March 14, 2024 School Board Meeting

001[Music] good evening I'd like to call um this uh business meeting to order um will you e please all rise for the flag salute I PL alance to the flag of the United States of America stands indice Tacoma Public Schools acknowledges that we are on the traditional ancestral and historic lands of the pup tribe of Indians we honor with great gratitude the land itself and the pp tribe this acknowledgement serves as a first step in honoring our nearest tribal neighbors and partners who have inhabited Ed this region since time immemorial and to whom we give thanks for allowing us passage onto their lands we shall intentionally create inclusive and respectful Partnerships that honor indigenous cultures histories identities and sociopolitical realities General Council benro will you please call the rooll yes president King here vice president

002stroer here Dr bombre here director MC here we have a quum thank you AG the second it's been moved in second end uh are there any comments nope or questions um all those in favor say I I opposed passes um moving on to item number 7 notice of public hearing 7.1 public hearing to declare as Surplus and authorize a sale or lease of school district property known as Madison complex and Willard earling Learning Center the Tacoma School District number 10 has determined that the property at 3201 South D Street known as Willard Early Learning Center and 3101 South 43rd Street known as Madison complex is not needed for district purposes in the foreseeable future and will not be required for the district's long range planning of capital facilities these early learning programs are currently which

003are currently housed at this location will be relocated to other facilities uh so this um public hearing about the surplus of these two properties uh proceeds in two parts we have opportunity for members of the public to submit written comments um and so you can see uploaded to the board agenda and for uh members of the public watching at home you can access these written public comments um on the TPS website tacomaschools.org and see the comments that people have made in a written format um and for 7.1 B we have 10 verbal comment requests for uh conversation about the um uh about the Surplus so we can proceed to those before a um okay um okay so we have 10 of them and I think we have a an order that they're in is that

004related to the interpretation Services okay all right so uh our first Speaker for the public hearing related to the surplus of the Madison and Ward uh centers is Felicia Medlin all right do I have a time limit or anything yes you and you'll see a uh there all right so we on mhm all right thank you thank you board members I'm really excited to have this opportunity so my name is Felicia Medlin I represent the city of Tacoma uh specifically the community Economic Development Department within the city of Tacoma um in particular also uh the affordable housing division or the housing division in which we prioritize making resources available for affordable housing investments across the city um we have special interest and I'm appearing jointly with two other organizations who you'll be hearing from the

005Tacoma housing authority and Tacoma um and metrop Parks Tacoma so they'll have Representatives coming up as well to speak to this um and really to express our interest in partnering uh the city of Tacoma Metro Parks Tacoma and the Tacoma Housing Authority uh in partnering to really look at what options there are for this site so that it can serve several purposes one of them being providing affordable housing as a resource to the community um the immediate Community surrounding the area but also the city uh as a whole and then the second thing is open space Open Space is really important and we realize that this site in particular is a very uh important resource for open space to the community um to the immediate community and to the C the city as a whole

006and what our plans are in terms of metr parks' plan for having open space and access to open space for residents uh across the entire city particular those who are currently in areas that have open space and then the potential is there for them to lose that we really don't want that to be something that's on the table so wanting to preserve as much as we can in addition to uh introducing a um introducing affordable housing so they'll speak to some of those points I want to also call attention to the Tacoma Mall area plan that this community is a part of and so there's been a lot of research and study and Community engagement around what they want to see in that area and those include uh affordable housing options so people can choose

007to stay in the community that they love so much but also have areas to for recreation and opportunity um to also just enjoy open space uh clean fresh air and all the health and quality of life benefits that come with that um and we see this site as a really integral opportunity uh and it doesn't come up very often where you get such a large plot of land to be able to work with and design and incorporate um affordable housing and open space in a way that really works well for the residents of that new um development but also something that the neighboring residents can enjoy uh also and so hopefully um what you'll hear from me or what you have heard from me and what you'll hear from the speakers who come after me

008is a a real willingness to work together and a desire to work together um to really bring something meaningful to the community um related to this property that the school district no longer has a need for uh and really have a cohesive Vision so thank you for your time thank you all right our next speaker is Ken short good evening and thank you for allowing me to to speak on behalf of this project um as Felicia mentioned I'm here from the Toom Housing Authority uh my name is Ken short I'm the director of asset management and real estate development and I'm going to dig a little deeper into the affordable housing piece of of what we're requesting um as everybody knows the city of Tacoma is in desperate need of of affordable housing um but

009I'm going to talk about the neighborhood specifically um based on the data that that um is out there um the the vast majority of of residents in the Tacoma Mall area are renters um and the majority of those renters are actually um cost burdened which means they're paying more than 30% of their income towards rent so um based on the the population growth estimates for that area we're going to need to add about a thousand um rental units in in affordable housing by the year 2040 just to meet those needs not even to address um the needs that are already there that's just for the the growth that we're expecting we actually are in the process now of of developing our strategic pipeline for new properties in in the city of Tacoma we would love

010to to be able to add this to our um plan for the future um in partnership with the other guests that are speaking to um and the goal would be to ensure that the site actually contains housing for um populations that that fall under the 80% Ami um most of what we're doing is 60% and blow which is what we would shoot for um and this this area would be a prime opportunity for for us for parks for the city um to expand affordable housing so I will leave it at that and I will ask my colleague from metr Parks to come up and say a few words and again thank you for allowing us to be here thank you our next speaker this evening is Debbie Russell good evening I'm Debbie Russell the Director

011of Business Administration and planning for metrop Parks Tacoma and we're here in partnership with the city and the Tacoma housing authority to express our Collective interest in the Madison site so you've heard from my colleagues about the potential of the site for housing I'm here to talk about the parks and open space needs specifically you may be aware that metrop Parks has adopted a level of service standard that helps guide our work in the community we call it our 10-minute walk standard which basically means that we believe that every resident of the city should be within a 10-minute walk of a park or an open space and we know that with our partnership with theuma Public Schools you're a great supporter of this standard as you help us make new and existing Park spaces available

012to the community during non-school hours what I'd like to share with you is information about the needs for more parks in open space in the Madison area so there are two parks that are currently available to the Tacoma Mall neighborhood and both are located about a mile away one is Lincoln Heights located near South 35th in steel and the other is South Park along South to come away at South 50th both of these are roughly within a 20 minute walk from the Madison area which is double our community Community standard there's also a second standard that comes into play for us as we that comes into play as we plan the city of Tacoma's comprehensive plan states that local park should be provided at a minimum of 3 acres per 1,000 people growth forecasts show

013that the Tacoma Mall neighborhood can be expected to reach a density of over 5,000 people in the coming years and it's already exceeding that in some of the areas so when you factor in Lincoln Heights in South Park metr Park sees a need to provide an additional 2 and a half acres or so of park space in the Madison neighborhood just to support the forecasted population density so that's why we are very excited to see your notice of intent to Surplus the Madison site so on behalf of metr parks and in concert with the city and the Housing Authority our Collective answer to you is yes we're very very interested we look forward to seeing where these conversations can go next and as always we truly appreciate all of the ways that the school district

014supports our community we're also providing a joint letter to the district that summarizes the comments we've made tonight thank you thank you thank you our next speaker is Marty web hi um I'm here for the trees but um all of these ideas sound fabulous so I don't need to speak too much on that but um I am concerned for the trees cuz we need a canopy desperately in Tacoma and um trees have already been planted there many so I did a drive by and it's quite lovely so uh good luck I'm looking forward to a real creative solution with for this thank you thank you all right our next speaker is Sally Perkins good evening president King and members of the board I'm here to speak about the Madison and Ward properties the highest and

015best use of land is not always about the money the highest and best use of this land at this time given Community circumstances is affordable housing especially for families between 0 and 50% of the area median income and open space affordable housing because the district has by ospi numbers 2200 homeless students identified in the mckin vento program we need thousands of units of deeply affordable housing in the city of Tacoma I'm also aware of the concern and interest of people in the Tacoma Mall area and in South Tacoma about open space and I fully support that concern and their efforts to be sure that there is open space included with this land so if you don't choose to sell this land for housing or even if you do I implore board members to be more

016visible and vocal about constructive approaches to ending homelessness and building more deeply affordable housing in Tacoma camping bands sweeps and boulders on the RightWay are not going to shelter or house anybody please Advocate more visibly and vocally for smarter and Kinder solutions for all of Tacoma's unhoused people and especially the 2200 Tacoma Public School students and their families who are struggling to find workable housing thank you thank you our next speaker is Beverly Bowen Bennett thank you for this opportunity my name is Beverly bow and Bennett I have lived in the tacoman LA neighborhood for 23 years I own my home there and I get offers to buy it all the time but I would like to age in place and I'm going to be 81 next month I think I have a right to

017be able to live where I want to live I am currently volunteering twice a week at the preschool that is housed at the Madison site I believe the best use of this particular piece of property is something that could happen in conjunction with a lot of the organizations that support our life here in Tacoma including the schools you could continue to have two classrooms there for preschool whether it was under the offices of a community or the school system itself because those kids need to be able to walk to school their parents currently walk them to school if they have to go over to Jenny Reid which is the plan I understand they now have to either ride a bus or their parents have to drive them over that freeway and go to school over

018in Jenny Reed the other thing is I do not believe housing is the best use of this land because we already have housing going up there is a new apartment complex built one starts every two weeks at least maybe every month and they're getting larger and they're getting better I'm not saying they're getting cheaper because they are not and that should be a goal but not of this piece of property because this a nice piece of property where the could there could be the school district the library might even have an ancillary unit there uh we the parks department they built a brand new playground for the kids with brand new equipment that's beautiful it's not 2 years old yet why would that be torn down and and the parks department has other ideas and

019and you might think about a we senior citizens who I would love to have a place to play pacle I used to be able to play pacle down at South Park but that got taken away moved all the way out to 66 and then that building nobody plays peanuckle there so there are so many uses that are Comm Community which is a very dense community and getting denser really needs to have services and the dog the dog park is also something that's needed and is being currently used in the Playfield that's out in the back people bring their dogs there all the time there's lots of dogs in the neighborhood so I believe that all of the major service providers for the city of Tacoma could come together and really make an asset for our

020Tacoma Mall neighborhood thank you very much thank you our next speaker is Rebecca serson good evening my name is Rebecca solverson I'm here as a private individual as a resident as a and as a TPS parent um and and as a former member of the Head Start advisory Council last year um I'm not here speaking on behalf of any organization I just want you to know that um I am here to talk about the Madison site I've done a lot of work professionally even though here's my own individual person I've done a lot of work in that area I spent a lot of time personally in that area as well um as a professional this is one of the hardest areas of the city that I've found to do engagement I do professional engagement all

021over the city all the time and I think it's because there aren't spaces for Community to gather so there aren't open spaces parks there aren't Community spaces and it's one of our densest areas it's getting denser all the time it's a regional growth Center for for the county I believe it's one of only two so in you know now 5 years 10 years 30 years 50 years this is going to be a place where there's a lot of community and right now there aren't the um the community assets to support Community forming um I don't have any issue with the school district selling this property I think that it probably makes sense for the work that you all need to do um but I think it's really important to keep this particular piece of property

022in public ownership um I think there needs to be community space somehow I think there needs to be open space and um spaces for Community together so I really hope as you're thinking about um transitioning this building to a new owner that you will consider um public uses and in particular the needs of um the the many students TPS students that are going to be living in this area that don't have Community assets and don't have places to go after school and their neighborhood that are having to go they don't have a school they don't have a library they don't have a community center um they barely have any parks um so again I really appreciate you taking taking time taking consideration and I really I I implore you to please consider working with other

023public agents and keeping this in public ownership um and um and making sure that this really important asset right in the middle of this super dense area right in the middle of town is going to serve students in the future and is going to serve community in the future and help us um help help the city grow and become a healthy vibrant um community that is um cohesive and and um and taking care of itself and able to do that so um thank you for your time thanks for your consideration thank you all right our next speaker is Lawrence Norman good evening board members uh first off I wish to thank uh Mr Josh Jorgenson for his excellent service and um having me or allow me to request and get on this board meeting tonight

024um my name is Lawrence Norman I'm a longtime resident of Hilltop in particular Tacoma Washington and I come here tonight to request the use of the smaller piece of uh Surplus property uh which is I believe the Willard property 3201 South D Street um for tonight I make this request under the authority of RCW 20 8 a. 3351 1802 which authorizes school districts to Grant Surplus property to a federal state or local government entity or IND Indigent persons at no cost on the condition of the property be used and I remind be used for preschool through 12th grade educational purposes now I understand that there's been a lot of presentations today for the housing and I myself have also been involved with a lot of the housing issues here uh since 2018 and I agree

025with one of the speakers here that I can't even see downtown right now with all the housing that's going up and I do agree that we do need affordable housing um I also agree with the other speaker in the point that you know Services we have all these people moving into the area okay where are the services for people that are being stacked on top of each other and now when we talk about our student population we have a lot of students that are exitting the public school system and one of the things that we would like to talk about for that specific place is a place for using and utilizing education okay and also to heal some of the wounds that have been indicted Upon A a number of our students here in the

026areas of Health and Wellness in addition to what is previously submitted I wish to request the time needed to conduct a feasibility study based on the current capacities and projected need for certain services of our youth over the next 28 to 24 to 48 months a 30day time frame would allow those vested in this project to connect with necessary supplemental and administrative Services providers to AC accommodate such an opportunity if after review of our progress in the 30-day supports additional time we would ask the board to consider additional time at that time the attached documents that I've submitted should support my initial request in terms of potential feasibility connected to over 50 years lived experience in the hilltop Tacoma Community I currently hold a master's degree in education instructional design which also serves this purpose

027well the programming we are proposing qualifies for significant Title One and title four Grant application and approvals and can also be serviced with current TPS Title One and title four funds that already exist I just ask that we take a consideration to this and look at some of the needs of our students that we have right here and since this is property that is currently being held by the school district I would ask that we continue to utilize it in that manner thank you thank you our next speaker is Courtney Davis hi there uh my name is Courtney Davis and uh I feel like my comment is a little bit obsolete at this point because I'm just reiterating uh a lot of what was already said um I'm excited to hear that Metro Parks is

028here um I specifically wanted to advocate for the Madison complex to remain an open space um I think that it is a really important section of the community that already has a very low tree canopy and a need for more open space um and one of the areas within the city that uh has the most prominent heat island effect during the summertime and as climate change continues on it's just going to get hotter for the people in that neighborhood um so I would just ask that you consider keeping this an open space um I also uh I know Rob kryal was one of the commenters already so I'm going to borrow part of what he said but uh he talked about uh the Tacoma tree foundation planting 60 trees uh in that space specifically to

029increase the tree canopy and I would hate to see those be taken down um because they're really important where they're at thank you thank you all right our last speaker for the public hearing on the Surplus issue uh will for those of you who submitted blue comment cards for the public comment on issues other than the public hearing that comes in section 11 so we're wrapping up section s right now but our last speaker on the public hearing section is Cindy habam good evening everyone my name is Cindy Hamp and I am the climate Justice coordinator for the Tacoma Pier County Health Department we've received notied of your intent to Surplus and sell the properties currently operating as Willard Early Learning Center and Madison Early Learning Center and with the understanding that the Tacoma tree

030Foundation planted 60 trees at the Madison site just last year we ask that you consider the importance of trees parks and open space to the health of local residents in your decision trees parks and open space are an important tool in keeping Tacoma's residents healthy providing both physical and mental benefits trees provide shade to reduce Urban heat island impacts Urban heat is an environmental health threat that increases people's risk of hard cardiovascular disease respiratory illness and heat stroke with Wildfire smoke incidents on the rise the presence of trees can help reduce emergency department visits related to asthma and other respiratory responses to air pollution simply put people who live in neighborhoods with fewer trees and less Less open space have higher rates of chronic illness and shorter life expectancies tree and park placement in urban

031spaces is an environmental justice issue the Washington environmental health disparities map ranks the city of Tacoma between 8 and 10 for overall environmental health disparities with 10 being the top of the ranking neighborhoods with the lowest tree canopy South um Central and Eastern Tacoma have the highest rankings two of these south and east tacom have been designated as communities of focus at the health department and have been recognized at the department of ecology as overburdened because they are highly impacted by criteria air pollution so we're asking you to please consider the value of trees parks in open space to human health as you make decisions about the future of these properties thank you thank you all right um and for members of the public who may be watching at home and folk in the audience

032um it this concludes that public uh comment portion of the hearing um the board wouldn't be taking any action right now um and in section I think Le 7 17.2 of the agenda uh that's when we would have a vote as to the resolution about declaring the property a surplus and authorizing the sale um so you wouldn't be voting as to any specific uses of the property today it would just be about whether they should be declared Surplus and uh the intent to sell should go forward so that's in 17.2 president keing I have a family emergency and I have to go okay all right thank you right so that concludes agenda item s and I would uh one other thing I would add is if members of the public or those in the audience

033would like to give feedback as to what the intended use of the property is perfectly appropriate to email the school board about that um intended use of the property at board tacoma. k12.wa.us so you still have an opportunity get your voice heard as the intended use okay oh my God thank you um okay so we already covered 7.1 point a correct M okay um so then I can move on to item number eight just verifying um recognition of staff students and Community uh 8.1 state holidays and Civic Civic observances uh yes this is back to me Washington state has uh declared March 31st as Caesar Chavez Day uh on March 31st Washington's legislature honors Caesar Chavez labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers Union this day recognizes his efforts to

034improve working conditions and secure better wages for Farm Workers as well as his commitment to nonviolent activism uh and that's the uh holidays and Civic observances for the month of March okay thank you there any board comments no okay um thank you very much um moving on to item n nine uh superintendent's report 9.1 learning management system abbreviation LMS and I believe the great Zeke Edmonds is about to approach yeah you got elevated no pressure all right good evening uh I'll jump into it so uh we uh have been communicating right that um we kind of have a timeline here our learning management system so this is the platform that uh teachers students uh families have access to to give assignments receive assignments attach links documents uh content videos uh we've been able to do

035grading in there in the past right there's other opportunities then for parents to see student work give feedback uh and assess learning so that's kind of the nutshell of a learning management system we brought in school of G in the fall of 2020 there was this little pandemic thing going on and we needed a vehicle uh this allowed us then to uh get uh we had laptops distributed we put in for a contract for four years that contract expires uh this end of July this summer in August of last year is when we went live with our new Synergy student information system we had used echool before that so when you think of the two our learning management system allowing us to deliver that instruction our student information becomes kind of our warehouse for all

036student information this is contacts medical right uh we do our grade book through Synergy um and we have parent view student view teacher view in there so knowing that school of G was going to expire in the summer uh we started then this winter looking at a process for replacement and uh the path and working with our purchasing department was to do an RFI a request for information of all the vendors out there that have a learning management system that works with our Synergy system and we did that uh we put all that together we used content from previous uh rfis we used when we did our original LMS we pulled some content for current uh LMS needs and ran that through the month of January we got the results back in the end of

037January and we started processing in February what does that look like who submitted um uh how do we then make sense of those options and we'll kind of unpack them as we go and then in March we started communicating out here's what we know to be true based on that RFI to date so on our current situation right we know that schooo is our platform again we started in the fall of 2020 we know uh we expire this summer uh caveat on that it goes offline in July um we would still be able to access we have to able to keep kind of an archived access uh of content for a couple years um but we would try to stand up something for fall as a replacement um right now when we look at schooly

038it does not work with our Synergy as far as sharing back and forth Gradebook information or assignments uh and so we do have both students teachers and families interacting in two platforms right now uh and that goes all the way from overall performance in class down to a specific assignment level when we completed the RF uh P purchase 2 years ago which is a request proposal from V ERS that landed us with schooly uh or sorry with uh the sis for Synergy what we ultimately had to decide is we knew Synergy was not going to talk to schoy but it was the best sis product uh that we were able to wrap our hands around uh and make work in Tacoma so uh at some point we knew a shift would have to take place

039this school year obviously with the RFI process uh we've been able to work again with purchasing there's a list right and this list is uh oetc so it's a nonprofit Cooperative that uh Works to find vendors for districts and there there's millions of products right we think of all of our different applications that we use and if products are on that list have already been vetted it gives us an opportunity to stop at the RFI do our due diligence to tests to get feedback to find it in other districts to gather information collect input and so that's been our process this kind of winter going into spring 12 vendors submitted back to us uh which was great uh the first question on the questionnaire is do you communicate with Synergy um so it was fascinating

040to see that uh eight of those vendors they answered the first question no we don't but then chose to answer the rest of the questionnaire so uh good on them uh for uh doing their due diligence as well uh four did identify as being compatible with Synergy uh and then we kind of just kept doing our homework from there so we know it needs it's a non-negotiable for us that we can get to one communication platform for our students our teachers our families uh for us to support at the district level so out of those four vendors uh that were remaining uh we reached out and had a conversation with one to clarify some of their questions and it turned out they were a brand new product they hadn't actually worked with Synergy so they

041didn't say they couldn't but they didn't have any proof they could and so we removed them as an option so the remaining three were instructure which is the parent company for canvas uh I think anybody who's taken a college course in the last decade or so has probably seen this platform edgy point which is our uh Synergy for our sis but they also have an LMS and then nvs which is actually a third party but uses canvas as their base platform so then we started unpacking those three uh at deeper level we asked every vendor to send us references tell us which school districts use your LMS with Synergy uh and contact so we can reach out and have a conversation with them and So after talking with multiple districts across different states um we

042created uh kind of tried to table all that information and put it on a website so folks could see it to be transparent um but we started to find some hiccups that those folks using canvas as their LMS had to in order to connect with Synergy rsis needed a third-party application uh think of it as basically like a translator put all your data in here send it through a translation app have it now communicate to Synergy uh sis and almost every District we talked to was having problems with that translation canvas works great it's an amazing product but it doesn't sync directly and so now you're managing kind of three parts to make it work we also looked at Microsoft teams which is something we currently have they've done some major updates to their product

043this winter uh that make it more LMS like um but it still lacks some of the functionality when it comes to assessments grade books things of that nature so that wasn't really a viable option and then this is kind of a snapshot there's actually even more content but we wanted to also give folks a chance to look at uh on the left side are like the major features that when we think about what do we do in these kind of platforms uh what is it we currently have so on the far right is schooly that's what we have so we try to be very clear yes it works works for this feature no it doesn't uh on the left column which is synergy gradebook synergy gradebook has some teaching tools in it but it's very

044limited and that's what we have as well and ultimately if we're going to go down the Synergy LMS route it comes with the LMS and assessments and so we started to answer some of those questions as well so this is us just trying to vet what is a viable option for us moving forward it is on the approved list um so now we're getting giving uh folks a chance to give input so we've been out uh sharing this communication uh getting out in front of principles and coaches as well the surveys out there uh and now it's been great as folks have responded uh here's what I think uh a lot of folks that have used canvas have had a chance to kind of share their take on that uh if we're going to go

045down this route here's what I would need from a training perspective or PD uh a lot of folks are like I'd love to get my hands on it as soon as it's ready uh would there be ACH synchronous training would there be in person training so we're getting a lot of uh feedback there as far as how we can help and support uh when we're ready to pull the trigger I know it's a lot there's only about 50 acronyms um are there either of you have any questions I thinkk yeah I thought it was very clear thank you so we're now just trying to yeah so we have a few more folks to talk to um right just getting that clarification uh one of the uh districts that we found for a reference uses Microsoft

046also as their product so that's one of the folks we want to talk to as well and just see how that connection's going uh continue to get input from folks to help us make sense uh and then uh as we have kind of a I'll say a Sandbox version where also testing on ourn its feasibility I do have one question um in terms of like I know with the number of different software implementations and changes over um as you mentioned in the last four years um I know that um often we hear from students who struggle with those software changes so um what and and I realized we're not quite at that point yet but I'm just curious like how um students um would gain um information and and practice at because I know every

047time my iPhone software update the iOS updates I'm like I act like I don't even know how to use it so just curious like what considerations I know we hear quite a bit about staff which is also important um but since students are also going to be impacted correct so this would be uh from our elementary up through our high school platform uh when I think about a student at that right there at the assignment level so I've got a half dozen classes uh I'm trying to keep track of this um if it's canvas it would be through another interface a canvas interface or nvss if it's Synergy then they would still just use their student view families would use use their parent view teachers would use their teacher view um and what you would

048now see is just kind of additional functionality so you kind of make the reference on the iOS or on a phone basis uh I had you know I look back at how kind of crude our first weather app was or it was just like today's weather and then it was like all week and I go a month and I can see Radars right so it expands but I'm always in that same application so this would be a similar Dynamic more functionality I can see my assignments I can turn in my assignment I get my assignment back it's graded that grade shows up and my student view grade book right that's what we're shooting for great thank you very much I did I did notice in that chart of what things which things had and which

049things didn't and the one that that does mesh because it's by the same company what they didn't have was a community Forum space Oh yeah and so which of course for students um is particularly important so I'm just wondering how you were thinking that we might um augment whatever we do purchase so that we have those OPP discussion space is open for students right so in schooly it's a very robust discussion board right as we probably seen them in different interfaces teacher can post a prompt kids can respond to each other respond back to teacher class can all see those uh in the Synergy version it's a little more limited in uh what would be a canvas it's probably more like a schooo piece and our conversation with Synergy um you know I think as

050we look at vendors right it's like well for an additional fee sure you could add more and then right but there's uh from a Simplicity is a teacher could still post a question students would be able to respond students could see the other responses um but you have less direct reply options you can't submit links or additional work in your responses it looks much more like a maybe a text feed or group text feed so it's there's something there but it is limited pushing on them to okay thank you because I remember thinking that when I read it and I couldn't remember what that question was so thank you for bringing that up anything else no thank you Zeke Madam president I have a couple more updates and uh so I'd like to assistant superintendent

051uh Renee trba to come up and give you a little human resources update and then um seeing the uh that we have a lot of uh folks in the audience I'll reserve some time at the very end to give you some celebrations as well okay thank you thank you super intendent good evening it's been a tough week here this week um our budget cuts are continuing and that means that we've continued to make the very difficult decision to eliminate some positions um you know 85% of our budget is uh invested into our people and uh education is about people it's about people helping other people um and so this week we did have to eliminate some positions here at the central office we have guiding principles from you as our board members about when we

052have to do cuts uh how to do them and one of your guiding principles is to try and stay as far away from the classroom as possible and what we've done with all of our pos position eliminations um so far this year as we've done that the majority at the central office so uh this week we did eliminate three additional exempt salaried administrator positions uh that's in addition to the 14 that we've already done so that brings the total to 17 um but this week we also did some Office Professional and professional technical cuts and you know it's tough because the legisl the legislature just ended this week um and we hear that there is some appropriation coming um for par Educators esps and for some office professionals we're still uh Rosland Medina is processing

053through that um but we know that we spend more than $5 million in Levy funds here in Tacoma um on our um uh esps um and also I don't know the number that we spend on office professionals so even though we know that we're getting um some additional money from the legislature which we we appreciate very much we did have to eliminate four um Office Professional positions this week in addition to some other professional technical positions the good news news is that four of the positions we eliminated are by attrition um this week so that means those were retirements and resignations and those are going to continue to come in through the rest of the year um the other good news is that two of the people uh we've already found other jobs for and

054our HR team is working tirelessly our goal is to try and make sure that anybody that we've told that there was a position elimination that they're going to have another job for next year um and the other good news is that um people have jobs through June 30th um so that gives us plenty of time to try and find them other jobs here or outside the organization so um this is this is tough news but it's part of our budget efforts as well as Staffing season um so with Staffing season as well we are starting to look at the schools and one of the things that we've also done over the last couple weeks is preliminarily we've determined that we are overstaffed at the AP the assistant principal level at our elementary schools and we

055have notified five of our assistant principles at the elementary level that we have jobs for them in the fall they will be transferred to teaching positions certificated positions in the fall but they're not going to have assistant principal positions after June 30th now that's really tough as well the good news is we get to keep these valued people as teachers um the bad news is is that we're still trying to figure out based on enrollment demographic data and other information about our our assistant principles at the elementary level so that announcement should be coming soon uh within the next few weeks and we'll be determining which elementary schools can have assistant principles for next year um and then um we're also still working on our calendar uh Zeke edmin admin met with uh folks from

056tea today tea had given us a really interesting proposal for the calendar we know that amilies are still waiting to hear about the calendar for uh for next year school year and our goal is to have a calendar published out by the end of the month so that is where we're at with um an HR update thank you so much thank you any questions okay thank you Renee thanks Renee okay and the anything else superintendent no I'll wait till the C thank you okay um so then just trying to track my keep myself on track um item uh number 10 uh staff report to the board 10.1 strategic Benchmark monitoring report Early Learning um I see Michelle R Lewis is coming up good evening thank you for having me I'm always excited to come and

057present our updates on what's happening in the land of early learning we go so early learning is our third strategic goal and we are focusing on the intervention and preparation of our youngest Learners um for kindergarten and Beyond um through that we are doing assessments and interventions to ensure their academic success our mission statement is to support and serve all of our students into reaching their Highest Potential socially and academically we create and maintain developmentally appropriate learning environments for them empowering their families to be their first teachers and enhancing their um chances for success in kindergarten this slide really talks about the different fending sources that we have for our our preschool programs we have eight ecap classrooms 20 Head Start classrooms one English learning classroom 25 peer inclusion two dhh 11 transitional kindergarten and

058two monor preschool opportunities for families in Tacoma these are the numbers of our enrollment that's meeting our Benchmark as you can see um our enrollment continues to increase and increase in all of our programs and there's a little bit of fluctuation as families transition in and transition out as well as students that are being identified for individual learning and currently we are approximately um 1482 students um three and fouryear olds that are getting free preschool services in Tacoma so some key findings that we had that we're very proud of in early learning are one is that we had a huge Federal review last year for our Head Start program and um we have passed that into coma with being in full compliance no issues at all so we are very proud of that um our

059state and federal preschool programs are meeting all of our grant requirements for enrollment Staffing um we are looking at maining that um legislative Mandate of converting our ecap classrooms into full day classrooms last year and this current year we had two of our halfday classrooms transition into full day classrooms we also this year opened five additional transitional kindergarten classrooms which are full day preschool classroom opportunities for families and that served an additional 100 students for this current year our enr rollment Trends are increasing and we are exceeding capacity we are seeing our need for more full day opportunities families are reporting that um that is the opportunity for preschool that um they are looking for we are improving our communication with families and guiding them through our application F our application process which sometimes can

060be confusing because you're applying for preschool and then we're aligning our preschool data um with the kol data systems that we have have a continuous um information on our students as they're going through their academic career here in Tacoma our next steps as always I think I say this every single time is that we are looking for new funding opportunities to increase our preschool offerings um we're looking at adding additional transitional kindergarten classrooms we are trying to align our enrollment with Synergy to make that transition for families a lot smoother um we are increasing our enrollment supports for the summer with community outreach to ensure that we are um full classrooms at the beginning of the school year getting the word out about Tacoma preschool opportunities and going to different events and having um preschool

061enrollment fairs where families can come in learn about our programs sign up and enroll right there we are continuing to monitor our TS gold data and ensure that we are seeing growths um that will prepare students for kindergarten and Beyond um currently that we are applying you'll be seeing me probably in the next couple of weeks for our next fiveyear nonc competition um Head Start Grant we'll going to be applying in 2025 again for those conversion slots looking at converting more of our ecap half day programs into full day opportunities for families and then of course always continuing to strengthen our Community Partnership to enhance learning opport Early Learning opportunities for All Families um not all families want to be within our dakoma school district preschool programs so we want to have Partnerships with all

062of our community preschools to ensure that families have whatever opportunity that best meets their family's needs okay you have any questions for me this evening um I have one quick question just for those that are listening could you explain what Tso TS gold data is oh I'm sorry yes that's okay um TS gold is teaching strategies gold that is the assessment platform that we use in early learning for our preschool it mirrors walk kits so we are using the same assessment um for preschool and Kinder thank [Music] you hi Michelle I'd love I just am um I'm really thrilled to see this in a couple of meetings ago we had actually the folks from the Head Start Council come and that's always um uh wonderful but I am so proud um of the the passing

063uh without in full compliance from head start for the federal is a very difficult process that you guys had to go through and so appreciate that um that we came out with fly colors so appreciate that it just is a verification along with some of the test scores that I was reading below it just it shows that we're really providing highquality programming for um some students who otherwise might not be ready for kindergarten or have the opportunity to to um have that social emotional context so thank you for your hard work um and I and I just and please pass that on to the to all the it's mine thank you vice president oh I asked your question look at us Wonder Twins over here okay thank you so much thank you very much thank

064you Michelle okay um moving on to item 11 me MERS of the public wishing to address the board um public comment guidelines uh let me increase the font on this so I can read it clearly um school school board members encourage public participation your settle input is appreciated board members will not respond to your comments during the meeting the superintendent or designate will follow up with you after the meeting if action is needed instead of speaking at a meeting you may also send an email to the board at board at Tacoma . k12.wa.us please contact the board office in advance of the meeting for disability accomodations um under board policy 1430 public comment the board president May terminate an individual's comment when the allotted time has passed and may interrupt a speaker to require the

065same standard of Civility that the board imposes on itself examples of uncivil comments include comments that are lious or slanderous under a legal standard are an unwarranted invasion of privacy are obscene or indecent pursuant to the Federal Communications act or any rule or regulation of the Federal Communications Commission violate School District policy or procedure related to harassment intimidation bullying or discrimination incite unlawful act an incite an unlawful act or School premise on school premise or violate a law lawful School regulation or create a material and substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the board meeting the board as a whole has the final decision in determining the appropriateness of all such rulings and can maintain order by removing those who are disruptive however the board recognizes the distinction between unil discourse which it will not

066tolerate and comments about the Board District and or staff that are negative yet civil in nature the board will exercise its authority to maintain order in a Content neutral manner there are two options option one uh verbal comment um and I'll come back to that option two written comment um uh the community members are um able to submit written comment up to 24 hours before the business meeting um starts um and then uh the option one verbal comment um general counsel will call your name when it is your turn to address the school board please speak into the microphone you may have up to 3 minutes to share your comments or if there are a large number of speakers time may be limited at the president's discre discretion general counsel uh yes we have 10

067speakers for public comment this evening okay uh and then we have three written comments which are uploaded into the agenda so if you're U member of the public watching at home um you can access those comments uh on the board agenda they're uploaded to the do our first verbal comment this evening is Emily Hassen lader hello there I'm Emily um thank you for having me I was informed that my comments were probably more for the superintendent but here they are anyway um I'm here in support of Bry pren our assistant principal at Bernie Elementary School we found out that her job may be eliminated um great that you guys potentially found her a new one but we need her at Bernie um through my own research I found that Bernie is in the top five

068largest elementary schools and I want to say top three she knows every student by name and she also learned ASL as soon as she got the job because we have a large um deaf and heart of hearing community at our school students from all over the district and other districts I Believe come to our school and so I just ask that you reconsider eliminating her position at our school um my daughters are both very loving and emotional kids they love her we found out yesterday our principal will be changing next year and they were both like well at least we still have Miss proudman and I'm like um you might not they both got very upset um and I imagine many other students would be upset as well I've been volunteering at the school almost

069every day for a month now and Miss proudman is always interacting with the kids she comes to our PTA meetings and um just the amount of work she does for our school and our students I believe is above and beyond probably what she's required to do and so to lose her would be a huge disservice to our school thank you thank you our next speaker is Caitlyn Nagel good evening my name is Caitlyn Nigel I came here tonight to discuss the upset and frustration about the budget cuts that are being done for Tacoma schools specifically Bernie Elementary the decision to cut Vice principles is not the right answer what may look good on paper I assure you does not look good in person Miss proud Miss proudman title may be assistant principal but her role

070at the school within the community and with the students is much greater she is the face of Bernie elementary school she has worked so hard to make Bernie the school it is today with over 500 students attending she knows most if not all by name my son has had a pretty tough Career School career at his young age of eight with starting kindergarten during covid dealing with loss in the family and how to handle grief and just being the bigger kid in class Miss proud has helped my son navigate through these obstacles she is someone he looks up to and respects someone he looks forward to seeing every day even in those challenging days and someone who he can go to for guidance or when he needs a break she has become a mentor to

071not only my son but so many other children that need that safe place to go to when they are struggling she goes above and beyond her duties as assistant principal being involved in curricular activities after school to helping create pack meetings so parents have a voice on how to make the school better I could go on about all the wonderful things she has done but I think the support that has shown up today speaks volumes to cut budgets inside the school is a big mistake you're cutting the extra support that schools so desperately need I've watched the school grow so much in the past 3 years and I feel this would be a step back consistency is key to keep these students flourishing what the district has done has created Brokenness getting rid of the

072vice principal and switching principles at our bur at our Bernie is detrimental to the staff and students we need to do better for our community for our schools and for our children thank you thank you our next speaker is Marquita Dixon good evening I'm here to speak about Miss proudman as well um as a mother of a profoundly deaf student in the dhh program at Bernie I can say that losing Miss proudman would be truly devastating her dedication to learning sign language and directly communicating with my daughter without a middle person interpreting is commendable Miss pran's Genuine desire to connect with students and staff of the dhh program shows her ability to go above and beyond the formal requirements of her position things like this have a significant impact on the community at Bernie as

073well as the dhh students who are expected to go out and flourish in this world her willingness to Foster connections demonstrates a commitment to creating a supportive and inclusive educational environment exceeding the standards of other leaders at Bernie Miss pran's efforts to make everyone feel like family and avoid segregation are qualities that every parent hopes for in their child's School leadership she indeed makes days better situations brighter and her commitment to being a champion and advocate for all the children is worthy of admiration to miss proudman I want you to know that your dedication care and involvement have not gone unnoticed your ability to listen learn and improve is a testament of your commitment to those you serve it's a sad world when those that make so much impact get the shorten of the stick

074I will continue to use my voice in this fight to keep you at Bernie and have you as a longtime leader at Bernie to the school board I implore you to exhaust every effort in retaining miss proudman her departure would be devastating loss within the close-knit Bernie Community she is more than a leader more than an educator she's a beacon of positivity and transformative change failing to retain her would be undoubtedly leave a void in the very fabric of Bernie the decision to replace the current principal with someone else instead of appointing Miss proudman has caused frustration and disappointment it highlights a lack of thorough evaluation by the school board and addressing the needs of those students and staff a successful educational environment relies on thoughtful leadership and genuine understanding of the community's requirements let's

075hope that future decisions prioritize the well-being and success of everyone involved and Bernie needs Britney thank you would you please state your name for the record Marquita Dixon thank you very much of [Music] course our next speaker is Regina Lewis hello I'm Regina Lewis I'm a parent at Bernie Elementary and I'm here to support Britney proudman I have a grand nephew a biological daughter and three foster children with very severe behavioral issues that go to Bernie and when we needed to find schools for the three children I didn't even want to ask her because just looking at their transcripts I don't know who would have accepted them when she saw them she gave them her warm smile and accepted them into her arms and ever since they've been going there now they have been thriving

076at Bernie they've had student of the month Awards I don't know how many times now anytime time that we need to do a IEP meeting she's there and even just an emergency student teacher meeting she's right there she's been to every kind of extra-curriculum event she's there at the PTA meetings Britney is Bernie and we need her and so this is very devastating and like someone else already said when we heard that the principal was leaving yesterday one of our children heard one of the three and she was devastated and I don't know how we're going to tell the others I don't I don't know how we're going to tell them that they're the person that they love so much who's there who's consistent who's Dependable available to their every needs there that she's leaving

077so I'm just asking that you guys reconsider and keep her at Bernie please thank you right our next speaker is Caitlyn vigil she oh okay thank you uh our next speaker is Moo Steinberg hi um I'm moo Steinberg um we're pretty new to Tacoma I'm here for the Britney prman as well um but from the very first time that I dropped my kindergarten off for the for the early kindergarten program pardon me I have a little tickle um Britney was there there were so many people there but Britney has always been the face of Bernie for us she's at every event she's like you've heard from so many other people she's learned sign language she's I I also teach an after school program two days a two days a week at Bernie when I leave

078she's still there she's still there dealing with all the things that I feel like I feel like she should be the princess when we heard yesterday that the principal is also leaving well why is Britney not stepping into that role that just makes absolutely no sense to me or any of the parents I've talked to um I can't see I can't see another principal coming into the school and doing what she does without an assistant principal role so even if she keeps that assistant principal role I I feel she should she should be in the the principal role if you don't want to have a assistant principal and that's the budget cut you need to make then the the smart choice for the students and the families and the community at Britney or at Britney

079see Britney is Britney the smart choice would have been to put her into that role she is the school already she's there like at every every single event Friday nights two Fridays in a row she was there until after 8:00 p.m. um you're going to hear more of the same from other people you've already heard the same everything that I've already said um I don't think there's any more I can say but thank you thank you our next speaker is Megan Clark would I be able to share my time uh like reserve some part of your time for somebody else yes uh typically no but um you could have somebody reiterate anything that you'd like to say okay would I be able to give them my time uh typically no okay yeah okay well then

080I'll just I mean can I have them come up and sure okay you going to have a like an advocate or something or a support person with you yeah a support person that's not a problem Len quel I just think parent perspective is everything and Lena speaks um so so much about she speaks so eloquently and so well about how Britney has supported her and her foster son um and so I like I said I don't know if this is okay or if she'd be able to speak for a portion um when it comes to family engagement and Family Support I'm usually the last one there in the nine years I've been at Bernie there's been many situations and many times when I'm there with a family by myself um when Britney proudman came that

081changed and the support that we have received um has been Monumental there has been so many times where I feel like I have a partner and I have somebody who is there for the kids and there for the families um I love my community and I love Tacoma so much and I know that there's a lot of hard decisions being made right now um I just feel right at this moment this is a huge hit for our Bernie families and for our Bernie staff as you can see by looking out in the crowd um we love Britney because of her sense of um pride and engagement I have never like when you talk about ride or die she's a ride or die and um in Tacoma I know that that's so important um doing the

082work that I do with family engagement and the support that I have provided over the last nine years having Britney by being by my side and engaging in lots of the safe routes to schools looking at the different programs that we have had um we've been able to support pack you know our parent advisory committee SAA we hold SAA meetings at Bernie we are invested and entrenched in the community and having her by my side and being able to do the work has been Monumental so I don't know if she can s she can probably finish the remainder of it I had about a minute of the back and forth thing yeah sorry go hi uh I'm an educator by day and I'm also a foster Paran as stated um and I think that what

083you're hearing from the families here is trust and they have a champion and I think that it's uh that's really important and when we I'm struggling with this decision because we talk about strength um and need in each student and all these things that we that's poured into us as Educators but then when the rubber meets the road when we think about equity and champions and those that Center our student um and and undo the systemic things that um have us in the this place in the first place we're like budget cuts budget cuts and so it's more than an administrative uh role it is that this woman is helping um our kids to have fall in love with education and helping them to be their best and so what I'm asking you to do

084is hear these folks hear that they're saying that they have a champion that they have someone that they trust that they they show up and we know how hard it is to get families out hear them and I'm asking you to do what is unpopular by keeping this woman thank you would you please state your name for the record yeah Len quell thank you all right our next speaker is Penny Kramer good evening I'm Penny Kramer Tacoma Education Association president and I stand in solidarity with our Educators and Community who are losing their administrative support but I would like to speak about something else this week is education support professional week and I'm here to honor the many esps who work in Tacoma Public Schools tea represents office professionals which which includes all of the

085staff who work in the offices of the schools and in this building they are the people who answer the phones take attendance help with enrollment answer any and all questions from anyone who calls or walks in the door tea also represents the professional technical employees which includes staff who keep the computer systems up and running the technology problem solvers and more this also includes our HR partners and the people who process payroll and pay the bills so esps are really important you can see that they are essential to the daily operations of this district and we need more of them not less but these are not the only esps in Tacoma Public Schools the Tacoma Federation of esps represent par Educators who often work directly with students and they need a living wage to continue

086to do their work but that's an issue for the legislators and believe me we've been lobbying for that living wages for esps but these are still not all of the esps in Tacoma there are also custodians bus drivers nutrition service workers maintenance workers security and trades people the esps are the people who run this District so that we can educate our students thank you thank you thank you to all of them and thank you for all the different ways that they help our students achieve succeed and grow each day quoting our op and PT reps Jeremy Switzer and Denita kirkus on a week where we should be celebrating our classified staff we instead mourn the loss of over 16 op and PT staff this week also marks the third round of cuts to our chapters

087who keep this District running we see you and we honor you please stand in solidarity with all of the education support Professionals in Tacoma Public Schools please thank you thank you all right our next speaker is Jara Suarez hi my name is j my first language is Spanish I don't speak English but I understand it's okay I speak Spanish yes yes [Music] yes for Madam president and honor to en able to honor the whole testim money we will transcribe it and make sure that you get a copy of it thank you very much goas okay okay thank you for letting me know okay I got it all right our next speaker is Alton McDonald yes good evening uh Madam chair uh president my name is atin McDonald a citizen and taxpayer in city of Tacoma

088I want to speak about racism in Tacoma Public School District it's not the first time I've come to this board I've been coming here for the past 20 plus years talking about racism and discrimination and how children who of color and children who are nonwhite how they treated into Toom Public School District and I hope this superintendent Garcia is hearing me this is unethical in every respect of the word unethical and discriminat in nature my children went to tooma public school I was their first Advocate advocating behalf of them as the family rightly stated how that child was treated he was on the playground and he broke his arm his elbow at Edison Elementary School the teachers your principal there because he was wasn't white they left him there in the school and called the

089parent 45 minutes later when the parent came his arm was like a football or basketball in pain she asked why didn't you call the ambulance for my son they said oh you can take him to the hospital what did she do she took him to the hospital they want to investigate the mother for child abuse that is what the principal as Edison Elementary School did because he's Spanish Latino he's an American citizen for from Puerto Rico he's an American unlike what Trump said don't know that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United State he ought to be treated with respect and then the principle that's at Edison right now how we treat the family discrimination it's wrong it's wrong it is wrong as you spell the word wrong backwards or forward wrong and I'll

090be submitting my laain to the board to investigate the superintendent now let's go to the elementary school director who's over Edison both of them they were wrong what they did they sided with the principal there the principal changed the story like several times did the investigation I asked him where is the notes where is the statement from the student oh I didn't have any statement I said now you can interject yourself into what you're doing to take the action against his child suspend him for 10 days no work Mr Garcia no computer send him home tell the parent to get out of the school the principal did that right at Edison he's right there right now and when I reach out to the elementary school director what did they do they did the same thing

091that the principal did both the assistant and the the uh the director for elementary school I came down here and your your director of security after I came to meet with Mr Garcia he came with what do you want I'm going to call the police I say yeah call him call the FBI call the CIA call them all because I'm not afraid of the police that's why they did threaten me because I was advocating for the child and for the parent this is not okay this is wrong I call Mr Garcia's office and I leave a message for the secretary I know my time is up mad Madam president just a few more second please I call Mr Garcia office and leave a message no one to date over 3 weeks have not called me

092back this is not okay we a taxpayer we just passed extended the bond for another 4 years to give to this school district and I'm standing with the Bernie folks family there that we should keep the educator keep the good principle and get rid of the bad ones thank you thank you for listening and thank you for your time thank you all right our last speaker of this evening is tum Brown got hello my name is Sten Brown I'm just here to be um short and sweet um prior to fifth grade I did not enjoy going to school I felt like there was only one teacher that I could really talk to about my feelings and that was Miss Clark but after fifth grade and Miss proudman stepped in I enjoyed going to school I

093remember vividly explicitly stating to her that I wish she came prior to that cuz I did not want to only spend one year at at Bernie and I feel like she has done a lot for the Bernie community and really building a community um after going into Middle School at Baker um I got really like culture shock because there was there wasn't really a community can I pause you for a second um general counsel can we actually give our speaker the courtesy thank you um and I feel feel like the whole reason I did feel culture shock when I moved into uh Baker was solely because of Miss proudman and everything that she did for Bernie um I didn't know that she learned ASL the first year but I feel like that's another reason why

094you guys should keep her considering that dhh students there's only a few schools in Tacoma that have those programs if I'm aware um and I feel like she has done a lot in making them feel seen in things every student in fifth grade I had very very bad behavioral issues but she was able to give me multiple different chances and she did not um make me feel bad about them and she made she made me work towards better behav Behavior so thank you thank you very much that is all the public comment tonight okay um thank you everyone who came to speak tonight um moving on to item number 12 the consent agenda I move the consent agenda second it's been moved in second end are there any comments or questions no seeing none all

095those in favor say I I and it passes um all right uh sorry going on to item number 13 policy matters um and there are none item number 14 financial report the district's monthly financial report will be presented at the March 28th 2024 board meeting monthly financial statements can be found on the district website at www.tacomaschools.org back SL departments back slash business and finance item number 15 curriculum and instruction um item 15.1 approval of the Dual credit articulation agreement between Green River Community College and tacuma public schools for the 2024 through 2028 school year the assistant superintendent of K12 support on behalf of the director of Career and Technical education recommends that the board of directors approve the interlocal agreement between Green River Community College and Tacoma Public Schools from February 5th 2024 to December

09631st 28 I I moov to A1 it's been moved in second end are there any questions or comments point of information do you still have a quum yep three is a quorum oh okay we had there five members and three is a quorum all right thank you um okay so uh We've approved and so uh all those in favor say I I I uh opposed okay passes thank you thank you Tony item 16.2 approval of contract number TSD 23-1 125 amendment number two between Kai uh Kyo autism therapy and Tacoma Public Schools from SE September 7th 2023 through August 31st 2024 the deputy superintendent on behalf of the director of student services recommends that the board of directors approve contract number TS D 23125 amendment number two between Kyo autism therapy and Tacoma Public Schools

097from September 7th 2023 to August 31 2024 funding source student services I move item 16.2 second it's been moved in second end are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed passes um item 16.3 approval of the guaranteed maximum PR price GMP Amendment two with BNB Builders construction for the Oakland High School historic modernization project the Chief Operating Officer recommends that the board of directors approve the guaranteed maximum price GMP Amendment which states the cost for Oakland High School historic project the Chief Operating Officer also recommends the board authorize the superintendent or Desy to sign said GMP amendment number two in the amount of 6,936 1859 bringing the total consideration to 26 m514 87 excluding sales tax I move item 16.3 second it's been moved in second

098end um and I just wanted to add that this the funding sources capital projects um which was approved by voters on February 11th 2020 um it's been moved in seconded are there any comments or additional additional questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say i i i opposed passes um item 16.4 approval of uh approval to contract with cormo construction for design build services at the L elementary school replacement project the Chief Operating Officer recommends of the board of directors approve the agreement which states the preconstruction services for low elementary school replacement project and authorize a superintendent or Desy to sign set agreement in amount of 2,589 628 that's excluding sales tax is there a motion I move to adop 16.4 I second it's been moved in second in any questions or comments

099uh all those in favor say I I I uh opposed passes um I feel like you're going to be up here for a hot minute um item 16 16.5 approval of contract with A1 landscaping and Construction Inc for Community schoolyards project at Whitman and man elementary schools yes this is part of our part ships to increase access to park space the Chief Operating Officer recommends that the board of directors approve the superintendent to award the contract with A1 landscaping and Construction Inc for the procurement of necessary equipment and services in the amount of 2,798 excluding sales tax is there a motion I move to adopt 16.5 I second it's been moved in second end are there any questions or comments no I'm just glad we're moving on a couple more schools thanks for the partnership

100with the Metro Parks and the land trust um seeing none thank you for that seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed passes um item 16.6 approval of contract between Tacoma School District number 10 and Alliance Group for the builders risk policy held by TPS for the Oakland modernization project the chief offering officer recommends that the the board of directors approved the contract for Alliant group for the Oakland High School historic project an amount of $236,900 comments seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed passes um item 16.7 approval to award contract with Manan construction Enterprises Inc for the largemont elementary Community schoolyards project the Chief Operating Officer recommends that the board of directors approved the superintendent to award the contract with McCain Construction Enterprise Inc for the procurement of necessary

101equipment and services for lunch mon Elementary Community schoolyards project in amount of $496 393 excluding sales tax I move to adopt item 16.7 I second it's been moved in second end any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I uh opposed passes um and we'll go to 16.8 we do I did Skip 16 item 16.1 so I'll go back to that after 16.8 um 16 item 16.8 approval of amendment number two to interlocal agreement number two South Puget Sound Maritime Skills Center and Port Maritime Center Planning and Development the Chief Operating Officer recommends that the board of directors approve approve the interlocal agreement number two amendment number two for the design development phase of the South pett Sound Maritime Skills Center in Port Maritime Center Planning and Development I enthusiastically move

102item 16.8 second it's been moved and seconded any comments or questions just excited that uh we're moving this project forward quickly and with our partners and the legislature gave money this year so so I think this is coming together it's exciting thank you to you and your team for what you're doing to make this happen excellent thank you very much um all those in favor say I I opposed it passes um thank you um Chris I'm going to go back to 16.1 I don't know if that means you have to I think you have to come back later so sorry about that um item 16.1 approval of contract td- 21-18 Amendment 7 between Maxum Healthcare and Tacoma Public Schools from September 1 2020 through August 31st 2024 the deputy superintendent on behalf of the director

103of student services recommends that the board of directors approve contract number TSD 21018 addendum number 7 between maximum healthcare and Tacoma Public Schools from September 1 2020 to August 31 2024 funding source student services I move item 16.1 second it's been moved in second in any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed it passes all right and thank you Tracy for that remind or that um acknowledgement all right back to you Chris item 17.1 adoption adoption of resolution number 2135 and acceptance of contract between Tacoma School District number 10 and Abshire Construction Company the chief Opera officer recommends that the board of directors adopt resolution number 2135 for the acceptance of project completion andove the acceptance of contract with abure construction company for the Safety and Security Phase One

104upgrades bundle I move to adop 17.1 I second it's been moved in second end any comments or questions no and with a resolution I believe general counsel we turn it over to you president bumber are you vote I vice president strer how do you vote uh Dr bom how do you vote uh you called me twice oh one more time pres I'm voting again vice president strer I director B I okay yeah very good I'm living in the past it was a test you were trying to see if any of us were awake okay I Blame You know that's what the um and I can move on to the next item correct yes great item 17.2 adoption of resolution number 2137 to declare a surplus and authorize the sale or lease of Madison Early Learning

105Center located at 310 South 43rd Street I move yeah go ahead the Chief Operating Officer recommends that a board of directors adopt resolution number 2137 to declare a surplus and authorize the sale or lease of medicine Early Learning Center School District property located at 31 01 South 43rd Street I move item 17.2 all right president second president president keing how do you vote second um I vice president strer how do you vote I director bombre how do you vote I 17.2 passes 3-0 thank you I feel like we're falling apart at the end here Malik we got to keep it together yes ma'am um okay item numbers item 17 points uh for uh adoption of resolution number 213 see told you we got a team teamwork here keep it together um adoption of resolution number

1062138 to declare as Surplus and authorize the sale or lease of Willard Early Learning Center uh located at 3201 South D Street the Chief Operating Officer recommends that the board of directors adopt resolution number 2138 to declare a surplus and author authorized a sale or lease of will it early Center School District property located at 3201 South D Street T I move item 17.3 second it's been moved in second in general counsel president keing how do you vote I vice president strer how do you vote I director bomt how do you vote I 17.3 passes three Z excellent item 17.4 adoption of resolution number 2139 acceptance of contract between Tacoma schools District number 10 and Tui and Sun Inc for the Browns Point Brown points RightWay improvements the Chief Operating Officer recommends that a board

107of directors adopt resolution number 2139 for the acceptance of project completion and proove the acceptance of contract with Tui and Son's int for the Browns Point RightWay improvements move to adopt 17.4 I second it's been moved and seconded at hold on General council could you for those that are listening can you give some context to this uh right away are improvements of streets and lights that are on the property excellent thank you cor it's been moved and seconded so uh president keing how do you vote I vice president stroer how do you vote I director bomber how do you vote I all right 17.4 passes three Z excellent all right thank you so much Chris we'll give we'll give Forest a hot moment to stroll up here item 17.5 ratification of the 2024 through 2027

108collective bargaining agreement between Tacoma School District number 10 and the members membership of the international Union of operating engineers iuoe local 302 security thank you the director of lab relations and whole educator support on behalf the assistant superintendent of Human Resources recommends that the board of diri board of directors ratify the collective bargain agreement between Tacoma School District and the membership of the international Union of operating engineers local 302 represents our security group excellent thank you I move item 17.5 second it's been moved in second end and I don't believe this is a roll call or is this this is not a roll call vote thank you all right uh are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed it passes thank you thank you Forest uh I

109believe back to you superintendent you had said okay did you want I'll that student rep okay student rep I see one of our um longstanding student reps Amanda welcome it's really good to see you hi it's been a while I'm so sorry about that like sen senior year is hard um I think especially since um I um since I was selected daffodil princess it's just um I've had a lot of my plate in char it's so um congratulations thank you um I mean speaking of daffodil um events um I was just at um Sheridan Elementary School um reading to um some of the students there and then last Thursday and Friday I was with um the princess from Mount tooma and stadium and stus and we were reading to students from Whitman and Bernie and

110it was so much fun it it was so cute okay um um and also speaking about how college is kind of hard yesterday um I had a fasta meeting um that was hosted by Mr Jones at the link and that was so helpful because I was and a lot of people have been really stressed out with um because of FASA and I feel like that brought so much Clarity I mean even if there wasn't much progress that could have been made it just it was just still reassuring and like relieving knowing that there's a lot of students that are dealing with the same things um so yeah um that was um that was very good the meeting yesterday um Lincoln's Multicultural assembly we're going to have it um a little earlier this year we're having

111it on March 29th um which is like in two weeks which is crazy um but after that um oh um for the assembly we're having like we have 12 performers um but after the assembly we're going to be having our first we're going to call it a Fest which is a multicultural um Festival it's going to happen from 3:30 to 5:30 and we we are trying to make this um an open Community event just like we did at the beginning of the school year when we hosted a back to school bash um and that was very successful so we really hope and we believe that our Multicultural Festival would be equally if not better um with the amount of attraction that we may get um and we were hoping like of course we want to

112invite as many people um we were hoping that maybe we could also get um help or collaborate with um the department of marketing or um Communications Communications yes we can hook you up with somebody in the back the room tenacious wav um yeah I'm I'm just trying to get as many people there as possible we're getting um vendors from um the Lincoln District ENT I mean OS isn't like technically Lincoln District but it's local but Viet kitchen is um Lincoln District um yes um we also have our annual bump it up tournament which is a volleyball tournament happening next Friday and that's always very successful and our student body is very excited for that thank you Amanda would you repeat the um Multicultural assembly what date March what March 29th thank you and then is

113the Abe Fest right after that right after yes excellent thank you and uh Miss Tanisha Jumper in the back uh you can chat with her perfect thank you so much to see for being it's really good to see you we see Amanda everywhere right I actually we saw each other at the r lunar it was the lunar Festival right is that where we saw each other that and um the the tacom the tacom yeah yeah yeah she is everywhere literally um okay superintendent did you just want to uh also give a shout out to all of our educational support Specialists um as it was mentioned tonight that is our custodial team our security team our office professionals our professional Tech Team our transportation team nutrition services Team all doing such an amazing job uh we

114try to highlight them throughout the year and it is a national week and so we would like to just take a pause and say thank you so much for everything you do for the amandas and all the other kids out there I want to give a special shout out to our athletic coaches this spring we have our highest level of high school participation in athletics we had to add some c teams um which is a great problem to have in a very difficult time uh but keeping Kids Safe active in that engage um please watch out as the days uh become longer you have more kids out and about really want people to be safe I want to give a special shout out to our united Weight Champion schools I'm not going to mention all

115three of them yet because I don't think one of them knows uh but a big special another sign of just where staff and teams of schools come together to give back in so many different ways so uh extremely grateful for them all so thank you excellent thank you um and now it is time for item number 19 board reports who would like to rock paper sciss with this 18 18 what am I doing yeah see cuz I scroll all right we're 18 thank you okay I can go I only have one so you're good all right cool uh thank you um well I'm going to start since we were talking Amanda was talking about Rita Across America this the week that was spent um going out to schools and reading and thank you for doing

116that Amanda by the way um I went to burn as a matter of fact and um it was amazing and I loved I had three classrooms I went to um the teachers Brian Riley was the teacher of fourth grade and then went to Kelly aot's class at Head Start prek and you know that was a big shift and then up to Jessica Castillo's class and she's um third grade and so that was really fun and I kept passing the princesses in the hall so it was and the kids loved it they loved that the princesses were there and actually I wish I'd known but the day I went it was uh Disney day and boy I could have come in a really cool outfit but I didn't know so I'm going to go back and

117do some other things but anyway so that was really fun so I know a lot of people did the read Across America um with different schools and and it's just fun to see the kids and and um they're so engaged and they love it when someone comes and reads to them so um um president keading mentioned the Asia Pacific Lunar New Year celebration which um we both went to and was fabulous as always um the Asia Pacific um Cultural Center uh run by uh Lua Pritchard and her team um was they put on quite a show and the um celebration was of Taiwan um but of course there were all the nations uh represented so that was fabulous and a lot of fun um but I also before I'm going to turn it back over

118to to president keing but before I do that I wanted to say that in my mailbox yesterday came this wasda direct um magazine which is the quarterly newsletter for um the Washington School Directors Association which is what we all belong to and they're PE there it's basically rep it's the school directors from all of the school districts across the state and um it's always got great articles and it's really helpful and I wanted to First say that on on page six there is a lovely picture of our own president kading um in Washington DC with the federal uh relations network of which she is chair by the way um and just wanted to say uh president keing how much I appreciate and want to acknowledge the work that you put in to um keep us

119in the know and also keep our opinion and Advocate with both in DC and in and in Olympia for all that's important to our kids and um you do an Absolut absolutely spectacular job and uh uh really appreciate that so and I'm it was nice to see it you know commented in this article uh then also if you if on page 16 there is a feature article on um Tacoma's uh teen summer late night programs and the Partnerships that we have with Metro Parks green trike the city of Tacoma the county Pierce County it's all comes out of jmac here I go talking about jmac again but anyway so it's this beautiful multi-page article about all the successes that uh teen late night and it's actually what I love about what they did is they

120basically put in a howto for the all the districts in the around the state to figure out how they could do something like this summer late night program so um I just want to commend and compliment and ni I see Hunter George here who happens to staff J so bless you Hunter and thank you so much for all your work um and I Tracy I'm wondering if if we could work with wasda to get some more hard copies I'd like to get them out to the jmac partners thank you I'll talk to you about that later but anyway so I just wanted to say um it's really nice that um our community is getting recognition for doing Innovative whole child approach um work and I want to thank everyone u in our community who pulled

121together last year for the summer late nights and it was already recommitted for this year so it sounds after our last jmch meeting it sounded like everybody was in so um excited about that so that's my update thank you VP well uh I had an interesting week last week I did get a chance to go read at a school happen to be the school that my kids go to and um the oldest was excited because I pulled three classes I pulled a second grade class which neither one of my kids are in but I pulled a Kindergarten class and happened to pull tajis and then I pulled a fourth fifth split that happened to be kavaris and uh let me just say that the oldest was excited to parade her dad around the classroom uh

122Mr Benson was dawned her with the duties of uh introducing me to the class none of the kids cared um but she got an opportunity to say some cool things about me and she only said one thing so we had beef about that um then we went to the kindergarten class where my youngest is like what are you doing here she was she was not happy that I was there reading to her class Not only was she not happy that little Joker didn't pay attention I was reading Fox and socks or Dr Susan I don't know if any of you guys ever read that a tongue it's a tongue twister so I'm up there trying my best and I look out to the crowd and my own kid is like do better so anyway that

123was an interesting time uh at at humble yeah definitely I thought I was a celebrity that day but she brought me back to Earth um last last time I made a mention of what I'm about to mention I said that it was 5 months left in the school year and then now we're down to 3 months left in the school year and whether you want it to or not time is going to pass so again I have a message to our seniors because I know that there's been fast for challenges and and disruptions and folks are waiting to find out Awards and all kind of stuff and I just want to encourage folks again to keep going like this the time is going to pass right things are going to be frust frustrating uh things

124are not going to work out the way you want them to all the time uh but if you keep your nose to the grindstone or heal to the grindstone or whatever the saying is uh you're going to cross that finish line so pretty soon we'll be in the Tacoma Dome celebrating graduation and I just want everybody who has done the work to get there to be there uh as stressfree as possible so again 3 months left next time it'll be one month left that I'll bring this up so just keep going thank you thank you thank you I just realized apologies I had one item which I actually had circled so it's shocking I forgot it but when I was talking about the read Across America at Bernie what I mentioned the the teachers but

125who I didn't mention was the star of the whole show who's my student guide Natalie and Natalie is in the ASB and she's like I think she's a fourth grader might be a fifth grader but Natalie had it together I mean she she had me she had my card she had me getting me to classes she chatted in between the walks and if you've been to Bernie it is is as you know it it is a lot of walking to get from One Wing to another and I have to just shout out to to Natalie cuz she was absolutely incredible and I told her I expect great things and I suggested that when she's a junior in high school she might want to apply and uh serve on the on the school board as a

126rep um because she really was um incredibly inquisitive and um hospitable and um and when when the class I was going along in one class cuz the kids wanted me to read a second book she did this and I'm like okay boss says it's time to go um so just want to say um thank you Natalie Madam president can I just piggyback that I think uh I'd be remiss not to recognize Miss Dolce rosan and so if you've ever been to Bernie and you know the magic behind uh the read Across America so I just want to give a special shout out in that same spirit so thank um yes I also got um an invitation by m delai to come and so I was um I think the only reader they had a vacancy

127on Wednesday and they were able to plug me in um and I also was escorted by two very efficient ASB guides and man they they had me on the clock so um and even when I was taking a little too long to read my book I was getting a it's time to go we got to go um and I I went to four classrooms um and it was um it was a really it was a really cool event and um I think um as I was telling um another board director from a different District that when I when the um adult problems get to be overwhelming um going back into a classroom going back into our schools helps ground um and I know I'm not the only one that um feels that way um and

128I'm just going to apologize because I'm going to be a little wordy tonight um because I feel like I've not sat down for a couple weeks um I I don't think we've had we haven't had a meeting since the um Basketball Championships right no so I wanted to say I wanted to give a shout out to Stadium um Varsity Boys Basketball team um and also Lincoln boys and Lincoln girls varsity basketball teams um who I got to see at least the Lincoln games most of them and I um I uh sat actually both deputy and superintendent uh we were there and um they were really really good games um and all the work that goes into that and I just was really impressed um to see just all the all the work that goes behind

129um events like that so and congratulations to all the hard work to those teams and all the other teams and their Seasons um so did Bernie that was amazing um and then the um lunar Festival I actually arrived later I was supposed to be there in the morning um but I had a last minute invitation to um be um a guest with Oasis youth center down at Olympia that morning um who were um recognized with a resolution by the legislature um for the first time and it was a really beautiful it was a really beautiful event and then um uh speaker of the house um Lori jenin invited all of us that were there I think there was about 25 of us representing Oasis um including Youth and staff um and we um we actually

130got a tour of the house floor and some things and another youth got to use the gavel um and as uh speaker Jenkins says 90% of the job of being speaker is knowing how to use the gavel so um this this young person was on their way um and then um on Saturday I attended the um TCC um and TPS powow um which was such a cool event it was my first powow um they did make me go out on the the floor and I did not know what I was doing so um any footage of that that um council member Christina Walker may have taken I tried to ask her to delete it but I don't know if that happened um but it was a really beautiful event that actually has not happened since

1312019 um and it was actually the 14th annual ual powwow um and so it was just really um it was a cool event and a number of our own families um were there and staff and just um D I just want to give a shout out to David scyth and his team um it was a really really beautiful event um and then um what else did I do I uh I went to Lion Elementary today um and um had a tour and spent time with a parent who has um a child in the nest program and has a younger child in preschool there and with um Mr mson the um principal and it was a really I got to see multiple classrooms and also um one of the self self-contained classrooms um which has predominantly

132um non-verbal students um and just meeting the staff there and the way um just the ways that they build community and I know that we heard a lot about um um Community School communities and how important they are and I would say that um there is a lot of uniqueness to um each one of our schools um and their communities and um I was just really um it was really um having done a lot of secl um uh programming for the in the ELO world it was really cool to see how they integrate that in the nest program with neurod Divergent um youth so I really um it was a really cool experience um and then I was um supposed to go to Baker after that but I went to the wrong be and I

133went back to Bernie um and um and um got to see Delta and thank her personally um but uh our own Amanda Scott Thomas um and her um group Community aunties put on an event at Baker today after school called um it's a Hair Affair um and they had um uh Dr Timmy f was a guest speaker and there were um three um uh individuals that were doing demonstration on Hair Care um for um uh black hair and it was just the coolest and um one of our colleagues Lisha Phillips who is on the school board in Federal Way um came because she is a community auntie in her own community and so Lisha and I um we try to find all excuses to spend time together so um it was a super super event

134and I just want to um give a shout out to all the community members that came in um and it was such a positive um cool event and staff were involved and one of the staff members at Baker was a demo so that was just like really fun for the students and I I don't know what the headcount was but I would say it was probably um I would say maybe 50 students um that were there um it was a a really good turnout um so that was a super cool thing and hard to pull away from um and then the other thing um I'm very grateful the legislative session even though it was short it really didn't feel like it um ended last Thursday night um and I um have been doing um a

135lot of work um with the wasda um Federal relations Network um team and then also with um superintendent and our federal relations um uh Team um Simon Company um cavino sent company sorry recent name change um around um learning about um an an application for um essentially expanding Medicaid um um for students uh services for non AP Services um and it's a pretty um significant Endeavor and so the executive director of wasda and myself met with the state superintendent and some of his team to learn where we at in that process um and so the healthc Care Authority has applied to expand um this um uh it's a plan so instead of having three separate um uh silos of funding it would be under one umbrella and it's a pretty Monumental um undertaking and so

136I'm working with school directors around the state um to um send in letters of support to the HCA um for this um and if um approved this could actually um open up fundings um as much as $100 million to $150 million for the state um which is a really significant um it's really significant so and one of the other significances around I know there's also been a lot of talk about funding um and prioritizing funding and making decisions based on funding and um a lot of those decisions are really hard um And in regards to um uh for special education in the state of Washington um in the 2022 2023 school year um there was over a $529 million shortfall in funding for special education in the state of Washington so I and I find

137and I had this conversation with this parent at um Lion today around um funding and resources and access and just had a really honest conversation about how much is missing in funding and um and you know and so there's so much work that happens behind the scenes that a lot of people just don't see um and frankly you probably wouldn't want to see it because it's a little mind-numbing at times um but there's um you know there's there's a number of people behind the scenes that are fighting um for funding in a lot of different ways um so I just wanted to give a shout out to that and then the last thing I just want to mention um to those that that were following the legislative session um there were three um initiatives that

138were passed by the legislature um one of them being a parental rights um initiative and I had done a lot of work with um General um Council benro almost just called you General again which you know I know you don't mind um and then um also a a lot of um stakeholders around um and and and the legislature around what would be the impacts of this parental rights bill um the legislature ultimately did pass it um I testified in the public hearing on February 28th I believe it was um and um on behalf of um the board and the district um and fundamentally what's the most important thing about this Initiative for people to know is it um in it changes no um State um protection so no state law actually changes um and so

13990% of what is in this initiative um in terms of parental rights parents already have those rights so there's a lot of duplication um in terms of the initiative itself um and I know that there's there's some vagueness which uh uh Malik and I have spent hours discussing the vagueness and also working with OSI and wda and the AG's office just to really understand what this means specifically for our lgbtq youth um and our trans youth students specifically and so um by passing by the legislature passing this it allows them the opportunity to amend it once it's implemented if it had gone to the ballot because of our initiative process um the legislature couldn't do take any action on it for a minimum of two years um and that is not that was not a

140guarantee so um there is going to be oversight um uh uh strong oversight by the legislature um there will be um a hotline um that OS pi and I believe potentially the omn ombuds office will um oversee but there will be monthly reporting in terms of how this um bill is implemented and if there is overreach um and how if any harm or discrimination is done um and I know i' I've heard from a lot of families and so I just wanted to share that in this um uh in this meeting that there is there are a lot of um there's a lot of eyes on this making sure sure that it's not done um that there is not uh harm done through this bill um and the 90day it takes 90 days from when

141it was passed which was March 4th so um it will be I think it's June 5th is when this bill will go into effect um so I just uh wanted to do the U mention that and the legislature actually allocated funds to Opi last number I heard was around2 to $2.5 million to um oversee and um monitor the implementation of this um particular um initiative and I just want to say thank you to um all of the people that supported me through the superintendent um Malik and uh I'm going to give a shout out to uh Tanisha as well like I I was in a conversation with a lot of folks about um about this and the implications and how to keep our students safe and in um protected and so I'm just really grateful

142for everyone that really dug in and really proud um to be a part of um this board and really proud proud to be a part of this district and Community um because um we're in a really special place in terms of um the way that we show up for um lgbtq people no matter their age and so I'm really grateful for that see I told you it was going to be really wordy um I don't think I have anything else anything else okay okay so now I'll go to item 19 uh announcements of next regular board meetings March 21st um will be at 6 PM will be an Indian education listening session which aligns with board goal number two academic excellence and Equity um that was adopted on September 14th uh 2023 um and then

143we also um oh sorry so um the goal is we will support all students to to perform at or above grade level and El and eliminate group disparities this year the board of directors will focus on improving the success of TPS students enrolled in Indian education by expanding our B board knowledge and expertise around tribal relations sovereignty and culture on March 28th uh is a 6 PM business meeting and then April 11th uh we will have another business meeting at 6:00 p.m. and with that there turned [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] long [Music]