001Good evening, everybody. Welcome to our regularly-scheduled meeting on Wednesday, May 7th-- May 17th, I'm sorry. A stand up for a Pledge of Allegiance. [INAUDIBLE] Thank you. Yeah, roll call, please. Director Garcia. Here. Director Howell. Here. Director Hagos. Here. Director Van. Here. Director Alvarez and, sorry, Dr. Duran, have an excused absence this evening. Do we have any changes or additions to tonight's agenda? I hear and see none. We're going to move on to community recognition. Nikki, can we have come on up for presentation, please? Hello, good evening, everyone. I'm Nikki Fogerty, the community partnerships manager for the district, and I want to introduce Reading Partners this evening, an organization that's been a district partner for many years supporting Beverly Park, but through ESSER funding, have now expanded to serve Shorewood, Cedarhurst and Des Moines Elementary. So
002at a recent site visit, I was able to see their program in action. It was amazing to see their classroom that had been transformed into a colorful library full of books and to see their smiling tutors working closely with each of our students. Students and Reading Partners each receive an individualized plan to help them develop the skills to reach reading proficiency, and students love coming to their program because they build deep relationships with the tutors. We're so grateful to have them as a partner, and now, I'd like to welcome Joyce Messick, the Executive Director of Reading Partners, to say a few words. Thank you. Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you, Nikki, for the kind introduction. I am Joyce Messick, as Nikki said, the Executive Director of Reading Partners. A little
003bit about us. Our organization's mission is to help children become lifelong readers by empowering the community to provide measurable results to students. And like Nikki said, we have been in the Seattle region-- Reading Partners-- for 10 years. It is a national organization, and the organization itself has been around for 20 years. So we're coming up on our 10 year anniversary this year, and Highline Public schools has been a partner from the beginning. Beverly Park was one of our first two schools, and still is a proud partner of ours. We love working at Beverly Park, and as Nikki said, proud partners this year with Cedarhurst, Shorewood, and Des Moines. A little bit, like, why does our program work, right? There's lots of research that shows that high dosage tutoring, whether in literacy or math, science, makes
004a difference, right? And that's what we provide. Through the power of community volunteers, students received two 45-minute sessions with a tutor each week, and that 90 minutes is really the sweet spot according to the research to really give students a huge boost in their literacy. We serve primarily kindergarten through fourth grade students, who are recommended by the school. So we're really close partners with the leadership at the school, with the teachers at the school, in terms of the students that we serve. Our program has always been grounded in the science of reading and aligns really well with what the district is using-- aligns really well with ARC-- so that has been really successful this year as well. Lastly, just want to end with a couple of highlights this year. We'll, across our eight schools-- four
005in Highline, four in Seattle-- serve 250 students with the power of 350 community volunteers, and our goals in terms of the measurable results are that 80% of our students will meet their primary literacy growth goal, which basically is about moving in their literacy proficiency ahead two months for every month of school-- so basically double their rate of learning-- and that our K2 learners will master the foundational literacy skills needed for reading proficiency in third grade and beyond. So that's what we are gearing up for, and like everybody, we're wrapping up the year and look forward to all that is to come next year as well. Thank you so much. Directors, any questions or comments that you would like to ask? I just wanted to say that I was able to see a Reading Partners classroom
006at Cedarhurst, and I was really impressed with the literacy-rich classroom. I really appreciate that your program is based around literacy research and that you have really targeted interventions for students based on their needs. It's something that we should have in every school. To me, literacy is an equity issue in helping all students being able to read at grade level and beyond, so I just wanted to thank you and say that I'm really impressed with the work that you're doing, and I hope to see it continue long beyond ESSER funding. So great. Thank you. I'm glad you got to see it at Cedarhurst. That's great. All right, thank you so much. I'm going to have you come on up and take pictures. Great. Thanks. [APPLAUSE] That was great. Thank you very much. We're going to move
007to our scheduled communication. On behalf of the board, we would like to thank you for coming and speaking to us this evening. Our norms and rules are posted on the screens. Please be mindful that you're 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. Thanks again for coming and speaking. First up, Katie Kressley. Good evening, directors. I have two points tonight. Both have to do with Highline's current policy and use of the equity lens. First, tonight you will be voting on the upcoming 40-year-old cap-- nearly-- 40-year-old capital projects policy 9000, aptly named GOALS. But apparently, after running it through the equity lens, this
008may change to, quote, "Equity in capital projects." Your action report states that fiscal impacts are unknown, but will likely be absorbed by capital planning and construction budget. It also states that there is an option to not approve this policy change. This week, even the New York Times is questioning whether a heavy focus on equity is actually working. Will it narrow? Will the change in this policy narrow the field of highly-qualified candidates, giving priority to those who vote, of certain sex, complexion, or sexuality? It will probably narrow it. Will it reduce costs? Probably not. And will it make everybody feel better? I don't know. Second point, you will be voting next meeting to adopt the strategic plan goals. As Joyce Messick was talking-- she's the executive director of Reading Partners-- just said, measurable goals are critical,
009and reading is one of those. But your goal number two states, innovative learning as the goal-- academic experiences that engage, empower, and challenge every student. And this sounds really lovely, but it downgrades the term academics and puts it in secondary place. You've got two more weeks to decide on this. These are your goals. Why don't we change that? I challenge you to change that to innovative academics-- learning experiences that engage, empower, and challenge every student. Learning experiences. So on behalf of all Highland students, regardless of sex, or complexion, or sexuality, I challenge you, as the Highland board of directors, to recalibrate your policies and use an educational lens. Thank you very [AUDIO OUT]. James Payne. Well, hello, anti-racists. I see staff has been toiling away in the equity mines, intentionally seeking ways to arouse resentment
010and anger. This invidiousness was given life when you guys approved the odious definitions in your equity policy, and tonight, we see more results of staff's quarry. Under action item 8.3, you'll be revising and renaming policy 9000 a perfectly fine policy for nearly 40 years. But to staff, it does not reflect the best diversity, equity, and inclusion practices for construction projects. DEI is the trendy, woke social construct, which always means something different than the publicly-stated goals, and Highline's activists are now dishonestly rebranding policy 9000 as prioritizing contractor color over taxpayer value. So let's reconcile your DEI with 9000. Diversity-- your anti-racist definition of diversity is essentially fewer whites and males, thus implicitly racist and sexist, and exemplified in item 8.3. You're privileging the supposedly marginalized, and marginalizing the supposedly privileged. Equity-- having nothing to do with
011contracting, Highline's definition of equity is, educate each student in a way that ensures everyone achieves excellence. But this is impossible. And yet Highline has been foolishly shot through with the corrupt concept of equity. Equity is socialism-- un-American-- and your vote against white contractors tonight will not help achieve student excellence, as you say. Inclusion-- straining again, your definition has nothing to do with contracting. Inclusive education, you say, removes barriers limiting participation and achievement of all learners, but Highline's inclusion is just a phony justification for oppression over taxpayer value and merit. You've embraced a vengeful approach to white males, and people are sick of your rank hypocrisy. Vote no. Thank you. Next up, Alex Myrick. Good evening. Earlier in my lengthy career as a mental health professional, I worked as a social worker for Child Protective Services.
012I worked hard at protecting children, and took many parents to court. Some of these children were abused after their parents found out about misbehavior in school or poor academic performance. Obviously, this is inappropriate and very sad. We never discuss or even consider withholding report cards or information on misbehavior in school, to ensure that children are not abused at home. Nor should we. Imagine a teacher telling a child, you are getting an F in reading. I need to notify your parents, if you will give me permission. Or imagine an elementary school principal saying, you were caught smoking methamphetamine in the bathroom and writing obscenities on the wall. I'm going to notify your parents, if that's all right with you. Obviously, these scenarios are ludicrous. So why have you approved and maintained a policy of withholding information
013from parents when their child has been persuaded that they really belong to the opposite sex? And school staff are buying into it. The policy is driven by an ideology of political correctness, and child's safety is just an excuse to justify it. Parents have primary responsibility for the health of their children. Their right to know what is occurring in their child's life, and shape their child's upbringing, is absolutely fundamental. How can they exercise that right when the school conceals vital information about their child's mental health, or even lies about it? Board policy 3211 is a blanket policy which assumes all parents are potential child abusers. The right thing to do is to change policy 3211 immediately, and stop withholding vital information from parents. Thank you. Next up, Heather Pancrets. Hello, school board. My name is Heather
014Pancrets. I use she/her pronouns. I am a school counselor intern, and a part time counselor at Tyee High School, and I am also a current student at Seattle University. I am here today to advocate for increased funding to Tyee High School to maintain four counselors in order of support for student mental health. So, students are still feeling the effects of the pandemic, the lockdown, and we're still seeing more students struggle to pass their classes and even attend classes, which I know will affect graduation rates. Decreasing the counseling staff means less access to mental health support, academic support, and also support for preparing for their future. It does not impact a certain portion of students. Just on one counselor's caseload, it will impact the whole entire school, and all of the students and staff. And it
015will mean less time and support for every single student, as counselors will have increased caseloads. And-- yes. So Highline is a very special district that has acknowledged discrimination and institutional discrimination in schools that exists, and I'm very glad to hear that. And many educators are very glad to see that. And I think that attracts many educators to this district for that very reason. But policies and words aren't enough, and I'm asking for action on this, and I think the correct action to take is to allocate more funds to Tyee for a fourth counselor. Tyee also has a significant newcomer population-- more so than other high schools in the district. These students require more mental health support, because oftentimes, the journey here is very challenging, and many of these families leave violent situations in their home
016countries. Many of these students also do not speak English, and struggle in classes that are taught in different languages than that they know, so they have little access. Thank you. Andy Newman. Good evening, board members. Tonight, I want to share some testimony from four of my Tyee scholars in regards to how counselors have impacted their academic lives. One said, "I'm not a great student, nor do I choose to see my counselor frequently. Out of all the three times I went, it took me the second time to realize that counselors are amazing. My counselor remembered something I'd said from a while back, and I didn't think they would remember. I found out what a good listener they are. They made me feel like I can actually leave this place successful." Another said, "My counselor helped me
017find a mental health therapist because I was in a crisis of anxiety and depression, and she helped me realize it was OK to ask for help. And she motivated me to keep going." A third said, "My counselor helped me get to class and get good grades. She helped me set goals. I'm thankful for her. If it wasn't for her, I'd be in Mexico right now and not getting an education. I'm most grateful for her because my relationship with my dad-- I talk to him more now. It's not like it's gotten really strong, but I know my counselor will be there to help. That's how my counselor changed my life." And a fourth said, "During the time I've been at Tyee, I never really cared for schooling. My counselor has changed my view over time from
018first applying to Renton Tech College, to Washington State University. He helped me change the way I see schooling and got me to realize that I truly want to make a change in myself, from just cruising around through life, to becoming a leader, by just talking to me about the options there are in Tyee and the state. Changing was hard, but truthfully, I wouldn't have been able to see it without exposing myself and facing the fear I had of moving on and growing into change." These are the kinds of interactions that we hope to be able to provide for students in our high schools. It goes much beyond just the content that we teach in our classes, but as a content-teaching teacher, I can't provide these kinds of conversations with my students, especially the ones that
019have to deal with the socio-emotional well-being of students, and I rely heavily on all four of our counselors for these kinds of supports. Thank you. Linda Lambert. I thank you so much, to everybody who is here tonight. I have to say I'm worn out, so I would imagine you all are also, so just thank you for your time. I want to share two things real quick. So I'm here to discuss the importance of having a fourth counselor at Tyee. First off, this is Mental Health Month, and the National Education Association just sent an email out, and I'm going to read exactly from their email. "Our schools are the centers of our communities. They should be the safest and healthiest places. Students learn best when they're feeling their best, but our schools are experiencing a mental
020health crisis, which can't be tackled without more support and resources." So that's from the NEA. And then I'm going to read today an email that I received from a mom who really wished she could be here, but wasn't able to be. She says, "I have an adopted child that was born with fetal alcohol and drug abuse. She has acute special needs. These children don't handle change well. The counselors at Tyee High School have literally saved her life, and facilitated her remaining in school. With school shootings, lockdowns, suicides, and drug use at all-time highs, cutting any counselor at this time would be disastrous. This high school population has never been more vulnerable. I plead that you not cut counseling services at Tyee High School. This is not a time or a place to make cuts in
021the counseling staff." Again, I'm here tonight to ask the board to please put this request on the consent agenda to continue the funding of four counselors at Tyee. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Next up, [INAUDIBLE] Hi, my name is [INAUDIBLE] I use she/her pronouns, and this is my 10th year teaching at Tyee High School. I currently teach biology, ML biology, and newcomer ML English at Tyee High School. So last week, my newcomer ML students were learning the word "where," and they were learning about locations and how to say them in English. And the question for the day was, where is your favorite place at school? And I got a whole host of answers, including the field, cafeteria, the bathroom, basketball court. We had to talk about what court meant, so there was lots of miming.
022Anyways, but some of the other answers included the counselor, and then we had to talk about counseling office and English opportunities. Anyways, I just thought it was really sweet that, like, newcomer students who have just recently arrived to the country know that the counselors are a safe place for them to land. And just the irony of this is literally five minutes after we had this conversation, our school went into a three-hour lockdown, and we had some serious mental health concerns across the school. But also, I saw them firsthand in my own classroom, and saw how students were handling that, and our school-- like, our amazing admin team, our amazing counselors, the district-- worked really well together to try to address some of the harm from the lockdown. And props to everyone that was part of
023that team, and I can't even imagine doing that with less counselors. Our students rely on counselors. They work incredibly hard, and as a content teacher, selfishly, I know students can't focus on science or English if their mental health is not being addressed. So I'm asking you to please support us with maintaining four counselors at Tyee High School. Thank you. Next up is Mike Whitfield. [INAUDIBLE] my problems. Esteemed members of the board, thank you for the time. The great decision you guys have made to reduce counselor caseloads and hire more counselors using a new caseload counting model will undoubtedly improve outcomes across the district. However, it unintentionally resulted in the loss of a counselor at Tyee High School. I'm here today to advocate for maintaining four school counselors at Tyee and seeking your assistance in funding
024this crucial endeavor. As we celebrate Mental Health Awareness month, it's essential to recognize the significant role of school counselors in supporting student mental health. Superintendent Doran's plans to prioritize student mental health further emphasize the importance of this matter. Less counselors at Tyee, which is a school with tremendous mental health needs, wherein more than 15% of our campus is in therapy at any given time, means that there's less student support for mental health. The board's involvement is vital in allocating additional resources to Tyee so as to cover the funding gap for counselors for the next two years. By retaining four school counselors, we can continue to provide comprehensive support for our diverse student population. Tyee High School serves students from 49 countries speaking 46 languages. We face higher ratios of students experiencing homelessness, poverty, students in
025the ML support program, and those in special education. Our needs are unique, and maintaining four counselors would enable us to address those needs effectively. Looking ahead, in just two years, Tyee will relocate to a brand-new campus, likely welcoming more students. Using the current model of caseload allocation, we would anticipate the need for an additional counselor at that time. But by proactively retaining four counselors right now, we can provide stability and continuity of care to our students during this critical transition. This is a chance to make a financial investment in student success that has outsized return potential, represents a huge play for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and will not obligate you to anything beyond this temporary stopgap measure. I urge you to recognize the unintended inequity resulting from the loss of a counselor at Tyee using
026this new caseload model, and take action to support student success. Allocating the necessary resources to maintain four counselors demonstrates a commitment to student mental health and equitable education for our students. Thank you very much. Let's again just appreciate everybody coming in and speaking to us this evening. Next up is our superintendent's updates. Val Allen, you're going to come on up and present a mental health update. Kisa's going to present introduction. Come on up. Good evening. Tonight we are here to provide you with an annual update around our mental health work, and you will hear primarily from our director of student support and mental health, Val Allen, and you'll hear a little bit from me. And as per usual, our work is rooted in our promise to know every student in Highline public schools by name,
027strength, and need, so they can graduate prepared for the future they choose. And certainly, a part of this is meeting their mental health needs. And with that, I'll turn it over to Val. So, part of this update is post-COVID. When I came before you last year, there was a lot of unknowns. There was a lot of talk about crisis of mental health, not knowing referrals and mental health data, and so this is kind of an update from that. And we know that student support is not just one department, one team, one strategy, and it's really built on top of each other. And we know that it's built out with families, with communities, partners. How we link together-- it's not so much about the number of resources. In some cases, it's really how we work together
028collaboratively, and also try to help support students in the needs that they have. So what we found when we look back-- our work kind of was in three areas. How families can access services-- is it clear from beginning where there's an indicated issue, to if they need intensives-- I hate this. Thanks, Val. How well we work together, and not just staff, but also how we work with our community partners, with our parents, and then also, how do we coordinate resources so that they can be equitably distributed across the district? So I'm just going to spend 30 seconds on these slides, and then we'll dig a little deeper into some of the actual projects or activities that they reflect. So we found that in doing a clear pathway, it talks about how we work together, how
029we define what our roles are, and what's the efficiency of it. Because as we know, if parents don't know who we are or what we're doing, or if they have to figure out how to access us, the services then fall on deaf ears, or we're not hearing what they need. So one of those programs is our screening to brief intervention referral. And that's a program, for those from last year, is SBIRT, and it is funded by Best Starts for Kids. It's the sixth year. This is the first year that we rolled up to two high schools, and we've continued with the five middle schools. We were able to roll up to high schools because we had additional funding for one FTE. Each school has a one FTE that provides both the screening facilitation, as well
030as kind of coordinates the interventions. And the yellow flags, indicated here, are less acute needs-- more things that are more mild discomforts and challenges, around, especially developmentally, especially middle school. And then with the red, those are more acute needs-- more safety issues-- and those students are seen within 24 hours. What we found with the data the trends is that substance use has increased by 5% across both middle school and high school, and a decrease in suicide ideation attempts and depression. Our rates are pretty comparable to national average, and you have an extra memo about SBIRT. Next one. We found that referrals were kind of equally distributed between community-based mental health, both in the school and in the community, internally with the counselors, and with other pro-social activities. This next month, now that we're done screening,
031we're going to look at panorama data and try to compare how students that screened in SBIRT, how they also did on panorama, to see if there's a strength or a strategy we can develop from there. Next. The other part is about collaboration. As we know, student voice is critical, and that's an area that we have a lot of growth to do in. Also, we have started to do more cross-departmental meetings, trying to understand the scope of work and the priorities. And one of those is the Mental Health Task Force, where our behavioral health systems navigator convened staff across different departments just to start the conversation of, what are you seeing? What are your needs? Overlapping strategies, and part of that, also, was around tracking [INAUDIBLE] interventions, which aligns really well with the comprehensive school counseling
032model, about what are we doing, how do we know when to do it, and how long, and then what happens to escalate it to the next level? OK, so I want to talk to you a little bit about our third goal around coordinating equitable access to quality mental health supports. And just a reminder that this was work that we began when we were awarded the grant from Kaiser Permanente to integrate mental health supports into existing MTSS structures. And the grant has ended, but we were able to extend the behavioral health systems navigator role to continue some of the work she started around gathering information. And so I want to talk a little bit about the work she's been doing over this past year. So a lot of the work she did you saw around the
033Mental Health Task Force, bringing folks together. She's also convened our mental health partners. So rather than, in past years, working in isolation, where schools would make referrals around student needs and the partner would come on campus and provide that support to students, it really was taking a look at, what were the mental health resources available in our broader community? Where were there gaps, where were there redundancies? How do we work together to support the students? So she began to gather that information. What kind of insurance do they take? Who takes Medicaid? Who doesn't? And also helping families navigate that process as well, because it can be complicated. I want to highlight one of the things that we were able to leverage our pandemic recovery funds, and it's around our embedded school-based health services. We do
034already have embedded school-based health services through our partnership with HealthPoint at three of our high school campuses, also available to the middle school campuses as well, but we were able to expand our partnership to support six elementary schools in unincorporated King County and Des Moines areas where there were limited mental health resources for students. And so you'll see here, and it's also in a report that we provided to you in your board packet on Friday, how many referrals we made, how many partners we're working with. I want to bring your attention to, also on this slide, you can see, as we're gathering information about our resources, we're also being able to identify what some of the barriers to accessing mental health supports are. So first and foremost, no surprise-- something you've heard loud and clear,
035that a lot of our agencies have limited capacity to support. They have caseloads. They only have a certain number of staff. They have turnover. We never really had a system internally, and this is something we're working towards right now. That when we make a referral, what's that circle back? How do we close the loop? So we make a referral, and then what happens with the student? What supports might they need when they're done with their services? We did try and telehealth. You may recall that we did some contracting for that. But what we found was that that wasn't a resource that was resonating with our students. They really wanted that connection, that relationship, that in-person warm handoff, rather than speaking to a therapist through a computer screen. So we just didn't have a lot of
036uptake on that. What we did with one of our partners was, rather than do the telehealth, they ended up coming and running groups at the schools they were serving, doing some in-person work in it. Students showed up to that. Also, student absenteeism. Obviously, if you aren't at school, you're not accessing this support, and then for some of our buildings, there are some physical space limitations, and I know they do their best to coordinate with the school staff around making space for them to see the students there, but it can be a barrier. So I want to talk a little bit about Seneca, and you have an update around Seneca in your memo. But this is a model that has worked really well in supporting our students with some of the highest needs. They, like I
037mentioned, they serve schools in the Des Moines and unincorporated King County or Boulevard Park area. Again, those were areas where there were just limited resources around mental health supports. It wasn't a cheap partnership, particularly when you think about the number of students they were serving. But they were serving students with some of the highest needs-- things around severe anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation. And so they were able to support them. Their staff are in the school during the day. It's the same staff person. Sometimes with our partners, it's just the counselor who's seeing that student and they're not necessarily connected to the larger school, so you have that person who's embedded. They're available for consultation with the schools. These are also licensed clinicians, and so they have that training and licensure to actually do that therapy
038and that support with the students, and they are integrated into the schools in a way where they're a part of their teaming. And I refer you back to that diagram you saw earlier, where they're part of the infrastructure, living there in the tier three level. Right now, we're just working with Seneca to think about what future sustainability might look like. Like I said, the partnership was rather expensive. With the loss of the pandemic recovery funds, it's not sustainable to continue the partnership, but there are ways that you can leverage Medicaid funds. That's something we're discussing, but in reality, we're probably going to have to seek outside funding to fund this partnership if we want to continue this work. I'm going to turn it back to Val. So I hate the closing piece on that. So
039bottom line, it's not about one answer. It's about, also, how the SEL program is supporting students in the classroom so that the skills-- how we're identifying, how we work together, how we support families in that journey, and then coming back together to kind of always figure out how we can do our work better. Questions? Yeah, we don't have a question slide, but we'll take your questions. Thank you so much. Board directors, questions, comments? I'm sure Director Hagos has much more expertise, so I'll make this quick. With the Seneca model, is it possible to use some of our other community partners and agencies, and try to replicate the embedded model, or is that not something? Well, I think what is the formula-- you have to work with a partner long enough so that they can build
040up a Medicaid caseload, so that they can offset students that don't have Medicaid with those that do Medicaid. And so they currently are serving students at White Center Heights, but they have seven different therapists, because the students have been referred either when they were at another school, and/or in the community. But they have enough now that they could do a one FTE for the number of students. So it would be a half-- right now, we're paying for one FTE-- it would be a split, 50/50, if we can find additional funding. But the goal would be, over time, is more of that revenue. We wouldn't have to pay, because they would be-- but it would be the same with the other partners. It would cost the same, and they don't have licensed therapists. Right. OK, that's
041good to know. They're the only ones that that's the guarantee. OK. One other question, and Val, I already kind of emailed you about this, but with SBIRT, I benefit because my office is right next to the counseling office, and the Youth and Family Services Mental Health Support person, so I overhear lots of stuff. And what's really cool is they do have, when it's embedded, this gentle, warm handoff that can happen. And we use SBIRT at our school with all 7th grade students. And I was just talking to the counselor whose office is right next door to mine the other day, and he said, what's great about SBIRT is that there are a lot of students who present academically. They're getting A's and B's, they're there every day, they're totally fine. They take the SBIRT. We
042find out there's all this other stuff happening. And so it's such a valuable tool. And then, to be able to do those immediate, targeted interventions that SBIRT has you do, I think, is really valuable. Having said all that, I would love to see this more at the high school level, and we kind of talked about this. And so I'm not sure if it's like working with ILEDs. Like, how can we roll this up so that we can see more high school students screened? Yeah, this was the first year that they rolled up to Mount Rainier and to Evergreen, and it takes a while, because the schools have to have an infrastructure to be able to team around it, to be able to refer. And so the number was only the targeted-- 11th grade was Mount
043Rainier. And they did all 11th graders. But you'll see that was the number that showed up for that day, and then Evergreen was a dual language, so it just takes time to build that capacity. We have two more years of the grant, and if we wanted to shift from middle school to high school, we could cover more, but that hasn't been a decision because originally, it was early intervention. And so we're trying to catch 8th graders. In particular 8th graders, because then the information goes with them when they go up to 9th grade and they can do kind of a [INAUDIBLE].. Got any ideas, I'll be open [INAUDIBLE].. This is really helpful and I just really appreciate this work. Thank you. Director Garcia? Amazing work. Just one question-- is there any truth that there is
044a former Super Bowl-winning NFL player who's partnering with us on some kind of thing around mental health? So that's outside of the realm of my department. I don't think [INAUDIBLE]. I'm just-- I heard a little birdie, a little thing, and I just wanted to see if there's any truth to it. A former Seahawk-- Whoa. Seahawk player-- has a foundation, and reached out around piloting an app that would function more or less as a daily screener. And so they've been testing the app and they wanted to make sure that the app could work in with all students, so they want to think about students who might have disabilities or other things. And so we needed to see how it fit into the work of our SEL department. So we don't run the SEL department. We work
045closely with them, and we're side-by-side in these conversations. And what we ended up doing was piloting at a couple of schools who expressed interest, because the thing about these screeners-- Panorama, SBIRT, this type of app-- is there's an ethics around screening, and then, do you have the resources to actually provide the intervention and support? So it's a very fine line, and there are some concerns that if we did this daily app screener, that would we have the staff to be able to respond to a student who indicated that they were in crisis or that they needed support? And so we wanted to make sure we had that. You notice with SBIRT, it comes with interventionists, so we do the screeners, and we have the interventionists who can do the support as well as contracting with
046a couple of agencies-- this is built into the grant-- who can come in and provide those for the students who screened in the red. And so there are some schools piloting, but they felt like that they have the ability to respond to students. We don't know how it might fit in, but it has to fit in with our larger SEL vision, or Panorama and the other work that she and they are doing. Awesome. Just wanted to confirm the rumor. Thank you. The rumor is true. Thank you. Director Hagos. Thank you guys. I appreciate the information, and hearing from you guys and getting to know a little bit more about the work that you guys are doing. I do appreciate, on the slide 3 where it listed to tier one and the things that we are
047doing for all of our kids. And when I think of mental health and mental health supports, I think of the SEL curriculum around problem-solving, emotion management, empathy, and those kinds of things, and understanding one another, social interactions-- all those things that all our kids need so that they can be well together, and that they are ready to learn. And so I'm curious to know a little bit more about the tier one-- the SEL part. What curriculum is used from K-12? What curriculums are used to do that for our children? So our work primarily lives in the tier three-- the work of our department, the Student Support and Family Engagement, our social work team, our SBIRT team, our behavioral health systems Navigator. What I can tell you is that Melissa Pointer, Director of Socio-Emotional Learning, has
048been on a yearlong journey working with community members, with families, with staff, with students, to identify what SEL needs to look like in Highline. I think, to date, we've relied on PBIS. We began implementing RULER in our elementary schools, and I believe rolled up into some of our middle schools over the years, which is a tier one strategy. Second step is, in some of our schools, I don't know if people are still using Kelso's Choice, but-- nope, she said no. See? And this next year, they're going through a year of reviewing curriculum, so at the end of the year, they will then make decisions. So Melissa's supervisor-- is she here? No, she's not here, but we will follow up with her and let her know that perhaps maybe there's just a memo or something to
049get to you around what the tier one SEL looks like. Thank you. And then the other question I had was-- well, I have two more, but the second question I had was, in response to the outcome of this work, do you have any numbers, metrics, or any information as far as the number of kids receiving interventions and support, and their outcome in their educational experiences? So part of that we're going to track next year, because the first lift was just to have some muscle memory around submitting referral data to a centralized system, and then, it's to add some additional information. And then, how do we do impact? Because impact is very difficult to measure. Yes, I know. So it would be like a collection of the case management pieces would be easier, and/or why-- we're
050really thinking about the reason why people were referred, as to what was the concern with the behavior interfering. Like anxiety would be much easier to measure, so we are working with dots that will help all student supports to have some kind of intervention tracking system. We met yesterday, and one of the-- Tyshawn, don't listen to this. They talked about-- Dr. Duran has talked about a student profile, and there could be a student profile around intervention page that could collect with security for selected workgroups, where they can track some of that more confidential or sensitive information that will really go into supporting more students with complex needs. Thank you. Very detailed feedback. I appreciated the information. And so the last question I have is around the-- let me find the acronym. Too many acronyms rolling around
051in my mind right now at the end of the year. The SBIRT-- OK, so the question I have around the screening is twofold. One, do you guys look at the Healthy Youth Survey and do a comparison, and then two, is the Healthy Youth Survey enough in terms of gathering information? And then just one more question-- sorry, there's three, now that I'm thinking about it-- is, do families have access to take a look at the screener-- the questions-- and see what we are asking our kids, and what we're gathering as far as information? Those are the three questions that I have. Thank you. So I actually know the answers. One is, parents do have access. They're sent a notification email and letter out to let them know their students will be screened, and how they can--
052it's translated-- and on the website, as well as making an appointment with their interventionists. And then what was the other question you asked about? Oh, Healthy Youth Survey. So that's a little long story. It used to be about a 300-question survey that was paper and pencil. They recently have been translated into Spanish and it's shortened, and so we'll have more support for that next round. But it's not individual student data. The counselors wrote the grant for SBIRT because they wanted a method of systemized ways to identify internal users in particular, and then they could do an individualized response. That's all my questions. Thank you guys. Great questions. I do have one question, and thank you so much for presenting this evening. On slide 5 it talks about strategies and clearly defining roles. With so many
053partners that we have out there, as well as-- this is a perfect evening with our counselors here-- have we clearly defined roles of when that handoff is, or is that-- I just want to make sure that our counselors are not taking in additional roles and responsibilities that we have support from other resources within our community partners. Great question. So I'm working with Melissa Pointer and Melissa Knudsen, and [INAUDIBLE] and Janet Blanford, and part of that-- the comprehensive school counseling program is looking at, what is tier one interventions, and then what accelerates? What indicators from data that they use to accelerate those interventions to tier 2? And then also, the next process would be from tier two to tier three. And I've asked that the social workers and the SBIRT coordinators be part of those conversations
054of what escalates it from a two to a three, and then what is the indicators to then refer or partner with other student supports. That's one of the roles that I'm part of, but there's also success deems others, because there is a real duplication, and some of the social workers are underutilized. Some are over utilized, and so how do we have clear, and co-created by the campuses? So that's in the works. And counselors, don't listen to this, but I think we're looking at doing a part job alike in August to do some of that tier three work. All right, thank you so much. That concludes our superintendent's updates. Next up is our school board reports. Legislative reports-- nothing to report out on that. Move on to our director's reports. I'm going to start with Director
055Howell. Hello. If you didn't know about Maritime principal Tremaine Holloway and what a superstar he is, he has been named the Seattle Propeller Club Public Official of the Year. It's an award that's presented annually to local, state, or federal policy makers who have demonstrated leadership, understanding, and appreciation of the Maritime industry. Under his leadership, Maritime High School has developed partnerships with local businesses and organizations, providing students with hands-on learning opportunities and internships that give them real-world experience in the Maritime field, and I just wanted to acknowledge that. And then also, Tyee High School-- I taught there from 2001 to 2012. A few of the alumni reached out to me and said that they're having a little baby reunion on the campus this Friday from 5:00 to 8:00. And at first, it was just the classes
056of 2002, 2003, and 2004, and now they've expanded to any Tyee alum. So if you are an alumnus of Tyee, or if you worked there like I did and you'd like to join, they're going to have food trucks. It's going to be fun, a celebration. They wanted to do this before the campus is changed drastically and the buildings are torn down. So please join us. That is all. Thank you. Director Garcia. Nothing to report at this time. Thank you. Director Hagos? Yeah, sure, I can report a couple of things. Let's see, we've got a new class. I'm not sure if you've heard about it. It's called the Cloud Computing and Hardware class. It's at ESFC. It's launching a new cloud computing and hardware class, and the class is going to cover a wide range of
057topics, which I'm excited about. Which is computer hardware, networking, and cloud computing. It's going to provide something-- the class is going to be hands on, which is also good to know. And it's designed by-- oh, these are some acronyms, so just be ready for them-- AWS and Cisco and Academy, all the things that I am not very familiar with, but really glad our kids are going to be learning. The course is open to all students, regardless of their technical experience. Thank you very much. And for me, a couple of shout outs here. Last Thursday, I had a great opportunity. It was a celebration evening. We celebrated, I believe it was 15 newly National Board-certified teachers within Highline. Also, the renewals. That was fantastic. I was joined by Director Howell and Director Hagos, and we celebrated,
058so that was great. In addition to that, right after that the Highline Schools Foundation scholarships-- what an evening, where we presented 34 graduating seniors with scholarships holding about $233,000. So thank you to the foundation for facilitating and help fund these scholarships. Many of these scholarships were funded in memory of former staff members. Others were created by community members or businesses to support students with particular needs or career interests, so thank you. That was a really fun night. And lastly, and for those who don't know, Dr. Rebecca Kim, after 18 years with the Highline School district, she is going to be leaving at the end of the year. Actually, by the end of this week, but she's going to be going to Kent. I just want to wish her good luck. Thank you for your support
059the last 18 years for our students, our staff, and our community. With that said, that ends our board reports. Prison man, I'd like to request a two-minute recess, if that's OK. Sure. Thank you. Recess, please. OK, thank you all. We're going to proceed. We're back from our recess. Director Garcia will not be joining us. He has left the meeting. Moving on to our consent agenda. Can I please have a motion to approve that? I move that we approve the consent agenda. I second that motion. All in favor? (IN UNISON) I. Any opposed? There are none? Thank you. Consent agenda approved. Moving on to our action items 8.1. This is to amend the existing contract with Maxim Health Care Staffing Services. Any questions or comments? I have none. Can I have a motion, please? I move
060that the Highline School Board approve the contract amount increase of $700,000 with Maxim Health Care Staffing Services Inc, which increases the total contract amount from $545,000 to $1,245,000. I second that mission. Roll call please? Director Hagos? Yea. Director Howell? Yea. Director Van? Yea. This motion passes three to none. Thank you. 8.2 is a motion to approve the non-match endorsements and limited certifications for the '22, '23 school year. Any questions or comments? I have none. Can I have a motion, please? I move that Highline school board approve the non-match endorsements, according to WAC 18182-110, and the limited certifications according to [INAUDIBLE] 18170-79A-231 for 2022 to 2023 school year. I second. Roll call, please. Director Howell? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Roger Van? Yea. This motion passes three to none. Thank you. Actually, on 8.3, this is to
061the approve the revision and renaming board policy 9000. Any questions or comments? I have a question. OK. So my question was around the-- Hold on, real quick. Sorry, I apologize. Let me have staff come on up so they're ready and ready to talk. Holly? Thank you. And Ellie, please? Thank you. Absolutely. How can we-- OK, I'll go to the-- I have two questions, but I'll go to the question that I had for you first. OK. This is a 40-year-old policy, and I didn't see any samples or anything, so I tried to research it and went on to WASDA, and I realized WASDA doesn't have all of the board policy samples listed. So as I tried to do my research, I didn't find anything in comparison, and I would love to know if you found any
062comparison policies to help speak to my question. Yeah, so thank you for that question. WASDA does have a facilities planning policy. Their policies listed under-- oh my goodness. Their policy is policy 6900, not 9000. The 9000 series was actually retired about 20 years ago, and they moved into the 6000 series. We're a little bit late on that work. So their policy is the model policy, as you referenced. It has been adopted by many districts in the state, usually as 6900, 6901, kind of right around that number. It's really a technical policy, focused on the technical aspects of facilities planning. But it does indicate that planning should be-- I took some notes on this, so I'm reading them-- consistent with the educational philosophy of the district. And many districts do have equity policies, so that-- excuse
063me-- WASDA's facilities planning policy would reflect directly back to, or that language, would reflect directly back to districts equity policies, which is what we were trying to do. And then Seattle Public Schools has similar policy. They have two of them-- 6900 and 6901-- that ensures that planning be consistent with the district's-- excuse me, commitments identified in their educational and racial equity policy. That's really what we were trying to do with this one, is to reflect what's in our policy 0100, and also to recognize that, and I apologize if I steal your thunder, that because this-- our capital projects are using taxpayer money through our capital bonds-- really wanting to make sure that our workforce in these capital policies reflects our community. And so making sure that we've got, as it says here, seeking out participation
064by women, minorities, small, local, and other disadvantaged businesses, who are in or near our communities or who may live in our communities, again, so that the money that is spent here comes-- you know what I mean-- comes through here is spent here. And I don't know if Ellie has more to add, if you had another question for Ellie? You want me to add to it? [INAUDIBLE] you wanted to state your second question, I guess? Go ahead and share what you want to share. So as Holly mentioned-- by the way, my name is Ellie [INAUDIBLE].. Let me start with my introduction, and I'm executive director of capital planning and construction. I'm happy to answer any questions. However, I just want to highlight some other comments that Holly made. Beside our school district and Seattle, Tacoma is
065actually have the policy-- I don't have the policy number with me, but I know for a fact that they're actually actively working on equity and DI plans with their capital planning. So I guess the key word, if you look at the policy, I would like to have focused on the word that we are strive-- actively strive to have inclusive business participation. So that means we're not eliminating anybody. We're actually inviting everybody in minorities and other businesses to be more involved, and this will actually help the economic vitality of the businesses that we have within this community. As Holly mentioned, we want to bring those money back to this community. So with that in mind, we're working towards some planning which is aligned with the Washington State women businesses and minority businesses, and to accommodate opportunity,
066to bring some opportunity for this community, to play a role in these bonds that has been approved by them. Any other questions? Well, second question was just more in line-- I've asked this question, and I guess they still need just a little bit more enlightenment around it, and that is, how does this impact a possible CWA agreement, if we were to move forward and change this language and put this into our policies? So good question, because in CWA agreement, actually, one of their goal is to achieve those the DIA plans as well. So we're kind of aligned, and it's just a different percentages that we can walk this through. And just basically the foundation is the same. We're just looking into percentages. And I'm sure it's would align with that, and even going with the
067CWA, actually, one of the major aspect of CWA is to make sure that the contractor is meeting that goals as well. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Director Hagos for those questions. So your question spawns questions for me. One in regards to-- we spell out in regards to participation, contracting, and with women and minorities, small local businesses. It doesn't say anything in here about competency-- just making sure that that is one-- I mean, from a business standpoint, I want to make sure that we're not just looking at those classes and groups, but also, that they have the skill sets to do that. And it might be implied, but if there is a way that we can actually say that in here, that would help out more. That we're not just seeking out this group-- these
068groups-- but it's because of their skill sets, in addition to. Yeah. That's just my comment. No, and absolutely, I'm with you. And the reason that we're intentionally focusing on those groups, just because they don't have the opportunity. They don't have the skill sets, so we're going to help them out to flourish and establish those skill sets to be as equal as other businesses that are out there. And that's the whole goal-- to don't eliminate anybody, and actually helping everybody to be inclusive in this project. OK. I appreciate that. Directors, any other comments or questions? All right. With that said, thank you very much. 8.3-- this is to approve revisions and renaming board policy 9000. Can I have a motion to approve? I move that the Highline school board approve the revisions to board policy 9000.
069I second that motion. Roll call, please. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Howell? Yea. Director Van? I would like to have just a quick point of order here. Director Van, do you need more time? I would move that we move this to our June 7th, so we just get some clarity around the verbiage. And I think, Director Hagos, you may have some additional questions that I know that are turning in your head. So I would move that we move this to our June 7th, so that gives us more time to discuss it. This has been policy for the last 4 years. I don't think waiting another two weeks will impact anything. You mean past 40 years. 40 years. There's a new motion on the table. Is there a second? I'll second that motion. All in favor? (IN
070UNISON) Aye. Any opposed? See none. We're going to move 8.3 to our June 7th meeting. Thank you. Appreciate that, guys. And that concludes our action items. Moving on to our intro and action item. This 9.1-- this is to approve our '23, '24 board meeting dates. I move that the Highline school board approve the dates for the 2023, '24, school board meetings. I second. Roll call, please. Director Howell? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Van? Yea. This motion passes three to none. Thank you. That means the school year is almost over. Wow. All right, moving on to our intro items. 10.1-- this is to approve the K-8 proficiency and growth assessment tool contract. Any questions or comments? Yes, I have some for Tyshawn. Jennifer is not here, so I'll hold those questions. So some context around this--
071i-Ready is a program that we use, as you know, Tyshawn and Kent, all the time. And my questions for Jennifer are really around the targeted interventions that we're doing with i-Ready. Just as Kisa and Val pointed out earlier tonight, having a screener without immediate targeted interventions is not helping students. So that's a whole other thing. But in terms of i-Ready, I have some questions around access and tech, because I know the struggles I've had, both as an ELA teacher in Highline with getting score reports, and as an instructional coach in Kent with getting my teachers the access to i-Ready that I think they need to move instruction forward. So question one-- there's only two, I promise-- the question one is, one of the struggles that secondary teachers have is around access to i-Ready data and
072reports. Currently, ELA and math teachers are the only ones being given class-level access. Can other teachers-- science, health, social studies, elective-- be given report groups as part of our tech services if they're not given full classroom access? So good evening members of the board. I will do my best to answer that question. I know, working with i-Ready for a number of years, it is possible to create report groups, and that's something that we have been exploring as part of our overall data, and assessment, and dashboard revitalization work. In terms of the current practice, again, it's something that we are working on. Thank you. And the second question is, with the new student profile that may or may not be coming-- is coming-- will we be able to allow families and students to see their i-Ready
073scores as part of one part of that data, right? It's a map-level data, but we found it really helpful in Kent with Skyward for students to use those scores to set some goals for themselves, so I'm wondering about that. So the current access for the student profile is mainly internal right now, but what we've been doing based on a question that we received from Director Hagos was, is there a ways to do additional reporting through parent view and such? So we're continuing to explore that as we go deeper into the synergy modules. I would really appreciate it, and so would my children's teachers who get emails from me every time they take i-Ready and I ask for reports, so thank you. That's it. Thank you. Tyshawn, I do have a question. Oh, you're not off
074the hook. (LAUGHS). So this action item is, or this intro-- this is for a one-year contract-- and it states in the bar here that we're going to be looking at different options. What's working, what's not, and why are we going out for RFP on a process, and why just a one year contract? So per the federal procurement rules, we had to go after an RFP after being in this project for five years. So this was the end of that five-year period, and so we were required to go out for an RFP. What we realized is that even though we've had some success with i-Ready, this is an opportunity for us to realign assessment to what we're trying to do with our strategic plan goals. And so perfect opportunity to refresh, but this gives us an
075additional year with a current tool that we know across our entire system, and we can also continue to use this with our street and map-level data. I appreciate that. Thank you. Any other questions? You're off the hook. Thanks. Moving on to 10.2. This is a motion to approve the interlocal agreement for partnership and cooperation between Highline public schools and the Port of Seattle. Any questions or comments? None. 10.3-- this is motion to approve the Microsoft infrastructure licensing renewal. Any questions or comments on that? None. 10.4-- this is motion to approve a purchase of the HP ZBook laptops for Raisbeck Aviation High School. Any questions or comments? None. Moving on to 10.5-- this is a motion to approve the Evergreen High School replacement project, award of testing and special inspection contracts. Any questions or comments? Hear
076and see none, and then 10.6-- this is motion for approval of the NFL Foundation grant and contract with the KCDA/Shaw Sports Turf for Memorial Stadium synthetic turf replacement. Questions? I do have a question, Scott. Scott, this is the replacement for the turf replacement at Memorial Stadium. It feels like, to me, we just replaced it yesterday-- just was on the field the other day for some soccer. So why the replacement? How long is this, or how long does the turf last? So turf can last different lengths of time based on the level of use. Highline Memorial Stadium is our heaviest-used field in the district. The life expectancy on that field was 8 to 10 years. It was in play for the 2011 school year, so installed late 2010, early 2011. So we actually started researching replacement
077three years ago for that field. We had the opportunity to take advantage of the NFL Grant, which pays for over half of this project, so we thought this is a great time to move forward with it. Well, that's awesome. Well, thanks for keeping it look great, and great use. So thank you very much. That's it. Well, with that said, since not all of our board directors are here, no items are going to be moved to our consent agenda. Can I please have a motion to adjourn? I move we adjourn. I second that motion. All in favor? (IN UNISON) I. Any opposed? None. Thank you, everybody.