Seattle School Board Meeting May 13, 2026

001Hey, Good afternoon. We will call the meeting to order momentarily. SBSV. Sure. >> Yeah. Both. Yeah. Sure. All right. I'm so sorry for being five minutes late. The May 13, 2026 regular board meeting is called to order at 4:35 p.m. We would like to acknowledge that we are on ancestral lands and in the traditional territories of the Puet Sound Coast Salish people. I'll have the staff the roll call, please. Vice President Briggs, >> here. >> Director Lavali, >> here. >> Director Ms. >> here. Director Ranken here. >> Director Smith here. >> Director Song here. >> Student Representative Yun >> here. Uh, student rep. Manglesen and Massudi are both unable to join us this evening. And President Top >> here. All right. Well, welcome everyone. I'm going to start off. We have some special guests here

002this evening. So, I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent to both introduce our guests and then uh give his comments as well. >> Wonderful. Well, we'll start with our guests because we want to make sure that they uh start with this. So, the Gatewood Elementary School grant presentation. We will have you come up first. Thank you so much and take it away. Everyone, my name is Kina Hog and I've been the principal at Gatewood Elementary School since 2017. Our school has changed a lot since then. With the recent support from OSPI and the REI grant, I have learned how schools, no matter where they are in their journey, can make intentional steps towards inclusion. We are here today to share our story of the steps we have taken to reflect on the impacts

003and to invite you all to join us on this journey. We will share ideas we have for structural change within our own district that would more easily allow more schools within our system to join us on this journey. Sorry, I'm gonna go backwards here. Oh my gosh, I've messed this up. I'm just going to press ahead. Our vision for inclusion aligns closely with Superintendent Ben's commitment to making Seattle public schools one of the top urban school districts in the country by ensuring high expectations, strong instruction, and access for every learner. We also recognize that Washington state has historically had low rates of inclusive practices for students receiving special education services and that disproportionality continues to exist both across Seattle public schools and right at Gatewood. This work matters to us deeply at Gatewood and it

004is also part of a broader commitment happening across our district and our state. Creating schools where all students are supported, challenged, included, and empowered to thrive. One thing that has really helped move this work forward at Gatewood is that we are not doing it alone. Through the state's inclusionary practice technical assistance network, we've been able to learn alongside schools across Washington that are also trying to build more inclusive systems. What's been especially valuable is seeing inclusion in action, visiting demonstration sites, talking with educators, and learning from schools that are further along in this work than we are. It reminds us that inclusive practices are not theoretical. They are possible and they are already happening in schools just like ours. I especially want to shout out Lel Elementary and Chelsea JJ's leadership. Lel is also part

005of the IPN and having the ability to collaborate and consult with Chelsea and her team has been a critical support to us in this work. That being said, we've also had this feeling of wanting more of this intentional work to happen right here in Seattle public schools. We've had educators traveling from all over the state to visit Gatewood. And while that's exciting, it also highlights how much opportunity there still is for us to grow in these practices right here in our own district. The reducing restraint and eliminating isolation grant has been an important support because it aligns with the values that already exist in SPS around belonging, dignity, and access for students. The funding gave us both resources and a framework to discuss this challenging work that is ongoing for us as a school community.

006We are here today presenting to you as a requirement of this grant. The grant is intended to have a broader impact in our state and with SPS as the largest school district, we believe this is the perfect place to start. I'm hoping that next year SPS can be more directly included in our REI work and this grant. >> All right. My name is Summer Haskell. I teach second grade at Gatewood. We used much of our grant this year to um in the last two years to work on professional learning around Ross Green's collaborative problem solving and cementing the belief in our building that kids do well if they can. We learned about co-eing as a model to deliver all tiers of instruction including embedded SDI. We've dedicated professional development for our pair professionals and IAS

007in our building to support students in inclusive settings. We've used it for release time to apply this learning in planning and watching it in action at other schools around our region. And we've made shifts to our staffing allocations to increase the amount of time that two or more adults can be in a classroom to provide supports in the classroom as much as possible. We tied our special education staff to grade level teams to increase consistency and collaboration between all members of our teaching teams. Hello, I'm April Christensen and I am uh an instructional aid at Gatewood Elementary School. I'm also a parent of two SPS students. Uh they attended Gatewood and then one graduated from Cleveland with the overarching belief that kids do well if they can and in creating a supportive learning environment for

008all learners. Gatewood with this grant money has updated our physical spaces. We have sensory tools in all of our classrooms. We have flexible seating, calm-own spaces, and calm-own tools available to students, all students at any time that they should need them. We also are focusing on proactive and collaborative planning. We have specific designated time for grade level teachers and special education teachers to proactively plan instructional units with all learners in mind. And the goal of this is to provide scaffolds in tier 1 and also embedded SDI making grade level content more accessible to all learners. We've also been working and restructured part of our Wednesday early relief staff planning times so that we can focus on collaboration for grade level teams and special education teachers. And they also are able to look at common assessments

009for students across the board. >> Good evening. My name is Alden Alvarado and I am an administrative intern at Gatewood Elementary and a parent of two Seattle public schools children. So, the impacts that we've seen from this grant have been tremendous. Our students have had access to general education classrooms, curriculum, and tier one instruction for students receiving special ed services. We've also seen a stronger sense of belonging across our school community where students understand that learner variance is expected, valued, and normalized. As a result, we have seen fewer extreme behaviors during the school day and supports for services have become normalized within our general education classrooms rather than separated from them. The impact is also extended to our staff through our early release Wednesdays and MTSS data cycles. We have strengthened collaboration around instructional practices

010and strategies. Teachers are increasingly focused on how to make instruction more effective with two adults in the room by utilizing co-eing strategies, shared instructional planning. We have also seen less teacher attrition. Our educators are staying at Gatewood and continuing to go grow professionally here. One of the most powerful shifts has been in the mindset that our special education teachers are everybody teachers, creating shared ownership for the success of all students. Hello, my name is Megan Fischer. I'm a parent um of a third grader at Gatewood Elementary and I serve on our school's inclusionary steering committee. I'm also a licensed mental health therapist in Washington State. Um, seeing these inclusionary practices implemented at Gatewood has been truly profound. It's been very challenging to implement. It's cost taken a lot of time, a lot of effort. Um,

011but when you walk into these classrooms, you experience a learning environment that is designed for every learner regard regardless of their learning needs. Um what this grant has allowed our school to do is to create a genuine sense of belonging for every single child in that classroom. Um students are learning that different brains and bodies just learn in different ways and that it's totally okay and normal to need different types of support. Instead of being separated from their peers, students are supported with compassion within the classroom community itself. And that impacts every child, not just students receiving services. As a mental health therapist, I can't stress enough how important belonging is for children's well-being and development. A strong sense of belonging protects mental health. It supports academic achievement and helps children build a healthy sense

012of self. The brain learns best when it feels safe, connected, and valued. Inclusionary practices strengthen not only individual students but the entire school community. They help children, families, and educators better recognize each child's strengths and potential while building a culture of connection, empathy, and a shared responsibility for all of our kids. I can't stress enough how incredible it's been to watch this shift at our school and how monumental it is um for parents, children, teachers. It's incredible. So important. Um, as well as being a teacher at Gatewood, I'm also a parent of a student with intensive support needs at Gatewood who may be um, relegated to a different school because of our pathway system. But at Gatewood, thanks to the learning from this grant. Um, my son has served at his neighborhood school and um,

013achie with access to tier one grade level content um, as well as making substantial gains on his IEP goals. He's developing deep relationships with his peers of all abilities and support staff all throughout the building. He's seen as a valuable member of the greater community now and in the future. And he's grown his communication skills thanks to all the access he's had to typically developing typically communicating peers in his gened classroom. The inclusionary practices have for sure changed his life. Hi, my name is Tana Taylor and I'm uh the resource teacher at Gatewood Elementary and I have kids in the SPS school district as well. So, if other schools are wanting to follow this work, what work do they need to do? So, first start with a a mindset, a belief that we can make

014inclusion work and continue with that mindset uh throughout your journey. Um build a sense of community. It builds an inclusive community by working through this work. And we want to shout out to our inclusionary steer uh steering committee which had parents and other community members as well as staff members. Know that this is ongoing work and schools that do this work will learn a lot about their community and how all kids are capable. Start with a flex flexible special education staffing um and with a master schedule that focuses on kids with the most needs and build out the master schedule from there. take the grant. The additional money that we received from this grant has been very impactful in in enacting our school's vision and know that collaboration is imperative using a professional development schedule

015that lends to grade level data collection and encourages improvement outcomes after studying our data together. Next year, we're taking on the work of strengthening tier one instruction and building systems of intervention through the creation of flexible learning lab spaces and intervention blocks at all grades. These ideas came from visits and collaboration from other schools in SPS and throughout our state. This work will involve bringing tutors into our school, rethinking the role of the academic interventionist, learning a new ELA curriculum in both tier 1 and tier 2, and building out shared data systems for our school. This work is challenging and important. It involves professional learning and action as well as systemic changes related to resource allocation and scheduling. Speaking of systemic changes, one important area is how Seattle public schools allocates resources and structures for

016special education services. Currently, SPS uses a pathway model for some special education services where students may attend schools outside of their neighborhood assignment in order to access specific programs or supports. While the system was designed to provide services, it can also unintentionally create barriers to inclusion by separating students from their neighborhood peers and their school communities based on their disability. My hope for SPS is that we continue to move toward a system where all children can belong in their neighborhood schools and access the supports they need within their own communities whenever possible. Achieving that vision would require rethinking how we allocate staffing and resources, including how staff are assigned through the CBA, how we build capacity in both our general education and special education teams, and how we provide ongoing professional learning around inclusive practices.

017I also believe it requires a clear and consistent district vision for inclusion, one that articulates not only what we are doing, but why it matters for students, families, and communities. This work is possible. In many ways, it feels necessary if we want our system, structure, and resource decisions to fully align with our values around belonging, access, and equity. Thank you all for your time today. This is just the beginning of an ongoing conversation, and we are excited to collaborate with the board, the superintendent, and anyone else who's in this room. Thanks. I really want to thank Gatewood. I was able to visit their school, spend some time, and really just see the incredible work that they're doing with our children. So, thank you so much to the entire team. We really appreciate it. Uh, next

018up, I mean, this is good stuff, is that, uh, Chief South High School wrestling team. We I would invite the principal up. Uh, but I do want to say that we have two state champions in our midst, which is pretty amazing. So, if uh, Eli and Lenu, you want to come up? Uh, I don't know if you want to introduce them, principal. I mean, I it's I just saw you, which was wonderful. So, please come up and we'll take a picture and it'll be great. Yeah, sure. You introduce them and the coach, too. Right. There's Yeah. Yeah. Come on up. >> Thank you guys. Thank you all. My name is Hope Perry. I'm the proud principal at Chief Self International High School. I have our athletic director here, Coach P, we call him, but Coach

019Poly Carpio. Did I say right? >> And then I have our two champions here, Eli and Lenu. So, let's give it up for them. These two students exemplify not only leadership within uh on the mats, but they also exemplify leadership within the classrooms. So, I'm very proud of these two students. >> We'll ask if you want to come up. We'll take a picture with the board. We'll thank you and uh then you can go do homework or something. So it' be awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you. Congratulations. All right. Uh, I assume you have a few more comments, but I just want to thank Principal Perry and Principal Hogue and the Gatewood Gators, both from District 6, so I'm a little bit proud tonight. The West Seattle, uh, Sodto South Park area. So, thank you

020all for being here. It was great to celebrate you, but I will let you go. We will try to start public comment at 5. So, just let's all keep cognizant of the time. Thank you. >> Uh so, again, you know, starting these meetings off with such wonderful things is is really just great uh to be a superintendent to know all the amazing things that are happening. But I also want to take a little bit of time to talk about uh what you're going to hear today. Um, there are wonderful, incredible educators in this room that are going to tell you uh important important narratives around things that are happening to this district. I have not been uh shy, I think, about anything. Uh, but I certainly haven't been shy around the fact that we are

021almost hundred million in deficit and will be insolvent in less than a year. That's a that's about what we're looking at. We will we will have to clo cross that zero line which means we cannot operate because school districts are not allowed to run a deficit and because we're in that stage we are making really difficult and really I think decisions that we wouldn't want to make otherwise that we have a budget problem. We're trying very hard to cut all sorts of ways that don't impact students, but we also know that a huge majority of where the money of a school district is spent is at schools. If you saw the presentation last week, uh we cut uh almost $10 million from Central and Central is much smaller of a budget. Uh, in general, we're

022trying our best to keep almost a 3:1 ratio, but we also know that we do have to cut budgets uh throughout the district. And you're going to hear from people today who I want you to listen to, people who serve our children, people who care deeply about our schools that this budget deficit, this budget issue is impacting. We also have a system that has money sent to schools and then the schools make decisions around how to spend that money. Now, of course, if they had more money, they wouldn't have to make the same decisions that they're making, but there's a lot of decisions that are made at a school level, which in some respects is amazing. Local control is great. Who better to make decisions than the people in the school about what to do?

023But it also sometimes is problematic because you end up pitting people at the same school against each other because they're trying to figure out, well, what are we going to do with with less money? And so I want people tonight to really listen to what you're going to hear today about the impact of the budget, the budget crisis. But I also want to say something which as a superintendent I'm allowed to say, which is legal. um is that what's crazy to me is there are ways to fix this and one of the in my mind's simplest ways is for the wonderful folks in Olympia to give us more money but there's also a even easier way to do that which is the amazing wonderful terrific people of Seattle have already agreed to give us the

024money. There is a rule that says they can't. There is a cap on the amount of money that the city can give us because of the way that funding works for the state. Think about how crazy that is. The wonderful people of Seattle want to actually give us more money so that we can employ wonderful people, but yet we're not allowed to because of this cap that happens in the state. So I want people to listen to the stories, the narratives, the faces, the names that you're going to hear, but I ask that we together also focus on a solution. And one very good, very strong, very thoughtful one is to help us get this cap removed. Because if that cap gets removed, the district will in fact almost immediately get more money that we

025can spend. Now, should we be more thoughtful about how to spend that money? Absolutely. Should we be making sure that we are doing right by our children and our staff all of the time? Absolutely. And I'm never one to say, "Oh, woe is me. I have no control." But there are things that are true in Washington that are not necessarily true in other states. The great people of Seattle have already authorized money to be sent to the school system, but there are rules in this state that do not allow it. So, I ask that everybody here today and your friends and your family and bring your dog. We've got to figure out a way to get the people in Olympia to allow us to take the money that is already given to us by the

026wonderful people of Seattle. So, I say this because I see the names on the list. I know some of these people. I know the impacts that are happening. And it's terrible that we're a 100red million in the hole and that we're going to go insolvent. But we've got to make decisions on the reality that we have now and fight as much as we can so that we can increase our budgets so that we can make sure that we don't have to continue to do this. So, with that, I just want to thank everybody that's showing up today, that shows up all the time to support this. This is not going to be easy. This is not going to be the last time we're going to have these conversations, but just know that as a superintendent

027and as a board and as a community, I know that together we've got a shot to really change the trajectory of this district. So, with that, I want to thank uh the president for giving me time, and I will defer back to you. Great. Thank you so much. So, we are going to uh move our student representative comments and board and liaison reports to after public comment. We're going to go into public comment. It's just about five, but by the time I read my my paragraph, it will be five. And um so, we are now going into public testimony. Board policy 1400 provides a rules for testimony. The board expects the same standard of of civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects of itself. As board president, I have the right

028to and I will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standard of civility required by our procedure. A speaker who refuses or fails to comply with these guidelines or who otherwise substantially disrupts the orderly operation of this meeting may be asked to leave the meeting. I know many folks um um I'm now going to pass it off to staff to summarize a few additional points and read off the testimony list of speakers. Thank you, President Top. The board will take testimony from those on the testimony list and we'll go to the waiting list if we are missing speakers. Please wait until called to approach the podium or unmute and only one person may speak at a time. The board's procedure provides that most of your time should be spent on the topic you signed

029up to speak to. Speakers may seed their time to another person, but this must be done when the listed speaker is called. Time isn't restarted and the total time remains two minutes. The timer at the podium will indicate the time remaining for speakers here in person. When the light is red and a beep sounds, it means that your time has been exhausted and the next speaker will be called. For those joining by phone, the beep will be the indication that time has been exhausted. Moving into our list now, for those joining by phone, please press star six to unmute on the conference line. And for everyone, please do reintroduce yourself when called as I may miss some pronunciations as we move through today's list. The first speaker is Daniel Shapiro. Hi, my name is Dan

030Shapiro. I'm a teacher at Cleveland High School. I teach math and I teach a literacy class. I'm privileged to work with the multilingual students there. Um, I'm speaking about a couple things today. Um, a lot of my colleagues are here to talk about the impacts of the changes to the purple book that have been made and the riffs that have been handed out, the reductions in force, um, that people may have not heard about. There are 20 para educators and eight seops or office professionals who have been told they don't have a job at the district next year. Um, and and some folks are going to speak after me to talk about the very real impacts of those on our students. And um I just want to say that uh you know regardless of the

031percentage of the budget that we're spending on this, it's not enough. And teachers have been underwater for years and making this kind of a change is like trying to squeeze water out of a rock. Um you know, we're already running real lean and we can't do much more. Um so I hope um I appreciate you saying that you're listening tonight. I hope that you're all listening to the stories that are going to come after me. Um, and I'd like to add that, uh, I think staff who have received a reduction in force notice, a layoff notice, um, who are working on the levy, who are funded by the levy, deserve a special apology because they've had been on a roller coaster this year waiting for the levy to pass in November, to think I have

032a job, to hear there's a levy cliff, to then think I don't have a job, to then hear there's a transition year so I will have a job, and then to receive an RAIF notice saying I don't have a job is a horrific roller coaster that I cannot imagine the emotional stress that would do to someone for themselves and for whoever they're supporting in their family. So, um I would like to see that and I hope that you can hear us all tonight. Uh thank you. >> The next speaker is Isara Himenez Guerrero. Hello, my name is Isa Himeneza. I use they them pronouns. I'm an ethnic studies educator over at Cleveland. And I'm going to be reading a statement on behalf of Tony Hicks, who is a Cleveland High School junior, president of film

033club, vice president of black student union, member of Pacific Islander Club, and a member of our student racial equity team. She writes, "Dear school board, the actions that we have occurred within the recent years are unacceptable. As a student at Cleveland High School, I have been heavily impacted by your decisions. When I hear from my teachers speak about what could potentially happen or what is already happening in our district, it frustrates me. From my perspective as a high school junior, I feel as if you all do not care about the connections made in schools or what us students actually need. You make decisions with the power you have without thinking twice about who it's impacting. This past year, we lost our adviser for BSU. As vice president of the club, it has been incredibly difficult

034and stressful to work our way back up to how our club used to be. Miss Dom, Mr. Bobby, Mr. Hernandez, Miss Deandra, and Miss Tim have been nothing but supportive to us. Miss Dom bravely stepped in to take up the role as our adviser. This year, I started a film making club at Cleveland, and Mr. Bobby stepped in and helped us to provide us with a space and became someone we could go to for any advice. If you step into Cleveland Student Success Center, you would see how much students feel like they finally belong somewhere and can feel supported as more than just a student. It's not because of all the students there, but due to the educators that open that space for us every day. If you continue to cut staffing and choose to

035fire and displace these educators, our clubs and community will have to restart. We will lose our place in Cleveland, a place that honestly feels like home. We will lose our support systems and the people that have helped us in the toughest times. Please reconsider this decision. Thank you. The next speaker is Crystal Lee. Hi, my name is Crystal Lee. I'm seating my time to Aaron M who's calling in. You'll need to press star six to unmute. >> Hi, this is Aaron. Um, I am from the distinct program at Gassert. I'm a parah and I wanted to talk about um some issues with our staffing that is projected by next year. So in our program outlined in the CBA the um cap on one classroom is seven students to one certified teacher to two paras. Once

036there is eight students um an additional parah is hired and at Gasser we are projected at 12 students and we are not um projected to be hiring any additional staff. So our ratio right now is 12 students to one search to only two paras. So, we're losing one of our PAR positions. Um, we've been in contact with the district and with our program specialists, but there has been no movement to address this issue. And this puts us at almost double capacity. Um, when there is more than 10 students, it is legally in our contract for us to open another classroom. Um, and this is just a huge safety issue for the distinct students. This ratio doesn't provide an adequate level of supervision to accommodate their needs. Um, and this is also a huge violation of

037these students right to their education. at this ratio they are not going to be um allowed the >> reach time. >> Last little com finish your your thought here. Thank you. >> And this could also potentially be a legal issue as um our contract is being violated. And so if we are talking about equity and inclusion, um I would invite the board to move forward um with equity and inclusion at the level of the minimum legal requirement. The next speaker is McKenna Gadant. >> Hello, my name is McKenna Gadian. I'm a special education teacher with Seattle public schools and I seed my time to Hannah Isogy. Um, hi, my name is Hana Isogy and I'm a Roosevelt High School student as well as a co- captain of our robotics team. And I would like to

038speak about the possible cutting of Roosevelt High School's engineering program, which would really impact a lot of students. And engineering has impacted me personally in so many different ways, but I think that the most compelling story that I can tell you really is about my girlfriend. Um, she's an Iranian immigrant. She has an abusive father. She's never met her mother. She's gone hungry a lot of nights. And that generational poverty is really really powerful and so hard to break. And having these STEM programs in our schools which educate students for high-paying jobs gives them that opportunity to step out of this and see what could be their future. My girlfriend feels so confident that she can break this cycle of poverty thanks to Lincoln High School's engineering program. Um she wants to live in New

039York. She wants to buy a house there. She wants to go to a college in Massachusetts. And I think that that's so amazing. But Lincoln isn't enough. Their STEM programs aren't enough for the entire district. My brother is on the wait list. He wants to go there because of their STEM programs. And I know that so many other students feel the same way. But if you cut programs at other public schools in the area, those kids that have the money will just go to private schools. And if they go to private schools, then they will have this huge foot up against the rest of the community and the rest of the students who can't afford that education. And I really think that that is an incredibly important reason and I hope you listen to her

040story and consider this when you make the cuts. Um, we have a petition at our school with over 450 signatures. That's about a third of our stu student population and I'd really like you to listen to us today. Thank you. The next speaker is Gerard Montejo Thompson. Hello there, Gerard Monteo Thompson, president of Seattle Education Association, and I seed my time to Elena Cusack. >> My name is Elena Cusk, and I'm a current first grade teacher at John Rogers Elementary School. First, I want to share that in the turn-in box for the board, there are 10 copies of a petition that has been signed by over 800 educators and community members around both um a June adjustment and the changes that were made in the purple book increasing classroom sizes. Um and I also want

041to speak to my own experience. Last year during my third year as a teacher, I was displaced in October. I was teaching an incredible class of kindergarten students and I spent my last week with them in a room full of crying, heartbroken kindergarteners. Many of them who were having their first school experience ever and who for whom a piece of that was a month into the school year, they found out with a few days notice that their teacher was leaving. When I arrived at my new placement, a kindergarten classroom at John Rogers, the school was in crisis. Every single class in the school had over 30 students, including a 31 student K1 split. And when I started with my new classroom, it felt like starting the year over because they had not been able to

042learn. their teachers had been doing their best they could just to keep them safe in huge class sizes. We need a June adjustment and we need continued summer adjustments to ensure that future SPS students are not in this situation my students were in and that those same students do not continue to experience it throughout their whole education. I am also here today to speak to the staff who are rifted or laid off. All staff in our schools build relationships with students and help ensure their needs are met, not only certificated staff. We must also prioritize our para educator and SEO colleagues who do critical studentf facing work both inside and outside the classroom. The individuals that hold these roles build strong relationships with students and their families. Positions are being cut and staff are being

043laid off and these folks are educators too and are just as critical to the education of our students and miss just as much when they are gone. Our schools would not run without our SEOs and para educators. Thank you. The next speaker is Alex Kramer to Dominique Pe. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Dominique Pavou. I'm also Miss Dom. Shout out to Miss Dom at Cleveland High School. I didn't realize she was uh impacted uh the way that she was, but shout out to her. And hello, Superintendent Shoulder Nurse. Nice to see you in person. And hello to the board as well. Hi, Vivian. Nice to see you. I'm over at Gatsard Elementary. I started on March um and I could be a couple days off. March 5th of 2025. And if I'm not

044mistaken, one of their previous students was um unfortunately lost her life up the hill at Washington Elementary School on my second day of work. And I came in as a restorative practice coordinator. I just leveled up. We call that a career ladder progression as a pair professional because there's only so many opportunities that we have to continue growing into our career. So, I was given the opportunity to become a restorative practice coordinator at this beautiful title one school, excuse me, in the central district. A year later, I'm here still trying to find a way to stay. Uh we've created a lot of uh regular programming there. forgiveness is our big big comp uh component of our work. Um and I know that restorative practice has become more familiar to the district and the central office

045as well. And I'm really proud of the work that they're doing. Um I just want to share in case you're not um if you're not a full-time believer of the work. Um, I don't think that that was a coincidence that I was placed at the elementary school that they lost a member of their community to on my second day of work. Um, I hadn't even been formally trained for that role. I didn't I didn't participate in that training until the summer after I took on the role. Um, and so I I unfortunately voluntarily displaced this year because I couldn't come into competition with educators who are working diligently every single day to bring those kids to grade level. That school has been around longer than I have. I'm a Seattle public school alum as well.

046I had to take my son away from this district two years ago. That was not a choice that he and I are okay with. We're still struggling with it in his sophomore year. And I hope that there's something that we can do as a district to show how valuable each and every single one of our students and staff members are. The next speaker is Sabrina Burr. Superintendent Shel Diner, I would like to thank you for spending gathering with black families last night and for your grace and your generosity. School board directors, you know, I'm Sabrina Burr, Cassera, and Jara. The quest that question it means how are the children? That is a question that should guide every decision you make. Eurian actions for the board raised serious concerns about student outcomes, transparency, community voice are

047truly driving your decisions. The board unanimously approved introduction and adoption of a new performance-based graduation pathway policy for some of the most vulnerable students despite long-standing best practice with Washington state school board directors warning against rushing major policy changes without meaningful engagement review and implementation planning. You approved the policy for the class of 2026 with very few months left in the school year. These are students the system itself acknowledges they have not adequately served. And yet instead of slowing down, engaging deeply, building trust, the district accelerated major graduation policy decisions with limited opportunity for public feedback. At the same time, the board reduced regular school board meetings from twice a month to once a month, cutting public testimony opportunities from approximately 50 spots to 25. That's 300 voices annually. That matters because public testimony is

048one of the few remaining ways students, families, educators, and community can share lived experience, research, history, expertise, concerns, and under unintended consequences before decisions are finalized. You also moved away from student outcome, focus, governance, and basically ended your relationship with the council of great city schools. But the truth is the deficit never fulfill student outcomes person focused governance. Real student centered governance requires discipline, requires data transparency. It requires measurable goals. It requires adult behavior changing when students are not succeeding. Too often decisions appear driven by political control, urgency, and optics instead of long-term student outcome trust. These decisions are not obstructs. Student graduations without the ability to read, write and compute with crit without critical independent thinking is a ripple effect across generations. Families feel it, communities feel it, employers feel it, society plays a

049price. These are lifeimpacting decisions. This is why the board must commit to regular governance framework where model is choose rooted in accountability, transparency, meaningful engagement and measurable student outcomes. Our student deserve better than rush policies. Our educator deserve better than performative engagement and our communities deserve better than political decisions that include the people who are impacted the most. Canera and Jara, how are the children? The next speaker is Yudi Hawkins. I just want to remind folks we're going to try to stick to the twominut time limit so that way we can make sure everyone has h has time to speak and that we can also continue our business for the evening. Thank you. Hi, my name is UT Hawkins. I'm a parent and I am seating my time to SPS student Lynn Anderson. >> Hello,

050my name is Lynn and I am a junior at Roosevelt High School and the communications director of the robotics team. The district is cutting engineering at my school. I have wanted to do engineering since I was 12. The district is cutting a fundamental class at my school that allows me to do what I love and cuts off a lot of access to the spaces that my robotics team uses every day. It also funnels directly into one of the biggest industries right here in Seattle. Companies like Boeing, Amazon, Google, all of those are going to be impacted by us not teaching what they need in the job site. I know Roosevelt doesn't have the greatest track reg record for keeping our budget with the numerous fire alarms and the football team thing last year. But I

051implore you to find different solutions than cutting classes students love. I have done as much as I can to advocate for my engineering class with both helping the spreading of that petition which we keep emailing you about and helping make the default format email that keeps getting sent to you. I then tried to escalate to one of the largest programs I know of and have contact to ACE mentoring which Roosevelt Engineering directly funnels into. I implore you to try to find different ways to make up the budget than cutting engineering at Ro at Roosevelt High School. Thank you. The next speaker is Connor Lee and you'll need to press star six to unmute. My name is Connor Lee. I'm a special education par educator in Seattle public schools. And I was going to seed to

052Lynn Anderson. Um but coming to spoken I'm seating to Kayla Eping. >> Good evening board. Good evening uh Superintendent Schner. First I want to start by saying thank you again Superintendent Schner for spending time in community with black families educators. Um yesterday we we really appreciate your commitment to listen and lean in. Yesterday, I asked you, as the district plans to rift 28 roles of predominantly black staff that support about a thousand students, what is the plan to support those students? And how do you plan to account for the loss of relational capital, cultural competence, and trusted adult presence within a school community? Your answer was mostly rooted in the dire need to correct the budget. As a finance professional, I sat with this last night, and this is what I encourage yourself, SPS leadership,

053and the school board to lean into. Restructuring an organization starts at the top and with cost-saving initiatives and implementing a system that better serves our students and what will truly create a wonderful learning experience for all. It starts with ensuring that we are providing comprehensive and thorough training around budget conversations and allocations for our building leaders and BLTs and that both bodies are in alignment. And when the and when they aren't in alignment, district leadership should lean into actually supporting this process by making sure decisions being made are actually in alignment with putting students first. Cuts to staffing in non-traditional learning environments and roles serving our most vulnerable youth will cause harm to students will cause additional safety concerns and will result in students fail falling through the cracks with no articulated plan for how

054we will support the gap that will occur with the riffs and displacements. I encourage you to pause the riffs and displacements until you have a concrete and communicated plan that centers students. We must make decisions and create systems rooted in data, best practice, and mostly import most importantly rooted in what's best for students. Thank you in advance for your commitment to listening and I hope you are moved to meaningful action that centers students and not just the dollars and cents. The next speaker is Xander Houston. Hi, my name is Andrew Houston. I'm a PAR educator at Franklin High School and I'm seating to Adam Cobalt. >> Hi, my name is Adam Cobalt. I am an instructional assistant, multilingual instructoral assistant at John Rogers, but I will be reading a statement from Christa Shirt, a multilingual

055educator at Dunlap Elementary. Good evening. I'm speaking on behalf of Dunlap, which is heavily impacted every year by poor projections and budget planning. Additionally, I would also like to speak in favor of reviving our newcomer program to its previous format. First, I would like to advocate for June adjustment to our 2026 27 enrollment projections and budget allocations. At Dunlap Elementary, our classrooms are nearly all at capacity. Many of our students are multilingual students with high linguistic needs. Our multilingual our single kindergarten class reached capacity within a week of kindergarten start and we had to create a K1 split. Our current enrollment is above what we were projected to have. Despite this, our 2026 27 projections for next school year are below the 25 to 26 projections across all grade levels. Historically, the families that attend

056our school enroll late. Please take this as well as the discrepancy in next year's projections into consideration and make a June adjustment to next year to avoid shuffling our kids around over a month into the school year. Second, our district has all but disbanded our newcomer program. We have multilingual students who are new to the country with limited English in our classrooms across the district. With full classrooms and limited multilingual staffing, these students do not have consistent and reliable access to the language support that can make school accessible to them. Previously, new newcomer students were able to spend time in a newcomer program at specific sites throughout the district. This program provided newcomer students with the foundational language skills necessary to be successful in general education classrooms, both academically and socially. I'm asking you to

057please reconsider the way that we serve our newcomer students and to be more transparent and proactive in communicating these options to our multilingual families. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Kesh Hassan. And if you're joining by phone, you'll have to press star six to unmute. Karesh Hassan. Okay, we're gonna move on and we will come back to you. Uh the next speaker is Lucas McDonald. Okay, the next speaker is Chris Jkins. My name is Chris Jkins, Box 84063, Seattle 98124. On the proposed closing of Middle College High School at Seattle Central for 2026 2027, seven points. Number one, the closure would violate the district's pledge to not close any schools for next school year. Number two, the district has not provided the notice, hearings, and analysis required by state law, RCW 28A3502. Number three,

058the district website states, quote, "Middle College High School is an alternative high school option to earn credits for a high school diploma and preparation for higher education in a small, caring environment. Number four, the district noted that the school has a high graduation rate and provides college credits and that its loss would be tough. fourish full-time equivalent staff FTE would be eliminated. Number five, the closure is not needed to balance the budget. Number six, the school closure is meant to lead the way for many more school closures. It is a lousy start for a wrong thing. I just got a postcard from retired Dr. Carol Simmons opposing the closure of Middle College High School at Seattle Central. Those of you who've been around for decades may remember Dr. Simmons spent decades with the district. Number

059seven, don't close schools. Please vote no on cell phones in schools. Three points. Number one, I appreciate the district addressing the issue. Number two, one board director suggested a tweak to also remove cell phone use in high school during passing periods. Number three, some screen time, cell phones, AI, and other tech at school may already violate district policies against commercial advertising. possibly opening the district to lawsuits. Thank you very much. The next speaker is Jake Miller. >> I would like to seed my time to uh William. >> Hello, I am William Wagner. I am a student at Roosevelt High School and I'm here to talk about the cutsy engineering program. engineering that is something that has been important to me my entire life and I would like to talk about my story of how I've

060been impacted by this engineering class. This engineering class has taught me about the applications of some of my interests. I am not a great student. I do not do well in most classes, but having a class of something I am interested has brought more interest for me going to school. Throughout middle school, I would throw up a majority of days not showing up to class, which hurt my education substantially. Having a community I feel welcome in, such as the robotics team, such as the engineering class, has helped me a lot with attendance. Uh, secondly, it has given me a lot more promise in my career. I am now gainfully employed at a local aerospace business and amble to aid in machine work on aircraft which are you know have been my entire childhood. My father's

061a Boeing engineer. I would love to follow in his footsteps and serve the local community in that context. Uh, I believe that if any measures can be made to not cut the Roosevelt High School engineering program or any engineering programs like it, they sh they should be made at whatever reasonable cost. Thank you. The next speaker is Tim Keegan. >> Good evening, school board members, superintendent. I'm speaking on behalf of members of the levy and student support team regarding the impact of the reduction of force reduction in force of support staff at Cleveland High School. Um support staff funded through the levy and student success initiatives play a critical role in keeping students engaged, supported, and on track to graduate. In their work as part of graduation success and levy coordination within SPS, this team

062has seen firsthand how cons consistent, trusted adult relationships directly influence attendance, credit attainment, and graduation outcomes. At Cleveland, graduation success work is deeply relational and proactive. It involves ongoing student outreach, academic tracking, family communication, and coordination with school staff to ensure students do not fall through the cracks. These efforts also include connecting families to resources and helping remove barriers that impact a student's ability to persist toward graduation. When support staff positions are reduced, it does not simply reduce staffing levels. It removes the continuity and relationship-based support systems that many students rely on. A significant number of students are navigating housing instability, trauma, and systemic inequities. For these students, having a consistent adult advocate in the building is often the difference between disengagement and graduation. This work also plays a vital role in school culture. Levy

063supported staff help create belonging, reinforce uh student engagement, and provide culturally responsive support that strengthens trust between students, families, and schools. Without these roles, schools risk becoming more transactional and less responsive to the lived realities of students. Families are also directly impacted. These staff often serve as a bridge between home and school, supporting families in understanding graduation requirements, staying informed about student progress, and accessing needed resources. When these roles are reduced, communication gaps widen and access to support becomes more limited. On behalf of the student and levy support team, we urge the board to carefully consider the long-term impact on graduation outcomes, student engagement, and school climate. These relationships are foundational and once lost, they are difficult to rebuild. Thank you for your time and your continued commitment to students and families. The next speaker

064is Ashley Meyers. >> This is Ashley Myers. I serve as Seattle Education Association treasurer and I am also a career and tech educator in Seattle public schools at Garfield High School. Um you've already heard from some students who have benefited from our um student leadership programs that come from our CTE programs. Um I am here um tonight. First I would like uh I see that the CTE plan um is in the descent agenda. um as someone who's been in this district for a decade plus asked for transparency and understanding of how the funding is done um and requesting that the board um pull that out of the agenda of the extent agenda and specifically ask the district about how the purple book funding has impacted our staffing in CTE um as well as what is

065the prospect of our non-staff funding that directly supports the very programs that the students are seeking. Um, I am concerned both for the loss of our CTE programs. At the school that I'm at, we lost our career meds program this year um or the previous year. I've heard of another school losing their career meds program. Um, I was here earlier this year and I um what I feared was going to happen did occur. I went from having a co- coach and teaching one pathway to losing that co- coach, having an extra day of work next year that I have to stay after late, um, and having two pathways I'm teaching at the school I used to teach at where they had lost their co- coach when they saw a full-time job. Um, now that teacher

066also is going from one pathway to two pathways. Um, this is a consistent problem. Um, it's a long-term problem. Um, and I am asking for there to be consistent staffing, well staffed. It's hard to run these programs, but they're hands-on. They have tools. Um, we're teaching kids how to work with medical beds and needles. Um, having the IIA support to have students have full access to this is absolutely necessary. Um, and I really hope that we can have some understanding of will we at least if we're the teachers that are left behind, like are we going to have consistent funding next year for the supplies that we rely on to have students have real experiences in our classrooms. Um, and um, since the students spoke so well and hears your remarks, your time has run.

067>> Oh, heads up. I can't hear the beeping through my phone. That might be why some people on the phone can't hear it. I'm done. Thank you. >> Yes. >> The next speaker is Sam Freriedman. >> And I am aware the folks online speaking, they don't hear our beep, so they don't know. So I I always feel a little bit bad cutting you off, but please thank you for understanding. Sam was gonna seed to me. Can I just go? >> Hi, I'm Allison Underdoll. I >> Wait, we can't. We have to have We have to have Sam. Maybe it's possible that he is there here and or we can come back to Sam. We will we'll continue on and maybe if Sam is able to attend or come in virtually we can seed time. I'm

068so sorry. >> Okay. The next speaker is Logan Riker. >> Hello and thank you for the time. My name is Logan Riker and I've been working at Cleveland High School for 16 years and I'm here to speak against the choice to riff 28 PAR educators and SEOPS across the district. I've had the privilege of working closely with the classified staff at Cleveland and these employees are an integral part of our school's interventions and student supports providing direct student services extending beyond what teachers can accomplish in the classroom alone. Our parent educators often have the most impactful connections to students and their families and serve as the most trusted adult on campus for a large number of our students and in particular our black and brown students. I expect that is the same case at other

069schools as well. The current situation at Cleveland is challenging and highlights some major issues with this process. Multiple classified staff members at our school were rifted at the end of April with very little additional information given. These positions still exist at our school next year, but our chosen hired staff have been removed from the positions by this Rift process. Today, one of our Rift staff members showed me that their position is currently posted in the internal job listings page at SPS, but is only available to phase 2 open to displaced classified district employees. I'll say it again. A human showed me that their job for next year is on the board that they cannot apply to. Because they were rifted, they cannot apply to this job, their current job. And we have an insufficient explanation

070of why this has been the process. Changes happen. Process is important and transparency is necessary to retain trust. Why was there no published memo, news brief, press relief about the plan to make these changes? Why not? I urge the school board and the superintendent to make sure that this is transparently done for our staff. Thank you. The next speaker is Lexi Adrezic. You'll need to press star six to unmute. >> Just checking to see if we found Sam. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Thank you. Um, I seed my time to Dr. Ali Thomas, who I believe is there in person. >> Hello, I'm Dr. Ali Thomas. Uh, esteemed members of the school board, Superintendent Schultman, good to see you again. Um, and members of the public, um, I am

071the only black physician that's worked in my medical group um, during hospitals medicine um, for the last 20 years. I'm a friend of Seattle public schools um since being a volunteer on the equity race and advisory committee under former superintendent um uh Nland and I'm co-founder of the bipok health careers ecosystem with a mission to nurture black brown and indigenous healers with advanced health degrees and I'm calling attention to the importance of uh and necessity of funding health and medical CTE programs serving uh title one schools and to uh introduce a unique partnership at one school. Um, when I was 40 years old, there were less black men metriculating through medical school than when I was four years old. The American Association of Medical Colleges calls this the crisis of black men in medicine. Less

072black doctors leads to more black deaths. No one who no one here, all of you understand um um the the core issues of this and you won't be surprised that black male freshmen do not see a future in health. Um health and med medical is the largest growing sector of the economy. But what many people don't appreciate it is that appreciate is that it's occupationally segregated by race. Black, brown, and indigenous healthcare workers are concentrated in low-level careers with uh low income, poor advancement, negligible impact. We're changing that at Franklin through a partnership with Kingmakers, the Bipok Health Careers Ecosystem, and CTE. We're increasing we're raising the understanding of racial health inequities, the awareness of health and medical pathways, including public health, and the the ability to advocate for racial health justice. So I want

073to thank you for your unique and commitment a unique commitment to racial health and equity through the policy 0030 and um to welcome your partnership in changing the complexion of advanced health careers in the future. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Angelique Dupre and you'll need to press star six to unmute. I'm here to ask you to support keeping the two early childhood developmental classrooms at Greenwood Elementary. Good evening board members. My name is Angelique Dupree and I'm a parent of a child in the early childhood developmental program at Greenwood. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I'm here because this program has changed my family's life and because I'm worried about what closing one of our two classrooms will mean for my child and for every family in this community who depends on

074it. We are about to lose three educators, three people who know my child's name, who knows what calms them down, what lights them up, how to reach them on their hardest days. That relationship cannot be replicated by simply redistributing the students. These are irreplaceable people. The remaining classroom will be overwhelmed. From what I understand, we're expecting to start the school year at full enrollment capacity. And because children with IEP's individual education plans who turn three throughout the year continue to be enrolled, that classroom will likely exceed the healthy ratio before the year is even out. I've also heard concerns that the numbers used to make this decision were pulled from a mid-year count, not end of year data, which doesn't reflect how many families this program actually serves. That matters enormously. These are young children

075with high support needs. A low teacher to student ratio isn't a luxury. It's what makes the program work. When teachers are stretched too thin without additional compensation for extra hours they put in, we lose them. And when we lose good teachers and early childhood developmental education, families like mine feel it directly. Families are already being turned away. Parents are being told there's no room, including families whose older children already attend Greenwood. That's not a small administrative change. that closing the door on kids who deserve to be there. This is exactly the wrong place to cut. The research on early childhood education is clear. Investing now saves money later. High quality early childhood developmental programs reduce the need for more intensive and expensive interventions down the road. When we underfund programs like this one, we don't

076eliminate the cost. We just push them further into the future. We make our lives of our children's harder now. In the meantime, I'm asking you as a parent, please reconsider, keep both classrooms open. Thank you. The next speaker is Jana Horvath. >> Good evening. My name is Jana Horvath. I am a special education teacher at Rising Star Elementary where a reduction in force cuts are taking a pillar of our community. The blind cutting by dot titles are denying our children access to black educators and is support systems in a school that is 89% students of color. The cut staff member at my school has deep roots in our community and has supported not only my students but their parents inside and outside of the school system. I speak today to ask the board to closely

077consider the impact of cutting staff at schools and disrupting our community when there continues to be areas where money is being unnecessarily spent. The district continues to pay double the salary for staff on administrative leave for up to six to 18 months and for months after the police department has dropped their own investigation. When a colleague of mine was investigated in 2016, it took six weeks to clear the teacher of any wrongdoing. Our justice system in Washington requires citizens to be arraigned within 14 days, not months. The district continues to need to examine its own processes before denying its children access to incredible educators of colors. Thank you. The next speaker is Gabrielle Gerston. Hi, my name is Gabrielle Gerston and I'm a behavior analyst at Perch Behavioral Health. I am reading this abbreviated letter

078on behalf of my clinical director, but I put 10 copies of the full letter in the handout bin. My name is Loretta Hall. I'm a parent of a fourth grade student, a certified Washington state special education teacher, and the clinical director of Perch Behavioral Health. Perch has provided specialized ABA services within SPS for the past six years. I am writing to express very serious concerns regarding the proposed requirement that all contracted ABA and behavior support providers operate through Sunburst, a division of Emeris for contract management, rate determination, service coordination, and compensation fulfillment. My position is outlined below. One, Emeris through Sunburst is not solely an intermediary. They are also a direct provider of special education support services within the district. Requiring independent ABA providers to operate under the oversight of an entity that already that

079offers competing services creates a clear and unavoidable conflict of interest. Two, the Sunburst model requires providers to absorb an approximate 5% fee on top of already reduced reimbursement rates creating a compounding financial impact. This model risks a scenario in which it is no longer financially viable to deliver services at the level of quality required. Therefore, forcing experienced agencies out of the market while their undertrained cheaper competitors monopolize the field. Three, staff turnover is expensive for the district and creates gaps in IEP service delivery. Undertrained frontline staff such as behavior techs from large temp agencies who have high turnover rates results in lower success rates for students. This often results in ABA providers being present in classrooms at the expense of the district for much longer than necessary. ABA rates within the district should be standardized

080based on agency performance and made by the district. In addition to these three points, Sunburst model creates a concerning shift away from SPS decision-making and adds unnecessary systems for an ideally small need. I respectfully urge SPS to reconsider the structure of this proposal and that they scrutinize the financial outcomes for both participating agencies and the district itself while ensuring students receive the high quality service they deserve. Thank you. The next speaker is Tommy Townsen. Tommy Townsend. Okay, we're gonna move on. The next speaker is Judson Miller. Good evening. Um, yeah, my name is Judson Miller. I'm here to urge you to reverse the decision to eliminate our care coordinators in our high schools. We say we value equity, but decisions like this send a different message. At Roosevelt, our care coordinator, Miss Deborah, shout out

081to Miss Deborah. She is a constant present in our students lives. She builds relationships, sets high expectations, supports students through one of the most important transitions in their lives from middle school to high school. For many of our black students, she's more than support. she's representation, trust, and consistency in a system that doesn't always provide that. Um, I urge you to reinstate these positions for the 2026 27th school year. Care coordinators are not extras. They're essential to all of our students. I'm going to seed the rest of my time to my colleague Denise Jordan. >> Hello there. Hello. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I want to say thank you to everyone here. Thank you to educators. Thank you to certified. Thank you to certificated and classified. You guys are awesome. We are here working for

082students. We work with students every day. We support students. We support them. But you guys have lost $100 million. I'm sorry, but you should be paying us for what we do. Our work with the students is we should be compensated, but you are not working with the students every day. You are not supporting. So what about you guys? You can cut some yourself, but not us. Make cuts for you, not us. We are here supporting the students. Thank you. The next speaker is Beverly Goodman. Good e good good evening everyone and by the way my name is Beverly Murray I got married uh last year um I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity. I was always told that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is my grandson Leon Mason Lacy

083uh who had surgery last year. He has one lung. He had the third of hearts. Uh, I can't reach it. He had the third of heart surgeries and he had water in his lung. Uh, he is a student at Rising Star Elementary School under the leadership. We call her lovingly Miss Eie. So, that's what I'm going to call her because I've only heard her name pronounced twice. But this is another picture of my grandson, Leon. To me, this looks like the picture of a happy child who's in a warm and nurturing environment. It was brought to my attention that someone, and we won't say names because that's not important, said something very unkind about this woman. That she was against and did not nurture her black and brown students. I'm here to tell you this

084day that that's a falsehood. This woman is an asset to Seattle public schools. Leon having autism, developmental changes, health changes, has been nurtured by this woman. Um, she is really initial in providing a safe and academically challenged environment for her children. Um, like I said, I don't have much to say just that. I just want to make it said and I have a letter for you, superintendent. I'm challenged and I couldn't get into my email, but this woman is um I I can't say any more for her and what she's done for us. Leon was seven years old to be potty trained. Miss Eie was initial in that. She's attended his birthday parties. So, I'm not sure who said this about this woman. But I am here to tell you today that that's a lie.

085This woman is an asset to Seattle public schools. And if more teachers were like her, this would be a better school district for it. And may I approach you to give you my letter because I couldn't do that. >> You can give it to >> Yes. I think if we >> Can I give it to your security? Will you >> There's only thing in my pocket. I come down to greet you, but I got to stay up. >> All right, we're going to go back through the people who are not available the first time around and then we will move into the wait list. Um, Kur Shan. Okay, Lucas McDonald. Tommy Townsend. Okay. Oh, excuse me. And Sam Freriedman. All right. We're going to move into the wait list. Aaron Mallister, you'll have to press

086star six to unmute. I heard >> we can hear you. >> I will feed my time to Allison. >> Hello. Great. I am still Alice Underdall. I teach seventh grade math at Meanie. Meanie is a small school. We've had two riffs and at least three displacements that I know of. And this is close to 10% of our staff. These changes will impact 100% of our students. The district consistently underounts our enrollment leading to high class sizes at the start of the year. This fall, I had an advisory class of 45. Four out of my five classes were an overage. Due to the purple book changes, my class sizes will likely be even higher next year. Thanks. Leading families to leave and enrollment to decline. Eventually, we will rehire folks having saved no money. These cuts

087don't balance the budget. We will once again be starting the year understaffed and overwhelmed. I would now like to read a statement from one of our displaced staff, firstear visual arts teacher Keller Spitz. As a displaced teacher, there are a lot of emotions running through my mind and heart at this time. Sadness at being forced to leave my community behind. Anger that my agency has been taking taken away during this process. frustration that this leaves my school understaffed in a position where they will inevitably have to scramble to fill the gap at the start of the school year. In a system that is fighting every day to undo the injustices of the past, the injustice of this process is made even more stark. Why does this happen every year in a city that is well

088resourced? The district asks for quality educators, hires quality educators. Then they spend their first pital years of their career shipped from school to school, uprooting them from their communities and accelerating burnout. This is a broken process and it needs to stop. They'll say that this is just the way it has to be. But I don't believe that. I don't believe in a city as vibrant and capable as Seattle, it has to be this way. something can be done, needs to be done so our educators can feel safe to put their full hearts into their schools, their work, and their students. Thank you. >> And that was our final speaker. >> All right. Thank you everyone for being here tonight, for giving up your valuable time to provide public comment. Um, I would like to try

089to get through student rep comments and board comments before we take a little bit of a break. >> Well, that's part of the process here. So, but we'll start with student board student representative comments. So, representative Yun. >> Yeah. Okay. So, the first update we have is um we would just like to thank the WEB's team for working so hard with us. We have a separate page on the SPS website for student representatives and we have outlined our Instagram page and our contact information, student rep contact information, um public testimony info. There's a direct link that will take you to public testimony signups and also FAQs such as um describing what policy 1250 is just to be more transparent with students on our role and they could that they could reach out to us um

090if they feel like. Um the second update I have is so last fall Jade Mary Warren, she's the Garfield High School BSU president. um she led a community engagement session between um her BSU, Garfield's BSU and SPD. Um this was a very restorative conversation about what safety meant to students and we she was very inspired by that model and she wanted to bring that model to a larger scale. So right now she's currently also serving as a youth safety ambassador for um city of Seattle's department of education and um early learning deal and she has shared her experience and because she shared her experience staff were very supportive of oh wait that's a great model we would also like to follow something similar and there was a nonprofit in Oregon that actually facilitated that that

091conversation that restorative conversation was called talk a mile so then it became a partnership between SPS um our student reps and um the youth safety ambassadors and talk a mile and we have basically followed this engagement session model and are opening it to kind of the general student population. And what we want to do is um bring m um provide a student space that like allows for civic leaders to also be there so that students could have kind of those honest conversations about what safety means to them. Um, so I just wanted to share that update. I think Superintendent Schner will be attending next Wednesday as well along with um other civic leaders and SPD. So we are very excited that this is kind of um this is a really big milestone for us because

092it's just been a very logistically challenging to coordinate among so many organizations. So I would just like to thank all community partners who are part of this and encourage students to um attend. Thank Thank you. Thank you so much, Representative Yun. And sort of a good transition as we move into board comments. This is Representative Zun's last meeting with us as student representative. She has served in this role for two years, and it has been awesome, Representative Yun, to watch you both grow in this role. I think I remember a start where you're like, I don't know. There's no rules. There's no handbook here. what do I do to really building out a program that is new and making it stronger and better and updating the policy um and and saying what is working with

093this program, what is not and how do we better bring student voice to this program and to the board and the school district in general. So, thank you so much uh for all that you have given to Seattle public schools. I think that whatever happens next and I think it's a an awesome flight somewhere with a learning uh language learning over the summer. Um but you will I I know you will be successful and I want to give other board directors an opportunity to say say wonderful things about how awesome you are. Director Anken, I know she she's been she's been asking when this is >> I was like I was like do it before everybody else leaves because I want as many people um are here to um uh have the chance to hear

094us recognize um an incredible student. Um I'm going to miss you Sabi. Uh so Sabi came two years ago and we've only had the student board member program for threeish years and um she immediately recognized that there were there was room to grow and it was time to go from piloting the program to really defining what this program is. And I I can't even tell folks how many different things she has been instrumental to that we probably won't even really know until she's gone and then go, "Oh, Sabi did that. Oh, Sabi did that." Um, uh, she's been a true, you've been a true like joy to work with and get to know. And selfishly, I'm glad that we have the student program so that our paths could cross. Um, and working with you on

095policy 1250 was was so much fun. And it also uh, you know, we we got to share frustrations of systems that move really slowly. Um, and and als but your the way that you embraced that and dug in and and didn't give up and wanted to get whatever you could done done um, was really uh, wonderful and inspiring and and you have a wisdom well beyond your years, too. when when she inevitably runs for some form of public office, I hope that you will all vote for her. Not to use this as a a campaigning, not I'm not using public resources to campaign. Um, but she's incredible and I fully expect her to be um leading us all, continuing to lead us all. Um, I also want to take a moment to just thank Ted

096Howard, Sabrina Burr, and Mary Facus for um, leaning in and supporting our student our students. Um, and I know that she was able to just access more information and and get on her feet more quickly um in having the support of of folks who know the system and who are willing to dedicate additional time to making um making her successful. I'm talking about you like you're not here. Um, uh, yeah. I And I know, uh, I can't wait to see what you do next. And, um, I know I'm going to hear about it from you because cuz I'm I'm not going to let you just disappear. >> Thank you, Director Ranken. Director Song. Um, Sabi, I want to thank you so much for um, your service on this board and um, we overlapped for a

097relatively short amount of time, but I feel really honored to have been part of your SPS journey, even if it was just the tail end. um Sabi and I and uh director Misrai, we participated in this meeting with elected leaders from Dejon, South Korea and they were really impressed um with our student who uh did the meeting in Korean um which is very impressive but they were just really amazed that our district was able to produce a student like Sabi with these kind of leadership skills. she had the maturity to have a conversation with um very senior people from Dejon, South Korea, a city much larger than ours. And I felt um really I just really enjoyed witnessing you in that moment. Um my young kids actually watch schoolboard meetings live on YouTube from home

098because uh they like to see what mommy is doing, but they kind of want to know like roughly what time I'm going to be coming home. So they very much know who all the directors and our student representatives are. and I shared with them that this was going to be your last meeting. So, they wish you congratulations, best of luck, and I would say myself as a parent to Asian-American students, it feels really wonderful to have a role model like you. Um, I think as myself as a young person didn't have quart of the leadership skills that you have. So, thank you for being an incredible role model to our students and um please keep in touch with us. are huge cheerleaders for you. >> Any others? >> Well, Vice President Briggs, >> I'll I'll

099keep it short, but um I I can't really say it any better than it's already been said, but you you really are exceptional, Sabi, and I do hope you'll run for something. Please let it be president. Um but I I'm voting for you no matter what it is. Uh, director Ms. Rahi, >> I'll just add quickly. Uh it's been a pleasure to serve on the board with you and uh I think you often ask the most insightful and pointed questions on the board and I'll just one memory is um when we were dealing with the uh two lunch issue and we held a meeting and uh president top and um director Clark at the time and myself were like who is going to lead this meeting and you stepped in and you led the meeting

100for us and you did a great job and you handled a really tough situation but you handled it professionally but also showed a lot of empathy. and care for your fellow students. And I think that's a really special skill and one that we can all learn from. So, thank you. >> Well, thank you, Representative Yun. Um, and as a small token, we have a little we have a little gift and a card for you, and I think it's at your seat somewhere. Perfect. All right. Thank you. Oh, thank you everyone for I just want to Yeah, thank you for all your kind words, but also um it's truly been an honor to be entrusted in this role. Um it's it's been really hard to be in this role, but um I think with the support

101with Mr. Spur, Mr. Howard and every um all the board directors and um people at SAB. It's it's been really easy. I'm getting very emotional cuz it's so much has happened in this role and I I I think when I first had my board meeting here, I was kind of confused on what the student rep comment was and here I am now just throwing blowing through everything and I know everything and I know what needs to be fixed and I'm glad I spent a lot of my time and personal time dedicating to making this role better and for students. Um, one of the biggest lessons I've learned is when you're up here, you're not I just take off my hat as Sabbi. I'm not Sabbi anymore. I am I want to think I am the

10249,000 students. It's hard to bring all 49,000 student voices, but you could always listen to them. And when I say listen, not just saying, "Oh, what do you think?" May and not just that it's going back to that conversation saying hey I heard you say this but and it wasn't reflected in a decision or it wasn't reflected in a conversation but saying oh I heard you like said this and we could still go back to it. I think that's that was really important to me is like following through and being able to look at things in a different way. There are a lot of times I have conflicting views with people and I don't always show it, but I think that's kind of the the beauty of this role is that you you learn a

103lot from that and it's tough. But whoever is in my role next year, I have a lot of hope that this program will continue to grow. And again, it's just been a big honor to have this opportunity to um take it as a learning experience, but also represent my fellow peers. And um there's again a lot of work to be done, but I'm just like very thankful and grateful that I was um the chosen three students to be in this role. So yeah, I just want to thank all my peers, community members, board directors, and yeah, it's been a it's been a rough journey and I think it's Yeah, thank you, Representative Yun. And you're not done yet. We still have a whole board meeting here to go. Um, so with that, we'll go to

104uh board directors uh committee reports and liaison reports. I know our committees have been meeting. So, director Song, >> um, I have a finance and audit committee update. Uh, we met, uh, just this past Monday. And is that Monday? Yeah, last Monday. >> May 4th. Last Monday, >> our committee reviewed with staff um briefing papers on categories of spending and kind of decided as a committee which ones we want to do a deeper dive in. So, I invite my committee members to help me compile questions that we can um submit to staff uh and hopefully get answers on um what we're spending money on in those categories. Uh we have a May 18th meeting. Um it will be a audit themed meeting. Um, we will be getting the state auditor's exit conference and we will

105also be reviewing a couple of completed audits that are school-based including one that needs a corrective action and uh we will be reviewing our work plan for internal audits. Uh, I know some committees have already suggested some potential things that we could add to our work plan. So, I look forward to that conversation. Um, and kind of just a preview, we will be updating our public advisor role description because hopefully we will be posting that up for um, application. So, I invite interested community members uh, to consider applying and being a part of our committee. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you, Director Song. Director Ms. Rahi. Yeah, I'll keep it short because it's a topic on the agenda, but the policy committee uh continues to meet and talk about how policies become policies. So, it's

106a you know uh like a mayor facing another mayor. But um it is uh but we were very productive and we actually uh have a policy that we're bringing forward to the board tonight. So, looking forward to talk talking about that once it's on the agenda. >> Great. Director Lavali. >> Yeah. for the operations committee. We reviewed the upcoming um standing agenda items that are going to come before the board and started to be able to ask deeper questions about those. Some of those are in this meeting. Some of them will be posted in a later meeting. Um, we went over our work plan and started to review the needs both of policy and of the committee around the student assignment plan and student assignment transition plan and how that plays out and what the

107roles are within those. Um, within the Beck's committee, there was a presentation last Friday on energy uses throughout our schools and what we're doing. um as a district to work on reducing our energy intake across our schools to be compliant with both um city and state goals to um become more energy efficient. So really looking at how our new schools are measuring and kind of what we're regularly looking at that on a district level um both across our old buildings and across our new ones. >> Thank you. Any liaison reports? Director Ranken. Yeah, just briefly, um, Council of Great City Schools, uh, Representative, um, uh, at the federal level, the I think I mentioned at the at our during our budget work session that for at least the next school year, there was approval, um,

108from Congress on a budget um, and, uh, homeland security and all of those things are back up and running. And there's continuing conversations about various um funding streams, but the one major thing that impacts us that was part of that is that for uh grant title grants that districts receive from the federal government, even though there's restructuring elimination of the Department of Education, for at least the upcoming school year, grants will still be distributed to states through the Department of Ed. They're trying to move some of those grants to Department of Labor, Department of the Interior, some other things as they attempt to dismantle the the um the institution, but I don't know if I can't figure out quite how to do it. Um or what other barriers are, but for at least this coming

109school year, those grants should be coming to states as previously scheduled, which is great news because what it means mostly is that we won't have delay. A year ago, there was questions about where how the money would be distributed. Um, so for next year, we should be getting those as expected. Um, I attend a monthly call with other Council of Great City Schools district um, board directors and urban districts across the country are all dealing with a lot of the similar things that we are, which is aging facilities that were built post World War II that now people don't have necessarily the fund the funding to to maintain them and uh, the national trends in um, declining enrollment with fewer fewer children. So, it's just it's it's interesting to hear about what we have in

110common and what is different. We're really lucky that we have these huge um local grants. Um but other districts are looking at how they use their facilities and how to balance the needs of their community with their available resources in a lot of different ways. Philly is doing some really um good look at their facilities and um Cincinnati is actually utilizing uh some underutilized spaces in really good ways to serve the community. One example that they gave was um creating a resource hub for homeless families. So families experiencing homelessness who have students in their system have actually a place to store their things to get some resources. I I I now I can't remember if they're actually spending the night there, but um it's there's there's more things a school building can be than than

111a school and there are a lot of needs that our community has and other school districts are stepping up in ways to meet those needs and and we could um we should be paying attention to that. One last thing, Broward County in Florida was one of the first districts to do a cell phone policy maybe five years ago. And um I'm just flagging for you, superintendent. If you hear about her, I can reach out and get more information. They had some interesting things about tech in the classroom um that were some things that we hadn't haven't really thought about in terms of um just just information about how it's being used. So I will try to get more information about that. But you know, lots of districts going through similar things and the more we

112can be connected, the more uh opportunities we have to solve them here. >> Great. Any other liaison reports? Director Smith. >> Um, for the scholarship committee liazisoning report, nothing new, but I do want to give the reminder and invitation again that the scholarship uh presentation ceremony honoring the awardees is uh May 28th. So that's this month at 700 p.m. at Franklin. Perfect. All right, we will take a break. We will take a recess till 6:25. That's eight minutes. We'll have an eight minute break. Um we have a lot to go through still tonight. Uh so we will be back here at 6:25 uh for our business items. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. la. Hey Heat. Heat. All right, I've got a quorum. Folks are running late.

113There we go. All right. So, we are back at it. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right, welcome back folks. We are on to the business action items on our agenda and that's well that we'll start with the consent portion of today's agenda. May I have a motion for the consent agenda? >> I move approval of the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Okay. Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by by Vice President Briggs and second by Director Misrai. Do directors have items they want to pull? >> I have a clarifying question on an item that I don't need to pull, but I want to ask the question. >> Okay. >> Um, for the CTE plan, it's it's 2026. So that for the school year we just left or the school year we're entering.

114And then in terms of the um budget setting, we have information about how the budget has been has been spent. H uh where's the opportunity to talk about or ensure that the future budget aligns with meeting the needs of the program. So if there's >> Well, a quick answer to that. >> That would be really helpful. >> Thank you so much for not to pull it, but >> Sure. No, thank you so much for the question. The the question I would have is if we're not pulling it, but we're now having a conversation about something on the consent agenda, there's a little bit of a question about can we even have this conversation. So, I'm happy to. I just want to defer to the president. >> Can we answer the questions quickly or do we

115>> Oh, we can absolutely answer the question quickly. >> Uh do Dr. uh Michael Stroski, do you mind inviting your team up to answer that question if you would like? Thank you. >> And to Ben's point, apologies. This is bad board behavior. Uh, not at all. Mike Stroski, assistant superintendent of academics. I would like to call Dr. Perkins to quickly answer your question. Questions? It is a confusing term. The plan is for what's happening this year. The board does have an opportunity to review the CTE budget and the plan through the overall budget process that you approve. >> Thank you so much. >> Are there any items that folks want to pull from the consent agenda? All right, I'll go to the student representatives. Representative Yun for your advisory position. >> We advise pro. >>

116Thank you. Now for the vote. All those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying I think I lost my microphone. Maybe signify by saying I. I I >> I >> thank you. Those opposed say say no. All right. Seeing none, we have uh the consent agenda has passed. Okay, we're moving right along to the action items on today's agenda. Uh the first one is approval for closure of middle college instructional site at Seattle Central College beginning in the 2627 school year. Motion for the item. >> I move that the school board approve the closure of the middle college instructional site at Seattle Central College. >> Second. >> Okay. The motion has been moved by Vice President Briggs and second by Director Ms. Rahi. Uh superintendent shoulder. Do we have any staff who >>

117I mean I'm happy to answer and or talk about it. As you saw there was a presentation with the principal of uh Middle College. Uh just as a clarification we are not shutting down a school. We are shutting down one location of that school. That principal will still exist. That school will still exist. those uh students will be able to go to the one campus that is on North Seattle uh college which is a college that has been very very supportive of this work. I'm happy to answer any more questions that you might need to have. Thank you. >> Okay. Questions or discussion from board directors? Director Misrai. Yeah, I know that there were um I forget the exact number, but a certain number of kids who were most impacted by it. And uh at

118the last presentation, we were told that there were still in process of of finding placements. I I don't expect to have the answer tonight, but it'd be great to continue to get updated as a board about making sure that all those kids got placed in good places. >> Absolutely. It was about 10 students uh most of whom can either go or choosing to go to North or any other high school in the city. But happy to give you an update. >> Director Ranken, thank you. So this is uh actually for for director Miss Rahi maybe but also for the public as the chair of the policy committee just that um I think there's opportunity here. This this makes sense to me. It's the closure of a site not a school. The school is middle college.

119The site is this one place. Um, but I think there is there is maybe not even growing, but a long-standing need to clarify between a school, the building, a school, the student population, a program, a service. Um, this is not the first time that this sort of question has come up. And so I would just encourage us as we're looking at our delegation um policies and and the some of our other things that we're working on for the governance manual that we think really clearly about, you know, state law is state law. we the board can also say we require board approval for X or we the board are defining you know this and that that clarity would be really helpful other board directors okay I will go to our student representative Yun for their

120ad >> we did a motion in a second >> we advise pro Okay, thank you. And then I will uh for ask for the roll call, please. >> Uh, Director Ranken. >> Hi. >> Director Smith. >> I. >> Director Song. >> Yes. >> Vice President Briggs. >> I. >> Director Lavali. >> I. >> Director Ms. >> I. >> President Top. I >> this motion is passed unanimously. >> Okay, moving right along to the approval of the 26 27 regular board meeting dates. May I have a motion for this item? >> Oh boy. >> Is it really required for me to read each and every date? >> Yes. Okay, cool. Get ready everybody. Buckle up. >> I move that the board approve the following 20 2026 27 regular board meeting dates. August 26, 2026. September 16,

1212026. October 7th, 2026. November 18, 2026. December 16th, 2026. January 17th, 2027. Oh, sorry. January 27, 2027. February 24th, 2027, March 17th, 2027. April 21st, 2027, May 12th, 2027, June 2nd, 2027, July 7th, 2027. Special meetings of the board will be held in addition to these regular board meeting dates. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> Do I have to second each of those dates or no? Second. >> Okay, we have a motion by by Vice President Briggs and a second by Director Mahi. my notes say I'm gonna pass it over to Superintendent Schultner, but I can also talk a little bit to this item. >> I am happy to defer to the president of the board. >> Uh so, uh this is essentially the calendar for the upcoming year. It

122looks uh somewhat similar to this year. We will have one regular board meeting um as required by state law. We also have a special meeting each month. It is calendared out. Uh, Superintendent Schner, I and the board staff worked really hard on these dates, making sure that we uh space them out so staff had enough time to get us materials to we looked at holidays. Um, hopefully everything uh works out all right and we don't come into the situation where we have this year where we're voting to change a date because of a FIFA match um that that conflicts. Um I know that there is interest from board directors to create a more structured calendar. I think going through this process this this year was really interesting to see how difficult that will be because

123of changes needed. Um but I think that that is a great thing that the policy committee should see if that it should discuss to see if there is a structured cadence in which we want to have. Um but other than that I will open it up to questions or comments. Director Anken. >> Um, yeah, you already touched on it a little bit, but um I am actually super frustrated with the calendaring process. It it shouldn't actually take a lot of time of the board president, superintendent, and staff to juggle where do we think there should have meetings. Every other district says our regular meeting is the first Wednesday of the month. Our regular meeting is the first Tuesday of the month. It is the second Wednesday of the month and has a policy that says

124if this falls on a holiday, this happens. This is just like one of many ex and sorry if you're tired of hearing me harp on these things, but I got a year and a little bit left to do that and I'm really so exhausted of having the same conversation over and over. Now, if I'm the only one that thinks something and we want this conversation off the table, somebody needs to tell me that. But otherwise it feels like there's this work that's happening. There's these conversations that have been had and then we get to a point where we just make the same decision that we made the year before and it is exceedingly frustrating. Um we should have and this is also for us in the policy committee a policy or a a board procedure

125that sets the expectation for when we have board meetings. One regular board meeting a month is required by law but we the board can decide it's the first meeting of the month. or whatever law requires that we determine that ahead of time for the public for transparency so that they know when to expect a regular board meeting. Special meetings, there's a little bit more flexibility in terms of OPMA and scheduling. We don't have to approve those meetings ahead of time, but it took me way longer than it should have to figure out why we have different types of meetings because nobody ever talked about it. And so I I don't want to put our our our new colleagues in the position of just going, I guess I just have to check my calendar for when

126I have a meeting or I guess we have to do whatever staff says or whatever the legal team says. We were elected. We actually do have authority. And that authority is robbed from us when we don't know what this job is. And so the calendar is an example of yes, there's state statute that requires certain number of meetings, but then we the board can and should decide how often we're going to meet and how we're going to structure those agendas. This is work that a considerable amount of time and effort was put into by more than one board director um and that just disappeared in the last couple of years. And so, yes, let's talk about it in uh policy committee, but also like, oh my gosh, annually we should be looking at our own

127regulations for setting board meetings, looking back and saying, did we follow it last year? Did it work? Do we want to continue that going forward or do we want to make changes to our own procedure? That's a board conversation. That's not a staff conversation. And um so I'm obviously on a bit of a soap box, but I'm just so frustrated with this a lot of things. Um and I don't want future boards to have to take the time talking about the calendar when they should be talking about students. And I don't want future board members to wonder when they even have a meeting or why. Um >> can I ask you a clarifying question, Liza? What are you >> like? What is the problem? I'm not I'm just not sure. So what what did we

128not do? What did we not do last year like or what happened last year that specifically it was it the the unpredictability of our special meetings >> just of of of every meeting and yeah unpredictable >> I did actually have the experience of looking at my calendar and be like oh oh what I didn't expect to see that there like that that for sure happened but I guess I didn't know the behind the scenes why. So do you have insight into what was going on? That's kind of what I'm addressing is the problem is that you're part of the board, >> right? >> You're required to show up at board meetings and you have no understanding of why these decisions were made or the opportunity to provide as a member of the board any input

129into that. Um so but the the it's the irregularity and then also um the confusion around and it even just came up in public testimony around there used to be two regular board meetings a month per state law those had to be announc set and announced at the beginning of the year. So even though we decided to move away from that everybody knew when the board meetings were. You didn't have to check check your email, check the you know community members didn't have to check the board calendar. The regular meetings were set. We moved away from two regular board meetings with the understanding we would continue to have two meetings a month that the second one would allow us some more flexibility to actually and this is again different board different superintendent but the intention

130behind that was not to reduce the number of board meetings. The intention was to allow more flexibility with a with the second meeting being a special meeting to go out and have meetings in the community. We have a superintendent who's much more embracing and proactive of the idea of community engagement. So that mechanism maybe is not we don't need to force that through board meetings anymore. But my point is we need to decide as a board what do we want to hold meetings for? when are they and then the calendar needs to be set based on that so that we make sure we have the time to get our work done and also I don't know maybe maybe members of this board and this is just total conjecture it should be a discussion of if

131we would like to have two regular meetings if people want to have public testimony more often that's the main difference um or not but I feel like every board member should have the opportunity to participate in that um rather than just roll over whatever was before and um and and I think the bigger issue is really understanding where our time needs to be spent um in in our meetings. So >> So I just want to I'll I'll add and clarify a little bit. These this holds a pattern of one regular board meeting and one special meeting. These dates will be set so there is some consistency. So hopefully you don't run into this problem. All the dates for the regular board meetings and the special meetings are set. So you can see next year when

132when they are happening I do think that if we want a different cadence this is a would be an opportunity to talk about what that different cadence if we want a different day that's why it's on the calendar here we can make amendments and we can uh make amendments from the dis of how we would like to see things differently and also I think call up staff a little bit on why they suggested these days because they're looking at both staffing calendars holidays, um, school breaks and and those sorts of things. The goal was always to have one regular board meeting and one special meeting. I think Superintendent Schner and I talked about how it would be nice to have the special meeting before the regular meeting uh each month. That doesn't always if you

133are looking at the calendar, that doesn't always happen from a date perspective, but that was the goal um in sort of deciding the dates. Um I'm look some inquisitive looks of like why uh special meetings you can introduce items. Um so that could then be voted on at the regular board meeting. So it just provided an opportunity there for for ease of of work. Further questions or comments? Director Song. Um, I I think that it's a good idea not to put the special meetings set in stone because I like having the flexibility of having more or less. I don't want us to just have a meeting for the sake of having a meeting. Um, but it was always my understanding that the reason we switched to just having one meeting a month is because part

134of student outcomes focused governance is that we were trying to be more intentional about our time. So, I I guess I'm not sure what the what the objection is that we're not being properly notified about what why we're having a special meeting. I'm confused. >> No, no. My my objection is um and I agree, we shouldn't have we we shouldn't the special the whole point of having the second meeting being a special meeting was so that we could have more flexibility um without having to reapprove the calendar. There still continues to be confusion about the board reduced how many times it meets and we didn't do that. We didn't reduce how many times we meet. I still hear that from people. I see what you mean. You don't have as many meetings anymore. You don't

135and it's like no we we we do. >> What changed was this. But I think there's also just um you know >> my experience of oh we have a meeting. I think you know and what are meetings for does align with being intentional about how we spend our time and we I mean even when there used to be two regular board meetings a month scheduled if there was no business it didn't happen very often but if there was no business it would get cancelceled and you can always do that um I have a yeah >> director Lavali >> yeah um just based on what you said I do have a little bit of concern of staff tracking the special meetings next to the regular board meetings just because if something's being introduced there, having the

136time to sit and process it and discuss the item that's being introduced before it goes for action, not having it come for action an hour later. >> Oh, no. We weeks weeks before. >> All right. Sorry. I thought you were saying stacking them right next to each other. And I was like, oh. If you look on if you look on the in in the bar, there is the sample calendar and there it's colorcoded with a special meeting and then usually a week break is the goal and then a regular meeting. That way there's also time for community to organize if there is there is an issue. >> The way that that had just been said, I was like, oh, oh, absolutely not. But that was my own misunderstanding. Director Smith, u my comment is along

137the same lines of um some concern around the special meeting being, you know, in the same month having inter items and then voting for them in the regular board meeting. I definitely see the the value in being able to move a little bit faster that way. But my experience on the board so far is that we have an intro item, we have some discussion, and then like the week of the action item, we get floods of email, tons of feedback, and it it feels like it's really too late to to do our due diligence and really address the concerns we're getting. Um, that's with that is with the whole month ahead. So, it's not just about how much notice there is, but but being able to better communicate to the community like what's happening. Um,

138so if we have a shorter gap between intro and action, I think we would have to be really intentional about finding ways to clearly communicate like this issue is coming up so that we can get the community input, you know, even before I I'd love to get input before the intro intro item because that's when we actually have our chance to discuss. And hopefully some of that is pulled into the policy comm or not not the policy all our committee work because people will be more aware of what's happening because it's happening in our policy committee so they know what's coming up and and how to be involved. That is the goal of some of the committee work I would say. >> Yeah. Just in response to that I think >> director Misrai >> I

139think one I think you hit on this but I think people act urgently when things are urgent. So like I think you could have three months notice and people are going to send you the emails right before the meeting. But I do think that I've seen other districts do more have more discussion and conversation on first reading, which we tend to treat first reading as like a bit of like a proforma like now we've read it, let's on to the next thing. And I think actually frontloading some of that conversation early in a first read, which we don't have to change any policy to do, we should just do it. >> Um, >> actually gives the public more sort of insight into what we're thinking, where each director is coming from. It also just gives

140us time to like work through issues so we're not scrambling at the end to try and amend things or whatever. So I think that um we we could probably control that more through our own behavior than anything we change here in policy. >> Other questions. >> All right. I will ask staff for the roll call, please. >> Director Smith. >> I. >> Director Song. >> Yes. >> Vice President Briggs. >> I. Director Lavali, >> I. >> Director Miss Rahi, >> yes. >> Director Ranken, >> I. >> President Top, >> yes. >> This motion is passed unanimously. >> Thank you. And I'll ask board staff to send out all the dates, calendar dates for both the regular and special for the upcoming year so that we have them all in our calendar and then also posted

141easily on our website so folks are aware. And on special meetings, if we don't have any material, which I have a whole list of stuff from from Superintendent Schner of what he wants to talk about in work sessions, so I don't see that happening anytime soon, but if it does, we will definitely cancel a special meeting. Um, approval of the 26 27 regular board meeting dates. So that's this year is next on on the agenda. May I have a motion for this item? Wait, we're Oh. Oh, okay. Sorry. Approval to amend approval of amendment to the 2025 2026 regular board meeting date. Oh, oh my gosh. Sorry. I move that the school board amend the 2025 2026 regular board meeting dates to change the date of the July 2026 meeting from July 1st, 2026 to

142July 8th, 2026. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. Second. >> Okay. I have a motion from Vice President Briggs and a second from Director Misarahi. So, this is our approved dates from last year. We are I'm suggesting we move uh July 1st to July 8th because there is a FIFA World Cup game on July 1st and I imagine that traffic and the city might be a little crazy about right here in this area. Um, thank you to Chief Operating Officer Podesta for flagging this issue for us. Um, but any questions or comments from board directors? Director Smith, >> I just have a a question about how this fits in with the regulation or the requirement to be approving the whole calendar a year ahead of time like we just did and

143then now we but we can >> so we just have to vote on it. That's what we're doing right now. >> Thanks for explaining. So, if his this goes down, then we are then we will all be fighting traffic on July 1st. All right. I'll ask for uh the staff to call the role, please. Director Song. >> Yes. >> Vice President Briggs. >> Hi. >> Director Lavali. >> Hi. >> Director Ms. Rahi. >> Yes. >> Director Ranken. Yes. >> Director Smith. >> Yes. >> President Top. Yes, >> this motion has passed unanimously. >> And I have made an error. I've not been looking at my script for both of the last two. I did not go to our student representative. So, I'm going to go back real fast and uh for so for so it's

144the student representative for the uh 26 27 calendar, the uh advisory position, please. Advice pro. And then for the the next for the uh changing of the meeting date, do the student advisory also pro. >> Thank you so much. I'm so sorry. All right. Then we're going to move on to uh approval of revisions to board policy number one 1,220 board officers and duties and board meetings, 1240 committees, 1,310 board policy manuals and superintendent procedures and 1,400 board meetings. May I have a motion for this item? I move that the board approve revisions to board policy numbers 1220 board officers and duties of board members 1240 committees 1310 board policies manuals and superintendent procedures and 1400 board meetings as attached to this board action report. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

145>> Second. >> I have a motion from Vice President Briggs, a second from Director Ms. Rahi, and I'm going to pass it over to Director Misrai to present this item. >> Yes. Yeah. Um, I'll walk through it and uh would love the help of my fellow committee members as well if I miss anything. But um, this is the inaugural policy from the policy committee. Very exciting. I know people have been waiting a long time for this. Um, and you know, in true form to our name, it's actually a revision to like five policies. Um, but you know, really we wanted to tackle first and foremost the question of how a policy becomes a policy, how we uh, revise policy. and um it it was not super clear and it was also you know somewhat of

146a of a nebulous but maybe like gatekeeping policy or um practice as well the way that that would happen. So um we wanted to get really clear and have a really clear process so anyone can understand how a board director or someone else could bring a policy to the board. So um I'll walk through it just like how it's going to work. So the way that it happens now will still be a method of getting a policy onto our agenda which is the president and the superintendent in their agenda setting meeting say we're going to put this on the agenda and it gets on the agenda. Um so that still remains one method for a policy to get on the agenda. The other is for it to pass through committee. So if a committee says

147this is a policy that we think as we're doing right now that the policy committee thinks should be a policy that is one way for it to get onto the agenda. The same would be true for the finance committee or the operations committee. If there's something within their purview that they think should come to the full board, they can send it to the board um uh from from the committee. Uh and more on that in a second. The third way would be uh for a board director to bring it up as an amendment to the agenda and then it would be voted on as an amendment and it would need to receive four votes. Uh so anytime there's four votes for something it can get added to the agenda. Um so I want to just

148clarify a few things here. So on the passing through committee and how something comes from committee to the full board. We still have our first and second reading structure. That's not in state law. That's just something that we've adopted as a board. Um but is I think considered to be a good practice as we just talked about it a minute ago. Um, our recommendation in this policy would be to say that if it gets a uh a unanimous vote out of committee, then that would then bypass first reading. So then it could go straight to action at the full board because that means it already has three board members support. It's gone through committee, hopefully been vetted and well discussed in those public committee meetings. Um, and then uh is then voted on by the

149full board just for action at the next meeting. we already have lots of exceptions to the first and second reading structure. Um where we if it's something that uh we deem to be urgent. Uh so this would be another exception to that. Um so that's on the committee and how that would work. Uh if it just comes out of the committee with uh only two committee members supporting it, then it would just come to first and second reading uh to the full board. Uh the second thing I wanted to bring up on this amendment issue. So uh the other thing that we're clarifying in policy is that um it is appropriate and possible for board directors to make amendments from the dis. So that would uh be anytime we're discussing any policy, not even something

150that comes from one of these policy committees that um as long as it's sort of structurally in line with the thing that we're talking about. Um uh board directors can make an amendment to a policy uh that we are currently discussing. And then the way that would work is uh folks would vote on the amendments to the policy before voting on the underlying issue. Um so that's because we're clarifying that that's also why we can make amendments to the agenda because the agenda is something else that we should be approving. So we would um be able to make amendment to the agenda to add something to uh the agenda that that would still be if you're amending an agenda to add a policy item that would still be only a first reading. So it would

151just be an information item at that point and then we would be taking action on it at a subsequent meeting. Uh so those are the big changes. The other minor change is where um because it got very confusing. We are changing the language uh from policy amendment to policy revision because every time we change a policy we refer to it as a policy amendment but then we're also talking about amendments which means that we end up talking about amendments to policy amendments. So now if we're changing one of our own policies, we're calling that a policy revision. And we talk about amendments, we're talking about amendments that we're making to whatever item we're discussing. Yeah. Um so that's the really broad strokes of it, but as you can see, it kind of touches with these

152tendrils a lot of different board policies. That's why there's uh the change to the board officer roles, the committees, the board policies, and and our board meeting structure. Any uh thing for my fellow policy So go to the policy committee first. >> Director Anken. >> Um yeah, I just wanted to add again this is my soap box for the evening I guess. Um this is where historically the district has basically treated the board as a danger and taken control of things that the board actually should own. So we are told you can't do that. You can't bring forward this. Nope. Nope. Nope. um and mechanisms that actually don't apply to us are applied to us. So this is a bit of a baby step to separating policies of the board that direct the district in

153alignment with state law and agreements or policies, procedures, practices. We may want to call it something else just to help separate. Um in state law it's bylaws, but that gets into a whole Robert's rules definition thing. that we have the authority as a board to decide how we want to do our work. And obviously we comply with with the law, but the law allows for and directs boards to establish its own ways of working as as a board. Now, there's a lot of assumptions in that that are that we all know what we're doing. Um, and we don't. And we've been allowed as a board, I don't mean us specifically personally, just the the the Royal Wii, Seattle School Board, um has allowed itself to be driven by staff. Um and and to be frustrated

154by it, too. I don't think any nobody's done this on purpose. It's inertia and we have to really clearly define our work and our expectations for ourselves and how we're going to do things like something as simple as setting a calendar. Um, and if you look at pretty much any other district in Washington state and across the country, you will see district operational procedures and boards. Some people call them bylaws. I don't know. I don't think anybody in Washington state calls them bylaws. Um, but they will call they will be called uh board um uh uh processes or governance processes or something that defines because what between board meetings we don't exist. We only exist when we're here. And so because of that, we have to have agreements about how things work. So something as

155simple as making an amendment, which is not only allowed, is a necessary part of the democratic process. We've been told we can't actually do. And that is a huge problem. And that's because we don't have ownership over our own operations as a board, not as a school district, as a board. So this is kind of a a step towards hopefully getting clarity around we actually don't work for anybody in this building. We as a body employ a superintendent to run this building and the whole district. And so that does mean that there are limits on us. That does mean we have to, you know, create and maintain commitments to each other, to the public. But we have to be able to do our job as representatives of the community. And the only way we can

156do that is by taking control of and understanding governance processes so that um we can do that effectively. Other board directors I will I will say I'm excited for the clarity. I think part of this is what how we operate and it provides uh a clear understanding I hope for all board directors on how something gets onto the agenda and I appreciate the work that the policy committee did in in doing this work and I think that uh as there are questions we can also ask our legal counsel about how how things operate or or what is or is not allowed but otherwise I think this is great work um from our policy committee Yeah, I just want to echo my appreciation too because I feel like this is something we've been it's been very

157muddled and we've gone around and around trying to get clarity on it and have failed and it's very frustrating because it feels like it should be straightforward. Um, so I'm just grateful that you guys finally figured it out. >> Any other comments or questions? Then we will go to board staff for the roll call, please. Oh yes. I'll go to our student representative for their advisory position. >> Be advised, pro. >> Thank you. >> Vice President Briggs. >> I. >> Director Lavali. >> I. >> Director Ms. Rahi. >> Yes. >> Director Ranken. >> Yes. >> Director Smith. >> Yes. >> Director Song. >> Yes. >> President Top. >> Yes. This motion has passed unanimously. >> I love it. Very exciting. So, we're going to end pretty early tonight, which means our executive session can't start

158till 8:30. So, we're all >> We still have introduction. >> Yeah, I know. We're still going to do introduction. Uh we we have one only one last item on the agenda. Uh it's an introduction item. We will take a little bit of time to do that, but we have some extra time. Well, we will have a little bit of extra time before our executive session begins at 8:30 on the uh performance of a public employee. So, with that, >> we will move into the introduction items on today's agenda, which is the declaring 3020 East Sler Way residential property as surplus and authorizing the district to market the property for sale. Um, I think I'm going to director Lavali. Yeah, thank you. Um, so in the introduction of this item, the approval of the sales of

159residential property located at 3020 Eastler Way, it was given to the school district and to be used exclusively to benefit Lehi Elementary School. The district has gone ahead and looked at all options that the school might be able to utilize the property for and it they it has been decided that it is in the best interest of the district and of the school to go ahead and sell the residential property and use the funds to benefit Lushi Elementary. Um, we did discuss this a little bit in the operations committee as well. Asked a number of questions about it and I know this had been brought up in the Beex committee which myself and director Song were in and listened to as well. Um, there is no way legally to have it benefit the entire district.

160This was exclusively gifted to the one school. Um the sale of the property is we're priced to provide the sale of at least um 855,000 um 90% of the appraised value. Anything under that would need to come back to the board for approval at this point in time. I believe I got everything. Are there any questions or Superintendent Sheldon or did you have any statements? I mean, my only statement was I was hoping this was going to be the superintendent's house, but I appreciate that that's not okay. So, uh just for everybody listening, uh ex exactly as was said, this was a wonderful gift. Uh it is we wanted to benefit uh the elementary school. So, thank you. >> Are there any director questions? >> Director Ranken. >> Um thank you. Uh the the the

161I mean I understand that somebody donated this house specifically to benefit Leai which is awesome. Um what limitations are on the type of support like who I guess where's the determination of or have we not gotten there yet? But what type of benefit like because it's property does it have to be capital expenditures? Does the community does the Lashai community um are they going to be included in what with what they think that would benefit their community most? This is just a really unique um unique uh resource um that I don't remember having encountered before. So, I'm just curious like how how and who will be deciding, you know, what the what the um use actually is? >> That's a good question. I don't have full clarity on that. I believe that it is anything

162that goes to the benefit of Lehi Elementary and there is no restrictions on that so long as it's going to that school. Um, and that is my understanding if staff wants to jump in here. >> Yeah, I I just think it does have to be capital. >> It does say Okay, excuse me. Yes, I missed that. I apologize. >> Capital eligible that it says that. So that could include like playground fac but facil they couldn't use it to fund staff for example. >> Correct. It's it's a capital expense. >> Okay. So that's a limitation placed on it. But within that it TBD with with the school community I >> Yes. I think we need to know how much we're talking and then we can have a conversation about what a playground might cost or what

163lighting or what have you. But my certainly my hope would be that it would be involving the school, the community, etc. But we um but it would have to be capital expense. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Thanks. >> And there will be a public hearing uh that staff will be putting on on on the sale. And I know since this is Director Song's district, she will be in attendance, but other board directors are welcome to attend as well. Um, Director Song, >> um, I would be interested in some ideas that, uh, we could do to show our gratitude and memorialize, um, this very generous donor. I don't know what that looks like, >> um, and what is permissible within our policies, but I think we we should do that. >> It's a great idea. >> Others.

164All right, that was the last item on our agenda. Uh I will just uh a housekeeping item is that graduation season is upon us. If you haven't seen in your email uh the graduation schedule along with your needed size uh for your gown to attend and certify the graduations. So just please make sure you have filled that out and get that information over to board staff. But there being no further business to come before the board, the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 710. We will come back together at 8:30 for our executive session. See everyone shortly.