don't have much time to use it.

Make sure.

Again it was planned for last summer and you know planned to be used in the 2021 school year.

We're using it.

We're starting to use these fields now a little bit.

And again I think we still do quality assurance on the field and do some maintenance.

So I think we're confident.

No further questions.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

No questions for me on this.

Thanks.

And I think I just have one question.

I know we're at a we're at a 10 year time frame that you said for replacement.

Are we seeing with with newer products are we seeing any shift in the during in the it's too early to say right since I'm just trying to think I think we shifted the type of turf that we were using.

We were avoiding the granulated rubber.

I think we've continued to do work on kind of the foundational layers of the field so.

I you know they and they also vary you know how many sports and how they get used.

But I think we're seeing good performance.

I don't know that at this point I can say with confidence that you know we're seeing a much longer duration.

So we're still using roughly a 10-year period for planning purposes.

But you know we'll continue to monitor it and I think we try to get as much life out of the fields as we can.

Yes we all know when we come home with all that stuff in our shoes as they get older.

Okay thanks.

Just curious how it's you know I think that's one of the earliest board meetings I listened to was a was a shift in the turf approval and and it's it's something that that quite literally most families come into contact a decision that that literally impacts our students and something that I know doesn't seem like a big deal but that we all care about.

So other than that I don't have any further questions.

And that takes us to oh wait did I miss anybody.

I don't think I did.

No.

That takes us to our board comments.

So thank you Chief Podesta.

And So we can if you have committee updates feel free to share those during your comments as well.

If we could please try to keep it to keep your comments to two minutes so that we have ample time to do the critical work of Student Outcomes Focused Governance narrowing down our goals for this coming year which is in fact very closely associated with doing the planning for next year.

What are in fact we going to measure in terms of our our success and guardrails.

So I'm going to pass it first to Director Hersey to give any comments that you have.

Yeah for the interest of time I'm going to save any comments.

I'll take my remarks about brother George at the beginning of the meeting as my comment so we can move on to the next director so we can get to the student outcomes work.

Thank you.

And Director Dury you're up next.

I don't have any comments tonight.

I'll leave the time for our work moving forward.

Thank you.

And Director Rivera-Smith.

I guess I'll start with being the last meeting for Superintendent Juneau.

I I don't know what to say.

I know it's been I want to say thank you I guess for your three years of service to Seattle Public Schools.

Although I've only been working with you for the last year and a half it has felt like so much longer.

I think it has a lot to do with COVID.

But you know I appreciate all the good work you've done for our district.

I know it has not been at all easy.

Not even without COVID.

And you made a lot of you know you made a lot of pivotal decisions and you sometimes got a lot of heat for those and wasn't always deserved.

You were strong.

You're a strong woman.

And I and I I appreciate like I said just getting to know you.

I wish we could have had more time together because I always enjoyed our conversations and again appreciated all the work.

I saw how the staff respected you and appreciated your your work with them.

And I know that we have some staff leaving now so so it's going to be a big shift for us here at SPS.

Thank you to the staff to Chief Jessee Chief Codd others who might be leaving.

Again like there's just there's not much I can't encapsulate all the all the gratuity that you deserve for the hard work.

You will be missed all of you because you know we are a family.

And like family we don't always agree but we we appreciate each other and we work together as best we can.

And we I you know I hope that you leave with some good memories of your time here too because you have a lot to be proud of with the strategic plan and all the work with community and again with the staff.

So I really do wish you the best going forward if you're around.

I do hope we can still catch up.

But but definitely good luck to you and everything that you you look to accomplish in the future.

On reopening I know we had a lot of speakers today asking about that.

And and I will say you know I just I do want to say that you know one of our speakers tonight said that that they have been left their student has been left alone for the last year and a half.

And I really you know that's that's really I mean insulting I guess to our teachers who really have gone above and beyond this last year to make what they could of remote learning because it wasn't easy for them at all.

And I know students a lot of students you know a number of students I don't know how many but a number of students have struggled greatly in this.

And I heard it acknowledged that some have actually thrived.

Some of them have some have done well.

So thank you for the community who acknowledged that.

But but to say that the students have been left alone is really just you know not not fair at all because our staff and teachers have done so much and worked so hard to make what they could of the situation.

And I commend them for that because we can't we cannot you know just act like that wasn't the reality for them too.

It was really hard.

And a lot of those teachers actually you know did thrive too in this and some struggled greatly.

We acknowledge all of that and we're working to get to a place where we can be in-person again.

I also you know I I wish that there was more we could say about the fall.

And I know this did come up at our Executive Committee meeting I believe it was just this last month's one.

And I and I asked about you know I think as we were talking about the upcoming board retreat if we were going to be doing any planning at that point.

And I I I won't I'd have to go back and look at what the Senate meeting specifically but but I do think there was some acknowledgement of we have there is an idea of how we're going to get there and what we're going to what the board is going to be working towards in the process to get there and a lot of that is with this student outcomes focused governance work we're doing because because there is you know it's not about just opening the doors and being a person.

There's a lot to go back to.

There's a lot that when we do go back It's not going to look the same.

It shouldn't look as it did when we left.

We've learned a lot.

We've come a long way and we want to make sure it's the best experience for our students for this educational justice and improved experience that that celebrates them and acknowledges them and their cultures and everybody is ready for that because there's a lot of work.

Again it's not just about being in person.

It's there's more to it.

And we're being very intentional about that.

And I hope that there are some communications that can come out soon to let everybody know what that process might look like and what we're going to be doing.

You know we're definitely listening to science.

I don't know that anybody has tried to give the impression that we are against being in-person full-time or against those you know doing the most we can to get there.

Again we're going to have a new superintendent and some new chiefs.

So there's a lot of players involved that we can't speak for right now.

And but people I do hope that we are able to put together some communications because families are very curious and are very having some are very anxious to know what's going on there and I acknowledge that and I'm with you there and hopefully we hear that soon.

And I can't say anything better than than she and Director Hersey did regarding the George Floyd conviction of Derek Chauvin and what that means to our communities and the world really.

We all I appreciate his advice on how we should be bringing that in our minds and in our work going forward.

And I appreciate this board for all the work that we are have done and are planning to do in support of our Black students and making this an anti-racist district.

So thank you all.

I will pass it on to the next director.

Thank you.

Director Rivera I'm sorry Director Rankin.

I have a lot that I could talk about but I don't need to.

Yeah I'll just say a very quick thank you to Superintendent Juneau and other folks that are going on to other roles in other places.

It's really bittersweet.

We're in this period of.

tremendous amount of transition in the COVID situation in conversations around what accountability looks like in policing in schools in our commitments to ourselves and our community members.

And so.

I did not have a very restful spring break either.

It was filled with a lot of grappling with some pretty intense issues.

But they all come back to where I've tried to land now is a feeling of hopefulness in moving forward and leaning into the sweet part of the bittersweet of transitions of saying goodbye to some folks and welcoming eventually some new people in and also in looking towards fall what the possibilities are.

So I'm going to just try to focus on that.

Gratitude for those leaving us and excitement for those who will be joining us.

And as we move into this next phase of this year and Yeah that's that's enough.

Thank you.

Director DeWolf.

Thank you President Hampson.

I will be brief too.

I want to first thank Superintendent Juneau for your service to the district and the city.

I remember about three years ago we were in the midst of hiring and I was a strong advocate for Denise to come on board as the leader of the district.

Differently than I think some directors on the call today was have been here since the beginning and I am so so grateful to have had the pleasure to work with Denise Juneau over the course of the last few years.

And also just wanted to elevate that the house kept past the capital gains tax today.

So I'm hopeful that in a state where we are not amply or really even fully funding basic education that there will be a more reliable sustainable stream of funding for education child care and all the things that will support young people and their development to be successful in whatever they endeavor in their lives and their future.

So I'll just end there.

I'm looking forward to that.

And the other thing sorry I wanted to just to mention was Vice President Hersey mentioned at the top of the hour yesterday's news about the guilty verdict for Derek Officer Derek I can't remember his last I can't don't know how to pronounce his last name.

But and I just want to really thank Vice President Hersey for elevating his comments and absolutely agree and recognize that you know on the same day we were celebrating or however people felt about the verdict Police killed another young person who you know at her age Makya Bryant 15 or 16 years old would be one of our students.

And so this issue is not done.

We're not done talking about it.

And I hope we can keep the momentum and do what we can as a system to ensure that schools are safe welcoming and places where we honor and value the lives of our Black students.

So thank you.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

I am just going to briefly go over the Executive Committee summary that we didn't this was on the April 8th Executive Committee meeting.

We had the initial we had a discussion about the authorization for reduction in force which is not a required board action meaning a reduction in force as is required to be communicated to the the to SEA by the 15th is not necessary at the board approval level that is within the authority of the superintendent.

I think you know we're at a time where it's it is could not be more critical than to start to create some really clear delineations with respect to What is our role as a board.

We are not alone in needing to create that clarity.

What it is that school boards do.

What we have authority over.

What we don't have authority over and how we exercise that authority effectively or not so effectively.

And so this is one of those areas where if it's something that are we wouldn't it wouldn't be taken to action until the next superintendent comes on until Dr. Jones is on.

And so it didn't make sense to to have As a committee we didn't we wanted to put it forward first the rest of the board to have a look at and be able to understand that that the nature of that resolution.

And even though we didn't have a lot of support it was we had put it forward for consideration.

But staff had since determined to to pull that resolution as it didn't again represent a requirement for a potential reduction in force which again hasn't been confirmed in any case.

There's no specific we don't know what that specific reduction might be.

So so we had that conversation it was a good one and that and then ultimately that was pulled off the agenda which everyone can see publicly.

Perfunctory items.

We did have the we've extended the legacy that Director Harris left on the committee to have discussions with our labor partners and so we had our carpenters represented at that meeting.

That was a great discussion and a way to kind of elevate yet another one of our labor partners that we're very grateful for their their hard work that often remains unseen.

And so that was a good part of the meeting.

And then thanks to Director Harris Hersey we had the opportunity to hear from the Rainier Beach High School Design Advisory Team and and then later that week I participated in a celebratory call as that with the unveiling of that of that design.

And I really appreciated the opportunity to hear from that team from their leadership and the very very long-term you know 20-year process.

that has led to this moment.

And I think it's it's a critical indication of how we often don't tell some of the stories that we need to tell and how how community had to fight to get to that place and is really excited about and proud of the work that's that's moving forward in constructing that new building.

And then also talked about our just the very beginning stages of what the very lengthy process will be for a permanent superintendent process as Dr. Jones is coming on as the as an interim.

So that's it from the committee work and I am going to leave it at that for as far as my comments.

Assume Director Harris has not joined us yet.

And if not then I am going to ask directors to pull up the strategic plan.

and their notes on goals and guardrails and turn it over to Mr. Crabo.

Yes.

Is it possible for us to take a 2-minute pause.

Sure.

For a bio break.

Yes.

Let's just as you need.

Let's take 2 minutes.

We'll reconvene at.

We're joined again by A.J.

Craybill from the Council of Great City Schools.

A.J.

will be leading us in the next step for work on goals and guardrails for our strategic plan Seattle Excellence.

And I will now pass it over to A.J.

Good evening.

Joy to be back with you again.

So this evening's task is fairly straightforward but not necessarily simple.

What we're going to do is we're going to go through your existing strategic plan because I want to lift up Just going to bring us back to why we're doing this.

So you all have already identified a strategic plan.

You've already identified a mission a vision and theory of action and a set of four priorities.

These priorities even go so far as to have some measurable ideas about them.

What you don't have however is a really concise clear way to identify which student outcomes the board most wants to focus in on and actually be able to monitor on a recurring basis.

And what you don't have is a clear set of a set of no more than five clearly defined community values that are the non-negotiables and a set of metrics that you'll use to monitor progress toward those.

And so your strategic plan the intention is not to modify it but the intention also is not to deviate from it.

You've done that work.

The sole effort toward which we've been working is just to give you the skills you need to draw from the existing strategic plan the measures that you'll use to monitor progress progress relative to your strategic plan over the next few years.

This is also important because you'll use these metrics for a variety of other things.

You'll use them to help identify how do you want to spend your time during board meetings.

Right now your board meetings are very wide ranging and have as I watch them I don't see really a clear, coherent vision that you all are pursuing, that you're saying, these are non-negotiable vision and values of our community that have to come to pass.

It feels like you all are jumping around and kind of going after whatever the thing of the moment is.

Having expressed a set of golden guardrails from your strategic plan, we can then use that.

The next step is using those to say, here is exactly what we're going to hone in on.

That means there are certain things that we're going to focus on in board meetings but it also means there are certain things that we're going to say no to.

Every time that we say no to something that actually strengthens our ability to say yes to the things that we say matter the most.

This is also incredibly valuable because you all are going to be pursuing on a superintendent search.

And there is a very big difference between going out and looking for someone who can talk the good talk but you don't actually know what they can do.

To what extent can they perform.

Have they had any experience accomplishing the things you want accomplished.

But right now it's hard for you to even have that conversation because you don't have a clear finite set of measurables to evaluate a potential candidate against.

One of the other benefits then of having a clearly defined set of goals and guardrails is that when you do have candidates available what you can do is you can look at their past record.

and try to derive from that some sense of is there any evidence to suggest that they have the capacity to do the things that we say are the most prioritized vision of our community our goals and that we say are the most prioritized values of our community which we define as guardrails.

In addition eventually you're going to want to budget resources.

And whether that is budgeting one-time dollars that are coming in or whether that is doing your normal annual budgeting process.

What you want as a governing team is a clearly defined set of metrics that you will use to ascertain whether or not the superintendent has focused the resources in the areas that you say demand focus.

Right now you as a practical matter don't have a really good tool or at least nothing that you've shown me suggests you have a really good tool for accomplishing that.

Your goals and guardrails can be that.

And so that's the why we are having this conversation.

And that's why of all the places we could draw a set of goals and guardrails our intention this evening is to do the work of drawing out a draft set of goals and guardrails from your existing strategic plan.

Let you all kind of hone that this evening and then in a subsequent meeting adopt that so that then we can move forward with actually putting into implementation what it means to actually be intensely focused on student outcomes.

So that is the why of what we're doing this evening and a little bit about the what we plan to do.

Look into your strategic plan and from it draw out a set of goals and guardrails.

Before we dive into the work any questions or comments about any of the framing I just offered.

Before we dive into the work any questions about the framing or what we are here to accomplish this evening.

Any questions.

All right.

Well then you should have access to a strategic plan.

In addition I've jumped back into the notes document that I've shared with you all before that I believe that you all have shared on your website.

So I'll be taking notes again but I'll also be flipping back and forth looking at your strategic plan to try as we walk through it.

And so the opening of your strategic plan there are kind of two preamble pages they have.

You mentioned your vision.

Your theory of action articulated.

I'm going to slide past those.

We may in fact wind up coming back to those very I think there's a large likelihood that we will.

But for the moment I want to slide past those and I want to address the four priorities that you've identified beyond that.

Priority number one high quality instruction and learning experiences.

So on this page which is the third page of your strategic plan this is a six page document.

So we're on page three but.

What there is to do right now is to look at it and the first thing we're looking for is goals.

Do you see a student outcome on this page that you believe if you were going to adopt three high-need high-leverage student outcomes to focus on that this would be one of those three.

If you were going to adopt just three high-need high-leverage student outcomes that you were going to be focused on as a board for the next few years.

Do you see something on page three that you would lift up as a candidate for that.

It's got to be a student outcome.

So there's a lot of adult inputs on this page.

I'm not asking about those.

We're just looking at are there student outcomes on here that you believe are if we were only going to have three This one would have to be one of those because it's such a high-need high-leverage area.

Take a few moments and look.

There doesn't have to be.

We've got three more pages to look at after this.

But you're looking for high-need high-leverage.

Yeah.

You got something Zachary.

If I understand the framework and the prompt.

I think the one that sticks out to me is students of color who refer this from educational justice will read it by at grade level by third grade.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that is clearly a student outcome.

It's talking about something that students know are able to do.

And so that is absolutely eligible to be one of.

And now let me ask the follow-up question.

Why would you suggest that.

of everything in this document why that might be one of the three most high-need high-leverage areas.

It stuck out for me because while I'm I'm very compelled by this the next one down which is mathematics by 5th and 7th grade and I've been a proponent of you know supports in 9th grade for on-track graduation I feel like making sure we start as early as possible is is more compelling to me.

And the other two like I said are really important but for some reason that for some reason I'm just called a third grade because I think that's I would rather be focused on earlier in the child and a child's educational development.

Anyone else.

Anything on page 3 that jumps out as a candidate for you.

If the board was only going to pick three things that these are high need high leverage areas of student outcomes what might you have.

I would definitely think that consider the mathematics goal a good candidate.

I appreciate that it's in the lower grades kind of to Director DeWolf's point.

I think that's pretty critical and it is one of the areas where we fail.

to provide students we feel the most I don't even know how to frame that but we do a really poor job in providing that opportunity now.

I don't think it's as well-defined proficiency.

What does that mean.

But I think that there's a that if we better define it that we could have a student outcome in terms of what our students in 5th and 7th grade what do they know and are able to do relative to mathematics.

that would constitute proficient and that that would be a massive skill and asset that we can provide to them as they make their way through the rest of their educational career.

Anyone else.

Page 3. Yeah go for it.

Yeah for me similarly it was the reading goal.

I think we just need to get really specific similar to the SMART goal that I presented last time just because I believe that those are tangible skills right.

And so if we're having the conversation around how do we set goals based on what students can do trying to figure out how are we aligning our expectations and aims from our strategic plan to actual skills attainment.

So that's kind of where my head is at.

So how would you sharpen this up to meet that expectation.

Do you want me to read the one you wrote last time.

Yeah that would be perfect.

All right.

The one you wrote was that by the end of the 23-24 school year 80 percent of Black boys by the end of kindergarten will know and retain with 80 percent accuracy the names and sounds of every letter.

Predetermine high frequency words and vowel teams digraphs and sounds.

Was that the one.

Yeah.

Got it.

And I could imagine that we could do something similarly with math as well.

Just throwing that out there.

I know it's not necessarily related to the topic but again that hard skill acquisition I think is really interesting to me.

Thank you.

Let's go for it.

Erin has her hand up.

Oh I'm sorry Erin go for it.

Thanks.

I just want to second.

what Brandon just said and and also think about the the math one that was proposed in our notes as well because one of the things that I was thinking of through these especially from our conversation talking about like what what is left to interpretation when we say like we'll be reading at grade level.

One of the things I keep thinking of is How do we measure that and what standards are we using for that and how do we determine the standards to use for that.

How does that.

I just I just feel that the one proposed by Brandon has much more clarity in in how we would execute that.

Lisa do you want to jump in as well.

No I thought she came off mute but she didn't.

Okay.

So I was just going to say that I feel really feel really bad it's not you know leaving out the students of color who are furthest from educational justice will feel safe and welcome in school.

But I could see how that could maybe be reformed into like a guardrail.

Because itself isn't really I mean that itself I don't know we don't say how it's measurable.

I know the goals should be like SMART goals where they have that you know they have all the qualities of that.

It's certainly measurable.

It's very much measurable.

However if they feel safe and welcome generally I think of that as the result of what adults have done.

that the adults have created a safe and welcoming space.

So in my mind that is not actually measuring student outcomes it's actually measuring adult outcomes.

It's not measuring what students known are able to do.

It's actually measuring what adults either have or haven't done.

And so for that reason I actually agree with your original statement.

I think it serves as a perfect example of a potential guardrail.

Yeah.

And maybe the same with graduating college and career.

Graduating college and career.

Because clearly as a school district our ultimate goal you know I mean ultimately the original ultimate goal was graduating students.

And and of course we want them to be ready for whatever they're pursuing next.

So but again that's maybe that could potentially be more of a vision or even a I don't know if God will.

No graduating college and career ready.

The students of color who are furthest from educational equity educational justice will graduate ready for college and career.

Is that the one you're speaking of.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No that that.

And I know we have them.

Sorry.

We had a couple like on that on that compilation sheet here that we're leaning towards that.

And I had one too even when I was about to be ready for the one for Student Life.

But I it's hard because we're trying to be very focused on like less than five days.

So I and I definitely see the importance of having a math and a reading goal to be more to be more targeted.

Just to clarify I would agree with you on this one that this is descriptive of the student outcome.

It does describe what students know or are able to do.

Either they can demonstrate college and career level readiness or they can't.

At that point we have to be more descriptive about what do we mean when we say college and career level of readiness.

But once we've defined that that absolutely sounds like a student outcome.

So that works.

Anyone else.

Something on page 3.

I just hit mute all so if anybody is trying to talk right now you are currently muted.

I was trying to get rid of the feedback.

AJ you are currently muted and Dr. Jones I believe we are getting feedback from you.

I don't know if you have another way to connect to the audio.

Okay.

Everybody else was hearing that noise.

That wasn't just me.

It was not.

Okay yeah.

Brent you're cut off until you pay your Internet bill.

For the rest of us we will continue while they figure out that technology issue.

Anyone else on.

page 3 before we transition to page 4. Anyone else on page 3 before we transition to page 4.

Let's look.

Oh I was just going to say I think I'm the only one who hasn't said anything and I pretty much concur with what's already been said.

Okay.

Let's look at page 4. Predictable and consistent operational systems.

Is there anything on here that's a.

that you would want to lift up that the student outcome that would be one of your three kind of if you had to pick just three high-leverage high-need student outcomes to focus on for your goals that this would be one of them.

Page 4. I'm not hearing any takers so far.

I would.

I would just.

Go ahead Director Rankin.

I was just going to say on page the goals on page 4 as as they are stated are are not really student-focused student outcomes-focused.

Yeah this is really heavily talk about the customer service work that the adults are provided.

The students would certainly be the recipients of but and unless your students are running the customer satisfaction you know surveys you know for your departments then this probably isn't descriptive of student outcomes.

Anyone else see something on page 4 that would jump out at you as a potential student outcome before we transition to page 5.

If I can just get clarity on how the goal of page 4 is not student outcome focus.

And I maybe I should totally get that but.

Yeah.

Got the word student in there so maybe I'm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So everything everything that your school system does has some influence on the well-being of children.

Everything your organization does.

You know do we pick this meal or that meal.

Do we pick this schedule or that schedule.

Do we use this type of seat on the school bus or that type of seat on the school bus.

Like everything you do has an influence on the well-being of children.

We're not talking about that.

We're talking about what is it that children know and are able to do.

And so the question is do you see something on page 4 that describes what it is that students know and are able to do as distinct from what it is adults know and are able to do.

And what what I heard Eliza kind of describing is that a lot of this is descriptive of what the adults in the system are doing.

Not descriptive of what students no one are able to do.

That's the distinction.

And so generally speaking our goals will be about what students no one are able to do and our guardrails will be largely about what's going on in the adult realm.

And so it's not that we're abandoning this page.

It's that right now we're just focusing on goals.

That's all.

Anyone else.

Something.

For before we transition to 5. Yeah.

Oh I just wanted to jump in again and the you know I think kind of related to what Zachary was asking.

The strategic plan is the the district's strategic plan.

So when we when we were talking about you know what our goals are going to be in terms of student outcomes it doesn't I'm kind of thinking out loud so correct me if I'm thinking about this the wrong way.

But it doesn't mean that these other goals are not important goals for the district to have that like providing customer service and everything is still really important.

But in terms of us as a board giving direction to the district and holding the district accountable for certain things our focus is on student outcomes.

Yeah the reason this is naturally confusing is because we're doing this completely backwards.

So in a more rational governance world the board would say here's our community's vision goals.

Here are our community's values.

Guardrails.

Superintendent and staff develop a 6-page plan that describes how you're going to accomplish that.

And they come back with this document based on that.

That my friends did not occur.

And so our options were throw this out and just start over from the beginning or derive from this the work product that you should have developed on the front end to begin with.

And the good news is it so we can do it this way and it's going to be just fine.

This isn't problematic.

But if you're wondering this seems a little bit backwards.

You ain't wrong.

So that's why it does seem a little bit odd.

It's because normally you would do it the other way.

And so what you wind up with is there's going to be a finite set of a very finite set of metrics that you all are using to constantly hone the focus of attention and resources throughout the school system that you all will be constantly measuring and tracking progress toward.

There is always going to be a much larger set of activities that the school system has to engage in in order to actually follow through on even the finite number of goals you set.

If you all say hey we really want to see students of color who are furthest from educational justice be proficient in mathematics in fifth and seventh grade.

we're not going to stop teaching sixth graders.

Like that's still going to be a thing.

Like little AJ you're in sixth grade now.

Fend for yourself for a year and come back and let us know how it turns out.

Like that's not that's not what's going to happen.

So there's always going to be a whole lot of things that are still happening.

The purpose of this activity is to say if you could only focus on a few things that have to happen because they're the highest need highest leverage areas and that you all will take responsibility for saying we're going to constantly monitor this.

We're going to focus our energies and because of our focus we will absolutely help ensure that these things happen while the administration is taking care of everything else.

This is what that's intended to be about.

And so yeah there's always going to be even if you had a thousand goals you would not encompass everything that your school system does in a day.

And so what really makes a difference at the governance level is are we prepared to be focused on a few things and cause those things to be priorities across our entire system in every corner of the school system.

These things are guaranteed to be a focus a priority.

And then everyone else after they've assigned some amount of energy and attention to these things are then also attending to all the other many things that they have to attend to.

This is just what it looks this is what This is what effective organizations do is they don't try to focus on everything at once.

They try to kind of maintain space with all of the things that they have to do while forging ahead aggressively in just a few specific areas.

You can try to do everything and that will sound good to people and everybody will like you more.

But your children will suffer for your lack of focus.

Other questions or thoughts about page 4 or 5. Anything else you see on there that might be worth pulling into a goal about student outcomes.

All right let's look at page 5. What outcomes for students are you saying on page 5 that might be pulled into if you are only going to adopt three high-need high-leverage goals that you wanted to constantly monitor and evaluate against on a monthly basis.

What student outcomes do you see on page 5?

What's a potential goal on page 5?

Things that students know or are able to do.

Other thoughts on page 5 before we transition to page 6.

Is AJ.

Yeah.

If I'm a student and I see a queer teacher or a Native teacher do I know then or can I know that I am represented and I can be a leader.

I can be a teacher.

Is that something that we can say is something that they're leaving knowing.

Or is that not rice that way.

I mean it's a stretch because it's not really I mean.

Yeah.

You're wondering if understanding the full range of potential that is within me is something that students would know or be able to do.

Yeah.

you know.

You know, context does matter.

If I live within the context that.

I can't possibly be an astronaut, then I think there's less likely that I'll be an astronaut.

But if I have, you know, this kind of core held knowledge that I am capable of being an astronaut, that context is likely to be decisive and.

setting what behaviors I do and don't engage in regarding science classes and so on and so forth.

So is that is my core knowledge of my own capacity and worth and potential something a student can know or be able to do.

I'd say you can I'd say you can put that in as a student outcome.

So I think it could work as a goal.

Thinking one step ahead.

I'm trying to think of your measure measurement for that.

I'm not questioning that such a thing as measurable.

I am confident you all have no system in place of measuring it at the moment.

And so that you don't have to.

If if you look at that student outcome and you think to yourself this is one of our highest need highest leverage like we don't get this thing right.

Like it is we're in such a deficit in this area that it's really going to disrupt our ability to get all the other things right for our students as well.

If you feel that's then then yes I would select it and then challenge your administration to figure it out.

So I wouldn't be dissuaded just because you don't currently have a means of measuring it.

But the moment you put on the list just understand that you are directing your staff.

Okay now we do need to find out a way of measuring this thing.

Anyone else.

Stuff on page 4. before we transition to page 6. Any other candidates you want to service.

Yeah so just on that conversation that you were just having from our notes the I identified one of the goal ideas we have from the notes that says within three years from September 2022 to September 2025 SPS will increase the number of students of color furthest from educational justice who have achieved proficiency in their home or origin language from 200 to 400. To me that goal in itself addressed page 3 5 and 6 which I thought was interesting just of my own note-taking but in 5 specifically because I do think to Director DeWolf's point that it is important to have representation in your school.

But I think as an outcome-based measurement that goal would show that would increase the cultural responsiveness of the workforce would increase the diversity of the staff and leadership.

So it has multiple multiple impacts on.

Hold on hold on.

I'm I'm confused.

Help me out here.

If we increase the number of students who are proficient in their home or origin language how does that increase the cultural proficiency of staff.

I guess I'm making an assumption by now that you're calling it I'm making an assumption about that goal assuming that in order to achieve that we would have adults within the system who could teach the languages and would be culturally responsive to those languages.

Got it.

So you're assuming that The only way we could possibly accomplish that increase is by increasing access to instruction which means also increasing instructors who have that capacity.

Is that kind of the logic chain you're connecting.

Yeah I wouldn't say the only way but I do think it would be one of the ways that we would see that play out.

Go ahead.

Anyone else something from page 5 before we transition to page 6. Thank you for that Erin.

Erin.

Yeah.

Looking at it I mean I think we all sort of know that a culturally responsive workforce will lead to outcomes better outcomes for our students.

It's it's obviously trying to trying to measure or quantify or pinpoint where that happens and how it's reflected and therefore how we measure it.

So I almost feel like going back to the last page 3 with the students of color who are for this educational justice will feel safe and welcome in school.

That's sort of like a goal dependent on the workforce.

These are all like overlapping in a way.

I don't know if that makes it into a student outcomes goal because you know when we talk about that then it was sort of a thing where yeah we probably can measure it.

We don't do it now.

I think it's even longer.

Which one did you say.

I didn't catch that.

The we talked about it in that page 3. The high quality instruction and learning experiences.

Yeah which one on page 3. The first one there the students of color who are furthest from educational justice will feel safe and welcome in school.

That I think is derived from the culturally responsive workforce.

That's what makes that possible.

Students feeling safe and welcome in schools.

Yeah absolutely.

So, I'm trying to find a way of making it into a goal, but again, like, it's about quantifying and measuring recent feelings of safe and welcoming.

We do do that.

We do the climate surveys in the spring.

We didn't do them last spring and I don't think we did in the spring either.

So we do attempt to measure that kind of thing.

Those are I believe anonymous though so we can't really pin in on which of the students answers are students who are furthest from educational justice.

I think we assume as a whole.

So I don't know that that would be a way of measuring if students furthest from educational justice will say the welcoming let's say the welcomed.

Anyhow I'm just thinking out loud here.

I would not be dissuaded by difficulties around measurement.

If it is the authentic representation of the vision of the community then you all need to identify it as a goal.

If it's an authentic representation of the values of the community then you all need to identify as a guardrail and let the uneasy task of figuring out how to measure it you know you know fall to the guy with the squeaky microphone.

Any.

Was there other ideas Lisa.

We were on page 5. Let's look at page 6 as we're still thinking about potential goals.

We're thinking about what are the highest need highest leverage areas of student outcomes.

Things that it is that our students know and are able to do.

That if we're only going to pick you know 3 of them what are the things that we most need to be focused on regarding what our students know and are able to do.

What do you see on page 6. You're only going to pick three.

What are the highest need highest leverage things that students know are able to do.

Like if we don't nail these we make nearly impossible the task of fulfilling on all the other promises that we have for our students.

Yeah John.

Well I mean they're not they're not established as goals.

They're inputs.

You know giving students voice is a is an input right.

Yeah generally when I think about anything in the realm of participation is typically at best an output.

So for example if we said we're going to have more IB courses for students furthest from educational equity.

Well the fact that we have more students sitting in courses that's a participation thing.

That's it's an output.

It's an important step in the direction but it's it describes what they participated in.

It doesn't describe what they actually know or are able to do.

So and I I think sort of along with the last one I appreciated the conversation or the dialogue between you and Director DeWolf around the what it is to have that sense of of knowing that these are things that I can do and be and what that provides that as a result of having the people teaching you that are reflective of you and your community and your culture and your language.

And this is kind of in that same way that you feel that you and your voice matters that your parents voice matters.

That that sense of knowing that that I do have a voice So you are in fact then more able to speak up.

It's a something that that in order to measure we would have and we have a relatively robust survey tool.

We could ask that question that does get broken down by demographics.

We could grapple with that.

You know if we want to make that a goal.

It's just a lot less concrete.

I think that to me these last two fall into that category of And I wrote the one about the the the language because that's important to me and important to many of the community folks that that from my community and that I talk to.

But you know is it is that the sort of as you stated the highest need goal for where we are right now.

You know I don't know how to answer that.

And I think that we could get this falls into that this page this.

engagement which is something we really struggle with in this district.

For me it makes more sense as a guardrail I guess in terms of implementation but that's kind of where I am right now.

If I was going to try to connect the dots between what you and Zachary said probably the the conversation I most frequently hear board members gravitate toward in this genre is what he was talking about was really kind of I feel like probably fits into Cassell.

You know they have Cassell has the Collaborative for Academic Social Emotional Learning and they've got these five core competencies.

I think what it was that was really around probably self-awareness if I had to pick one of the five.

The kind of most closely maps it was lifting up whereas kind of relationship skills or maybe self-management might be the closest.

you know kind of categories that yours fit into.

I lift that up only because it's kind of a fairly known framework.

I'm not suggesting it's the right one for you all but just as an example I can think of another district that I'm working with right now and essentially what they say is we're going to take these five you know CASEL competencies and one of our goals is we want to see an increase in the percentage of our graduates who can demonstrate facility with each of these five competencies.

Right now we're guessing that 50 percent of our graduates are really demonstrate adequate facility with these five competencies.

And we want to see that increase to 80 percent.

And then it becomes the task of Jones and company to go figure out OK how are we going to measure this thing.

And that superintendent and her team what they've done is they've started building out a series of rubrics.

Rubrics going all the way back to third grade.

So remember in this case the board passed a goal around what they want graduates to know and be able to do in these 5 social-emotional areas.

And the administration's response was OK here's what we're going to do in 3rd grade that begins to plant the seeds for these 5 competencies and here's what we're going to do in 5th grade and here's what we're going to do in 7th grade.

And at the moment that's where it stops.

None of the administration's measures or responses even touch high school because they're basically making the argument like these things take time to like the the harm done that has beat this out of children takes time to restore.

And if we don't start intentionally building that system at the very early grades then we're not going to be able to magically duct tape it you know at 10th grade.

And so I don't know.

If you all adopted something of that nature I think I think both of you are right.

I think it fits within the spirit of your strategic plan.

But I can't even begin to predict where your administration will go with it because there's a because it's such a immature learning space.

We just don't have a lot of school systems that have really leaned into this in the way we're describing.

You all can go that way if you feel like this is one of the kind of high need high leverage areas that the school system needs to nudge in the direction of.

But be prepared for kind of the roller coaster of uncertainty that comes from really being out front of most of the rest of the country when it comes to a conversation of that nature.

Like if you all talk about literacy Brandon's always going to be able to rattle off what are the key components of literacy and what are the things you have to do to get there.

You may not have anybody in your system who has Brandon level proficiency with SEL.

So it's just understand that it puts you in a place of greater uncertainty.

That's not a problem.

If it's the authentic vision of your community then lean into it.

But just know that it's going to be uncomfortable for you at times as you're navigating that uncertainty.

That's all.

Yeah thank you.

That's super helpful.

And I do think that there's as you said because it's an immature learning space also because there's a it's undiscovered yet I think what it means to experience that sort of quite literally academically as a child and then to actually experience that relationally.

And if the adults in your you know in your system are still operating under their former framework it may not have traction.

So yeah it's a it's a big lift.

But yeah.

It would most certainly require adult behavior change system.

Right.

Just because it's just because this is relatively new stuff.

Like if.

Yeah.

If you've got people who you know been teaching you know for 20 years literally this organization didn't even exist.

So there's no way this could have been part of their you know teacher pre-service training.

And so yeah I mean certainly.

would create disruption in your organization but that's what appropriate governance goals do.

They cause disruption on behalf of the needs of children.

Anyone else.

Page 6. Any other potential goals about student outcomes that you want to lift up.

And page 3 4 5 and 6 all fully available.

Anyone else.

Potential.

Goals about student outcomes you want to lift up from page 3 4 5 or 6. All right.

So that will still be open.

So the door is not closed on that.

But let's shift gears now.

Let's go back to page 3 and let's have the same conversation but now with guardrails.

So now we're previously we're thinking about what is what is what's our community's vision for what our students will be able to do.

That's goals.

But now we're switching away from that.

Now we're digging into guardrails.

So we're thinking What are the non-negotiable values that have to be protected, have to be honored?

These are non-negotiables.

There are going to be a thousand different things that you want to honor and protect, but you can't have all those.

If you were only going to pick three, if looking at page three, what is there something on page three that might be one of those three values that just must be a non-negotiable?

If we don't protect this, you know, everything else is going to fall apart.

As you're looking at page 3 what potential guardrail do you see.

I think that first goal could be a guardrail that within the context of all the goals the superintendent will not allow students of color who are further or I'm not sure how to phrase it exactly but not allow students of color who are further from educational justice to feel unsafe and unwelcome.

Yeah.

No you noted that's literally what I wrote down.

Anyone else.

Potential guardrails from from page 3. What are the non-negotiable values of the community that must be honored.

Yeah Hampson what you got for us.

So I think this is where the I'm trying to.

Find it.

I know we all wrote it down somewhere.

This is where the deficit not doing the superintendent shall not.

Let me get to my document here.

Superintendent well I had two critical ones for me and the first one.

Oh there we go.

I'll say these quickly.

Superintendent will not allow incidents and cultures of racism and discrimination in schools to go unacknowledged and unaddressed.

I'm not fully happy with how that sounds so totally open to that.

And I know Dr. Jones had some ideas about that as well as I'm sure others do.

But then the other was that the Superintendent shall not use a deficit-based approach when moving goals forward.

Yeah I pulled both of those forward.

Anyone else potential guardrails on page 3.

I have one.

I have one.

I'm going to go.

Okay I'll go.

I'm sorry I pulled one actually from the BAR earlier for the the revision and renaming of our highly capable advanced learning policy.

Because it sounded like almost like a a guardrail and if I so I have to go back and find the actual line from the barn now but the way I changed it into a guardrail here was that the superintendent won't allow the district to operate without students having.

No that's I'm sorry that's not even it.

There it is.

We're going to allow the district to operate without addressing the whole child needs of students through data-informed tiered services supported across central office and through a district-wide commitment to MTSS.

And I don't know if that whole thing needs to be there but it was sort of getting on that we're trying to address the whole child through the services and we're trying to be data-informed.

And we're obviously working or trying to implement tiered services.

So.

And here.

What are you saying that on page.

What on page 3 is inspiring that.

Well this is in regard to quality instruction and learning experiences and it's not one that's on page 3.

Got you.

But I mean we're it's a guardrail obviously.

But it was just something that I had.

Yeah say it one more time for me.

The superintendent will not allow the district to operate without addressing the whole child needs of students through data-informed tiered services supported across the central office through a district-wide commitment to MTSS.

Superintendent will not allow the district

To operate without addressing the whole child needs of students through data-informed tiered services supported across central office through a district-wide commitment to MTSS.

I think I really just like the whole child and data informed part of that.

I don't know if the rest is as broad as it should be but.

And in that same idea there.

Okay.

And so and in the same idea of high quality instruction and learning experiences.

I was also inspired by one of our speakers today Janice White she's our special ed PTSA president speaking about you know our commitments to special ed students and how we we have a lot of we say that we are committed to them and they're a priority but then sometimes it's probably not that way.

So to to probably add security there I was thinking we could form a guardrail in that say in there and so has them like the superintendent will not allow the district to operate without students receiving special education services meeting IEP progress or goals.

This seems general enough to encapsulate the work that we want to show how we want some sort of guardrail in regards to our special ed population services.

Yeah could you say that one one more time.

The superintendent would not allow the district to operate without students receiving special education services meeting IEP.

I had progress.

I don't know why it could be IEP goals but being progress is more appropriate.

Got it.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Anyone else.

Potential guardrails.

Yeah.

I have one that I had brought up before with regard to special education students or students receiving special education services and instruction.

The superintendent will not allow special education needs to restrict student access to general education buildings programs and opportunities.

Can you say that again Liza.

The superintendent will not allow student special education services.

Well we could say it a couple different ways.

The superintendent will not allow I guess we could say will not restrict access to general education environments buildings programs and opportunities based upon No.

Superintendent will not allow Special Education Services to determine student access to general education classrooms buildings programs and opportunities.

Okay.

I think I got it now.

Say it one more time.

The superintendent will not allow Special Education Services to determine student access to general education classrooms buildings programs and opportunities.

Anyone else.

Potential guardrails from page 3 before we move to page 4. Brandon did you have something.

I just realized I skipped over you.

Yeah.

So I just wanted to see if this kind of fits in especially with the reading goal.

We have a lot of conversation about budgeting and like how our strategic plan is actually in a separate budget and it needs to be really like focused on the whole budget.

I wonder if a guardrail could be the superintendent will not put forth a budget that X Y Z. I'm trying to figure out like what might the wording be to show that we are actually utilizing the resources and funds we have to directly impact the goals that we're setting for ourselves.

Yeah.

So this is a really important point.

And in this kind of student outcomes focused mindset for governing one of the rules and you'll actually see it in the rubric that I'll provide you all with it's in the Student Outcomes Focused Governance Manual is that the board will not adopt a budget until the superintendent has demonstrated their satisfaction that the board's goals are the first priority for resource allocation.

And and as a coach what I'll tell you is absolutely do not approve the budget until you are convinced.

And it's not your job to be convinced.

In fact I would tell you it's your job to be skeptical.

It's your job to start with.

I bet this doesn't do what it's supposed to do.

Like that that is your starting point when it comes to the budget.

I bet you this does not honor the community's vision is the way it's supposed to.

And now from that place it's the superintendent's job to present to you evidence.

Actually here it does.

And here's the way that we've woven the community's vision into the deployment of resources.

But it's actually not your job to be convinced.

Well well it's the superintendent I guess we got to go along with the budget.

Right.

It's the superintendent's job to convince you and provide evidence.

that the budget does in fact make as its first priority for resource allocation the goals that you've set.

I have two things that I want to say in follow-up to that.

First that feels almost opposite to what we do now.

Though over the past year especially around budgeting decisions that have needed to be made I just want to uplift the work that JoLynn and her department in partnership with Director Hampson and I and the board have been doing that's getting us to there.

But then my my next question really is man I feel like every time we have these sessions it just adds another layer to what to how like we're taking steps toward this.

What my concern is is that given the way that we budget now It almost feels as though when we're working directly with community on the budget and this I know what you're going to say to this almost I think.

But when we're working on directly with community on budgetary priorities it's almost in conflict with the work that we know that we have to do for our system.

Right.

And that's where we get into trouble because we know what the financial outlook is going to be.

especially when it comes to like discretionary projects or whatnot.

But when it comes to like adopting a budget on a large scale it almost feels if we're working with community then we're working against the district.

Big D. But if we're working with the district we're not being fully responsive to community.

So when we get to that point where we are holding the superintendent accountable to whatever the the drive or the aim might be how do we well I guess that goes in before I think I just answered my own question.

My question is how do we remain responsive to community around budgeting.

But at the same time knowing what the budget needs to be in order for us to move forward in a productive way.

Those two things often exist in conflict.

Yeah.

So if there is anyone left in Seattle who I have not annoyed this is my opportunity to bridge that gap.

So here we go.

Buckle up.

Buckle up.

Here we go.

All right.

So step one.

Your job is to represent the vision and value of the community.

Yeah.

Period.

Full stop.

There's nothing else.

Everything about your task fits into that.

You are either.

out to represent the vision of the community or out to represent the values of the community and that is your job.

That is completely distinct from representing the wants and inputs of the community.

So think of it this way.

I'll go back to a favorite example.

You know as the vice president of my neighborhood association You know Mr. Johnson will show up and say I want a stop sign.

You know and Ms. Williams will show up and say I want a speed bump.

Are those inputs outputs or outcomes.

Those are outcomes.

I want a stop sign.

Well no.

Okay.

That would be an input.

That's an input.

Right.

And Ms.

Williams shows up and Ms. Williams shows up she says I want a speed bump.

Is that an input or output or an outcome.

That would be an input.

That's another input.

Right.

Now if you reach under these the input and Ms. Johns and Ms. Ms. Mr. Johns and Ms. Williams they can't stand each other.

Now it it needs to be a stop sign.

No it has to be a speed bump.

It has to be a speed.

Right.

And then they look at me.

You the Vice President.

A.J.

which side are you going to pick.

The outcome would be safety.

The outcome is safety.

And my responsibility to say to them is, I am not here to represent your speed bump or your stop sign.

I am here to represent safety.

And so I'm going to turn to Brent Jones.

Brent, we are for safety.

We have a guardrail about safety.

Safety is important.

What are you going to do to accomplish safety?

And Brent's going to look at Mrs. Johnson, look at Ms. Williams, and say, well, I've had my team study it, and we're going to install a cul-de-sac.

And we have to be like cool.

Yeah.

Because it doesn't go against the cart rail.

Right.

In that moment have you represented the values of the community.

Yes.

By funding the cul-de-sac.

Yes.

Have you represented the wants and inputs of the community.

Yeah.

No.

No.

But that's not our job.

And that's not your job.

Right.

That is the distinction that you have to that you have to live inside of as uncomfortable as it is.

That's going to be real different for a lot of folks.

Right.

It's going to be real different.

So what happens is people are going to show up.

They say, Brother Brandon, I know you got that stop sign for me though, right?

And your responsibility in that moment is to decipher under what is the value underneath the input that you're surfacing for me that I do have an obligation to represent.

And I've got to check, does that already live in one of our goals?

Does it already live in one of our guardrails?

If so, then we've already got a system in place But if not, then maybe there does need to be a conversation about that.

But then really quick, really quick, one more thing.

So that sounds like what we need is the communication and the relationship necessary.

Say we are in a community meeting.

Folks are mad.

They want a stop sign and a speed bump.

We go to Dr. Jones and we say yo we got to do something about safety.

Dr. Jones says cul-de-sac.

Then it's our job as board directors to go back out and say yo cul-de-sacs.

Right.

And this — Your job to say your job first and foremost to say the priority in this community that I've heard is safety.

Did I hear you correctly.

Right.

Got it.

Okay.

So safety is what I want.

Here is a strategy the district is putting forward to accomplish safety for our children.

Right.

But then we also need to be able to articulate why we're not doing stop signs.

Why we're not doing speed bumps.

But why cul-de-facts are the best option.

Yeah.

Notice in my example.

Right.

You know I turned to Jones and said hey.

He says look I've already had my people study this.

And the best way to create safety on that block is we need to install a cul-de-sac.

And so at that point, he does have an obligation to express to you why, of all of the different safety possibilities, his team leaned into a cul-de-sac over a stop sign.

Because some people are going to tell you, well, wait a minute.

A stop sign would have been cheaper.

How come you're doing this expensive safety situation?

And he'd be like, yeah, well, we could do a stop sign.

But we did some research.

And the research told us that stop signs reduce flow through traffic by 10 percent but cul-de-sacs reduce it by 50 percent.

That means we got to start really digging into our data in a new way y'all.

Like our data our data allocation attainment all that needs to be.

It's not enough to say that you're honoring the values of the community.

You will have an obligation to prove it.

Yeah to prove it.

And we can't and what that also means on top of that is that like we have to hold ourselves accountable to not just collecting data any type of data but high quality data.

And then that's where I think another big piece of our system is going to really need to experience a shift because we have to have a.

data collection strategy.

Right.

There's just so many layers here.

I'm done.

So the next piece of this once you've identified some draft goals and guardrails I will then be working with your superintendent to identify some interim goals and interim guardrails.

These are the next layer metrics that you'll use to actually monitor progress to figure out are we because the thing about your goals and guardrails these are generally outcome metrics so you only get an update on them once a year.

And so the interim goals and the interim guardrails are your output metrics that are predictive of that are correlated with your goals and guardrails.

And that's the data that you look out to look at throughout the year to figure out are we actually getting closer or not.

And so yeah that that data of that analysis of what data will we use to monitor progress.

That is literally the next step in this process.

After we get after the board puts this it's stamp on this then you hand that over to staff and I'll work with the staff you know for each goal and for each guardrail we'll come back with you know 3 of these progress measures to say okay here's how given you've said this is the vision.

Here's how we'll monitor progress throughout the year.

Given that you said this is the value.

Here's how we'll monitor progress throughout the year.

It's not enough to go back to your community and say well we think we're doing okay on this whole value situation.

No.

You need to be able to prove it.

You need to be able to prove it in data.

Yeah have someone talk.

Oh I just wanted to scroll all the way back to the guardrail that Brandon was proposing because I I think it's an important one around making sure that our that our budget that we have the superintendent shall not.

I had a different one that wasn't as I had written a different one that was in our notes that is was about making sure that resources were allocated equitably or something that that that was a guardrail or that the superintendent shall not allocate resources inequitably or But what Brandon's getting at I think is more important which is the superintendent shall not I don't know what is the guardrail Brandon.

I wanted to make sure we captured that.

So what I wrote down was the superintendent will not put forth a budget that does not prioritize the board's goals.

Right.

Thank you.

Yes.

So I just want to make sure that that was that we had that one.

Oh yeah yeah.

I'm taking notes.

I'm on the job.

Madam President I'm on the job.

I don't want to get fired just yet.

All right so first I saw Erin and then Eliza.

You have potential guardrails that you're pulling out of page 3 and let's go ahead and add to page 4 in here as well.

So start looking forward to page 4. But Erin.

I actually had a clarifying question because from what I was understanding from the conversation you just had do we need to have a guardrail about the budget if the entire premise of all of the work is that the budget must.

Yeah so.

this.

Yeah you are incredibly clever.

I went ahead and wrote it down because it was literally said and so I just want to you know honor the process by having written it down.

But no I would submit to you that I was going to talk you out of it later because we're going to design a system to ensure that that actually happens.

And so you for example you shouldn't have to spend one of your guardrails on.

The superintendent will not embezzle all the money.

Like there are certain kind of fundamentals we're going to bake into this thing.

I know.

Dang it.

That you so you won't have to do really basic ones.

You won't have to say the superintendent you know you know will not break the law.

But another one that you shouldn't have to say is the superintendent you know will not vote for the budget you know does not prioritize the board's goals.

We're actually going to bake that into the system and then I'll be providing you training and it'll be on the timeline.

Like we'll literally have a calendar item on your timeline that says Okay during this month like a full 4 or 5 months before we even adopt the budget we're going to have a conversation about what is it what's the superintendent's plan for demonstrating that the goals are the first priority for resource allocation.

Like we're going to we're going to hyper front load that into the process.

And so yeah you you picked up on that quickly.

But I did to be faithful to the process I did that's why I did go ahead and write it down.

Yeah I had another guardrail but also a reflection on what Brandon and Chandra were talking about in terms of the budget.

And I think it's this need to be proactive versus being reactive is something that we as a board have already kind of been identifying.

We have several things that we've asked sort of you know can we can we see that sooner.

Can we move up in the process.

Can we you know Chandra and I have had meetings with research and evaluation about the district has in the past tended to collect and report out data that sort of proves backwards instead of examining where problems are and helping to plan forwards.

And so We've been having those conversations about just how to use instead of saying oh look that thing that we wanted to do.

We did it.

We did it.

Yay.

But it doesn't really help identify you know forward-looking work.

So I'm just sort of thinking about how this you know feels feels good to be having this conversation at this time to sort of a lot of things that I think have been sort of in the ether over the past year are kind of coming to the same point.

And in terms of the budget too I think in the past the budget has sort of said you know we don't have that much money and so here's what we're limited to.

And and kind of serving as a way to because of budgetary restrictions kind of force the maintenance of certain operations.

And a lot of times there's not time to to say well hey wait a second.

Our bigger picture values are are this and how do we.

I'm going to talk about theater again.

You know the story that you want to tell this the production that you want to fund.

You can't start by saying well we don't have money for you know a beach scene and a this and a that and whatever.

You have to start by saying this is this is the things we want.

And then within the reality of the budget think about OK within our realistic constraints how do we still achieve those things that are really important to us.

So I'm just I'm liking the you know the proactive goals instead of looking back so much.

The other guardrail that I had is one I brought up last time too which is that and it goes with safe and welcoming schools on page 3. So that the superintendent will not allow the use of disciplinary action or physical insert intervention as a substitute for culturally responsive behavioral and social-emotional supports for students with and without disabilities.

Yeah.

Got it.

Surfaced that as well.

Thank you.

Anyone else.

potential guardrails from page 3 or from page 4. We're adding 4 in as well.

3 or 4. Yeah Chandra.

Oh I'm just trying to.

Dr. Jones said this is transformative.

He wanted me to quote that.

You want to try your mic one more time.

So anyway he said he's confident that that we can find the measures and supporting data.

So just a thumbs up that he's he's tracking and supportive of the direction we're headed.

So yeah let's get our I just wanted to get us make sure we're on time to finish up at 730 with our get our guardrails for these next couple of pages.

I know we've got more of those and abundance of those so.

An abundance no doubt.

Anyone else on 3 or 4. Any potential garter and again and again I want to highlight this because we're up to 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. So we're up to 9. And so what I'm asking you is if you could only pick 3 because let me give you a hint.

They're not going to be 9 when we're done.

And so you just want to start thinking about if I could only pick 3 would this be 1 of the 3. There's a whole bunch of stuff.

But if you try to do everything.

then you will undermine your ability as a team to get any of it done.

And so you are going to have to enact discipline which means there are certain things that are very near and dear to you that might not be on the final list.

So what that might mean is that you have to take some of these and say OK what is a more broad version that captures several of these.

So the.

Just start thinking in that way.

How are we going to get this down.

If we were just going to pick three what would those three be.

Lisa I think you were jumping in next.

Yeah.

I just had I'm looking at page 4 because you didn't include that one.

That was the predictive system operational systems.

We had and it's on the form there.

We have in the ASA guardrail.

It's definitely on there about superintendent will not allow of operations to burden students in a manner that makes it harder for them to focus.

I didn't write this one I don't know.

I don't remember.

Yeah I remember that one.

I thought maybe it would even be more because it makes it harder for them to focus.

I was thinking it makes it harder for them to learn and to learn and grow because focus just seems I don't know if that's just like being in a classroom and something's shocking but more of you know operations are all over the place in terms of how we how they're provided and how they're executed.

So maybe like I said it could be Superintendent would allow multiple populations to burden students in a manner that makes it harder for them to learn and get.

Learning and achieve.

Something.

Learning and achieve.

Okay.

Anyone else from 3 or 4 in a moment we'll transition and add 5 in as well.

But any any other potential again if you had to pick only 3 on one of your top priority A high need, high priority, high leverage guardrail, you know, value that absolutely has to be protected.

Anyone else?

Page three or four before we transition to adding five in.

All right.

Anyone on page four or five?

Let's move forward a little bit.

Any on page four or five now?

I need high leverage must have if we're only going to have three guardrails this would have to be one of them.

Who's got an idea.

For page 5. Yeah.

From the last time on the from the notes we have from last time the superintendent will not retain educators who do not complete anti-racist and or culturally responsive training offered by the district.

I. Yeah.

Anyone else.

Anything from 4 or 5. Yeah at least.

There you go.

Can you hear me.

I'm sorry.

My headset died so I'm not sure if you can hear me very well on that.

You're good.

But so that that one just that was one that I've not heard of before and I'm trying to and I still like it growing up.

I wonder if maybe more general a lot of our at least they've been coming to light in the last year or two are with a student some student abuse by staff and which is just physical emotional psychological all that.

So I'm wondering if it's if it maybe could be broader as in Superintendent would not allow unsatisfactory employee performance to go unidentified or unaddressed because that that seemed like more You know it goes towards all kind of performance of staff.

But again I think they're both candidates.

I leave it to everyone else to chime in.

Say that one more time.

Oh I was just saying that was just my thoughts on that.

Either one to me is is is well would be effective in what we're trying to get towards with culturally responsive workforce.

Because I think this is about culturally responsive but that's overall performance.

And we want we want unsatisfactory performance to be addressed in a.

Identified and then addressed.

Yeah.

Got it.

Well we're not allowed to go unidentified or unaddressed.

Right.

Because we have a backwards of it.

Anyone else 4 or 5 before we transition to adding 6 in.

Anyone else 4 or 5.

I have one I have one I think for 4. No for 5. Yeah culturally responsive practice and diversity increasing.

How do I want to phrase this.

Tell me what it is you're trying to say and then I can tweak it up for you.

The superintendent will not allow I'm trying to talk about relationships between adults and from adult to student in terms of race and identity.

We tend to or I have been you know included in conversations between from educator to educator educator to student principal to educator and I and I where the the comfort basically where white feelings are protected more than educators of color and students of color being affirmed and seen and valued.

And I think that's definitely you know prevents us from having a culturally responsive workforce because some of our educators of color are demeaned and diminished by their own colleagues.

And so how can anyone stand up for what's right for students if when an incident arises you know I mean I I've heard well I've tried to talk to her about that but she just takes everything really personally.

Like well but she did a there was a racist lesson and can't let that keep going.

So she might take it personally but like Why is that more why is protecting that individual's feelings more important than calling out something that is absolutely you know the opposite of cultural responsiveness.

So I don't know that the superintendent will not allow white white feelings to be to to diminish the impact on so I'm not sure how to how to phrase it but like.

We can't shy away from incidents of racism because the people who are perpetuating them are uncomfortable by having appointed that out.

Want to phone a friend real quick.

Anybody out there want to help.

I might have something.

So mine was the superintendent will not retain leaders who do not support and promote values of racial equity and social justice in our delivery of education.

Is that what you're because for me it's a values It sounds like you're trying to we want them to be.

They're not.

I think we have a lot of times where people would would say that their values are one way but then when it has to do with them personally their behavior indicates a different response.

So I think most most people most educators staff the board would say.

Oh yes our values as a person working in Seattle Public Schools are to be anti-racist and to uplift students of color.

That is what they believe is and this is you know Seattle white Seattle as a whole.

This is what they say their their values are.

But then when confronted with an actual decision or an actual incident of non-cultural responsiveness or active racism Don't we kind of already.

It's deflected and becomes about the individual being upset instead of or or people's not wanting to deal with it because they know that someone will be upset.

But it's at the expense of the person who was actually harmed.

So I'm just trying to figure out what the superintendent can can do about that.

Because these are guardrails for the superintendent.

Well I think we've got the superintendent needs to hold principals accountable to address that type that those you know incidents in their buildings even if it's not comfortable.

I think it's included in some of these other things.

Can I just read Brent's is sending me a couple that he wants to put forward.

So from page 4 guardrail the superintendent will not implement relevant and tangible support without engaging those we are serving in the solution.

And then 6 6 is found that's my next one's page 6. So I just want to make sure I got that in there.

This feels important to me and I'm trying to be objective and not just self-serving since I've been Black for a while.

But I think we are having some difficulty nailing down the language.

So my request is cogitate on this a little bit more.

Let's keep moving so that we can get comment in about page 6 as well.

But then remind me to come back to you so we can just spend give you a few more minutes to spend time thinking about okay what might The what is the how do we put this idea to language in a way that works.

So we're not skipping over that.

We'll come back to it but just give some more time for refinement.

Anyone else.

Sorry I wasn't trying to.

I just want to make sure I got Brent's in there before we.

No no that's no yeah.

That's fine.

So yeah we will come back to this one around kind of how do we you know how are we creating a safe space for our staff and students of color you know to be able to confront issues that are addressing or how we how are we not allowing the safe space for you know patterns of oppression to be perpetuated in our system.

I don't know how best to think of that.

I would have added to the conversation page 6. Any ideas around page 6.

So let me give Dr. Jones's.

The superintendent will not design community meetings without engagement principles that are predictable consistent and coordinated.

Say that one more time.

The superintendent will not design community meetings without engagement principles that are predictable consistent and coordinated.

This was from last time wasn't it.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah it was.

Okay I found it.

All right.

Anyone else from page 5 or page 6.

In alignment with that and also overarching and to bring back another conversation I think we had.

I don't know that I have a great guardrail for it but I am noticing that we do not have anything regarding student voice or youth voice in in what we're talking about and I and I do think that That's really important.

And so the there's a goal on page 6 of the strategic plan that says students of color who are furthest from educational justice will have meaningful voice and leadership in school and district initiatives.

So I wonder if we add Superintendent will not allow school and district initiatives to go forth without students of color who are furthest from educational justice having a meaningful voice and leadership.

I feel like there's some words left off to make that a complete sentence but.

No no no.

I think I've almost got it.

Run it one more time.

The Superintendent will not allow school and district initiative to move forward without students of color who are furthest from educational justice having meaningful voice and leadership.

Got it.

Who else.

Page 5 or page 6. And keep in mind folks we're well we're well on our way to 20 and we're going to have to trim this thing down to closer to 3 here very quickly.

So we're about to cut off.

Yeah.

Any new ones here in a moment.

Lisa what you got.

I wanted to say so like I think what Erin just said there was valuable.

It's also might already be covered in our recent policy adoption to have student representatives on the board.

Because like and as I was doing these look at these I realized a lot of them can be just brought it forward as policy changes as opposed to making actual goals or guardrails because those are very limited.

So like that one while it's a goal we're carrying that out through policy already.

So maybe that helps take it off the list because again it's important but it also might be covered again through policy already so that could help us narrow it down.

Just my thoughts.

I wouldn't rely on that.

If there is something that you think is the highest need highest leverage high priority vision or values then we should make an effort to capture it here.

Simply put from a board perspective I wouldn't counsel you to trust that things are happening unless you are monitoring them.

And so the Golden Guardrails is a set of your policies that is finite enough that you will be constantly and rigorously monitoring them.

So these are things that you will know whether or not they're happening or to what extent they're happening or not happening.

And so if it's something that is absolutely critical this is the stuff you're going to spend time measuring.

And so if it's absolutely critical it's you want to put into the bucket of things that are measured not leave it in the bucket of thousands of pages of things that are not necessarily monitored.

And so if it's mission critical don't trust that it's being happening somewhere else then surface it here.

But again you also only get so many items here.

So you've got to kind of weigh the pros and cons.

Anyone else.

Page 5 or page 6. before we cut off additions and move into the contractions.

All right.

Then first I'm going to read to the goals.

And the question is are there any of these can be combined.

Are there any of these that can be combined.