001All right, all right, all right. Let's get this show on the road. Welcome, everyone, to the Wednesday, October 9th, 6:00 PM board meeting. Thanks, everyone, for attending. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Roll call, please. Director Van. Here. Director Howell. Here. Director Alvarez. Here. Director Hagos. Here. Director Garcia. Here. Thank you very much. Calls for changes or additions to the board meeting agenda? I have a motion to move action item 8.1 and 8.2 to the consent agenda if either of the directors have any questions. All right, there's a motion. Is there a second? I second that. All right. So the motion is to move action item 8.1 and 8.2 to the consent agenda. If there are no more questions, roll call, please. Director Van. Yea. Director Howell. Yea. Director Alvarez. Yea. Director
002Hagos. Yea. Director Garcia. Yea. This motion passes five to none. Thank you very much. We are now onto agenda item 2.1, Bus Safety Week recognition. And I get the honor of reading this recognition. Whereas, each school day in Highline Public Schools, more than 90 school buses provide more than 13,000 students trips, with transportation between home and school, safely traveling for more than 6,500 miles. And whereas, school bus drivers must complete initial and ongoing annual training and provide the highest standard of care for the students that they transport. And whereas, the school bus inspection program ensures that the safety of school buses exemplifies outstanding interagency cooperation between our school district and the commercial vehicle division of Washington State Patrol. And whereas, school bus driver instructors, shop personnel, supervisors, and support staff perform vital functions in assuring
003the safe-- the safe operations of the student transportation system. And whereas, ensuring motorists adhere to the rule of the road around school buses during the loading and unloading of students is critical to maintaining safe conditions. Now, therefore, the board and the superintendent of Highline Public Schools do hereby proclaim October 17th through the 21st as School Bus Safety Week. Congratulations. [APPLAUSE] Can we please have Maria and Scott up to the mic? Thank you very much, President Garcia, and the rest of the board. Tonight, it's my honor to come up here and introduce Maria Limon-- Maria Juarez-- sorry, wrong Maria-- Maria Juarez as somebody I've worked beside for a lot of years. We definitely want to recognize the entire transportation department, and she'll take that piece on, but I just want to recognize Maria for the amazing
004person, the amazing heart she has, and the commitment she has to Highline School District, and our students, and our drivers, and our mechanics, and the schools, and the programs, and the field trips. And everything that happens that involves kids moving goes across her desk at some point, Maria is so committed to Highline and our students, and the work they do, that tonight's her daughter, Lola's, birthday, and she's standing up here to be recognized. And then right after she's done, she's going to go spend the rest of the evening with Lola. So, Maria. I just want to thank the board for recognizing the school bus drivers because they take every piece and every student for their safety. And wherever they can, they always are willing to chip in and help out to get all of our
005students to and from school safely. And I just want to thank some of our drivers that are here. Kristen, Karen, and Debbie, thank you guys for being here and to recognize every driver. Because everyone chips in one way or another. Thank you, Maria. [APPLAUSE] And we would love to have the team up here for a picture if you guys are willing to do so. Do we want all the drivers in the room too to come up here? Yeah. Let's do it. But you don't have to. Challenge my choice. Thank you, again. We're now on to scheduled communications. I'm going to have our staff put up the public rule testimony rules and highlights. And I ask all speakers to take a moment to please read those as a reminder. And before we begin, I'd just like
006to start off by going over our group norms. I ask everyone to be present, be respectful of different opinions, be easy on people, but hard on ideas. Be as concise as possible. Enable all opinions to be heard. Assume best intentions, and seek to understand, and then to be understood. So with that said, can we please have our first speaker up, Michael Camby. Hi, I'm Michael Camby. I'm just going to start off. Having sex in school bathrooms, getting high in school bathrooms, selling drugs in school-- we walk around all day like it's Halloween, accepting this world as Hell. We have people walking and acting like zombies outside, so high. When I drive to work in the morning, they're asking me for money while getting high. I live in a hotel near, since I came here from
007Texas a few months ago. What I have seen is them sleeping and using drugs right outside my door. When you call the police, they don't come due to law, of them being scared of being sued, or something like that nature. Transgender and gays are welcomed and it's jumped to their rights. But when we bring up God, everybody's offended. What about the Pledge of Allegiance, or classes teaching cursive writing, or how to balance a bank account? Why don't we all tell the youth the truth that God is the way. Galatians 5:14-- "For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one commandment-- love your neighbor as thyself." There are hateful people and angry people every day. 1st Corinthians, 7:2-- "But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife and
008each woman with her own husband." Now we have children having kids thinking it's cool to get state assistance and live at home as single parents. I was a single dad for years. I couldn't get help due to being a man with a kid, not a woman. My taxes are already 30% of my pay. Leviticus 18:22-- "Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman. That is detestable. That means no man on man or no woman or woman. Do not have idols. We have kids wanting to be like the rich and famous. Do not take the Lord's name in vain. Listen to the music and people these days. Honor thy mother and father. No one has respect these days. No one opens doors for women, no yes, sir, no, no, sir.
009Do not commit murder. We have the highest murder rate in history. Do not commit adultery. I see music, dating sites, TV, movies promoting cheating like it's OK. You shall not steal. There's security in every store and they push full carts out the stores while we're standing in line. We need to change people or the next generation will be chaos. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Is Patricia Bailey here? Good evening, Highline School Board members. As a teacher, now retired, I participated in a long string of reforms. And have concluded the major cause of achievement disparities among various ethnic, and economic groups is due to school reforms and school reformers. All the reforms I have witnessed have been destructive to the achievement of children. They often denigrate the very things students need to be successful-- foundational skills. For example,
010never once in my 30-plus year career of teaching have I known reformers to advocate for or demonstrate excellent methods to achieve mastery of the foundational skills of math, reading, and writing. Yet, without these children will not reach their potential. For example, as a teacher I found automatic recall of math facts to be one of the best predictors of success in higher level problem solving. Why? When math facts are automatic, they do not require thought. This frees the mind in the service of analysis and logic, instead of struggling with low-level tasks. Reformers miss all the important things, occupying teachers with extraneous jobs, squeezing out what is important-- academic excellence. Most teachers want their students to thrive academically, and their time and energy should be devoted to that. They are not hired to be therapists, nor are
011they qualified. The current reforms make teachers into toadies for an ideology, complete with spies, to keep them on a non-academic track. My guess is the mass exodus of dispirited teachers from the schools will accelerate. How is it that certain ethnic and economic groups are more affected by bad reform practices creating an achievement gap? Some segments of the student population have educated parents, who are able to help their children with needed skills, thus overcoming the deficiencies of reforms. So many parents have not had the opportunity of solid education themselves, so they cannot identify the deficiencies, remediate their children, or afford to get tutoring for them. Thus, we have the achievement gap. It was always a curiosity to me how each new school reform fad obtained such glowing, rave reviews. And it was obvious from the beginning
012it would end in failure. New reforms were dressed up in compassionate, self-righteous rhetoric, but yielded the same miserable results. I now see the writers and the reviewers of all parts of the same-- all part of the same moneymaking network, the education reform industry. The writers, publishers, workshop givers, trainers, reviewers, and so on are all one big conglomerate of entrepreneurs. And because they create a permanent underclass with their so-called reforms, there are always new reforms needed. Any reformer who comes knocking at our district's door should have solid efficient, practical solutions to enable students to obtain essential skills in math, reading, and writing. Beware of high-sounding, seemingly compassionate phrases. Such people could be dangerous to children, pushing an ideology and not knowing or caring about what is needed for students to reach their full potential. Thank you.
013[APPLAUSE] Thank you. Is Anne Marie K here? Sorry, I always mess up your last name. I apologize Good evening Highline School Board. My name is Anne Marie Kebrey. I had two children in the Highline Schools and now I have two grandchildren in Highline Schools. And I just wanted to bring attention to something. And it's just really on my heart. A Highline School District parent has recently filed a legal complaint with Highline's Chief Policy and Strategy Officer, Holly Ferguson, demanding officials cease and desist political and religious advocacy in the schools in violation of the First and 14th Amendments of the Constitution. After warning the district repeatedly in 2021 and '22 school year, this Highline parent felt he had no choice but to seek legal remedy. At issue are prominently displayed posters in his children's school that
014state educators standing with LGBTQ+ students with a progressive PRIDE flag. LGBTQ stands for Lesbian, Gay-- in quotes, "homosexual"-- Bisexual, Transsexual and Queer. Not only does this raise the specter of inappropriately accentuating sexual issues in elementary schools, which is not appropriate in any academic setting, but it causes division by leaving out the vast majority of students. Due to its exclusive language, one can logically conclude that teachers do not stand with other students, who are the vast majority. Yet another issue is the lionizing of sexual practices that constitute a new religion that is offensive to the practice and faith of the majority of the children in our schools, whether traditional Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or other world religions. We hope that the Highline School District will comply with the ceasefire and desist order as requested by this Highline
015parent and stop propping up and proselytizing with divisive religious speech and violation of constitutional rights, equal protection, and the First Amendment. Thank you very much. [APPLAUSE] Thank you, Katie Kressley. Good evening. Last week, as I was looking at the recording of this session, I noticed that the Pledge of Allegiance is no longer audible on the recording of this session. Going back about six months, it seems to be there, but now it's not. Burien-- Burien, coincidentally, on October 5th, the city council passed a resolution of land acknowledgments, honoring the historical and Indigenous habitants of this land. And this is an honorable gesture, but is it possibly replacing the Pledge of Allegiance? Washington state requires that the flag be flown on school grounds, and just like here, be presented. And it also states that each school day
016and at assemblies the Pledge of Allegiance be recited. Is this happening? Maybe not. According to an article in the Gem of the Sound, several students were interviewed to ask what was happening. Are they hearing land acknowledgments or hearing the Pledge of Allegiance? And what we're finding is there's a lot more Pledge of Allegiance and a lot-- sorry-- a lot less Pledge of Allegiance and a lot more land acknowledgments. And it varies. The great Martin Luther King recommended that we all get on the same page and be unified and be together. Regarding any choices that the Highline School Board may be considering around the Pledge of Allegiance and land acknowledgments, I humbly request that we should build up our beliefs in what is common to mankind, community, and share what is common to us all. We
017all live in America right now. By placing everyone in groups, separate groups, we are tearing up our society. And in history, this tactic of division was prevalent and effective, in Marxism, in Maoism. Let's not do that here in Highline. Please, keep promoting the Pledge of Allegiance being recited each day, as followed by-- as promoted by the law of Washington. We are not perfect, but we are perfectly made. God bless America and thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. We are now done with the scheduled communications. Up next we have our agenda item 4.1, ESSER CARE updates, by Kathryn Peterson. Oh, thank you, Scott. Am I close enough? Yeah. All right. Thanks, I appreciate it. Good evening, President Garcia, members of the board. My name is Kathryn Peterson. I am the Director of COVID Recovery here at Highline
018Public Schools. I'm supporting us with all of our ESSER funding, just making sure that we're on track for success. Last year, we held a community committee, called the Committee for Allocating Resources Equitably. This committee was responsible for supporting the district with making some crucial decisions. And I'm here to give you an update on our progress. This particular committee was responsible for recommending how the district would spend about $4 million of our ESSER funds in the 2022-2023 school year, which is this year. This committee was composed of students, parents, partners, staff, staff at all levels, and various elements of district leadership as well, from cabinet members, to school principals, assistant principals, et cetera. This particular committee concluded in December of 2021. And we have been working very hard since December on collaborating with additional partners, additional
019committees across Highline building teams, different district departments, to really develop really strong implementation plans for the various recommendations that the committee provided. We last provided you an update in March on these four recommendations. And I am now here to give you a high level update of what those recommendations have come to fruition on this year. So for the first recommendation, strengthening student supports, we really worked hard with our partners across the district, as well as external partners, to develop strategies that would really help us-- that would really help us in supporting students, particularly around mental health and social-emotional learning. We're super proud to announce that is the vast majority of our investments. It's about 35% of our CARE recommendations. And most notably, we're really focused on centering our in-school suspension programming and our school counseling
020frameworks. So we're doing a lot of work this year in partnerships with Choose 180 and other partners as well, to rework our approaches to in-school suspension to develop a really holistic model, as well as develop a healing-centered model that all students can participate and be a part of. For the second recommendation, which is really to align our support so that students in the special education realm and their families can really understand the IEP process and really participate and understand their rights and responsibilities. That includes students who may speak languages other than English. That includes students who are experiencing various barriers to their education. So this particularly-- this particular strategy starts with two family liaisons that have been hired in special education. And they are working really closely with building teams within our special education department
021and with families in a very close partnership to develop trainings for district staff, to provide opportunities for families to provide feedback and give input into their child's education, and help the district provide pathways to better understanding the IEP process throughout this year. And a lot of that work will be formally implemented next year. It includes full training modules, online trainings available to all staff, and ongoing translation supports for families long term. So very excited about that. From there, another really important recommendation from the committee was to support students holistically with play. We do a lot of work with mental health and social-emotional learning. One of the things that we saw last year come up quite a bit was challenges that students were having on the playgrounds with relationships, playing well, understanding how to play, particularly
022at the younger grades. And so this recommendation is a very well-rounded recommendation. It includes upgrading and replacing some of our play structures in key schools, play structures that are unsafe, that students currently cannot play on at all. It also includes staffing investments in providing training for how to help students develop skills around play, and social-emotional learning and building relationships with one another. And so, that's the fourth recommendation. It's about 38% of our CARE budget. Play equipment is very expensive. So that's the vast majority of those investments there. And then the fourth recommendation is amplifying student voice. I do want to name that amplifying student voice is something that's incredibly important to the district. The investment of 3% of our ESSER funds is not that it's 3% of importance. It's really easy in a lot of
023ways to elevate student voice in buildings. It doesn't take a lot of money. And that's one of the things that we found as we were going through the process of, how do we amplify student voice? It's really as simple as getting to know students, getting to build relationships, and really finding ways to elevate their voices and perspectives into the decisions that we make. These investments will help us pay for a pilot program for students to be a part of a leadership committee at their school, where they will get to be a part of making decisions. And the funds are really set aside for students of all backgrounds to be able to participate by providing IEP accommodations, translation, supports, et cetera, during those meetings so that they can equitably participate. And that's an extra service contracts
024for staff, et cetera, who do that body of work. So that's the vast majority of our ESSER investments thus far. And I just wanted to give a quick update on our progress. Most projects executed in September, about 70%. The rest of the projects are executed are planned for executions later this month or early in November. So we're right on track with where we want to be. We've spent about 12% of our set aside budget. We have about 88% to go. 15% of that budget is set aside to address in-the-moment needs for students. And those are things that might shift up at the school level, department level, et cetera, that align with those recommendations. And will reconvene with the committee again in December to give them an update, get additional input, if there is some extra
025funds to put things towards. So that's an update on the committee so far. Just wanted to provide that to you all. And additional information will be coming in your board packet this week. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Up next, we have our labor partner updates with Larcie. Hello, thank you for this opportunity. My name is Dr. Larcie Amaral. I am here this evening to highlight the contributions that our HEA members make to the educational experiences for our students. Yes, HEA members are teachers, but we also have speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, and audiologists, and physical therapists, who work to ensure all of our students are able to benefit from their education. Me, I am a member of a very dynamic and dedicated team of physical therapists and physical therapist assistant here in Highline
026Schools. Every October, we celebrate National Physical Therapy Month to appreciate how PTs and PTAs transform lives. As physical therapists who work in public education setting, we provide services with and on behalf of our students, addressing educational needs as a part of those students' Individualized Education Plan. School-based PTs assist students to access school environments, participate throughout the day, and benefit from their education program. I'm going to share some stories here about how your physical therapists have helped change our students' educational experiences. Earlier this month, I worked to help improve a high school student's independent access to his school environment. This is a student who uses a manual wheelchair and can propel his wheelchair just short distances on his high school campus. For longer distances, he depends on staff members to push his chair for him. Through
027a coordinated work between the family, wheelchair vendors, and myself, this student had an opportunity to trial the use of a power wheelchair. He learned how to navigate the busy hallways of his high school and experienced more independence. Because of this successful trial, his family is now able to move forward to the purchase of a power wheelchair. This is a story of-- an example of how physical therapist providers determine the needs for appropriate assistive technology, which promotes participation, access, and safety as related to a student's day. Last month, I helped a student who was just starting her middle school experience. This student needed assistance with all aspects of her mobility, walking, moving on and off furniture, and changing positions. Since she was new to her middle school, the staff who assist her were only beginning to
028learn what her needs were. I worked with the staff members on techniques to safely assist the student for hygiene in the bathroom, for moving between her wheelchair and a classroom chair, and for safety when walking with her. I not only emphasized how to keep the student safe during this mobility, but also how the staff member should safely lift and move the student. This is an example of how physical therapists teach, train, and support special education personnel to help with student and staff safety in our schools. As you may remember, I spoke with you last May to advocate for equitable access to educational environments for all of our students. I spoke to the need for fully accessible school buildings to ensure that our students who have challenges with mobility can feel included, and that barriers to
029their education based on physical structure of buildings are minimized. I highlighted our commitment to equity and inclusion for all of our students, which start with a physical plant that is fully accessible. The story I presented then, and now, is an example of how PTs promote access to campus and school environments, and ultimately, academic curriculum to programs, and participation in all of their school activities. In April last year, a student who was newly enrolled was brought to my attention. This student had recently immigrated from Afghanistan with her family. She displayed some movement challenges, for which the team thought a physical therapist could provide some expertise. This kindergarten student had no formal school experience. She needed guidance to be able to navigate stairs, to move safely in a classroom without tripping and falling, to play on the
030playground equipment, and to participate in her PE class. After an evaluation, working with the family and the school team, it was determined that physical therapy services were necessary to help the student achieve goals and improve these skills. After only a few months of attending school, this student can now follow the teacher instruction, move independently in her classroom without tripping and falling, and she has a variety of play activities she likes at recess. This story is an example of how physical therapy providers deliver services to support students in accessing and participating with peers in their educational environments. Research has shown that physical therapists make a difference for students' participation in their school environment, both through direct intervention and through consultation, collaboration, planning, observing, analyzing movement patterns, and determining how to best facilitate participation or access. These
031consultation services on behalf of the student seem to be the key factor in students achieving and surpassing goals that are set out for them. This evidence in research highlights how physical therapists provide invaluable services when consulting in collaboration-- or collaborating with teams, school staffs, outside providers, and the parents or guardians. Physical therapists in public schools are tasked to work with students who have difficulty participating or progressing in their curriculum as a result of a deficit or a delay in motor skills. We work to improve student access to campus, programs, and activities. We ensure students have appropriate assistive technology to facilitate that access. We advocate on behalf of students to ensure adequate environmental adaptation and accessibility. We work directly with staff and students to help improve functional mobility. So during this National Physical Therapy Month, please
032join me in celebrating that PTs and PT Assistants transform the lives of our students. Thank you. Could you also email those notes to me. I would appreciate going over them again. All right, next up we are on school board reports. I have nothing to report at this time for legislative reports so we'll move on to direct reports with Director Howell. I want to share that I visited some schools recently with Dr. Duran. It was wonderful to do walkthroughs with him and see some of the amazing things happening in some of our schools. I was super-impressed at the work at HVA. If you haven't had a chance to meet with Amy, and see the work that they're doing there, and how innovative they are, and how quick they are to pivot. They tried one way of
033learning and it wasn't working for all students, so then they modified and gave more options and more pathways to students. They've expanded. It's really great. And seeing some of the really cool tech that they have there-- Tayshawn, thank you-- it's really cool. Some of the little glass things that are in front of their cameras are really neat, a really great way to help all students access learning. And we also went to Bow Lake and Chinook. And it was really just wonderful to visit those spaces. And as you all know, we've also been door belling to promote the bond. And so I've had a really positive response from the community and handed out a bunch of yard signs. And yeah, so that's where I am. Thank you, Director Howell. Director Hagos. I just wanted to say
034I've been to almost all of the community listening sessions. Sorry, Director Garcia, I didn't make it to yours. And it's good to see the community coming out to provide their feedback, whether it's negative or positive. We really want to get a holistic response from people in understanding what it is that you all, community folks, would like to see us continue to do to advance our kids' academic excellence. So I think it's been really nice to hear from people in the community. There is one more left. So if you haven't been able to make it to one, it is the one that I'm hosting. So I'll put a little plug in. It's happening on November 1 at 6:30, at Mount Rainier High School, in the theater. So if you haven't had a chance to make it
035to one, or if you've thought other things after you've made it to one, please come. All are welcome. That's all I wanted to report. Thank you. Director Alvarez. I have nothing to report. Thank you. Director Van. I just want to echo what Director Hagos said. Just thank you to our community members that came out for our listening sessions. There was a lot-- I came out as a parent one evening and posed a couple questions to Dr. Duran and team there. But I also would like to thank our staff and our interpreters that were out there to support the event. So thank you for that. Last week, I was part of the Capital Projects Oversight Committee. I shared with you guys via email just the budget of where we're sitting at from the 2016 budgets and
036where we're at with the schools. I just also would like to thank you to Jeffrey Brown and Rob Evans for being part of the committee. And also, welcoming their replacements, Sara Cox and Stuart Matthews, to the team. So looking forward to making sure that our schools are great stewards of our community's dollars, and making sure that we're doing everything on time and under budget. That's it for me. Thank you. I have nothing to report at this time, so we're going to move on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? I make a motion that we move-- that we approve the consent agenda. I second that motion. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right, motion passes. We are now on to agenda item 10.1, a motion to
037approve the second year of the Washington State Department of Health grant award. Is there any questions for staff? I have none. All right, we're on to agenda item 10.2, motion to approve resolution number 1622, Evergreen High school, a new authorization to enter covenant to retain improvement and restrict use with King County. And I'll open it up for questions. Dr. Van. I don't have questions. I would like to hear from Scott in regards to what the authorization is about. What's the resolution? Thank you, Director Van. A great opportunity here to share some information because this is really written in boundary line language, and it's great for everybody to be able to understand the initiatives and drives behind this. So first, I would say, first and foremost, the boundary lines that we're speaking of are all internal
038boundary lines. All four pieces of property are owned by the school district. And the circumference boundary does not change in any way as a result of this boundary line initiative. For those that aren't familiar with the Evergreen site, and once we approve our November-- when our November bond does pass, we would like to be ready to go on building a new school. One of the challenges we have with that site is there's a 30-inch diameter sewer line that transects at a diagonal line across that piece of property. That's not something that we can just dig a new ditch and move over. We actually did look at what it would cost to move it out of the way, and it was very cost prohibitive. So the new building design actually has a span that doesn't have
039a first floor. So it goes over the top of the easement for the current sewer line, so that it's still accessible and it's able to be maintained if needed. That addresses that side of it. The other challenge with that property having four pieces, where two schools are at, is where those lines meander between those lots. And our need is to be able to-- the footprint of the new building will actually cross over between two different lots. And once you do that, you create a permitting quagmire that you walk into in that process. And King County has already a long and tedious process to get a building permit done on a project the size of the new Evergreen High School. By this lot line adjustment, we're able to not only expedite the permit process, but it
040actually sets us up in the future when Cascade is on a bond. And the fact that Cascade is next to Hicks Lake is going to really restrict how far we can go that direction. This is going to support actually having a smoother permit process when it comes time to replace Cascade. Happy to answer any other questions, if that meets your need. That's good for me. Thank you very much. All right, if there's no other questions, we'll move on to agenda item 10.3, motion to approve the annual state transportation bilingual program STBP funds. Any questions? All right, agenda item 10.4, a motion to approve annual Title III grant. All right. Agenda item 10.5, motion to amend existing contract with Maximum Health Care Staffing Services, Incorporated to increase the contract amount. I actually have a comment in
041regards to this. I know when the directors are speaking at this, why are we increasing the amount, especially for Maximum Health Care? And just want to let the community know, there isn't enough resources out there. We don't have enough people that are certified. So we do have to reach out to our community and extend these services out. So that would be increase of $245,000 to $545,000. That's it. Thank you for that. Any other comments, questions? All right, we are now on agenda item 10.6, motion to approve the T-Mobile project 10 million student hotspot renewal. Any questions? No. All right. And last, but not least, a motion to approve the new purchase of Apple iPods for pre-K, first grade, and special education. All right. Then that brings us on to agenda item 11. Are there any
042items that we'd like to add to the consent agenda for the next meeting? I would like to make a motion to move item-- intro item 10.4. It's the approval of Title III grant. Item 10.5, motion to amend existing contract with Maxim Health Care Staffing Services to increase contract amount, and 10.6, motion to approve T-Mobile project 10 million student hot spot renewal to the consent agenda. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second it. Seconded by Director Alvarez. Any comments, questions? Roll call, please. Director Alvarez. Yea. Director Howell. Yea. Director Hagos. Yea. Director Van. Yea. Director Garcia. Yea. This motion passes five to none. Thank you. We are now on to agenda item 12. I'm going to give staff another chance to put up the schedule communication rules and policies. I ask all readers to take
043a moment to please read these before speaking. And I'll just remind folks of our group norms. We ask everyone to be present, to be respectful of different opinions, to be easy on people and hard on ideas. To be as concise as possible, to enable all opinions to be heard, assume best intentions, and seek to be understood, and then to understand others. And the first speaker we have is Mr James Payne. Good evening, board, James Payne with two at North Hill Elementary. Bottom, up front, your public records section is broken. Citizens have an absolute right to inspect government documents, emails, and even texts between you all. Bureaucrats hate transparency. They don't want you to see what they're up to. That's why public records laws are so powerful. Luckily, Washington has strong government transparency laws. RCW 4256070
044states each agency-- that's you-- in accordance with the published rules, shall make available for public inspection and copying all public records, unless the record falls within specific exemptions. I currently have FOIA requests ongoing with your organization, which is-- with your organization, which is headed by an individual in the superintendent's cabinet. Where is he, by the way? More often than not, her section has failed to provide the requested information in a timely manner. And sometimes, excuses are made why they cannot be provided at all. For example, I recently asked for any and all school district emails, attachments, correspondence, records, or writing regarding or mentioning several topics from two different locations in the district. This was intentionally broad to capture the most information. And it's perfectly legal. The district's representative emailed me saying she would not fulfill
045the request unless I provided a list of individuals to search. While not responsive to my actual legal request, I provided her the entire list of Highline employees, which she had provided to me earlier. She refused to provide my four similar requests, despite me having provided exactly what she asked for. When this little trick was tried on me last year, which I asked her which employees worked at these locations, to which she replied she could not tell me, a convenient bureaucratic catch-22. Highline is playing games and is breaking the law. Fix your people. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Do we have Brandage Trenholm? Brandeis, sorry. Hello, school board, my name is Bradneis Trenholm. I work at McMicken Heights Elementary. I'm a fifth grade teacher and I am now in my ninth year of teaching. I wanted to come
046and talk to you very briefly about how classrooms are changing. One of the things that is becoming overwhelming and making a lot of teachers reconsider teaching in general, but I'm sure a lot of school staff as well, is just the overwhelming amount that is put on us. At this point, as an educator, I am teaching math, reading, writing, science, health, behavior, and social studies. And that is just what's on report cards. Not only that, I'm doing social-emotional skills, life skills, technology, internet safety, bullying, suicide prevention, and things around trauma, things around race, inclusion, de-escalation strategies, physical needs, behavior, cognitive, assisting students physically. It's a lot. And I feel like my job continues to add more things onto my plate and does not give me the support to actually do these things. I care deeply about
047my students. I pride myself in knowing every student by their name, by their strength, by their need. I also choose to know them by their ethnic background. I also choose to know them about their interests, and about the things that they love, and about the things that they truly care about. But me and a lot of my colleagues are looking to leave education because we just don't have anything left. I really hope that we can take some deep looks at how to add more support, mainly help us lower classroom sizes so that I can really meet every single one of my students' needs. And then, I just wanted to say I proudly fly an LGBTQ flag in my classroom. I say that Black Lives Matter. And I teach true history. Because every student deserves to
048know the truth. Thank you. Is there a Deborah Lipp? And I'll finish on that. I love the teachers. I love this district. And I love my nation. I'm here because I love America. There's no other place that you want to be. They wouldn't be lining up to come into our country if it was so awful. We are encouraging. We're full of equity. We're full of love. We're full of compassion. And I'm tired of being put down and told that we're nothing. I have biracial children all over. I was raised with a Korean stepmom. Do you know-- I'm from Alaska. Do you know what I am? Look at me. Does anybody? Go ahead and tell me. Since you seem to want to look at the outside of everybody, and say, and label everybody. I'm tired of
049it. You do your thing. I do mine. You sin, I sin, we all sin. That's what it's really called. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, guess what? God will hear. He'll forgive our sin and heal our land. And it's free. That flag's not free. It cost a whole lot of people. If you don't like it, that's OK. That's you're right. But those of us that want it, it needs to be on everything that we ask you to be on. Because we voted that in. We care. And you know, I wasn't going to talk tonight, but all of this is just-- it's garbage. We're fighting and arguing over what? 38% of playtime? I play with my grandkids and my
050kids, don't you? They're in that school for education-- reading, writing, arithmetic. I'm offended. I'm so full of equity-- five years, your classes-- really? I am more confused today than I've ever been. I run to the word of God. And that gives me this joy and this peace. And you didn't give it to me. And you're not taking it away from a whole bunch of us. So that's where we're at. Thank you. That now concludes scheduled communications. Is there a motion to adjourn? I make a motion. We adjourn. Is there a second? I second. Who did the second? Just to make sure. Carrie Howell. Dr. Howell seconded. All those in favor, please say, aye. Aye. All right, we adjourned at 6:51 PM. Thank you. Thanks. Have a good night everyone.