School Board Meeting - December 7, 2022

001[BANGING GAVEL] Sorry. I just had to do it. Welcome, welcome, everyone, to the Wednesday, December 7 Board meeting. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Roll call, please. Director Van? Here. Director Howell? Here. Director Alvarez? Here. Director Hagos? Here. Director Garcia? Here. And we are now on to the approval of minutes for November 16. That's a little different. Sorry. Is there a motion to approve the November 16 Board meeting? Because I thought we usually have that in the consent agenda. But it's on the agenda, so is there a motion to approve the November 16 Board meeting? I move that we approve the

002November 16, 2022, Board meeting minutes. I second that. All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And I abstain because I wasn't at that. Thank you very much. And we are now onto the elections of new officers. So I got a little script, or else I would have somehow messed this up. Since we've changed up our policy on election officers and committees, we'll be electing our Board chair and vice chair this evening. And our appointed president and vice president will then take the seat at the first scheduled meeting in January. So with that said, you're stuck with me until January, y'all. I'm sorry. So now I'll begin. I am now accepting nominations for president. And I would like to use a point of privilege and nominate my good friend, Chung Joseph Van. Is

003there a second? I second that. I triple that. I quadruple that? [LAUGHTER] Whoa! Can we quadruple? Is there even a need for a vote? All right. I still have to say it. Are there any other nominations for Board president? Are there any other additional nominations for Board president? Hearing no nominations, I declare the nominations for president closed. The name of Chung Joseph Van has been nominated as president. Roll call, please. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Howell? Yea. Director Van? Yea! [LAUGHTER] Director Alvarez? Yea. Director Garcia? Yea. This motion passes five to none. [APPLAUSE, CHEERING] All right. Congratulations, Mr. Van. Congratulations, President-elect Van. I am now accepting nominations for vice president. I make a motion that Director Angelica Alvarez be vice president. I second. Actually, let me-- No, sorry. I've just got to do the script. Are

004there any other nominations for vice president? Hearing once, hearing twice. Are there any additional nominations for vice president? I'm following the script because I don't want to get in trouble. Mm-hmm. All right the name of Angelica Alvarez has been nominated as vice president. Roll call, please. Director Van? Yea. Director Alvarez? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Howell? Yea. Director Garcia? Yea. This motion passes five to none. [APPLAUSE] Congratulations, Director Alvarez, Director Van. We are now on-- oh, I talked it over with folks. It actually makes a little bit more sense to do the committee designations when we start at the following meeting. So you still have one more month to figure out what kind of committees you would be interested-- or not committees, but-- OK. [LAUGHS] Assignments. I messed up there. I apologize. With that said,

005we've now ended the election of new Board officers. There's a call for changes or additions to the Board meeting tonight. Any calls or changes? Going once, going twice, sold. We've now finished call to order. We are now on to recognitions. First up, we have Music4Life, David Endicott. All right. I'll kick this one off. Thank you, President Garcia. But yes, we'd like to call David Endicott up to the microphone, and Stefan Nelson, who is our music coordinator, is going to join him. But just wanted to do some recognition because Music4Life is one of our community partners that is a nonprofit that is designed to provide musical instruments to our students. And they have been working with us since 2010. I recently received a letter talking about some of the work that they've been doing. I thought

006this was a great opportunity to highlight all that they've been doing to support our students. So Stefan, I'll turn it over to you. Yeah. Hi. I'm Stefan Nelson. I'm the K-12 Visual and Performing Arts Specialist with our district. And I would love to proudly accept this recognition on behalf of Music4Life, David Endicott, and a slew of other folks. But first of all, I just want to thank the Board of Directors and Superintendent Duran for this opportunity to have a moment to talk about Music4Life. But before I do, I want to put some context in this. Sometimes something lands in your lap that's so good, and you're like, really? Does this-- is this true? And about 12 years ago when I first started in this position of supporting the arts in Highline, I think I got

007an email or a phone call from this guy who was like, so do you want some-- would you like some instruments for your kids? And of course, I'm always like, yes, absolutely. But what's the catch? He's like, no, no. There's no catch. We want to get some instruments in the hands of your kids, and do you have a need for that? And I'm like, yes, we always have a need for that. Let's talk. So I became friends with David Endicott, and he was just starting this organization Music4Life. And Seattle was the first recipient of this generous kind of operation in finding instruments that were, I'd say, in some terms collecting dust. They were in the homes of our community, and maybe students or some folks had played instruments but then forgot about them, went off

008and did other things. And their call was to say, hey, we'd love to accept those instruments, these lovingly used instruments. We'll refurbish them and we'll go ahead and get them back into students and families in need. And so that started a process of now over a decade of their partnership with Highline that has been absolutely nothing but a win-win for everyone. And what's interesting is there's recognition like this in the very public-facing way in a Board meeting. But I want to say-- and I know, David, and I know the Des Moines Rotary, which this started-- really started the-- I'd say the funds necessary to get the program off the road. Really, their most important recognition is seeing that students are playing instruments that have been donated, and really supporting music education and arts education as

009a bridge to college career and beyond in whatever future kids choose, because it really is music for life. And so a few of the things that have happened. And you have-- I think there was a one sheet that David prepared for you, which says a lot of things. But I think what is really important about this is if there's ever a need, he's like, we need to know what it is. So I let him know what it is. He's like, we'll figure that out. We'll get it to you. And there's never a question about trying to do it and try to figure it out. But some of these, the bullets I'll read. More than 500 ready-to-play trumpets, trombones, violins, flutes, clarinets, drum kits, many other-- I mean, to give you an example, we had about

01020 instruments when we started over a decade ago that weren't equitably distributed in our district to students in need. Now we have over 500. It's a lot. It's a big boost for us. Pianos have been donated, classroom sets of ukuleles and guitars, keyboards. And I think the biggest-- one of the biggest lifts has been they've generously supported a program on a yearly basis to provide a recorder for every 4th grade student in our district, and it's to be in alignment with the program with the Seattle Symphony to play with him. And it's fabulous. It happens in March. I will definitely invite you when those days happen if any of you are interested to see that in action or to maybe even play along. You're definitely invited. So on behalf of Music4Life, the Des Moines Rotary,

011and our strong community partners, I want to thank you. And above and be all-- above and beyond, I think our students would like to thank you too. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Real quick, I just wanted to share a small anecdote. When I was a band geek at Evergreen High School and Cascade Middle School, and even a little bit of Shorewood Elementary School, my parents rented a clarinet for me to start playing in the band. And my family kept on renting, because the thing was my parents were like, he's going to give up after, like, a month, and then we're done. I kept that clarinet until my junior year in high school, and my parents paid $15 a month every month until then, until somebody from my band program gave me this amazing real clarinet.

012The sound of it, just night and day, right? Night and day, no matter how good I was. And I was second chair clarinet. Couldn't be first chair. Tried. But second chair of the Chamber Winds, the good band, I still-- like, the sound that I was able to get on that second gifted clarinet was amazing. So thank you, thank you, thank you. I know it makes a difference. It made a difference for me. I don't know if it was your program that got it for me, but it was definitely somebody's generosity like you are trying to foster here, so thank you. It means a lot. So does that mean you'll take up the invitation to play in March? [LAUGHTER] I would have to practice a lot. [LAUGHS] But maybe. Maybe. Challenge maybe accepted. OK, great. Next

013up we have a school presentation for Mount View Elementary School, and I'd like to introduce Daniel Calderon, who is one of our instructional leadership executive directors who will bring this up. Welcome, Daniel. Muchos gracias. [SPEAKING SPANISH] I have the honor and privilege of introducing Laura Kaplan and Lyon Terry, our principal and assistant principal at Mount View Elementary, to share some of the exciting work happening in White Center and at Mount View. So please give me a hand in welcoming them up to the stage. [APPLAUSE] OK. [SPEAKING SPANISH] So in addition to being a former Spanish immersion teacher, I'm also a mother of two boys, a passionate member of the West Seattle community, and a huge honorary member of the White Center community. I just am so grateful to be a part of the tremendous neighborhood

014where we have the privilege of working every day. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for having us here. Again, my name is Lyon Terry. I am a developing bilingual, so I'm not going to be presenting in Spanish tonight. I spent 25 years in the classroom as a teacher and transitioned to leadership four years ago, and just so proud to be a leader at Mount View. Just such a rich and loving and gracious community. You know, my history as a teacher, I started actually my career in Shorewood, and then I move to many different places. But I became a National Board-Certified teacher in 2015. I was the Washington State Teacher of the Year. And then came-- and then continued in Seattle for a little while till I move to Highline and came back to Highline, I like

015to think of it. And it's just such an honor to be representing our school here this evening. Personally, I have two wonderful kids, and next year I'll have two wonderful kids who are both attending college. So I'm looking forward to that as well. [LAUGHTER] I should say-- yeah, we'll click ahead. I feel just-- we need to say this every time. I'm sure most people know it, but let's review the Highline promise that we hold dear at Mount View. Every student at Highline Public Schools is known by name, strength, and need, and graduates prepared for the future they choose. [SPEAKING SPANISH] A little bit about our school. As you probably know, we are a dual language school. This is our 15th year. And Mount View has really been one of the pioneers in rolling out that

016full DL program. We have a beautifully diverse community. We have about 440 students now ranging from developmental pre-K up to 5th grade. About 60% of our students are of Hispanic origin. About 60% of them also speak another language at home. So more than half of our kiddos speak another language at home. 45% of those speak Spanish in the home, which is tremendous because we have a significant portion of multilingual, trilingual kiddos and community members as well. About 13% of our community is Asian. We have a strong sector of Vietnamese-speaking community. About 9% of our community comes from Black or African American heritage. We have about 7% of our folks that are mixed race, and about 11% who are white. So as you can just kind of get an imagination of how beautifully rich the diversity

017is in our community, and dual language is definitely the thing for Mount View. Oh, this is me. So this slide just-- [SPEAKING SPANISH] This year, two of our major focuses for Mount View are two of the pillars of dual language, and the first is social emotional well-being of students, and also bilingualism and biliteracy. And just know that within the social emotional well-being of our students, this definitely encapsulates our instruction and race and identity and our emphasis and focus on developing whole children who are powerful citizens in our world. And of course, our bilingual and biliterate students growing equally in both English and Spanish. On this slide, we have just a little bit of a visual representation because in reflecting on the work and how it connects to the Highline promise and to culturally responsive teaching

018efforts, we've decided that it just integrates so much that to call it out is a little bit difficult. So we have used some icons along our presentation to give a little reminder of where it all ties in, because it's not something that you can just describe in everything you do because you'd be talking all day. So you'll notice these icons throughout the presentation. The first focus we're going to talk about this evening is our social emotional well-being for our students and how we're meeting those needs for our students. One of the things we really have focused on in adding and training our teachers and our students is building a daily SEL time that includes a class meeting where the classes get together. You can see in this picture here of a student sitting in a

019circle. We also have monthly character traits where we emphasize and focus on what it looks like and sounds like and feels like. And all of that to represent traits like things like safety and responsibility and productivity and those sorts of character traits that are also our Tiger tenets. We are the Mount View Tigers, proud Mount View Tigers. And we also have been emphasizing this year on our IRI work, Instruction on Race and Identity, on identity-affirming activities. And you'll see some of these throughout this presentation. And also, we're bringing in our community and having affinity group meetings for people who feel like they need to talk about school issues with people who they are more comfortable with. So the second significant priority is on bilingualism and biliteracy, which is really the foundation of all that we

020do, every day. And one of those goals that we are working on within that work is that all students make at least one year of growth or more, and do that in those two languages so that they are across their languages continuing to develop. We also are working on addressing the needs of multilingual learners through our instruction. We're using the American Reading Company, also known as ARC resources. And this year, we are learning how to adapt those resources into our bilingual unit frameworks, which the district has helped with supporting the development of those curricular tools so that the ARC can fit into the dual language approach. We also have a really strong leadership team of instructional coaches that work closely with teachers, with administration. We all partner together. And we do a lot of collaborative

021planning. And it's critical in our work, that work together where we get teams together, talking about kids, because our teachers often see them for half the day, and they need to meet with their partners. And having the guidance of the instructional coach in such a complex sort of instructional manner, it's critical. So we meet and we support literacy and math preparation and planning to meet the multilingual needs of our students. And we also-- as a school, we build that culture that everybody is an emergent multilingual. As Mr. Terry introduced himself, he is also an emergent multilingual. Although he might not yet be fluent in Spanish, he is along that spectrum developing. Another priority for us this year has been our community partnerships as we meet the social emotional well-being of our students. One of the

022things, because we have such a rich and diverse community, is making sure that every student has that place where they feel great and has that time in their day when they feel valued and appreciated for who they are. And so we are so fortunate this year to bring in community groups like Arts Corps and Girls Inc and Geeking Out Kids of Color and supporting partnerships in education and beyond. And they meet very different types of kids and very different types of needs for our community that allow our kids to feel like they are valued and appreciated for who they are. And it helps us meet the Highline promise. Also, I'm really excited. We forgot to add this to-- in January, we have BookNook started for all of our 2nd graders who are reading at below

023grade level. They're going to have individualized, small group instruction for half an hour, three days a week, which we're super excited about. So we feel like we are just using-- a lot of this has come from our ESSER funds. I'm sorry. I don't know what that acronym-- I can't remember what the acronym stands for at this point, but you probably all know. We're using ESSER funds to provide for these-- to provide these community partnerships and meet those needs of our students. All right. This next section is just a snippet of data, just to get a little sense of what we've been looking at in the priorities. So we've had the chance to walk through classrooms, Mr. Terry and I, and gather some data on, what are we seeing where we've put our efforts into? And

024where are we seeing the results in classrooms in social emotional learning? And so some of the highlights are that we've got strong implementation for classroom management routines, which are critical when you've got kids moving from one class to another throughout the day. You have to have consistent management routines and really tight planning. We have strong implementation of use of the mood meter and similar tools to identify and regulate emotions. We have very strong use of calm down corners, daily posted schedules, and also culturally responsive efforts around authentic encouragement being given, which is some learning that we've been doing with Sound Discipline at Mount View. And the impact of this is varied, but we have really noticed that when kids are coming to classrooms, they're being able to regulate their bodies and they're being able to

025calm down and feel like they are part of a community where their voice is-- where their voice matters and their strengths are recognized. They are celebrated for who they are and they're known by name. Teachers greet every student when they come into their classrooms. And classrooms are seen as safe places for students to take risks and for students to make mistakes. One of the things I love, on the lower left here you'll see a heart. It says "Malala kindness mistakes challenge." They got to put up a sticker-- and Malala's the name of the group of students. And the Malala group in 5th grade got to put up a sticker every time they made a mistake. So their goal was to make 100 mistakes, and then they filled up the heart, right? And they also had

026a kindness challenge where they're responding and thinking about when they're recognizing what it looks like to be kind and what it feels like to be kind, and recognizing other students. And we have things like Tiger champions that we announce over the loudspeaker where kids nominate other kids for meeting the Tiger tenets like safe and responsibility and productive. When they see that happening in a school, they nominate other kids and then their names get broadcast over the loudspeaker. We also have these great community partnerships with our PTA. Our PTA is active and busy where they put on evening events such as movie nights. We have a spring carnival that happens in the spring with all sorts of games and activities. And we have a beautiful Mount View garden too that has a Garden Club in the

027spring, and just brings people together. Again, we're trying to meet kids and families and bring-- and meet what their interests are and what their needs are. And we're just so lucky to have such a rich, multicultural community. [SPEAKING SPANISH] What makes Mount View special-- this is from one of our staff members-- the warm, family-like environment. Students and staff are treated like family. When families visit the school, they feel welcomed and included. Our full office staff, front office staff is all fluently bilingual. In our school, on staff, we have Spanish speakers, Khmer from Cambodia speakers, Somali, Vietnamese, Japanese, Hmong, Arabic, and Farsi, to name a few. And so we really celebrate the multilingual assets at our school. And you can see that picture there is from a classroom. Almost every classroom has pictures of the students

028where they highlight how much of them is English and how much of them is Spanish, and how much of them might be another language. And so some kids put in three different colors and some kids are lots of red but a little bit of blue. I would be maybe lots of blue with a little bit of red. And because we were representing all of the kids have skills and strengths in both languages, and they're growing. And I just want to say, our staff is really just incredible. We do have some student comments too about-- just short little videos, interviews we did with a couple of 5th grade students that we would love to share with you about the impact of our work this year with our social emotional learning. Do I just push this to

029get it to go? [VIDEO PLAYBACK] - OK. [SPEAKING SPANISH] - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - OK, gracias, Mauricio. [SPEAKING SPANISH] - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - Sí. - Muy bien. [SPEAKING SPANISH] - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - Uh-huh. Muy bien. [SPEAKING SPANISH] - Sí. - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - Ah, muy bien. Gracias, Mauricio. - De nada. - Hi. - Good morning. Can you introduce yourself? - My name's Hope Willis, and I'm in 5th grade. - All right, Hope. Can you tell us a little bit about your class meetings that you guys have? - Our class meetings are about how we are, who we're supposed to be, following directions, [INAUDIBLE] spaces, and respecting others. - All right. What's your favorite thing about class meetings? - My favorite thing is that we get to know each other better. - Mm-hmm. And what do you

030get to know about each other? - Like, where we come from and what language we speak first. Even with dual language, it's hard. You're learning English and Spanish at the same time. And yeah, but like, I'm being [INAUDIBLE]---- well, my favorite thing is that people understand where I'm coming from and I get to understand where they're coming from. - All right. Thank you so much, Hope. [END PLAYBACK] OK. [SPEAKING SPANISH] [VIDEO PLAYBACK] - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - Muy bien. Gracias, Ohani. [SPEAKING SPANISH] - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - Uh-huh. [SPEAKING SPANISH] - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - OK. Muy bien. [SPEAKING SPANISH] - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - Muy bien. Gracias, Ohani. [END PLAYBACK] All right. So I promise we're almost done, but-- do you want to share what he said? So Ohani felt that it was important to be bilingual because

031you can get to know other people and you can get to learn more things, and you can help people. One of the things we're really proud of at Mount View is we have a special way we begin the day in which the students are allowed in the building about 30 minutes before the bell rings, and they play games and do activities. And we have a short maybe five to 10-minute assembly where we review some announcements and we talk about our Tiger tenets and we greet people in different languages, and that sort of thing. But then every day we end our-- so we begin our day. We end this little assembly before the kids go off to their classes with the Mount View chant. And chants and songs are really a great way, especially for multilingual

032learners, to learn a new language and understand. So this is just a chance for you to appreciate the cuteness of kindergartners and to hear the Mount View chant. [VIDEO PLAYBACK] - [INAUDIBLE] - We are [INAUDIBLE]. Every day, we are productive and responsible the Mount View way. I will try my best. I won't give up. [INAUDIBLE] help others when they are stuck. We are the Tigers, the mighty, mighty Tigers. We are the Tigers, yeah! Raar! - They were very quiet today. - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - Ready? - [SPEAKING SPANISH] [END PLAYBACK] OK, thank you for your patience. [LAUGHS] We love our kindergartners. They're adorable. And so as we move forward in our work, some of our next steps, we're just going to keep on working on what we're working on. We need to continue to increase our

033family engagement with more opportunities to connect in meaningful ways. We're continuing to bring the public back into the school. So working on those affinity groups. We have academic parent-teacher team events, evening events like Literacy Night, Spring Carnival. And we want to continue building out that community connection. And we're also going to continue to work very hard on our dual language, increasing our knowledge and skill as we are implementing the American Reading Company curriculum within the bilingual unit framework approach so that we can meet our students' needs in our dual language setting. And we welcome any questions. [APPLAUSE] Director Van, I'll let you jump in first. I have none. Thank you. Director Howell? Muchos gracias. That was really fantastic. I just-- I don't really have any questions. I just want to comment how impressed I am

034with all of the Tier 1 work you've done around MTSSB. And I'm also really impressed with your inventiveness around Tier 2 interventions for academics. I'm really excited to hear how this BookNook work goes. There's been a lot of research around COVID recovery. And interventions and tutoring during the school day is by far the most effective way of recovering. So I'm really excited to hear about that. I guess the only thing I wonder about, and that's more for us to think about, is what all of these wonderful supports you've built in with ESSER funding, what happens when-- I think it's Every Student Succeeds Emergency Relief funding goes away. Yeah. Good thing to be thinking about. Yep. Yeah. Thank you. Director Alvarez? And I think that's just my question was the same, is we talk about consistency

035and also sustainability. And so I know that it was a great boost to really get things going, but I think as we move forward, how do we really get creative in really supporting? Because obviously, it seems like gains have been made. And how do we continue with those? So just a comment. Thank you. And also, just congratulations. I love-- bilingualism is such important-- growing up, it wasn't seen as important growing up by the border where you would get pedaled for speaking your language. To coming now to where it's so lifted up and knowing, and we have so much research now that shows that bilingualism helps you use both sides of your brain. So thank you. Thank you. It just seems so exciting. I have to come visit. Gracias [SPANISH]. Director Hagos? Hi, you guys. OK.

036So I have great things to say. Yes. I know that one thing I just have to say off the bat is whenever I try to travel down to your side of the town, the roads are crazy. It's hard to get through. I don't know what's up with White Center roads. I go there often. My aunt and uncle live in the area. And every time I try to pass by, for whatever reason I'm always lost. So I'm glad that you guys can find it and that you make it to work every day. [LAUGHS] I love your gazebo, by the way. It's such a great little community setting that you have, and it really does speak to the practical use of your space that you have matching some of the visions that you put in place with

037community building. So great touch on the gazebo and the little picnic tables out there. It really does show that you care about your community and setting up a community in your school. I don't know. Where should I start? There were so many good things. I do love that you celebrate unique strengths between students or between staff and students, but I really liked what you said about the students knowing each other by name and really building up on each other's unique strengths. Hope had said that that was one of her favorite things as well in the video, and I know that community building for kids helps them to feel safe in their schools, emotionally safe in their schools. And feeling emotionally safe directly relates to their ability to want to or to at least make attempts

038to join in on the academic challenges, and kind of just to the betterment of their academic success. It does match, so thank you for putting that work in and making that happen for your kids. I think for me, one of the only hardest pieces is you spoke a lot as to what you are doing to make these things work, and you guys are both leaders with rich backgrounds in high-quality learning that you all went through, and I'm kind of curious to know the outcome. I don't see any progress notes, progress data on how things are working. So my question is, what percent of your students are making growth? The one-- our goal is to make one year's worth of growth in one year's time. What percentage of your students is doing that with the work

039that you're doing? Yeah. That's a great question. We did not include academic progress data in this presentation. Data is something that we appreciate, we find value in, and we wrestle with as a dual language school. It's tricky to get clear data that really portrays our students' strengths because as you know, they're getting half their day in Spanish, half their day in English. And our assessments are designed for kids that are getting a full day in English. And so when they come out on an assessment at a certain level, that doesn't portray their other half of their learning. So with that said, we still use the data, and I do have some data to share. So according-- one of the measures that you're probably familiar with is the i-Ready. So on our i-Ready assessments, last year's

040growth showed that in the reading side-- and this would be English only-- 36% of our students made that one year or more of growth on the English side. And then in the mathematics, it showed that 30% of our students met that year or more of growth. And again, painting part of the picture. And we're learning how to use our IRLA and ENIL data, which comes from the American Reading Company resources on school pace. And we're still also getting calibrated on entering that data consistently. I'm learning as a staff how to enter that data so it'll give us important, rich data. Lyon, do you want to speak? I know you-- Yeah, because I'm kind of interested and passionate about this. What I think is interesting, what a lot of the research says about dual language learning

041is that it's a slow growth early on, right? So kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade kids are really trying to figure out the two languages. And what our data shows is that by 5th grade and 4th grade, every student is making a year's worth of growth in both English and Spanish, which is kind of amazing, right? But when you look at our whole school data, it's in the 30s because we have to-- we're averaging in our kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade kids, of course, as we should. But there's real dramatic growth that happens as kids move along in the dual language program. It's really a steep learning curve that turns up sharply by about 4th, 5th, and especially into 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. Thank you. And just one other question was about some of the

042social emotional data that you had presented. Such good work. I mean, Carrie said it. There is nothing really I need to add in terms of how well that work is carried out for Tier 1. The only category that I saw that caused me to pause and just wonder about was when it came to strategies for emotional regulation. That was the least amount of either, I don't know if it's a resource or if it's around in the room somewhere. I know that when kids have those strategies for emotional regulation, it helps them to be ready to learn directly related to school learning. So for that number to be low, I'm just curious about that if you have it in your curriculum. And if not, what's your plans moving forward? Yeah. So yeah, that's one of those

043things. For our social emotional learning curriculum, for sure we have it in our curriculum, but we've been piecing it together from bunch of different places. We found that the mood meter is really effective from the ruler curriculum, but we've also been learning about Sound Discipline. They're Seattle-based focusing on social or emotional regulation and self-regulation for kids who've experienced trauma. And they have these wonderful self-regulation cards that we've incorporated and we're kind of rolling out in our school-designed scope and sequence for the year around our social emotional learning. So we're rolling out those self-regulation strategies kind of piece by piece, both in our morning assemblies and in the morning-- in the classrooms. But we've also pieced together other things like our counselor uses Second Step curriculum to teach about strategies for conflict resolution. And also, we're

044using the CharacterStrong curriculum called PurposeFull People this year that we got from the social emotional learning department that really focuses on the character strengths and boosting up kid's character strengths. So we're kind of piecing it together from lots of places, but we definitely have the self-regulation strategies in there. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And also, whenever it's a school in your district, you're just a little bit more prouder a little bit, so you guys killed it. Thank you. But I love all the schools equally, I just wanted to say. [LAUGHTER] Three questions. I think the first-- it's not even a question. I just want to echo what was said about our partnerships. And what are ways that we are partnering and bringing in some of those best practices into our

045system without also stealing from our community-based orgs and taking their cool ideas and then forcing them out? So I just wanted to highlight that. Sometimes that happens when we take some of the amazing work and then we forget about our CBOs. So I wanted to elevate that thing. I'm not sure if it's a concern. But especially when money runs out, some of that happens. And how are we authentically partnering with folks, making sure that they're still a part of this work? So more of a comment, less of a question for reflection. The second question, I'd just be curious. What are some things that are happening in our partnership with the feeder middle school program? I'm really curious about the DL work. And if you don't have anything to share tonight, no worries. We can follow

046up. But I would love to hear anything that's happening there. Yeah, I would love to continue talking about that because I don't have a lot of insight on that. We do feed up into Cascade. They do have their DL program that articulates up towards middle school. And I have only just kind of been learning about, oh, it turns out that there might be some misalignment in regards to-- or just maybe needing to close communication gaps in learning about-- like, we teach-- the primary math instruction is done in English in the elementary DL programs. Yet when they go to middle school, it switches to Spanish. And so getting ready for that transition actually seems like a pretty significant thing that we have not, to my knowledge, really put a lot of effort into kind of preparing

047that smooth transition. And so that's something that's been brought to-- come to my mind, but we have not worked to problem solve yet. And I would love to continue talking. Sweet. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Final question. I always like to end it with kind of the magic wand question. And I would want to frame it around student and staff onus. If we as a system could provide you with a magic wand to support our young ones and yourself, the staff, to improve wellness, your well-being, what does that look like? What could we be doing to advocate on your behalf? Time. It's the most precious resource and the most scarce. It's time. And when I say time, I mean for staff to collaborate professionally in order to provide cohesive instruction to their students, to be able to really

048understand what the curriculum and the dual language framework is asking them to do, and how that works to meet a whole child's needs whom they see for half the day. And so being able to coherently plan that takes a lot of time. And then when we layer in looking at assessments, how are my kids doing? Well, I saw in English that they're doing this way, but I saw in Spanish there's these strengths over here. They need to have time to talk about how-- and it's just not-- it's not enough time. And I don't know that you can use your magic wand to fix that, but it's something that I feel very strongly about, and I'm working very hard. We're working very hard to make the time that we have pointed and efficient and use it

049to the best of our ability. We'll add on to that that this year, we're very privileged also to have ESSER funds to have subs who come in and support our time. So a little bit of release time for our teachers every about 10 days or so. And that's been really positive to help them get that time back. And another thing, though, that I hear from students and parents is that they would love more teachers on the playground, right? They feel like when there's just three teachers out there and 200 kids, it's really hard for them to get that attention that they so desperately want from those adults. And so that is that connectivity to the other adults in our building who are not just their classroom teachers, but the other adults in our building provide

050a really rich and engaging experience, and they know all their kids by names and strengths, but they don't always get to solve problems with them and work with them effectively on the playground and play all the great games that they want to play. That's the best time. Yeah, I know. Exactly. The kids love it, right? But we need more adults to help with that. That's awesome. All right. Yep. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Muchos gracias. [SPANISH] [APPLAUSE] All right. Next up, we are on to scheduled communications. So first off, I'm going to do what I usually do. I'm going to read our Board meeting norms. And before I share our Board meeting norms, some of you may ask, why is Aaron talking about our Board meeting

051norms if this is scheduled communication for the public? And I bring it up to say that this is the Board's meeting, right? And any time before the Board, the 365 days before the Board meeting, the hours before the Board meeting, I would beg our constituency to come and speak to us and work with us. But these hours, it's the Board's hours to do the Board's work on behalf of the people. And we incorporate time to hear the people during this, but I want to make sure that we are inviting you to the Board meeting. And we expect you to follow our norms and our guidelines. If you can't do it, I'm going to use this mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, tool. What is it called again? Gavel. Thank you. And I don't want to do it.

052I don't like being the mean guy. I don't like creating a bad atmosphere. But the last meeting, there was a little bit of energy, and I'm going to rein in the energy. So the other thing I'm going to-- well, first I'm going to start off by reading the Board norms. Be present. So I ask everybody to be present and really take the time to listen to our speakers. Respect different opinions. No two people agree on the same thing ever, right? Let's take the time to listen. Be easy on each other, hard on the ideas that we're talking about. Be concise as possible. Y'all only get four minutes, so really don't ramble on. Enable all opinions to be heard. This one especially, I've always said, own the idea before you disagree. Take the challenge within yourself

053to listen to a differing opinion before you disagree. Assume best intentions. If you come up here assuming that we have some kind of crazy agenda beforehand, you're not going to assume best intentions. We're here authentically for the students and families in our community. Assume that coming into it, because it hurts. I'll just be honest. It hurts when people think otherwise. Like, I'm a human being, and I really, really, really want to do this for my community. And last but not least, seek to understand and then be understood. Next slide, please. Now with that said, we also do have policies and procedures and rules and the authority to use this angry gavel as much as I want. So the president may interrupt or terminate individual statements when it is too lengthy. So when you-- we have

054a buzzer. Please, please, please wrap up your comments before you hear the buzzer. Please do not have it be personally directed. So you're addressing the Board. Not an individual, not a staff person, but us as a system. Do not be abusive. Not to us, the Board, not to each other. Do not be obscene. And actually, I should have moved that last bullet point. Don't be irrelevant. So I would really, really, really ask you to consider this time the Board's time. What are the agenda items that we are discussing tonight? And try to make it applicable to what we're talking about, right? And if it's not, use the 365 days before, use the hours before to tell us about things that aren't on the Board agenda, because this is a Board meeting and we're trying to

055get through an agenda. I will meet with anyone outside of this meeting space, after this meeting space to go over your concerns. There might be a future president that considers something that's not on our Board agenda irrelevant and rule you out of order and move on. I don't know if that's the case, but that's the power or authority that the president has. So keep it applicable. And the other bullet points. Public testimony is limited to four minutes. Comments should be addressed to the Board, not to the staff or community. Public testimony is an opportunity for the public to raise issues or provide information to the Board. Board members do not respond. This is the big one too. We don't respond. We listen. We take notes. We'll come back and follow up with you afterwards. However,

056you may leave your contact information. So with that said, if you're going to be here, love it. I love the enthusiasm. Oh, the last thing. Please refrain from cheering or clapping or doing anything in between speakers. We've got a long meeting. We don't got time for that. If you want Jerry Springer, go home, hoot and holler at home. Today, no clapping. If it keeps on happening, I'm just going to end scheduled communications. I don't want to do that. I don't want to bring out the big hammer, but I will. So with that said, we have our first speakers. I'm going to call the first three just so that you guys are ready. We have Susanne Rankin, Ben Folger, and Kristen [? Plishki. ?] Please come up to the mic. Yes, please? All right. So whenever

057you're ready, please begin, and we'll start the timer. Hello. My name is Susanne Rankin, and I am a math teacher at Highline High School. [SPEAKING SPANISH] Thank you so much for listening to me. So I'm going to begin by saying that I love teaching math. I love learning math. One of my favorite moments in the classroom is when I'm collaborating with students and we are working together to learn the math better. I enjoy working with students of various skill levels. I have loved collaborating with various people who I have met at different schools and community partners over the past 10 years. I really enjoy my work, and I very often think about how lucky I am to have a job that suits me well. One reason why this job suits me well is because I

058do like to seek answers to difficult questions. Lately, I've been seeking answers to difficult questions about the low grading scale that Highline Public Schools is currently using for high school graduation. A student in Highline Public Schools can pass a class with a 1.6 out of 4 or 40%, which we call a C. Is this an example of having high expectations for students? Who is this low grading scale serving? In September, I started to think that there must be a good reason that we at Highline Public Schools have a good reason, a rationale for this low grading scale. Even if I didn't know what it was, I was going to find out. So I started to ask questions. I asked myself. I asked my department head. I asked my fellow math teachers. I asked teachers from

059different content areas. I asked administrators. I asked people at Central Office. And again, I asked myself. And nobody, including me, could answer that question clearly, which led me to a more difficult question. Do we the people at Highland Public Schools, do we have a rationale for the low grading system? We lowered the grading scale during the COVID shutdown, which absolutely made sense during that time. The COVID shutdown has been over for almost two years now, so why is the grading scale still so low? Why is the grade book locked so teachers like me who believe our students can do better than passing with 40%, so we can adjust the grading scale to reflect our belief that our students are highly capable? Why don't we instead think about how we can build the scaffolding necessary to

060have students reach a level of achievement that is better than 40%? Our students can do better than passing with 40%. [SPEAKING SPANISH] Muchos gracias. Thank you. Ben Folger. [APPLAUSE] And please hold off. I know it's hard. I love it, but I don't want to end scheduled communications. So no clapping. No hooting. No hollering between speakers. It's always too short. Good evening, venerated Board. I used a thesaurus again for that. And Dr. Duran, thank you. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I'd like to start off this meeting by naming off the names of five people who were murdered in Colorado on November 22. Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh. It is sad that the shooting happened not one week after this Board meeting in which we had some contentious

061and rather bigoted language spouted off about our queer and our trans students, along with condemnation of our district support for those same students and calls to remove that support. This year alone, there have been at least 35 trans people murdered for being trans. And unfortunately, while I understand we can't necessarily ban this vile rhetoric that sometimes can happen in this room, we can at least do one thing as a district. Reaffirm and support our queer children. I want to thank you, Dr. Duran specifically, because in your most recent message you stated how students and families told us they want schools where students experience a strong sense of belonging and safety and instruction that reflects their identity and culture. We have much work to do to achieve all that our students need and want from our

062school-- from schools. We must continue to listen to students and their families and keep working toward the vision that we are co-creating with them. And then you go on further to state, I want you to know that I am all in on our commitment to equity, as is our school board. We know that we all do better when we all do better. That is the promise of public education. This message was an excellent first start. I emailed my colleagues and said the same about how happy I was with it. But in the spirit of we all do better when we all do better, I want to ask two things further, that in further communication that you explicitly state and name the identities that are under attack amongst our country, and especially at these Board meetings,

063our LGBTQ and especially our trans students, and reaffirm your support for them specifically. Our students need to know that you do not stand for hatred and bigotry at any level, and naming these identities explicitly in future communications is a step that you need to take. Furthermore, I also want to make a call that you research and invest in partnerships with community organizations that can best support our LGBTQ students. While many schools may have GSAs, they often do not feel supported beyond the statements of, I feel you. I hear you. I see you. We need to show these students that our district values who they are and will support them with love, caring, and investment at every level. In general, our students need mental health supports. But if you remember the statistics many people shared last

064month, our queer students are suffering at a disproportionate level. We need more counselors, more social workers, and other mental health workers for our students. And finally, I want to share one of my favorite quotes from my favorite genre, which is science fiction, because I love science fiction because it gives us, for me, a hope for humanity, that even in the darkest times we can still have hope for one another. And it's a quote by Gwendolyn Brooks from By Way of [? Pet ?] by [? Aquay-quay ?] [? Amesi. ?] "We are each other's harvest. We are each other's business. We are each other's magnitude and bond." And I want to invite the Board and anybody where if we are disagreeing about these issues around our LGBTQ students, I will welcome you in conversation as long

065as you're coming with good intent to actually discuss and learn, and nothing else. That's it. Thank you, Ben. Next up, Christian [? Plishki. ?] Going once. I don't see her. Going twice. All right. The next three speakers-- so please be ready-- Lawrence Garrett, Billy Hetherington and Mike Acord. Please come up. Lawrence? Going once. Going twice. Billy. Oh, never mind. All right. Billy and Mike, please come up. Who's first? Billy. Well, go for it. You're already up there. Oh, OK. I was-- all right. Excellent. My height. My name is Mike Acord. I'm WEA retired. I am the co-chair of the WEA Substitute Committee. I am also a WEA volunteer labor organizer for substitutes. I also present a course on classroom management for substitutes for the WEA. I'm here to talk about the best practices for substitutes.

066When I was the vice president in about 2011 of the Seattle Substitute Association, I started a three-year program in which we looked for the substitute-friendly schools and honored them. We always would go to the Seattle School Board and make a presentation of those schools that met the substitute-friendly thing. One of the things that that three-year program gave us was data on what substitutes think substitute-friendly schools are. And some of that data, administrators. They meet you. They greet you. They come around and see how you're doing. They support you. I was in a long-term assignment at Cleveland High School where I took over a class in which the teacher had left a series of other substitutes [INAUDIBLE].. And I came in and took over that class, tried to put it back together. I substituted there until

067they hired somebody full time. During that time, I had the principal Mr. [? Grayling ?] come into my classroom. What he did was walk around that classroom, talk to each student, and bring them on task for me. That step allowed me-- he never said a word to me. He never said anything to me at all about that. But he brought each and every one of those students on to task. And there was kind of a turning point in that class because of his presence and being in there and helping me, and giving me a presence that was there. It was awesome. Actually, the most important person or people in a school is the office staff because they're the ones that set you up. They're the ones that greet you for the day. And their friendship

068and openness and things like that helps set your entire tone if that is a fringe-- a friendly greeting as such. They also hopefully provide you with the materials you need and have put those together and keep them up to date. They inform you if there's something going on in the school. One of the things that the WEA is doing is we're putting on professional developments that's free to every substitute in the state. And we offer free clock room hours for that. I am one of the presenters of that. I am also the organizer. And I'm going to give you the dates before my time runs out when I find it. It's January 21 and February 11 are the next ones coming up. The notification for that will be going out to President Sandy Hunt, and

069she will forward it to the administration in a little bit. We encourage you to invite all your substitutes to that, whether they are emergency certs and just getting started or they are long-term professionals, because it makes it richer when we have a collaboration of all. Thank you for your time, and I hope you honor and take care of your substitutes. [BEEPING] Thank you, Mike. Next up, Billy. Good evening, Dr. Duran and Board. My name's Billy Hetherington. I'm a 22-year proud member of the Laborers Union. And I'm the Advisory Committee Chair for Highline CTE. I'm also part of the CTE Advisory Committees for Renton and Federal Way. I also participate in Burien's Economic Development Partnership advisory committee for the city council of Burien. Speaking tonight on the benefits of community hire and the district's future capital

070construction projects, college pathways aren't for every high school student. Approximately 1/3 of high school graduates complete a college or technical school within six years after graduating. So I really do like the Highline promise that you guys put up here earlier. What are we doing for the other 2/3 of Highline High School graduates? So a little bit about myself. Graduated high school in the late '90s. The pathways were either off to college, trade school, or in the military. You were grown up to think that you weren't going to get a good career after high school if you didn't follow one of those three pathways. So growing up with a couple parents that were both union members-- my dad's a 44-year retired member of my local-- it was always preached to us, get good grades. Go off

071to college. Get a career. Doctor, lawyer, whatever it might be. So if I wasn't on the football field or baseball field, I was following around my dad in the construction sites when I was growing up. After graduating high school, I went off to college, played sports in college, and I'll get to a little bit when I'm telling you the story here. But graduated college. But in the meantime, while I was going to college, in the summertime I was out in the construction sites with my father. And I tell everybody-- I joke about it. I say, that's the one mistake he made right there. So after graduating college, I dinked around the banking industry and just realized that corporate America kind of wasn't cut out for a young kid like myself that grew up rolling around

072in the dirt playing sports, and just that team camaraderie that I gained on those three summers that I was working construction while going to college. And I worked at Seahawk Stadium. I was fortunate. I don't know what they call it now. Lumen Field or something like that, right? So it changes every five years or whatever. But just having those memories with all those different people that I met in those three summers just kind of really resonated with me. So made a phone call to my dad one day and told him, you know, I don't think this corporate America, this banking world's really meant for me. You got a job for me? And so he said, yeah, come on over. So I left Wells Fargo with my banking position and took a pay raise to go

073back to work construction. So I tell you that. It's like, I'm a minority in the construction industry, knowing that not everybody has a college degree. But in my apprenticeship, it takes a 10th grade education is all it does to join our apprenticeship. And I don't know one trade that's out there that doesn't require more than a high school diploma or GED to join. And so creating these opportunities through community hire, through community workforce agreements on capital projects kind of completes that pipeline. I tell a lot of people that I look at capital projects, infrastructure projects, whether the city, through the school district as it should be some type of extension of the K through 12 education system. The skills through programs like community hire, that members of the community can get on these projects that

074are transferable skills that allow members of the community, graduates of Highline Public Schools to earn a living, have these skills that they can go make a good wage for their families, the medical benefits, everything else is a win-win for everybody. I have about 30 seconds here. I don't want to go into too much detail on stats. But every job sector right now is going into a crunch, and we're all looking at ways, especially in the construction industry, to diversify our workforce. And these type of programs are intentional in doing that. They're intentional in increasing numbers of people of color participation, women in the construction industry. So I urge you to take a look and keep having further conversations about these programs. Thank you. [BEEPING] Thank you. Next up, Andrea O'Fair. And I always mess up

075this last name. Renee Agatusma and Andrew de Jong are the next three speakers. Ah. All right. Renee and Andrew. Hi. I'm Renee Agatsuma. I use she/her pronouns, and I am a proud teacher at Evergreen High School. I spoke last time about science education. And I just wanted to make a correction because when there was a lot of hubbub, I quoted wrong numbers for people who are born intersex when we talked about the-- when we teach that in the HHMI mitosis and differentiation unit. So people who are born intersex are about one in 50 to one in 100 people. That is about 1.7% of the population, which is about the same as people who are born with red hair. So I knew it was high, but I just quoted the wrong number when there was a

076little bit of hubbub. But I wanted to talk about how we talk about that in our classes, that depending on-- the curriculum is one from HHMI BioInteractive Biomedical Institute, and it's about sex verification in athletes. And it talks about how-- it's about competition in women's sports. And there were different tests with using different things, because all of this stuff is very complicated. And if you were tested in 1966 or in 1968, 1992, or 2011, sometimes you might be categorized as being allowed to participate in women's sport, and sometimes you wouldn't. And so we talk about that. We talk about looking at-- at one time they were looking at external anatomy, and they actually made people walk around naked to say, well, you should compete or you shouldn't. Another time they were looking at chromosomes. In

0771992 they looked at the SRY gene. And in 2011 they started looking at testosterone blood levels. And so we talk about this in our classes and say, you know, how is this something that we can say is binary when somebody's definition would change depending on what year you test them? And so it's really important that we also have all of our students feel very safe. And this is one thing at my school, the back of my shirt has the "In Lak'ech" poem. And I think a lot about this, and we talk about it at all of our meetings that you are my other me. If I do harm to you, I do harm to myself. If I lift-- I'm getting the words wrong, but if I lift you up, I lift myself. And so I

078think about that with our community, and that's something that's really important in our school and in our district. And I just wanted to make that correction, and also just say too that I remember the first time I saw a teacher that looked like me, and that's something that I think is also important. It was in 4th grade when I had an Asian American teacher. And so I also want to-- I think we definitely want to try to continue to recruit staff of color, because it's so important. And we are at Evergreen, and I think through the science department, trying to lift up scientists of color every month so that our students see scientists who are actively working who look like them, because that is vital and important, and I want them to know that they

079can do it, and they can do anything, and all the open careers and things that they can do in science. So that's it. Thank you, Renee. Next up, Andrew. Hello. I'm Andrew de Jong. I'm also a science teacher at Evergreen High School. Honored to teach alongside Renee here. Thank you all for letting me speak today. It's my first time speaking at a Board meeting, so yeah. Thanks for having me. OK. So this is my sixth year teaching as a science teacher at Evergreen. I started when Evergreen became a comprehensive high school. And I've worked with several science teachers throughout, and we've always been focusing on incorporating practices and beliefs of science education that's grounded in students' identities and critiquing power and in social justice for marginalized groups. We've always believed it's the right approach and

080been vindicated that it's the right approach for science education because of the rich, intersecting, but also different backgrounds, identities, languages, and cultures at Evergreen. This is also acknowledging in stark contrast to the predominant language and perspective of science that considers itself some kind of objective truth when this has mostly reflected just the perspective of what have been predominantly white, cis, heterosexual men like me. So to be successful teachers at Evergreen, to make those connections and build rapport with students, develop student-teacher connections, allowing for safety that we can use to take academic risks, we have to acknowledge that we are socialized differently based on our environments and how we're treated relative to race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, nation of origin, language, and so on. And so to ignore that fact is to keep those power structures

081invisible and keeping marginalized voices at the periphery, de facto giving many of our students, if those are ignored, worse educations. As a white male teacher in education, I stand by all my colleagues and our administration who strive for socially just, culturally affirming, and responsive LGBTQIA-affirming liberatory education that treats all of our students as sacred, worthy of attention, worthy of love, guidance, and education. Let's see. Where do I want to go? OK. So one other topic that I came to speak about that affects our instruction in the classroom day to day is a recent change regarding the standards-based grade book and standards-based grading at this school. Evergreen was part of the pilot last year for standards-based grading. And as a rollout to the district, we've been affected by only being able to use the last grade

082in the grade book. In our department-- like, I've been at Evergreen for six years, and standards-based grading has been just a long discussion using the National-- or NGSS science standards, and how to implement that, and how to use-- [LAUGHS] how to fit these two things together. I went to the National Science Teacher Association Conference in Atlanta in 2017, and out of four days of events and sessions, only two or three had to do with standards-based grading in science. And so it just shows that this is still being discussed and talked about-- and well, that was a couple years ago. But I'm sure it's progressed a little bit. But it's not an easy discussion to have. And so the fact that we have to use last grade feels very rigid and peremptory in how we have

083to grade. That's my time. [BEEPING] Thank you. The next three speakers. Sandy Hunt, Patricia Bailey, and Katie Kressley. Hi. My name's Sandy Hunt, and I'm not used to a timer, but I am really excited to be here. Appreciate having the opportunity to sign up. And a little hint. I give people-- my pro tip is if you always put teacher workload or educator workload as your topic, you can just probably talk about anything up here, because everything rolls down onto our teachers. So it was really edifying to really get that in-depth topic when you asked. I really appreciated how you asked Mount View, like, what's your one thing? And they said time. And magically, I pulled out a file that I found when I was cleaning out my office this week that I thought actually might

084be helpful. It's a letter of agreement between Highline Public Schools and Highline Education Association. And it says, we will create a joint committee for the 2008-2009 school years. The committee will work collaboratively to design, develop, and present an implementation model allowing for regularly scheduled amounts of non-instructional time beginning in 2009 and 2010. And so the way-- what that means is they believe that it's important for schools and teachers to have time to work collaboratively, implement new learning strategies, and analyze data and receive training. In the past few years, we've used early dismissal and waiver days to create non-instructional time to do our work. A joint committee comprised of teachers, principals, and district administrators are working to develop a schedule for regular amounts of time throughout the school year. It will be used to inform the

085committee's recommendation to the bargaining team and the directors regarding scheduling of non-instructional time. So this is the beginning of a survey that was done back then, because time was the issue. We were replacing what was called the full plate, which became the full platter committee as we were trying to-- And. So I wanted to hook that to going back to when we actually-- teachers love the opportunity when we interviewed Dr. Duran. A couple things he said really stuck with us is, number one, there's way too initiatives in Highline. You could maybe look at the number of members of Central Office and that would give you the number of initiatives that we have in the district. And so we're really looking forward at that point in time, and we are taking that number of initiatives and

086shrinking it down and really rolling things out well. Standards-based grading and the grade book have been things that I've heard a lot of concerns. We heard it again tonight, that they were not rolled out well, that they're not really reflecting the needs. You heard that from several speakers. And each one of those probably represents maybe 50 other teachers too. [LAUGHS] And you might be hearing from more of them in the future to help really understand, where is the disconnect with that? And then the other piece of that is the comment you made in your interview that we really appreciated was, we needed to land the plane. You can't-- we keep trying to build the plane while we're flying it, you know? And that is just proving to be impossible. So how do we land this

087plane and figure out ways in which we can actually work together to, as you heard in the charges from 2008-2009, work together collaboratively to come up with the best approaches to working with our students? And so we're looking forward to what you learned from your listening sessions and seeing that play out in a very bold strategic plan. Thank you. [BEEPING] Whoo! Fire! [LAUGHTER] I can do it. Thank you. Patricia? Good evening, School Board. This pertains to readiness to learn. The celebrated UK pediatric transgender clinic, Tavistock, is being closed down as unsafe for children, and a class action lawsuit is being prepared for over 1,000 young people injured by Tavistock's so-called gender-affirming practices. You see, there are many psychological reasons for gender dysphoria. Depression, trauma, sexual abuse, autism, various shades of mental illness, or social contagion.

088So-called gender-affirming care does not help any of these mental conditions. You cannot have a female brain in a male body, and vice versa. When sex is determined at fertilization, that is conception, and every cell and organ including the brain is marked with one sex. It is a personality that is fluid. Boys can like playing dress-up and enjoy dancing, and girls can like playing sports and enjoy mathematics. As an aside, DSD, Disorder of Sexual Development, is not relevant to this particular issue at this moment. When a child takes on a different name and gender identity at school and the school keeps that information from the parents, the school is acting as an enemy of the child, preventing him or her from getting family and professional mental support. The school is driving a wedge between the child

089and the ones who care for him or her the most, the parents. So-called gender-affirming care is not affirming, and it's not care. It's called indifference to the psychological suffering of the child. By affirming the child's hatred of his own body, the so-called caregiver is affirming the child's body is an atrocity, and only medical interventions can help. This is like affirming a thin anorexic teenager is indeed fat and needs liposuction and careful calorie restriction. This is cruel beyond measure. Ironically, real advocates for children are called bigots, transphobic, and hateful. However, it is these so-called bigots who want to prevent children from making disastrous decisions. Chemical castration, teenage menopause, early onset osteoporosis, arrested brain development, and surgical mutilations of the body are nothing children are capable of comprehending, let alone choosing. Thousands of people were involuntarily sterilized

090under the elite-driven eugenics movement of the 1900s. Now the billionaires appear to have captured schools and other entities with their eugenics agenda to potentially cause the sterilization of tens of thousands of children under the transgender mythos. However, it's even more sinister than in the 1900s. The current elitists stand to make billions of dollars mutilating young people. We can't blame parents when they find their children being secretly groomed for sterilization, when they sue everyone and anyone responsible for this unethical and immoral behavior. Children with gender dysphoria need exploratory psychotherapy, not misleading and destructive so-called gender affirmation. It must stop. Thank you. Katie Kressley? Thank you. Dear Highline Board, this is a letter that I sent to you earlier this week. This is Katie Kressley. As a United States citizen, I respectfully insist that you remove the

091following item from your 2023 Highline legislative agenda. The label is attract, recruit, and retain diverse School Board directors. That sounds very wise and logical until you realize that in the agenda item, you assert that you can better serve our diverse community by opting to, quote, "eliminate the citizenship requirement." That's not how it works. We live in the United States, in the state of Washington, and citizenship is a requirement to hold this political position, logically, morally, ethically, and constitutionally. The responsibility of managing taxpayer funds, as well as taking care of the community's future, our children, is a responsibility of the citizenry of our representative government. As an example, if I were to host a family in my home, I would see to their needs, but I would not give them my checkbook and ask them to

092pay my mortgage or spend my money. You are all citizens and you all represent our extremely diverse community. We obviously do not have a problem attracting a diverse Board membership, so there is zero reason to broaden the eligible candidate pool as you say. By including this item as part of your legislative agenda, you were encouraging noncitizens to partake in our elections and political process. Why don't we instead encourage our permanent-- quote, "permanent legal residents" to take it one step further and become United States citizens before engaging-- before engaging their political aspirations and running for the Highline School Board? Again, before you vote, I sincerely request that you remove this last agenda item from your 2023 legislative agenda. I look forward to seeing how each of you decides this evening. Thank you. The next three speakers.

093Wendy B., Alex Myrick, and Sandra Locklear. Now, I don't want to butcher your last name, Wendy, so feel free to let me know how to say it right. Betseren. Good evening, School Board directors. Please imagine the following scenario. You're a parent, and you discover the child you've raised from birth is living a secret life at school. Your child's being called by the wrong name and the teacher's using incorrect pronouns. Your child is no longer gender identifying with their biological sex. How did this happen? In this scenario, you the parent have been intentionally excluded by your child regarding their most intimate exploration. This includes decisions that may change their entire life. Why is everyone in the school allowed to know, but not you? What are you feeling as a parent? How are you able to help

094your child if teachers are not allowed to bring this critical information to your attention? This situation can actually happen. Highline's Gender-Inclusive Schools Procedure number 3211 says before contacting a student's parents, the school will consult with the student about the student's preferences regarding family involvement and honor those preferences. Repercussions for school staffing, including investigation, are possible if they do not comply with the district policy. Procedure 3211 also states students will be allowed to use the restroom that corresponds to the gender identity they assert at school. But what about the rights of the children who do not identify as transgender and the rights of their parents to protect their children from exposure or confusion in the bathroom or locker room? This confuses me and concerns me greatly. I'm a parent of two children, and I see the

095inherent role of parents being blurred and replaced in our Highline schools. Strangely, in Washington state, kids are not legally allowed to get their ears pierced until they're 16 without a parent's consent, and they're banned from using a tanning bed until they're 18. But yet, prepubescent children and teens are encouraged to make their own lifelong decisions related to gender. What is so-called gender-affirming care? A pediatrician described it as validating children and loving them and supporting them while they explore their gender identity. However, this, quote, "loving support" also leads to health care decisions involving puberty blockers, top and bottom surgeries like mastectomies, chest enhancements, and other risky decisions. And some of those cause infertility and permanent damage. Gender and sex-related topics are controversial, and adult decisions are one thing because they're legally responsible for themselves. But on

096the other hand, it's very different when we're talking about school policies for children who are still forming their minds and their own decision making ability. Whether you agree or disagree that so-called gender-affirming care is right or good, parents deserve to be involved and informed when their children are making life-altering decisions as minors. The Washington State School Directors Association recently adopted the following statement regarding parents. And it says, "Schools should reduce barriers to parent family participation to improve connections, collaboration, partnership, and transparency." How is this WSSDA position supported when the school must withhold information from the parents? Is this not teaching children to lie and break down the trust within the family relationships? All children deserve to have their parents respected enough to be included in their lives. But in Highline's efforts to promote nondiscrimination of

097transgender students, the parental wishes are disregarded. This needs to be reversed. Highline School Board directors, I ask you to revisit your policies around gender-affirming care and protect the rights of parents protecting their children in 2023. Please create and adopt a strong parents' rights resolution. Thank you. The-- next up. Sorry. Lost myself. Alex Myrick. Good evening, School Board directors. Like all of you, I want to have schools and a district I can be proud of, schools with rigorous academic standards. Sadly, this is not always the case. Several years ago, a student at Tyee High School, along with her entire science class, was given a tongue depressor and the assignment to go outside and imitate the eating technique of a bird. This took up the entire class period. The assignment was repeated the following day. The student

098requested an alternate assignment. She was denied. This continued all five days of that week. When the same bird-imitating assignment with tongue depressors was given for a second week, the student's mother asked the teacher for an alternate assignment. This was denied again. The mother then went to the principal and asked for a different assignment. Again, she was denied. When the same assignment was given for a third consecutive week, the mother withdrew her daughter from Tyee and enrolled her at Kennedy Catholic. Who can blame her? If you are wondering if this was a special ed class, it was not. It was not even mainstream. It was an advanced placement science class. At the last Board meeting, a high school science teacher made the statement that, quote, "in my class, we talk about how chromosomes do not determine

099biological sex." Unquote. This is analogous to a math teacher claiming that 2 plus 2 does not equal 4. Sex was also described as being on a spectrum. This is a fad, and has no scientific evidence. I have been a mental health professional for over 30 years and am an associate member of the American College of Pediatricians. My association and I can assure you that sex is binary and not on a spectrum. The so-called intersex conditions are actually disorders of sexual development and not additional sexes or waypoints on a spectrum. We know this because sex is by definition about reproduction, and all of the unfortunate individuals afflicted with these conditions are infertile. An individual diagnosed with Turner's syndrome has one of her X chromosomes missing or partly missing. Nevertheless, she is still female. An individual diagnosed

100with Klinefelter syndrome has a chromosome configuration of XXY. Nevertheless, he is still male. Of course, these individuals and others with disorders of sexual development deserve our respect and compassion. The anti-scientific claim about chromosomes I mentioned earlier is not a one-off or isolated incident. When our kindergarteners are read books suggesting that they may have been born into the wrong body and each year they are subjected to so-called comprehensive sex education and school staff have been directed to be, quote, "affirming," unquote, and conceal the child's confusion from his or her parents, what we have ended up with is a school to transgender clinic pipeline. Children have enough problems sorting out their sexuality at puberty and adolescence. The last thing they need is school staff pushing it on them in the primary grades and deceiving the parents. Transgender

101activists have portrayed puberty blockers as safe and reversible for use in gender dysphoria. However, these claims are based on their use for precocious puberty, a different disorder with a different etiology, different diagnostic criteria, and different prognosis. Puberty blockers have dangerous side effects and have never been subjected to randomized controlled trials in the context of gender dysphoria. Their benefits have been shown by research to be non-existent or speculative at best. Since the district's current policy has neither solid scientific evidence-- Thank you, Mr. Myrick. --approval among parents in the public-- Thank you, Mr. Myrick-- --I exhort you to reverse course. [GAVEL BANGING] Thank you, Mr. Myrick. And I would also encourage speakers-- I didn't want to ruin the flow of Mr. Myrick, but there might have been someone who was personally directed in some of his comments.

102I didn't want to interrupt your speech, so I wanted to let you continue. A future president might opt to call you out of order or someone else out of order. Just wanted to throw that suggestion out there, especially if there's anyone else who's considering using what was said at another meeting because it can be interpreted such as. So thanks again. Go for it. Good evening. Before I proceed, I want to say for the record that as a mom, a former teacher in our district, and artist, I support the right of all people everywhere to live and express as they wish, but not at the expense of the sex-based rights of women, and not at the expense of kids. For me, that's where the buck stops. With that said, I'm here tonight to share my concerns

103about content in the new K through 5 science curriculum that Highline soon intends to adopt. Your instructional materials committee gave strong directives on what it should look like. At the top of the list are recommendations for curricula with a distinctly political flavor. For example, links on instruction on race and identity and justice and action standards. So I clicked on justice and action standards and landed on a website called Learning for Justice where teachers can, quote, "learn how to help students dig deep into the concept of identity," unquote. But what does identity have to do with science? Turns out nothing. Because buried six layers deep like a tick on a dog, I discovered a social justice article called "Equity Period with Lesson Plans." You never know the article is about a biological process specific to girls

104because the word girl is never mentioned. Apparently, that's offensive because boys now menstruate too, in case you haven't heard. Enter the justice and action standard called menstrual equity activism. Here's what it is, and I quote. "Do not assume that any student, regardless of sex or gender, does or does not menstruate. Menstrual education is for menstruating bodies. Gender-segregated menstrual health education is not a good option because we have to recognize that you cannot make assumptions about who is and is not menstruating. It's unlikely that these conversations will provide students the information they need. Therefore, menstrual equity activism is missing an opportunity to empower youth." Unquote. I see folks scratching their heads. Right? It appears that what's being said is that girls who identify as boys nowadays may not want to be in health ed classes with

105other girls, and boys who identify as girls nowadays may not want to be in health ed classes for girls, so the-- wait. And boys who identify as girls nowadays may want to be in health ed classes for girls. I'm confused too. So the solution is to throw them all together in order to teach both sexes. As the article says, and I quote, "What do you do to clean up the mess?" Nice, huh? And no matter how uncomfortable this loss of privacy makes girls feel, they're shamed into submission. You've all heard the news lately. This is all about pushing transgenderism. But it goes even deeper. The article explicitly states that both sexes menstruate. This talk is both scientifically inaccurate and dangerous. Dismantling differences between the sexes through the manipulation of language and public perception is the

106goal of transhumanism. The community is aware that Highline allows for the teaching of transgenderism on multiple fronts during the school day. Do you plan on allowing the elementary science curriculum to be infiltrated as well? K through 12 content standards are supposed to set expectations for what students should know and be able to do. What universe is our district now living in? Can anyone at ERAC explain how pseudoscientific garbage like this improves science education or the lives of our student? Please put the brakes on. We're talking about young kids here. I respectfully urge the School Board to take the ethical high road by rejecting this bogus K through 5 science curriculum, and thank you for all your attention tonight. Thank you for your time. Be well, and happy holidays. Thank you. Next up, the next three

107speakers, James Payne, Dr. C. Edgar, and Tim Foley. James Payne with two at North Hill Elementary. Tonight I'll be discussing three things, your legislative agenda, teacher activism, and public records. So tonight, you're voting on the 2023 legislative agenda and are fully entitled to lobby Olympia for the things above your legal power. What you're not entitled to do, however, is subvert the constitutional rights of your constituency in order to achieve a legitimate power. This is what you're doing when you seek to empower noncitizens to make law and allocate our public resources under the deceiving title, increasing diversification of school boards. Here's a civics reminder. The US is not a democracy or mob rule, but a representative government. Our system of government obliges citizens to elect representatives whose power is both delineated and limited by the US

108Constitution. Now, superseding all elected officials' authority is the Constitution. It is the standard for governance of the people and the foundation of all of our laws. While folks may roll their eyes and scoff every time someone cites the US Constitution as a restraint to your policies, you're not excused from adhering to it. So when you appear to call for the Constitution to be ignored like your agenda does here, this immediately raises red flags that this body wants to govern outside of your limited and delineated powers. This particular legislative priority constitutes an egregious affront to the Constitution and your constituents' voting rights. By your trying to eliminate the citizenship requirement for elected office, you've gone too far. To approve this agenda would abuse your very limited power, taking advantage of our nation's broken immigration system for

109nakedly political purposes. Just stop the tribal stuff. Approving this agenda contravenes our country's long-held constitutional requirement of citizenship to hold political office and allocate public resources. I'll say it again. Highline does not have a compelling government interest to broaden illegal alien voting rights. You do have a compelling interest and a sworn duty to maintain the integrity of your legal constituents' voting franchise. You've surreptitiously inserted this controversial proposal into your legislative agenda without proper public debate, which is a poor characteristic of this Board, I must say. We want you to go on record here to defend your positions. Do not yea nay this agenda here tonight without publicly debating it in front of us. Board, strike this proposal from your agenda and re-align yourself with the Constitution. Next, trends in education have incorrectly emphasized a teacher's

110political mission over their pedagogical one, and I'm here to set you straight. A public teacher's only job is to teach a set of concrete, testable skills, not indoctrinate children into leftist ideology or push a radical political agenda, period. As we saw at the last meeting, to some degree here tonight as well, Highline clearly has too many activists and not enough teachers. We are not paying for activism. We are paying for teachers. You've created a monster with your policies. A teacher is a government employee, a public servant. Never should they be a political apparatchik for one side or the other. This activism is totally unprofessional and must cease immediately. These are not Democrat or Republican schools. They are public schools. Lastly, your public record section, apparently slow-rolling responses to our public records request, which threatened to

111expose the district's illegal actions. Remember, these are the public's records, not yours to hide. Board, you've got to rein in your government. [BEEPING] Thank you. Next up. Dr. C. Edgar. OK. You're going to have a retreat on December 10 is my understanding. And one of the things that I think that you need to examine at your retreat is your comprehensive traditional high schools. I'm here to talk about the data that suggests that they are not effective schools. For the state average for attendance, it is 80.1%. Highline High School's attendance-- and this is '21-'22 data-- is 60.9%. Evergreen's is 49%. Tyee's is 42.7% and Mount Rainier's is 54.8%. None of these schools, with the exception of Highline, are effective schools in terms of attendance. One of the main charges of public schools is to educate a

112ready workforce upon leaving school. If you do not attend school, OK, except for 42.7%, that means that you are 57.3% not present. You cannot be trained for support of-- for employment. You're just not employable, quite frankly. And if you're not at school, the question is, what are you doing with your time? Are you involved in crimes? Are you involved in gangs? Are you involved in selling drugs? What are you doing with your time? And parents need to be contacted and know that their students are not in school. And somebody needs to be saying, well, where are these students? What are they doing? And what is the progressive methodology that Highline Schools are using to get these kids in school? Attendance is a state requirement, OK? Your schools are not effective, OK? Number two, let's talk

113about math. Math. State average, 37.7%. Highline, 14.8%. Evergreen, 17.9%. Tyee, 8%. And Mount Rainier, 32.4%. Not one of those schools meets the state average. You do not have an effective curriculum for mathematics for your comprehensive high schools. It's just as simple as that. The data says it. Science. State average, 42.7%. Highline, 14.6%. Evergreen, 11.1%. Tyee, 30.6%. Mount Rainier, 22.9%. I mean, 23.9%. You do not have an effective curriculum. You're not coming anywhere-- you're not coming anywhere near the state average. You're graduating people. Your graduation rates' going up, but those are empty diplomas. OK. Let's talk about English language arts. So state average, 50.7%. Highline, 41.4%. Evergreen, 48.3%. Tyee, 30.2%. And the only one that meets state standards and sees it is Mount Rainier. But none of these schools in all categories are meeting-- are effective

114schools. They are not even meeting the state average. This is something you should be discussing. The major purpose of public schools is to develop a productive workforce. You're not developing a productive workforce. The data shows that. You are to create an informed citizenry that essentially promotes a democratic society that is capable of voting. If your students do not have the ability-- [BEEPING] --to read. Thank you, Dr. Edgar. That's it. OK. And I'll take a point of privilege to mention that when you-- I would lean back to our assume a positive intent. And when you made a correlation between, what our young people doing outside of school and assuming that they might be related to crime or gangs and not assuming positive intent, I just want to-- I want you to sit away or reflect on

115that, because a lot of our young people, they might not be in school, but they might be doing something else. And I wouldn't want to frame our young people in such a negative light. So I'd like to tell you that I'm also including the public health profile for Burien. And the public health profile, even though I'd like to assume the positive, does not suggest that when you take a look at it, and it will be in our packet. You can see it. I know you-- what you're-- I appreciate it. Thank you, Dr. Edgar. All right. Next up, we have-- oh, Tim Foley. Hi. My name is Tim Foley. I'm a parent in this district. I have two children in this district. And the sex education program, I'm just really trying to educate myself about it,

116what it is, how big it is, what is involved. And as I've been going through this process, I've also been looking at, who's liable? You know, I was a business owner for 10 years, and one thing I learned during that time was, if somebody's going to get sued, who's going to get sued? So our teachers and Derrick, the individual that is in charge of the sex education program for our district, have mentioned that it's a state mandate, that it's mandatory. What does that mean? To me, it didn't mean much. To me it meant, OK, let me dig into it and see who is actually liable. If somebody's going to get sued, is it the teacher? Is it the state? So I went to the websites, the state websites that Derrick sent me over to. And

117I would like to read what I found there. One was sexual health education requirements. Healthy Youth Act RCW 28A.300.475. Washington State law on sexual health education states that the decision as to whether or not the program about sexual health education is to be introduced into the common schools is a matter for determination at the district level by the local school board. So if somebody's going to get sued, it's you. And I just want to make sure that everybody's on the same page and are aware, it's not the state. The state right here on their own website is cleaning their hands. Also in the FLASH program, it states the same thing. Knowing your state and local guidelines, it is important morally and legally that you follow the guidelines established by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction

118or Department of Education and your District School Board. And this is the next paragraph, what it actually says. Essentially in Washington, the state superintendent leaves the decision about whether to teach sexuality up to the local school board. So again, as a father that has children in this district and as an ex-business owner, I wonder who's liable. I don't know if the School Board knows that the state's basically washing their hands of this. The definition of mandatory has really changed in the last couple years. If you look at cases today of people who got jabbed in our suing, the court system is basically saying that mandatory means strong recommendation. So does that mean that mandatory doesn't have any legal weight? On the state's website, they're washing their hands of it. It's on the School Board and

119the citizens in this territory, in this district who pay the taxes. Thank you. Next up, the next two speakers are Martin Barrett, Hendrik Uffkis. And our wait list, because we had-- did we have two-- did we have three people not speak? So then we can actually go to our wait list. So also queue up Sac Wenman, Bob Korth, and Karina Yabala. Thank you. I'm Martin Barrett. And President Garcia, I'm going to ask you to give me a little bit of slack at the front end on this in terms of naming people because it's going to be really important to it. So several weeks ago when the bond issue was going through heated debate and conversation, just before the election, Catherine Rogers came up and shared that she had reached out to local media, which was

120my local media, [? Gem of the ?] [INAUDIBLE],, that she had reached out early in the week and had not received a response. And then she tried one more time and had gone through someone and gotten my personal email. And I received that email, and I responded to her within an hour that, yes, I would love to have a conversation with her and I would print whatever the school district was saying. So anyway, Catherine got up and represented this. That was not consistent with the fact pattern that I had at the time. And so I felt the need to call that out and tell her or tell the people that that is not as I understood it how it had gone down. So as it turns out, the Friday following I get a batch of

121emails from my info account. And sure enough, Catherine is there twice on Monday, reaching out to me and asking. Those had not been forwarded to me. So I immediately called Catherine and apologized. But of course, I brought this out in a public setting, and in many ways kind of besmirched her reputation or character on that. And so a public calling out like that deserves a public apology. So Catherine, I apologize for my statements to you on that. And Dr. Duran, I apologize to you as well if it created any consternation inside of your staff, with your people. Hopefully, the waves were calmed at some point in time, but I do apologize for that, so thank you. Thank you. Next up, I'm going to do another point of privilege because this one is near and dear

122to my heart. This next speaker was the-- what was it? The-- President of National Honors Society. President of National Honors Society when I used to work at Evergreen High School. And you were the advisor. Yep. So I am so, so, so happy to see-- I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to say that. But I am happy to see Hendrik Uffkis, Hank [INAUDIBLE].. We're not in cahoots here, right? I came independent here. But thank you, Aaron. I don't know if the timer-- OK, starts. I'm an alumni of Evergreen High School as Aaron just mentioned. I graduated in 2015. And I came here today to just express some gratitude and thanks to the Board and to the public at large. And I think I speak for a lot of other alumni as well. In fact, two of my

123peers from Evergreen wanted to come tonight, but the speaking spots were already full. This is regards to the bond, though, that just passed to rebuild Evergreen. When I went to Evergreen, there were countless examples on a day-to-day basis that showed the disrepair the school was in and the poor condition of the school. I mean, the cafeteria kind of smelled like natural gas. There were often leaks in the hallway. We had a grass field that you rolled your ankle on. There's probably few ACLs on that field still there. And I played a lot of high school sports, and we would travel around. Schools all over the greater Seattle area. And I quite honestly don't think I ever saw a school in as poor of condition as Evergreen other than Tyee, which is also on the bond.

124So I just-- I guess I want to emphasize-- my main point here is that on top of the technological and infrastructural advances that will be made with a new building-- and I know there's two teachers right here that teach at Evergreen-- and those are great and wonderful, and will probably do instrumental things in improving performance of students. I think there's also a perception that as a student and as an alumni that will be improved greatly, and that perception is just that the community and the people who invest In these things care, right? And that you're worth it, and that the investment's being made in the student populace. And I think that those can have psychological ramifications that are indirect, but incredibly powerful. There's many studies that show stereotypes, regardless of whether they're true or not,

125which as we all know, they're not, if you know that they exist, they can impact student performance. And I would argue the same thing about-- this is not from data, but just from experience, that the condition of your school reflects the perceived investment in you as a student. So I'm incredibly excited to see that this school is getting rebuilt at the end of the day. And I know it's a large investment from the community, and there's a lot of tax dollars that are going to go into this. I think it's over $500 million that I read. There are three schools that are going to get rebuilt. But from everything I just said, technological infrastructure, psychological improvements that are going to be made for the student population, I think that that tax investment will pay massive

126dividends for the future of students in this area. And what greater investment than that that pays off for so long for just people going out into the community and to live their life with that foundational education to go do great things? Yeah. I was a Highline Public School student from kindergarten onward, and I'm really proud of that. So anyway, I want to just thank the Board and the community again for the priceless investment in these schools and the students that attend them. You're investing in their future. You're showing them that they're worth it. And even though that might not be as easily felt by everyone, it's going to definitely be felt by the students. So thank you guys so much for everything you do. And Aaron, you left a marked, impact positive impact on students'

127lives when you worked at Evergreen. Don't forget that. Thank you, Mr. Uffkis. Man, that's a trip. All right, thank you. The next three speakers, Zach Wenman, Bob Korth, and Karina-- if I pronounce the last name is Karina Y. And feel free to correct me. All right. Thank you. Zach Wenman. I'm a recreation coordinator for the city of Burien. Oversees all the youth and teen programs in the area. And I'm just going to echo-- there were a lot of comments tonight about the value and power and partnerships. And that's actually the original reason I came here tonight, just to talk about the incredible grants that we've received, ESSER funds through the Highline School District. We're running after school programs at Highline High School, Glacier Middle School, Sylvester Middle School. We're over at Hazel Valley. Seen you

128up there, Aaron, with the kids. But we're doing capoeira class after school with the kids, working the rope works, doing jump roping. We have a loud dance class there. We also have a grant through the King County Youth Amateur Sports Grant. So we're doing free sports programs for 4th and 5th graders in the area at Hazel Valley, Hilltop, Cedarhurst, and Seahurst. But anyway, so my plug is a lot of these programs are run off of grants. Eventually, those grants disappear. So figuring out, how else can we make sure these kids are having valuable opportunities like Mountain View Elementary? That was great to see all those partners you have in your after school programs. So thinking about that for the future. These funds are going to dry up. And I'm not just plugging for city of

129Burien. I'm talking about for all the youth in our community. How can we continue these partnerships and organizations coming into our schools and helping support staff and anybody? Teachers, families, community members, anything like that. So that's my plug for the night. Thank you. And I was not doing the capoeira dancing, just point of clarification. I wish I could, but man. All right, next up, Bob Korth. Hello, Board. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Bob Korth. I graduated Mount Rainier back in 1993. Kind of dating myself, I guess. Go Rams. I'm here to speak about the bonds you guys have coming up. I'm kind of reflecting on Billy's-- some of Billy stuff. I'm not going to go as deep as he went into his personal life. But I struggled

130getting out of-- when I graduated Mount Rainier. Basically, it was military or college. College really wasn't for me, so I wandered around for a couple years. Finally, I found a apprenticeship program, the Iron Workers. They took me in. So 27 years later, I'm president of Iron Workers, soon to be the business manager. Everything I have is afforded because of a good career path through apprenticeship program. College is not for everyone. I would love it if you guys supported a model like the Seattle School District has now. It's called the S-- Student Community Workforce Agreement. I was actually a task force member on that. Gave the recommendation to their board to go ahead and move forward with it. So here we're into it a couple of years now. We're seeing the numbers, the diversity numbers, the

131apprenticeship numbers, the people of color on their projects, the female hours. They're all going up. They didn't have those numbers because prior to that agreement, I tracked all those apprenticeship utilization numbers, and they were low. So if you want to invest in your students, their families, put this agreement in place. So there are career pathways after school and for their parents who have access to these projects. So a return on investment shouldn't just be building brick and mortar. You should get dual return on investment, building careers and a school. So at that, all-- and my comments, happy to give my card after the meeting. But happy to sit down with you guys after that and kind of discuss a way to move forward, because there is a lot of money-- the public is paying for

132these projects. They should get a dual return on their investment. Thank you. Next up, Karina. Going once, going twice. And thank you, everyone. We tried it. We respected one another. This was, I think, an optimal public communication. So thanks, everyone. Next up, we are at superintendent updates. Dr. Duran? Yes. And I would like to invite Robin Lamoureux for our labor partner update. She represents the Highline Association of Washington School Principals. Welcome, Robin. Yeah, thank you, Dr. Duran, President Garcia, Board directors. I have a very short report tonight. [LAUGHS] I want to thank you for the opportunity for the Principal Association to address the Board on a regular basis. We continue to meet monthly with Dr. Duran and key leaders to dialogue about topics of interest to building leaders and offer principal voice, leadership, and expertise

133to all matters Highline. Principals enjoyed and felt the honor and recognition of National Principal Month acknowledgments. Highline principals and assistant principals are known for their unwavering dedication to students, staff, and school community. Thank you. We feel valued and supported in our leadership roles. The principals and assistant principals actively participated and supported the recent bond election in many ways, and we are pleased and encouraged with that election outcome. The message of community support for schools in Highline demonstrates confidence and advocacy for student learning and equitable learning environments. Principals and assistant principals participated in Dr. Duran's recent listening tours. He has assembled a principal and assistant principal group to participate in a next step review and prioritization of initiatives. A diverse group of principals were selected with varied experience and impact across the system, and we are

134very supportive of this process, and appreciate that principal voice is leveraged as plans are developing for the future of Highline. The Principals Association has been in conversation with Dr. Duran about revisiting building and emergency safety planning. Many upgrades have been made to our buildings in recent years. Surveillance cameras, lockdown procedures, lockdown campuses. Dr. Duran has been very receptive and has prioritized discussions with us about continual safety and security protocols to ensure the highest degree of safety for students, staff, and community. And lastly, the Highline Principal Association stands firmly alongside the Highline School Board and Dr. Duran in our commitment to equity. We see it in our schools. When students experience a strong sense of belonging and safety along with instruction that reflects their identity and culture, more learning occurs, and students and families feel seen

135and heard. We are committed more than ever to creating diverse, equitable, inclusive schools, learning environments, and workplaces to meet the needs of all our students and staff. And if you will, just for one moment, I'd like to let you know that our most senior principal is retiring in the next couple of weeks. I was hoping she could be here tonight. Vicki Fisher has worked in Highline for 37 years and has been very committed. She's the only principal I think that has served in every level of our system. She was a principal at Cedarhurst, Seahurst, Sylvester, Glacier, Highline High School. And please join the association in just recognizing her commitment to education and the Highline community. So thank you. Thank you. Next up, we are going to School Board reports. And I would hold off on

136doing any major legislative reports because we're going to be talking about our legislative agenda later on in the schedule. So we'll go straight to director reports, and I'll start off with Director Alvarez. OK. Thank you. So I am District 2. Just to notify you, Sylvester Teacher Named Educator of the Year by Seattle Southside Chamber. Sylvester Special Education Teacher Brenda Phelps received the Educator of the Year Award from Seattle Southside Chamber. Brenda was celebrated with caring deeply about her students. And also, Cedarhurst students play on NHL ice. So Cedarhurst 4th grade students got a trip to Climate Pledge Arena as part of the Symetra's LET'S Play program. They got to skate on ice where the Seattle Kraken compete and got a tour of the Kraken and Seattle Storm locker rooms. And to top it off, Symetra

137made a $39,000 donation to the Highline Schools Foundation. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Director Van? Thank you so much, President Garcia. I just want to have a point of privilege here. I appreciate the vote of confidence on this Board to appointing me for next year as Board Chair. But President Garcia, I just want to thank you for your leadership this past year. We did a lot with Dr. Enfield leaving, the hiring of Dr. Duran, the redistricting of the School Board, passing a school bond, and also the appointment, the search and the appointment of Director Hagos. This was a busy year for us, and with your guidance and your leadership we couldn't have done it without you. So I appreciate your leadership, and thanks for doing that for us-- with us. In addition to

138that, I had a great opportunity to go to the WSSDA conference in Spokane and meet alongside with the four of you, all of our other board directors across the state. I was able to meet quite a few board directors that grew up and graduate from the Highland Public Schools. So it was great to connect with them and for them to share their stories of what Highline meant to them back in the day. And quite a few of them will be coming back to do some tours. So looking forward to having that conversation, but also showing off what our district is about. So that is it for me. Thank you. All right. Well, this is fun, because I get to brag about schools in District 4. First, Chinook Unique Forest Club plants 300 trees on campus.

139They developed a vision to make their campus more forest-like and improve the ecosystem for all living things. Their vision was made a reality through a partnership with EarthGen. The nonprofit provided funding landscape, designer materials, and plants. Volunteers from the Seattle Sounders FC and Boeing Company helped students plant 300 trees on campus. Go, Chinook. And secondly, Maritime High School was mentioned in The New York Times. Maritime got a mention in The New York Times yesterday. The article focused on workforce challenges in the maritime industry. The CEO of a Seattle-based logistics company, Centerline Logistics, said in the article that he has been meeting with the school's leaders this fall and is convinced that they will help create the next pipeline in the profession. That concludes my report. Thank you. Director Hagos? All right. So I've got a

140couple of things to report for District 5. Sarah Martinez as our Mount Rainier class of 2008 is now the women's soccer coach at Yale University. She was also named the 2022 Ivy League Coach of the Year. Way to go. She is the first coach in Yale women's soccer history to receive this award. We've got some good coaches. I know that we have our football coach over at Mount Rainier High School. He's phenomenal as well, so that sounds all great. I know that on November 17 was National Family Involvement Day. And some schools were closing up their work around the student-led conferences and some were just getting going. And I just know that family involvement looks different for many people, but I do appreciate the work and the efforts our families are taking to be involved

141in some way for their kiddos. Tonight is Highline's transition night for our middle school to high school. So that's exciting. I know that there's many kids kind of engaged and wanting to know about high school choices, and they get the opportunity to do so, and I'm really glad that we do these transition events. It's important for our kids to be prepared for high school. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Unfortunately, I wasn't here at the last meeting, so I didn't get to celebrate with everyone. But I did want to again over-- I just-- from the bottom of my heart, I wanted to thank all the public voters who came out and supported the bond. I think it was certified last week at 68.84%. Whoo! Right? It just takes just-- that seems like a number,

142but it's so hard. It is so hard. And it took so much work and it took so much compromise, right? We had to come together. And this represents a lot of people who may not agree on a lot of things, but we agreed on one thing, and it is our young people. So I am so proud of Highline. And for the folks who couldn't get behind this, I get it. There's so many reasons why from it just hits your pocketbook to you just don't agree. And I appreciate that you still stay engaged and continue to keep us accountable to doing it right. So on behalf of just District 1, thank you for supporting the bond. Some other amazing highlights. So the Highline dual language education program was featured in a Washington Post article. So Highline

143language learning specialist Tu Dinh was featured in a Washington Post article, "The Magic of Bilingual Education." Tu has served as a Vietnamese dual language teacher at White Center Heights, an instructional coach. It is exciting to see our Highline story in Tu's words in this national publication. Tu wrote, "Bilingual education for me has been a validation of my language, culture, identity that I did not receive as a child of public education." And he recalled how his grandmother thanked him for giving her a seven-year-old grandson with the ability to communicate with her. And just a reflection on our earlier presenters from Mount View Elementary, I didn't get the opportunity to have dual language growing up. I was actually initially put into our-- back in the day it was the ESL program because I came from Mexico growing

144up. And I'm definitely a proud, proud ambassador of the no sabo generation because I speak more Spanglish than I really do Spanish. But my nieces and nephews and a lot of our young people do a better job communicating with my parents than I'm even able to. And it just-- it warms my heart to be able to do that and to be able to provide that for future generations. So I'll say that last piece. And I'm also going to brag. White Center Heights students teamed up with the UW Clean Energy team students from the University of Washington, Clean Energy team to do the 5th grade steam class. UW students taught children about why solar energy is important and how it works. White Center Heights students worked in teams to figure out the best angle for solar

145panels to absorb maximum energy. Then they connected the solar panels in mortars from bamboo race cars-- man, why do I not get invited to these things? Because I would have loved that. And they just had an amazing, amazing time. So way to go, White Center Heights. And that concludes my Board report. All right. Let me get myself back into it. We are now on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make a motion. We approve our consent agenda. Thank you. Second? I second. All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. All right. Next up, we are moving on to action items. I don't want to kill the lead, but I know that there might be a potential for amendments in some

146of our following items. I had reached out to all the Board members. This is actually more directed to folks out here to be aware. If there is a request for an amendment, I am asking that we do it after what has been laid out for the public to review, after there's been an initial motion of what's been shared to the public and a second. And then once we are in conversation, I'm requesting that a Board member then do an amendment to any of the agenda items. I won't kill the lead on if or where it happens, but I just wanted to share that point so folks could track what's going on and weren't confused with the Parley Pro, Robert's rule of order stuff that we're doing up here. So first up, we got a motion

147to approve the 2023 legislative agenda. Are there any questions for staff first? And I would ask that we maybe limit this for questions. Going once, going twice. All right. Is there a motion to approve the 2023 legislative agenda? I'd just like to take a point of order, and I think we had this conversation, and I wanted to make it public as well is that I don't feel comfortable making a motion for something that if it's going to be amended, I'd rather us have a discussion to be transparent to the public. Because if we make a motion, then for me it's perceived like, oh, we already have it. We've already agreed. And then after we agreed, now we're going to make an amendment to the motion that's been. So I am going to sustain from making

148any motion because I want to be able to have a discussion as a Board. Like, if we're going to vote for this agenda to go forward-- and if not, then we need to make it before we make any motion. And that's my personal preference. And I understand. And I think it's-- we will still have a discussion after the motion. It's just my interpretation of Robert's rule of order is a little bit different than Director Alvarez, and I have to make the call on how I want to move forward. So if anyone else is inclined to make a motion-- And I'd like to take a point of order and just say that, yes, you're going to make the call. But just that it seems that we tend to lean to Robert's rules of order when we

149know that it is based sometimes in the majority on white racist supremacy, and it is based on the white peoples who did it for us to maintain this order. And so you can proceed as president as you'd like, but I will not-- I don't feel comfortable making a motion. I appreciate that. And the reason I'm leaning into-- I agree with you 100%. I'm not a big fan of Robert's rule of orders, but I don't want this to be challenged, and our policy says that we have to use Robert's rule of order. So because of that, I want to make sure that whatever gets passed is still firm in our policy. So I appreciate that, and I welcome the opportunity maybe at the retreat for us to figure out how we can change Robert's rule of

150order in the future. Is there a motion? Knowing that we may have discussion, I move that the Highline School Board approve the attached 2023 legislative agenda. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second it. I usually don't, but I will use my Board opportunity to second it. And now we've entered into-- we are flexing our Robert's rule of order parliamentary procedure muscle tonight, so thank you for bearing with us. We are now entered into an opportunity to debate. I'll start off with Director Van. Do you have any ideas or things that you'd want to share? Thank you, President Garcia. I would like to make a motion to amend. I move to strike the attract-- I apologize. I move that we strike the attract, recruit, and retain diverse School Board directors from our Highline Public Schools

1512023 legislative agenda. Thank you. There's a motion to amend. The last clause, were you able to capture that? Cool. Is there a second to strike it or a second for this amendment? I second that. Thank you. We'll now enter into conversation. Dr. Van, would you like to share part of the background on why you want to share this amendment or why you're-- Yeah, most definitely, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this. Our WSSDA staff and Board directors did come up with this in 2021. There are a lot of things that is in this initiative that we are currently doing already, but there are also a lot of things in this initiative that I also feel that as a Board, as a School Board director, we have better things to be concentrating on. We

152should be getting back to education and things of that sort. A couple of the initial-- or a couple of the bullet points that was brought up was the choice around receiving compensation and things of that sort. We currently have a process. We have a stipend. In one of the previous report outs, the cost that was recommended was going to be in the-- $27,000 per Board director. So you know, I personally think that we are doing this work already, that we should be concentrating on the other agenda items that are in alignment with many other districts. And when we were at WSSDA in Spokane, I spoke to quite a few of our local roadmap region directors, and they're like, well, we're doing it. We're doing the work. And we have diverse boards. We are reflective of

153the students that we serve and the community, so we don't need this right now. And in the future when we have that need, we can entertain it. But at this point, I'm recommending that we remove it. Thanks for that opportunity. Of course. Are there-- Director Alvarez, do you have anything to share? I don't have anything to add. Thank you. Director Howell, do you have anything else to share? Yeah. Unfortunately, I wasn't at the WSSDA conference, and so I didn't get to have conversations with school board directors from other areas. I guess my question is, while this may not be an issue for Highline currently, is it-- are there struggles in other school boards across our state where the board doesn't reflect the diversity of the community? And would an amendment like this help support that?

154I just wonder that. This is a question because [LAUGHS] I don't fully understand the process by which we promote things. But can you strike parts of an agenda item, or is it just the entire-- because I think the big issue that people have is around eliminating the citizenship requirement. And so if that were to be struck from the item, would it change how people feel about this? For clarity's sake, if that was a path that we would want to do, I would say that it would be important for us to first do a roll call on the current amendment. This would return us back to the main amendment, and then we would then be able to pursue an alternative amendment. Right. OK. Just wondering. Mm-hmm. Any other comments or thoughts? I didn't hear you, Director

155Van. I said, that was a great question, though. Oh, thank you. I was thinking about that as well. [LAUGHS] And I will share as it relates to the permanent legal resident clause of a very comprehensive-- I sent it out a little bit ago. If you haven't had a chance to review it, I apologize. But there's actually a lot of other issues not related to this. This specific clause was around a situation-- I'm forgetting the school district. Was it Shoreline? Anybody know? OK. There was an appointment that was being requested. Overwhelming support of the community. The person was going to get appointed, and it turns out that they had permanent legal resident status, and unfortunately they weren't able to get appointed. And as a result, somebody that was wanted by the community, wanted by the Board

156could not serve as a representative of the school district. So again, this is for allowing permanent legal residents. And it's not even a thing that we're asking to change as a school district. We don't have that authority. We're just asking the state legislature and the governor to consider this change as part of our legislative agenda. Any other-- Director Hagos? Thanks for giving me the time to speak on this as well. This is a very challenging topic for me and my own personal background. I'm an immigrant. I came from a refugee camp in Sudan. And my family and I, we took all the steps to become citizens, and I still have lots of very-- quite a few family and friends that are permanent residents that are not citizens. And so personally, this really does affect me

157tonight. But I do want to say I did take an oath, and this is important to me as well, and higher because of the role that I have now. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, and moved in to fulfill this role as a School Board member, to be a good steward of our community's formal learning system. And one of the strengths that we have as a nation is to have these local assemblies of citizens running these different programs to support and serve our communities, and for our work in particular, learning and educational achievement. So I am also in favor of Director Van's amendment. And not just that-- I think, of course, our School Board does an excellent job. I mean, look at the diversity across our Board. Backgrounds and experiences and all these

158kinds of things. We have moved very far and are highlighted amongst quite a few different other boards across our state. So this-- which also brings me to the point that, yes, I do notice that that's not evident everywhere. I get that as well. But there was something striking to me at the conference when Chris Reykdal, Superintendent of Public Instruction, had spoke about one of the biggest pushes that he's working on or plans and agenda that he's almost there, but he needs backing and support on is to get nutrition services, food for our children in our schools. That directly impacts all of our children. And I would like to use our voice to amplify something that directly impacts their ability to be ready to learn now. So if we are changing anything-- again, I'm learning and

159I'm-- I don't know where to go with that, right? So if we're going to be changing or adding amendments with these kinds of things, that would be my thing is to switch out because of the direct relation to kids now with food services. And we're almost there. As a state, we are almost there. We are so close. And I do want to make sure that our kids have that service moving forward. For now, our own district has been able to achieve that, but I don't know for how long. So at some point, however this works, if we can change it I'd like to replace it with that legislative agenda. Thank you. I'll just share some personal reflections on why this means so much to me. First and foremost, you know, I killed the lead a

160little bit earlier ago, but I am an immigrant, right? And it took such a tremendous amount of effort and hard work for my family to get to the place where we all became US citizens. So I take this very, very, very seriously myself. And I also would remind folks, our founding fathers, a lot of them were also immigrants that ended up having to-- shaping the Constitution and creating it to be the document that it is. And WSSDA wouldn't-- [MICROPHONE THUD] --ooh. Sorry. WSSDA I think wouldn't put themselves in a situation where they have a permanent legislative position that if it were ever to be adopted by the state legislature that it wouldn't pass the muster test of the legality. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm assuming that the reason that they went with the language of

161permanent US resident versus just saying all undocumented people or other ways, I think this is a strategy or strategic part-- way on their part to do something that would still pass the muster test of legality. So I'll share that part. The other part is personally, I feel as a former board of distinction that is leading in equity work when it's around addressing racial equity, we have the ability to lead and we have the responsibility to lead when other school districts may not have the same diversity, though their student population does represent a diverse body. We have the cover. We have two districts that have prominent legislative people who have roles, who can draft laws, who can champion something like this maybe not this year. I get it. But if we don't pick up the banner

162and lead with it, who else is going to do it? So I understand that this is going to be a low priority in our state legislature this year. Probably not going to happen. You know what hasn't happened? Reducing the threshold from 60% to 50%. We just passed it. We don't need to champion this. But for whatever reason, that issue, we don't want to take off tonight. I understand. There's a lot of pressure around it. Personally, I was voted in by the representatives of my district and by Highline Public School. I have a mandate to lead on issues and values that are aligned with me, and that's what I'm going to do. So that's why this matters to me. All right. So are there any other comments, thoughts, confessions, concerns? Because the next step would be

163a-- and what is it? Call to action? And then we would do a roll call. If this gets approved or it doesn't get approved, it still goes back to the main motion. So it doesn't end there. The fun continues. We can approve Director Van's amendment. We can go back to the main motion. And we can have fun again and make another amendment so we choose. But the motion on the floor right now is the amendment to strike the attract, recruit, and retain diverse school boards. So President Garcia, I just want a point of privilege. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. And I do have a comment in regards to why. And I appreciate your why. And my question would be, why does it have to start with the School Board? Why not go to the

164city council and have them create that? Or even to our state legislators and start with that? Or even our governor, or even to state senators and president? Why don't we-- I mean, if that is the case, if there is more out there that we want our permanent citizens to be part of, I say, let's go big or go home. So I would challenge you. I would challenge you to work alongside City of Burien and all of our local partners and see if there is appetite within our local five cities. And if you can work alongside me and have those discussions, we might be able to-- you might be able to change my narrative. But for right now, I think I am going to uphold the Constitution that we were sworn in on the first day

165that we took office alongside that. I would be very happy to listen and hear and figure out how we can do this. Just quickly to address the question, I think it kind of falls into trying to stay within our purview, so that's why it's so narrowed within school boards. But you know I'm down. I will go reach out to any of the local-- it might be a little hard. I don't think we can get the local city councils to do it, but you know I'll champion it. But I think for the sake of what this is, it's trying to stay within our lane, which is school boards. Cool. Thank you. Yep. Before we vote, can I just say that the first item on the legislative agenda, fully funding special ed is something that I'm really

166excited that it seems like we're all very much in support of? It's something that WSSDA is working really hard to push. And I know that the Superintendents Association, the Washington Education Association and local unions, and the Washington State PTSA is very much in support of. And so we're really excited that there's going to be a unified message to the legislator, hopefully the legislature that we need to fully fund special ed and support our students with IEPs. So I just want to say that because I think we agree on that, so thanks. Thank you. So if there are no other questions, I would like to do a roll call vote on the amendment. And reminder that this just goes back to the main motion afterwards. There is an amendment to rescind the attract, recruit, and retain

167diverse school board of directors plank on our legislative agenda. Roll call, please. Director Alvarez? Yea. Director Hagos? Just really quickly, I just wanted to clarify. The amendment to scratch that off of the agenda, do we then talk about the replacement or is it just we only have four items on our legislative agenda? Would move-- would move back to the main motion, and then we would be voting again to approve it as including the amendment. And if there's any other amendments that we wanted to include, we can open that up again. But right now, a vote on the affirmative would be to strike the attract, recruit, and retain diverse school board of directors. OK. Thank you. Yea. Director Howell? Nay. Director Van? Yea. Director Garcia? Nay. This motion passes three to two. All right. So now

168we are back, and we are watching democracy live. [LAUGHS] This is amazing. All right. So we are now back to the main motion. The main motion is Highline Public Schools 2023 legislative agenda. The first four-- one, two, three, four, five-- sorry-- are now included. We have struck the last one, the attract, recruit, and retain diverse school boards. Are there any other comments, or does anybody want to make any other amendment? Is this time? [LAUGHS] This could be time. Yeah. Sorry. I'm just-- I'm learning. OK. So I don't know the wording on how to put it all together. I just know that it's the one that's on our WSSDA report about nutrition and food for our children. I'd love to replace it with that. And how do I say that? Ooh. [INAUDIBLE] Are you trying to

169find one of WSSDA planks and add that to our legislative priority list? I thought this was the time where we're changing the-- yes. Cool. Hmm. Can you-- Point of privilege, I think we could ask Kay or Holly to come up to the podium and help us figure those wording out or what we need to do next. Would this be the item food services program that says WSSDA believes that good nutrition is a part of readiness to learn and urges all school boards to adopt comprehensive policies regarding food service programs, such policies should address the nutritional value of meals or cost effectiveness, student participation in the maximum use of state and federal subsidies and grants? Yes. Or-- [LAUGHS] --there's one that's about amply funded staffing levels that addresses nutrition, but it addresses a lot of other

170things. Holly's the expert. Sorry. [LAUGHS] I want to say you found that on your phone, and I couldn't find it on my computer where I have it bookmarked, so kudos to you. This is UW education at work. I love it. Love it. That was a ding on me. [LAUGHS] So how this would-- the easiest way for this to work would be for you to identify which of the WSSDA platforms you want to add. We can add that in verbally. And then what I would do at the end of the day, although not today at the end of the day, before this goes live, finalized, you would vote on it and then I would just add it in to the actual document, the language that you wanted in. Thank you. It states plainly, feed students. I'm

171for that. [LAUGHS] Does that plant-- does that plank have a number? No, it's-- let's see. One, two, three. It's the third one on the legislative priorities. OK. Thank you. So can you repeat it just one more time so that we make sure we have it? And then I would suggest there's a motion or a second at the ready for this. I'm OK with making all of these mistakes. As we learned from Mount View, it's a part of learning. [LAUGHS] OK. So do you need me to read the whole thing off? I make a motion. Can you tell me that? Yep. OK. I make a motion that we replace the striked agenda item on our legislative agenda with moving on to feed students. Learning cannot occur when students are hungry. School meal programs should meet the

172diverse backgrounds, preferences, and experiences of all students. We ask the legislator to ensure that no student is hungry during the school day by providing universal, free, and nutritious school meals. I'll second that. All right. We are now-- are there any comments, confessions, concerns, debate? All right. If there are none, roll call, please. Director Van? Yea. Director Alvarez? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Howell? Oh. Yea. Director Garcia? Yea. This motion passes five to none. All right. Now we move back to the main motion with the two amendments. I just want to make sure because-- are there any other amendments that folks are curious about? Is this time for a discussion? [LAUGHS] OK. I was trying to read Robert's rules of order real fast. So I would be interested if other people would be to add back

173what was struck, but take out the language about citizenship. Just the-- and I don't know if that's something that people are interested in, but I think attract, recruiting, and retaining diverse school board directors for Highline to better serve, blah blah, blah, blah, blah, all the way to we urge the legislator to broaden the eligible candidate pool by simplifying the qualifications necessary. Or we could even strike that whole-- how about this? For Highline to better serve our diverse community, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, lived experience to serve on local school boards, period. Mm. I mean, my initial thought, let's not beat a dead dog. It's still a legislative plank. We're not saying that we don't support it. It's just not a part of our legislative priorities, is what I've heard. So I'm comfortable letting it go.

174OK. That's fine by me. But you can still do it. I'm just kidding. Every-- [LAUGHS] It's almost 9:00. [LAUGHS] All right. So now, just for clarity's sake-- and we can welcome an opportunity for any more eminence. I don't want to railroad this. But the motion on the floor is that we have the approval of our 2023 legislative agenda with the stated two amendments. Any questions or clarifications needed before we move to a roll call? All right. Roll call, please. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Howell? Yea. Director Van? Yea. Director Alvarez? Yea. Director Garcia? Yea. This motion passes five to none. Thank you. We're now on Agenda Item 8.2, motion to approve the annual nonmatched endorsement and limited certification. Is there a motion? I move that the Highline School Board approve the nonmatched endorsements according to WAC

175181-82-110, and the limited certifications according to WAC 181-79A-231 for the 2022-2023 school year. I'll second. All right. Any questions, clarifications, or amendments? Hearing none, roll call, please. Director Alvarez? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Howell? Yea. Director Van? Yea. Director Garcia? Yea. This motion passes five to none. All right. Next up, we have Agenda Item 8.3, motion to approve the annual Readiness to Learn partnership. Is there a motion? I move to-- I have a motion to approve-- no, sorry. What is it? Can you tell me again? Sorry. It's been such a long night. My apologies, guys. it is-- Action Item 8.3. Bam. I move to [INAUDIBLE]. Oh, you have-- I would love this language written out for me as well. I move that the Highline School Board approve the Readiness to Learn partnerships with Play-Well TEKnologies.

176And it is written out. It's just in the Board and Action report and not in my agenda. Sorry. Very good. Yeah. We'll ask Sharon to give you a copy. I second. Second. Any comments, confessions, concerns? All right. Roll call, please. Director Van? Yea. Director Alvarez? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Howell? Yea. Director Garcia? Yea. This motion passes five to none. All right. We are now on to Agenda Item 9.1, new approval of Camp Waskowitz roof replacement contract with Garland. And because this is an intro and action item, can staff just give us a brief update? All right. Thank you. Happy to give you an update and help justify the logic behind this being an intro and action item in one night. It's never our desire to come in with intro and action in the same

177night. This is-- Camp Waskowitz is, first of all, a unique experience for now about 200,000 students from Highline over the years. The camp was originally built in 1935 by the Conservation Corps, and it's a very unique construction in-- and they are-- the whole camp, all the buildings are now registered on the National Historic Structure list, which means they fall under unique rules and guidelines when you try and do major upgrades or repairs to those buildings. Replacing roofs is considered a major upgrade and repair. We had to go with a unique contractor that was able to put a cedar-shake roof back on all of the dormitory buildings. So you'll see there's a higher-- higher than normal cost normally for a roof because we had to go with this construction method. It not only costs more to

178do, but the permit process was long and drawn out because you don't just go into the county and apply for a permit to replace a roof. You have to go through the Historic Society and make sure all of your plans are approved and the equipment and materials all meets the expectations-- or the qualifications. That takes a long time to get through that process. We had our bidder give us a price for the work. And because of the length of the duration of permit process, we only have until January 1 before that bid is no longer valid, and we'll have to go out and re-quote. Right now, this past year, construction and escalation costs were in the-- up to 12%. And we don't want to end up having to rebid this two weeks after it's approved

179here and have a $60,000 to $80,000 increase in the cost of the project. So that's the drive for bringing it as an intro action tonight. If it is approved by the Board tonight, we can award the contract and have it ready to go before the first of the year without a price increase. Any questions? I'll just say that was a good confession, Scott. [LAUGHTER] Is there-- I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion-- let me get the right motion. I move that the Highline School Board approved Resolution number 20. Am I second? I think so. Oh, no, you're right. Evergreen. It says Evergreen. Yep. There is one more. Oh, hang on. OK, now I got it. Sorry, guys. Thank you for your patience. Looking at the one afterward. So now I move that the Highline

180School Board approve the roof replacement at Camp Waskowitz dash Garland, doing business as Inc Contract Approval through OMNIA state contract, which allows the district upon receipt of all submittal requirements to issue a purchase order with Garland/DBA Inc under the OMNIA contract in the amount of $709,870, plus Washington State sales tax of $61,758 with $0.69 for a total of $771,628.69. And I'll need a second. I'll second. Roll call, please. Director Howell? Yea. Director Van? Yea. Director Alvarez? Yea. Director Hagos? Yea. Director Garcia? Yea. This motion passes five to none. And now we are on Introduction Item 10.1, new motion to approve Resolution 10-23, Evergreen High School Replacement project. Resolution authorizing use of alternative public works, general contractor, construction manager GCCM and intent to comply with RCW 3910. Any questions we want to direct for staff before

181we move on? All right. And I don't have the rest of my agenda. Nope, there it is. Cool. So we're now on Agenda Item 11. Is there a motion to add anything to the consent agenda? I would like to make a motion to move Agenda Item 10.1 to our next consent agenda, please. All right. Is there a second? I second that. Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. All right. And now we are on unscheduled communication. There is none. So is there a motion to adjourn? I move we adjourn. Thank you. I second that. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And we are done. Thank you, everyone. Have a good night.