Let's get this party started.
It's 415 December 5th 2018. Welcome to the December 5th 2018 regular board meeting.
As we begin the meeting the board would like to recognize and honor the first peoples of the Puget Sound territories by acknowledging that we are on the land of the coastal Salish tribes.
I would like to.
Welcome Angel Corpez representing Cleveland STEM High School.
Go Eagles.
I am a graduate of Cleveland High School before STEM who is joining the board on the dais this evening.
Ms. Corpez will have an opportunity to address the board later in the evening.
And Ms. Corpez when we ask questions of folks you are most welcome to join in.
Thank you.
Roll call please.
Director Burke here Director DeWolf present Director Geary here Director Mack here Director Patu here Director Harris here and Director Pinkham will be late this evening.
He has a employment at UW that he could not get out of.
We expect him here by 530. Everyone would please stand if you so choose for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Indeed we do not have student presentations this evening and I'm sorry about that because oftentimes that's the best part of the meeting and then some.
So if we could redouble our efforts for the showcasing of the extraordinary talents of our students.
Superintendent Juneau I hand the gavel to you.
Your comments.
Rock and roll.
Hello.
OK.
Better.
All right.
So I just start out usually just kind of talking in three parts.
The first part's always students and families and what I've been seeing around the district and often when I visit schools students are my guides and here.
I really do like seeing the view of their school through their eyes and what they figure out is what is important and things that they want to show me.
This is Ghazi who's a senior at Seattle World School.
He does plan to attend college next fall and it was interesting because we sat through some of the principal work that the principal was visiting with some sort of helpers to help him with classroom evaluation and talking about questioning that the principal was doing and so he got to sit in as a part of that as well.
This Bailey Gatzert student is in charge of taking care of the class guinea pig and the responsibility really is it helps her stay focused.
And so that was really something to see.
This young woman Alana Ramirez organized and emceed the Native Assembly at Nathan Hale High School.
It was very very impressive.
assembly that was pulled together for the entire student body.
And I always am impressed as I go around the district that how wise our students are and the deep thought that they're putting into their existence and how they navigate the world.
This Nathan Hale student spoke her truth during the assembly and helped Hale students understand the harm that mascots of mascots and how they portray stereotypes and what kind of harm that can cause to people is very very powerful.
After the assembly the leadership group who put this put on the assembly stuck around for a photo op with all of the native leaders who came to the assembly.
There were several in attendance from neighboring tribes.
So you know all I can say to that is their motto is Hail Yes.
Last Friday I toured Adams Elementary with these new leaders.
They have a brand new student council.
They're the very first student council representatives of their school and they we talked a lot about the arts program that they have going on.
They also have a dance class.
I think they're one of the last schools in the district that has a dance class is very very cute.
They talked about.
The teacher was leading them through different kinds of emotions and what dance would correspond with that.
And the funniest one was, she'd go, well, what emotions should we talk about now?
And one kid was like, romantic.
And they were like, what's romantic?
because they were very young.
Our staff continue to impress me as well under the principal's leadership at Bailey Gatzert.
They are so fortunate to have this group of counselors family support workers and interns that are supporting student and the principal really does a great job of coordinating all these efforts.
But the true partnership with Bailey Gatzert comes through Seattle U.
and the communities in school project they have going and a strong of course a strong partnership with the Seattle Housing Authority as well.
One of the cool things that happened at the beginning of the year was Seattle Housing Authority worked with the families in their units and they the families organized sort of a walk around for the teachers in their school that they were able to get a view of through their eyes of their neighborhood.
Also want to thank Principal McDaniel for her leadership and commitment to the well-being of staff and students at Madrona and Principal Cross and Ghazi here were great hosts at Seattle World School.
Gail Morris our very own Gail Morris was honored at the Nathan Hale Native Assembly and she shared thoughtful words with the all student assembly audience and also showed you know the awesome I am Native video that all of us are so proud of.
This leadership team at Adams is is having arts integration as it holds to high academic expectations and I guess I misspoke.
This is in Adams is where yes same school where they having a dance class.
And at Adams that was Friday so it was go Seahawks day.
They were there on Blue Friday and the office team was definitely showing off its gear.
The first this first year principal of first year to us is at Whitman building a very strong system that now and really having to.
We've talked about these issues before of when the middle school gets below a certain number of kids.
And so that's where she is sort of starting to build strong system now that the school is much smaller.
And so I just want to thank her for her leadership and navigating her way through that.
Our staff is so dedicated.
This large group gave up their Saturday when we were in the board retreat as well to spend the day at Chief Sealth working with their building racial equity teams.
They had over 200 people show up.
And so that's really good work that's going on across our district.
And then the third prong is also always community.
As I said earlier the Bailey Gatzert partners the Seattle U. Seattle Housing Authority.
The Confucius Institute met with them.
They are a partnership with UW.
They've been part of our partnership group since 2010 and they support our Chinese language programs.
So a lot of good work going on there.
Schools Out Washington is a partner that ensures CBO's are trained in skills that best support our students and so they're doing great work and want to thank them.
And of course thank you to all of the sponsors at my last listen and learn stop to meet the members from the native community.
Good conversation there.
Just want to also shout out give a special shout out to Representative Claudia Kaufman who helped organize that.
And this happened down I think at South Lake.
The Haida dance group gave an amazing performance last Thursday.
And so a lot of good things happening across our district.
And then I was fortunate to be able to spend the annual breakfast for the Urban League and just want to thank the president and CEO of Urban League Michelle Merriweather for her commitment to ensuring a bright future for everyone.
It was pretty phenomenal.
They had great speakers and a lot of fun.
So thank you Madam President.
Thank you.
Now we go to board committee reports.
Who would like to go first.
Director Mack director of operations excuse me chair of operations committee.
Good evening.
I'm also going to be reporting for audit and finance tonight because Mr. Pinkham is going to be running late.
We have our Ops Committee meeting tomorrow which is with a very packed schedule.
We're going to be getting some more information about the proposed three million dollar transfer to the general fund for the 2019 school year from capital and learning about the end of year close out of our capital budget.
We also have several board action reports that are coming to us related to capital projects that are ongoing including roofs at North Queen Anne and.
Van Asselt and projects at Ingram and Meany.
The.
Three big items as well.
Transportation service standards student assignment transition plan and the boundary revisions that are.
proposed Magnolia is one and the other is at the Robert Eagle Staff Middle School a shift around I believe just the Olympic view boundary.
And we're also going to be talking about under the special attention items getting a capital projects report that's a.
biannual thing no semi-annual thing.
So every six months we get that report and we're going to be talking about the planning for a work session on community workforce agreements which we I don't believe we have scheduled yet but we're going to continue talking about how to schedule that and frame that work.
So it's going to be a very exciting day tomorrow and hopefully we don't run too far over.
430 right next door.
It is an open meeting and all are welcome.
for audit and finance.
The next meeting isn't scheduled until December 10th.
And Jennifer that's not yet posted.
But we did have yesterday the audit and finance quarterly report where we went over the audit responses for around 34 different items that range from cash handling to HR systems improvements to the consideration of internalizing our GCCM approval process or certification process as well as we got reports audit reports on the special education write back process and the Thornton Creek school audit.
And so it was a very productive interesting meeting and the next audit finance committee meeting is December 10th.
Bless your heart.
Thank you.
Next up Director Burke curriculum and instruction chair.
Thank you.
Next curriculum instruction policy committee meeting is December 11th.
At our previous board meeting I spoke about what was happening at the last one.
I regret I will not be able to attend.
Director DeWolf has offered to chair and Director Geary will be substituting to fill out the group.
So thank you both for that.
So you'll have to report on what happened afterwards but what should happen includes a couple of different policy things some policy 2024 and 2420 two different high school credit related policies that have been worked on are.
on the agenda.
There's a policy 2022 which is electronic resources and use of the Internet.
This is one that's had some conversation.
I've shared some some feedback and some of some thoughts about how we put sort of responsible personal technology usage guidelines in that as well.
So I'm hoping that that will be a great part of that conversation.
Policy 2015 around instructional materials adoptions which has been worked on for the last couple of meetings.
We'll is going to have one more fight at the apple as it were.
And this is a really important one.
There's a work study sorry an update on the work in ethnic studies which is coming forward.
So I think it should be a really great meeting.
So I'm sorry I won't be able to join the some other work areas that are under curriculum instruction.
I just wanted to summarize for for the public benefit.
We had on November 27th a work session around high school and our 24 credit work.
And in that work session we had a lot of conversation around the plans to expand credit earning opportunities.
There's been a long term goal to increase credit earning opportunities to be responsive to the 24 credit graduation requirement and also provide more places to put additional content areas additional courses.
And when we're looking at our budget constraints coming forward we were trying to explore alternatives to that modified 7 period day.
So that was a.
A rich discussion on what's the best way to serve students and make sure that they are getting not just 24 credits but that are getting something that's a high school experience that prepares them for what's next.
And.
The next day on November 28th we had an advanced learning work session which was also a really rich conversation.
We heard from the work of the advanced learning task force and they're trying to improve our what we hear about constantly around the disparities in our highly capable program.
It was I think in my three years felt like the first work session where we had a co-creation process between board staff superintendent and and a task force.
It was really neat.
We were able to take all the different material and synthesize it into something which I think was even better to help them move the work forward.
So I really appreciate my colleagues and staff and and the community for helping with that work.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Director Geary please.
OK.
On behalf as the legislative representative not much has changed since the last report.
Obviously session will be starting in the new year.
We will be looking for ways to meet with our delegation prior to session starting and going over our legislative priorities which have been set and are published.
Beyond that just would direct people to if they haven't seen Superintendent Reykdal's editorial today.
I think it was good in terms of explaining some of the confusion about the levy amount and how that relates to the amount that can be collected and utilized versus being having the flexibility necessary to respond to any legislative changes that might happen with regard to funding so that we have the ability to utilize that which is determined appropriate in providing education to our students.
So thank you to Superintendent Reichtel for that clarification because as I read it I felt like it was really needed very clear and helpful.
There clearly are a lot of ways for people to engage now to support schools in the civic arena.
And if there are people out there who are looking for ways to do that well I can't go into too much depth from here on different ways you could do that.
I would encourage you to reach out to different board members and talk to them about what you might want to do to support your schools as different voting opportunities and lobbying opportunities come available.
So.
And that's pretty much it.
Eden anything to add.
Great.
Thank you.
Director DeWolf did you have anything to add with respect to your liaison work sir.
Actually yeah and I was going to mention it here but it makes sense to mention it here.
Did really grateful to meet with Councilmember Muscata this week to talk about education just to increase the lines of communication and just to chat.
Can you slow down.
I didn't hear who you.
Oh sorry.
Councilmember Muscata.
Thank you.
Just wanted to chat about kind of strengthening our partnership opening up that line of communication and wanted to just chat about the recently passed.
Thank you to Seattle voters families education preschool and promise levy and.
Yeah hoping to look looking forward to working with her and the rest of the council in the city and strengthen our partnership.
Thank you.
Exec committee has been meeting not in an executive committee arena with all the staff etc..
But we've been working on some of the policies including but not limited to work session planning.
There is a fine balance between oversight and killing the folks on the dais and killing the staff getting ready.
Every time we have a public meeting folks prepare folks take off time from work.
Folks take time off from their families and we're trying to get creative but still do our due diligence and fiduciary duty.
And you will see a resolution in the consent calendar later this evening regarding that.
Please be assured the fact that we're not having 10 oversight meetings that we had two years ago does not mean we are shirking our duties.
We are in fact doing so.
Thank you.
We are at Roman 5 student comments again like to welcome Angel Corpuz She is currently Cleveland's Associates Associated student body president.
Fun fact she's the first female president in 10 years.
Way to go.
She's been busy this year using her platform to reach out to students and coordinate events besides being president.
She's also a student athlete who plays soccer and ultimate Frisbee.
In addition to her Cleveland commitments she's constantly volunteering at her church and likes to wind down by hanging out with friends and trying new food places.
After high school she plans to pursue higher education in the hopes of becoming a chemical engineer which she discovered once coming to Cleveland.
So those of you all out in TV land they're going to offer her an internship this summer.
We can get you in touch with her.
Turn it over to you.
Want to hear what you like.
Want to hear your frustrations and want you to tell us as candidly as possible what you think we should know.
Good afternoon everyone.
Hope your day has been good so far.
My first encounters of being in a position of power began unexpectedly.
I was just a freshman who had started playing my first sport in high school ultimate frisbee without the intent of gaining this position.
I was elected as the team's ultimate frisbee captain.
I have always grown up with a willingness to help others.
However, through this opportunity, I was able to use my platform to exemplify diligence and emphasize the importance of teamwork, inspiring others to become the best versions of themselves.
During my term, I was able to discover my love for helping my community through leadership positions.
This experience compelled me to continue to find ways to serve my community on a larger scale.
Prior to coming to Cleveland, I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.
My family often tried to sway me in the direction of becoming a nurse, a typical career for Filipinos.
I didn't know what ambition I wanted to pursue, but I knew it wasn't in the medical field.
In Cleveland, we are a STEM school.
Our academics revolve around science, technology, engineering, and math.
As freshmen, we choose between the School of Life Sciences or the School of Engineering and Design.
What's great about having a pathway class dedicated to one of these topics allows us to explore these options and gain greater insight through hands-on learning and being put in real-world scenarios.
This aspect has been able to confirm many students' decisions of wanting to work in these fields or allows them to understand its needs and leads them to take a different path in life.
We focus on project-based learning where we're often assigned groups and graded on collaboration and knowledge.
So essentially we learn while working on the project at hand.
Doing this over the course of four years has trained students to learn how to succeed under circumstances where they might not necessarily like the student they're working with or that student thinks differently from them.
This is encountered frequently in the workforce.
We also have many presentations sometimes even under professional settings in front of hundreds of people or judges with high ranking professions much like how I'm here today.
Through this we learn how to be impactful public speakers a vital skill that isn't emphasized the way it is at Cleveland.
In my personal experience I was an extremely timid shy student when I first entered Cleveland High School.
I used to be so shy my kindergarten counselor thought I was mute.
However, Cleveland has opened many gateways that allowed me to enforce my speaking skills and my confidence.
The staff at Cleveland not only care for students academically but personally.
They do whatever is necessary for us to excel.
Many too many teachers stay after school to help their own students or volunteer for Cleveland's after school help program called cash where they help any student in general.
They're even willing to purchase supplies with money from their own pockets.
They know each and every student's strengths and weaknesses using that knowledge to sharpen our weaknesses and maintain the skills that we're strong in.
They take the time to get to know us personally.
A lot of the time we write letters to our teachers in the beginning of the school year getting one in return.
Having that piece of information between the student and the teacher really starts that initial conversation and connection.
The faculty at Cleveland are approachable mentors that we can rely on for resources, advice, or simply a laugh to cheer us up on our bad days.
Our school runs on block scheduling, where we go to four classes a day, alternating between odd and even periods.
Having 80 minutes a day dedicated towards class allows us to remain focused on what is being done and gives us ample amount of time to learn material, ask questions, and thoroughly do our work.
Our school is extremely diverse when it comes to culture religion and economic status.
I think this is my favorite thing about Cleveland.
Being surrounded by so many different backgrounds allows us to cultivate the ideas we have through means of interacting and working with people who may have different perspectives from us.
We are able to see through a variety of lens yet come together as a whole to appreciate these differences.
Cleveland is a community where diversity is welcome and acknowledged.
Overall Cleveland is a well-rounded school.
There is depth to the community where there aren't standards or status that students feel the need to fit into.
Academics here aren't easy.
In fact they're rigorous but they're possible and this pushes us to reach our full potential.
The learning system prepares us for a bright future.
At the end of our high school careers we are ready to face the real world.
I am honored to speak on behalf of my school because it is truly one where I have grown to become an inspirational leader teacher not a teacher a friend and a student.
Sorry.
Thank you all for having me here to speak today and I hope you are able to see why Cleveland High School continues to thrive.
Thank you.
Oh don't put the mic down yet.
Please.
heard about what you like about your school and that was fabulous.
Thank you.
Tell us some of the frustrations and the things this board of directors and the staff here need to know.
I would say one of the biggest issues we have at Cleveland is the lack of funding in clubs and also sports.
Something that I mentioned was that we often have teachers purchasing supplies out of their own with money out of their own pockets.
and having to resort to creating GoFundMe pages just just for students to have their own textbooks like in my AP statistics class we are supposed to share textbooks between two people and sometimes it's hard because you know the pages on their side of the table things like that.
It's just the little things that add up and that kind of put a halt to our education.
And also in the athletic in athletics a lot of the time the jerseys are handed down through generations of students and like for my soccer team we used to share we used to share jerseys with the boys.
And from that experience I can tell you it's not easy when you're wearing a large size large jersey and you're running down the field and people think that you're the one that's smelling but it's the jersey.
So it's been it's been pretty difficult to be seen as the underdog because of the way we look the way we smell and not having that many resources that we can rely on academically and through our athletics.
So that's our main that's our main setback at Cleveland I think especially since we are in the south end and we're not recognized the way we are or the way schools are in the north end.
Thank you.
And.
What kind of college plans so you can become a chemical engineer.
Go Dawgs.
You name it.
I'm actually hoping to become a chemical engineer at University of Washington Seattle.
I know their engineering program is really good and it's actually pretty competitive.
But my advisor here Mr. Brian Gordon shout out to you.
He's been helping me along the way giving me advice and he's also shed light on my backup plan which is to become an environmental engineer I believe because I know that the engineering pathway is extremely difficult to get into at UW so hopefully I make it.
If I don't then I have a different plan in life that I can take.
OK.
And when Director Pinkham comes.
Make sure you buttonhole him because he works for the College of Engineering at the University of Washington.
That's a bonus for showing up and getting counted.
Yes.
Do we have other comments and questions from my colleagues.
Director DeWolf.
Thank you for being here.
My first question is what what was the impetus for your journey from being the kid that maybe was shy or didn't speak to now the class president.
You know like even now I'm a little nervous as you can tell but overly.
Yeah like my mom told me stories about how I was put into all of these extra classes because.
I wasn't saying a word for the entire week of my first week of high kindergarten sorry kindergarten.
You know I had to take tests that made me differentiate the words three and tree and it was a confusing process because I was born here and what allowed me to speak this way is Cleveland.
And I will say that.
My confidence started to develop as I entered the school and I already had the natural instinct to help others.
Filipinas are really hospitable as you might know and that's just a part of me.
And so discovering that I was able to use my help on a widespread scale compelled me to.
Help others help my community because Cleveland is a community that I find a huge part of me that really changed who I am today.
And so that's why I wanted to help and I wanted to be for a huge amount of people not just my friends not just a few people I wanted to be for the whole school.
That's awesome.
My follow up is just it's not a question but to say that I imagine that's that slip.
You should keep that in there because I think you really are a teacher and you definitely teach more than I think you probably give yourself credit for.
Thanks for being here.
I appreciate that.
Thank you all for having me here today.
Director Burke.
Thank you definitely for coming.
That was amazing.
The nervous part didn't show you.
You did great.
And I think you should definitely include you know since this is going to be online you should include a snip of this of your testimony as part of your college applications.
Definitely.
Can you tell me you know you've mentioned chemical engineering you've mentioned environmental engineering as a fallback.
Is there a story behind that.
Is there something that you're hoping to do in the world that you see that enables you for.
Well I will say that I've always grown up with the love for science and for the love of math.
My dad used to my dad used to tutor me way back then when I didn't understand how to work with negatives or fractions.
And so having that bond between him and I really motivated me to continue my studies in math and.
That led me in the direction of wanting to become an engineer because I've always been such a visual learner and such a hands-on person.
And so I discovered that through Cleveland where I take an engineering pathway, principles of engineering, and I was able to create different types of products.
And I was able to discover that people actually do this for a living.
It's kind of obvious that people do it for a living but you know I never saw it as a realistic career because you know my parents were workers at Safeway and I thought I was going to follow in the same direction as them but knowing the capabilities that I have allowed me to think of a bigger picture and create a brighter future for myself that I'm hoping to follow through with.
Director Geary please.
Thank you so much for coming.
It's been a delight to hear about you and don't want to duplicate what everybody else has said but do want to point out that.
Engineers are singly focused people and I'm so glad that you have that skill set but I'm going to give you just a piece of advice that you can put aside.
Be sure to take some business classes as well because you're going to quickly be put in charge of the people that you work with and you work for until one day we hear that you have your own business.
I think you're reading my mind with that.
OK because you definitely you just strike me as somebody who will want to go bigger and take whatever skill set you have and help it to foster more people and make something bigger.
So it's been lovely to hear from you.
Thank you.
Director DeWolf an encore.
Thank you.
Sorry.
I just I really appreciate you being here and I just you know I want you to also share something with your parents.
Just thank them for allowing you to be a part of our district.
Thank them for all of the hard work and resilience that they taught you and just thank them for for making you who you are because I'm really really grateful you're a part of our district.
So thank you.
You're going to make me tear up here.
Yes I thank my parents a lot for everything they've done for me and they're extremely supportive people.
They're proud in whatever I do and I know they'll be happy to see me on television tonight.
Hi mom and dad.
Hi.
Thank you so much.
And again I remind you when we are asking questions of staff raise your hand we'll call on you.
OK.
Thank you.
OK we have reached the consent agenda portion of our meeting.
We have a motion for the consent agenda.
I move passage of the consent agenda.
And if asking to remove something from the consent agenda.
We're going to do that as soon as we second it approve it and then ask for someone or some bodies to remove things from the consent agenda.
OK.
I second the motion.
Approval of the consent agenda has been moved and seconded.
Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda.
Director Geary.
I would like to move the personnel report from the consent agenda.
Thank you.
The personnel report has been removed from the consent agenda.
We have a motion to do we have anyone else wishing to remove anything from the consent agenda seeing none.
Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended.
So moved.
So seconded.
All those in favor of the consent agenda as amended please signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Director Geary would you like to address your concern with the personnel report.
Given the limitations on what can and can't be said from the dais as well as my role as a board director and my duties to the school board.
I'm not going to make any comments about the personnel report because that isn't necessarily appropriate in this forum but nor did I feel comfortable with approving the personnel report.
Thank you.
Any other comments questions concerns keeping in mind the limitations of our comments seeing none.
Director Geary would you like a roll call vote on approval of the personnel report.
Yes please.
Roll call please.
Director DeWolf aye.
Director Geary.
Excuse me.
Hang on.
General counsel has come to the box to beat me.
Good evening Noel Treat chief legal counsel sorry to interject but there you now need a motion to approve.
It's your job.
Yes.
We need a motion and a second to approve the personnel report which we didn't get.
We jumped right to voting.
Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report.
So moved.
So seconded.
And we are having a roll call vote on this.
Could you start the roll call vote again please.
Thank you.
Director DeWolf aye Director Geary no Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham Director Burke aye Director Harris aye.
The motion has passed by a vote of 4 to 2.
Thank you.
OK.
We have now reached the portion for election of board officers.
And I turn the gavel over to Superintendent Denise Juneau.
Oh I get the gavel.
Just don't beat me with it.
You will preside over the election process as the secretary of the board.
OK thank you.
Before I open the floor for nominations I would like to review the election process.
For each officer position president vice president and member at large I will take nominations from the board.
A second is not required for nomination but a second can be made.
After all the nominations are made for a position there will be an opportunity for directors to provide comments before voting after comments have been concluded.
The board will vote for each position in the order the nominations were made by law and board policy.
The voting will be conducted by a roll call vote.
The voting will continue will conclude at the point when one nomination gets gets four or more votes.
After the president has been elected we will move on to the vice president and then the member at large.
In summary for each position there will be nominations then discussion then voting at the conclusion of the election process for all three positions.
Each new officer will then have an opportunity to provide remarks.
Nominations are now in order for the office of president.
I'd like to nominate current President Leslie Harris.
Do I make comments or just the nomination?
Just the nomination.
I second.
Are there other nominations for president?
Other nominations for president?
If there are no more nominations I close the nominations for president.
Would any directors like to make any comments at this time.
Director Mack.
I'd just like to say that I'm I'm nominating Director Harris for president because I've been really pleased with her leadership over this last year.
I think that the continuity going forward will be important and she keeps us on track.
Director Patu.
I too am very supportive of renominating President Harris.
I feel that she really keeps us accountable more ways than one.
And I would like to see her back in this position.
Director Burke.
I am also in support of this nomination.
I've been thrilled to be working with President Harris and also to be led by President Harris.
She is one of the hardest working people and most committed people that I've met as far as alignment to mission and leads from her heart and speaks with candor and sometimes people don't like it but sometimes it needs to be said.
I'm in support.
OK so Ms. Wilson-Jones please call the please call the roll for the vote for Director Harris.
Director Burke aye Director DeWolf aye Director Geary aye Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Harris aye.
Congratulations on your election as president Director Harris.
Thank you.
Nominations are now in order for the office of vice president.
I nominate Rick Burke for the office of vice president.
I second it.
Are there other nominations for vice president.
Other nominations for vice president.
If there are no more nominations I close the nominations for vice president.
Would any directors like to make any comments at this time.
Director DeWolf.
Yes.
Thank you Superintendent Juneau.
I am really excited about continuing to vote and I'll vote in the affirmative for Director Burke.
I think this might sound a little crass but particularly in a work around equity.
I think you're a white guy that gets it and.
And that's the thing.
That's all that's all racial equity work asks that you lean in and do the work necessary to understand that issue.
And I know that you do that and I appreciate that.
So thank you.
Director Geary.
I've made this nomination for having worked with Director Burke as a vice president over the past year on the executive committee.
I think he brings just a voice of.
An analytical voice that is very helpful in terms of identifying different interests and synthesizing them while moving the question forward in a practical way.
Keeping it continually centered on the mission of the district as a whole and what's going to benefit our students and their futures.
So I appreciate that and that is the lens that I want to continue to remain in our executive.
Not that it isn't existing otherwise but it is a nuance.
that Director Burke brings.
Director Harris.
Beautiful segue and I appreciate that.
Director Burke and I think differently.
And when it works it's a beautiful thing.
And we ping back and forth and.
We have diversity of folks on this dais that makes us so much stronger not just by which neighborhoods we live in but what we bring to the table.
And Rick brings passion.
He brings a laser like focus to the things that he cares greatly about and he is extraordinarily generous with his work ethic.
and with his desire to work together.
And I it is an honor and a privilege to sit up here in the first place.
It's even a bigger honor and a privilege to work with such great people.
And Rick you're you're the first among equals and it's been a blast and it's only going to get better from here.
Thank you.
Director Mack.
I support the continuation of Director Burke in this role.
I have really enjoyed this year working with each of my board directors and I want to second the statement from Director Harris about the diversity because I think that one of the strengths of the Director Burke as well as Director Harris and Director Geary so the existing executive committee has been accessing those strengths in our committee work and helping to to coordinate all of that really effectively.
So I've been really grateful and I look forward to that.
Thank you.
Ms. Wilson-Jones please call the roll for the vote for Director Burke.
Director DeWolf aye Director Geary aye Director Harris aye Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Burke aye.
The nomination of Director Burke is approved by a vote of 6 to 0.
Congratulations on your election as vice president Director Burke.
Nominations are now in order for the office of member at large who serves with the president and vice president on the executive committee.
President Harris.
I nominate director Zachary DeWolf and it is my pleasure to do so.
I second.
Are there other nominations for member at large.
Other nominations for member at large.
There are no more nominations I close the nominations for member at large.
Would any directors like to make any comments at this time.
President Harris.
It has been a privilege to work with one of our newest directors director Zachary DeWolf.
He brings a different and unique perspective to our work.
And it's a critically important perspective both as a Native American gentleman both as a queer gentleman both as a younger than some of the rest of us on this dais gentleman.
He's not afraid to stand up and get counted.
And when you vote for somebody you have to vote for someone that is fearless and has the courage of their convictions.
And that is OK with reaching out and asking why and getting the answer back sometimes like we do because we've always done it that way is unacceptable for elected officials when we have 53000 students and we have some 7500 staff and when we have a one billion dollar deficit.
when we're doing good things but we have so much more to do.
He's a workhorse.
He's not a show pony.
And he's going to work really really hard this next year because we have so much to do.
We can and must do better.
And I look forward to doing that.
And I have to say that your investment in going to Baltimore to the Council of Great City Schools has really paid off in the sense that oftentimes because of the Open Public Meetings Act we don't get an opportunity to really get to know our colleagues.
And when you know your colleagues and you know their strengths it only exponentiates from there.
And that was beyond the high point of that trip.
Thank you.
The dry crowded rooms not so much.
Director Geary.
I support this nomination in particular for all the reasons stated but I what I look to you to bring is your background in the county and in those types of roles.
You I've seen you when you're working and your process oriented perspective is very good at keeping people focused on the task at hand and making sure that you're honoring the process that you're making space in the room for the different voices the respect with which you treat people.
on a daily basis is very much appreciated by me and I just see you as taking the job on the executive and making sure that the executive functions in a transparent and process oriented way.
You just have a good skill set to do that.
So I hope I hope that you find that there is space within the executive committee to do that work.
Director Burke.
I'm enthusiastic.
I think my colleagues have already stated a lot of things I want to add two more unapologetic and relentless advocate for our equity mission.
I think you hold yourself to high standards.
You hold the rest of us on the board to high standards and you hold the whole organization to high standards and I really appreciate that as we've had conversations and then you have this relentless Relentless good focus on keeping students at the center.
And I love that.
Ms. Wilson-Jones please call the roll for the vote for director DeWolf.
Director Patu aye Director Burke aye Director DeWolf.
Can I abstain?
Director Geary.
aye Director Mack aye Director Harris aye.
Congratulations on your election as member at large Director DeWolf.
Madam President I would like to report that the officers for the board of directors for 2019 are president director Harris vice president director Burke member at large director DeWolf.
I would now like to invite our newly elected officers beginning with the president to offer any remarks that they would like to make.
Again.
It's an honor and a privilege just to sit here at this dais with such great people and to be able to do the work that affects so very many people.
It has been a long and sometimes very difficult year and I assure you.
Next year will be a long and somewhat difficult year.
We right now are looking at a 40 to 45 million dollar budget deficit.
We're looking at passing two levies.
We're looking at a city that is growing by leaps and bounds but perhaps the most important growth is the division between the rich and the poor in this city.
The homeless and others that are being priced out of this the city I grew up in we have to triple down to make sure that folks get the best that we can offer.
That means being creative.
That means being tenacious.
That means standing up and getting counted.
It also means that we take the high road.
We work together we work together with staff.
We give space and grace which frankly sometimes is very difficult for me to do.
We have a new superintendent.
We have a reorg and things are changing.
And personally I like to know all the reasons why things are changing and I like to know what's coming my way next.
But we're working on that.
And in fact we did some very good work at the retreat where we talked about things like communication between board directors staff cabinet members and the superintendent and also balancing that with our fiduciary duty for which we were elected citywide for to give constituent services.
We're working through it.
Please be assured that is collaborative work.
I invite all of the directors and all the staff to give me feedback.
Many of you have taken me up on it.
Most of the time it's been very constructive and I have been a better leader because of that and the offer still stands.
And and it's just it's an honor and it's a privilege.
It is the hardest work I've done in my life and I work very hard but it is without question the best work.
Thank you.
Director Burke.
Tough act to follow.
And so I usually only say this in smaller groups and not from the dais while we're being videotaped but I'm going to put it out there that from my perspective this is three years now and I will say publicly that this is the best midlife crisis that I personally have ever had serving on the on the school board.
And so I'm really grateful for the opportunity to serve the colleagues that I serve with and the ability to make a difference for our students because that's what makes it feel impactful.
The feedback that we get from the community that helps us shape policy that helps us know how to direct the district how to find.
the things that are substandard or deficient or the places where we can find efficiencies.
I just this work has made me more grateful for all of the amazing things that happen in the city.
So I expect to continue essentially doing what I've been doing in this role trying to.
Build bridges create partnerships find places of synergy.
One of the places that I will with the support of my colleagues try to dig a little bit deeper on is that communication piece helping to put more predictability into it into our systems into our policies.
And I'm definitely willing to do a little bit more of the heavy lifting if that's an area where where my colleagues would like to see some of that work done.
Director DeWolf.
Superintendent Juneau.
I am mostly just looking forward to being a part of both providing learning and learning about leadership for our board and our board activities.
Logistically I'm particularly I'm excited about this idea that I've had about opening up our work sessions across the city and having a work session at least maybe quarterly outside and out into the community at one of our high schools to be able to feature our high schools bring folks in for public comment from places across the city that may not make that may not be easy to get to our headquarters down here.
And also got some really great ideas and projects that I'm working on that I want to see through in the next year.
But outside of that I'm I'm I'm ready to continue to be relentless in working my butt off to ensure that high quality education reaches every kid to ensure that they can reach their full potential.
But mostly just want to continue to center race and our students and all of our decision making and I think this is a perfect opportunity opportunity and place to do that.
So thank you for this opportunity.
Thank you for believing in me.
I would just like to take a moment and congratulate each of the executive committee.
I really look forward to working with you as we get this through the strategic plan get through the budget get through the levies.
And I am just really excited about centering students in our work and making sure that our decisions go from policy that we can see a three a see through a through line all the way through to student achievement and success of students because that's really what public education is about.
A lot of good work to happen.
I'm excited to do it and I'm excited to do it with you and make sure that we are pushing the dial forward as we need to on all kinds of different issues.
So I'm just congratulations again and really happy to be here in this seat.
Appreciate being the leader of Seattle Public Schools along with you.
I now turn the gavel over to our new continuing board president Director Harris to take the meeting into a brief recess.
I'm going to take five so that we can do a little coaching with respect to the new at large director's role.
I second the motion.