001May the 4th be with everyone. Welcome to the May 4 board meeting. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll call, please. Director Howell? Here. Director Bradford? Oh, sorry. Director Garcia? Here. And Director Van? Here. Thank you. And please note that Angelica Alvarez has an excused absence. We are now on Agenda Item 1.4. Is there a call to change-- are there any changes or additions to the board meeting agenda tonight? Yes, I would like to make a motion to move Action Items 8.1, the motion to approve revisions Policy 1210 to clarify when new officers take their seats. Action Item 8.2, motion to approve revisions to Board Policy 5410 to add Juneteenth as a school district holiday. Action Item 8.4, motion to approve non-matched endorsements and limited certifications for 2021-2022. And action items 8.5, motion to
002approve contract with Puget Sound Dispatch LLC for '21-'22 school year to the consent agenda. We would leave 8.3 on the action item. Thank you very much. I second. All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right. Motion passes. We are now at Agenda Item 2.1, Arts Recognition Month. Thank you, President Garcia. And good evening, everybody. We have four proclamations today, and we will begin with Arts Education Month. Let me make sure-- yes, I've got it right here. And do we have someone here who will be accepting? Wonderful. Thank you. Whereas the arts embody much of the accumulated wisdom, intellect, and imagination of humankind; and whereas learning in the arts enhances and enriches the lives of all students; and whereas the arts play a unique role in the lives of our families and
003our communities; and whereas all children deserve a quality arts education; and whereas arts education can teach creative problem solving and cultural knowledge; and whereas the arts offer multiple pathways to understanding for different types of learners; and whereas arts education increases connections between teachers, students, and their communities, now therefore I, Susan Enfield, Superintendent of Highline Public Schools, to hereby proclaim May as Arts Education Month at Highline. And I call upon all Highland citizens to celebrate and promote the arts in our schools and to take action to provide equitable access to arts learning for all students in our learning communities. We want to do a-- yeah. [APPLAUSE] OK. Next we have School Nurse Day. Who from our wonderful nursing staff is here? Kisa, OK. So whereas our children are our future, and by investing in them today
004we are securing our business community and state leaders of tomorrow; and whereas the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of our children is paramount to their growth and development; and whereas Highline School nurses are dedicated health care professionals who work in collaboration with families, schools, and communities to develop and promote comprehensive health care programs for our youth; and whereas in addition to providing for students' immediate health needs school nurses continually promote healthy lifestyles and provide health and safety education to students and staff, now therefore I, Susan Enfield, Superintendent of Highline Public Schools, do hereby proclaim that May 12, 2022, is National School Nurse Day at Highline. And I further encourage all Highline citizens to promote the good health of our students and recognize school nurses for their contributions to the health of our children. And I
005think it goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, that particularly in recent months and the last couple of years, our school nurses have just been instrumental in ensuring that our students can remain safely and school-healthy. So we thank them all. Kisa? [APPLAUSE] [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] [INAUDIBLE] OK. Next we have School Lunch Hero Day. And I know Lisa is here, our wonderful Director of Nutrition Services. Whereas nutritious meals at school are an essential part of the school day; and whereas the staff of the school-- of the district school meals and Nutrition Department are committed to providing healthful, nutritious meals to the district's children; and whereas the men and women who prepare and serve school meals help nurture our children through their daily interaction and support, now therefore I, Susan Enfield, Superintendent of Highline Public Schools,
006do hereby proclaim Friday, May 6, 2022 as School Lunch Hero Day in Highline. And I call upon all Highline citizens to express their appreciation to these valuable employees, and I commend their good work on behalf of children and. Before Lisa comes up, just as we acknowledge the incredibly important role that our school nurses have played over the last couple of years, especially our Nutrition Services team both here at Central Office and in our schools, are our real heroes. And the way that they have made sure that our students have access to nutritious meals in every way possible on every day possible has been extraordinary. And I just want to say too that Erica Santana from Seahurst Elementary has been named by the School Nutrition Association as the Manager of the Year in the northwest region.
007And I have served meals alongside Erica. She is a true Highline rock star. So congratulations, Erica, and thank you to all of our Nutrition Services team. [APPLAUSE] This is a very cardio-heavy board meeting. OK. And finally, saving the best for last, Jeb, I know you're here, and anybody else who wants to come up with you. This is Teacher Appreciation Week. If you're following us on social media, we're celebrating our teachers across the district for whom we are most grateful. So I'll read that proclamation and we'll invite them up. Whereas teachers make public schools great; and whereas teachers open students' minds to ideas, knowledge and dreams; and where whereas teachers keep American democracy alive by laying the foundation for good citizenship; and whereas teachers fill many roles as listeners, explorers, role models, motivators, and mentors; and
008whereas teachers continue to influence us long after our school days are only memories, now therefore I, Susan Enfield, Superintendent of Highline Public Schools, do hereby proclaim that the week of May 2 through the 6th, 2022, is Teacher Appreciation Week in Highline. And I further encourage all citizens to observe this week by taking time to recognize and acknowledge the impact of teachers on our lives. #thankateacher as often as you can. So let's give it up for our teachers. [APPLAUSE] All right. And now for what we've all been waiting for, our school presentation, which is from our staff at Maritime High School, which is in its inaugural year. So please, Principal Holloway, if you'd like to come up with anyone from your team, we look forward to hearing all about the goings on at Maritime. Testing. Oh,
009there we go. We're good now. All right. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for allowing us to be in the space with you tonight. Again, my name is Tremaine Holloway. I have the privilege and honor of serving as founding principal for Maritime High School. But before we get into our presentation, we wanted to highlight a student tonight. So I have wonderful STEM educator at our school, Joanna Rodriguez, to present an award to one of our students. Oh. Oh, I'm a little short, so-- [LAUGHTER] OK. Tremaine, help her out. Come on. [LAUGHS] Thank you. That's a big difference, right? Basketball player. All right. So hi. So today, we're here to honor Haven Lowe. She is actually our super-- or they are actually our superstar of the quarter. Haven is one of our 9th grade-- inaugural 9th graders
010at Maritime High School. They had faced many challenges, but they do think outside the box. So they persevere very well. An example that I can think of is in geometry class, that they kind of persevere and think outside and give a different situational representation of a problem. So they're very good at thinking outside the box, coming up with problem solving ideas. They're very authentic. They're not afraid to speak their voices and concerns. A funny situation that reminds me of Haven was we were in our canoe shop, and we were going to be working with power drills. And one of the requirements was you have to wear earmuffs. And Haven spoke up and said, well, actually, we don't have to, because the decibels won't affect our ears long term, and was kind of giving statistics. So
011our Maritime teacher told us, like, well, give me the data, and then prove me wrong. So literally the next day, Haven emailed that teacher all of this data, and they no longer had to wear earmuffs. So they're very good at being authentic and not afraid of speaking up for themselves. They're also very selfless, inside and outside the classroom. So Haven actually is part of a robotics team outside of school. And I love hearing their stories about how they're doing. What are the challenges? How their competition went. All the hours going into trying to get the robot to work. And also being selfless in the classroom with her peers. They are very good at teamwork and collaboration. And I feel like them being here at Maritime is very-- I want to say inspiring for other students,
012as well as seeing her grow as a person. So I just want to thank you, Haven, for being willing to step into this role. And I know this is a new experience for all of us, and taking it one step at a time, so thank you. Thank you, Ms. Rodriguez. [APPLAUSE] We have a little swag for you. And we also have a certificate for Haven. So Haven, would you like to say anything? You're welcome to say something if you'd like before we present. You don't have to. No pressure. OK. So Haven, not only are you being recognized by your teacher and principal, but we're going to recognize you as the district. So each month we choose-- we work with the school to choose a Highline Student Superstar, and you are our Highline Student Superstar for
013this month-- so for the month of May. So let me read you-- it says, Haven Lowe, in recognition for going above and beyond in your studies and serving as a role model, which I think we heard from Ms Rodriguez, within your school and our community, we honor you as a Highline Public School Student Superstar. And I always say there are almost 18,000 students in this district, and there's one Student Superstar for the month of May, and it's you, Haven, so we'd like you to come up and accept your certificate. Can we all give her a hand? [APPLAUSE] Yeah, we were on a boat all day, so I [INAUDIBLE].. All right. I'm all set? All right. So now, thank you, again. Thank you again, Ms. Rodriguez, for being here. And thank you so much. I know
014you had a long day, so thank you for being here to do that part. So now I want to talk a little bit about Maritime High School. For those who don't know, Maritime started this past fall. We opened up with a small amount of students, right under 40. So if you haven't had a chance to experience it, come to the campus. We're right down the street on 200th here in Des Moines, Washington, so feel free to stop by any time and visit to see our kids in action. But before we begin, I want to show a very, very short video to encapsulate what Maritime High School is all about. [VIDEO PLAYBACK] [MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) Hey! Hey, hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey! [END PLAYBACK] Told you it was short. [LAUGHTER] All right. Awesome. So again, Maritime
015High School, obviously being in Highline Public Schools, we're definitely dedicated to the promise, knowing every student by name, strength, and need. And one of the things that we aspire to do or what we're doing now currently is actually developing our own Maritime promise as well. So this is kind of the preamble of the work that we're doing. We've solicited feedback from our families, from folks in the community as well. So this is kind of the draft version of that particular promise. We believe in the vision being equity-driven, student-centered, and Maritime-focused. But we want to have a promise, because oftentimes when you think about a mission statement, oftentimes it puts the mission on the student or puts the onus on the student, and we want to think about us as Maritime High School and what culture
016we can bring, and how we hold ourselves accountable to holding that to the highest regard. So regardless of a student's life path, attendance in this school will increase their understanding of the natural world, increase their competency and practical skills, and offer them a greater awareness of the career opportunities of the sea and beyond. Again, it's the preamble and the draft, but that's something that we're working on now. I want to share a little bit about the demographics here. This is going to bother me. I'm just going to put it up just a little bit. So demographics of our school here are listed. I won't read the demographics line by line, column by column. But one of the things that we're aspiring to do-- and I tell people all the time-- thinking about it from a
017three-year to five-year perspective, thinking about it from a school improvement plan perspective, our goal is to be a multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual, and essentially a multigenerational education institution that's going to literally transform the maritime industry from a perspective of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And so the way that we do that is by investing now in our kids. When we think about Highline Public Schools, 80% non-white, 77 different languages represented. Just about anywhere in the world, you can hear students coming from all over. We want our school to have that same reflection. So three to five years from now, we want our population, our demographics to reflect the same demographics of Highline Public Schools, even though we are a regional school, a choice school that accepts from all over. But our goal is to be that multicultural
018epicenter and that oasis. And in order to do that, to transform not only our school and transform also the maritime industry, we have to think about our staff as well. So in terms of the staff that we do have. So this is a little picture of our staff. We're small, but we're mighty, right? Having just right under 40 students, not necessarily having a lot of staff to be able to help support. But this is the staff that comes to work every day and thinks about the dreams and goals of the vision three to five years from now. And so just as we want to aggressively and actively recruit students of color and students from all different backgrounds, we also want to actively and aggressively recruit staff from all different backgrounds and all different ethnicities. So
019that's something to think about as well. One quote that comes to mind for me is from my favorite book Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. And there's a quote in there that says, "How can I be like you when I don't see me?" And so we want to make sure that that representation is there so our students can see themselves not only in the staff, but also see that representation in the adults that they're interacting with on a day-to-day basis in the maritime industry. These next couple of slides are going to talk about the data points that we do have. I often tell people that everything that is measurable isn't valuable, but then everything that's valuable isn't always measurable. So in terms of the academic focus here, in terms of our [INAUDIBLE] balance awareness-- assessment, excuse
020me-- we are about-- I think top three in all these three-- in all three different categories from our next-generation science testing assessments, our ELA SBA testing, and also our mathematic testing. So again, we have only 9th graders. And so our 9th graders, as they grow and as we scale from 9 through 12, our goal is to think about mastery. Our goal is to think about how we can get better. So these are the numbers right now that we do have ELA-wise. Obviously, you can look at the graph and see the numbers there. But again, our goal is to make sure that all of our kids are meeting standard, right? Not just a subset of amount. So there's the ELA as well as the math. So still being in that third place here within our district,
021a little bit lower than the district here. But again, when we think about it from a three to five-year perspective, when kids graduate, all of our kids, our goal is for them to be meeting standard with math as well as ELA, and also the science. So a little bit higher in science, which makes a lot of sense, being a school with a STEM background, right? So 70% is science here. Again, a goal of meeting that standard and being able to achieve that in the future. This is a really good diagram here. It talks about attendance. So one of the reasons why I think we have high attendance is because kids actually like coming to school. When we talk to parents and adults, one question we always ask them is, what is the reason or why
022do you feel like your kid likes come to the school? And they say, we just enjoy the school because of the way that it's set up. We also enjoy the fact that we do hands-on, hearts-on, and minds-on type of learning. And so kids really get an opportunity to explore project-based learning. Kids really get a really cool opportunity. Just today, our kids were out on a vessel, right? So that's why Ms. Rodriguez is a little bit tired right now. But-- probably Haven too. [LAUGHS] But using that, really, kids are just excited about being in the building. And that video that I shared in the beginning, that's a day in the life of a Maritime High School student. So doing that on a daily basis will have you engage and really want to be a part of
023our school. Behavioral data here. So there's not really much to share on that. We haven't had a lot of incidents that have occurred or happened at our school. Again, we are smaller, so we have a little bit more of a microscope. Having less than 40 students kind of helps you in terms of building relationships, which is super important. I believe if you have the relationships, that will actually lessen the disciplinary issues that you have at your school. So being relationships-focused, being student-centered will really help support any type of behavioral data that you might be having challenges with at your school. So as you can see, we've done a really good job with just keeping the levels of disciplinary actions down. Again, like I said before, everything that's measurable doesn't mean it's valuable, and everything that's
024valuable doesn't mean it's measurable. So I wanted to make sure that the perception of survey data was in this slide as well. The reason why I'm saying that is because these are some really cool data points that may not show up on the SBA, that may not show up on the WCAS, right? These are really good data points. So almost 97% of our kids-- and this is the perception data that we've just received. 97% of our kids almost said that I'm given more than one opportunity to demonstrate my learning. So that shows a commitment to mastery, which is what we're all about. We want our kids to not think about the grade, not think about the percentage. We want them to think about, how are they mastering the content and acquiring the knowledge? So 97%
025is a very high rate. I understand what I'm learning and why I'm learning it. That's actually a really good statistic point. Well, almost 88% of our kids actually can articulate that, why they're learning it and understanding what they're learning too. When I was in school, oftentimes I would say, I don't know why I'm learning this, right? But our kids, 83% of them are saying they understand and know why I'm learning what they're learning in this context. Almost 73% of our kids feel like most of their teachers explain their answers or ask them to explain their answers and why or what they think, right? So it goes back to that first one. So we don't want to necessarily have kids just blurting out the answer or just knowing what the answer of the content may be.
026We want them to be able to articulate themselves and really explain how they came to the consensus of the answers that they're receiving. So again, it goes back to that mastery level, being able to understand and comprehend. Another one. This is a big one for me. My family feels welcome at my school. So that says a lot about the culture that we're embedding at our school. We want our families to feel like they're at home when they come to the office, they're at home where they're walking and bringing their kids to school, and also when they're just on campus just in general. So almost 85% of our families, our students said that their family feels welcome when they come to our school. So that's a big deal for us at Maritime. All that to say,
027this really goes in line with the foundation of Highline Public Schools. When you think about equity-- so our vision is equity-driven, student-centered, maritime-focused. The reason why equity-driven is first is because it's a part of the foundations of Highline Public Schools. We believe in bringing our kids who are furthest away from the education system closer to it. So equity is the foundation of our work at Maritime as well. Instruction. We're an aspiring wall-to-wall, project-based learning school. So essentially, that means that kids are getting an opportunity at least twice a week to do fieldwork experiences, to have that hands-on, hearts-on, minds-on learning. There's a quote that says, "What the hand does, the mind remembers." And so the reason why we want to do that is make sure that kids are remembering, but also learning this content and
028applying it to real life application, so the instructional model is important. The relationships. You saw the data earlier about how kids feel when they come to the school, how their families feel. Relationships is important. And then support, making sure that kids are at the center of the work and at the core of what we're doing at Maritime. So that foundation is very true throughout the data points in the slides that I shared before. Now these next couple of slides are also data points, but there are also some strategies in there that we decided to do based off the data that we've been able to figure out. So school-wise strategies. One of the great things that we have is every other Friday, we use the principal-directed time dedicated to one-on-one family connections. So our kids are
029actually being connected with a staff member, a teacher specifically at our school. Every other Friday, that's happening. And even beyond that, each one of our kids have what we call learning plans. And within those learning plans are individualized goal settings. So when we think about the individualized goals, obviously there's the academic goals that are in there. Your STEM goals, your humanities goals. But there also are personal goals in there as well, goals that are outside of the school. Extracurricular activities that students are participating in, being a better student, being a better friend, being a better peer, ways to improve yourself intrinsically. Those are goals within those learning plans as well. And then we also do what's called learning showcases, which are simply like a large open house. And we have these biannually where kids have
030an opportunity to share what learning that they've been encapsulating over the course of time almost career fair-style. And we invite the community in, we invite families in, and they can really showcase the learning that they're doing at the school. And in lieu of student-led conferences, we actually call them presentations of learning. And the reason why we call them that is because we want students to be able to present the content that they're learning, but also present some of the things that they're doing in terms of the goals that they set for themselves, right? So if you have a goal that you set for yourself, you can actually share that with somebody. You can share that with a peer. You can share that with a family member and be able to share how you're going in
031the positive direction and progressing towards accomplishing that goal during that presentation of learning. So these are just some of the strategies that we've implemented-- that's this year-- to help enhance the culture of learning at our school. School culture here. We've also piloted panorama data. So panorama, essentially being able to survey our students and how they feel when they're at school. So again, going back to that feeling of relationships and feeling a sense of belonging. 26% of our students stated on the survey back in January that they didn't feel like they had a sense of belonging. So if you think about it mathematically, that's almost-- that's right under one out of four students, right? So we wanted to work towards that, and we want to continue to work on that as well to build those relationships.
032Supportive relationships. 35% of our students feel like they don't have necessarily that supportive relationship or feel that they can connect with somebody on staff. We want to work on that to make sure that our kids are developing those relationships. That's almost like one out of three students that we do have. So thinking about the numbers there. So we're striving towards that, and that's also a part of our AEP and our school improvement plan to strive towards those goals. Growth and mastery. When we talk about-- I've said it before. We're focused on mastering, right? We're focused on making sure that kids are actually mastering the content, being able to articulate themselves, and understand the academic piece of what they're learning, and being able to articulate that in a manner that shows their mastery and their competency.
033So we subscribe to these seven competencies here. I'm not going to read them all off. But within those competency areas, these are the areas that we want our kids, when they graduate and choose the future that they want, that they'll be competent in it, right? So we want them to be able to go into the real world and make that choice for themselves. We also want to make sure that when students are learning that they're getting their essential standards from their algebra 1, their algebra 2, their geometry. They're getting their essential standards from their common core math, common core ELA, social studies, as well as your next-generation science standards. All that is in encapsulated within these standards that are here, within these competencies that are here. And our goal is that when kids graduate, they
034graduate with these competencies at a level where they can go out into the world and do whatever they want to do in terms of choosing their future. So this is a big part of the learning and the work that we do. We don't reduce our kids to letters and numbers, because they're bigger than that. They're too bright for that. So this is something that we think about when it comes to Maritime. This is pretty cool. Prisms. [LAUGHS] So the Prisms-- we've piloted Prisms here. If people are familiar with the metaverse, so kids are actually learning mathematics and mathematical fluency through augmented reality. So kids are learning geometry. Kids are learning algebra 2, statistics, all through these VR headsets that were piloted through our district. So I have to give a shout-out to Julie Hunter for
035allowing this to happen for us. And this is something that Joanna actually has been using in her class on a frequent basis. But this has been a really good way for us to think about mathematics not just being reduced to one period in a day, but how do you integrate it across all periods in a day? Because math is something that's universal. It's also something that can't be regulated to just one period, because you're using it all the time, everywhere, ubiquitously. So this is one of the ways that we do that. We aspire to be a school that creates digital media literacy skills for our kids so they can be successful using the 21st century skills. And of course, we have ambitions, just like our district, for our kids to be bilingual and biliterate. And
036although we don't have an explicit world language course at the moment in time, as our kids are growing next year, we want to give them that opportunity. And so what we did this past spring was we connected with the OWL organization, Organic World Language, and we created a two-week immersion program. So this is just a picture of our kids doing that immersion program for two weeks from Darcy Rogers, just to give them a taste of what it will look like in the future when they're actually learning Spanish in the future in this way. Not necessarily just writing down and doing conjugations, but really being intentional and immersed in this learning. So it's fascinating, and really looking forward to doing this method in the future. And I think I have one more slide. Yes. OK. Last
037slide. [LAUGHS] High school graduation. Of course, this is important. We want our kids to graduate and make the decision for themselves when they graduate. I think the one thing I wanted to make sure that people understand and know is that we want our kids to be able to make the decision for themselves, but we also want to celebrate the kids that go directly into the workforce the same way we celebrate the kids that get the four-year, two-year college degree, because it's all-- in my opinion, it's a decision that they're making for themselves, and they deserve to have that celebratory as well. And so the way we prepare kids for whatever future that they want, sophomore year, we want to partner them with a mentor in the field of maritime. Mentorship is important to me. Mentorship
038to me is an education at the expense of somebody else's tuition. And what I mean by that is that you can have a 30-minute conversation with a mentor and save 30 years off of your life because you had a conversation with them about the pitfalls, the challenges, all the things that they have gone through. And they can help you navigate that field that you want to go into career-wise. So mentorship is important, and we aspire for each of our sophomores to be connected to a mentor in the field of maritime. And then that mentorship organically will translate to some sort of internship opportunity their junior and senior year. And some of our community partners have already committed. That's why I put it in the parentheses here. They've already committed to having paid internships for our
039kids. So really giving them workforce opportunity, workforce development. So again, just giving them the chance to be able to not only graduate, but also graduate ready for the future that they want to choose by completing all those competencies, by also having job work experience, and also mentorship as well. So I'll yield my time, and I'll digress. But thank you for the time, and thank you for listening and hearing about Maritime High School and all the wonderful things we're doing here. It's really been great to speak tonight. Thank you, Principal Holloway, and Ms. Rodriguez for being here. Board members, questions? Comments? Director Howell? Thank you so much, Principal Holloway. I just want to thank you and Haven and students like you and teachers that are working so hard with this inaugural class to really set the
040tone for what it means to be part of Maritime. You've really put a lot of strategies and systems around your values of seeing the whole child and really being responsive. I'm just really excited. I think the success of Maritime-- and I mentioned this to you before-- is not just important to the students that attend there and to the families and to the larger maritime community, but I think what you're doing, especially around competency and mastery-based learning, will really set the tone for what is possible for public education. So I just wanted to thank you for that and let you know I have a couple books for you. That's all. Also, I appreciate that if you're still recruiting, I hope people out there spread the word that-- Yes, please. Yes, that this school is a great
041place for students to be. And I don't know if Haven wants to take a moment. I would hate to pressure you. But if you could tell possible students why they should go to Maritime-- could you tell them why they should go to Maritime? I think it'd be really cool to hear. [LAUGHS] Thank you. Oh, sure. [APPLAUSE] Well, I guess I would just say that Maritime is a place where you can pretty much learn whatever you want. Also, we get to be out in the field twice a week. So then instead of sitting in a classroom, listening to a lecture, you're learning a skill, and then you're using it right away and applying it in the real world. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] That's all. Director Van? That's awesome. Thank you so much, Tremaine, for being here this
042evening. A couple of questions. You talked about your attendance being at 91%, but I would like to know as a regional magnet school, where do your students come from? It's not just within Highline Public Schools, right? So I would be very interested to hear where students are traveling from to come to Maritime. Yes, that's a great question. Thank you for the question. At the moment in time-- so we are a regional school. We've had students-- and correct me if I'm wrong, Joanna, here-- we've had students that come from Port Orchard. We had one student that was coming from Olympia at one time. Mukilteo. So kids are coming from all over just to get this powerful learning experience. And we want to make sure that folks in Highline know that it's offered for them as well.
043So any way that if you know a 7th grader or an 8th grader right now, there are spots available. We'd love to have them. So yeah, we take them from all over. That is great. The next question-- and you brought this towards the very end of your presentation-- was around your community partners and your mentorships. You know, that is additional success of the program. Can you throw some shameless plugs out there for our community partners that support Maritime and the thought back behind it? Yes, absolutely. So I won't say it's a shameless plug. I'll just say these partners are very integral in the success for Maritime High School. Port of Seattle is one of our main partners that we do have. And I have to give a lot of kudos to Commissioner Ryan Calkins, because
044he saw the vision and he saw that there needed to be a change in the maritime industry from that diversity, equity, and inclusion perspective. So having that vision there. Duwamish River Community Coalition also is a strong partner of ours who is dedicated to environmental justice. And so we have a very strong compassion to ensure that that partnership is strong. And last but not least, Northwest Maritime Center, who really puts the blue in maritime, providing these maritime educational experiences for our kids, providing the vessels that they can actually go aboard and learn, have those classrooms on water. These are some amazing partner organizations, and we wouldn't be successful without them. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I just always love when you have a chance to present and give us updates. It's
045great. And I wanted to also say last time we talked, not a single student has fallen in the water yet. [LAUGHTER] Right? [LAUGHS] But just to highlight, you don't need to know how to swim to be in this space. I know that that for me would have been a deal breaker for me, so I just wanted to plug that point. We also have a partnership with Mount Rainier swimming pool, so if people want free lessons, that is available to any Highline student. There we go. I guess my question, I really wanted to-- centered around-- it seems like a lot of the data that you were saying is that there's a strong sense of belonging. Can you just talk a little bit or expand on, what were some of the strategies that really helped cultivate that?
046And I wanted-- related to that, what are things that you're doing with your staff to make sure that they're whole, that they're well, that they're taking care of themselves over what's been a crazy year? [LAUGHS] [INAUDIBLE] So some of the things that we've done around community building with our students is the first three weeks of school this year, we actually committed to having more of that community bridge. So we took students to Waskowitz to do some community learning. We did a lot of talking circles to get to know our students and have them have that time to actually just hang out with each other, to learn each other, and kind of forming those groups. As a staff, I know Tremaine always reaches out to us to check in and make sure that we're doing all
047right, especially with all the craziness that happens with creating a new school. So just having that person that you can call any time is kind of a good strategy for us, and giving us those times outside of school as well to connect and have that one-on-one connection as well as a staff. Thank you. I think the last question really is as a board, what is something-- what are ways that we can really help elevate that piece that we were just talking about on outreach and recruitment? How can we help get the word out so that y'all can have the students to be successful? Yes, great question. I think obviously, just sharing the knowledge, sharing the word, sharing the wisdom. Like you said, you don't have to know how to swim to be at Maritime High
048School. It's an opportunity for kids to have a powerful learning experience. We do have a social media, so thinking about the social media outlets that are out there. #TheMaritimeHS, I believe. #TheMaritimeHS, which is high school, on all social media platforms, sharing that information. We frequently are putting out information about our school and videos and things of that nature. So again, if you know a 7th grader or an 8th grader currently right now that might be interested in an experience like this, we'd love to have them. So share the knowledge. Share the wisdom. Share the word. We'd love to have them. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Also, one more thing. We have something coming up. Haven and another student actually is creating a beach cleanup coming up June 11. So that's actually the time that they want to
049have outside community members and new students coming in. They'll want to come and talk to our Maritime High School students. It'll also help clean up our beaches. So if you have any questions or are interested in that, just let me or Mr. Holloway know. We can connect you with Haven and figure out what time that'll happen on that day. Ms. Rodriguez and Principal Holloway, if you let us know the details of that, we'll be happy to help publicize it through the district's social media channels. So just shoot me an email and we'll work with our comms team. Anything else, [INAUDIBLE]? So I just want to say thank you to you both. Being part of a startup is not easy, but it's exciting. And I encourage board members, if you have not been out to visit
050either at the temporary site at Olympic or even better, on the boat, on the water, it's wonderful to see the students in action. I also challenge you to find a teacher who is more in the zone than Ms Rodriguez when she is in the classroom with her students. She's highly engaged with them. And so I'm grateful for your dedication. And I have every confidence in the world that in the years ahead, Maritime will rival Raisbeck Aviation High School in its excellence and reputation. They started small once too, and we fully expect you to do the same for the industry. So thank you very much. We're proud of you. [APPLAUSE] All right. We have now entered scheduled communications. Is there a Patricia Bailey? And as we get everything set up, I'd just ask that you please
051take a moment to review our public testimony. I also just like to acknowledge our group norms. It's something that we as a board are always making sure that we're present. We respect different opinions. We're easy on people but hard on ideas. We try to be as concise as possible, enable all opinions to be heard, and assume best intentions as we try to seek to understand and be understood. So it's a practice that I want to make sure-- I usually do it at the beginning of the meeting, but I wanted to make sure we do it during this time. So go ahead. OK. Good evening, Highline School Board. My name is Patricia. Retired Seattle School District teacher and [? Aberian ?] resident. I would like to speak with you about problems with education reform, which I
052have observed for about 25 years. As a classroom teacher, I witnessed many education reforms come and go. Reformers made big promises for success, but student outcomes were consistently poor. The long trail of failed reforms has created an enormous education industry and bloated school district bureaucracies. Nationally, student population has increased slightly over the years, but education spending has ballooned astronomically. However, this spending has provided diminishing student results. With each new reform, as a teacher I noticed reformers would disparage and gloss over essential foundational skills. Basic skills were blithely called drill and kill, as if the foundation of a house was too routine to give much thought. I'm not advocating an all basic skills education by any means, but we must be cognizant of what students need to be successful. Gaps in the foundation of any building
053is disastrous. We must recognize students who feel inadequate may give up or behave badly, and they certainly will not develop their god-given potential. Students need excellent decoding skills to be successful readers and thinkers. They need to recognize spelling patterns, how to spell common sight words, and punctuate properly to be confident writers. Automatic recall of math facts is also essential. Unfortunately, we cannot assume underlying skills are thoroughly understood and taught, because they are not routinely emphasized in teachers' colleges. When I began teaching 2nd grade many years ago, I set out looking for folks stories from around the world to provide a rich, multicultural education. I found stories from Mexico, West Africa, China, India, and so on. What struck me so strongly as I gathered these stories was the amazing unity of values all the stories from
054the different cultures shared. They all valued honesty, kindness, courage, independence. They all shared the virtues of hard work, logical thought, personal responsibility, and discernment. This insight struck me so strongly. Although we are all flawed human beings, all cultures share lofty universal values as witnessed by each culture's cherished stories passed down through the generations. It reminded me of a passage I've read many times. The god who made the world and all things in it made from one blood every nation of people. We must view skeptically all reforms that, number one, do not give due attention to universal values, and number two, downplay foundational skills all students need for success, programs that divide people, one from another, by poison to education and destructive of multicultural universal values. Additionally, programs that downplay indispensable skills are the enemy of
055student accomplishment. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you this evening. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. And as a reminder for folks, we also have an unscheduled communication option if you want to sign up in the back, and you'll have two minutes for public comments at the end of today's meeting. Up next, we have the superintendent's update. Yes, thank you. So tonight is a big night for our Seattle Sounders. And one of their biggest fans is here, and I promised him that he could be at the top of my update to try to make it to cheer them on. So Jeb, I invite you up to speak on behalf of Sandy and HEA. Thank you so much for that. I totally appreciate it. Principal Holloway is my former boss at Highline High School. And he promised
056me he'd keep it short, and then we talked about his definition of short. Well, I kept my promise. Oh, you did. I appreciate that. And then dinner's coming. All right. So good evening, President Garcia, directors, and Superintendent Enfield. My name is Jeb Binns. I am the Vice President of the Highline Education Association. President Hunt has an excused absence. HEA continues to advocate for a clear path from the district for dealing with acute absences in the future. Currently, HEA and HSD are working on ways to deal with a lack of substitutes in the system. For example, I gave up my planning period on Monday and on Tuesday, and I had the opportunity to do it again today, which I'm like, I need to get some work done, so I didn't. And these opportunities are that we're
057currently sitting on four to five unfilled absences every day, not including the ones that are there. And almost all of them are COVID-related, just to let you know. We also identified that there are substitute shortages at some schools more than other schools. And these teachers at these acute substitute shortage schools have had little relief this calendar year, and we're trying to understand why. President Hunt will be meeting with ILEDs to review the equity coverage and plans to try to figure out and get some sort of determining our next steps going forward. We also continue to ask about some information that came up based in January. And the question is this. Has the district gathered information and data and learned from the surge that happened in January and February? There were days that the lack of
058staff was felt to be unsafe by members at that school, and we need to clarify the work being done to determine what that absence rate at schools needs to be either to close the school periodically or to go remote for safety issues. As a starting point, the school board could ask to review the absence data at schools for all staff, both in raw numbers and percentage classroom teacher, for our paraprofessionals, our admin staff, and for our other certificated staff. The board would also have the option to create actual policy for clarity's sake that determines whether schools would go into remote learning or to be closed. From an HEA perspective, going remote for a period of time, particularly for high schools like mine-- I teach at Highline High-- is a means of addressing a lack of
059staff and substitute shortage in the service areas. It's less disruptive, because that way our substitutes could be redirected towards middle school or elementary schools to keep those schools functioning and our high school students could switch or pivot to a remote version, considering every secondary student has a Chromebook. At some point, if instead the school board decides to pivot to a policy that's going to decide either to shutter a school or the district or add days at the end of the year, then we would love it if the board would actually make that policy so we can get on to planning what we're going to do and get that done ahead of time. Absence rates are, again, climbing, as you're aware. And Department of Health is expecting a surge in the late fall of next year.
060Sort of looks like we're going to jump into the flu-like sort of peak with COVID coming forward as we go through. So we ask you to just please get with this. Get on this. Get moving on this one. Otherwise, we're just going to scramble in the fall like we did again-- like we did this year. On an additional, completely unrelated, and very personal side note, I would like to specifically thank Director Garcia for attending the NEA-sponsored tri-local art build at my building. It was wonderful. More than 500 community members, came not counting all their kids they brought, because all the kids didn't sign in. And we created some fabulous art and some great community, and I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to come. Thank you very much. And it was just
061a wonderful event. If you're interested in seeing some of the artwork we created, it'll be on display at the Pride rally in June, Downtown Seattle. And then lastly, on another sort of silly side note, I want a really big thank you to Full Tilt Ice Cream in White Center who yesterday hosted a fabulous Teacher Appreciation Day where if you came in with your teacher badge, you could get some free ice cream. Full Tilt was started by a former teacher, retired teacher, and it was just-- they just did a nice job. So I just wanted to publicly thank them, and thank you for the time, and go Sounders. Thank you, Jeb. Go Sounders. OK. So I have a few more items in my update for this evening. First of all, it is my great joy to
062reintroduce or re-welcome Teshon Christie, who has joined us as our Chief Technology Officer. Welcome, Teshon. So as some of you may know, Teshon was in the district and took a hiatus in Kent. And we lured him back, and we couldn't be happier. So Teshon, welcome back home to Highline. We're thrilled to have you here. Thank you so much for coming back. Looking forward to working with you in the months ahead. Secondly, I do need to-- I do want to just publicly acknowledge that it is Teacher Appreciation Week, and anything that we can do to celebrate our teachers, thank them for the work they're doing. As Jeb referenced, it continues to be challenging staffing our schools. This is not unique to Highline. This is happening in districts all over the region, state, and nation. And our
063teachers are doing their very best to support and cover for their colleagues. We have extended the increased amount of pay that we're giving, so when a teacher gives up a prep period, they receive $100 versus the $38 that it was prior. We know that money doesn't make up for lost time of planning. However, we think that that amount is substantial and that it signals to our teachers that we respect and appreciate the sacrifice they're making when they cover a colleague's class. And we've extended that through the end of the year, given that these challenges continue. We are carefully monitoring what's happening in our county with the cases increasing. We are continuing to provide testing for staff who need it. And we'll continue to encourage obviously everyone eligible to get vaccinated and boosted so that we
064can keep one another as safe as possible. I will say, though, that there is still such a thing as a cold. COVID is not the only illness out there. I speak from experience. I had it last week. It's a stubborn one. [LAUGHS] Tested negative, as other people I know who have had this cold have. So there's just a lot going on right now. So I urge all of our staff, students, and families to continue to take care of themselves, to stay healthy. And obviously, when not feeling well, stay home so that we can keep others safe and healthy as well. I will also just let the board know that I have officially embarked on my farewell tour of Highline. I've created a farewell tour hashtag. So I wanted to get to every building and program
065before the end of the school year, just to be there one last time and say thank you to staff. And I've been to six sites so far, and will keep going. But I want to thank our schools for welcoming me in. And these are happy visits. We get to go see good things. And with that, I will end with a big public thank you to Marvista student and daughter of Director [INAUDIBLE] Tony who got this little Easter duck for me at an event and asked her mom to give it to me since I love ducks. And Tony, I want to publicly say thank you and say that I'm so sorry that I didn't know about this when I was in your classroom today. I would have come up and given you a big thank you
066hug. So take a rain check on that. I will see you. But this means a lot to me. It's going to get a very special place among my other duckies. So thank you, Tony. And that concludes my report for the evening. Thank you. We've now reached school board reports. I have no legislative reports, so I'll go straight to director reports. Director Van? Thank you, President Garcia. A couple things tonight. And I just want to echo what Dr. Enfield said about our teachers. Thank you so much for all that you do. It shouldn't be Teacher Appreciation Week. It should be every day. So thank your teachers. In addition to that, May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Month. Every year, I look towards this month. It's very similar to when my wife tells our kids about
067the night before their birth. 46 years ago, the Vietnam War ended. This week, 46 years ago, my parents left Vietnam with six of their children and came to America not knowing what to expect. I was the first born here in the United States, in Denver. And I am proud to be an Asian American. And I appreciate all the opportunities. I appreciate my teachers that have given me the opportunities. I still talk to my elementary and middle school teachers till this day. So I celebrate with everybody out there. Just thank you. Thank you for the opportunity for my family, for all other families, and that's it. Thank you, Dr. Van. Dr. Howell? I have nothing to report other than I don't want to follow that. [LAUGHS] But thank you. Yep. Yeah, I will just take a
068moment, of course, to thank all the teachers, but I want to give a special shout-out to my brother. He is a teacher. I love you. You're an amazing inspiration for our family. And if you're watching, I'm super proud of what you do for our community. I wanted to just give a quick update. Thank you to the Seattle Southside Chamber for inviting us, and all the work, all the folks who hosted the Education Summit and Career Fair. It was amazing. There were thousands of students, all these opportunities to do hands-on training. Kids were getting jobs that same day. So it was a blast. And all the folks on Highline staff who put in work to make that happen, thank you, thank you, thank you. Quick shout-out for the-- I was at the Evergreen College Signing Day
069on May 1. And that was amazing to just see our scholars declare where they're going next fall. Wanted to just give a shout-out to Evergreen's baseball team for winning their first playoff game in who knows how long. And last night, I went to the Evergreen Band night, the pack, and my jaw dropped to see the program and where it's going compared to where it was a couple years back. So I really want to elevate that. It's such-- I don't know. They played "Conan the Warrior" theme song, and it was a blast. And thank you, Director Van, for coming through to the Feast presentation yesterday. Amazing takeaways, and I hope we can follow up and figure out how we can support some of the demands that our students are asking of us. And I think that's
070it. I'll wrap it up. But I did want to just give a quick update. Ooh, good thing I remembered. But I wanted to give an update on where we are at with our District 5 search. The application window for District 5 has closed. The board is currently evaluating applications, and we are also determining if each candidate meets the qualifications for being on the board. We expect to have some engagement next week. More details-- and we are currently on track to approve candidates by May 18, and hopefully have them taking their seat on June 1. And I wanted to open this up for a conversation if anybody had any questions. No, I think that's-- that would be good. I know that you proposed some different ways of interviewing our candidates, and I like it. I would
071like to have more in-depth conversation after I read into it a little bit. That'd be great. Sweet. And that concludes my update. All right. We've now reached Agenda Item 6, our consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve our consent agenda? Make a motion that we approve or consent agenda. I second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion passes. That means we are down to a motion to approve School Board Resolution 0422 issue, non-renewal notice pursuant to a reduction in force to achieve a balanced budget-- oh, am I reading the right one? Yes. Ah, OK. So [LAUGHS] Steve, if you-- do you have any updates that you'd like to share before we take action? Thank you, yes. This is the annual what we call RIF, Reduction In Force resolution. It's been somewhat a
072matter of routine that we've brought-- bring this forward. We ask for this authority so that we can bring our budgets and staffing in alignment. We have the amazing Chris Larsen who does magical work to balance these staffing issues in such a way that we often can minimize the number of RIFs quite significantly. Right now, she's looking at less than five for this year. So these change right now contracts are out, so we have to ask for this authority before we necessarily need it, but I have always asked for the authority to do so. But we have a good track record at balancing these out so that we minimize the impact on staff. And I'll open it up to questions. I know the answer to this, but I think it's important to clarify. For people that
073are saying, gosh, didn't we get all these ESSER funds? Why would ESSER funds not work for this? And often, when we do have to exercise the RIF authority, it's in the area of highly specialized certificates, often CTE career technical in which the-- maybe due to a program change there's not a corresponding position for the individual. And may I just add also, Director Howell-- and I know you know this, but just for people to understand-- our ESSER dollars, while it's a significant amount of funding, these are one-time dollars. So we are refraining from tying them to ongoing salary costs, because when those dollars go away, those salaries would go away. And therefore, we would be in a position of having to let staff go. We want to avoid that in all ways possible. That's right. Thank
074you. Can you clarify, is this something that every employee gets this notice, or is it actually targeted to a small group of people? So first of all, it's targeted to certificated staff, primarily HEA. And then the number of people who would receive a note is going to be less than five this year. It could just be one or two. OK. That helps clear that up. Thank you. Is there a motion? Yes. I move that the school board approved resolution 0422, authorizing superintendent direct action to implement the reduced educational program for certificated staff for school year 2022-'23 and notify certificated non-supervisory staff adversely affected by the reduction prior to May 15, 2022. I'll second that. Roll call, please. Director Van? Yea. Director Howell? Yea. Director Garcia? Yea. This motion passes three to none. All right. That
075now concludes our action items. Is there any unscheduled communication? All right. Then we have now reached the end of our agenda by 7:06 PM. [LAUGHTER] Is there a motion to adjourn? I make a motion that we adjourn. I second. All right. All those in favor? Aye. All right. Go Sounders.