School Board & Cabinet Retreat - May 14, 2022

001Good morning, everyone. I don't got much to say other than this is The last out of out of ten years of celebrating Susan your last retreat. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you and You want to kick it off or say something to get us started? How's that? Oh, yeah, it is Thank you, President Garcia, and it's also Ivan's first. So welcome Ivan. We're actually passing the baton So appreciate everybody being here. I think as you know, Steve and Katherine have excused absences we will have Cabinet team members here with us till noon. We have two big items to address One is around our family engagement policy and the other one when Tova will be joining us has to do with bond we're gonna look at both the finance aspect of it and The potential

002plans for it since the board will be considering to put a bond measure on the ballot For next fall and then the staff will go off and enjoy their weekend and the board and I and Ivan will have Working lunch where Carrie is gonna lead us through some more street data Conversation and then we're gonna do some team building that I will facilitate with the board and Ivan I also want to acknowledge this is Tishon's first board cabinet retreat so Tishon and Chris Laura Chris, of course is not new to Highline, but she is joining I don't know if it's your I think you've been to other retreats. So it's probably not your first. Yeah, are you been around? Okay, so with that Do I need to do a little tap dance Holly and Kisa?

003So anyway, um Well, yeah, so I will say So that the board knows last night the rave foundation, which is the charitable arm of the Seattle Sounders Had their gala and I don't know if everybody knows but they have Installed mini pitches at we think about five of our schools a little sign they give away I don't know how many hundreds maybe thousands of free soccer balls. They've given away to our kids and so They had a they did their big fundraising gala last night Scott and our own and Joe and Holly and Terry Holt Graves We're all there and then two of our teachers from White Center Heights Elementary and Shoshana Cohen Who has started a girls after-school soccer club was honored both by the sound by the rave foundation For what she's doing,

004but I also gave her a very public duck, which was super super fun so it was a great evening such a great cause and And Some people were able to fulfill a lifelong dream of getting to hug Brad Evans I'm not naming names. I'm just saying that was a thing for some people And our own got a photo with the trophy and I think Joe did too, yeah, so it was a good it was a really really The way they carry it on Yeah, exactly. Oh Good thing the mics aren't yeah And and just for that I'm just kidding and just so the board knows I think we're our plan is to be done around three so that Two hours will suffice The activity I'm facilitating that our own shared never done it before so

005I've not not exactly sure what I'm just gonna roll with it I have some is it just the PowerPoint so I didn't like that geez They're real athletes, it's just a PowerPoint let's Because if it's if it's the power well, I guess our friends who are watching couldn't see it But we could all pull it up on our screens Okay, I think that's all yeah all right Welcome everybody. My name is Holly Ferguson I'm the district's chief policy and strategy officer and I am pairing up in this presentation with Kisa Hendrickson whose title is I Am your friendly chief engagement and partnership officer, and we're here gonna talk about family engagement in Highline So agenda we want to ground this in our policy just so that we all remember what directory has been with that

006policy And peace is gonna talk about the vision theory of action some engagement strategies and some PD opportunities as well as staffing which has trained changed Pretty dramatically over the last few years Cool So our policy first adopted in 98 it was revised in 28 or 2008 in 2016 It's also a renumbered in 2016. It used to live in series 2000 Which if you want to be a geek and no policy way I do you know that that's our policies around instruction and the reason it lived there is because it was a very title one Compliance policy and it dealt with all the aspects of title one But it really didn't deal with the other parts of family engagement that are extraordinarily important like cultural responsiveness Like the all of the work that we do

007to and how to engage our families It was very much a check the box. You'll meet your title one compliance needs and in 2016 He said and Lita and others and I were looking at this and saying okay this this The 2008 version included family Included community partnerships, which are very different from family engagement And then it's like I said, they were very technical and focused on title one So in 2016 the policy that you have now on the books We renumbered it to zero zero five zero so that it would live in the kind of vision and strategy section policy book Separated out community and family I included new learning and best practices on family engagement And really focused on recognizing the importance of families and their children education, which again the more compliance

008policy didn't really have that belief or ethos to it and then Before we go to the next one I think you'll see with the work that we have that that we that Pisa and her team have done over the last six years really Honing in on that vision really honing in on opportunities for our families And for our staff to learn better about how to engage our families It's probably time. I'm just gonna say pizza. It's probably time to look at Reviewing this policy and it's been six years a lot has changed the family engagement space In terms of what we know and what best practices are A lot has been changed a lot We've learned a lot just in the work that's been happening in pieces department and schools and other departments over the

009years And it's a really a good opportunity to re-engage the fact the family action committee in policy work They were instrumental in the 2016 revisions of the policy Re-engaging them obviously engaging dr. Cran who hasn't obviously engaged Wah-wah, I think it came back. Okay Anyway, so it's just a really good opportunity as we start a new chapter in Highline to really dig back into that policy And think about where we want to go With that piece. I'll turn it over to you for the vision Okay. Thank you. So I want to share a little bit about Some of the work that we've done over the years in the department and specifically with the family and community partnerships team a few years ago We really wanted to create a vision around our family engagement work, but

010we wanted to do it in partnership with our families and so Utilizing the family action committee structure We co-crafted a vision together and you can see and it was an iterative process where we did some brainstorming Highlighted some themes that came out and these were the themes that came out in the vision it's really around the trusting relationships the open Communication and the family and school partnerships and there are definitions that live under each of those aspects of the vision So within our department we took that vision and we created a theory of action And this is really what informs the work and how we do the work that we do and so I want to share this with you While this vision what I'm excusing why this theory of action was developed within our

011department We then also took this back to the fact for you know sort of the seal of approval so our theory of action is if we develop the capacity of school and district staff around family engagement best practices and honor the expertise of families while providing them with critical information about the school system and Schools create the space for families to authentically partner Then staff and families will cultivate relationships built on mutual trust And then staff will implement strong family engagement practices in partnership with families so that Families and staff are working together to support students academic success And that really is what drives our work in the department. It's really coming together As working on our best practices and there's actually quite a bit of research that continues to evolve around family engagement practices

012research out of Harvard We actually have in our own backyard Annie Shamaru at the University of Washington So Lita and team really stay up to date and and in touch with some of the best practices as they evolve and Fun fact Highline is often cited for some of our practices and the things that we do. We are referenced quite frequently It's kind of exciting so I Wanted to share with you some of the district level practices that we do so obviously the long-standing Superintendent family action committee and for those who don't know the intent and purpose of that committee is to have representation across the district So the idea is that there are two representatives from each school We haven't quite reached that and some schools have more than two because some folks just get

013on and they just don't leave Which is it's wonderful. It shows their commitment and dedication to the district and partnership And the fact has really looked different over the years we've had small breakout groups who've worked on projects we've had You know Different people come and go but at the end of the day It's really about the commitment to working together in a way that makes sense And so we've landed on a space where we come together folks from around the district bring things that they want to share with families get family feedback and input on and We state the course even during the pandemic we've been meeting remotely for the last couple of years It doesn't feel the same, but people are still committed. It's been quite amazing We also have our Highline Council

014PTA Susan and I and Lita meet with our council leadership monthly right before board meetings and What I love about that space is they it feels like a genuine partnership They bring a highlight date, you know concerns that are coming up from families or needs that they have We share updates with them. They do a great job of getting the word out on things happening in the district We also have our special needs PTA, which is led through our special education leadership and teaching and learning and Susan and our special needs PTA leadership and they Similar format they really highlight and daylight the needs of our students and special education programs and some of the needs going on there There are various departmental committees that exist currently and it's exciting a lot of them Have

015I think used the FAC as a base but also have formed their own? Type of leadership committees that make sense. So we have our instruction on race and identity Committee that's been meeting for the last couple of years. We have A standards-based grading committee that includes families Family participation and I know with our social emotional learning Melissa planer director of cell is working with families and community to really help inform our social emotional learning work so it is culturally responsive and that makes me proud as someone who's been in Highline for Over ten years to see other departments There was a time where people felt like it was just my department's responsibility to engage with families or to talk with families but to really see other departments take that on and take the lead in

016it and You know, they'll consult with us, but they don't expect us to run organize recruit families So it really shows you how we've grown in the family engagement work in the system and how people Really believe in that work and and will own it Our family engagement catalog is something I'm incredibly proud of it's one of the things we're recognized for Using the superintendent fact we identified some strong family engagement practices Throughout the district and we how can we replicate that throughout the system? And so we created a for real live catalog It's on the website and we ran the strategies by our families and they rate them. They say this is a strong practice This is something I want or this is something I really appreciated and at my child's school And so

017they'll have star ratings and they'll have there's an external site because we wanted families to be able to see it But there's an internal site that has the information a school would need to implement that practice in there in their school And so it's updated frequently But that's something I'm really proud of because it's a way to maximize on our resources and get the word out We do have an additional family engagement canvas page that has more detailed information around family engagement practices and strategies We did maintain Lido Donald director of family community partnerships She maintains that page and she does a lot of great work ensuring that staff have access to the things they need One of the things our team does and it's been a little bit on hiatus with the pandemic But

018we do a welcoming environment scan We know that the moment of parent or family walks into the door first impressions are lasting impressions And it makes a difference on how a family feels welcome and can set the tone for the relationship moving forward so one of the things our team does is they'll partner with the families at that particular school and they'll do a walkthrough of the office of the Front entrance to the building and other areas in the building to see does this feel welcoming to me as a family? And what would make it welcoming and so those that's a practice that my team has led and you'll see things change like signage and multiple language I think hazel valley has an exemplar front entrance they have lots of beautiful pictures of children and

019and things that Reflect people's culture when they walk into the building and it really has made a huge difference for families because they feel like they belong and that Their children belong there And we provide lots of lots and lots of professional development I'm really proud to say this year that it's not me. I didn't do anything It was all Lita But the leadership form were all leaders in Highline that the focus of leadership form this year was really entirely on family engagement practices in partnership with our partner speb I Can never remember their acronym because they changed the name supporting partnerships apologize Engaging beyond they changed their name and so but they kept the acronym the same But they really took the lead with their family and parent leadership and really creating Opportunities for

020our leadership to understand the experiences of our family There were lots of padlets that occurred where family staff are able to reflect on What they heard and how they can change their practices and you know again looking back over my ten years Ten plus years never before had we standard family engagement practices in that way for that long and really? Could see the deep meaningful impact it had on our school leaders a lot on that side, okay? These are some of the system-wide family engagement strategies not just the district level practices And these efforts are primarily led by our family and community engagement specialists You may know some of them like Rosa Manrique's Rocio Seha Rebecca Pinson and a few others Those three were the OG They were the original when those positions started, and

021we've actually leveraged S or dollars to expand these roles But they lead parent family university opportunities for families And this is that aspect around educating families about the school system the topics vary depending on what the families say they need So it could be things like understanding the school system like a 101 it could be understanding the special education process and the topics very the beauty of this is the team received training and professional development from Addie Simmons who's a local family engagement leader who started her own she used to be at the OSPI that she was the ombudsman the original ombudsman and then she started her own Organization with Kathy Lou Scott and so my team has received extensive training for her and how to run these parent universities We have our Family Action

022Committee grassroots partnerships we this is using our as her funds and While we do have staff and many of the staff and our buildings and on my team are also parents in Highland You know you still kind of end up getting that District lens and perspective and it might you know blind you a bit and so it is important to have that sense of grounding in the community and so we've taken as her funds to Expand partnerships that we did an RFP process a formal RFP process and we have partnerships now with Latino Civic Alliance With SPED and then African Community Housing development and development and The intent of that is they are using these funds to have a liaison If you will who acts as a bridge between the community and the schools and

023to help us increase our understanding of the needs of families which I think is actually really important now because I Think with the pandemic and everything the needs probably have changed at least as far as I've seen them We have a very well-known strategy. That's We've tried to implement fits and starts over the years and now really it's taken off and it's the natural leaders program and and Rosa Manriquez is really taking the lead in it But it was really families who wanted that leadership opportunity and kept asking for it So it's happening primarily in the south end of our district right now And it's really was because the parents wanted to do it and so it's a model where there are families who act as ambassadors They get training and they're seen as a

024go-to for families and staff around family engagement strategies and connecting with families parent panels Again with leadership form and other opportunities. We've had parents come and share their experiences and and their needs and The the final strategy that we work hard to implement district-wide is the academic parent teacher teams I will say that Before we had the formal program we had our own sort of mini version of that after some of our building leaders Received a professional development many years ago and wanted to implement something like that But this is something that's actually the real Trademarked practice it's out of West Ed And it's an opportunity for families to meet with their students teachers throughout the year to understand their students academic performance and so It's not gonna be as bad as it sounds it's

025actually okay, and I've experienced it as a parent But what they do is they display? Every child it's not identified every child's performance because what happens is sometimes as a parent You think your child's plugging along and doing all right Seems fine. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what my kids are doing half the time They asked me about the math. I don't know that math so and they're only in second and fourth grade so imagine when it gets later on And you can really see oh wait a minute my child's you know either smack dab in the middle or ooh They're not doing so well compared to the other students in the class, so they share the data Around the students performance And then parents are taught strategies around games and

026things that they can do to support their child's learning at home Typically in reading and math and they're given the materials to take home and play these games with their students and families And so we are in partnership with CC er Community Center for education results to implement this practice. I believe we have Three solid schools that make micken hilltop and Bullock We actually have two more that I have signed up CC er applied for a big old grant and they got it a couple million dollars And so Lita meets with the other family engagement leads in the roadmap district And they plan to continue expanding the practice And these are just some of the professional learning opportunities that exist within our district We take this very serious their team takes it very serious. This

027is actual real-life Researched work. It's not things that we do because we understand what our parents experience and feel a need These are actually research best practices that we want to share around across the district and last but not least I think it's really important to Understand this is really the backbone of the work We couldn't do this work if we didn't actually dedicate staffing to the work. And so you have me your friendly cabinet level Representation I do represent other scopes of work in this system but it's not nothing that there's someone on cabinet who has this lens and perspective and the work that exists within their department and Then we have a separate director of family and community partnerships and she's a lifesaver because there was no way I could do What she

028did and be responsible for everything else that I'm responsible for And you know, you all know and love Lita O'Donnell we have our family and community engagement specialists and I will say this position has really grown and evolved over the years and I know schools highly highly value these folks coming in Helping them implement family engagement practices The majority of them are from the community their parents many of them went to school in the community their children go to school in The community they're so deeply tied and connected to multiple cultures cultural Communities in the district and they're so critical to this work, but they're also deeply knowledgeable around family engagement practices So again, they're not just people who I just know and understand our families No, they actually know and understand family engagement practices

029and last but certainly not least These are our backbone truly to our schools our bilingual family liaisons. These are Positions that historically were considered our bilingual tutors But the reality of it is is that they were always the connection point for many of our families to our schools Because one they spoke the language or shared a culture and families felt safe and comfortable reaching out to these folks So what we did many many years ago is rather than pretending like they were, you know The role was only a pair of educators supporting our ELL programs or newcomers Is we actually wanted to give them space in their day to actually do the family engagement work And so we took these took funds and allocated schools so all of our elementary schools more or less have

030a 0.5 allocation for bilingual family liaison role and then Middle schools 0.5 and then our high schools have a 1.0 allocation Now some schools split up the difference if you have a school where you have, you know, really high Latino Spanish-speaking population, but also a higher Somali population Some schools have broken up those positions to 0.25 0.25 and the last thing I'll say about these roles Which makes me so proud is these roles previously were supplemental funds They were titled they were lapped and we made some decisions a few years ago to transitions these funds to basic ed dollars And what that does is signal to the system to our community that this is a basic function of education This is an add-on. It's not supplemental to the work that family engagement is a basic

031function of the school system And for that I am very proud and that is our overview of family engagement And now it's time for your questions if you have any Thank you Amazing work and I Definitely think it aligns with this idea of street data that we're looking at and thinking about How we can center and honor the voices of people in our community And One of the things that we've heard lately, I've heard lately has been from some parents having a perception that the only parent voice is happening in board meetings and I wonder about how we can communicate more about all of this work that's happening at all these different levels in terms of When these different parent communities meet having some sort of way to share out with the community So that

032families know I think if the only if there's a perception that the only parent voice that That parents are saying like they're coming to board meetings and maybe have a problem with curriculum or something like that there's a lot of parents that are actually involved in developing the curriculum and So can we highlight that better or differently with comms? I don't know. It's just a thought I have about that. I Yeah, I think that's something we can certainly do I'm gonna try and channel Katherine here momentarily I am no Katherine, but I will try We do have a get involved tab on our website And if you go to the get involved tab, it has ways to connect It has information on see back on our community partners community input or fact family learning guide

033And actually has quite a bit and you know, the high cap advisory team the school's foundations parent groups Even has senior citizens gold pass. I don't know what that is our community truancy board how to volunteer and so I think I Don't under I'm not a website person. Yeah, but Maybe there's a way to make some of this more prominent or to have stories that can be featured on the banner every now And again where it can highlight some of the things that are happening We're in the weekly updates like a link to like do you want to know what parents are doing? Here's you know some store. I don't know just more obvious links Because it is amazing work And I just think we need to highlight all the important things that families and

034community members are doing to keep our district Strong yeah, we'll pass it on and I'm just throwing this out there and I don't know the feasibility of it and clearly it's not from for me at this point in time to Necessarily call for this change but you know one of the things that our own reminded Kisa and me of the other night is prior to the pandemic if You recall we would honor a community partner at each once a month at a board meeting which was great, right? They got up and gave a little spiel about the work that they did and it was just a really nice way to Really highlight and involve community. I wonder if there's a parallel way to highlight Families and family engagement at board meetings on some consistent basis

035That might up keys is all about it, but Carrie. I just wonder Because I think that one of the challenges has how do we make sure that a really broad? Array of family voices being heard by the board So that it's not dominated, you know by a particular group or a particular vantage point. It's just something to consider That's a great idea And then the other question I have is really around it's it's coming from my secondary teacher perspective As a secondary teacher, it was always a struggle to think about engaging families I have a hundred and fifty kids and What does that look like and what does that mean? And while I really wanted to engage with every single family, I struggled to figure out the logistics around how to do that and also

036Find the time to do that. And so I've had opportunities before where building leaders has said Okay, you have four hours in September during the or August during this did day To go and send your first email or whatever and I figured out Taishan you'd be impressed like how to export things into an excel spreadsheet so that I could send and then I started sending like Bi-weekly emails to my family's like here's what we're working on every and I know that that's typically an elementary strategy But I noticed when I started doing that in secondary. I started getting a lot more family engagement But I was a pretty veteran teacher who had a lot of other things figured out And so I wasn't having to spend as much time planning and grading and all that

037other stuff. I just wonder about how we can think about Supporting our secondary teachers both with the skills and the time to engage our families more authentically because I know they want to But I think there's a lot of like what does that mean? so the good news is is we do specifically have a With the ESSER funds a family and community engagement specialist that supports our high schools only separate from even from our smaller schools because we do have a one who supports our Smaller more alternate alternative programs as well So that one is Rosa Manriquez who you know her children have been in secondary schools You have recent high school graduate and as a student entering into Can't believe it. Um, and so she understands that perspective from a parent. So what she

038does is She's the one who's also helping natural leaders get off the ground and running down at Mount Rainier high school And she works with key school staff to help identify those opportunities the other plug I'll make is Katherine recently came to the our last fact meeting to demonstrate to potential parent communication apps To the families to see and then I gotta tell you if you come to the fact you got to be prepared and be on your P's and Q's because they will ask some tough questions But it's really about what are some of the tools we can use to help communicate with families One of them was talking points and I'm not I'm not a spokesperson But as a parent my children's school uses talking points and I find it It's essentially like

039texting and an app and it does announcements It's a really easy way for me as a parent and it also translates into multiple languages So it eliminates that barrier for many of our families So there are some strategies and roses working with the staff I know some schools at the secondary level have offered time during some of their staff meetings to you know Write out the postcard to some families. I think because to your point I don't want to pretend like it's not the you know, the sheer volume of families You'd have to interact with you know that I don't want to pretend like that's not a thing It's a really like much of the work we do in k-12 to take a tiered level approach So which families you might you need to have

040a direct touch point with? Which families would benefit from maybe an email or a phone call on sort of a regular schedule It may not need a phone call or in-person meeting and which families might be just okay with some high-level Communication like a newsletter or something like that So it's really thinking of it taking it in chunks rather than feeling overwhelmed and feeling I have to make phone calls weekly to 140 families that's not feasible So really thinking that through and those are some of the things our staff help schools think through. All right. Thank you so much just Great improvement from when I started in 2016 to see where we're going A few years ago on the board. We decided to add something to the bars the the community engagement the checkbox there

041it was It was really important that our community was involved in everything that we do from you know the day-to-day But also to a curriculum standpoint, right? Making sure that our families are key stakeholders in the curriculum that we We implement so I think it is important that we do share that With the community that it's not being done in a silo with all these subject matter experts, right? We are bringing in our families to make sure that they're part of the the decision-making that's going to affect every student in our district So I I appreciate Everything you guys are doing there's still some more stuff to do but you know what every little step so appreciate that service I Guess I wonder too because I think this was a question from the board And

042I think Joe teed this up with the progress Kisa that you and your team have made Is there a need to update our policy at all or do we feel that our policy is where it needs to be? And if so, what might the process and timeline be for that and I'm not trying to put you on the spot it's just an open conversation, but No, I think it's a great question I think I think the best way to determine if our family if it's time for a family engagement policy to be updated to actually run by our families And we have a we have a forum for that. It's called our family action committee So not to be funny, but actually, you know to check in with them It's been you know since 2016

043does this still resonate with you? Does this make sense for where we are as a community today in 2022, you know in this kovat world Does this still resonate and make sense? I think if we Present even the option, you know, please review in what we would do some sort of structured process where they can really engage with it and and and then they can tell us if they feel like it needs to be updated and Maybe some minor tweaks or it may be a huge overhaul and that's the beauty of the fact I kid you not and Susan knows They will tell you the truth It will give you their honest opinion and you know But it's a safe space because we have a relationship and that's why we put trusting relationships first We

044really do have a trusting relationship where they can give us this honest feedback in a way where we're not being defensive or taking It personally. We're just really hearing from them. Awesome. Thank you Holly from a legal perspective Is there is there a need to update our Policy, I know you love doing it but I do Know I don't think so in the sense that like we're so far beyond like what the state's model policy is we've gone so much further than that that Any updates that they have done are gonna be technical tweaks that we're already beyond I think it's much more of a to Keith's point like so much has changed in the last six years Does this policy still reflect? The Highline family engagement work that we want to be doing that

045our families want us to be doing Or does there need to be more in there? So I don't think we're under like a timeline or anything I think it's just getting the conversation started. Is it on there it is Well, Holly you started right at the beginning by saying that it was it seemed like it's just a really good opportunity for us to Get into this review. Not only we're gonna be bringing on a new director our new superintendent And it this been you know a little bit of time since we reviewed it So I think by Kisa mentioning that's a great idea to go back to our families and ask would be ideal So thank you for that and just thinking about Director house comment at the beginning about you know, there is a

046lot and how do we message all of this? Yes, we do have that tab where you know, you can't get involved But how do people know that that tab exists right and also who is missing at these tables that you know is it time also to look at who's on the CFAC, you know, like or on the not CFAC the Family Action Committee like who's missing from the table? I know we have a lot of refugee and immigrant a community that has been coming even more So in these last couple months, so really looking about if we're gonna be making changes to our policy. Do we have? Everyone we can at the table and a lot of times, you know I like people stay on because they are committed to this work, but there are

047also voices that are missing Just doing a lot of research lately on refugee and immigrant resources for our community or our new Refugees that are not new but more refugees coming in. What are we doing? I love that Highline's one of the few because I've been doing a lot of research that actually has Resources for our refugee and immigrant not very many districts have that tab and so or that on there and so my my question Besides all of that saying that thank you Kisa for always staying on top and you're right a lot of times We do look into Highline to see what they're doing because they're leading a lot of this work. But again, I think I'm Definitely up for making sure that we take a look at that policy again and review

048it but I think for me most important is who's missing what voices are missing, I appreciate the question because while I The fact is quite diverse. However, there are voices missing from from, you know Communities that we have in our district that have not been represented. I will say that The fact isn't the end-all be-all so the question then becomes where are there other opportunities to reach out what I am observing is With some of our communities, it's it you really kind of have to go to their spaces and show up in their spaces So this is something that Lita and I are grappling with so to be honest Over the years there have been some communities that have really had a little to no representation I will say like, you know our Vietnamese community

049or our Cambodian community And it's been a struggle. We have really tried to you know, where the organizations that can sort of Help connect us with the families and communities So it's not been without for F without any effort, but if there's some that have been struggle struggles for us I think about our Pacific Islander community as well and We've had Over the years a few opportunities to engage I know Lita and I both have reached out to Pico and their leadership to Get in it gain an entry point into that community as well They were hosting the annual Rise up conference over at Highline College and I know myself and other staff attended That conference and it was really centered around education of their students And so I think and I you know, the

050pandemic really kind of there was so much momentum But you know also connecting with some of our key community leaders and and Going to their spaces and really to me again, it's building the relationships the relationship without an agenda I really firmly believe in that I think as an institution when we show up it often feels like we want something from our communities and So for me if we can just show up and be in community with people break break bread connect Share without I want you to join this group or I want to hear your feedback or how are we doing? But just I just want to spend time with you That's how you really learn about people that's been our model. And so then the question becomes how do we capture? What we

051may learn and gain from just being in community with people How can we quantify that or bring some of that feedback back? And I do hear you specifically with some of our newer refugee communities coming Coming how can we make connections with those communities? It's a wonderful question It's something we continue to grapple with but I think to me the answer kind of lies in just being in community and space with people without an agenda I appreciate that Because I think our families are also, you know, so taxed, you know, so transactional you come we get this You know, we give you that we come so I love the fact that you know Thinking behind how do we meet them where they are? And how do we just because there's so much to learn just

052by sitting and breaking bread, right? You don't have to ask any questions. You can observe all of this stuff and and then doing uh, um The loop back to say, you know having an because we can't a lot of times we do a one-time shot like, okay We met checked up the box and that's it so how do we continue to develop those relationships and those partnerships that are long-lasting because eventually It'll be best not just for our community but for our students, right because we get to know them better But I can say that I feel so proud to be part of Highline I mean, I always hear our work being elevated. I mean your name comes up and Lee this name comes up everywhere Uh, and also sometimes they feel Highline is taxed

053because we're we're always being asked Can you show up here because of this? Can you show up there because of that? But that means that we're doing the work. Do we have a lot of work to do like director Vance says absolutely But the fact that we're not shying away from it and that we continue to figure out I mean you guys are already thinking about how do we do this and who is missing? So thank you just to say thank you so much Right. Can I add on to that? Um, because I want to plus one what y'all y'all are saying and bring it Circling back to I want to carry these original questions about the folks showing up at the board meetings And maybe it also starts at the board meeting When you

054sit up at at up there and there's a level of authority and responsibility And it kind of depersonalizes And and you you sit up there because you're a grandparent because you're a parent or an uncle because you care about our student but Because you're up there in a level of authority people forget And so sometimes maybe when you're introducing yourself or doing roll call rather than just saying the district you serve because the district's very nameless um I'm sorry, but sometimes I have to go re relook up what numbers Your your things are holly i'm sorry So even saying the schools that you represent say the school that your child went to or that your grandchildren or your nieces and Go to would make it more personal So starting with the folks that are coming

055into the boardroom with with those complaints as well you kate With the pro tips Um, I got a couple questions. So do you want like the shotgun blast or should I go one by one or? See how it goes, you know Oh, um I think the the first question I really had was around our or authority sharing when it comes to these so could you describe how we're like authentically enabling the like the fac and like cfac and all these groups that make recommendations to the board how do we Give them the authority to really like have ownership of decisions or the recommendation I can only speak to the fac because I don't sit in space in those other committees or I can tell you is A lot of it is in the design process

056and when I told you there's many iterations of the fac That's what I was talking about. So there was a time where it was like a free flow open. What do you think? Let's co-design Um, and some people are like, what are you even talking about? Um, and i'm not saying that to be funny, but we have to remember that our families, um, most of them Don't work for a school district and most of them aren't educators And so there is an expertise that we bring to the table And being able to at least give them something to play with Rather than let's start from nothing. I can just tell you it just didn't work that well when we started from nothing And so it's really around finding the balance of what information do I

057need to provide to this group of families? So when we talk about In our theory of action around educating our families, what do they need to know so that they can actually make informed decisions? That's why we put that in our theory of action So what is it that they need to know number one and two creating and designing a process so that there is authentic feedback Development opportunities. It's an art. It's not a science I can tell you that because it's kind of an ebb and flow and you have to be able to sort of think on your feet Of like this doesn't seem to be working. Let's try something different Even in the moment or you know what? We're going to bring this back because this seems like it needs more than one

058fact meeting Or you know what? We don't want to wait till our next quarterly meeting So how many of you are interested in being a part of a subcommittee to continue working on this beyond this point in time? Until our next meeting so it's really about being flexible Being able to read the room if families are kind of disengaging And they don't seem very interested How can we get them interested in the content and the topic so that they can engage in an authentic voice? And it's really about centering their voices So again, I can only speak for the spaces that i'm in But you can come in and talk at a parent. I've been in meeting spaces where parents They'll give and and you have to remember the power to your point the power

059dynamics in the room And a staff person might say something that makes that parent feel shut down Or that their perspective isn't valued or valid And so it's really a practice in Active listening. So when a parent is saying something or has an idea How do we get to yes, or how can we so I met with the kiddos same same type of practice? I do of the students student leadership with feasts. I can tell you some of their ideas I was like, oh, that's not gonna work, you know in my head. I'm already going through that's not gonna work that's not gonna work, but It's really about removing that And like you know what these are wonderful youth who have open minds who aren't jaded and bitter staff Who understand the boundaries that we

060have to operate and if we can dismantle these boundaries, why do we have to be in this box? It's really just opening yourself up to you know, I actually think this could work There might be some humps and bumps along the way But I think we can act we've got something here that we can play with so let's co-design this together It's really just about how staff show up in that space if you value the voices of your families You believe that they actually are bringing something to the table that i'm not the end-all be-all the expert That they have a perspective that I don't have that's equally valuable to my perspective. It's really about how you enter the space Designing a space so that their voices can be heard pivoting everyone's favorite word post-pandemic

061pivot pivoting in the moment when you see this isn't actually working and And naming it being Explicit about the implicit that's something I learned from my coach you say it out loud saying this isn't actually working Do you guys think this is working? We do that, right? And they're like this isn't working So just naming things that we're all feeling and experiencing that people often are afraid to say So I would say it's more of an art than a science and the more time you spend with our families I think the more comfortable you'll be showing up in those spaces Coming from a place of humility And openness in the spirit of partnership and that's a part of the pd I think that Lita and her team do it's really when I Honing in on

062those relationships if you have a relationship with someone It's easier to to have a give and take but if i'm coming in as the positional authority in the room We're not going to get to that space I could just maybe add on to that and I know this is not a surprise to you Arone as a previous co-chair of cfac But that committee work again, it's it's a large group that comes together and The from the start of cfac The staff position in the room that pizza was mentioning is we're here to support and answer questions and provide information That's requested of us from the committee members and that is I think that Positionality is what Helped cfac get off the ground to start with and then contributed significantly to the success of that program

063because it's a community-driven Agenda and at the end of every meeting there's a parking lot And here's the information we need from staff to start the next meeting and it has just a great flow to it It doesn't put us as Here's the staff coming in to say here's step one step two step three you guys check off so we can do it The next question was kind of around the Theory of action and it's like a two-parter. So this one's like a little bit more broader, but how it has the implementation of the theory of action as of And like how are things changed? and Kind of in the weeds in that question. I had a question around child care And how I have because I know like during the pandemic we took a

064very active role with in child care What are lessons learned so that we can still continue to provide Access to a resource like that so that we can get more engagement. So that's not a it's a great question Um, this is why I love my team because they're so smart and I can't do things without them It really is again meeting families where they are. So surprisingly when we sent home devices We also gave families access to zoom and getting meetings and so we were flexible with our meeting space during times We often help meetings, you know, sometimes in the morning is better for some families sometimes in the afternoon using the technology of zoom You can put folks in breakout rooms by language so they can still engage and hear the content um, so

065I would say our team is actually Ready to switch up on a dime and actually I love it. You see families cooking dinner while they're in a meeting in the evenings um, so they're going on with their lives and that does save on child care in that respect because You know, you know now it might be might possibly might know something about they'd be harder to engage when your children are running around But that's okay We acknowledge that we love seeing the baby's faces pop up on zoom and we have empathy for our families who are in that situation Um, I actually had quite a bit of staff Who made home quite a few home visits during the pandemic when we were in remote? Both on my family engagement team, but also with our social

066work team And some other key staff So we really and our team actively made a decision to stay connected to our families Particularly those who were pretty impacted and vulnerable. So in partnership with the foundation we were distributing Safeway gift cards and the and making those home visits or having pickup sites, um when the the Pick the meal pickup sites that those were opportunities for to make a brief connection with the family and what do you need and Um, and a lot of our families do know how to call, you know our family center number even though at that time our staff were remote we got our family center number routed to Um cell phones or people calling the voicemails so that they could reach back out to the families who were calling and so

067we just kind of That's what we do in the in the fan in our team. We just kind of like all right This is what we're working with. Um, and Let's meet people where they are and I know that that's just my team and I know at the school level um Staff were doing the same thing I think you know with a lot of our students and their parents being right there There probably was more parent engagement their family engagement than people bargained for because um, I too was hovering over my kids Um behind what are you doing? What are you learning? What's going on? Um, and then we saw a rollout with more of our, you know technology and being able to communicate We expanded our language line Um, so we increased the the

068the budget and the accounts for that so that the language would not be a barrier When we needed to reach out to our family. So honestly, I feel like the pandemic Increased family engagement in our district because we had to and we again explicitly named that like If we do not connect with our families like we are 100% reliant on them For their children to show up to school every day and so there was actually more and then also We implemented our um, one-to-one family connection meetings at the beginning of the school year and we were flexible in that space So if a parent needed to come in people actually came in and if they need to be by phone it was by phone or by zoom but that every family Throughout the month of

069september Had a one-to-one connection with their child's teacher and at the secondary level I believe they split it up primarily among among advisory teachers So we continue that practice this year. We will continue it into next year tbd when esser funds run out, but um We allowed teachers we paid them for their time Um prior to the start of their contracted days And we made some adjustments to students Schedules when they were coming in so that staff had the time to actually have those meetings with families We provided guidance on how to structure those we do not like a script Some people needed a script. We did some prompts if you're unsure what to say here's some prompts But we you know had very clear guidance around what those meetings Could should look like And

070so I would actually say it increased. Yeah, I would I would agree and I think Um, and i'm mindful of time so I know kisa could go on all day about this But aaron, I think the other thing and I know kisa's touched on this But I think we learned that technology has provided more access for a lot of our families to engage and we're continuing that The other thing that I want to say before we close out. I want to make sure that none of the board members have any final questions for kisa, um Joe had asked a question around students on track for graduation And I think that that directly relates to family engagement and so, you know, joe I can't give you a list by school I mean we could give you

071a list by school of every kid who's not on track But there wouldn't necessarily be like and this is the plan but I can tell you and I know that holly And jennifer and kisa and others know that our principals and the teams know the students that are at risk And are working with them and are connecting with families. Um, it's a it's a priority concern for them right now Um, and if there are particular concerns at a school, let me know or if a family or student has reached out to you and they Aren't feeling supported and connected. Let me know and we'll we'll deal with that I greatly appreciate that in years past during our spring board retreat we normally get just like a report out of of where we're sitting at and

072To keep us informed week Yeah, I mean we can certainly provide in a friday packet what the numbers are of students that are not on track by high school um for graduation jennifer Okay, thank you. We can absolutely do that. Um because of where we are with um, Some increased opportunities for our students which we're grateful for with waivers et cetera It really does change kind of day by day in many cases that we're happy to give you in a friday packet and update them time just Numbers will continue to change One other question and this is not an emergency, but I know that um Failure rates are really high right now um even among ninth and tenth graders and so That data would be really interesting to me because if you fail us history

073as a junior You're not on track to graduation if you you know, so if you fail any ela classes, you're not on track for graduation So that might be interesting data to look at At some point in the future to really think about Let's get ahead of this. So even if we're talking ninth graders, they're going to need um, some sort of recovery option So jennifer's taking copious notes. So we will definitely get back to you with that and I want to make sure Uh angelica anyone else burning for kisa before we transition? I got a couple questions. I'll just give them to you and we can maybe check in afterwards, but um in regards to Any policy that we're updating and we um, I know some other school districts do uh student student board

074representative So could that be something that we explore as part of that update to see if that's something sure can um and on that um I know that we have student leadership Groups, um, it's kind of low-hanging fruit But is there ways that the board can hear from them a little bit more frequently because they They are like the elected representatives of their body of their students So I just wanted to throw that out there I think we'll have ample opportunity for that. We have the superintendent student leadership team But this year again with esser funds rebecca kim is leading a strategy in schools for Various student leadership teams at the school level and so I think we'll have some infrastructure that could allow for some of those folks to um be able to provide

075feedback whatever that looks like we can Run some we can figure out some options and run it by y'all and everyone with the student leaders superintendent student leadership team You know, we've had to meet mostly remotely I'm hoping next year and i'm i'm making an assumption that ivan will want to continue uh meeting with students But in the past when we met in person and I think even sometimes virtually sometimes board members would join us I mean board members have an open invitation to join those meetings So getting you a calendar of when those meetings are and just if you know And I think you've I think you did join for some but that's just one one opportunity so Um ongoing work. Yeah, can I just add one thing about um your question carrie about

076fails? Students who fail a class and then become off track This board has been more progressive more progressive than many other boards Our backfill proficiency policy our mastery based policy and our competency policy are all policies that are allowing us even absent the waivers To really look at a student's full trajectory and be able to give them credit to back the backfill one in particular for failures um, and so we can absolutely get that information, but I also just want to emphasize this is something that Teaching and learning team and I are really focused on is like what's the infrastructure that we can create? That makes like one failure of an a class not just knock the kid off the trajectory forever Exactly exactly Thank you holly our own and the last it's kind of

077connected but It's around are there ways that we can help with leadership development? Families who are involved in athletic so we have I think certain schools get a little bit more support because they have family or parent members that are Volunteer from another school have it But is there a way that we can help in the development of that instead of expecting like an outside booster group? If we help develop that opportunity leadership opportunities for Not just parents, but you know the uncles aunties the people who want to be involved in that athletics Is just a a broader question in The other question was around um, it was actually connected with what carrie was saying What are ways that we can help our parents be the promoter, right? Can we give them the scripts or

078the tools so that they can do the bragging? for our for Our school because that's like the best sell whenever it's organic um, so how are we teaching our families to be the promoter Yeah, we can work in partnership probably with athletics. I'm just looking at scott. He's writing it down Around what those opportunities could look like. Um, there are a lot of parent organizations that do parent leadership opportunities and i'm I see that as a probably an easy win uh in terms of the parent promotion, um I think that actually does happen quite a bit in ways that we may not even know about. Um, I don't know about you, but if you've been involved with some family communities the word spreads rather quickly Um, so again, i'm going to go back to relationships

079and partnership If there's a relationship in partnership a parent will naturally promote What they you know what you collectively agree to is important to promote so I think about our Pta and they're always like is there anything you want us to share out with our leadership and constituency? And they do that and then it's um, I know with lita and her connections with some of our other parent leadership groups Um, they make those and start promoting and I think it I think it actually happens more organically But there's probably definitely room for to Improve it and to do it with more intentionality and it's about finding those key parent leaders We do it with fac as well. Actually fact leaders. We're like, please share this out with your your networks So maybe and on the

080flip side maybe it's just hearing from them about what they are spreading amongst each other Because they are probably I can guarantee you parents as a parent myself I'm gonna be on the text chain with other parents and we're talking about stuff. So maybe it's us hearing What are you guys actually already talking about? Let's talk together our own you good Thank you Thank you. Kisa. Okay. Sorry to be the the nasty timekeeper, but I want to make sure the board gets the conversation on bond related so, um, sorry I'm just ready to talk money Okay Well, she's got a mic and she's not afraid to use it before I turn it over to kate our cfo By the way, this is kate's last board cabinet retreat. So we want to wish kate well down

081in olympia um So thank you for being here and I want to welcome tova who is here on behalf of katherine who can't join us So tova, thank you so much for being here. And I think it's now the kate Tova scott show to talk all things capital facilities funding. Take it away All right um So a couple things to expect in june in june. There's going to be There's going to be a lot of money talk in june um, so we're going to do another Bond refunding which we've we just did a couple months ago and it's like refunding on your house Refinancing your mortgage. We're going to do another one of those Um, and I I don't have a presentation on that today, but it's very similar to what we we just did

082Um, we are going to have the referendum on the bond which cfac is coming next week to put forward their recommendations Um, and then you'll have your budget as well So today we're going to talk about The bond and all the tax rates and the big stuff behind that Um On june 1 is when trevor jim and mark those three guys in suits Um, they will be here on june 1. So if you have hard questions June 1 is the day to have those Okay Okay, um So with our facilities funding the goal here is to make sure we have enough money to meet our capital projects needs Keep our tax rates stable and with our tax rates stable We need to make sure that's our operating tax rate our capital which is our tech

083levy and the bond and so Mark does a great job of making all of that work and it's he does miracle work with that We are allowed by law to have five percent of our assessed valuation in debt We can have up to eight hundred and ninety million dollars um more Right now we have outstanding debt of about three hundred and sixty million Um what we're proposing in november is five hundred and eighteen million So we're still going to be well within our allowable amount of of debt this is a reminder that what we do is we go out and we Assess a value we are going to assess five hundred and eighteen million We don't go out and assess a tax rate The tax rate is a result of the amount that we are

084assessing So the tax rate is the amount that we're levying divided by the assessed valuation divided by one thousand dollars and And then that's applied to the property in our district If the property was three hundred thousand dollars and the tax rate was one dollar, it would be three hundred dollars per year that that family was paying so in 2016 when we were going out and we said we wanted to keep a steady tax rate It was two dollars and 43 cents that we were saying When we're talking about our bond tax rate It's now a dollar seventy two because the valuations have gone up so much since then And it's not that and you'll hear people saying our tax rates are going up so much The tax rate's not going up that much. It's

085And all of the assessed values in our community are generally going up together, you know Um So it's not necessarily one group that's paying a lot more than the other group because most of our homes have all Been been rising together And because of this we have a little bit more room to be able to be asking for that 518 million dollars as far as inflation goes and our Interest rates on our bond market you'll see in this circle at the end that right now it is a little bit higher But it what that amount that it's higher is taking us back to about 2019 2018 rate It is not taking us back to 1982 1981 So You know people are saying oh my gosh and interest rates are going up interest rates are going

086up to what they were three years ago So that's where It's going to cost us a little bit more to get this debt But that's because we've had these These crazy historic Never seen before low So the inputs in this tax rate analysis We'll have our election in november We go for a november election because in order for a bond to pass you have to have a certain amount of people show Up and actually vote On on a bond and so for us the most people show up on on a november election We're going to be asking for 518 million Our operating levy is at the per pupil lid And so we just want to keep that in mind the capital levy We're going to be planning for a tech levy, which is considered a

087capital levy in 2024 We have a an existing technology levy it was for two years. This is the last year of that we're going to try and Because we got so many esser funds and other Funding sources we're going to hold we're we're able to save that and and stretch that out a little bit longer but then we would want to be going for an ongoing one starting in 2024 and then Then we would be Selling our bonds in 23 24 and 26 and so even though we do the the one time on the ballot we sell in three issuances based on our The the rate that we're building we don't want to go out and sell the 518 million all at once and Start paying debt debt on it when we don't need all

088that cash in our bank, right? So it'll take us a couple years to be doing that building and so we will do our bond issuance over those three years And this is the math behind how we got to the 518 and scott's gonna Get into that in the in the next couple of slides On our tax rates In 2021 and we had a four dollars and 51 cents all together and that includes your operating levy Yeah, your tech levy and the existing bonds We're going to be proposing an estimated four dollars and 40 cents In 2023 and that's because of the assessed valuation going up You'll see that there's no orange in there so there's no tech levy for two years 23 and 24 and then returning it in 25 And his analysis has the

089operating levy Just at the per pupil lid and not at what our voters actually approve the next two slides is Um marks detailed analysis of everything that goes into calculating the tax rates Um, I can email this to you and if you want to do a deep dive into it It's fascinating stuff right now we are at the point of We're working with our bond council to draft our levy resolution to make sure it covers Everything we plan to build but gives us a little wiggle room in case something comes up and You'll be getting you'll be doing consideration of that in june And then we will be filing everything august 2nd so the reason you have to do this is in june is that everything's due the first tuesday in august and We only

090have the one meeting in July and so there's the rush to get it done in in june And then once we get to the august point we do a bunch of community outreach to get support for that all right I'm gonna pass So i'm gonna need to get switched over Okay, do you want me to go forward or do you have questions for kate? so i'm just going to share real quick what uh, uh you will this is sort of a sneak peek on what you're going to see when CFAC presents to the at the board meeting on may 18th Of what the proposed projects are that encompass this 518 million dollar bond So The new evergreen high school new taii high school. You can see on the top two lines here Both 1200 student

091schools. We've calculated the seven percent escalation throughout the construction process to try and keep pace with current Inflation rates so that we don't underfund a project that's at design Most will remember in the 2016 bond we included in in that bond funding to do design for um taii evergreen in pacific middle school So we will have um The new evergreen new taii at 100 construction documents at in november and so it really Number one takes two years off the timeline of putting this project together traditionally school districts start the design process once you pass upon so That's going to save us 14 percent in cost if you use today's escalation rates on those projects, so it's huge um great opportunity and real forward thinking from Rod sheffer as he led our group previously in the

092CFAC And we had some pretty impressive chairs then too I think you'll be impressed with our chairs when they present on on the 18th and in the interest of arone's wanting student involvement one of our co-chairs is a Uh Sophomore at big picture and she will be presenting be one of the presenters on may 18th You will probably also have some car wash tickets here for you to purchase She's trying to replace the gym floor at big picture just heads up You'll see a construction date 2023 for both a new evergreen new taii evergreen we can build with students on site Taii we need to move the students out of that off that campus in order to do the new building So taii students will move to the olympic site the olympic interim site during

093construction We also have to move pacific students off of that campus to build that building and we can't get Both those schools into olympic at one time. So pacific is the Uh the newer of the old buildings and in this rebuilding list So they will um Have a two-year delay in uh in the start of construction Uh kate mentioned selling bonds in phases. That's one of the reasons that we have those phases because we won't need those the significant dollars For uh pacific for a couple years. We don't want to start paying interest payments on it prior to actually needing it um Critical needs projects is listed here at 17 million And i'll get into that on the next slide here of what that's included so you can see an overall 562.7 Costs for these

094three these three projects plus the critical needs and uh 2016 bond funding because we finish our projects on time and under budget we have a Balance we would we anticipate a balance left in that bond fund of about 10.1 million That'll get applied to the next round of construction we'll have uh school construction assistance funding from the state and the port of seattle and faa funding an amount of about 34.2 million total for all three Pacific is the only school in this list that's eligible for faa and port of seattle funds And so what we are already working with Uh the faa on aligning our planning and design process with the needs and requirements of the faa in order to remain eligible for those funds That is a feat in and in and of itself

095because the faa traditionally has not been on board with this process so critical capital needs improvements and uh, this is the 17 million dollars that you saw in the that's included in the Total package and emergency repairs is really very general and that's because it needs to be you're going to have you know Boilers that die or you know something Breaks or roof falls, whatever. There's all kinds of things that we can't anticipate on some of our older real old buildings So emergency repairs qualify there and that's not maintenance maintenance happens in facilities completely different budget and non-capital Uh transportation building l originally was on the 2016 bond in order to get that bond under 200 under 300 million We had it got it 299 We took building l off of that list along with

096a few other things Uh building l is is literally going to fall down and that's where our Driver meeting room is where all of the mail transactions everything the driver training everything that happens in transportation Needs to happen in building l Provides space for a highline virtual academy again We're still working on what that definition looks like But we do need to have space for teachers professional space teachers to teach those virtual programs roof roof restorations and remedial repairs As you guys are aware, we just are in process on pacific from re-repairing a roof that failed while it was still under warranty and We do have a lot of old buildings a lot of flat roofs Uh our minimum construction standard now does not include flat roofs. You'll see no more flat roofs in highline

097school district because they are nothing but a Money drain they're cheap to put on the first time but they continually cost a lot of money sylvester middle school synthetic field Improvement that's desperately needed for that site. That's the only middle school that doesn't have a professional high quality Athletic surface for the students to practice on they all they either need to go over to highline to motor field or to another place in order to safely have successful athletic program Exterior and interior finish improvements. That's everything you can imagine from windows to painting to Masonry anything that needs to happen across the district and then maritime high school again We're working on a permanent home for maritime high school and there will be there is a fundraising Group that's working on raising dollars and and Also

098identifying a permanent site for that and so we will have a contribution as well going into that at some point And that's uh, that's what I have for The meat and potatoes part of the bond coming up happy to answer any questions A quick reminder as to where at maritime house. I know they're always out that I couldn't They're currently at the olympic site and that's another another consideration as we move forward With this bond tae there's actually room for both maritime and tae to coexist on that campus right now But we can't have maritime tae and all the virtual program teachers. There's not enough from Somebody needs a new home and we pass it off And I think it goes over to more questions to tovai Oh, I always have um You know, this

099is kind of related also to the pandemic, but how have a classroom fine standard acting Thinking about spacing You know air quality that um, and how could that potentially So great question first of all and second of all it we have We actually were in transition planning prior to the pandemic Because we build buildings that Are considered 50-year buildings that we keep for 100 years We want the buildings to be able to adapt as as both educational standard changes along with environmental concerns everything that happens in today's education world So if you look at the design process in classrooms, you'll see that a teaching wall can be any wall in the classroom now you'll see that um that Ff any of the furniture and fixtures purchases are purchased in a in a style that's Not

100necessarily mobile but adaptable so you can move the library is a great example at highland high school the library That's a looks like a traditional library when you walk in there And you can flip a little lever on every bookshelf and move all the books to one corner on the wall and it becomes a large meeting room or classroom space for Auditorium style setup we want every Every learning space to be very adaptable as we go. So As far as air quality That science and technology is taking some pretty big leaps right now because of the pandemic and again, we're going forward with Um the best we can do you know, which is going to be merv 13 HEPA filters those that type of built-in systems so that we're not having to come back and

101retrofit with Portable filters in every room and different things like that as far as spacing we haven't added square footage to the rooms Average classroom is going to be anywhere from 900 to 1100 square feet depending on the age of age group intended to be in the building and again with the mobile or adaptive furniture that You don't have all of the built-in Counterspaces and those kind of things that take up a room and force you to keep all of the kids Close together in straight rows. You can really have some unique and creative Learning environments with teacher station in the center of the room with teacher station on any side or corner About um With all that scott has said I don't believe that any state funding changes have have changed For for that

102so that would be something for us to continue to to lobby that the state funding formulas align to educational standards Do oh, sorry. No, this is just a really quick add-on the budget that you showed with all the like repairs and things like that would that include Providing more mobile furniture for buildings that maybe aren't going to be brand new I know as a classroom teacher or as an instructional coach in a very old building right now Those silly desks that are individual with a little basket underneath really don't allow for movement and so Anyway, just wondering about that so Not currently this would not be for district-wide changes to furniture But what we want and and actually mentioned in board brief board meeting the other night the tendency toward this is to standardize across

103The district so that when we purchase inventory it actually is the same and adaptable across across the entire district We are the technology levy in one and you know to sean let's talk about this but That is doing a significant upgrade to every classroom in the district with promethium boards Going in on stands mobile stands every classroom just one other thing I wanted to throw out it triggered my Question that I heard from community around synthetic fields experiment and also like the practicality region that we live in So I guess I just wanted to throw that out there that certain occurred um and it really got me thinking though around as we Are like moving forward with this is there a way that? Potentially cfac or some other kind of committee really helps establish the

104the environmental state For which we want to move forward so I know in a design process. There's like a checklist right things that we What I think would be really awesome During that like directly there's a community like process saying all right. These are the schools that we District want to stay whether it's hair or water? A net zero or that so I just wanted to float the idea. How can we really open up the community? some Things that we have to do anyway, right part of the checklist of what the state is we're really kind of allowing And that that's a an area we do put a lot of effort into already number one We pay attention to what happens around regionally as people put in new turf fields and and the composite or

105components of those fields We want to make sure what we're doing is safe not only for to play on but safe in the long run for everybody to be around if you look at the design of a turf field, you'll you'll see it's it really is a A drain field on steroids. It's designed to manage water so that there's never ever a puddle and it moves it to retention ponds that get Automatically go through the natural filtering phase before it phase before Water ever re-enters the aquifer We watched as a neighboring district went in with a new cork model Base for a turf field which was going to be the newest Technology, unfortunately, we live in a pretty wet community and during a large rainstorm They lost the majority of the cork into their retention

106pond So so that didn't work out real well, but we watch those things when they happen and make sure we're learning from each one And phil willembrock our district athletic director is very familiar with the the science and the work around her fields and what what is the most what's what's trending along with what's proven in in Her fields. We also have justin kesterson who is previous highline school district athletic director now a senior Administrator in wiaa and they are the Directors for districts when we go into having conversations about who gets to be on a state bid for a Installation and material purchase for her field. So there's a lot of work that's happening around that already. We probably don't Hear it widely as as widely as we should what's already happened along with

107collect feedback Okay, my turn. Um, we are gonna share with you some results of uh, Uh A survey that strategies 360 did in our community related to perception of highline and um, And our buildings Um, so this survey was conducted in early mid april cell phones landlined online and text messaging And keep in mind this is not just highline families, but all residents within our our district boundaries Um, so the satisfaction with the quality of education in highline, um has continued downward Though it remains above water And you'll notice that the dip between last year and this year is um pretty minimal Um in 2020 when we did this survey, it was you know, right a few months into covet and Um, you know, everyone was rah rah about each other and the support so

108this is expected and um there's Not a a specific pinpoint of why the death satisfaction rate is going down And there's a thinking that it could be due to the national trend And just people growing up growing tired of covet But um, the key thing to be looking at this is that the dip is pretty minimal between last year and this year Um, this is a look at satisfaction just among highline families So the dip is even more dramatic among our parents, um, and we believe it's due to covet fatigue um So a similar trend emerges regarding ratings of our performance across, you know a number of different metrics But there hasn't been much additional drop since last year so if you notice the middle column to the far right column Um, it hasn't been

109Hasn't been much of a dip But overall this this is looking at um performance metrics, you know, not with families now with everyone within the district Um, it's not bad positive ratings are muted, but few rate the district negatively just around 15 to 20 percent And then there's another chunk of people um on the far right the gray They're just not sure one way or another And then if we look at the next slide, um, this is specific to highline parents Um, they are higher but mixed um, and there's nothing in here Suggesting a specific reason for the overall drop in satisfaction Yeah, we asked strategy 260 this and um, they are and it kind of relates to the next slide that we have up here There's just a larger national forces that are likely

110at play fatigue of covid um There's a national conversation about some really hot political topics that relate to education such as critical race theory sel And the thinking is that you know, these big political conversations Um are just having an impact locally as well um and The next slide is this is the first time that we've actually also pulled Um partisanship data. It's part of a demographic question So we don't have trendline data that we can compare this to in previous year. This is a new question Um, and one will hopefully be able to continue to ask moving forward But you can see the satisfaction of the quality of education Is higher among those who identified as democrats? independents lean in the middle and then republicans, um those who identify as republican are lower and

111you know, this is Um, you know on par with the national conversation and support of education And what strategy 360 says they're seeing with other districts, you know that they're working with and pulling with this next slide shows a About how our community views or thinks issues of race and identity should be incorporated into curriculum so you see on nearly half of our community pulled that This should be integrated into um into our curriculum And then you know another nearly 20 percent said, you know, it should be A part of our curriculum. So we're talking about nearly 70 percent of our community is in support of this work and you know this lines up with our uh partisanship data And and you can see it on the far right, um, kind of the yellow box

112around where that falls within Where people identify So conditions this is perceptions of conditions of facilities so Despite nearly half of residents in highline Believing that facilities are in excellent and good conditions. A majority believe the quality is not Equally distributed among highline schools So you can see equally distributed over on the right Um, and a majority of residents prefer remodeling or renovation aging schools but highline parents are Really the only group that prefer building new schools over remodeling and renovating and you know, and this just shows us that we need to make sure we provide solid communication and rationale around The cost effectiveness and sustainability when it comes to rebuilding new schools You know and a lot of us think about our homes and it's much easier to renovate our homes Then rebuild our

113homes But that's just a different case when you have 1200 kids in a school every single day And so we just need to do a good job of communicating that And this next section is going to talk about the perceptions of funding so Three and five residents see a need for additional funding in highline Even though there's a dip in satisfaction. So this is Good in most cases are sometimes better in from last year. So even despite that that that dip You know three and five say we need additional funding in highline And You know tax sensitivity has remained stable since 2020. It's relatively high in the district as a third of residents think taxes are too high You know another question found that keeping the tax rate at the same level resonates with our

114residents And and so that's That's remained since the last couple years So this is just how our community says that they are receiving information from our district These are this is you know surveying everyone so communicating from an individual school And the school district are the high are high and then also television and you know your neighbor and your friend down the street Um are at the top, um, and then you can see a breakdown um From year to year So the biggest shift the last uh from from last year is communicating with an individual school That means our schools are doing a good job of communicating directly. Um text messages from the district Local blog so that leads us to believe like, you know, b town blog that c town blog c tech blog

115Waterland blog and then um in-person online meetings held by the district which Resonates with what I think he so was saying that family engagement is Um, you know, we did a good job of that during the pandemic and increase that And then this is a breakdown of parents versus non-parents. So parents, um, you know individual schools where they're getting the majority of their communication And then from the district text messaging teacher principal and the website And then you'll see local tv and radio are the highest uh communication channel of non-resident or non-parents And then communication from a school in the district and a neighbor. So that's just the breakdown of communication Okay, so summary and recommendation. So, um, yes things have dropped but the decline is um more modest than the year before Um, and

116there's nothing really specific driving the drop in satisfaction Um, it's likely being driven by covid fatigue and national polarization of education Democratic leaning residents are largely satisfied while republican leaning residents are less so And um, despite the drop there is still strong recognition in um that schools and high line need additional funding And that you know definitely needs additional funding group has gone up actually from last year Most residents rate conditions of schools is good, um, but most people see some schools are in better conditions than others So it's not equally distributed our our facilities um, and the majority of people believe race and identity need to be incorporated in school learning almost 70 percent of people say it absolutely definitely needs and And or it needs to be partially a part of our curriculum

117and that's all yeah Thank you so much. Sova. First. I want to congratulate the comms team for just Winning all of those awards year after year. You guys are kicking butt. So thank you. Congratulations I will share that with the team that you shared that thank you joe um, thank you for sharing the perception data it is It's huge coming up with our you know, um going out for bonds and things of that sorts to Really get to hear what our community is truly saying, you know only seeing only 400 participants participate in the survey concerns me a little bit, but Something is better than nothing. Um I guess this is going to roll into what scott was talking and what cate was talking how are we going to roll this out the communication to

118our community around the bonds and The restructuring of our our bonds right keeping it simple enough but giving them enough information that they're They're going to be In line with us that they're going to you know, be the biggest advocate to say yes on in the november bond once the the board approves that So do we have a strategy? On how we're going to do that. Yeah Well, one of the reasons why our department is such a big fan of these these surveys is that we're going to be These surveys is that it gives us data on how to then message out to our community and what? Residates with them and what are the gaps of the things that we need to? Do a better job? Communicating so we just actually received this data in

119the last week So our plan is to review it and then create a plan around this using it to To build a communication plan, of course that will be working closely with you know, cate's team Kate for a few more weeks and then Scott so You know this data is really important for our department to be able to figure out how we're going to do this You know, and luckily we've done this a few times So we're not starting from scratch And I think the importance of those refundings is keeping it in front of folks that we are taking advantage of lower interest rates that we're being mindful of Of every opportunity to save a little bit in our taxes Thank you so much Little discouraging in terms of the data, but I know As

120you said, it's a national trend and it just gives me something to think about in terms of public education um So I feel like my question to kisa earlier is going to come back up again and that is I feel like There are networks of parents that are communicating regularly about what's happening in schools and they're engaging in new and different ways I feel like there is a disconnect with our non-parent community members who maybe aren't part of those networks and So they're getting their information about highline from tv and local news Rather than from the parent that lives next door who's really happy with their kids experience at hazel valley, right? So And that data just kind of confirmed that so What ideas do we have about how to communicate with our non-parent community

121members who might not feel as connected to schools? Yeah, that's a problem or a challenge that we've always had You know we have different ways that we do that we do mailers to everyone a few times a year So it's not just our communities The interesting thing about you know, we talked about it was strategy 360 is that meet that median tv You know, we're not on the local tv channel every single day And so, you know part of that is just a perception of oh, I just get my news about schools in general From tv, so it's not even specific to highline But I think it's an ongoing issue of engaging our community. You know, we try to get out as much as we can And you know catherine has made a An effort

122to try to you know meet with different community organizations To figure out the best way to meet them where they are And and to create some partnerships there And create a key communicators, you know network Of people, you know within highline, you know those Uh dedicated family members that are always talking but also folks that are you know, not connected to highlight other than their You know, they live in the district But that's an ongoing challenge that we've that we've we're always working to crack not to put undue pressure on my friend and colleague ivan over here, but Um, I do think that uh when a new superintendent enters There's just a ton of outreach and community engagement and I think it ups the board's game on that I think it ups everyone's game So

123I think that's a positive that there's going to be so much outreach In the summer and fall with a new superintendent that will help. Yeah, we also will have a principal on special assignment this fall Who will um her role vicki fisher's role will be to do community outreach? Um to not just you know family and student organizations and groups but Community groups and you know, that is something, you know, whenever we have a bond or a levy We as a communication team try our best to get out to as many of those Types of organizations a little roadshow of of you know, the facts and the information But it's not it's going to be amazing to have someone who's solely dedicated to that this fall um, and and um, that will be one Great

124way to communicate this out to people that are Not parents or staff and in highline and I wanted to to just add on that the uh, one of the Cfac roles and and we talked actually at our last meeting talked about this is We've got cfac membership some are uh past students in the district. Some don't have students in the district some Have uh zero connection to the school district. We have city representatives port of seattle representatives um community representatives bargaining group representatives all serving on on cfac And we had the conversation again at our last meeting about one of their primary roles is to take the story Of highline what we do in highline what we're planning with this bond all of these conversations back to their Place of work or back to their

125city administration or back to their church or whatever group they're involved and make sure Not necessarily saying You know the whole world's wonderful But saying this is the real story on what's happening so that people aren't facing Highline activity on what they see on the news for as a national friend I've heard that go ahead Um, it just reminded me. I think there's another opportunity Um, I would say many years back five six we did Uh board members did community conversations where we went out into our communities and we invited people in Uh, and it was just board and the community there wasn't anybody else there and i'm thinking about um That's another great opportunity for us to really highlight, you know, what is happening in our districts and um Or also some videos. I

126know when we were doing their superintendent search joe and I came in and did uh some snips Of videos to send out and I actually got a lot of response from that Just saying, you know, like we all have our not just our districts but our connections because regardless where you live In those partnerships or those relationships that you've built So I think that's another opportunity for us to really get out like what's happening and for us to get also here What's happening? and Through their perspective in our communities That's what I was going to say in helica and and you know We need to go out to our spaces as well. Um, you know our community Coffee chats, but also going out to our Our local elected city councils and and having those conversations

127there in their space as well. Um, a lot of non-parents Attend and listen to board meetings. So I implore our board to also step up This is not just a comms thing this is an everybody kind of deal where we get out and we share What's going on the good and the bad so and I will say that our team will support you in helping you figure out How to make that work and help you schedule it and if you need slide deck or you want One sheet of I appreciate points whatever you need, you know our our team can help you with that And by the way and being in front of the camera was a lot harder than it really was So that was a little difficult for me I think we should

128just do it for joe. I had questions. Would you be able to see if survey area or never, you know if I'd like to see How many of the responders are voters are like registered voters that but also was it proportionate? Like did it reach the proportionate confidence level? I forget what it's called But If it did then it is like a true authentic snapshot of what? You know what can come out of it? Whereas I know that they have a formula around like confidence levels of a proportionate sample and 400 On any kind of thing is actually a lot but the key is is it actually proportionate to the community that we have that is going to vote sadly because Yes, it's important to hear everybody's voice in this but because this is specific

129to the voters It would be good to know if it's proportionate to the voters who are likely going to be here voting in the election um Yeah, I can um reach out to strategy 16 to get that for you um You know, i'm really on the struggle bus today, aren't I? Okay, carrie, uh just asked I think a good question too, which is You know we've learned that to get the turnout for the supermajority having the Running in a presidential election year is important. That wouldn't be the case next year tova Is there any are there any thoughts on that in particular? Are there any other races happening? Harry asked like a senate race. Murray will be on the ballot in november. Um, it's a it's a big one Um, you know, there's not a

130presidential You know election but there's some big federal Things on the ballot that strategy 360 believes that there'll be a high turnout because of that Highline hopefully is on the ballot and that is the big one. That's the big one, right? Yeah um You know just a reflection on You know, I don't know if it's me being naive, but in 2020 we had our families who were being Serving the roles of teachers. So of course they're going to mark themselves as high And now that they've handed it off a little bit more It's I just wanted to throw that reflection that I saw from the survey like when you're the boss You're going to call yourself Like you're acing it, right? So I just wanted to throw that nugget out there. Um No, where was

131I going with that? That's it Uh, I had a couple of thoughts but thank you so Well then team. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for coming in on a saturday Please take some donuts and or coffee on the way out I'm out Uh-oh We're gonna stick around grab lunch do some team reading Uh, but yeah, let's stretch our legs and get ready. Yes scott went to get lunch for the board So go ahead take a stretch break and then we'll have our working lunch Thank you. Thanks a lot. He's uh, holly kate scott who's not here tova to sean jennifer chris Can we turn the mic off? I think uh We've really learned a lot in listening to particularly our staff of color joe to that point of Please don't Make

132me the ambassador for all people of color and please don't make me do this work for free Which was a big impetus behind our paying for people to be in affinity groups That we heard loud and clear that people you know wanted to they wanted to be honored for doing that necessary work That's self-sustaining. So I think we have gotten better at that um Yeah and i'll just add that something that I took there's a lot of superficial equity happening and that It is hard as we dig deep. There's always these excuses you know like Like the out-of-school suspension it's like oh my gosh, these kids are gonna hurt me, you know, like I can't suspend him You know, there was this fear um around What it really was to um create equal playing fields

133for all our kids I think and this and chapters further Something I think that we continue that we need to continue in thailand is develop the in-house suspension This really made me think about what is that really how is that equitable? And is it just another? um loss of instruction time Or is it really I mean dedicated to how do we um Support our students here. There's clearly there's something happening. They're struggling. I I think about this equity where it it's like Here he is not out of school, but he's still Right, so this made me think about he needs to go active. There are some good Fenton, but how do we make it again? How do we use that time to um Really support our students academically, whatever it is um Instead of us

134kind of heading back Right But there's still a lot of Sorry, um one thing I do appreciate in looking at other districts is that we don't have like a A person who is the equity person and I think that that's a real danger And when I see that I worry a lot because it's like it feels so much like a checkbox like oh That person's doing equity. Therefore. We're fine It really needs to be in every everything right hr needs to have an equity focus and operations need to have an equity You know everything needs to have an equity focus. So to silo equity is like a separate office Um is something that i'm just glad that we don't do that here Okay, i've um, i've been in a lot of deep conversations and debate

135over that I've taken a lot of grief for that. Um, because when I arrived we did have a director of equity who Um bernadette who made the decision to go else I I did not end I didn't terminate her or push her out or yeah But when she left I chose not to fill that position and it was my rationale carrie was exactly your um your What you just said that it's not one because if it's one person's title or job everyone's like, oh she's gonna do it I don't have to do it. But what was really interesting and I think I can share this, you know, I remember After people it's clear that I wasn't going to fill that position. So this is back in 2013 probably And catherine came to me one day

136and said People are really questioning Whether you're truly committed to equity because you're not filling this position and i'm My response might have been a little on the snarky side. I know you find that hard to believe but I said All right. I said so um I'm going to keep pushing for high quality tuition free full day k for every child I'm going to keep making sure that we have advanced placement and advanced classes at all of our high school campuses I'm going to keep pushing on the discipline work You can keep talking about it all you want but like i'm actually going to go like we're going to we're going to do the work and the point was rather than focus on a person or a position let's examine our practices and our culture

137and identify things we need to do To really create a truly equitable school system, but i've had this debate with many colleagues because the flip side carries people will say But if you don't like name it identify it Does it not happen? I don't think that's the case in highlight. I think it could be the case in other districts, but not here. So anyway, it's just Well, i'll add my words because i'm on the fence about it I I was one Push you back. It's like we need an equity person an equity person and I get it that it's everybody's job But I also get it that if there's not someone to go to then um, for instance if there are Challenges with something regarding equity are they all going to go to soupin or

138they're all going to Iran um Who is the point person? Because then as you are creating I know that quiza's working at his family engagement hr is working at You know through hr and I know that everybody but but it feels like at times then We're all steering the ship but who is ultimately one who is going to like if we want to create some kind of Or recommendations or something who gets it all who's the point person? Can I? And sorry to put you on the spot susan, but What was the tension? as a white person Basically saying i'm going to be the equity person because all the system is going to be Because that's kind of what i'm getting right, but there must be some tension At the white person saying I have

139to leave this work, but also hearing from folks. We want white people Yeah, and not just as a white woman as a white woman in an incredibly diverse school system, right? I mean, that's a whole other layer um It was all sunshine and puppy kisses all day long Um, you know I I yeah now like I know you know it was hard Um, I think I had to do I had to do some deep introspection. I had to really listen. I had to learn i'm still learning um But you know, I feel as a superintendent and i've and i'd love for you to chime in too We have to be the chief equity officer, right? That's what ceo stands for in the superintendency as chief equity officer in my mind And then you and then

140we have to figure out how do we? How do we you know Really embed it in the culture and I will say And and I I really have come to believe That the highline promise is probably the best equity statement that i've ever seen I mean if you really think about it not just because of what it says but because it doesn't say equity And so I think people because now our own fast forward So we had the struggle then right of sort of me being in that position and it's still a struggle. Um Now fast forward to equity now has become a pretty charged word in a lot of places So how are we talking about it in ways that more people can grasp onto? And I think our promise is one way of

141doing that and so as the promise took root I think our equity roots kind of got put in place and there's still lots of work to do But I think the roots are there like like permanently. I don't think they're going to get up with it anytime soon Yeah, I think um To add on to that is else and that's by the policy Policy is the how to find the belief Organization, so it should be permeating every element of it Issues Issues should be going hr to have Yeah He says but yeah, I do love the idea around it all of our responsibility for the concern And I would say the part for me that this this book is really for Like you pray and pray and navel game is the training part of it

142Oh, yeah, i've been there done that seeing that happen but not having that clear connection How are we going to shift instructional practices? How are we different relationships? How are we different agents our family? You can do all the training get to the level of awareness running It's not making a difference That's I was thinking about um You don't want the superficial and you don't want the navel gazing Yeah, i've seen it happen before where we have the really Great systemic stuff like the great example of no out-of-school suspensions, right? That's a great example of an equity Systemic level change right and then we'll have the spray and pray someone will come and speak to the staff Uh, we'll have a book study or read an article as a teacher in a building And you're

143really thinking about like how am I like perpetuating white supremacist culture? And what is how could I and then it goes away? And I feel like there's something in the middle there. Well, not something a lot of things in the middle there about smaller systems smaller routines the that um Some building level leaders are doing amazing work around but I would like to see it more Spread across highline where it isn't just siloed It's like this principal is doing great stuff with equity and this, you know family group is but it's really systemic. Um Because it is hard when you hear Parents come to you and say like my kid had this experience my kid of color had this experience in this school It didn't feel seen and didn't feel known um Like it's not

144okay for anyone not to be good at it And that's why again I say it's really important to me that we don't silo equity in one position because I don't know how things work at iraq day to day as well as probably I should but if everything within Public education is kind of predicated on a lot of like white supremacist norms like we need to interrogate everything, right? So to continue business as usual and then have the equity person come in and say oh Like business as usual is problematic Why would the person in hr be like, uh, okay Well, we have to keep going here And so I don't know I just feel like it leads to like little tweaks here and there rather than like real a real Interrogation everybody's work is equity

145and everybody needs to be having that conversation. Um Example, you know, we because we this work is iterative. It's a journey. Um And it can also be you know, I I call it It's just so messy and one of the things I love most expect most about highline is we're deep in the mess And and we've sort of gotten comfortable being being in the messiness of the work um, and i'll give an example of real life example carrie of how I think how I how how complex it is and how I still struggle. So I think our hr team has done some incredible work in creating processes that really are Are inclusive when it comes to recruiting and interviewing really doing a deep examination of what are some traditional hiring practices that maybe have Excluded

146a more diverse candidate pool and they've done an amazing job and the processes they've set up with do yield a more Diverse pool, which is great um and one of the more and so livin this is good for you to know one of the more controversial Things that that i've had to do is is or one of the more the larger one One example of controversy that we've seen sort of as a theme has been principal appointment versus hiring um, and so obviously as the superintendent the superintendent has the prerogative to appoint We know that in an ideal world a process is great because Staff families students get to come together and they have a say in that and I think there's a the person is better set up for success in some ways Um,

147well this year, uh, we had three interim principles, um, they all happen to be white and In this, you know, and I don't know it's like maybe march, uh, february march when we were making the decision You know, we did our our due diligence reached out to staff to families to hea They were the unanimous pick of their staff of their Their families everyone And I made the decision to appoint I felt that going through a process was an unnecessary time commitment at a time when nobody has energy to spare And I knew that I would get pushback from some in hr and others around that decision But I believed it was the right thing for each of those schools and for people's capacity here And I balanced it with the fact that we had

148just promoted Some leaders of color to central office and that we were going to have more principles principal openings where we would have a process Right. So what I said to people is look I have to make the hard decision Here's why I did that and I did that balancing it that I knew we would still have a good opportunity to go through the process Um, but that's hard right because the perception then Is that i'm not supporting? The equity work which is not the case, but that's how it feels to some folks So it's just it's a it's just a constant sort of tension that you have to To balance and i'll add to that that there is real no There's not a real process that's going to guarantee you we've gone through some

149process where community has been involved they've selected the the candidate that I felt might not Might have been the strongest one or or whatnot and then at They get hired and the community itself then hates them And then we've had to turn around and and they end up leaving or whatnot. So I I think it's I I love to hear about you know, what the process is through appointment and and it's not like You know at this time being susan safe. Oh, I just like her so i'm going to pick him or i'm going to pick her but that there's also some kind of Investigative work happening and also collaborative work happening where they're asking right their peers they ga the you know families So I don't think that Especially the equity work that there's

150no one-size-fits-all Model whether it's only community picking or only appointment that there needs to be that balance um, that's been my I do have a question in regards to In my work we We have teammates that say this is the way we want And that just irritates the crap out especially when the already messed up Have we experienced it in in our system where we do all we do a lot of great work We do a lot of stuff that's working then We wing back and then people fall back into the old the old process And what what did we do to kind of you know, re-energize and kind of put them back? You know what this is we don't want you to do this that that mindset It's not what we want. So how

151are we kind of? refocusing leaders building leaders central office to The boomerang equity piece what we call that. Yeah, so I have a couple of thoughts Um, I first of all, I think that we've done a much better job in recent years of hire I think we're hiring the right people with the right mindset the right Orientation commitment to this work So they're all in right from the principal level the teacher level to the central office level. I also think The board did the best thing it could have done to ensure that the work not just continues But deepens spreads and gets stronger in hiring a new superintendent Who believes in his bones that this is the right work to do right? You're welcome Thank you, but i'm serious, right? I mean there is you

152know, I lose sleep over a lot of things One thing I don't lose an iota of sleepover is whether dr Ivan duran is going to continue highline's commitment to deep genuine ongoing equity work. That's just a given to me So that's huge joe because that and also I think having fresh a fresh perspective ivan's eyes coming in he'll also be able to Say, why are we doing it that way again? And I think that's so necessary after a decade with one leader to have somebody fresh come in and say I mean ivan's my values are the same but our you know, how we approach things is different for different So that's what I think is going to prevent that from happening. So well done And i'll add to that that I think that I know

153i've experienced That there's been times like why did you guys do this and it's like Well, it's not hasn't been that long since I started this but for this reason it's like, okay So just because something is being questioned doesn't mean that it's going to be removed And I think that there's that fear that when someone says why are you doing that? It's like they're going to take that away. It's that scarcity mindset of the white supremacy of you know, that's scarcity, so I think that Questioning is good or inquiring is good and for us to really be open-minded About you know, why are things being done that way and I know i've gone into um in the past way back into board meetings and to making decisions where like I went in I had

154done my research and this is what's my mindset and I Bernie and I Never at the beginning saw things eye to eye for many reasons, but yet at the end I got To Yeah, but we were able to then at the end became really really close friends because We respected each other's values and like his upbringing was much much much different than mine But that didn't make his upbringing any less important, right? So understanding where we're each were coming from there was times when we walked into this meeting He had a different opinion I had and by the end I could see where he was coming from and how much more important and his decision or or or His view was that I was able to that side Right, that's absolutely and it wasn't about

155being right or wrong, but I think that that's where that goes is like inquiring minds are great But also really understanding where people are coming from to better understand And I also do though joe I'm not naive There are people and and people have said this to me. Yeah, there have there are people in the system who said, okay I'm leaving now this all this equity stuff is gonna Go away, right? Like, you know, there are people waiting it out. Um, and so Sorry But I think it would be naive to to think otherwise, right? I mean, you know that there are people that don't fully Embrace this work um And you know and i'm gonna be honest. I love the district wide equity symposium I can't wait for it to be in person again

156because I just think I think the remote it's too easy to opt out Yeah, and just turn off your screen and go do whatever. I mean, and I think these conversations and this work happens much better so the other thing that um Uh, I think you're on hello. Hello. Yeah, there you go. It's coming really close I think the other part is Again, I just such a believer in policy and procedure because what you believe you get codified in the policies So looking at the equity policy is really understanding How are these really playing out and I think it's going to be a great opportunity for us to maybe do a review Refresh of this go through the equity policy procedures They say is this still what we really want to see what we believe

157and And it then happened All the different ways we're doing it whether strength Again, that's where that's where the work I think is gonna ensure that it keeps going How to fight it's what we are to our direction or our guidance for it in uh page 36, I wrote this one down but Um, it's about the symposium. It got me thinking about the symposium. It said even when teachers receive daily training for six weeks Changes in their practices dissipated within three months So kind of back to that point of what are ways? Yes, the symposium is great Let's like it's a great way to like get us started and creating that framework But what are additional ways that are that we're continuing that? I think the traps and tropes are so great because you can

158like you're gonna Find them all the time. And so just keeping them in front of you to say like yes, we had a great symposium How do we make sure that that isn't the only thing we're doing and I think about how you cultivate a culture of equity at a school and and check some balances and You know, i've been privileged enough to work in schools where I can have honest conversations with peers about like Is this equitable like is my grading policy equitable? Is this part of my practice equitable have people come in and say? I've noticed that this demographic of students isn't really engaging Can you come into my classroom and take a look and let me know what you see? Like what are some things i'm doing that might not I might

159not even be aware of that are silencing some voices That's really hard to cultivate and we need building leaders that are really on the ground doing that work daily to create that culture it's funny because I developed those practices and then maybe I moved to a new building and I try to engage with people In that same way and they're like, what are you doing? Don't question my practice And so you have to have a safety uh and and a language around equity In buildings so that people know how to engage like that and I think that that's the danger of like just the symposium living in the symposium You know when we have the symposium at not right near two or three years ago, I mean After everything was done that people were like,

160this is great. How are we going to continue this? this this conversation and the work and we were like No, but I know from that point on we were like, okay, let's how can we continue on throughout the year? Maybe not just do something poorly um, just The continuity is is what we need to be able I'll add i'm bringing up Director garcia and dr. Ivins about you know the symposium the policy you know, um thinking about you know those are uh opportunities for us to But you know like any policy and any report in any book you can pick it up and put it right back in the shelf Yeah, collect us so having it always in front of us and everything we do we can tie it back, right? We talk about all

161the departments being responsible for this my concern as you were talking about Uh director howell is like, you know Developing and cultivating those relationships to be able to be Uh, but also being aware that they're also the white savior that exists right and that you know, you take a look It's like oh my gosh, i'm i'm feeling all these black and brown kids Oh my gosh now i'm gonna pass them all because I don't want to look bad Right so having that balance and being aware of that as well Like I have peers who there's times when we're meeting and things get heated And right away they want to be my saviors like i've been saved by jesus I don't need anybody else to save me anymore. Right like I can I can handle my

162own You know and it goes to also our styles of our of collaborating or styles of engagement Just because i'm quiet doesn't mean that I can't take you on it means that I want to listen so I can better respond You know and because we live in such society like My husband calls it as he preaches a microwave society that you know, you say a prayer boom you want things to change, you know Um, or you know, we do something and we want immediate fixes or whatnot Uh and immediate responses, but there's some of us who are you know, our leadership style is more of a quiet Let me listen and learn and then I can respond better right, so I think being aware of all these things that Can really like uh director Ben

163was mentioning that consistency that always having that in that through line and through everything we do um regardless of what the subject is or the activity or the plan that that through line of equity And having really look force in that and and for others so they can see because there's times when people cannot connect and like Equity and you're talking You know this other thing it's like yeah, there's equity in all that Right. And so how are we always bringing that to the front? Forefront without saying the word Because it's got such a bad intonation these days that you know, they relate equity with Injustices or whatnot. So how do we have that fire lit all the time in really? Helping our staff our families our students understand that you know Ultimately all that

164we're doing it is really You know help our students successful Be seen heard Um, I don't know. There's just so much Do we have time to move on to the chapter three? Okay um, so um Fortunate for you all you've never been in one of my ele classes but I love an analogy and so um Get ready. So the next slide talks about let's talk about data. So there's a scenario. Let's say you find a new soup recipe Published in food and wine And you make the soup exactly as the recipe suggested is the soup good and did you do it right? So in order to figure that out you need data and so the next the next slide gives you three different types of data Right. The satellite data would be you enter your

165soup into a national contest You get 24th place out of 40 entries and judges say you need to work on texture A little bit closer map data would be you bring your soup into an annual office soup off There's 10 entries your peers vote that your soup is most favorable flavorful and you get third place overall And the street data would be you taste your soup And your family does too and they realize that your soup needs more blending than the recipe called for it's too lumpy All of this is data and all of this data not none of this data is good. None of this data is bad, right? Um, so when we think about the three levels of data Illuminated in the book they talk about satellite data being obviously the the furthest

166out with a the smallest grain size Map data being kind of in the middle and then street data And as you can see I put our own highline high school as our street data image So satellite data is more quantitative street data more qualitative Satellite data as we know comes later. You don't get immediate Data, whereas street data the data is immediate Satellite data is much more about deficit thinking what's wrong with you. How did you not compare to others? Whereas Street data is more asset thinking what's right with you So, um I gave some examples of what this might look like in a school district, right satellite data tends to be things like sba ospi report cards and A lot of the stuff on the traditional data dashboard and I know ours is being

167reformed. So Hold that thought uh map data would be eye ready attendance discipline and summative assessments So things that we can see more at a building level And more regularly, but our street data would be things like our formative check-ins that teachers are doing daily fish bowls focus groups At my school, we do these yellows which are like walkthroughs And street data gives us a more detailed complete pictures of student Picture of students pushes us to ask what more do I want to know about the student? It requires listening and observation so um I just wanted us to think about that And in terms I know we have obligations to the feds and to the state around our satellite data and our map data to a certain extent um, but I was thinking about like

168How might this understanding of all of these things being important? Change our work as a district and as a board so, um This is so timely. I think i've shared with you that um my next district, uh people are Some people are saying that highline A failing district and why would the board hire someone who's done nothing to improve educational outcomes for children over 10 years? um, and of course They're they're basing that Solely on satellite data, right? They're looking at our sba scores and i'm going to be honest I own the fact our sba scores have really historically never been great We've just you know, and and it's been a source of frustration for me because I know I know they don't reflect what our kids know and are able to do and there's

169a disconnect there now I think part of it was we had really crappy instructional materials and language arts and math for too long And we've you know, we've we've corrected that but of course the pandemic sort of you know, so I think there's different factors but but I think harry like I want to figure out how do we help? How do we own the fact that we can't just dismiss the satellite data, right? It's real, right? But how do we help people understand it's one measure and how do we create I mean, you know Because when I walk through schools As I was doing yesterday and watch kids in action watch the teachers with them And feel the sense of joy in a school building and kids actively engaged in their learning With adults who

170clearly respect them and love them and hold them to high standards And when I when we go to the scholarship reception and hear what our graduates are doing just blows your mind So there's a disconnect there right between sba and the reality of what our kids who our kids are and what our kids can do And are doing um, and I think we've really as we think about this national public narrative around public ed Like we need to be getting really smart about this And I don't have the answer, but i'm really grappling So carry i'm just going to jump in really fast to say, you know, no pressure. Dr. Duran You will be fixing everything in the first year Yes This kind of goes back to what we talked earlier about the the comms

171team and how we connect those non Parents within their community because all they are looking at is the satellite, right? Right, they're just hopping to osbi and looking at that as a parent. I still do that To see and compare where our district is compared to others around us um, so I I think no, I don't think I I know we need to bring in our communities And and have them walk the floor with us back in you know, my Lingo is walking the gamba walking where the work is being done, right so we can show our communities what What they're seeing on paper versus what's really happening? Showing the work is more impactful than just looking at it So I think we need to bring in our non parents and tell them this is

172a great work, you know, come on in let's let's Work the school for a half a day and see what we're really doing I one other thing it's part of the the earlier chapter two And I guess it's to frame this it's it's around the culture setting happens Testing is um I don't see anybody in highline who is like our testing czar who's saying we must like get amazing test scores Yet at the ground level there is this like tension that our educators are saying There's this pressure So I guess what i'm trying to get at is how do we change the culture of acknowledging? This is part of it but From here. Nobody's actually like there is no, you know Test person who's saying we have to do it yet at the ground level.

173It still feels like there's this immense amount of pressure So how do we shift that culture? So can I just I I think it So we we have definitely intentionally on my part de-emphasized Right sba. I think the pressure a big part of it is self-imposed Because teachers are so hard on themselves and they care so deeply that they want They know how good their kids are and so it's absolutely devastating to them when test scores don't reflect what they know Their kids can do so part of it's self-imposed. I think part because I I really don't think it's just like nobody here No principal. No central office person is beating anybody up over test scores, but the national right there's national conversation I think that's where I think that's where it comes from. Carrie.

174I don't know. Yeah. No, I just I think I think It it comes down to replacing. So if we're if we don't value the satellite data as much as The street data then we need to highlight the street data, right? So Um, how are we? Celebrating what we are seeing and what we do know I can tell you as a teacher satellite data Yes, when I especially when I taught 10th grade, right? My kids are gonna pass that test because they needed it for graduation And my scores were high because my kids need it for graduation But I had them for two years and the last thing on my mind was their sba scores like it really didn't impact Daily instruction that data is so far removed from what we're doing every day The formative

175data is what really matters and so first of all our teachers need to know how to gather that formative data but also how to celebrate it and how to share it in ways that Even just things like grade books, right? Grade books are typically summative assessments, right? It's not formative so we had to like Like jerry rig a system at mariner to enter in formative scores so that they didn't impact a student's summative grade in the course But that students and parents could see how they were doing on a particular standard So even like little things like that it was it was frustrating But we figured out ways around it But what if we created a system that said formative data is what parents really need to know They need to see what kids are

176doing on the daily in terms of their reading and their writing and their thinking um I mean I didn't I even opted my own child out of the sba because I said this data doesn't Matter to us. It doesn't matter to me as a parent and by the time we get it, it's too late So what am I going to do with it? So I feel bad for my kids teachers who have to find something for her to do during testing but it's I just don't it's not valuable to me as a parent and um And then add on top of it testing anxiety that my kids experience quite profoundly um, it's just not worth it so um, but for me it's The community is going to continue to say we want to see the

177sba data go up until we replace it with And I think the bottom line too is that our emphasis on satellite data From my perspective and my understanding of the way public education came about in our country is very much rooted in white supremacy culture and so We can't continue to Serve that right like we can't continue to say that satellite data is what matters most to us and value equity That valuing equity is valuing other ways of knowing and other ways of being that aren't Rooted in that. Okay. So let me I and I know that we're at time But I think we might want to go have a little more time on this because kerry I struggle with this because here's the deal I actually think when it comes to satellite data, there

178is an embedded equity component to it Because from my stance I need to be able to look our own in the eye and you in the eye and say whatever school year Goes to they are getting access to the same high quality instruction and learning environment And they are coming out with the skills necessary, right? And there's got to be some some way in which we can do that. That is somewhat I hate to use the term standardized but standardized in a large system Otherwise, we run the risk of having schools that are, you know, sadly what people call dropout factories and other things So I struggle with this, right? Yes, and the tool itself Isn't equitable, right? It was like that's a whole other conversation, right? I challenge anyone to look at practice sbas

179Test questions and tell me that that is not rooted in white culture it though And you know that so that's another a whole other thing, right? And that goes for ap and all these other things as well. So But it's it's it's complex. Yeah, right. I mean Yeah, it is complex and you know looking from just the community We they need to be able to seek any key metrics. They you know, how am I judged at work? You know performance key metrics and things like that So I understand how the sba is set up and we need to change that right there and then you know You know from our last board meeting, um, I asked my son Taking tests versus actually showing what you can do. He goes dad. I stuck at taking But

180I can show you By presentation or other ways that I know how to do it I just I I can't sit down and fill out the bubble or write it down Like how the teachers but I can show you the work. I said That's all I can Yeah, how do we get to a place where? We elevate We elevate What you as a parent need to know about your student? versus What society what society is telling us we need to know? Do you know what I mean? Because at the end of the day like it doesn't matter As long as you as a parent are confident that they're reaching and learning what they need to know then all of the rest of this Is irrelevant, right? Like that's what we're trying to feels like that's

181what we're trying to get that but there's all this pressure To have this like standard way of evaluating people, but we already know that that's not how it works out Universities are are actually further ahead than the feds in terms of that right universities are saying Standardized tests are becoming less and less relevant, right? When we relied when universities relied on standardized tests, they got the same students year after year, right? And it's like oh what? At what the sats are a good predictor of their parents income and race. That's it. That's all It has nothing to do with a student's ability to be successful at university And so that's why we're seeing universities move away from standardized testing unfortunately You know, uh the state and federal government aren't quite there yet And and I

182understand satellite data could be interesting, right? It's it's interest, but it shouldn't be the only thing That we look at to see if a student or school are successful And I think that part really it then emphasizes I think the power of the street data is that it informs the culture of The building the organization and how that's going to work around that But I think there's this opportunity to really think about how do we measure success? What do we consider a successful school? And so suzanne your point earlier around the promise. So how do we know that every student is known by you? If we like put that out there and we figure out a way to do that in a good way That doesn't become just another check and compliance kind of a

183thing You get to another form of measurement and i'm on this national group is looking at assessments and the work around all this area and Um, I was on a call this week. We had the ceo from amplify nwa and um, Power school with the the student information system And the one thing that they made really clear to everybody on the call is that there's not one state agency that's calling for a difference So this shift, you know what sba is how it's currently measured They have all these ideas around having shorter tests different ways There's more longer tests that actually allow students to show their responses versus the bubble and stuff, but no one's asking for it And so their point was that we need to get people together to come and ask them

184because they're ready to go And they'll go wherever people ask them to go But state agencies larger groups are not asking for a change because it's worked for so many people for so long But we all know it hasn't worked for the people on the margin So it's that opportunity for us as a system to identify What does success look like? What does it look like successful look like? What does it look like for our students and then Come up with what those measures or attributes could be great opportunity Okay, so we'll just skim through the as you look at the last slide before you because I think this is a really rich conversation Why don't we take another like 10 minutes? Because I think if we if we transition around like 115, we're fine.

185Okay Yay Um, okay So the last slide is really um teeny tiny but it's from a pdf that I got from the street data Uh course that I took but if you'd like the pdf I can share it. It's it It feels like a very doable thing and i'll say as an instructional coach we use this in our ilt to develop um Some street data metrics at our school this year, especially as we return from the pandemic We knew we weren't going to get sba data. Our iReady data was really flat and it's like that isn't telling us anything We need to know what could we do? And so we use this list. I thought it was really helpful but um the slide before that the types of street data, I guess um, one of

186the things i'm wondering about is um, What are some things we as board members could? Amplify as as you said, dr As we go into schools as we invite people into board meetings and work studies, what are some things that we might want to see more of I think uh, I shared this earlier, but the low-hanging fruit of some of the voices that are already there So what are ways that we can hear from the student representatives more frequently and also acknowledging that sometimes? Those are people who we shouldn't not that we shouldn't be but there that doesn't include some of the people who are furthest away from educational equity Right just because of the nature of who gets to be a student representative and the popularity contests um But that is like a low-hanging

187fruit and also just the student rep Is like something that I think should be standard across the state alone so I I really think because I read this those were the ideas that were for me I would just add on to that I don't know it's like if we can tie that or connect it to something that we want to know is happening like Students being known, you know along those areas this way you can have some kind of consistency and um From the field in terms of what what students experience could be really powerful As a teacher i'm a huge believer in looking at student work and I I think it's so rich in what it tells us And even though it's listed here as an artifact. I think it also embodies like a

188narrative Um There's a story behind each piece of student work And I think the most powerful thing and the coolest thing is to ask a student like tell me about your work Tell me what you're proud of. Tell me what was hard if you could do it again What would you do differently like those questions like? It tells me so much about a student's learning and so I wonder about Systematizing things like that. I know that at the end of the day Right now the way we are as a society the letter grade that goes in the gradebook or the number that goes on the report card is kind of What is seen and what is valued but I I would love to incorporate more student work and as i've talked many times about like

189I would love as rebecca is building the student information system like How cool would it be for a kid at the end of every year to pick like their three? The three pieces of work that they want to upload into this system If I was a 12th grade teacher and I opened up here are my students this year and I open up this file and it was like all their work going all the way back to kindergarten like That would be so cool And and tell me so much more than iReady scores or their grades Right now it's like discipline. So you see like oh in third grade he Threw a paper airplane into sub it's kind of funny, but um, you know You see the discipline you see attendance and you see grades and

190that's about it. So I I would just love to see more student work As part of what is captured and kept that's why um I think you know our partnership with the mastery transcript consortium that maritime is a part of Watching the students upload that I think the more that we can take that to scale carry the better Because that student work is huge um And the more that we can borrow from successful practices like big picture and the students doing their exhibitions, right? I mean like we know We know what to do. It's it's how do you take it to scale and then how do you help? Families understand the power of this and that it's not in any way watering down or you know minimize What they are, you know more to I'll

191just add that I really like that. I my grandson right Uh, he came home with drawing not too long ago and you know all I was in a hurry I was and grandma look at what I did and then i'm like wow Drawing and then he said did you know? And he starts going on and on and he talked about stuff that I mean not that I know everything but You know that I didn't even know and he goes and do you know how I got it? I mean he went on and on about not just science and math and Geometry and he and then he's like and look and then and he went in detail about Science so deep that I thought and I asked him and you said you got this how he

192says well My teacher said that we needed to research on this and he picked what he wanted to do the research the ecosystem one Yeah, yeah My kid did the same And he went so deep into that that the teacher didn't set a parameter like you have to just look this up He says I want you to do research on this. He came and he's like grandma Can I get on your computer? Because I have a couple and i'm like you can't touch this it's the moneymaker you can touch this one You know and he spent hours But because he was interested Was doing and I did not stay with my it's like how he came to all of this But he was like so excited about how gp had gotten into it that I

193think that those is what was missing Yeah, he looks that up and he knows him how much learning he has done. Yeah, how proud? Yeah Yeah I think that's a great example. I mean i'm a big believer in project-based learning and Exhibitions and um I would just love to Encourage and invite I I know when I was at Mount Rainier and we were in my pib school You know, they had these exhibitions at the end of 10th grade for their personal projects and it was the coolest thing It was like this huge fair and every kid was there and it was around their project that they chose and something One girl was like I learned how to make pozole because it was important to my family And so I researched this and I did this

194and I went to my grandma's and we did like it was a personal project And then another kid was like I learned how to design sneakers because I want to work at nike one day and he you know Like it was just really really cool But it was once a year and you know, I just think about I know Mount Rainier is huge But how can we make that more regular? I also? believe in my years as a teacher the best way to bring families to schools Is when their kids are Exhibiting something that they're proud of because if their kids says mom i'm singing at this thing or i'm presenting this thing Not only will mom show up, but everybody will show up and then parents are in the schools and they're in the

195school celebrating the kids work and so um I would love to see it, especially in secondary go beyond like open house and you know once a year type things I just and this is I think the challenge to ivan of all the many great things ivan's going to do What I really can't wait to see and learn from is a challenge actually that carrie Has given to me and I know we're going to talk about it when we get together for dinner I think a few weeks, but one of the things carrie said and it's really stuck with me. I like I keep thinking about it But i'm working on it, but carrie said, you know, my daughters Are definitely known by name strength and even their school like my school knows them But I

196don't feel like highline is a system Um, and I just think that's such a powerful statement for us to wrestle with right so what How do we how how do we do that? I don't know. Um, but there has to be a way now obviously the system the central office won't ever know Your girls the way that their individual teacher principal does but there has to be a way for us to deepen That name strength and need Systematize it. I don't know But I just think it's such a deep question for us to grapple with and for systems to be in place so that There's never a space of being anonymous and I think that that is Especially prevalent at secondary right like when you have giant schools of 1700. It's really easy to be

197anonymous You can go through kids can go through an entire day and not talk to anyone And especially after the pandemic some of them don't right and no one talks to them and it's inhumane and so how do we create systems That don't allow for anonymity ever Whether a kid is brand new or they've been there for four years I like the fact that when you were mentioning about uploading things or getting but that's I think One way of getting to that. Yeah, because if let's say steve in hr, you know opens up your daughter's like Look at what she's done. Right? You know that that historical, you know pieces or she's brand new But you know she already whether it's Something that's that they upload that is personal to them, right? So I think

198that's and the other thing Um, you're right. I I think have it's inhumane For our students not to talk for us not to talk to our students, right? You know for all this time, but Or it can happen, but because we think about the social emotion Suicide. Yeah, all of this stuff that yeah, we if Somebody would talk to me. Yeah, I heard this the other day And it's a testimony of somebody said, you know They found this note and he says someone Okay, I won't Wow, and then that person person suicide How sad that no one smiled Mm-hmm, right? So I think for us for me, I find that so powerful So I mean i've always even strangers and i've always told my kids, you know Go to the lunch room and somebody's seen

199by themselves. I don't care if they're you're awkward and they're awkward You're gonna go sit with him Right. And so I think for us Something for us to think about how our And how we set up structures so that that promise Is in every space it's in the lunch room the hallways the classrooms central office everywhere, right and so I I agree with you. The promise is is one of the best things in term our best tools in terms of equity And so I think it really allows us to think about The street level data and these street level systems we can create So how are kids known by names drink the need in the hallway? How are they known by names drink the need? In the cafeteria as they move from elementary to middle

200school as they move from middle to high school, you know I just wanted to I promise this is not like a loaded question, but it might be a loaded question but right but But what would it take To change the system to say we're gonna do collections of evidence Like you have to opt into doing a test and instead this school is going to do a collection of evidence for everyone so trying to reverse that so that instead of Of the expectation being we're all going to do the test and really just saying no we're going to prove by demonstrating the work That the student learned And I know that that's what it is that a loaded question. What does what would it take to make that happen? So i'll start and then defer to

201ivan. Um You know, you've got to get staff to own it, right if the staff owns it and embraces it and wants to do it There's nothing standing in the way But it can't be a district. Well, I mean it could start as a district directive But like ultimately you need a groundswell of adults in that building saying this is what we want to do This is what we want to do and then taking it upon themselves with support from the district to get the tools the training Whatever to do it But there's really nothing standing in the way Except I think collective will And and the permission right to know that that if they want to do something different system help ivan Yeah, and I think I said this is part of the interview

202process I think all through the pandemic everyone was talking about we can't come back to the public Get a look in the way that it is but in the middle of trying to survive a pandemic You can't really do redesign, right? And it's like I think now we're at the point where you really do have that option Redesigned so how do we create some systems people to start using that work and start engaging? Knowing that I come from this belief that they create a process for people to do the work. They'll own Yeah And then there are there are a couple of consortiums that have started Massachusetts has a whole different group away around how they've been already put together consortium around thinking about how do we measure students? Success, how do we measure successful

203tools? So there's already some work that started out there but do you think it has to go with creating these opportunities for people to understand the why the change and go through it and to come up with it because it's just like As I think part of the book talks about we want this to be Um created from students up so we use that same idea as we put that question out there you have a lot of Because the the larger state data all that stuff it's not going to go away Right as far as something that's going to be we'll have to you know report and all that be there but there's nothing that says we can't open up the Ideas and possibilities creating something new and and I actually will say this I

204do think moving to standards-based grading. Yeah is the entry point to this right because if and and um We're really poised to push hard on that next year to really especially at secondary where it's tougher Than it is at elementary, but I think that standards-based grading is the gateway to artifacts more competency-based learning So I think we're on track We also have an amazing asset in bernard and holly tremaine jeff petty like these people that are doing the work and have done the work and and holly and bernard especially understanding what it means from a reporting policy level Um That we wouldn't be without if if a school were to say We want to do this. We're done With the other stuff and here's our plan. We have people Already poised to help them do

205that, you know There you go Should never ever start out like that Okay, um, well we are at the end so we'll do chapters four and five next and what's really cool is The way this book is structured. Uh, it ends with a lot of examples and solutions and possibilities so you don't Leave this book feeling weighed down But instead like invigorated about what you want to try. So I really appreciate this carrie. I'm being able to Able to really just spoke speak freely About what the book says but also bring in personal experience. I appreciate that Thanks, and do you like the pretty side i'll just say it i'm just thrilled of reading this book I was so excited i'd heard about the book and I started reading I was like, oh, you know

206Reflection time but also this opportunity to it's a good point in time to be doing I feel at this point core one owes me money because I don't know how many people i've pushed this book I love it. Yeah, no you you're out there um I I I also just want to say I just love sort of this model of Of you know distributed leadership right and facilitation for the fact that carrie is like I would love us to do a book study Let's do it like take the lead I mean I and I hope that's something that continues because I think there's power in that and then it's not like Oh my gosh, it's this time. Maybe next time it's their own forward something, you know It doesn't always have to be a book

207be an article. It can be you know, what have you but I would also really urge the board and I know it's it's a time commitment but um To to go into some schools with that street data lens, right? And and walk through and see like what are you seeing? I mean, you know, I because I will say I mean i'm seeing some amazing Stuff in our schools right now. Like it's like what panda? Yeah. Yeah, I want to be clear I'm also seeing some really tough stuff. So i'm not painting an overly rosy picture But dang some of our schools are doing and our kids and teachers are knocking it out of the park Yeah, so, you know, I I just I would really encourage and it obviously if you need Support or assistance

208in scheduling school visits where sharon's here to help and just let us know, you know Dr Doran and I visited a high school and we just popped into a few classes and guess what the the teachers put the students on the Spot and say why don't you come and present what you're doing right now and these kids coming up And being able to share what they were actually doing it was it was mind It was mind-blowing. I'm like Yeah, there's good stuff happening showing what they were doing versus you know, i'm writing it out Plus inevitably there's always something that like makes you so yesterday I was at shorewood and we're walking standing in the hall with mike bosberg and the group is fourth or fifth graders walks by And this one girl says stops

209and looks at me and puts out her hand and says i'm a big fan of your work Thank you It was pretty adorable um Before we transition, uh, so thank you for this and I will be continuing this work Uh in washoe So thank you for jump starting it for me and sort of priming the pump Um, can I do one sort of calendaring housekeeping thing before we transition into the facilitation piece? Which I think we'll definitely be able to do in an hour and a half. I've got it all sorted out um holly wanted me to ask you, uh on the 25th of may You have a a two-part work session part of it's uh about a half hour on digital learning The other part is a half hour on uh redistricting holly doesn't

210believe that you need that redistricting one She thinks it's going to be wrapped up this week So what we're proposing if it works for all of you is to rather have you come in Just for a half hour meeting on a day Could we move that 4 30 to 5 could we move that digital learning update to 4 30 to 5 on june 1st? Which is right before the national board certification Sounds great, uh, and that way you've got a wednesday back, but we're are we good on that? Yeah, we'll make the change and i'll have sharon send out the okay. Great easy. Thank you All right Now this is where I really earn my pay so, um, uh aron Uh, we had we had talked about since this is the the board's uh, first

211retreat with ivan You know giving you all some time to get to know one another and and sort of start building your governance team that you are now going to be a part of and so Obviously, I I think this is your work. Um, I don't need to be in it. So I am facilitating I hope I I haven't facilitated a while. So I hope my facilitation skills aren't too lacking. Um, But what we're going to do and and this is a some work that one of our own colleagues, um, Gave him and it's a lifeline exercise and i'll preface it with sort of what the outcomes are um We're going to engage in some process around self-reflection to clarify What your own individual core values are? um What you think sort of your leadership

212brand is? And then to really learn in doing so learn more about one another Right, um both from a personal and a professional level and so we're going to engage in a lifeline Exercise that um really helps us as individuals reflect on what we stand for But I think we'll be illuminating for everyone else in the room around. Oh, I didn't know that about kerry I really understand now why that is so important to her. What what have you etc, etc? um So we're just going to dive right in you guys ready to go on the adventure with me. Let's do it. Okay So, um, I am going to What what do we need just? I'm gonna throw my garbage All right, that's good This photo is one of my all It's it's a classic.

213I I just ordered it because I really love my new board, but they've got it Lots Like I said, I mean I said Anyway, okay. Oh, oh ivan naturally the guy is already slacking Did you do all this charting I did nicely done I know and i've got it all all laid out nicely done so, um, I And um, we'll see I want to turn to turn to um So I do a little prototype So your own lifeline i've got And it finds that you know and a time struggle Whatever it means, um and it personal as As withholding Oh, I got more paper So so the the so the so the guidance is you know probably like no late teens so like from being young adults Right. You don't need to go back to

214the womb. Okay, so from adulthood to now just really about um how your sense Um has varied about your life. I think Trying to get at So this is a way not only to get to know about one other for value Okay, so I so um, I have I did do a model. Well, you have the model in front of you, but I did one here just so you can see what it's brava So thank you for that I love Okay There I mean as a how cool is that? Yeah Sorry, not for me to tell you what your highs are, but I was high for you that day. I mean, I thought that was great Yeah What is that what has that So how do you describe yourself now as a result? Some of

215you to and i'm just taking notes so that sure, but um some so Well, actually it's a comment asking to you good night out to Okay, so we are about to um wrap up Well played doctor That's right, well I I I want to thank our own for sharing the exercise honor It's not so much That's That's true, but that's why I say and to your super And so I just want to you know, and I and I think to joe's point this is longer or this And then and then there's yeah the the old times um, but but I would say absence of Say two Conversation and i'll take care of you. See you next week at the board meeting