001Good evening, everybody. Welcome to our regular scheduled Board meeting, Wednesday, March 20. Can I please have everybody stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands. One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Can I please have roll call? Director Tidholm? Present. Director Hagos? Here. Director Petrini? Here. Director Van? Here. And Director Alvarez has an excused absence. And to my right is Dr. Duran, our superintendent. I just want to thank the Board and Cabinet for an engaging work session on our strategic plan. So we had that earlier today, so thank you. With that, any calls for changes or additions to the Board agenda this evening? I call to make a motion to remove
0026.3, Approval of Personnel Report, off the consent agenda for executive session discussion later. Yes? That's what I'm supposed to do? I second that. All in favor? Aye. We may need a voice vote for that one. Do we need a voice vote, Holly, or a roll call vote? Voice vote? We'll do a roll call. Roll call? OK. Thank you. Roll call? Yep. Director Tidholm? Yea. Director Van? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Petrini? Yea. This motion passes, 4-0. Thank you. Any other changes or additions to the Board agenda? Hear and see none. Thank you. We have a couple recognitions this evening. First up is our National Autism Month, and Director Petrini is going to be presenting. I'm really excited about this one. Autism is something very near and dear to my heart, as I have a son
003with autism and have gone through that schooling and therapy and all kinds of things in getting him through and graduated. So I'm very excited to read this proclamation. It says, "Whereas autism is a pervasive developmental disorder affecting the social, communication, and behavioral skills of those affected by it. And whereas as more health professionals become proficient in diagnosing autism, more children are being diagnosed on the autism spectrum, resulting in rates as high as 1 in 59 children nationally. And whereas while there is no cure for autism, it is well documented that if individuals with autism receive intervention early in their lives, it often is possible for those individuals to lead significantly improved lives. And whereas there is a spectrum of needs associated with autism from mild to severe, some individuals require a lifetime of specialized and
004community support services to ensure their health and safety and to support families' resilience as they manage the physiological and financial burdens autism presents. Whereas Autism Society of Washington is spearheading an awareness effort in order to educate parents, professionals, and the general public about autism and its effects, now, therefore, the Board and superintendent of Highline Public Schools do hereby proclaim April 2024 as National Autism Awareness Month in Highline, and to urge students to join with the Highline Special Needs Parent-Teacher Association to become better educated on the subject of autism spectrum disorders." And if you guys like to come up, I think we have Gabe Burghardt to come and accept our award. I don't know. What do you call it? Recognition. Thank you. Joe, you're more than welcome to say your thoughts. You're like you're ready to
005go. I am. I wondered If I was supposed to. Thank you, Dr. Duran and Board of Directors. Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, as you mentioned-- I don't feel like I should say anything because you did it so well-- but is a neurodevelopmental condition that impacts social interaction, communication, and interests and behaviors. It exists on a very wide spectrum and has varying levels of severity. New data says that one in 36 children actually are diagnosed with ASD currently. And these students may experience sensory processing issues and may struggle with loud noise, bright lights, smells, and being touched unexpectedly. These issues can make classroom environments very challenging. Building inclusive learning environments that intentionally plan for providing appropriate accommodations, modifications, and services allow students with ASD and all students access to a meaningful grade-level instruction alongside typical peers.
006So thank you very much. Thank you very much. Come on up for a picture. And our next recognition is our community partner city of SeaTac. Can I please have Lela and Roderick come on up? I am going to call you up. Thank you, Board Directors and Superintendent Duran for having the community partner recognition. I'm so happy to have the city of SeaTac here tonight. They provide a teen program, after school program, at Chinook Middle School. And I would like to invite Roderick up. Roderick is a former alumni in our district and actually was a participant in the teen program when he was in school. And after Roderick shares a little bit, we'll have our friends from the city of SeaTac share about their programming. Thank you, Lela. Appreciate it. Good evening, members of the Board,
007Superintendent Duran, as well as everyone present. It's an immense privilege for me to share the experiences of an organization that has played a significant role in my life. As a former student from Tyee, I spent a lot of my afternoons in the Teen Center at Valley Ridge, where I went and got myself some Kool-Aid or some snacks just to keep the day going. But in hindsight, I didn't realize that they were keeping me away from possibly getting into trouble. So I'm really thankful for them. Today as I stand here, not only as a former student but also now as a partner, I'm really happy for the amazing work that they have done for our community. I'm overjoyed to witness them receiving this recognition and also see all of the positive impacts that they have in
008a lot of the students that I see and I support on a daily basis. So now it's my pleasure to introduce Iris Guzmán and Nicole Jones from the City of SeaTac, who will share more about the program's invaluable work. So hello. I am Iris Guzmán. I am actually the Deputy Mayor of SeaTac, as well as a former social worker for the Highline School District. So I miss you all very much. I'm here today to just talk about our programming that we have in SeaTac. The first thing would be to highlight the before and after school program that has been relocated to Bow Lake after the City saw the value in providing capital for room to be added on with the rebuild in 2007. So this allows us to serve elementary schools in SeaTac with the
009collaborative efforts of the school district that helps with transportation. We have students from all three SeaTac elementary schools. The opportunities include snacks from Nutrition Services, which Broderick spoke to. We like to feed the children. The paper? Paper? OK. There are scholarships also available for any youth and families who are not able to afford it because we wanted to make it accessible to all. And currently we have 30 students in the morning and 30 students in the PM. We also have the Chinook Teen Time. So this started in the 2022-23 school year with a grant-- thank you all very much-- from the Highline Public School District for $40,000. Right now, it is available three days a week in order to be able to utilize the activity bus that's offered on Monday, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. 194 students
010have been served unduplicated-- that's a big number-- that's really cool-- for Chinook in the '22 - '23 school year at five days a week. 113 students in the '23 - '24 school year three days a week have been served. The program includes homework time, arts, crafts, music, outside field time, and a hot snack from Nutrition Services. A King County librarian also comes in monthly with books and to do an activity. And this program is for free, so that's also another way to make it accessible. Finally, what I wanted to highlight is the Teen Center that started in 2001. In 2015, a room was added with CDBG funding-- so that's federal funding, basically-- to add a foosball, ping pong table, 3D printers, and TVs. I was excited about the 3D printers. I'm not going to lie.
011That's really cool. It was obviously closed in March of 2020 due to COVID, but it was reopened in 2023 for two days a week, Wednesdays and Fridays. And the average is about 50 students that drop in. It's also for free. And what the kids get to do during this time are arts, crafts, board games, video games. They get to check out basketballs, soccer balls. And there are organized tournaments and snacks. If you haven't been to that area, it's actually really cool. It does border Tyee, or I guess, former Tyee right now. And it's a really beautiful spot. So thank you all so much for your support in making all of this happen. Hello, thank you. I'm Nicole Jones. Just to also give you a little bit of background, the City's Teen Program started in the
012spring of 2000, with an average of four students at Valley Ridge. And Tyee had the 21st Century grant and weren't getting huge numbers, either. But in the fall of 2000, we decided to partner, and we started getting hundreds of students from middle school and high school students. And hundreds, literally, because that's when I started, too. And that's what launched the Teen Center and started the collaboration between the both of us. When I started in October of 2002, we had middle school and high school students that were coming to Valley Ridge to check out soccer balls, play ping pong, foosball, video games, and all this stuff that Iris mentioned. Eat stacks of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, drink Kool-Aid, and what I wanted to do is give kids a safe place to be after school. In
0132002 came the opportunity of the Chinook Teen Time program. We were there, as she mentioned, five days a week with homework help, monthly activities. We also have King County Library bringing books and activities. We also have collaborated in our youth programs with the rebuild. I'm sorry, we're kind of saying the same thing. But we also serve before and after school and school break camps. And I believe that this partnership is a great value to our SeaTac residents. I have worked at or supervised all of these programs and can say that it has taken a team to make these programs successful. There is the acting supervisor, Ashly Burch, who's joined me here tonight. We have two specialists, one being Eric Peterson, and two part-time recreation leaders, Lily Garcia and Omar Turan. And we have numerous recreation
014leaders who are the hands-on, the boots-on-the-ground people who make our programs run. It is also the principals and administrators at the schools-- Karin Jones, Taylor Blue, Sydni Neves, and Alicia Gaynor. We are also looking forward to reopening and working with Victoria Terry, Jay Novelo, and Don Miller to continue our collaboration when we can reopen the Teen Center five days a week again. Thank you again for the recognition of our programs and the work we do for our SeaTac students. Thank you so much. Can you please come on up for a picture? OK. Oh, 1, 2, 3. And one more. 1, 2. Thank you so much. OK, we're going to move on to our scheduled communications here. On behalf of the Board, we would like to thank you for coming and speaking this evening. Our norms
015and rules are posted on the screens. Please be mindful that you are here to speak to the Board and that there may be students here or watching that are paying attention to your words. In addition, the Board will not be able to respond directly to you about your testimony during the meeting. Thank you again for coming and speaking. First up is Katelyn Asare. Hello my name is Katelyn Asare, and I cede my time to Josiah Tiblo. All right. Good afternoon, members of the Board. My name is-- oh, and Superintendent, Dr. Duran. My name is Josiah Tiblo, and I am the ASB Vice President at Puget Sound Skills Center. And I'm here to address the raise of the de minimis from $15 to $100 annually. The de minimis is defined by School Board procedure 3515 as
016a minimum value. In my own words, the de minimis defines the amount of money that a school can spend on an award or prize or incentive that students can then possess. The average de minimis in our region ranges from $25 to $50, and we are requesting an increase of the de minimis to $100 annually because we serve 22 schools from six districts, as well as the Muckleshoot tribal and homeschool students. First, raising the de minimis will allow our schools to create a sense of culture and belonging. Coming from such different environments at our home school outside of PSSC, it can be hard to create a culture of belonging, especially for our first-year students. A higher de minimis will allow for our increased school efforts to produce a positive culture of school pride in many ways.
017In addition, School Board procedure 3515 defines awards as recognition of something of value as a result of competition, merit participation, or in recognition of service to the district on part of the recipient. Attending PSSC is an honor and privilege. In fact, about 50% of applicants get denied every year, which puts it on par with schools like UW-Seattle. We would love to provide merit awards for the achievement of being accepted into our school, such as uniform assistance, culture of belonging class shirts, and et cetera. With the current de minimis of $15, it is extremely difficult to provide any awards or incentives. I'm just providing examples, but imagine the opportunities for schools across the Highline School District. Finally, I wanted to ask how this is applicable to school supplies. We can all agree that students deserve the
018necessary school supplies in order to succeed. But the de minimis of $15 poses serious challenges in meeting those needs. For the reasons you have heard, I am urging you all to consider a revision of Highline Public School procedure 3515 to allow for a de minimis of $100 annually. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Thank you very much. I know that you were trying to beat the two minute. Can you please provide that speech to Adriana, and then she'll send that to us? Thank you. Oh, wait. OK. There you go. Next up is Quincy Gill. Dr. Duran, Directors, Thank you for the opportunity to speak on social-emotional learning. My students experience a lot. And without going into detail, I will say that many have stressors in their lives that children, much less any
019adult, should have to deal with. Some routinely arrive to school in crisis, but they arrive to school nonetheless. This stress is compounded when the collective trauma of lockdowns and violence nearby the school sets in. After a recent lockdown, our school recognized that we could not teach as normal. Several committed staff members created materials for students to engage with emotional check-ins and with different levels of consciousness that yielded different explanations for violence in the community. When they considered critical consciousness, students were pushed to think about having to think about the driving factors behind the violence, perhaps unmet needs, lack of a supportive community. And not only did this social-emotional learning prime them to take an active role in their community and consider the situation, but it primed them for learning in our class. They were regulated
020and ready to think critically about class content, how climate change could impact our community, and how we can identify solutions that suit our needs in King County. This is the value of social-emotional learning. A person in crisis can't learn history or chemistry or how to analyze literary devices in a poem. SEL allows students to learn and allows us to teach. In Highline, we affirm students' experiences and teach them the skills they need to grow from their burdens. For this, I appreciate the district's commitment to grade-appropriate social-emotional learning, and I'm here to advocate for adequate staffing of counselors and social workers. I would also advocate for further SEL training opportunities for all staff, especially in secondary because these supports allow for quality teaching and learning to happen in Highline. Thank you. David Thomas? My name is
021David Thomas. I've been a social studies teacher at Evergreen High School for about eight years now. And I'm here to express my appreciation to the Board, to you, Dr. Duran, and to our district for its integration of race and identity work into our school curricula and for helping improve our students' ability to see themselves in their own learning. Highline's initiatives incorporating equity and identity into curricula provide teachers and students the structures and tools to contextualize knowledge, enabling our students to create rather than receive knowledge, to tell their own stories rather than be told the stories of others. What does it mean for our immigrant students to join their story to that of a country that has so often prided itself on being a melting pot and also reviled and repatriated immigrants in fits of xenophobia?
022What does it mean for our Black and Brown students to live their stories in a land founded on such high-minded principles as liberty and equality, yet explicitly denying them those same rights? What does it mean for our female students to be empowered human beings in a society that rejects their equality and their autonomy? What does it mean for our gay and lesbian, queer, and trans students to be present in an educational space that so often denies them a presence in their own textbooks and books. It is when and only when we are asking such questions that we empower our students to move from learning history to being historians, from learning social science to being social scientists. It is this, this ability to synthesize multiple stories, narrative and counternarrative, that allows our students to move into
023the sort of higher level rigorous thinking that will prepare them for higher education, the workplace, and to be an informed citizenry. An education, particularly a social studies education in which a student cannot see themselves, strikes me as a rather tragic thing, like a mirror that shows another's face-- useful for something, perhaps, but not for learning about oneself. Thank you. Ben Folgers? Good evening, Board. My name is Ben Folgers. I teach ninth grade ELA at Mount Rainier. I want to start off by thanking the Board and Dr. Duran for your commitment to equity in this district, as well as a culture of belonging. I come to you to also thank you for your commitment to inclusion within our schools. I'm a general education teacher. Have been for the past 10 years. But for the vast majority
024of my career, I have also been a co-teacher. So a co-teacher, for those in the room who may not know, means that I have the opportunity to teach our students with special needs as well, in partnership with the special education teacher, who, in my experience, is Gary Tarver, who is amazing, in my school. I want to ask the Board today for a larger commitment in terms of resources for training for all of our teachers. Right now, I think the Board has made this commitment for inclusion, but we need to devote more resources to it. Right now, it feels like a lot of the trainings are delivered to those co-teaching partnerships, as opposed to all teachers. All teachers within our schools are teachers of our students with special needs. I think very often our students with
025special needs get siloed. And so we often just think of them as those students in those co-teaching classrooms. But for our students-- thanks, Shauna-- for our students in those rooms that do not have a co-teacher but that still need that support, those teachers also need that training and those resources to understand how to better reach our students and to deliver quality instruction to them so that they can succeed in their life. Thank you. Next up, Marcus Stubblefield. Good evening, Dr. Duran and the School Board of Directors. My name is Marcus Stubblefield, and I've had students in the Highline district for nine years. I have also worked for 35-plus years in the fields of youth development and juvenile justice. I am here to speak about the broad impacts about literacy has on the outcomes for youth
026and my family's own struggle due to Highline's failed methods of teaching students to read. The podcast Sold a Story outlines these messages, for those that are interested. In February of last year, we made the painstaking decision to withdraw our daughter from the fourth grade at Marvista and try to recover the joyful spirit that was in a free fall due to the lack of skill and confidence in reading. In my field, I often see how academics inferiority manifests in behaviors, issues, aggression, and withdrawal. For her daughter, it took an extreme toll on her self-esteem and her self-worth. According to Highline's data in 2023, only 23% of the third and fourth grade students were reading at or above grade level. The rest are below. Our daughter was one of them. My wife had spent the past year
027focused on the fundamentals of reading with our daughter-- phonics, structured explicit destruction. And she is now reading at a comprehension level at the fifth grade, where she normally is right now and ready and excited to explore middle school. But that will not be in Highline School District, I have to say. March is National Reading Month. Please refocus on a commitment to the fundamental building blocks of education and prioritize the science of reading and let your budget reflect that commitment. Strong academics is racial equity work, and anything less is negligence. Thank you for your time, and appreciate you. Thank you. Alex Myrick? Good evening, Directors. This month, the National Health Service in the UK discontinued the use of puberty blockers in children and young people for gender dysphoria because there's not enough evidence of safety and
028clinical effectiveness. A team of researchers in Finland followed over 16,000 people under the age of 23 who had entered gender clinics during a 23-year period. Analysis of the data of Finnish people who submitted to gender transition procedures found that their higher suicide rate is caused by other psychological conditions, such as depression, autism, childhood trauma, bipolar disorders, and other conditions. A German clinic that performs transgender procedures reviewed their patient outcomes and concluded undergoing a transgender surgery or participating in sports with members of the opposite sex leaves people lonelier and more depressed. The district's current protocol has multiple serious flaws which are synergistic in their adverse effects. The frontal cortex of the human brain responsible for assessing risk is not fully developed until about age 23 or 24. Therefore, by definition, young people cannot give informed consent,
029especially for undertaking irreversible treatment which will require lifelong hormone use and render them infertile. That's why they have parents to guard against dangerous decisions. However, district policy prohibits staff from disclosing transition activity without the child's consent. When the parents are involved, counselors often present the question, Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter? This is not only emotional blackmail, it's a false dichotomy, as evidenced by recent research I just mentioned on transgender suicidal behavior. Next up, Crystal Cappuccio. Did I pronounce it correctly? Yeah, that's actually really impressive. Thank you. I'm Crystal Cappuccio, and I'm going to cede my time to my husband, Sam Hatfield. My name is Sam Hatfield, and my son Cole attends developmental preschool at Mount View Elementary. He has type 1 diabetes, a life-threatening disease, which requires 24-hour care.
030We request that policies and protocols for care of students with type 1 diabetes in Highline Public schools are reviewed and updated with parent and expert advice to meet modern standards of care. Highline's policy for type 1 care was published in 2009 and OSPI's in 2018. However, since then, the FDA approved continuous glucose monitoring via medical device, which has significantly improved care for type 1s. Continuous glucose monitoring now can be done remotely via a simple-to-use app. Cole's nurses want to use modern best in practice care, but we have experienced significant pushback from Health Services regarding remote monitoring. Critical to the immediate and long-term health of individuals with type 1 is having their blood glucose levels monitored. Old and lackluster methods include finger sticks and monitoring for signs and symptoms. Both have significant downfalls. To see signs
031and symptoms, this means the individual is already medically impaired by a preventable glucose event. The extreme danger to people with type 1 is a blood glucose level that is too low, leading to impaired mental cognition, potential loss of consciousness, and seizures. High blood sugar also has severe short and long-term consequences. Use of a CGM in school is reasonable and lessens the impact on the student's day. All the school nurse is asked to do is glance at their device at specified intervals during the school day and respond to alerts and alarms from the device when the student's glucose goes low or high. The Department of Justice has determined that the monitoring of CGMs by school personnel is a reasonable accommodation and for devices to be made available to meet the accommodation. To not do so is
032in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Yet, this is where we find ourselves. Thank you. Next up, Patricia Bailey? Good evening. The Highline School District's Gender Inclusive Schools policy 3211 will need some drastic amendments with the recent adoption of the Washington State's Parents' Bill of Rights. Passed by a wide margin earlier this month, it's a commonsense law that prohibits schools from withholding mental health information from parents. Highline procedure 3211 states a teacher will, quote, "privately ask known transgender or gender non-conforming students how they would like to be addressed in correspondence to the home and at conferences with the student's parent or guardian," unquote. This means if the student is using an alternative name and pronouns at school, unbeknownst to their parents, the student can direct the teacher to keep this identity
033a secret from their parents or guardian. This is called lying by omission. Withholding serious mental health information from parents puts the student in extreme peril and disconnects children from those who love them the most, their family. It also puts up a psychological wall between the teacher and parent, which is very damaging to the student's education. This kind of cloak-and-dagger behavior is unbecoming for professionals and harmful to children. There is entirely too much emphasis in Highline on the so-called "culture of belonging." The children "belong" to their parents. The family is where they "belong." Schools are supposed to maintain a culture of learning and achievement. Please take care to delete all the anti-parent language in procedure 3211 and retrain teachers in conformity with the new Parents' Bill of Rights. Some kind of statement of apology to parents
034would also be appropriate. Thank you. Next up is Tracy Traughber? Jessi, I apologize. Jessi Traughber. Good evening. My name is Jessi Traughber, and I am a dean in Highline Public Schools. An important part of my role is addressing concerns related to harassment, intimidation, and bullying. But the most important part of my job is caring for young people and working to create communities that are kind, welcoming, and respectful. There are those who frequent these meetings to share their disapproval of our district's goals, values, and actions. They claim to represent the interests of Highline Public Schools students and families, but in reality, they come to condemn practices that support the identities, experiences, and social-emotional wellness of our students. Sometimes advocacy is raising our voices in righteous protest. But to truly represent and advocate for this community, it's
035important to start from a place of learning and listening. Being different from the accepted norm, whether by choice or when forced into the category of "other," is painful. It's lonely. It puts us at risk of being ostracized, demeaned, or the subject of ugly commentary in public forums, like this one. When we talk about people in this community, we are talking about humans who represent dozens of races and ethnicities, who speak over 100 languages, who have visible and invisible disabilities and diagnoses, whose homes range from multi-million dollar houses in Normandy Park to apartments shared with multiple families in SeaTac and White Center and other areas. These are the students of Highline Public Schools, and they deserve schools and spaces where they belong. Human beings are a social species that rely on our communities and social connections
036to be successful and fulfilled. This is why our mission includes knowing every student's name, strengths, and needs. This is why one of our strategic goals is to build a sense of belonging. The body of research that supports Highline Public school's mission and goals is extensive. Perhaps it is in our best interest to share resources with guests and members of this community. Our students deserve-- Thank you. Our last speaker is Annemarie Kebre. Good evening, Directors. On March 4, 2024, the Washington State House and Senate passed Initiative 2081, enacted by the people of the State of Washington, an act establishing a Parents' Bill of Rights. This act is very encouraging, a welcome step to greater parental involvement and information transparency. Through this act, the legislature establishes that parents are the primary stakeholders in their children's upbringing, and
037parents and legal guardians of public school children younger than 18 years old have specific rights. These rights include but are not limited to the right to receive written notice and opt out. Highline parents are to receive written notice and the option to opt their children out of surveys, assignments, questionnaires, role-playing activities, recordings of their children, or other student engagements that include questions about any of the following-- the children's sexual experiences or attractions; the child's family beliefs, morality, religion, or political affiliations; any mental health or psychological problems of the child or the family member; and all surveys, analysis, and evaluations subject to areas covered by the Protection of Pupil Rights amendment of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Also, Highline parents are to receive written notice and have the option to opt their child out
038of instruction on topics associated with sexual activity in accordance with RCW 28A.300.475. I would highly encourage the Highline School District not only to communicate this new policy widely and generously but also make the process of opting out easy and transparent for our greater Highline community. Thank you. That concludes our scheduled communications. Next up is our Superintendent's update. Dr. Duran? Thank you, Director Van. Thank you, everybody, for being here this evening. Just want to first start and thank the Board and our staff for the work that we had in our work session, looking at our strategic plan and talking about the measures that we're working at. And look forward to the ongoing conversations that we have with the Board around proving goals, determining measures, and monitoring our progress. It's important work that we need to do.
039As you all know, this is March Madness. And I have not filled out a bracket, and nor do I plan to. But I know my emphasis right now is on all the work we've been doing here with the Board, going out and visiting our schools and providing lunch and breakfast to many of our students. In March, many of our Board members, Cabinet members, and I, we go out and we serve. It's such a great experience. And last week, I had the opportunity to go out to White Center-- or to Hazel Valley. And what was exciting about that they were serving one of the new dishes, which was sopa de albondigas, which was a real big hit in the community. And I had a lot of fun going out and asking students, What do you think
040about it. Got a lot of thumbs up, so good feedback for us to be using as they continue to come up with creative ways to provide culturally relevant food to our students. The fresh fruit and vegetables are just a wonderful addition for our students. They still continue to emphasize that is such an important need for our students. And I'm grateful that our Nutrition Services staff just does a wonderful job of ensuring that they have the right proper nutrition, and just grateful for the work that they do to support our students. So one, I just want to hit on, too, is that I'm really grateful. Thank you, Director Tidholm, for making a suggestion to get a meeting set up with key people in our community. And thank Scott Logan, Steve Grubb. Yesterday we had a meeting
041with some key people in our community representing both Burien and White Center, really talking about the numerous safety concerns that we have in the north part of our district. And it was just a great opportunity to have the chief of police from the City of Burien, Mayor Kobe Hillman from King County Sheriff's Office there. Luis Rosales from our Director of Safety and Security Highline was present. Ali Smith and Officer Eric Turner, who represent a new approach to supporting people in our community from a responder perspective. We had numerous principals there, district staff there. And really, we just wanted to get people together to start engaging the conversation around what can we do to help support our students and our community, knowing that there is a lot of gun violence in our community. We are seeing
042students who are shot. We're seeing students who have been killed. We know it's in our communities and we need to be able to do something. So much of what happens within our society plays out within our schools. And we know we have to look upstream to find out what the other issues are concerned. So I'm just really grateful that this was just a beginning conversation in terms of what we can be doing and thinking and working together as a community in support of our students and the broader community. Towards the end of the meeting, we had the opportunity to pair up together and just come up with some ideas. And one of the things that really struck me was that even in the short hour meeting that we had, we learned about six different resources
043that are available to our students, our educators, our school leaders that could have some immediate impact on our students. So in that one hour alone, we walked away with some great resources and ideas. And I look forward to continuing that ongoing conversation because it came down to having simple flowcharts around when students are in different crises or needs or need additional supports. Who can we provide resources and supports for them? So really grateful for that meeting. It's the beginning of a conversation I'll look forward to continuing that work and working together as a community to support our students. So it's my pleasure now to welcome our Highline Education Board President, Jeb Binns, for Labor Partner Update. Welcome, Jeb. Good evening, Dr. Duran, Board of Directors. Thank you very much. I really appreciate-- I've changed my--
044I change my words whenever I come up here on the spot. Last weekend, it was pins. This weekend, I want to appreciate the focus on culturally responsive foods. My friend and fellow NEA Board Director Pamela Johnson and I talk about and lobby about culturally responsive and appropriate foods every time we go to Washington, DC. Now apparently, we just need Washington, DC, to focus on the real Washington, Washington State, and look here at Highline as how to do it right. So that's pretty cool. So thank you for that, and I'm going to talk to her about that the next time I see her. Hey, we need to look at what we're doing here in Highline, and we'll get it figured out. Additionally I changed my comments tonight to discuss a little more serious note-- some events
045that have occurred all throughout the school year and that have continued this week that are giving me pause. We need to focus on the mental and physical health of our teachers and staff. We are running out of long-term substitutes. We have that many folks who are out on leave, from physical assaults to mental being. We need to really focus in on how to keep our folks in the classroom, in front of students, working. And I will continue to push on this need and help for this work as I work with various departments in my job. And I thank you for your support. Changing gears. I want to thank Mount Rainier High School, of which there are a bunch of Rams. If you're a Ram, go ahead and clap. Got a lot of Rams in the
046house. I want to thank Mount Rainier High School for leaning into our sense of belonging work over the past few weeks. They are well on their way to fostering a culture where we're all staff, students are seen, heard, valued, and championed. And I'd like to thank my amazing vice president, Shawna Moore, for her work and leadership in this. And I think that that's great, and I appreciate it. Yeah. Also, it's neat to see we have a significant number of staff here. We've got Rams in the house. We've got Pirates in the house. We've got Wolverines in the house. So that's been pretty good, so that's been fun. We had a great time bringing this and having people come to School Board meetings. And on a completely, probably an appropriate note, happy birthday next week. Have
047a good night. That's all I've got. Thank you so much. We're going to move to our School Board reports and our legislative reports. Director Petrini, Director Tidholm, any updates? We do not have any legislative reports at this time. All right, we'll move to our Directors reports. I'm going to start to my left. Director Petrini? You always start with me. Well, I guess, first, good news. We have in District 4, a new ADA-accessible van. It sounds like a lot of the schools are very excited about that. A new wheelchair-lift equipped van was licensed and is ready to use. So that's exciting because we need that accessibility for our students and teachers. I wanted to speak to-- I was able to do with the March Madness, go serve lunch at Marvista this last week, which was really
048fun. I got to see a lot of my kids' friends, and they were all like, wait, what are you doing here? And help serve alongside-- oh, my gosh, I'm blanking. Kelly-- Kelly was with me. Raboni? Raboni. Thank you. See, I didn't do too bad. I'm functioning on seriously two hours of sleep right here. I had a sick child last night, which was no fun. But it was really fun just to see how excited the kids were and just their attention. And one of the teachers gets up while the kids are eating and goes over different protocols. And what do we do when we want to ask a question? We raise our hand. When we're getting ready to leave, what do we do? We clean up. And it was just really fun to see that kind
049of engagement as they're eating their food. And got a lot of thank yous from a couple of kids who I think probably spoke ASL. I thought that was really cool from a distance that they were doing that, so that was fun. I also got to meet with-- I'm sad the Mount Rainier students left, but I went over to Mount Rainier this last week, alongside Jenniffer Reinig and Jana Partner-- Parker. I'm sorry. Sharon Schmitt, who's the vice president-- vice principal over there. I'm messing up all over the place here-- Laura Schneider. And we also had a previous Highline employee-- or committee member-- that wanted to bring the attention to the Read/Write program. Just being able to see it in action and the theory behind it and how it works for students to help bring up literacy
050for these kids. There's about two tutors over at Mount Rainier and one over at Highline, and it's a program that's been in the district for a while. And just getting to talk to the tutors, one of them, Deanna and Grace, and having them share their experiences with the program. Got to see it firsthand with some of the students that they were working with and ask them questions about where did they start, almost like first grade level reading books and then where they were now. And just that confidence that it built in them, and just being able to better understand and comprehend what it is they actually were reading. Maybe they were readers but didn't actually understand what they were reading. And so that kind of had this wall where they weren't always comprehending what they
051were reading. And so I thought that was great. And in talking to Deanna a little bit later, she showed me a binder of kids referred just in Mount Rainier alone, over 350 kids who had been identified as reading at kindergarten to sixth grade level and that between the two of them, they couldn't possibly get to all of them. And so I just wanted to encourage that we continue to support our students. And as we do that, putting more dollars if we can towards reading and tutoring, that we'll see a better result with these kids. And I think Mount Rainier is one of our higher performing schools, so I'm wondering if that's a big contributing factor for all the students that they've helped and just where they've gone. And just hearing, again, from this community member
052that was with us, sharing when he helped go through the program as a tutor and actually asked to go through the program as a student to see what it was like and why did it work. And just said he came out just a much better reader. And he didn't even understand or realize the inconsistencies he had with his own reading and forgetting what he had read. So I thought that was really amazing. So thank you to Mount Rainier for having us out. That was amazing. Just want a quick-- Jeb Binns, I love that you pointed out our teachers' burnout and their mental health and how important that is. And as parents, we could do better jobs to also support our teachers and all that they're doing for us. So a big shout-out to our teachers
053and for our counselors that are out there also trying to help and make a difference. Other than that, I think-- oh, just wanted to quickly highlight. March 25, flash curriculum. If you're interested in reviewing that, what does that look like for, I think, grades four through 12. Just encourage parents to come out and see and look and ask questions. And so I will turn over my time now. Thank you very much. Director Hagos? All right, so I want to start out with giving a Living the Promise pin to one of our incredible people here who is here tonight. I believe-- I forget your title-- Director of Something Important. But Ellie, you have done something really special. And you have brought two contractors together to come up with a plan to support our kids in future-ready
054work. And I recognize that, and I see that work that you are doing is not easy. It takes a lot of legwork and a lot of planning and a lot of talking to people to get people to see the other side and come together with a plan. So a few high schools were able to go and join some construction programs. I think it's the CORE PLUS group that went. And they had an opportunity to have hands-on learning experience last month. They visited-- was it the Northwest-- the Northwest Carpenters Institute? Yeah. It's a state-of-the-art training facility over in Burlington. And really planting the seeds from what I understand came from you. I appreciate the work that you are doing. Even though you are not directly working with students, you are directly impacting them. I want to
055give you this pin tonight. OK, that was a big one, straight from the heart. And so just a couple of other things. I know that it is National Reading Month. And in addition to what our schools do in the buildings to promote and encourage literacy and literacy supports, it's also nice to see some of our community people getting involved in it as well. Normandy Park is doing something with Arbor Day and collecting books right now. So that there's a book trade going on when they have their Arbor Day. I think it's in-- next month, I think it is. But they're collecting books now. So if you've got books and you want to support their efforts to promote that literacy work, drop it off at City Hall. I think that there's also Wesley Homes. They're so
056fun. Wesley Homes is doing a reading marathon challenge, and they're getting their seniors to get involved in literacy. And they used to do some work around having students go and read to the seniors. And with COVID, I think there has been some closure around that, so it sucks. But they are finding other ways to get seniors involved in some of that reading. So our city, some of our places, are promoting that reading marathon and national reading programs in different ways, and it's exciting to see. I think even South King County Fire came out to one of our schools to read a story to one of our classrooms. So that was nice to see. And it was National Civics Week, Civics Learning Week, last week. And there was a phenomenal forum with US Supreme Court Justices
057Sonia Sotomayor, I believe is how-- did I pronounce-- Sotomayor-- and Amy Barrett. And both of them had gotten together and had talked through some things. And to me, it was really healing to hear from our Supreme Court Justices. I know one of the biggest things that I wrote down that I really just-- there were so many takeaways, but one of the things that I think kind of goes into every facet of what we do, not just our school systems but in general, is that civic engagement is-- every act that we do to help resolve the difficulties and make our communities better is civic engagement. And so there were so many other pieces that they had said. If you have a chance, go and look it up and hear what they had to say about National
058Civics Learning Week and civic engagement in general. It was really healing for my heart to hear from both of them. And lately, we've had some city leaders engage with our youth. We saw SeaTac here tonight. That was great to see them. Their mayor spent some time-- SeaTac Mayor Mohammed Egal spent some time with the civics class at Tyee High School. That was really nice. Normandy Park Police Chief-- I'm so bad at names sometimes. But it's Yourkoski. OK, so he spent some time talking with some Highline students about criminal justice. The Des Moines mayor, Traci Buxton, along with Commissioner Hamdi Mohamed, joined students and families and community members to support the Portland Stewardship Program to support some of our urban forests. And again, going back to that whole civic engagement pieces always, any act, any act
059that we do to make our cities better is civic engagement. There were some other pieces, too, but I think I'm going to skip over there because I wanted to talk about one more thing. I remember as a eighth grader going into high school, as a Seattle Public Schools student, one of the things that I was surprised is the opportunity for internships and opportunities to explore future careers. And these were paid internships. And it was a game changer, life-changing game changer for me. I did not have the means from my family to be able to help me explore these different opportunities and navigate the world to get me out and get some experiences out in the real world. And having that, I think my first job as an eighth grader going into ninth grade-- so the
060summer of my eighth grade year-- was working under the Dean of the UW Law School program. And just, my gosh, the experience. It has stuck with me till now. And so I'm always looking to see what's going on in Highline. How do we do that in Highline? And I know we got some amazing things going on, but I wanted to shout out a couple of places. One, the Discovery Lab with the South Side Chamber of Commerce. They are going around to our schools talking about that paid internship and opportunities to engage in different roles for this summer, with applications open now. And I know that that piece is critical, having that knowledge of where to go and what to do and how to get engaged in these things. And so that one was-- I was
061like, well, I'm glad they're actually coming into our schools and talking with our kids about that. There are some other places, like Fred Hutchinson in Seattle is looking for students who've completed some biology courses to do some hands-on activities. And these are for students that are, I think, it's at ninth going to 10th, so the summer of the ninth going to 10th grade year. So there's that. The King County Parks and Conservative Corps, they've got some paid internships going on. So it's good to see what they've got going on. And there's some other places, too. I was just tracking so many of them. I just know that the ages of 14, as young as 14, through 20 are marked with so many different rites of passages, where youth began to critically think about their futures.
062And that's where I was at when I was an eighth grader. And I think about future prospects and summer employment programs that, especially the paid ones-- there are so many paid ones-- are wonderful formative experiences that I would love to see all of our kids have access to. So I'm excited to see that there already is things in place. I just would like to see how we can collect them as a hub and have them centralized so that our kids know about them as they're going out to get ready for summer programming or summer time off. So I've got more to say, but I think I'm going to stop right there. If something comes back. I might have to jump back on the microphone. But I think I'll pass it off for now. Thank you,
063Director Hagos. Director Tidholm? Yes. So last Friday, Director Van, myself, and some of our Cabinet members had the pleasure of touring the Evergreen High School construction project. My baby, who currently attends Cascade Middle School, got to come with us also, and it was amazing. It's so beautiful already. I absolutely can't wait. And it was really exciting for my son to be able to walk through and see just the bones of the school that he's going to be attending. Our contractors are getting close to finishing the structural steel installation. The classroom building is constructed of mass timber, which apparently isn't common these days. And a lot of the wood is actually going to be exposed in the finished building, so I anticipate it being so beautiful. I'm super excited. Lots of stairs. The elevator was not
064put in yet, so we did get to go all the way up to the third floor. My old knees were not prepared. But it was so cool. It had like a view of Lakewood Park, and we got to see the athletic field. And you can just see Cascade looking out. There's this big, beautiful place, which my understanding is going to be a window. I can't wait to go back when it's all done. Just like a really pretty view. Yeah, that's what I have on that. Also, I got to go to White Center Heights this past Monday, and I got to serve lunch. It was really exciting to see a lot of my little neighborhood babies. They were shocked. They didn't even look. They're just grabbing their food, and I said their names. And they looked
065up and almost had a heart attack. Like, why are you here? It was insanely chaotic, a very fast turnover. But the staff there were just getting things done. And they knew all of the kids by name. And some of the kids were poking their heads in just to say hi. And it just really spoke a lot to the relationships they were building with them. My bi-weekly friendly reminder also. White Center Heights Elementary School has their Family Resource Center, which is open to anybody in the district, not just White Center families, Thursdays 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM and Fridays 2:15 to 3:45 PM, where you can find a food bank with fresh fruits and vegetables, clothing bank. They have so many clothes and shoes. Please go take them. It's overwhelming. Toys, household items, resumé help, job
066coaching, language classes. The only other thing that I have is just to second Dr. Duran. Just the appreciation for the collaboration we had at our meeting last night. I definitely understand the stress that's on the community. I have a kid at Cascade. So when all these things are going on, I live in the area. My baby's at the school while the school is on lockdown. I definitely understand. Just the overwhelming stress that's on the community, on the family members, on the children, and on our staff and our teachers. So I'm just I'm really excited to continue to collaborate with our community partners and find out how we can nip this in the bud because I mean, these are our babies, right? And it's terrifying, and I definitely understand that. And just know that aside from
067the position that I'm in, I'm also a parent and a community member. And I definitely am working on it. I appreciate you guys, and that's all that I have. Thank you very much. And I have a couple of announcements here. I just want to remind that the Highline Schools Foundation is hosting the Gold Star Awards Bash. This event will be held at the SeaTac Community Center next Wednesday, March 27, from 6:00 to 7:00. They will recognize all of the Gold Star nominees and announce the winners. Tickets will not be sold at the door, so make sure you buy your tickets online ahead of time. And please come support the Foundation and cheer for all of the outstanding staff and volunteers who were nominated this year. Thank you. Director Hagos, thank you so much for sharing
068the Workforce Discovery Lab, supported by the Southside Chamber of Commerce. But it's really the Success Foundation, which is just an arm of them. The Success Foundation just bridges the gap between education and technical readiness by providing students with the tools and resources necessary to thrive. This year, the program will run from October 5 through August-- or not October, August 5 through August 9. This is five days of immersive learning experiences and career exploration activities with top industries from South Seattle, South King County. It includes medical care, engineering, hospitality, retail technology, arts, and more. And I know that PSSC is supporting that, just giving them a space to go and just be in a learning environment. So thank you for that. In addition to that, last Saturday we had a great retreat. I just want to
069thank our facilitator, Amy, as well as Directors and Dr. Duran for being there and just sharing the truth, being able to speak our truth in what we need from each other and what we need from our superintendent. I learned a lot. And I am looking forward for continued conversation and action. So thank you for that. And that concludes my Director's Report. OK, we're going to move to our consent agenda. Notice that 6.3 has been removed, so can I please have a motion to approve? To approve the amended agenda. I move that we approve the agenda. Wait, so what-- am I? We're moving-- we're approving the consent agenda minus 6.3. So I move that we accept the modified agenda. There you go. Thank you. Can I have a second? I'll second that. All in favor? Aye.
070Any opposed? None. Thank you. We can move to our action item. Director Van, since we did remove 6.3, we need to do that during number seven. Yes. I apologize. 6.3 has been removed from the consent agenda, and we're going to move to an exec session at the-- So my understanding that we wanted to move item-- or I'm sorry. Item 6.3 has been moved from the consent agenda. Is there a motion that needs to be added for the executive session? And I see Erin is coming up. Maybe some clarity. Yeah, I think what I meant to say was moving it off the consent agenda. And then I think there's-- I'm supposed to remove the person we're talking about. And then we move to executive. And you do that during this portion. Point of clarification, please. Yes.
071So the personnel report has been removed and is up for discussion now. Should there be a name that you would like to remove from the personnel report, you would do so now. You'd make that motion. And then it would be a motion to remove that name and schedule an executive session. And then after that, if that motion passed, it would be a motion to move the amended personnel report. Thank you. So may I go ahead? Yes. OK, well, I move to remove Darsie Wells from the personnel report and schedule an executive session at the time available for all directors. Can I have a second? I second that. All in favor? We need to do a roll call vote for that. Roll call, please. Director Petrini? Aye. Director Tidholm? Yea. Director Van? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea.
072This motion passes, 4 to none. Thank you very much. Can I please have a motion to move the-- So the new motion is to approve the personnel report as amended. Yes. Can I please have a motion to approve the personnel as amended? I'm not on. Sorry. I move that we approve the personnel report as amended. I'll second that. Roll call, please. Director Van? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Petrini? Yes. Director Tidholm? Yea. This motion passes, four to none. Thank you, Erin, for helping us out on that one. And we're going to move to our action item. This is to approve the contract with KCDA/ATCO Structure and Logistics for Transportation Building L. Any questions or comments on that? Hear and seeing none, can I please have a motion? Oh. I can never get the button right.
073I make a motion to approve the contract for KCDA/ATCO. Am I supposed to say it as an acronym, or do I say it as a word? Great. Structure and Logistics for Transportation Building L. Do I say the rest of it, too? Sorry, newbie here. I move that the Highline School Board approve the contract with KCDA/ATCO Structure and Logistics for Transportation Building L in the amount of $2,380,354.36, including Washington State sales tax, with any minor additions, deletions, or modifications deemed necessary by the Superintendent. Can I have a second? I'll second that. Roll call, please. Director Hagos? Director Petrini? I'm so sorry. My mic was not on. That's OK. Is mine accepted? Yes. OK, good. Director Petrini? Yea. Director Tidholm? Yea. Director Van? Yea. This motion passes, 4 to none. Thank you. We'll move to our intro
074and action item. This is motion to approve the McKinstry contract for Salmon Creek renovation to support the Department of Digital Transformation relocation. Can I please have-- And we have our Chief of Operations, Scott Logan, coming up give a little bit of presentation on this. Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Superintendent Duran and School Board members. It's my pleasure to come up and share a little information on the Salmon Creek project. And it's a pretty cool project. First of all, it kind of ties back to 8.1, the one you just did approve, which is building L, which will allow Transportation to not only have a modern facility to work from but actually put them all under one roof. As a result of putting them all under one roof, that opens building J at the Maintenance Operation Center.
075Safety and Security, which is now at the Choice Building, or Woodside, will move into Building J at that time, which will allow Choice to have a whole school to itself and have the space it needs, once Technology and Safety and Security are out of there, to actually operate and expand and have a better experience for all the students. So this one is connected in a lot of ways as part of improving lives of many people through one project. Salmon Creek building had some improvements already completed. And when ESSER dollars were available to us, it was one of the sites that was chosen to have some both electrical capacity upgrades, along with some HVAC improvements. No cooling was added to the HVAC at that time because it wasn't-- the final plans weren't ready for that building.
076And it also would have been outside the eligibility options for ESSER dollars. So we took best advantage we could of the ESSER dollars to do the bulk of the project at Salmon Creek site. As the decisions were finalized for moving our Technology team to the Salmon Creek building and being able to get them all under one roof as well, there are some unique needs for technology centers. And so first of all was there's equipment in there that generates a lot of heat. We want to be able to protect that equipment so that the integrity of the district networks and storage facilities remain intact and solid. There's also significant safety and security unique requirements that happen in a technology center to both protect the capital assets of the district. There's a lot of valuable equipment that
077goes with a technology center, but also the operational capacity of that same equipment to protect the digital property of the district as well. So it went a couple of different directions there to design what we needed to have Salmon Creek have. The final results of this will generate a safe and secure and professional site for our Technology Department. The reason for intro and action in the same night on this, it has a couple of pieces to it. But the primary one is we need to be able to get the design implemented and the building project done to allow for a timely move of Technology out of the Woodside campus so that that frees up that building for the start of the next school year to have full use of that space for their school. And
078the fact that there's only one meeting in June would have meant if we did intro tonight, we were clear almost into June-- I mean not June, April-- that we would have been coming into May before we would have had the authority to start moving forward with any of the next steps in this process. So that was the initiative and drive behind intro and action in one night. Happy to answer any other questions if you have any. Any questions or comments? Oh, I just have one. Sorry, I didn't get to it fast enough. It mentions in here that the $1.7 million is coming from capital funds, non-bond, and ESSER funds. How much of the ESSER funds that we have left are we using to replace the HVAC? I can get you the actual division of those
079numbers. There's very little ESSER left in this portion of this project, but there is ESSER involved. OK. And I can get you the exact numbers how that's divided out. I'll email to the whole Board tomorrow. OK, thank you. Scott, can you tell me what this additional square footage, how big it's going to be compared to what we have at Woodside? So they're going to have access to the whole campus, Technology will. And right now, we're currently using three classrooms plus the gymnasium at Woodside. So it's more than double the square footage that they have right now. They're also going to have the opportunity to create some training classrooms so that they'll be able to bring staff in as new equipment arrives or current equipment that maybe we can optimize efficiency on how we're using. They
080can set up classrooms in there and bring staff in do trainings right at that site. They'll have enough space to do that. I appreciate that. Thank you. If there are aren't any other questions, can I please have a motion? Clarification-- is this motion to approve it as it is, or is it move on to another phase? It's an intro and action, so we're going to approve it tonight. OK, OK. I've been teaching kindergartners, first graders, and second graders today, so I was trying to save my breath. But I think I will go ahead and move forward with the introduction, or the motion here. I move that the Highline School Board approve the McKinstry contract for Salmon Creek renovation to support the Department of Digital Transformation relocation, to not exceed $1,700,000 plus WSST, with any minor
081additions, deletions, or modifications deemed necessary by the Superintendent. Can I have a second? I'll second that. Roll call, please. Director Tidholm? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Petrini? Yea. Director Van? Yea. This motion passes, 4 to none. Thank you very much. Moving on to our intro items, 10.1. This is motion to approve resolution number 04-24, Authorizing Interlocal Agreement with Auburn School District, Number 408, to Access Competitively Bid Contracts. Any questions or comments? Hear and see none. One question. Is this something that we do with other school districts as well? We partner with them? I was kind of reading up about how it helps. How does it help? Give us a better rate when we buy fresh produce, or how does that work? We do this with multiple school districts. This one's a nutrition service program. But
082we have a similar one with South Kitsap School District for bread and dairy. What this does is give us significantly larger purchasing power, which drives the price per unit down. Great. Great question. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. 10.2. This is motion to approve new policy 2415, High School Graduation Pathways. And Holly Ferguson, our Chief of Policy and Strategy, will be sharing a few remarks. Good evening, everybody. We haven't done a new policy for quite a while, so this is kind of exciting. So I won't repeat what's in the Board action report, but in addition to the typical high school graduation requirements, in 2020, the state legislature passed a requirement that students need to also meet a pathway in both English language, ELA, and math in order to graduate from high school. There are
083currently eight pathways, all of which are exam or course-related-- so passing the SBA, passing the SAT. This is a new ninth pathway that the legislature approved in the 2023 session. It's a performance-based pathway, and it allows students to show their English language arts or their math proficiency via performance. So that could be in a class that's designed for student performance-type activities, in an internship, in a student project, a self-directed project under the guidance of the school that the student attends. So it's allowing student-directed hands-on learning is really the intent of this new pathway. All of this learning is evaluated by certificated teachers in either English language arts or math to ensure that the student-- that the learning standards that the student is aiming to reach-- aiming to meet are being learned. And so the evaluation
084assessments are all done by certificated teachers. This is, again, a brand new pathway. We are early-- if you approve this, we'll be early adopters of this pathway. But we've got a couple of schools that are really excited about the opportunities, you can imagine, especially some of our mastery-based schools, where students are doing a lot of project-based learning or are out doing internships. This could really meet student needs in a different way. And I do want to name that students can meet the ELA or the math pathway via different pathways. So for example, you could pass the SBA in ELA and check your ELA pathway box that way. And you could do your math pathway via performance-based. So it's really taking students' needs and interests into account. And we think it will fit very well with
085our innovative learning goal, as well as generally with our promise about knowing our students by name, strength, and need by allowing our students to capitalize on their strengths in their learning. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, Holly. Questions, Directors? I have a question. So I didn't ask this at a time, so just if you don't have an answer, that's OK. I'm just curious about two quick things. One, in the High School and Beyond plan, there is that requirement around having a certain number of credits related to English language learning, ELA, and math credits, and so on and so forth. How does this change in different pathways for graduation then affect that? Where do-- I guess I'll stop right there. That's my first question. And the second question is in the--
086sorry, my voice is a little cracked here. In the community engagement piece, there is the check if there's a community engagement requirement. It says yes or no. Neither one of those is checked, so I wasn't sure if that needs to be addressed as well. I actually do have answers to that. So this does not change the credit requirements for graduation in any way, shape, or form. So if you're in a school where credits are granted, you still need four ELA credits to graduate. You still need three math credits to graduate. The pathway is an additional credit beyond credit-- excuse me-- oh, my gosh-- an additional requirement beyond crediting. The pathway requirement is in effect in every school, even if they have their credit waiver. So they're separate and distinct, and they can both exist at
087the same time, if that makes sense. It'll make sense to me in a minute. Yes. I'll say yes for now. Just give me some time with that. Absolutely. And then to your other question about community engagement, it's not checked here because the community engagement would actually happen when the individual student is considering using-- or the school and student together and family are considering using the pathway-- excuse me-- the pathway-- the performance pathway. There are four ways the state uses the words pathway, and at 7:20, I'm mixing them all up. So what we would expect is that a student or a school, a school would be working with a student. And they would say, OK, do you want to try the performance-based pathway? That's great. Who do we need to talk to? How do we bring
088your family in? Are there community members that you want to be working with on this performance-based pathway? So it would be more individualized than a district-level engagement. Follow-up question on that. So the traditional sense would still be available. This is just an additional option if they opted into it, then? Absolutely. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Can I ask a clarifying question as well? There was a memo-- Don't use the word pathway. What's that? There was a memo that you sent to us when we were talking about the GED last time. And if I can quote just what you said so I can ask the question about this. You wrote, "The GED exam consists of four separate subject area tests-- reasoning through language arts, math, science, and social studies. The GED tests are normed to the knowledge and
089skill level of graduating high school seniors. Thus passing all four parts of the GED exam and earning a GED certificate or credential will demonstrate to college and employers that the credential holder has the same level of career and college readiness as recent high school graduates." So you're saying on there the GED is equivalent to a high school diploma, or is it-- are they still seen as different when someone's-- and I'm asking this because I think I had mentioned last time I was worried about students, if they're only passing those two equivalents of language arts and math that you just said, and then someone at a GED level has to do all four sections, what are students on this mastery transcript pathway-- would they be able to take these same tests and pass all four and
090have that same equivalency? So I first want to say that that quote is not actually me it's from the State Board of Ed's GED page on the website because that sounds like I know a lot about a GED, and that's about what I know about a GED. So I don't think that the GED tests would qualify to meet one of these pathways because they are separate. And if I'm remembering this correctly, the GED is authorized by OSPI and the SBTEC, State Board of Community and Technical Colleges. So they're just not the same thing. So this performance-based pathway, if a student chose to use that, it's just an additional thing they have to do in addition to, for example, meeting the four credits of ELA or three credits of math that are required to graduate from
091high school. So this is just an add-on starting in 2020 to what were previously the credit-based requirements, as well as High School and Beyond plan and passing Washington state history. So they're just not equivalent. OK. I just want to know if the students at our schools are able to pass those same four areas instead of just picking or choosing two, is that what you were saying? Just four areas meaning the GED areas? Well, just-- I mean, students-- the core things that the kids go to school for-- math, science, language arts. What was that last one? Social studies. Would they be able to have that same-- graduating the same as a regular senior with that equivalency of knowledge? So you would not-- none of our schools offer those tests. They're offered separate. Some of our partner
092agencies offer them. I'm just saying that test says if someone passes that, it's the same as a senior who went through as normal. And so would our kids through this mastery transcript also have that same coming out at the same level as our other students? Yes because our students in a credit-based program or a program using a mastery-based diploma-- or excuse me, mastery-based transcript-- are getting a traditional high school diploma. They are not taking the four GED tests. They are not getting a GED. I understand that part. I'm just making sure that they're equivalent. I can't speak to that because that is what the State Board indicates on their website. But reading the State Board's website is literally the degree of my knowledge. If there's a desire by the Board to have me do something
093more with that, I can. But it's not something that's within the purview of K-12 public school districts, at least in Highline or the other district that I've worked in. Melissa, do you mind if I reword your question? Sure. I think the question is-- no, you're fine, Holly. I think the question is, with this program, will they still be taught the four core subjects? Oh, 100%. Thank you. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yes, 100%. You're fine. Maybe I wasn't wording it right. I told you I'm working on two hours of sleep here. OK. Thank you. Yeah. Other questions? Thank you, Holly. Thank you. 10.3. This is motion to approve the roof replacements and restoration contract with Garland DBS. Any questions or comments? None. It looks like Scott was ready to jump. 10.4. This is motion to approve Evergreen
094High School Replacement Project-- Approval of Contractor Cornerstone General Contractors, Change Order number nine, Purchase Order Number CP 230035. Any questions or comments on that? Hear and see none. 10.5. This is motion to approve Tyee High School Replacement Project. Approval of Contractor Absher Construction Company, Change Order number six, PO Number CP 230091. Any questions or comments? I hear and see none. OK, that concludes our intro items. Any items that you'd like to add to the consent? I hear and see none. Well, then, I would like to have a motion to move to an exec session for approximately 30 minutes to discuss the performance of an employee. I make a motion to move to an executive session for approximately 30 minutes to discuss the performance of an employee. I'll second that. Can we get a clarification here?
095So sorry. If you could also add the time that you believe you will be done. I realize it's this plus-30, but we also have been asked to put that in the announcement. And if there is any clarification needed, this would be under RCW 42.30.110, section g. Thank you, Ann. I make a motion to move to an executive session till approximately 7:55 PM to discuss the performance of a public employee. I'll second that. All in favor. Aye. Thank you, everybody. We'll be back. OK. All done? I guess if I'm going to do that, I should do it. We good? All right, well, good evening. It is 7:56. We just returned back from our executive session. After executive session, I'd like to reconsider the proposed termination of Darcy Wells as recommended on tonight's personnel report. At this
096time, I'd like to move to approve the recommendation to terminate. I'll second. Can we please have a roll call? When you get a mic. Director Tidholm? Yea. Director Van? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Petrini? I think because I don't feel 100%, I'm going with no. OK. This motion passes, 3 to 1. Thank you very much. Well, that concludes our-- I'll make a motion to adjourn for the evening. Can I have a second? I'll second that. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? None. Thank you.