Seattle Schools Board Meeting April 22, 2026

001Hey everybody. Oh yeah. Heat up here. Oh yeah. All right. The April 22nd, 2026 regular board meeting is called to order at 4:31 p.m. We would like to acknowledge that we are on ancestral lands and the traditional territories of the Puet Sound Coast Salish people. Ask staff the for the roll call, please. Vice President Briggs here. Director Lavali >> here. >> Director Ms. Rahi >> here. >> Director Ranken >> here. >> Director Smith. >> She will be joining us momentarily. She's stuck in traffic on the way. >> Director Song >> here. >> President Top >> here. >> Uh student representative Manglesen >> here. Student representative representative Yun here >> and student representative Massudi uh is unable to attend. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. Well, we had a wonderful introduction today from the Xin band

002here this evening. Can we give them a quick hand for their beautiful music and pass it over directly to Superintendent Shelner? >> Good evening or good afternoon everyone. Uh, I'll have other comments in a second, but I really just want to thank uh the band. You were wonderful. Fantastic. I think we're going to say thanks and take pictures or whatever it is or we're just going to say thank you. >> We could do a quick picture. Would you be willing to do a quick picture with us? >> Awesome. So, we're going to take we're literally two minutes and we're going to do on the stairs up here. Quick photo. Okay. Board directors and very >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Can you photoshop me in? >> Yes, Joe. But we will photoshop you in the

003picture. Thank you. We're going to now go to our student representatives for comments. And I think that they have a video that we're going to show. Yep. Do the student representatives have an introduction to the video maybe while we uh figure out the tech aspects? So I would like to share exciting news that the projectbased student board PBS has been newly launched. Um the application is now open for students to apply and most of the video will cover most of the information on what this student board does but I would just like to recognize and thank um all the students who have been part of this journey as well as um support from the district and Mr. um Ted Howard for being just very instrumental in um this journey. And again the video will cover

004most of our um experience creating this board. So once we can get that The future of our schools shouldn't be decided without the people in them every day. >> This is how much power we have. >> And the most important voices are the students. >> There are students and staff with many different backgrounds. >> Students are the ones living in it, learning in it, and ready to lead the change. The needs of substantially larger student groups are being ignored. >> Student voice is the heart of change. >> Protecting us. >> When students come together, we don't just speak, we act. >> Welcome. The future of our schools shouldn't be decided without the people in them every day. >> This is how much power we have. >> And the most important voices are the students. >>

005There are students and staff with many different backgrounds. >> Students are the ones living in it, learning in it, and ready to lead the change. The needs of substantially larger student groups are being ignored. Student voice is the heart of change. >> Protecting us. >> When students come together, we don't just speak, we act. >> Welcome to projectbased student board. >> At PBSD, this is exactly what we aim to address and execute. We want to bring students together to identify issues we see in our schools, communities, and collaborate on solutions. solutions that work for students, not just developers. We want to create change for the people that experience school every day. We aim to execute this through projects that address the challenges we see in our schools and communities. >> Ever since I've been involved

006in Seattle public schools, student voice has been important. Their voice needs to be at decisionm. But what we heard from students it was mostly checkbox things that the district has already done had already developed that they wanted students opinion on and the students were very clear that that's not what they wanted. All this year students been working doing incredible work um under the leadership of Mr. Ted Howard who's over our office of accountability and they have transformed what student voice look like. Not only will there be student voice for the superintendent, but there'll be a projectbased group that will be driven by students and led by students. A project is a short-term effort, often completed by a team designed to achieve a specific goal or contribute to a long-term outcome. At PBS, our mission is

007to improve student outcomes through this project-based work that is driven by student needs. Drugs and bullying have become a prominent problem in many schools. I'm passionate advocating for staff to be more properly trained so that they can handle these situations when they arise. >> I know what a full day of education looks like. This is not challenging the students academically to their true potentials. However, there are students out there who have the ability to challenge themselves and this leaves students like me and others frantically searching for opportunities. >> In order for students to get a quality education, they first need to get to school on time. One of the things that I'm really passionate about is making sure they can do that through public transportation, which is currently lacking in some areas around my schools.

008For example, one neighborhood, students from that neighborhood have to take three buses to get to school. That is unacceptable. And with the PBS, I hope to change that. Last summer, in my role as a student representative, I collaborated with the Superintendent Student Advisory Board, also known as SAB. We evaluated whether SAB was fulfilling its intended purpose of serving in a student advisory role to the superintendent. While SAB provided valuable leadership development opportunities, the board's advisory function was not being carried out to the extent necessary. Recognizing this, we determined that there needed to be targeted restructuring efforts to separate and clarify the board's dual functions. We did this by creating a separate body called the projectbased student board PBS which would preserve the leadership development opportunities. We also worked with superintendent children to strengthen the advisory

009student advisory component of SAP. PBS is a selective group of students from across the district who are ready to lead, listen, and make an impact. You need to be a current or rising Seattle Public Schools high schooler. Attend at least 80% of our monthly meetings. Be constantly engaged in projects and represent your peers. >> If you have an issue you're passionate about, >> want to collaborate with peers, and are ready to make real change, >> join PBS. I just want to give a special shout out to my classmate Lake Neil from Ballard High School. He directed, filmed, and edited all of this in two weeks, two to three weeks, cuz we were on a very tight timeline. And we only had um two meetings, I think. Actually, only one meeting to film this. And um

010some of our students showed up 8 a.m. on a Saturday to film the rest of it. So, I just wanted to give a big shout out to everyone who support us in this journey to make this happen and please apply. Thank you to our student representatives. We're going to move into board committee and liaison reports. I'm going to start with just a few housekeeping items so folks uh kind of have continue to have an understanding of where we're going. We have two special meetings coming up, work sessions, goals and guardrails update, cell phone policy update, budget and community engagement review and discussion are the topics for our next two me uh meetings or work sessions. Um but looking to our board committee chairs or liaison who have any reports and our board chairs or our

011committee chairs may have some reports since they had their first meetings between um our last meeting and tonight. So with that looking to see if anyone wants to go first director song. >> Good evening everyone. I will start with a Head Start update. Um I am very pleased to share that our SPS Head Start programs recently received the results of their classroom assessments. These assessments evaluate teacher child interactions across the three key domains, emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. And I'm very proud to report that our classrooms scored above both the federal quality thresholds and the competitive thresholds in all three categories. So that means that our programs are performing strongly and do not require any corrective action or even reopening the grant for competitive bidding. These are very strong results and a reflection

012of the incredible work that is happening in our Head Start and early learning classrooms every day. Uh I also attended a recent Head Start policy council meeting. Uh policy council is a required part of Head Start and it gives parent representatives a direct role in decision-making for the program. During the meeting, parents reviewed the budget and spending. They discussed classroom assessment results and they considered potential updates to their bylaws. I think it's a great reminder of how a meaningful family partnership can lead to strong outcomes for our students. Uh switching now to um the finance and audit committee. Um, our April committee meeting was rescheduled to May 4th from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Um, as we're continuing to adjust to the return of board committees and the recent changes to the contract approval thresholds, we're

013trying to be thoughtful about how items are being routed. Um, one thing I do want to highlight is that the finance and audit committee will be taking on responsibility of doing deeper dives into board action reports and then making recommendations to the full board. But I think from time to time um as chair I may recommend an item just go directly to the full board for introduction. So tonight's um bar on the economic stabilization fund is a good example of this. Um while committee meetings are public, there are times when I think an item would benefit from a more formal presentation and discussion during a regular board meeting with the full board uh present. Um, at our March 23rd meeting, the committee discussed our goals, our work plan, the budget development process for both the

014remainder of the 2526 school year and planning for the 2627 budget. Um, the priority for this committee will be doing a deeper dive into selected areas of district spending. So, we want to understand where there is greatest variance between budgeted and actual spending, where spending differs from available funding, and whether expenditures are aligned with district goals and updates. So I think potential areas could include transportation, special education, multilingual services. So at the next meeting on May 4th, staff is going to bring us briefing papers. We're going to review them and decide as a committee which areas we want to prioritize. Um we are the finance and audit committee. So our plan is to have monthly meetings with one meeting each quarter specifically focused on audit topics. So the next audit focus meeting is scheduled for

015May 18th and that is also when the state auditor's exit conference will take place. Um and I especially encourage my colleagues to attend this committee meeting um because there will be important content presented. I will provide a summary at our next meeting. >> Thank you Director Song Director Lavali. All right. As an update from the um from the Okay, excuse me. From as an update from the operations committee, um we reviewed the draft charter and discussed a possible um we discussed possible change that we may bring to the policy committee within some of the wording of our charter. Um which would be a minor update that we would either bring to the policy committee or if advised bring to the board directly. Um with staff we discussed some of the past struggles from iterate past

016iterations of the committee including prioritization of issues staying focused and the large amount of redundancy that staff have been ex have experienced in the past. What the committee had agreed to do was that we would um get the presentations and whatever we agree to move on to the full full board will be presented by the chair of the committee for board discussion so that it's not duplication for the staff in the committee and then within the board. There was a strong interest in not just short-term but multi-year work plans which provide meaningful oversight without going too deeply into the work of the staff or the superintendent so that we got a longer term vision for the committee under our belt too as so much of the work ends up spanning a pretty longterm need. The

017committee discussed making sure that contract reviews were done by the committee and then voted on by the full board are summarized in a way to improve understanding context and board requirements as well as timelines because this will expand how many we're viewing with the new approval thresholds. Um there was a preference for the committee to be primarily in charge of the capital budget expenditures. Although as we get started there's a little bit of dependence of assistance of staff to help learn where each approval should go between the operations committee and the finance and audit committee. So there may be a little bit of discussion there that happens both with advisement of staff based on what they're seeing and within the chairs of the committees themselves. We discussed the student assignment plan and looked at some

018of the policies surrounding it. We may look at potential policy recommendations that we would like the policy committee to um consider as well as looking at what our timelines are and what our policies are surrounding board approval of things like student assignment plans, boundary changes, and long-term planning to make sure that we clarify the board role. Our next meeting is scheduled for April 30th and we will be viewing a number of construction projects that will then come before the board in the next meeting. It will continue on to the Beex meetings. Um both Vivian Song, Director Song and myself were at both meetings on March 13th and April 10th. We had project updates on Memorial Stadium, Reineer Beach High School, and Alkai Elementary. The planning team is also working on replacement grants uh grants for

019replacement of Orca's K8's roofing. And so there was a brief update on that. There was discussion on the and an update and presentation on the John Marshall School that will then be before the operations committee this next month. On April 10th, there was also there is more updates on the current construction projects as well as the districtwide AV safety and security updates that are occurring in a number of our schools and will expand to more schools in the future. and a presentation from the student community workforce agreement program that was created around Reineer Beach High School to ensure that students were being trained and hired in construction jobs in their communities and working on the schools they attended and where their families are attending. Um, we had presentations about the program, its expansion, and personal

020testimonies from former Seattle Public Schools students of Reineer Beach High School who were able to help us build the new school. In the next meetings, we will be hearing about carbon reduction and energy usage, multi-use building agreements, and we will be doing a lumber tour looking at um some of the building designs for Alkai Elementary. Thank you, Director Lavali. And I've seen the Alkai Elementary uh timber and it's beautiful. Director Msrai, >> I have a report from the um policy committee, also known as the cool committee, though we don't get to go on lumber tours. Um we went through our work plan and talked about a standing agenda of um both reviewing policy that is transmitted from the board, transmitted from staff, transmitted from the superintendent uh because we know policies will come up that

021we are not anticipating uh but then also having uh proactive policy work that we're constantly developing to update our policy manual and our internal policies uh to bring to the board. uh and then having discussions of like further policies that we're doing. So most of our first meeting was spent uh looking at the work plan and deciding what our first set of policies uh uh will be to take on. So the first grouping of policies that we're looking at are really the how policies get to the agenda. And I know that it might seem a little bit meta for a policy committee to be talking about how policies come to the board, but um that seems like uh foundational work that needs to be done before we can um move on to other things. So

022we're looking at um mostly the 1400 uh policy section uh looking at amendments from the dis amendments that come not from the dis um what the committee roles are in policy setting and how policies get onto an agenda. Uh and we are we have a meeting next week uh one week from today where we will be reviewing a draft of those policy changes and we can hopefully come uh with something to the board at the following meeting. Thank you, Director Misarrai. Director Ranken, >> thank you. Uh, this isn't a le li leazison report or a um committee report, but it's committee adjacent and it involves two committees that I sit on. So, it's hard to avoid a quorum without bringing it up in in front of everybody. So, um, is that is that okay? I

023have an agenda request that's going to bridge two committees and so just Yep. So um uh the the policy committee has been charged with um the board goals for this year helping ourselves and the public understand the role of the board. And a huge amount of that is what does it look like to oversee the superintendent district departments. And then on the audit committee we have uh we um the board employs the internal auditor and we we adjust um and control the work plan as needed. And so I have a work plan request which is uh which I've run by the superintendent which is to add a human resources audit to our annual work plan um to address just some really long-standing structural issues that with new leadership in the form of the superintendent I

024feel we are ready to actually move on as a system. Um I'm not I I want to make clear it's not about misfeence of fees or any individual person but we clearly have structural issues in HR in timelines and investigations in leaves in you know hiring decisions all kinds of things. There's a lot of things that keep coming up and have continued to come up and have been very long-standing issues in Seattle public schools that I really think we need to in the audit committee would like us to consider what the scope of that might look like and how that fits into the work plan. Um, and then how it relates to the policy committee is in terms of reporting on things that are more operational like HR. My hope is that an audit would

025help the superintendent understand quick things to address without having to take the time to go through all those things with an outside perspective. It would help us on the policy committee also understand what questions does the board need to ask the superintendent to have better insight into what's happening in HR and other programs. So, um, an audit, and this is what I would like us to discuss in the committee, but it could include recruitment, hiring, promotion, and separation processes, um, staffing authorization practices, employee relations, workplace investigations, complaint response procedures. I'm interested in do our policies reflect what we actually need them to reflect and then are they being followed essentially. So, would love to um, have us discuss that in uh, the audit committee. Thanks. other committee or liaison reports. Uh, Director Smith. >> Hi.

026Um, I have a report as the scholarship committee liaison. Um, coming up next month on May 28th, the ceremony to honor the recipients of the scholarship. Um, the scholarship committee provides scholarships to students who are kind of slipping between the cracks in other ways. Um, I don't know. I I should leave it to the scholarship committee's work to really describe it. Um, but especially in light of the board goal to highlight successes in our district, this is a a big opportunity to really look at some students who have overcome um significant obstacles and hear their stories and honor them as they receive their scholarships. So that's May 28th at Franklin High School at 7 p.m. So I both invite and strongly urge um the all the board directors and you know other district leadership to

027attend. Thank you, Director Smith, for serving on that role. I got to attend last year and they gave out 70 $10,000 scholarships and all students every each student got to speak and it was a long night but it was so impactful and it was it was amazing to see other directors Okay. Uh we are not we're not going to start public comment till 5. It's close to five, but as uh I think it will kind of take us a little bit of time to get there. um because we're hearing from many community members across a a range of topics tonight with a significant number centered on technology use in schools, native education, curriculum adoption, and and very clearly concerns regarding the principal transition at Adams Elementary. Um, I think to the Adams community, this is

028a very difficult, scary situation and that community deserves transparency, answers to your questions. And we know this has been difficult and an emotional process. And it's clear from the testimony list tonight and the recent community meeting at Adams Elementary, meeting with teachers as well and the PTA that there are strong feelings and concern. Um this engagement I think reflects how much the Adams community really cares about your school, about your students, about each other. At the same time, um you know, our role as the board um is uh not the hiring or placement decisions. We place that authority and responsibility with the superintendent. But it's our responsibility to keep informed and have the superintendent keep us informed of decisions and reasoning as to why moves are the best moves for our students. So that said,

029we are paying close attention. We are in communication with superintendent and we support his responsibility to lead on these decisions while ensuring the community concerns are heard and taken seriously as he makes the best decisions in very difficult situations. So, with that, there was a meeting last night that I know two nights ago, excuse me, I'm uh two nights ago, uh where uh Superintendent Shner, district staff, I know Director Smith and Director Lavali were also present there. But I'm going to ask in in real time for Superintendent Shner to provide an update of what what happened and and where things are at there. >> Uh good evening everybody. Uh, thank you so much, President Top. Um, I'm going to take some privilege here. Uh, we have a little bit of time. I want to thank

030the Adams community for being here, for showing up, uh, for asking important questions about a decision that is very important to your children and to your families and to your community. Uh having been through many conversations and many decisions that affect staffing, uh I understand the passion and the care uh that comes along with uh these kinds of decisions. I also understand that when a decision is made to impart a leader on a school rather than to go through the more traditional process that that causes even more consternation. uh because certainly you know the traditional process uh is not being done and certainly the voice of the community is not being heard and I really do appreciate that having been on a school board of New York having been a principal having been in communities.

031Uh, I I do hear that and I appreciate the the ability and the desire to bring those questions up and to question the decision-m and certainly, as I've always said, I will try to explain every answer, every question that's asked, every decision that's made. Uh, and certainly I will always show up and certainly the meeting went to many hours in the night. Uh and my promise was certainly that um I would stay through it all uh as I did as the staff did. And I really want to thank also the staff uh especially the folks from technology and comms who I think had no idea uh what they were getting themselves into. But all of that being said, I also want to highlight a feeling of sadness I had and a feeling of unease of

032what I also saw when we started the meeting. We had a series of speakers just trying to introduce themselves just trying to explain their thought process and what was going on. And as you all know, the decision was to place uh principal Anitra Jones at Adams. Now, mind you, this is a award-winning national. She won something called the Milkin Award. She won a state award. She was the assistant super assistant principal of the year. She won the foster award. Uh her entire record in terms of the her evaluations have been incredibly positive. In fact, four out of four most of them. and she is somebody that I appreciate that there are not perfect uh you know questions about what's happened but here we were trying to introduce uh this longtime multi-deade service uh provider somebody

033who cares about children uh to the district and what was so disappointing I think was that in In the middle of her initial remarks, the community just interrupted her and said, "How long is this going to take? When are we going to get to the questions?" So, here's the person that's just trying to introduce themselves. And then, of course, we said, "We'll get to it. We'll be here for as long as you want." And you could tell there was already this this tension. Now again I appreciate that this is an important conversation but I will say it is it is uneasy when I look at that school when you look at the equity cheering uh it was the seventh richest school in the district. The people in the audience were at least presented almost as

034all white. And you had a black principal saying these things and being interrupted. And then I try to speak. And look, I'm the superintendent. Please come at me. I get it. I I I have the the microphone. I have the seat here. And all I asked the community for was five minutes. I said, I just want to speak for five minutes. I even took out my cell phone and I started the timer. I was immediately interrupted. I was immediately stopped. People were yelling, interrupting, and I just asked for some grace, some space. Throughout my entire opening remarks, I was being stopped. I was being interrupted. And then throughout the night, things were being shouted in the audience to again Anietra Jones, an award-winning principal, a black woman. You're speaking too slowly. That feels really uneasy.

035It feels like there's something else going on. And I then look at the kinds of things that were then asked and said, even my own personal feeling. I can only speak for myself, but somebody in the audience asked if I had my own children. I said, "No, just so you know, I'm newly married. I am very old for that. I'm 49. I've now married. Maybe we will have children. I would love to. But then you know what's happened? I've now received emails that say, "Dear superintendent, well, as a non-parent, I don't know if what that says to me is a feeling of righteousness and a feeling of positionality that worries me. It worries me because it shows not a willingness to truly engage, not a willingness to really listen. And even when we had said

036publicly that like Anitra had won the Milkin Award, somebody responded, well, you know, that award is named after somebody who, you know, committed, you know, fraud. Yeah. And do you know who like Cecil Rose is from the Roads Fellowship or the Alfred Nobel who invented TNT which probably killed more people than others? But I I'll take a Nobel Prize and I would be really proud. I don't think I deserve one. I'm just saying. And so it worries me that that is acceptable. And we were in a cabinet meeting today and I said, you know, I'm concerned because I feel like this is how it's been. And somebody said, yeah, you know, it's the Seattle way. People get righteous and they say their things and we just say, "Okay, we can't do that anymore. >> If

037that's the Seattle way, I want a new Seattle way. >> I I want to I I I want a a place where we can really speak and really talk. And my proof of that, at least personally, was at the end of the meeting or somewhere near the end of the meeting. It was a very long meeting. Somebody asked, "Well, how do we know that you'll respond? How would we know?" And I gave my cell phone number and he even said, "Please text it so you know." That's the kind of leadership I'm going to try to give. I'll be the superintendent as long as this board will have me. But I want to make sure that we are starting from a place that really is to listen and to care. And yeah, decisions are going to

038be bad. They really are. And if we can try to explain them and if we can try to do something, then then let's do it. But the the kind of the kind of feeling that I got from Monday was was was really unfortunate. And I know that that's not the intent. I know that the person who asked if I had children or not didn't mean it that way. But the way that it was taken, of course, was then it just led to emails that say, well, you know, as a non-parent. And I would like to believe that when they asked Enitra why, you know, to speak faster, they didn't mean that microaggression. But but again, who am I to judge? My job is to just speak about details and data that I saw. And so

039what I want to make sure also that I say which is is where it's hard for me in front of my bosses, those online and in front is that you might know that this job was a closed search. And so we couldn't tell anybody. In fact, my wife's family is still upset at her that they had to read about it in the paper. But I'm very good at following the rules. And when I got the job, you know what my friends said? All of my friends, superintendents across the country, they didn't congratulate me. >> They actually said, "Ben, why are you ruining your career?" >> And I said, "Well, I believe in Seattle. I like the weather. My cousin lives here." And he said, "But Ben, you know the history of what happens to superintendent."

040And and I said, "Yeah, but I I think this is going to be different this time." And then I got a call from a very dear friend of mine, deputy chancellor in New York, whose family is from here, and she said, "Ben, you're going to have to change. No matter how you were in New York or Michigan or Norway or India or England, your your way of just, you know, being direct and speaking the truth and not worrying about things, it's not going to fly here." And I said, 'Yeah, but I don't want to change because I think everywhere I've gone, good things have happened. It's been tough. It's been rough, but but I know it's possible. And she said, "Well, I don't know, Ben. Good luck." And I said, "Well, let's see." And today,

041I will tell you, I had a crisis of conscience here, crisis of confidence. Should I say these things? Because it could have been easy for me to just say, "Thank you. I believe in democracy. People say you're peace. Let's go. But I was walking to the building an hour or two ago and somebody came up, Ben, just be you, man. Just be you. Gave me a hug. And so this is me. This is me saying it was it was rough sitting there because of my multiple decades of being in spaces like that and seeing the actions. And maybe it wasn't intentional. Maybe it wasn't didn't mean to come off that way, but man, did it feel wrong. And so, I just want to say that I do hear you. And I'll be perfectly blunt, cuz

042that's who I am. Did Principal Jones come off glowingly? No. Were was her presentation there terrific? No. Do I think my presentation was perfect? Nope. Do I think I could have chosen my words a little bit better? Absolutely. But I could only imagine what it must have felt like to receive what she received. And then what was so interesting at the end was one of the questions was basically you know after hearing all this like do you even want this job? Why would you even be here? And the response was yes because I care about children because I want to do right by children. That speaks to me. Now are we perfect? No. Is there baggage? Yes. Is my job to hold everybody accountable? All 9,000 something. And is the job of these people to

043hold me accountable? Absolutely. But what I ask is that we move forward together. We don't prejudge and we recognize how we act in certain public spaces and what we do and how we say it. And so again, at no point am I meaning to chastise or to to to blame, but the president asked me for my thoughts about the meeting. And and that's and that those are my thoughts. And I just want to say thank you to the people who came out and said their peace and thank you to Principal Jones and thank you to Principal Son and thank you to director, executive director, uh, you know, Tim. Um, we have different titles here. Um, and and I and I to be just like I know we can do this together. I do. But what

044I saw on Monday was was rough. And I also want to give the privilege to Bev Redman who um is our uh chief of staff and also comm's director who was there by my side who's been there by my side for 2 months and 22 days. If she wants to share her thoughts, I think it might be helpful. No pressure. Uh there's never a convenient time to stand or to take one. Uh for the past nearly five years, I've had the privilege of serving this community and being a part of it. And I'm very proud to be employed here and to represent the superintendent and at times speak on behalf and be with the board through all of your work. I've never never come to you and spoken out of my own personal opinion. Pardon

045my indulgence tonight. Had the honor to be with Adams on Monday night. As an administrator, I know that we're going to get slings and arrows. We are going to take criticism. That is part of the job. As a professional here, one of the things that drew me to this community was that we were rooted in the fact that we respect each other, we lift up each other's voices and we protect that space. I will also say that as a black female sitting in that space watching another black female be addressed in a way that I thought was insulting, undignified that was discouraging for the Seattle that I had grown to know. We can disagree on presentation. We can disagree on facts. We can speak with passion. But what we should never be asked to do

046is to surrender our dignity and be treated as less than human. to the Adams community. I speak with honesty when I say I'd love to come back to the table. Superintendent has already said it was not an ideal moment. What I'm hoping for that community and for Principal Jones is for the chance. Give her the chance. Give her the conversation. suspend the judgment that has already been delivered. Let her have the conversation. Thank you for your time. Um, thank you, Bev. So, with that, I appreciate I love public comment. I still can't believe that we limited only to 25. I'm not saying to change that, please. But I just want to say to all of the Seattle community, to all north and south, east and west, to all races, all creeds, all religions, to everybody,

047we've got to be in this together. We've got to do this together. And we really do need a new Seattle way. Let's build it together. Thank you, Superintendent Shelner. And >> hey, uh, Superintendent, sir, >> if we're going to build it together, let's do it right because it's not about who's right. It's about >> We're going to hold here. We've got public comment. I appreciate that. We are We're not taking public comment yet. We're going We have a list of speakers who are >> What time you going to take public comment? It's 5:16. Now, >> we in just a second, we will start public comment. I'll go through the rules here and we will start the speaker list. So, I appreciate that. But thank you so much. We have a lot of people here who

048are waiting to provide public comment. >> Seen the goon squad before going on. >> All right. So, with that, I appreciate everyone being here tonight. We have a lot of folks who are signed up to provide public testimony. Um, I'm just going to read a quick few rules on on on public testimony as well as uh turn it over to staff to go over some logistics. So, we have a board policy 1400 that provides our rules for public testimony. The board expects the same standard of civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects of itself. As uh board president, I have the right to 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

049guidelines or who otherwise substantially disrupts the orderly operation of this meeting may be asked to leave the meeting. Uh with that, I will uh now pass it over to staff just to go over some logistics. >> Thank you, President Topp. The board will take testimony from those on the testimony list and will 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 up 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 2 minutes. The timer at the podium will

050indicate 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 >> and I'm just going to say one thing we have, just to keep it fair, we are keeping testimony to two minutes. I will at the end of your two minutes just say please conclude your remarks. Let me just wrap up the your final sentence.

051Thank you. >> The first speaker is Emily Churin. >> My name is Emily Churkin. I'm an educator, advocate, and SPS parent. In January, I testified before the United States Senate on Commerce, Science, and Transportation about technology's impact on children and childhood. Today, this district provides one-to-one internet connected devices to nearly every student, averaging about 9,000 per child on technology alone. It is past time that we ask, is it worth it? Because the answers to these questions, how many children should be able to use their school laptop to watch YouTube and play games, search up harmful content, talk to strangers, watch porn, use AI to write their essays should be zero. But it's not. Seattle students have done all of these things on their school devices. Children do not need edtech products to be successful in

052the future. The best preparation for a digital future is an analog childhood and an education built on people, paper, and pencils. This is not a kid problem. This is not a teacher problem. This is a leadership problem. So, I would like to know this fall when SPS hands out laptops and iPads, will the district inform parents that their children can watch YouTube, engage with chat bots, and play online games, that parents are responsible for laptop misuse, that the district consents on behalf of every parent to every single privacy policy of every single app or website their child will encounter, that the safety features installed on student devices for school don't apply at home. That GoG Guardian turns teachers into classroom IT police and kids find ways to evade it. Anyway, and that the CEO of

053the district's recently adopted safer watch app was arrested for bribing the NYPD. I don't know what topic is more universal today than every child in our district being given an internet connected device, but I do know that very few parents think six-year-olds should be able to watch porn or chat with strangers on a computer at school. Where are the adults who will change this? Thank you. >> The next speaker is Melissa Martinelli. >> I seed my time to Josh Callahan. Good evening, members of the school board. My name is Josh. I'm a parent at Adams Elementary. Today, you'll hear our concerns about the appointment of Miss Anitra Jones as principal to Adams Elementary. Our community concerns around this appointment are Senator Miss Jones record of district substantiated teachers union and student rights violations, none of

054which are found anywhere in her record. Adam's overindexes in special education students because of our current principles experience in this area and our community's care for these kids. We pride ourselves on being a safe and gentle space for those that need extra support. Sadly, there are multiple documented violations of student rights that occurred at Rineer View Elementary School during Miss Jones tenure. For reference, these are special education community complaint filings 23-21, 23-68, 23-73, 23-74, and 23-75. I will reference one quote found in 2375. Despite having the process and systems in place, the district acknowledged in part based on a previous complaint regarding two students at the school that the school was failing to consistently document classroom exclusions. Thus, it is not clear specifically how many students, how frequently, or how much time students were being

055sent to the principal's office. The other complaints document violations of the IDA and the district policies towards students with special needs that result in extra trainings for multiple staff members, including for principles and many hours of compensatory education. Two of our core special education teachers are leaving Adams next year. We're deeply concerned that a principal with substantiated record of SECCC violations will be unable to provide the correct guidance to new staff members. It's unacceptable to expect elementary age children to know their rights or to speak up for their own fair treatment. We do not wish to see this pattern of discipline continue for anyone's child. How can we have confidence in this appointment when trust has been broken by not recording violations in her record and now by appointment out of legal obligation? The next

056speaker is Hillary Patterson. Hello. Hi, I am an SPS parent and I'm also a teacher and I'm here to urge the district to set and enforce specific transparent policies and guidelines to decrease the use of technology in classrooms. You heard Emily. Um and it's inequitable to not have consistent guidance for everyone in our district. Currently, managing ed tech is up to school leadership, teachers, and sometimes parents with the capacity to advocate for those changes. This means extra work for teachers and varied use of apps and devices creating inequity for students. I personally have put effort into decreasing tech use in my daughter's classroom and my own, but not every parent or teacher has the capacity to do so, which means most students are left in the vague and undercommunicated tech world of SPS. Our staff

057and families need guidance and structure on why and how to use technology sparingly, in my opinion, and intentionally. it. If only some of us have the capacity and resources to do that work, then we are leaving most students behind. Even being at a currently nonSPS school, I used to teach in SPS, now I don't. My school now regulates device use strictly. And that means there are still problems. I was in a a study hall today and these are all the things that happened. One kid was playing a game, one kid was watching a video, okay, a video. One couldn't get started on an assignment because she had to toggle through so many different tabs to do it. And she told me her eyes and her head hurt. One student was typing into a Google doc

058that was telling her what to write. It was suggesting. So, she wasn't even writing it herself. This isn't learning. It's giving me and my students a headache. The only solution is to keep devices in computer labs or carts to be checked out for specific approved reasons and shift our assignments back to non- tech tech activities. Um, the irony is we often use tech tools to make things more efficient for teachers and really we're having to manage a lot of that technology and it's really not more efficient. So please create a clear communicated guidelines for all schools so that every student is protected from all those harms of edtech and al also has the privilege of critical thinking, being bored and human interaction. Thank you. The next speaker is Michelle Bradley. My name is Michelle Bradley.

059I am an SPS parent. I urge SPS to re-evaluate the one-to-one device program. Let me be clear, I am not anti-tech. I am pro-arning. My daughter declined academically in fourth grade due to her increased use of edtech. She's always loved to read. I was therefore perplexed when she didn't. When I learned that her teacher couldn't get her entire fourth grade class to finish reading books, I had an aha moment. I knew that with Epic, students could decide they didn't like a book after a couple of sentences and with a few clicks start a new one. Neuroscientist Dr. Cooney Horbath states that the primary function most children associate with a device is multitasking. Research offers that when studying on a screen, the average student drifts into unrelated digital distractions within six minutes. Humans cannot multitask. When

060students switch between edtech programs, Google searches, social media, and gaming on their school devices, accuracy decreases and deep learning is lost. But that is not all that is lost. Literacy skills grow with long form reading, allowing students to participate in extended arguments, identify misinformation on the web, and understand others perspectives. Don't we desperately need that right now? Neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf stresses that the decline of deep reading isn't a cultural shift, but a threat to democracy. Our children are not as smart as we were when we were their age due to edtech. Let's return to what works. Physical books, paper and pencil, computer labs, or computer carts with devices that are not connected to the internet. And with all the money SPS will save on harmful harmful edtech, more teachers. Thank you. The next speaker is

061Joan Williams. >> Hello, I'm Joan Williams and I live in West Seattle with my son and my husband. I'm here today to say thank you so much to the school board and our superintendent for bringing the highly capable program to West Seattle and for creating a pathway for private school kids to apply during enrollment. Having the option to apply for HC during enrollment gave us confidence that our son would receive the services he needs from day one. When we found out he qualified, knowing that we'd be able to go to school close to home at Alkai Elementary, our neighborhood, and be part of an HC cohort made our decision a no-brainer. So, we have enrolled. Thank you all so much. And I also want to mention that I did attend the education and candidate forum

062at Rainineer Beach High School last year. And the conversations I had there and the people I met um including our school board members here today uh made me really excited about being part of the public school system again. Um and I hope that kind of form happens again. That was really fun. Thank you all so much. Um, and thank you so much for for all of this highly capable stuff. Um, I've spread the word to other private school parents in the West Seattle area about applying this summer, so they will be applying later. Um, thank you and keep up the good work. We really appreciate it. The next speaker is Danica Noble. Hi everyone. I'm Danica Noble and I'm a mom of three public school kids in elementary, middle, and high school. I spent the

063last 5 years suing Facebook, focusing on online harms for children. I'm here to ask you to make all of Seattle's public schools phone free. Many schools are phone free on paper only. Uh, my ninth grader attends a phone-free school and yet at that school he's been exposed to live stream torture, gambling, and violent sexually explicit material on other kids' phones during class. That's a safety and learning concern. But as the evidence mounts from these social media um trials and the public research, it raises questions about the future liability for schools that allow this to happen during class. It's a collective action problem. The evidence is clear that the broader and the more consistent the policy, the greater the benefits. The world expert is at Seattle Children's and his research research shows that kids are spending

06425% a quarter of their instructional time in high school on phones. Um, and his research also shows that it is overwhelmingly on social media, on short form video, and I suspect increasingly on AI chat bots or cheat bots. I admire your dedication to championing our children's education, especially while you operate under severe funding constraints while the uh legislature fails to amply fund education. But until then, this is a lowcost, high impact change. 40 states and countless districts have adopted strong phone-free policies with room for local approaches, meaningful exceptions, and flexibility at the school level. But it's take this will take the burden off individual teachers who do this phone by phone and class by class. And it stops us from giving 25% of our children's instructional time tax-free to the tech companies. So I urge

065you to adopt a clear district-wide K through 12, it's got to be high school guys phone-f free school policy. Thank you. The next speaker is Florence K. Fiddler level. Is she coming up here? >> Oh. Thank you. >> Can you see me? >> Yes, we can. >> My my name in your community is Florence K. Fiddler level. I'm an enrolled member of the Pemba Band of Ojiway Indians out of the Turtle Mountains. And so now that you know that about me, you must know all of my natural protocols, colloquialisms, manners of speech, and looks. And so I hope because I clearly heard that warning at the beginning, be nice. But I think you were saying to be nice according to your community standards, which I'm totally at a loss because I'm not part of your

066community. I was born and raised in my own community and those are the natural rules that I understand. So if I get out of line on your community's protocols, maybe give me a warning first. Don't send yet right off the bat. Um, but that's something y'all need to understand is that who is sitting up there does not clearly identify. They need to see it when I glare at them. >> Get them. >> We are not We are not all the same. Some of the, you know, like that Sesame Street, uh, some of these things are not like the others. I am not like your school board. And so, you know, get a grip on that. I try to be polite. I try not to personally offend. I'm gonna tell you now, I'm going past two

067minutes, too. So, you can call the cops now. It'll take them three minutes to get here. I you need to understand this. The people in this room reflect the city of Seattle. All of us. >> That's right. >> And not just the school board. And I think it's wonderful that y'all are patient and sitting up there. I think it's great that you give us warning. Don't get out of line. >> We're going to give you a warning to wrap up your your comments here. >> I heard you at the beginning, but you took up some of my two minutes by making that big speech. >> Right. So to the people who are here supporting that school not getting closed, you need to stay on it every minute all the time. They closed our school. >>

068They closed our school a long time ago and we had a good graduation rate and it was a strong support to our whole community and they closed it and they won't even have meetings to talk about something to put in its place. Our kids are still suffering. And when we talk about institutionalized genocide, that speech that we heard earlier wasn't just to us. That's the same speech our children hear every day. So when we say every day, we send them into a war zone. It isn't just kids with guns. All right, we're going to need to move on to the next speaker. We're going to I'm going to ask staff to call the next speaker, please. >> Not death, but I am telling you that I've been up here for 40 years saying the same

069thing. And I think that it's time for you to stop listening and start doing something. And one of the things you could one of the things you could do if you would please call the next speaker up. >> The next speaker is Rebecca Blinder Mets is listen. >> You could listen and not for two minutes. These used to be five minute slots. You you got tired of hearing people for five minutes. You you par it back to three minutes. Then you put it back to two minutes. And this everybody in here has a thought. They love their children. We love our children and we want you to stop killing our children. >> Thank you. >> Now you can have your podium. >> Again, just a reminder to be respectful to everyone's time. I am going

070to hold the line strong on this twominute rule, please. Thank you. >> You took our time. >> The next speaker is Rebecca Blinder Mets. >> I would like to seed my time to Mike Lind. >> Good evening, members of the school board. My name is Mike Lind, a parent of two daughters at Adams Elementary in first and third grade. My family didn't start as an Adams family. Our third grader first attended a Seattle choice school as a kindergartener, but we didn't truly feel at home until we transferred back into our neighborhood school for her first grade year. At Adams, we have found the definition of community. This is a special school. Families help each other out with errands, impromptu child care, bonding together on the playground before and after school. We also show up for

071the marginalized and get active with demonstrations against injustice and inequality. It's likely this spirited activism is also the reason we're so vocal about this appointment that feels much more like administrative will than a fair and transparent interview process. I'm disappointed in Senator Superintendent Schultner's interpretation of what the real issue was on Monday. In addition to our kids, we are showing up for our educators at Adams. Teachers don't leave Adams, they retire here. Our children have built trusted relationships with them. My youngest just yesterday bragged about seeing a picture of our gym teacher's child and how she's so close to walking on her own. My oldest was unfortunately on watch of the aging class hamster over winter break uh when it passed away. Her teacher came over to our house cutting into her own vacation time

072to ease my daughter's mind and to work through the loss together. We also lost a beloved teacher two years ago to a sudden and unexpected death and we mourned together with our teachers and principal son and planted a tree in her memory. I come from a family that my mother was a longtime teacher in Lake Washington School District. I know how difficult this job is, but I also know the relationship between parents and teachers we have at Adams is unusually tight-knit. We simply cannot afford to lose these cherished teachers if our staff do not feel valued by their administrator or scared of retaliation. Thank you for your time and hearing our concerns. >> The next speaker is Susan Pambiano. I seed my time to Christine Triba. >> Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to be

073here. My name is Christine Triba and I'm an a parent of a second and fourth grader at Adams Elementary. One of the things that makes Adams so special is our teachers. Our average teacher tenure at Adams is 14 and a half years. Teachers are part of our community. They join us for talent shows, potlucks, and little league baseball games. My concern is that we were not given we have not given the people who shape our community a voice in the selection of our new principal. This year, Adams was the only elementary school out of four elementary schools selecting a new principal that did not have an interview process. Furthermore, we were appointed with a principal who would give any community serious concern. The Seattle Education Association filed unfair labor practice complaints against the Seattle School

074District in May 2023, specifically concerning Anitra Jones conduct at Rainineer View Elementary School during the 2022 2023 school year. This public ruling was issued on November 4th by 2024 by Examiner Jessica Bradley. The key findings that jumped out to me are discrimination and staff turnover due to toxic work environment. The examiner found that Jones unlawfully discriminated against employees and weaponized performance reviews against employees who exercised union rights. The union investigation reported 77% staff turnover at Reineer View in that school year. The previous school year 64% turnover. This is an extraordinary number at any workplace, let alone an elementary school. in our community town hall Monday night as super um the superintendent in addition to telling us this sucks told us Miss Jones was appointed at Adams out of contractual obligation and because our strong community

075could withstand such an appointment. It is unclear why this contractual obligation exists and why our community or any elementary school should have to withstand their principal after a documented history of discrimination and a toxic work environment that resulted in astounding staff turnover. The next speaker is Erica shoots David. Good evening, directors Briggs, Lavali, Ms. Rahi, Smith, Song, Top, and Rankin. Thank you for the work you do, particularly as you work to set the district's vision and goals to serve Seattle families, students, and communities. My name is Erica Shoots David, and I'd like to pose some questions to you as you do that vision work. What is the purpose of school? Is it to safely contain children for six plus hours a day to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic? Is it to provide sanctuary from poverty,

076food insecurity, and the worries at home? Is it to see students on their worst day and tell them you are unique and valuable and I believe in you? Is it to get test scores that bring money to our district or to get kids graduated? Some people say it's about teaching skills, including techn teaching kids technology competence. But what does that mean? What skills do we really mean? Typing re research shows that writing by hand contributes to deeper learning, enhanced memory retention, and more effective engagement with written material than typing. Practicing handwriting helps our brains read better. So, is there any reason to begin typing classes before high school? Some people say students need to be familiar with current technology, but by when? What's the science on students receiving iPads in kindergarten? Do we really think

077that technology in 10 years will look the same? Did you need 12 years to learn a smartphone? But when caregivers ask questions about the educational technology usage at SPS, answers get vague, defensive, and lacking in data real quick. I've been told it just is what it is. How are we supposed to trust this system with the minds of our kids? How can a system unwilling to engage in critical thinking and dialogue offer our children the worldclass education set forth in the vision of this district? So we need you, our representatives, to ask questions and set a vision of teaching technology skills at developmentally appropriate times to set a standard of weighing the benefit of any given product against the losses we are currently accepting blindly. Seattle Families for Intentional Tech has gathered signatures from over

078790 caregivers, teachers, and community members who are asking you for intention and transparency on edtech. Each of you will receive a copy of the petition and signatures. Thank you. The next speaker is Samina Patat. Good evening. My name is Sim and I'm a parent of an incoming kindergartener at Adams Elementary. My husband and I spent months looking at private schools and CL public schools. When we toured Adams, we loved it because of the teachers, the parents, and the community. That choice is now something I'm doubting because as incoming parent, I did something that any parent does before sending their kid to that new first day of school. I Googled the name of the new principal and what I found was an alarming, not just because Mrs. Jones public records and the unusual high documented turnover

079rates for teachers, but because of how she was appointed, bypassing the open hiring process that the SPS outlines or their website and that the superintendent said he prefers. So, I was there Monday together with 100 wonderful Adam's parents to meet the superintendent and Mrs. Jones and I was hoping for reassurance that the decisions are made with our kids in mind and that we will have an open hiring process. Instead, I was told contractual obligations, the public documented things are not on the HR file. Um, hands are tied. We were told to accept the placement to be a good community. If concern arise or enrollment drops, we should document it and the district will look into it. I sat there as a parent of a soon-to-be kindergartener thinking I'm being asked for my child to be

080part of this evidence to build the record. But we've been there. We watch it unfold at Rainineer View Elementary and it happened for years. Now we're about to start over at Adams. Same system, same person, new school. Our ask is simple. We want an open hiring process. Pause the role. Let Mrs. Jones and other candidates apply and let the parents, the teachers be part of that process. Is that too much to ask for our children? Thank you. >> The next speaker is Sarah Sens Wilson. Hanetu makiappi koki papachiapier Sarah sense Wilson ma ogalala lot um good evening everybody uh my name is Sarah sense Wilson I'm with the urban native education alliance co-founder I'm also alumni of Seattle public schools and raised nephew daughter and currently um a volunteer at Olympic View with my grandson

081um Whan who is enrolled to Leila uh tribal member. So there's a lot to lot of ground to cover and not enough time but I'd like to um just hit a couple points. So one of them is we would like to see transparency with the Indian ed um program. We'd like to see quarterly reports. We'd like to see the accountability there. We'd like to see um authentic community engagement with native community. We'd like to see the district establish a Native advisory council. We'd like to see the district um restore the data dashboard. We'd like to see an overhaul of public testimony process. We'd like to see a restoration of Indian Heritage High School. We'd like to see that there is community input with the five-year strategic plan and please recommmit to community engagement and commit

082to a true race and equity lens in all decisions going forward. I'd like to seed the rest of my time to Evelyn Brandon, a student. >> Yeah, you got a minute. >> Okay. Uh good evening uh Seattle public school board. Uh my name is Evelyn. I'm a Spokane and a Cinovo Sue tribal member and a sophomore at Middle College High School. I'm here with UNA to discuss Every Child Matters Day and request approval for the resolution. Um, since time memorial, indigenous people have been culturally imperialized into the norm of Americanism under colonizer occupation. Since the US had been established, the first pe since the first peoples have been viewed as something that must be stripped bare of tradition, culture, and identity to fit into a new colonized world. Children have been forced away from their

083families to be broken and rebuilt in boarding schools. Suppressed into the white image, causing a general generational trauma in all. As an urban indigenous youth, UNA taught me and other youth about boarding schools and orange shirt day. And we are here to ask you to also teach us in the Seattle's public school district so others can also be away aware. >> I ask you to conclude your remarks. >> Okay. We we implore you you to adopt the resolution to recognize and acknowledge every child matters day on September 30th to implement education in the school district to be aware of our people's history. Thank you for your time. The next speaker is Kyle Elman. >> Hi. Uh, my name is Kyle Elman. I'm a software engineer and a parent of a Seattle public schools kindergartener. Um,

084I build software for a living and I want to offer a perspective grounded in that experience. The district does not have a coherent enforced edtech policy. What it has are documents that delegate decisions to individual teachers and school administrators. Which devices, which tools, which grades, who authorizes what. Those questions don't have district level answers. I learned from my child their iPads were being used in music class, which only meets every three weeks where they should be making music instead. And when a parent decides in their children's best interest that they'd rather opt um opt them out of personal device use, that puts a burden entirely on the classroom teacher with no district guidance to support them. That's not fair to teachers either. Here's what I know professionally. Tech companies collect children's data for profit, not

085as a side effect, but as a business model. And securing internet connected devices for children is genuinely hard. SPS's own policies acknowledge web filtering is best effort. If the district cannot completely solve data harvesting and device safety, the responsible choice would be to stop issuing onetoone devices by default to our kids entirely. I'm fully in favor of dedicated tech education, coding, computers, AI literacy, social media safety at the right age and in a lab setting with transparency and clarity for parents. But iPads and Chromebooks issued to every kid is not uh the the way to do that. EdTE does not improve uh education outcomes and the data on this problem is not ambiguous. Sweden went all in on classroom technology in reverse course, having to spend over $100 million in reintroducing physical books after citing

086declining student performance across the country. I'm asking for a district level edtech policy review with real timeline and with informed audit of edtech devices not delegated dedic sorry delegated down to schools. Uh deferring real decision-m is not a real decision. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Ashley Gross. >> Hello. I'm Ashley Gross. I'm the mom of two high schoolers in Seattle public schools and I'm also part of a group that's advocating for a statewide bell-to-bell phone free schools law. Um I'm here to talk to you tonight about two things. Um first I encourage all of you to support the positions that uh director Eliza Rankin has um introduced for uh the state school directors association. Vote for the gun violence prevention position. And please, please, please vote in favor of the three positions on

087technology and phones in schools. Dozens of states around the country have restricted phones in schools. Washington is being left behind, but having the support of the state school directors association would give a big help to our efforts to get a statewide law passed. Second, Seattle Public Schools needs to pass its own away for the day policy for all grades just like Mercer Island School District did. We have a patchwork of haphazardly enforced policies here in Seattle, and it's failing our kids. Smartphone access in schools undermines learning, but it's also a safety hazard. Just last week on Dashon Island, students discovered a cell phone in a restroom, began recording video, left it above the bathroom stall, recorded other students. So, can you imagine that you go in to use the bathroom at school and instead your

088privacy is violated and you've been recorded without your knowledge and now those students who did it are facing consequences from the King County Sheriff's Office. So what happened on Vashan can happen here. No one made a conscious decision to let smartphones into our schools. Now we know the harms and it's time to remove them. Superintendent Shelner has expressed some concerns about whether this can be done at the high school level with open campuses. Mercer Island High School has um 1,400 students and they do it. They use pouches, but schools across the country are doing this. They have lockers. They have lots of different setups and they've made it work. We also have a $400 million of Beex levy for technology. This is a perfect use. Please pass a bell-to-bell phone free schools law for I

089mean policy for all students. Thank you. The next speaker is Carrie Lind. I seed my time to Susan Piano. Good evening board. My name is Susan. I'm a member of the PTA and a mom till fourth grader at Adams Elementary. I'm here to oppose the appointment of Anitra Jones to Adam School. We've heard at length from Superintendent Scheler about the potential financial and legal risk to the district of not making this appointment. We do not disagree the risk exists. However, in making this appointment, the district is effectively taking that legal and financial risk and transferring it to a single neighborhood school community. I want to talk specifically about the financial risk and what we'd ask from the district to protect the education of our children. Adams has struggled with enrollment. Parents in our community have

090a lot of choices. Plus, Adam sees about 25% of its students transfer to a highly capable cohort school. We currently have two split grade classes as a result. It's not perhaps a unique story within SPS, but is a result of incentives and structures stemming from district policies. As parents, we've worked hard to control what we can control. The past two years, we worked to boost enrollment through our school tours, and it's been working. Three years ago, we had two kindergarten classes. And the past two years, we've had three kindergarten classes. Now, however, families are very concerned about the way this principal was appointed and the public record of what happened at Reineer View. They are considering options like private school that they weren't considering two weeks ago. This is not financially sustainable for Adams. We

091did not make the contract that the district made, but we are being asked to bear the financial burden of it. Please help save our school from losing anything more. We are asking for a hold harmless agreement, an idea floated by Superintendent Scheler to set a floor for Adam's budget at our current 2526 school year level and to keep it in place for three years. This will give our new principal and community time to show that we are on the right track and hopefully reassure families that if they stay at Adams, their education will be funded, well-rounded, and supported by our current amazing group of teachers. Thank you so much. The next speaker is Pawel Kuisian. I am Pavitian and I se my spot to Leslie Haynesworth. Good afternoon, members of the school board. My name

092is Lesley Haynesworth. I have a kindergartenner at Adams Elementary and I have two alumni who graduated from there. I'm here to speak on the appointment of Anitra Jones. I want to begin by acknowledging the parents and educators who came forward nearly two years ago to give testimony. It took real courage to speak publicly, often at personal and professional risk. There were clear repeated concerns raised publicly, including in testimony before this board, describing deeply troubling conditions and fear of retaliation, among others. We also now have state findings that substantiate many of these claims and reflect concerning gaps in process, documentation, and follow through. When concerns are raised this consistently and clearly, there should be a record of what happened next. How were the concerns received, investigated, and resolved? But now we have an educator with a

093long history of complaints and as confirmed on Monday, nothing is reflected in the personnel record. Why is that? If the system can't reliably document and carry forward serious concerns, then the system itself should ask and be examined before decisions are made from it. We are asking for three actions. Pause the appointment pending a transparent review of how prior concerns were documented and considered. Add the SEC the SECCC and PERK findings to the personnel record so documented violations are accurately reflected. and review the district's documentation and retention pro process, including why were those concerns not reflected in the record today. Without that, any future concern risks being treated as an isolated issue rather than as a pattern. We've been asked as a community to be the eyes on the ground. In return, we have to trust

094that what is documented is retained, recognized, and used to inform decisions. And at the end of the day, if we can't trust the record, then we can't trust the decision. Thank you. The next speaker is Karen Bell. >> I seed my time to Carrie Lind. >> Good evening. My name is Carrie Lind and I represent Adams Elementary as the PTA vice president. I stand before you today on behalf of Adams of the Adams kids and on behalf of every child in the Seattle public school system. If our response, Superintendent Scheler, on Monday was perceived as rude and insensitive, I deeply apologize because we want to stick to the merit of our concerns. But what you did not mention is that you looked us in the eye and told us to document everything and send it

095directly to you. That is why you gave out your personal cell phone number. This is a clear indication that you do not have trust in the process or in the appointee. Our community has outlined our concerns based on substantiated findings. Because of this, we respectfully ask for an open hiring process at Adams for our next principal. We're standing tonight in the John Stanford building. The same John Stanford who said, "We lost our way when we become more interested in the employment of adults than in the education of children." I ask you, in the words of John Stanford, to put the needs of our children first. We look forward to hearing from the superintendent on this matter. Thank you for giving us the time tonight to present our statements on behalf of the Adams community. Thank

096you. The next speaker is Jesse McFaren. We got something for you, Catherine. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Jesse McFaren. I'm a high school teacher in Seattle. Uh, I would like to seed my time to my friend Cody. Aloh peace. Thank you, Prince Trey. My name is Cody Lel. I have uh seven years uh teaching studying all grade levels and subjects throughout Seattle public schools. hold a bachelor of arts from University of Washington and abolishing education as a colonial institution was my undergraduate thesis. Uh transition from uh promoting universal access to quality education to a position of abolishing education once I learned the abhorrent history of boarding schools in the United States. and I uh had a position uh with outdoor and community education uh shortly following COVID as the head of outdoor and

097community education for our district uh which was eliminated um around the same time as funding for maintaining outdoor and community education so that our children have to be trapped inside um and incarcerated uh in the name of education. all day. Um, and I'm also an expert witness and a declarant in a federal lawsuit um, in involving a case in Tacoma, Washington that's now active uh, in a lawsuit against Pierce County Conservation District. That is all very relevant legal information uh, for the context that I'm now informing you all formally and publicly so you're aware of the legal context that you're operating in. Um some of the key points here that I'd like to highlight as a parent of two children at Liken Springs um that is our only uh explicitly native focused school uh in

098the district. I'm I'm going to ask for an extra 30 seconds for the lay. Thank you. Um uh very simple. Uh it's the only school that uh so many of our children, everybody who goes there actually feels safe attending uh where they are not subject to policies and practices that are very similar to boarding schools. And I would just say be very aware of uh local, regional, national, divine, natural law, international law, and the potential war crimes that you would be implicating yourself in under the Geneva Convention and laws against genocide if you were to consider closing my children's school. Thank you. Save Lton Springs. The next speaker is Blake L. Lindsay. >> Hi, my name is L. I am a skill center student in the careers and education class. My home high school is

099Nathan Hail. So, I make a commitment to travel across the city every morning on my own to get to my skill center class at Franklin High School. I am committed to I'm committed to doing this every day because the of the value of my experiences in this class. I engage in work with John Mir students that are helping me become the teacher I hope to be. For example, during first semester we we worked once a week in the jawir library with a designated first or fourth grader. In class, we learned how children develop, which allows me to improve my skills to be responsive to student needs. Second, in class, we learned about pathways to becoming a teacher. I am a junior and already have multiple options for pursuing my teacher certificate without any costs. Through

100a series of guest speakers, I was able to meet professionals in teacher education and those who oversee scholarships for student for future teachers. Third, in my current first grade internship, I am learning how to adapt my instruction based on the individual needs and personalities of each student in my class. With one student, I've learned to balance boundaries and expectations while also making space for joy. Last, but certainly not least, I have gained a community of future educators that I know I can depend on as we go through the challenging process of becoming educators. Not all of us plan to be classroom teachers, but all of us are committed to children and to each other. All this to say, I wanted to share my experiences in my skill center careers and education class. Thank you for

101the time. The next speaker is Dorothia Cast. Hello, my name is Dorothy Aosti and I'm a senior at Lincoln High School. I'm here because the presence of cell phones in my classrooms caused my high school education to suffer and I believe Washington needs to pass legislation requiring that schools of all levels restrict phones. I've watched my school attempt to institute phone policies every year, but without the backing of a statewide law, these systems fall apart in weeks. The burden of enforcing cell phone policies falls on our teachers who have told me they must choose between spending 20 minutes of each class chasing down phones or teaching. It is most often left up to students to limit their own phone use, something we know devices have been designed to make impossible. Phones are causing Seattle high

102schoolers to fall behind. They incentivize cheating, impede social interaction, and worsen relationships between teachers and students. Frequent uses for phones in my classrooms include using AI to solve math problems, scrolling, or recently online gambling using parents credit cards. A state law mandating that schools adopt a bell-to-bell policy would take pressure off of teachers and better the education quality of all Washington students. Leveling the playing field with schools in other districts that have already taken action. Every year that this kind of law doesn't pass, another class of students graduate having missed out on the academic and social skills that we are promised with a public education. Please vote in favor of all three positions on technology in schools to help this legend be passed ne help this legislation be passed next year. The next speaker is

103Kent. >> Good afternoon. And I can see my time to Miss Brenda McGee. >> Good evening, school board members and superintendent. My name is Brenda McGee. I am one of the student family advocates of many years at inter agency academy and also the chair of our BLT. We've been coming to the schoolboard meetings today as well as this year because we are trying to work through the process of our uh transparency of our budget and activities going on in our school. We worked like some other schools to try to pass our budget this year. We did not. Thank you superintendent for coming to be the designate at our school on the first and we appreciate your time. You encouraged us to contact you if we had questions. We had found out from you, thank you,

104that we had had our budget passed down to the arena. First time that we had heard it and we were hoping to get a copy and to have you talk with our staff. We sent an email on the second. We're still waiting to hear. So, we are working to try to talk with the school board and the superintendent and school district. We love our school. We work really hard. We're going to be working with our students and families and also our communities that care about our school as community partners to work to organize for our school. But we're hoping that you will work and meet with us as well. Our students are upset because some of the staff have been displaced and we're working to see that process gets done. We were just starting to

105find out that there were new positions that we had never heard that were published and announced for our school. So, we would like for you to come come out and contact us and please work with us. We're considering asking maybe for an audit of our budget. Thank you for your time. Good evening. The next speaker is Ren Stone. My name is Ren Stone. I'm a teacher and a mom to a future 2028 SPS SPS kindergartener. This year, I'm a K3 academic interventionist at Greenwood. Next year, Greenwood is slated to lose two FTE, which is a conversation that we can revisit in June. and it means that my current position will be eliminated and I'll be returning to the classroom as a kindergarten teacher. I come before you today with the support of K5 literacy interventionists

106across the district to endorse the expertise of the curriculum adoption committee and support the approval of emerge by McGraill. While I know you understand this, I want to clarify for everyone listening the time to debate the three curriculum candidates has passed. If the board does not approve emerge today, SPS would be reliant on our current curriculum for another year or longer. We cannot continue with the current curriculum. Doing so, especially after the thoughtful research, testing, and vetting from the curriculum selection committee, which was made up of teachers and families across of all five regions, would be negligent and impact the students furthest away from educational dis justice the most. Some schools including Greenwood have re have recognized the current curriculum is not adequate and supplement with programs like UFI while others do not. This variability

107under undermines the district-wide goals and contributes to uneven student outcomes because CCC is not working. Emerge is designed for real classrooms. While I'm devastated to lose the role of intervention at Greenwood, I take solace in knowing that strong supports from this curriculum will help me make sure that all students succeed. It has clear daily routines, built-in assessments, and integrated small small groupoup structures that ensure targeted supports without fragmenting core instruction. These features make highquality instruction not only possible but sustainable across all schools. The last time I came to a schoolboard meeting was in March 2024. I came to speak Qu I came I'm so sorry this is emotional I will be fast. I came quietly to support my colleagues who were braver than I was and had the courage to speak out about the emotional

108abu emotional abuse and HR violations we endured at Rainineer View Elementary. To those coming from Adams Elementary I see you. I hear you. And I'm advocating for you today. I do feel courageous. I urge you please vote in favor of this curriculum adoption. The next speaker is Sabrina Burr. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Okay. Good evening. My name is Sabrina Burr. Um, and um, I'm here to talk about school board meeting last month, performance-based pathways for high school graduation board. You voted unanimously for an intro and a vote, no engagement, and the intro and the vote is against WA's best practices and yours as well. for students that we have failed who are truly the students furthest from educational justice. You rewarded adults for not doing their job timely and

109you spoke loudly to the black community about how you feel about our children. Michelle Sarju warned us that there would be no director for with a voice for our black children on the dis on March 11th. Unfortunately, you proved her long wrong. While denying Reineer Beach College in the high school, Caleb Perkins pushed through with only three months to go uh for this new adoption um to increase graduation rates, which he has done for years. First it was with waiverss and then it was through Bridge to College. Now Bridge to College is tier one. And so now we're doing this for the class of 2026 with no student voice, no family voice, no community voice, and no real plan. Shironda said to you, "Let us experiment." And you were okay with that. You never asked

110about the class of 2026, how it was going to work for them, how it was going to work with their high school and beyond plan. Superintendent Shelner, you influenced that vote and you showed up as the expert on SPS history and currently you do you are not an expert on SPS history board directors. You were the expert. You said all the things but you went against your own knowing. Why? We have to listen to our children and we need to make sure that we are not sending out children who cannot read, write, and compute. It messes with our public safety in our neighborhood over spring break. We had three shootings in six days and every last one of them had an involved Seattle public school student. Let's do better and let's stop slowing the standards

111for black children. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Natasia West. >> Hello, my name is Nastasia West. I'm both a former SPS student and a former SPS educator. And I'm here today with a relatively low impact ask, which is that the district remove all links and references to its Twitter account from all district sites, materials, and communications. As some of you may know, Twitter has become a site that not only hosts AI generated non-consensual pornography and child sexual abuse material, aka child porn, but it also facilitates the creation and sharing of such content. I want to see the district stop promoting such a site by no longer directing community members to access it. As far as I can tell, the district hasn't even used its Twitter account in some time. So, I imagine that

112the impact of this ask is likely very low. Thank you. The next speaker is Lisa Rivera. Good afternoon. Uh my name is Lis Rivera. I am an SPS parent, former director and um director center of the Kamanchi and Tatum tribes. Stand here proudly with UNA. And I seize my time to Lucan Maristan. I'm an enrolled member of the Mak I'm an I'm an enrolled member of the Mac tribe and my native name is Sedic Clewood which was gifted to be by my grandfather Bahid Dahaki. I am a sophomore at Ingram High School and I've been a Urban Native Education Alliance since fall of 2025 and September 30th is Orange Shirt Day. It is a national day of remembrance in Canada and it commemorates survivors who live through the boarding schools. Orange Church reminded us that

113every child matters. My great-grandfather, Luke Marston, went to a boarding school and when he came back, he had lost most of the Macau language and he couldn't speak to his family, the elders, and the community. However, we are currently working on bringing back the language. What we asked is for Seattle public schools to adopt the boarding school resolution, HR4706, the boarding school resolution. More people need to be aware of the impacts on boarding schools across generations and their effects on native people. And my hope is for SPS students to graduate knowing more about boarding schools than in previous years. Thank you, Cleo. And I preed my time to Daniel Jackson. Hi, I'm Daniel Jackson. I'm the junior Bard High School and Kald as my tribe and an intern urban native education alliance. We're here to

114ask Seattle public schools to support resolution to designate September 30th as orange shirt day and to ensure accurate teaching of Indian board Indian boarding schools. The border schools we remember the victims and survivors of the boarding schools. We are here today and advocate for SPS to adopt a born score resolution and to designate the September 30th as EMC day. Every child matters. Thank you. >> That was our 25th and final speaker. >> Thank you. Thank you everyone. That concludes public testimony for the evening. I appreciate everyone coming down to the John Stanford Center this evening to give your time to uh provide information and and testimony to the school board. We're going to take a 10 minute break. We will reconvene at 6:30. Heat. Heat. Oh yeah. Hey Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat.

115Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. la. Yeah. Heat. All right, we're going to join back together here. Director Song if you'd join us. Appreciate the conversations going on, but if they could happen out in the hallway, that would be wonderful. So, we can continue our business for this evening. Uh, we have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda. May I have a motion for the consent agenda? Um, I move approval of the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Okay. Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Vice President Briggs and seconded by uh, Director Miseri. Do directors have any items they'd like to remove from the consent agenda? Okay. Seeing none, I'll go down now to our student representatives for their advisory position. >> We advise pro. >> Thank you.

116>> Now for the vote. All those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> I am saying it really slowly so Katie can also make her vote. We'll give her a second. But that was an I vote for the record. Oh, >> should I is are you is it my vote right now? >> Yes. >> Consent agenda. >> I All right. Those opposed. The consent agenda has passed unanimously. Okay. Okay, we will now move on to the action items on today's agenda. Okay, so the first one is the adoption of the K5 English language arts instructional materials. May I have a motion for this item? >> Um, oops, sorry, falling down on the job here. Um, I move that the Seattle School Board approve the adoption of McGra Hill

117Emerge Elementary School Curriculum as recommended by the K5 English language arts adoption selection committee and approved by the instructional materials committee for core instructional materials for Seattle public schools grades K through five classrooms. I further move that the Seattle School Board authorize the superintendent to purchase McGraw Hill Emerge as the core instructional material for all K5 English language arts classes in Seattle public schools for an amount not to exceed 5,775,744, including student books, consumables, and licensing to digital products for school years 2026 through 27 through to 2033 and professional development beginning spring and 2026 and extending through school year 2028-29. The superintendent is authorized to make any minor additions, deletions, and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent to the final agreement. >> Second. >> Great. We have motion from Vice President Briggs, second from Director

118Misrai. Um, I understand there have been some changes to the action items since introduction. So, I'm going to pass it to Superintendent Schner to brief us on those changes. >> Thank you so much, President Topp. Uh, I will defer to our uh, assistant uh, superintendent, Dr. Saraski, to uh, update us on the great work that he has done to support both our fiscal and our educational work. Thank you. Uh thank you uh Superintendent Scheler. Um well uh first of all um I I'm grateful for the process that got us here to this evening. Uh the great conversations, the questions from schoolboard members and the leadership of Ben uh in helping us uh come to this uh opportunity. Uh so since the last time we met there's been some changes uh reflected in the bar uh

119specifically that we're updating the contract term from 9 years to seven years which was a concern that was uh voiced uh and we definitely heard and our partner with McGra Hill uh uh diff definitely listened and has responded. Um, as a result of that reduction in years, we also uh went from $9 million as the cap um as also reflected uh down to $5,775,00074 uh saving us uh approximately uh $3,224,000. And so, um, another thing that was also important that we heard, um, was the opportunity, uh, for, uh, our superintendent to be able to have some type of opt out, some type of assurance if things aren't going the way, uh, with the ed reports. Uh, working with McGra Hill, they give us a number of asurances and also uh, put that assurance in writing

120uh, for Superintendent Schner. And so in summary, we responded into the number of years. We reduced the uh overall number which I think is definitely uh fiscally responsible and then also uh gave uh as much as possibly uh can be uh some type of assurance that if things are not working out and McGraill has had the opportunity to address those issues that's the superintendent uh has uh an a clear opt out. Thank you so much. Um, and I really just want to reiterate uh the great work that Mike and his team did. Um, this is why we have these public discourses and we have these discourses with the board. We know the great work that our staff did. Thank you for being here. Um, and we really care deeply about having a top-notch uh, ELA

121curriculum, but we also know that sometimes we can negotiate and do things a little bit better. And so I really appreciate both going from 9 to 7, lowering the the financial as well as giving some opt out because that I think allows us to feel confident with what our teachers who piloted it said. They really like it. It's good. The kids seem to do well. But we had some questions. We were able I think to answer most of them and uh feel confident moving forward. So thank you very much Dr. Saskki. >> Questions or discussion from board directors? Director Smith. >> Hi. I have two questions. Um the first one is hopefully uh pretty quick to answer. Um I just um in discussion with an educator this week. Um they expressed concern around the tech

122component um in the 20 minute time period where students in kindergarten I believe and potentially first grade I forget the exact age ranges but there within the 2-hour period there was 20 minutes where groups could be pulled out and students would be on on screens on devices. Um, and my understanding is that that is a max of 20 minutes within the two hours, but um, I heard a concern from a community member that it could be like repeated like if there were multiple groups needing additional work that it could be more than 20 minutes total. And so just clarification on that for the public. >> Yes. So I'd say it's accurate that the it's 20 minute is allotted within that block of time. uh and and what we're planning on doing with our educators is

123trying to be really strict uh in the implementation and the fidelity of implementation. So I would say that categor categorization uh is correct of the 20 minutes is allotted um for that that block of time. >> Okay. So they would not be a student would not have more than 20 minutes sort of under circum any under any circumstances. >> Well, I can't guarantee that. >> That's the goal. >> That's the expectation. That's the intention. >> Okay. Um and then my other question is just about the prof the professional development given that the contract has changed. Um, I know the initial contract came with a certain number of hours for teachers that Mcgra Hill would be providing and then the difference between the 9 million and the initial contract was money that was um dedicated to

124supporting the teachers in their professional development. Um, and I'd like to know how that is changing with the new contract. >> Yes. So what this is one of the uh the exciting things about working with McGra Hill is that that implementation plan is not changing at all. Um actually uh if uh the vote goes the way that uh allows us to move forward. Uh we're starting tomorrow with that implementation plan. And so the professional development is going to be in partnership with McGra Hill uh and our central office staff and uh members uh within our teaching community are going to be uh working this problem together. So we've already shared uh some initial plans uh with uh Ben specifically about what's happening this spring and into year one and some uh bigger ideas into year

125two and three. So we have a very detailed plan that our educators are going to be uh receiving and it does not impact the the less years uh is not impacting the professional development plan that we had planned for the 9-year run. It's the same is reflected in the seven years. >> Okay. And then what about like the district money? Are we still spending the full 9 million and just allocating more money or future development or is that how is that being >> No, we're not. So, uh, because it's less years is less money. The professional development in the materials is where we're we're spending that that $5 million or that 5.775. Um, sorry I'm confused because I I I remember in the initial contract we were going to spend a total of 9 million

126and I I believe it was about 7.5 million was purchasing the curriculum from Mcra Hill and that left a gap of 1.5 million between the 9 million and the cost and that that was district money that we were then budgeting for. Is that >> that's that's not that's not how I'm remembering it in the details, >> but I I I apologize. I misunderstood the previous um setup. >> Yeah, >> maybe we could have it explained one more time. Yeah. >> Yeah. Mike, I mean, you know, I think it's it's really helpful if you could just go over the kind of the budgeting. Uh you know, I think everybody wants to know how are you able to save the money uh but also continue with the same professional development. So um as um the the nine

127years uh that we had budgeted out was going to be u potentially more professional development for more teachers over the life of the contract. So the the additional years the two additional years was uh where we're looking at uh the additional costs. Um, I can uh ask uh Kathleen or Cashelle who could maybe answer some of the more specifics about how they got the to that 5.7 um million dollar mark. But I the thing that um is uh encouraging is that we're getting the number of uh teachers, the materials and the professional development is remaining the same. the cost went down because of the the length of the contract. We're not losing out on anything that they weren't already going to provide on the front end. One of the things that we did get some

128cost uh down was that we're paying it in three years, not uh paying it over seven years. That was a cost benefit to us. Another benefit uh cost to us um is some of the the ways that we're doing some of the taxes. Um, and that's getting into um, uh, some of the financials that specifics that I'm not uh, that closely aware of >> and and not for me to speak or to use a very Washington phrase uh, over my skis. Uh, but a lot of it to just re-emphasize Mike's point and I don't know if there's anybody on your team that wants to talk about it is when we reduce the number of years, it's not like a one forone savings because we're we're paying it up in a different way. Uh, they're willing

129to take a little bit less money uh so that they're getting it in these installments rather than kind of overtime. Think of it like kind of interest or like extra, you know, uh, paying it in installments, stuff like that. And then we're also saving uh some, as Mike said, some of the tax things in terms of if you paid things over nine years, you got to pay a lot more. If you're paying for uh the seven years, you're able to save money. But the good news, and I I really appreciate your negotiation skills uh was to keep uh the professional development the way it was. So, >> yeah. And yeah, and I think you're exactly right. It's we're paying upfront in three years the the total cost instead of going over a seven-year period of

130of uh the cost going over that way. So it helps them but more importantly it helps us. >> Director S. >> Um I first want to say thank you to all the educators who took um a lot of time to vet this curriculum. Um, after the March introduction, um, one of the educators that piloted Emerge in her classroom reached out to me and invited me to her classroom so I could see the materials myself and I could hear her feedback. So, I really want to thank that educator for doing that. Um, I'm feeling pretty confident about my vote. Um, I she had some interesting feedback that I'm going to summarize and send to the team. Um but um one thought that I know has been an issue of other curriculum adoptions is always the dual

131language. So um in dual language programs um time is tight. Um this you know curriculum I think is like very it's a lot of content and so um my ask is just that there's some thought given to dual language schools. how will they uh do the pacing and also um incorporate all the target language learning as well. So um thank you again to the educators for the time that they spent. >> Director Lavali, >> um I want to first of all thank the team so much. I've had a million questions that I've submitted in writing, asked in two by twos, asked during meetings, and I appreciate all of the diligence in getting all of these answers back to us in a very timely manner. It was deeply appreciated. Um, I think the only element that

132I'm still not completely clear on and hear repeated within at least my community is when there's HC class. a lot of HC students in a classroom that's not in an HC cohort program. How are they getting education and literacy out in that situation where the teacher is following the um fifth grade curric fourth or fifth grade curriculum and also needing to teach a different curriculum to some other kids. So that's kind of my ongoing question. However, it's not necessarily solved by any curriculum. Um, so it's not necessarily one for you to answer, but one for I hope the superintendent to continue to think about as we look at supporting HC learners in our schools in an ongoing basis. >> Yeah, it's a great question and one I think I might have even raised last month.

133Um, and I really appreciate that. As we try to move to be the best urban school district in America, we want to make sure that students are able to go as far as they can, as quickly as they want to. And I think one of the good news stories of course is that we already do have a sixth, seven, and eighth grade curriculum. And so if there's just ways that we can make sure that we're incorporating that and helping those teachers and um you know and then of course I mean I wasn't going to say this publicly, but like one of my hopes uh is to actually really have algebra for all where there's an expectation of having algebra um uh before you get to high school and maybe even geometry. We'll see how much

134we go. Uh but the way to do that of course is with that professional development and having that uh kind of track and so my hope and certainly I'll defer to you Mike um but is that as long as there's professional development for the current curriculum we already have adopted for six seven and eight that will allow them to do that. Yes, and we're going to learn a lot along the way with any adoption. Um, we're not expecting perfection, but the the great opportunity is we're asking those questions on the front end and trying to address it. And we're going to do that uh all together with our educators and uh you know, we're going to learn along the way. And so, uh definitely uh considering the the things around uh acceleration uh just in

135general. and we're going to be working with our highly capable and advanced learning uh all along the way. >> Yeah. So, just again, thank you for all the time and questions that you've answered in such a quick fashion and um responded to and renegotiated since the last board meeting. I I really deeply appreciate the time and attention you've taken on this. >> Yep. >> Director Ranken, >> thank you. Yeah, I'll just um one one up the questions from director song and lavali for for dual language and um highly capable and then of course I have to add special education which is a separate conversation but I just I I want to be well first of all I'm really excited to vote yes. I'm just going to say that I'm I'm very excited to approve this.

136Um I am increasingly concerned about uh special education students especially as you know going through school visits um with the superintendent and you know seeing some schools where our students are still very very segregated which I know is not a curriculum issue. However, we do have students who through their IEPs are receiving supports and modified curriculum through the grade level curriculum. We also have students who will not be able to access the grade level curriculum and still deserve to learn and still deserve a curriculum. And so, kind of a sidebar is what kind of adoption or what kind of options are we thinking about that this isn't for me K5 done and let's move on. we we still have some students at the margins that that we really need to to keep thinking about. Um

137but mostly I just wanted to say thank you and um to echo what uh Jen was saying, you know, I as a community member and as a board member, I've been through several curriculum adoption processes. This is probably the kind of the the meatiest one, I think. Um but, you know, I was around as a community member for the K5 math adoption and and some other stuff. And I wanted to say thank you to Ben and team for uh this feels really different. I'm not saying we can't continuously improve but but we were and I also want to commend all all of us up here for asking the right questions about the process about the financial impact and to you all for getting the answers to us so that we I don't feel there are

138other times where I feel backed into a corner where I feel like well this was legally required or this terrible thing will happen if we don't vote yes and and oftenimes I think the board ends up feeling like they vote Yes, because they have to. I feel good about this vote. In the visits to different buildings, I have had so many different educators who have been who are probably some of our strongest early literacy educators say how excited they are about this curriculum. Um, you know, nothing's perfect, obviously, but but they really want it. And um we've gotten a lot of emails from educators who have either participated in the adoption or have seen it who are really excited to use it in their classrooms. And um I just think that's really really fantastic and

139wanted to say it out loud. And so, thank you for the the collaboration and the the communication back and forth and helping us do our job and and validate the job that you're doing for the most important thing, which is getting this material out to schools. >> Thank you. And I and I I I appreciate the compliments, but the compliments should be going to uh the team, the leadership with Cashelle and Kathleen uh and leading the the adoption process. Their attention to detail, their responsiveness, and our educators, our community members are are the only reason that we can get those uh responses back to you. >> Other directors, right, then I'm going to go to our student reps for their advisory position. The student representatives vote pro. >> Great. Thank you. Then I will look

140to staff for the roll call, please. >> Director Ranken. >> Yes. >> Director Smith. >> Yes. >> Director Song. >> Yes. >> Vice President Briggs. >> I. >> Director Lavali. >> I. Director Ms. Rahi. >> Yes. >> President Top. >> Yes. >> This motion is passed unanimously. >> Thank you. And just echoing thank you to everyone. I I do feel like I will slightly repeat direct Director Rankin's comments of like this process felt a little bit different. We heard feedback. We expressed the feedback and uh staff heard and updated the process. So this was this was a great example of how I would like things to do work moving forward. Um so next amendment to board policy number 625 warrant certification approval and cancellation renamed expense claim certification and approval. May I have a motion?

141>> I move that the school board amend and rename board policy number 6215 as attached to the board action report. Second. >> Second. >> Perfect. We have a a motion from Vice President Briggs, second from Director Mahi. Any questions on this item? >> Seeing none. So, I'll go to our student reps for their advisory position. >> The student reps advise pro. >> Great. Thank you. And now and then I'll go to the roll call, please. >> Director Smith. I >> director Song. Yes. >> Vice President Briggs. >> I director Lavali. I >> Director Ms. Rahi. >> Yes. >> Director Ranken. >> I President Top. >> I. >> This motion is passed unanimously. >> Right. On to the next item. Approval of the Seattle School Board sponsorship for proposed Washington State School Board Directors Association positions.

142May I have a motion for this item? >> I move that the board approve the proposed Washington State School Director's Association position to be submitted on behalf of Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors as attached to this board action report. >> Second. >> Great. We have a motion from Vice President Briggs and a second from Director Misrai. I understand that Director Rankin has some additional positions for the board to discuss and adding to this item. Director Ranken, I'm going to pass it over for you to go through uh the different items and then amendments making amendment if needed. >> Yes. So, a little bit of a funky because the motion was to approve positions going to WADA. It wasn't on the single position. Um, we're going to amend the position to include subsequent um positions

143that are in the meeting materials and then the amendment would be whichever positions that we want to include. So, the vote is still to approve positions and we'll discuss now whether or not we want to include all of the positions um to the vote. Does that make sense? Okay. So, I haven't made any changes since we last since the item was introduced to that first position, the gun violence pres prevention position. Um but there are three on technology, I don't have it in front of me, and one on board training. So, I'll just go one at a time and if anybody has questions, concerns, even a little bit of word smithing you want to do, we can actually do that and finalize it and then make that make the position as amended, add it to

144the amendment. So, um the Sorry, I'm scrolling through to find the materials here. I mean, unless if nobody if nobody has questions or concerns and are comfortable with approving them as they are, we don't have to go through all of them. Um, but what I didn't want to have was to have somebody say like, "Oh, I don't like this one word in this one position." And feel like they had to vote no on the whole thing. So, it we don't need to take the time to go through each of them unless people have things they would like to have questions about or consider. >> I'm seeing a lot of shaking heads that you can go through and make them a package. >> Okay. Okay. So, I will I I have an amendment to propose. I

145move amendment to Where'd it go? >> Maybe uh I move I move an amendment to the approval of the Seattle School Board sponsorship for the proposed Washington State School Director positions. Um, an approval of this item would approve amendment one to the schoolboard action report titled approval of the Seattle Schoolboard sponsorship for POS proposed Washington State Director's Association positions to add positions 1, 2, 3, and four to the proposal which already has one um immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. Uh so discussion on the amendment. >> Uh I will just uh thank Ashley Gross um and other parents. She after a somewhat disappointing result in the Washington state legislature on technology that uh kind of took a position to do a study and

146didn't actually um create legislation about cell phones. Um putting us quite behind a lot of other states. Uh Ashley reached out and said h how how do we get WADA like how does how does how does the body of WASDA um put support behind positions? And I said, "Oh, that's so funny because I just introduced this thing and I was looking at positions to add." And so um it was with her encouragement and support and providing some language um that uh I was able to put together these different positions. and I really appreciate um her connection and knowledge and also encouragement um to bring this forward knowing that it was in alignment with values of our community and also with some things that are happening across the country. So there's um uh yeah, I look

147forward to WADA considering them. >> So there's going to be two votes. First, a vote on the amendment. If it passes, then there'll be a vote on the item as amended. Before we go call for a vote on the amendment, do the student reps have a position? >> We advise pro. >> Great. Thank you. So then I will call for the vote. >> Director Song. >> Yes. >> Vice President Briggs. >> I. >> Director Lavali. >> I. >> Director Ms. Rahi. >> Yes. Director Ranken, >> yes. >> Director Smith, >> yes. >> President Top, >> yes. >> This motion has passed unanimously. >> Okay. We're going to now go to the vote on the item as amended. Is there any discussion on that? Okay. Then I'll go to the student reps for their advisory position.

148>> Advise pro. Excuse me. President Topp will need a motion for the item as amended. >> Sorry. >> A motion for the item as amended. Thank you. >> Uh okay. I move approval of action item three as amended by amendment one. >> Second. >> So we have a motion by Vice President Briggs and a second by Director Miseri. Thank you so much for that reminder. Now and now we'll go to discussion. None. Then the student rep position. It's we advise pro and I will call for the vote. Vice President Briggs. >> I director Lavali. >> I director Ms. Rahi. >> Yes. >> Director Ranken. I >> Director Smith. I >> Director Song. Yes. President Top >> I. >> This motion has passed unanimously. >> Awesome. Okay, so looking to board directors if we can keep

149going or do we need a quick break? >> All right, let's keep going. We're moving on uh to the introduction items on today's agenda. The first is approval of the 2526 career and technical education annual plan per board policy number 2170. Superintendent Schner, I'll pass it to you to introduce. >> Thank you so much. Uh I assume I am turning this over to some of our wonderful friends. Uh so uh career and technical education. Who would like to come up to the mic? Uh well I guess Mike you should probably go first, right? So uh again the great Dr. Saraski uh who's in charge of uh CNI and he'll introduce uh this work. Thank you. >> So um uh this evening with the the CTE plan uh Brian Day uh is going to uh be

150here to be able to to speak to the plan and some of the work and some of the beliefs. And what we'd like to be able to do is just in 3 minutes or less just give you a general overview of of this plan uh for 26. >> Uh good evening. Uh thank you Superintendent Schlner, President Topp, and board members for allowing me to speak briefly. Uh my name is Brian Day. I'm the career and technical education director and the STEM director for the district. I represent 196 teachers, very hardworking teachers, and 16,000 students who are currently taking a CTE course. All very dedicated to what they are doing. I'm going to start with a simple idea. CTE is not an add-on. It is not just a program for students who are not going on

151to college. Every single one of our students will have a career. We expect that. and we are in one of the top areas in the country for employment. It there is no excuse for our students leaving us as graduates and not going on to be successful. When we talk about CTE, we are talking about helping students graduate with a plan, a direction, and real options. If you remember L who spoke during the public uh discussion um a little bit later, she talked about her careers in education course. She knew what she was doing. She was passionate and she knew what her next steps were. Um that if you've ever wondered really is a high school and beyond plan really actualized, that's really what we want for our students and CTE is a big part of

152that. This work, the work that is outlined in the plan directly connects to the outcomes this board already prioritizes graduation rates. 15% of our students would not have graduated if CTE pathways were not available. 30% of our special education students would not have graduated unless a CTE pathway was available. CTE incorporates industry recognized certificates, dual credit, work-based learning like internships, industry visits, and CTSOs where students can really experience their future selves, what they're passionate about, and figure out what their direction is. These are all not separate initiatives. They are the core indicators of a high quality CTE program. When we invest in CTE, we are directly investing in graduation pathways and career and college readiness, two huge areas in our strategic plan. Concerning this plan, the most important shift over the past three years is

153the intentional focus on pathways. Students do not benefit solely from a single single course in isolation. They benefit from a sequence of courses, a cluster of courses and experiences that build towards something real, something that's real to them. A pathway, a career pathway involves two credits in an area, aligned courses, and real world experiences and they leave with something tangible. College credit, dual credit, certification or clear next steps. Our goal is to ensure that more students are able to complete a full pathway, not just take an introductory course. There's also a reality we need to be clear about. Student demand for these programs continues to grow. Community demand for these programs continue to grow. At the same time, resources are limited. So, this plan is about making intentional choices, being focused. We are prioritizing pathways

154that support graduation, align to high demand careers in our region, and show strong student interest. That means focusing our efforts where they will have the greatest impact for our students. At the end of the day, this work is about clarity. Clarity for our students. We want every student to be able to answer three questions before they graduate. What am I good at? What opportunities are available to me? What is my next steps? And just an add-on here, do I really see myself in this career? Can I do it? Do I believe in myself? CTE helps make those answers real. This plan moves us towards a system where more students graduate not just with credits, but with direction, confidence, and a pathway forward. Thank you. questions or discussion from directors. >> I just want to say

155I want to emphasize the fact that I was a skills center student last year. I also did the careers and education. I was just about to send an email to my teacher Miss Channon who was here along with L who spoke earlier. And I just want to emphasize how important CTE is and how beneficial it has been in my life and my other friends who have participated in the different programs. I have friends who are in the auto tech um program, the CNA certified nursing assistant program. Um I've encouraged more of my friends to participate in the careers and education um program. I received so much support, support like I had never felt before from my teacher, Miss Channon. She's incredible. She is one of my favorite people on the planet. I still talk to

156her. Um and including from others. I've met other teachers like the maritime teacher. He he subbed pretty consistently for our class and he was amazing. Um the principal of skill center was great. He frequently participated in our classes and discussions and he was a really he was really an advocate for students and I I just really want to support um CTE and the skill center and it's just been so important in my life and I'm really I'm proud to be a skill center student. I'm very happy you said that and that's really what we want for all of our students to be saying that about Seattle public schools and having that clear direction and really communicating that passion. Thank you. >> Thank you, Representative Mangles. Others >> I just >> I wanted to ask you

157had mentioned that there are the huge benefits to kids who might not be looking at going to a college or at least to a four-year degree. Um, and I wanted to see um your opinion on how it does help students who are as well because this isn't necessarily I I think students any students can access these programs and learn about different pathways and how does it >> benefit all of our students? >> Yeah, good question. So really CTE, career and technical education really is for every single student no matter what their pathway is. And that's really a strong message that I want to get across. All students will have a career. The earlier they can think about who they are and what that pathway is, the better. They they may not know specifically, but they

158get that idea of who they are and which direction to go. So whether it's computer science, business and marketing, construction, our mission really is to make these areas accessible for every single student. Thank you, >> Director Smith. >> Um, I hope I hope you maybe will be hearing a lot of the same things. I think the only context that CTE comes up um in conversations for me is it's a strength of our school system and how can we have more? So, um I um looking at the document you shared with the the plan for CTE um really looking at the future growth um there are some great goals and so I just hope we can have conversations ongoing on how to help make those happen and thank you. >> No, thank you. And I hope

159that the pictures are great in that plan. The data, we really pay close attention to the data. we pay close attention to the growth and we really reflect on where do we need to put support to even have a better program. Thank you. >> Director Manglesson or Representative Manglesson. >> Um I just want to add on one more thing to Director Lavali's question and your response. Um uh speaking for students who I'm I'm someone who is planning to pursue a college degree after my graduation from the program. However, I did receive my certification as a pair professional in Seattle public schools. I took my test right here. Um, I passed it. Uh, so technically after I graduate high school, I could go straight into being a pair professional in an elementary school classroom. However, I

160still would like to pursue a college degree, but I think it's awesome that that that is an opportunity. And I I'm pretty sure all the students who were in my uh cohort also did that. But um I would like to say that in my uh class we frequently had speakers. We had speakers from the University of Washington. We had speakers from Americanore. We had speakers from all different um people who represented different aspects of uh the education system and where you can go and where you can find opportunities. And I thought it was just so valuable and there was so much passion from everyone I heard speak including my teacher once again. and she was just incredible. Um, but I think there's so many like I I know once again I know plenty of uh

161peers who are doing these many different programs and they're still planning on pursuing college. So, I think that it while it is a really amazing option for students who want a different career path or or want to pursue apprenticeships or go straight to a job after high school, I think it also really helps students figure out like maybe maybe they do want to go to college. Maybe if they thought it wasn't an option before, they do now. So, so >> so the plan is that you continue on in education, you do your student teaching here, and then you work here. other directors got your plan. He's got it all figured out for you. Dire representative Yun. >> Um, Representative Mangim said most of the stuff I want to say, but I also just want to

162share another great milestone of my friend at Ballard High School. She did skill center for nursing and she will be working at Seattle Children's this coming fall. So, >> that's pretty cool. >> Saves a lot of college debt. Director Anken. >> Um, thank you. I have a question that I don't need answered right now, but I'm just kind of putting it out there so that I get it to the right person between now and um, action, which is the where skill center and CTE intersect and what what's part of skill center, what's not part of skill center, and how how those things work together. So that's that might be a more complicated thing than we want to take time with now, but I have some curiosity around that. And then um this is maybe more

163for the superintendent, but you know, as you've noticed in your what 87 days here, however many it is, um we have a you know, a series of loosely held together patchworks of things and that we call that a school district. And um and I I like where we're headed with actually becoming a district. Um, and I think I would like to sort of plant for you or or maybe hear from you in the future about the sighting of different offerings. Um, and and make sure that we're not just sticking pro programs where there happened to be some space a few years ago, but actually where where we want them, where students can access them and and and make sure that, you know, that that kind of um intentionality extends to to skill center and CTE

164classes. I used to teach what would be considered a CTE class um uh to college freshmen in Queens, New York, >> and told them all the time like even if you think this is, you know, not for you. You know, I had kids who didn't know what a saworse was. And I was like, that will help you. It will help you to know what a saworse is and how to use a few things even if you um don't go into that field. this also to connect to some of our earlier conversations. These are a lot of careers that actually cannot be replaced by AI. >> That is true. It's true >> and are growing. And so it's it's I just am grateful that this is one of the areas of strength of our district and

165I hope to continue to see it grow. >> And there's many careers that are changing because of AI. And what we're trying to do is understand what those are early so that we can shift and make sure that every student is prepared. To just briefly answer your first question, uh our skill center is part of our CTE program. It it's a separate school that's in several schools and we have a principal there. It's kind of like we have a math program and we have a specialized math uh school. uh set a different way CTE the non-skll setter part is really focused on exploratory experiences with some preparatory uh skill center really is targeted at an IRC some type of certificate which you could go on and work or dual credit it's a more intense experience

166it's a progression >> that's super helpful thank you >> I just want to acknowledge the the the point made I think there's No question. All these programs are really really valuable to our students. Uh I had the honored privilege of one of the 80s something uh programs that in schools I've seen. I was I got to go to the to our auto shop and firefighter uh work which was terrific as well as some of the great CTE work that's going uh throughout the district. So it is certainly uh my intention to be a strong advocate for these things uh in ways that are uh thoughtful and structured rather than possibly haphazard. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Others. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We'll move on to our next item. Approval

167of board resolution 20252614 authorizing an amendment to the repayment plan of economic stabilization account and authorizing the use of capital fund interest earnings for instructional supplies equipment or capital outlay purposes. Uh Superintendent Schner, I'll pass it to you for introduction. >> Sure. So clearly I want the great Kurt Buttleman, Dr. Bleman to come and speak about this, but uh I do have a little bit of some financial background. So I will take the privilege of uh talking a little bit about this uh and then give it to my learned uh council over there. Um one of the things that school districts have the ability to do is use certain pockets of money for operation. Now that's really a great thing because so many of our dollars are prescribed. I appreciate very much the families that

168talked about the technology and that, you know, if we didn't buy computers for everybody, couldn't we give it to teachers? The problem is different buckets of money. And so if you have money that's being paid for out of a technology budget and then you're not using it, it still has to go in essence to technology and not necessarily um uh salaries. However, and I want to thank uh Dr. rebuttlement and the work that we've been doing is that there are if you know the rules there are some ways to be really thoughtful around uh moving money into operations to help support uh schools that is legal. I will try very much not to break the law here. Um but that are creative. And I think one of the ways that we are trying to address

169our hundred million dollar uh you know insolveny problem is by being very thoughtful around what we can or cannot do uh for the betterment of kids. So uh Dr. Bman if you want to speak uh to this that'd be great. >> No I think you did it really well. I do want to give a little credit where credit is due. I'm Kurt Bleman assistant superintendent for finance. Um one of our season ticket holders Mr. Jkins brought this to our attention a few years ago. uh the utilization of capital fund interest for school supplies. So um just want to acknowledge that that the community is making a difference in the way that we're utilizing some of these funds. Um and here's a good example of that um for that point. So this bar in this resolution

170introduced two different things. One is utilization of capital fund interest for instructional supplies and equipment and capital outlay for each year. And this contemplates $5 million in usage for next year's budget. Um we do spend more than that on things like science kits, um instructional materials in schools. It's well in excess of $5 million each year and we make sure of that before we we transfer these funds. The second item is a little bit of a technical mind bending one for some. Um so the second item is delaying repayment of the rainy day fund for one more year. So the district three years ago used the rainy day fund $42 million to balance the budget and there was contemplated a repayment plan at that time. The last two years the board has voted to delay

171the first installment of those repayments. This is another request for delaying that repayment. doing so in effect the projected deficit of $87 million that we've talked about quite a few times at these tables goes down to 80 million because we built in this repayment of 7 million upfront. And so by doing passing this $87 million deferment of that first repayment or $87 million budget deficit becomes $80 million is the problem that we're working on for next year. So, not doing that, we'd have to reduce the budget by an additional $7 million for next year. >> I see a couple quizzical looks. >> And one thing I might add, uh, is that, you know, when you borrow from yourself, uh, you get to tell yourself when you want to pay it back. And one of the

172important things is that if we are trying to get to true solveny, to true zero, we are going to want to pay this back. But, and we're going to owe, right? we cannot uh go away for our obligations. But the good news is that we do have the authority to continue to do this as we continue to strengthen the district's u efficiency. Uh but I certainly appreciate again the thoughtfulness around how do we get to that that zero dollar uh so that we are not owing uh ourselves or others. But this is a really helpful mechanism that allows us to have a balanced budget uh without uh making even more cuts. Director Anken, >> I you actually kind of just said what I was going to ask, which is yes, this this changes next year's

173budget deficit from 87 to 80, but it's the deficit still exists and is just basically being being punted. So, do I guess the question is do we think that our financial situation is going to be that different in a year that that $7 million would be easier to close, you know, in 2728 or >> Yeah. I mean, that's certain that's certainly our hope. I mean, is that what we've been showing over the last two months and 22 days is that we're trying to really start to figure out ways to save money. And I think we've done some pretty good things. you know, tens of millions of dollars. And so by allowing this, we get kind of one more year to really try to do that. I mean, you know, I don't want to talk about

174what I might be sharing soon. Uh but clearly one of the things we're going to want to do is to actually be solvent, actually have a fund balance, actually be there. And I think the timeline to get there is, you know, a couple of years. This allows us to buy one more year of like figuring out how to cut thoughtfully without it going to the to the bone only to the fat and hopefully not the muscle either. So >> So I guess a way of re restating it is it's not just kicking the can. It's actually we have this this size of an issue. We have made difficult decisions to close this much of it >> if we can. >> Yes. >> Move that. It kind of spreads out the the pain so to speak.

175>> Absolutely. Okay. Great way. >> And I can just add to Superintendent Shelner's point that the 87 days you've been here, is that the number? >> Exactly like that. >> We're not kicking the can down the road. >> I was going to say 87 days, that's a million dollars a day. >> That's right. That's right. >> There's no chance the superintendent's going to kick the can down the road going forward. >> Okay, that's good. From my experience, >> and I I also think um and would defer to you as well. Um, there was some legislation that came forward about minimum fund B balances for school districts that didn't pass, but I would expect that those will pass eventually. Like I don't think those are going to go away. And so this still wouldn't I don't

176think bump us up. >> Yeah, this is >> I don't think the expectation will be made of school districts before one more year, I guess. >> No. And it's a fund balance. This is different. This is the economic stabilization account. So, oh, sorry. It's 68% of fund balance >> of what you received in state aortionment the previous year. So, it's complex and overly overly convoluted. Um, but we would make sure this would this would kind of move in line with that. So, we would be um we'd be uh in calibration with both those. Okay. Going forward. >> Thanks, Director Song. Um I um I think this is I I'm trying to understand the order of things like we are passing this so that you have the authority as you are working on your 2627 budget

177to close a $80 million uh deficit versus a$ 87 million deficit. So um I think for me it this is feels a little bit um out of context without knowing um what the ending fund balance will be. So I think that is a piece of helpful information as if you can share with us like um and I had I sent the screenshots of a previous presentation. I'm sorry I sent it today so you didn't have much time to absorb it but um I think it was the December budget work session. you did a really elegant job of going through what are the different components um to get us to what a end a ending balance is. I think it would be helpful to understand where this kind of fits in and where we're expecting to

178land um as we're trying to close the 80 million deficit, what we're expecting our end balance will be. So I don't know if that can be covered in the next finance committee or information that can be shared with the board, but this right now feels a little abstract. No, no, and I appreciate that it does. It is abstract, right? I mean, I think that what we have to do again because of Washington state law and certain things is ask for your approval to allow us to use the tools at our discretion to to get there. And so I certainly, you know, I will defer to to Kurt, but I think it would be great for us to share at the finance committee some of the information that we're working on. And, you know, this is

179again is just introductory. So, uh, next month, you know, we're happy to share. I mean, we we work on this on a on a daily, so I think that would be good for us to share next month. Anyway, >> and we do have May 6 there's a budget preliminary presentation. We'll it is our it will be covered there in >> not quite the depth we did in December, but sort of the trend and what you're asking. We'll we'll share that then. >> Other directors. >> All right. Thank you. >> So, those were our two items for uh introduction. We are now moving on toformational presentations which we're going to take just a few minutes to get over to the U-shaped tables and make that transition This is consent agenda item 11 has a resolution in

180it. >> Okay. We have two presentations for us uh forformational presentations for us today. The first is on expanding access to advanced math in middle school. M >> so with that uh I'm going to pass it over to Superintendent Schner. >> Thank you so much. Um it is really uh my privilege to be here today to talk about these uh two uh presentations but I want to start certainly with the first one. So, as I have been here now for, you know, 2 months, 22 days, uh it is so clear to me how talented the students of Seattle are and how talented the educators of Seattle are. And I think as I visit our 106 schools, what I've seen is the district in some ways get in the way of having our children learn uh

181to their ability, to their speed, to their interest. And so one of the things that uh Dr. Montgomery has been really working on uh is how do we expand access to our students? And I think that what's really helpful and important to kind of hold on to is that this is one of the I think first big wins to show the trajectory we're trying to do to make sure that our students, our staff, our community really have access to this kind of high quality uh high rigorous uh work. And you know, as I said from the deis earlier, this idea of possibly having an algebra for all or even a geometry for all, it starts with creating systems and structures that allow more children to have access to advanced work. And so what this is

182really uh I hope uh comes across is Dr. Montgomery's um really thoughtful uh work over the last couple of months on how do we create a system and structure that allows uh our students and all of our students and you'll see this um kind of access to the work that they are at the level of uh currently rather than having to wait or be held back. So with that I'll turn it over to Dr. Montgomery. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um, as do um, Superintendent Shelner said, we've been working on this um, for a few months. And for those of you who were board members last year or even community members last year, you might remember around this time last year, before I was even officially in the position, we knew

183we needed to do something about that five to sixth grade transition um, for our students, especially our HC identified students. And so we created the pilot program last summer uh where we had 244 students who were HC identified but who had stayed at their neighborhood schools. We gave them the opportunity during the summer to take a faster track sixth grade math course online. Those students are now in math 78 at their five HC middle school sites. They're actually doing beautifully. And so, um, as we were gearing up to continue that program this year, we took a look systemwide. Uh, we had some collaborative conversations, uh, using data, specifically map data, something called curriculum embedded assessments, and we really looked to see which students are clearly ready for something more than just sixth grade math in

184sixth grade. Um earlier today in a couple different presentations there was talk about getting predictable pathways, getting consistency throughout our district and this is one step in that direction that we are implementing actually starting tomorrow. Um so just to go through the the presentation quickly um we're offering a 12-week uh summer program. It's online. It's self-paced. There are teachers attached to the program. It is an OSPI approved course through imagine learning which is the course provider for our virtual academy and cascade parent partnership. The course has been modified um so that our students who are ready for acceleration can move through the course at a faster pace. Um, and this option at this point will set our students up, um, no matter what elementary school they went to, when they hit middle school, they'll be

185on the same secondary math pathway as the students who are now attending Cascadia third good Marshall indicator. Um, the identification for this, we've identified students based on a pattern of exceptionally high MAP performance. Um also like I said um H um CAS curriculum embedded assessments that are happening throughout the year in fifth grade. And then also our students who are HC identified but are in our neighborhood schools. They're not at Cascadia Decator at third good Marshall right now. They're taking fifth grade math. >> I just want to kind of highlight and stress that point. We love all of our schools and we want to support all of our schools. And one of the things about kind of HC designation is at times parents are pulled in two directions. Do I send my child to the

186HC program and leave my, you know, neighborhood school, the one that I can walk to, etc., etc., or do I have my child stay at the neighborhood school that, you know, they've been there since kindergarten or even nursery school or prek? Um, but you know what? to what end? With this uh ability, it allows us to kind of get them to where they would have been in HC uh kind of over the course of a couple of years. So, I think it's just again part of this expansion of access for children to get to the skill level that they are at and not be held back because of what school that they go to. Now, there's a lot more to do, don't get me wrong, but this is a really good first step that we're

187trying to kind of telegraph the kind of work that we're trying to do uh to support our families. >> Um to follow up on that, one of the things that we heard uh last spring from our neighborhood elementary school leaders and families that they appreciated this option. They're hoping for additional options in the future, but this is one of the options that um supported uh neighborhood families staying at their local school because they knew that once they hit middle school, they could go faster, they could go deeper um in math math if they so desired. So, just some numbers up there. Uh 555 students representing, you know, 57 elementary schools across our district will be invited um into this program at this point. Um, I think it's important to know that 25% of those students

188do not have an HC designation. So, we're using real time data. We're using um the fall map. We use the winter map. We're looking at SEA data. We even have a list of students. We're continuously watching over the next couple weeks um to see how they do in the spring map and we will invite them in as well. Um, and so this really, you know, this is an expanded access. This represents over 300 more 300 additional students accessing this program if they so desire. Um and overall this is really setting about 23% districtwide of next year sixth graders in math seven or above. Um which is sounds about right. We've we've heard from families. We've heard from students they're definitely ready for more and we're using data to show yes they are truly truly ready

189for more. The data the data is there. It's clear. >> Yeah. And again, I can't stress this enough about the 25%. So, a quarter of those students that are being invited are not HC designated school students. Now, I would like us to take that as a win by saying, wow, when they took the test for HC, they weren't there. But look at all the great work that the Seattle public schools have done uh to move them forward, which is a good way of thinking about it. But again, it's still about this kind of access question. Uh, as kids are are going through the system, do we have multiple checkpoints so that they can get to the work at at their level, their desire, etc., etc. So, I really appreciate the work of Dr. Montgomery. >>

190Right. And then just call out to the timeline, one of the pieces of feedback we heard last summer was that families felt like they didn't have quite enough time. We opened this program in July of last year. So, we're we're actually going to open this program in early May. Doesn't mean that kids have to start it in early May, but we want to just give families as much flexibility and as much time to do this that um that they that they want and they desire. Um we also have fifth grade elementary school teachers who have talked about, you know, ways that they might be able to support students that are doing this program in the final months of school as well. Um, and we're really just trying to get to a consistent way at sixth

191grade for who goes into seventh grade math or math 78, who has sixth grade math. And then we're we're really set up, I think, beautifully as a system at seventh grade systemwide where we have compacted math 78 for all kids. We have a real clear pathway to calculus by your senior year for all kids. This is to almost um equalize or get kids who stay at the neighborhood schools on the same pathway as the students who went to the HC elementary schools, which is a two-year acceleration in math. It gets kids to calculus their junior year in high school. Um I'm happy to take a few questions. I'm happy also to have board members email me if you're curious or want more details, more of the weeds. Happy to answer those questions as well. go

192through questions, but I do think that, you know, expanded access, taking this as a win, trajectory of where we're going, just repeating things you said. So, uh, all all very important things as we're really focusing on how do we make sure that we are offering rigorous programs and holding our students to the high standards we know that they they are at. >> Absolutely. And and as you all know better than I as I am new to the city, uh there had been some real concerns around geographical access throughout this city and throughout this district and this really helps us start to to highlight that as well. So thank you. >> Other directors, Director Manglesen, Representative Mangle, I'll get it at some point. Okay. >> Um I know you've talked a lot about access um for

193these programs and I think it's great. Um, I know that I went into middle school right around when a lot of these programs, at least in my middle school, were kind of dismantled. So, and I know that my parents were frustrated about that. Um, and so I have one kind of two questions, but I'll just ask the first one. Um, I you briefly touched on geographical access. So, one thing that's kind of related to that is I was wondering if there's going to be any supports available to students and parents who may not necessarily have like access to the technology that may be required for this like will be there be uh supports in for example like public libraries or something along those lines or summer school. >> Yeah. So, I I love that question.

194Um and this is an online program. My vision would be that we could do things like this in person as well for that reason. Um, but we do part of our registration process is to ask families if they need a computer and if they need a hotspot or Wi-Fi access. And so last summer we did distribute uh Wi-Fi access. We distributed computers. And then a portion of my team works all summer long. So we are monitoring it. We're calling families. I'm emailing kids sometimes and saying, "Hey, notice you haven't logged on." Um, so we're we're trying to set it up. Um the course itself is pretty robust with support as well, but we're we're not just shoving it over to an online provider. We're here as well to monitor it. And I do love love

195your question about internet and computers >> here. Thank you so much. >> Yeah, they they don't have to go to the library if they don't want to. >> They could though. That's great. Exactly. Uh >> Vice President Briggs Yeah, I missed the beginning, so apologies if this was covered in at all. Um, >> I guess I'm just curious. So, when my kids were my older kids were in middle school, my understanding was that they anybody could opt into math 78 in seventh grade, like you didn't have to have HC identification or um any particular MAP performance. So, is that's is that still the case? And is this like this is not feeding into that and if you don't do this summer program then you can't opt into math 78. I'm just trying to understand the

196relationship. Yeah. So this was created we have all sorts of different things happening right now at middle schools in terms of skipping math six. We don't want kids to skip math six. So this is really a system approach to say we're not skipping we don't want to skip any math. We want to compact it provide opportunity. So we still are set up all kids, any child can take math seven, eight in seventh grade and that is that pathway onto calculus your senior year. So it's a it's a great pathway. I think it's a huge win for Seattle that we don't celebrate enough. But this is a model that gets kids really to calculus their jun students junior year. Yeah. So that's on the same pathway as Cascadia Decator Third Good Marshall. >> Yeah. And then

197students go to Running Start. students might take AP statistics. Um there's some different options their senior year if they so desire. >> Yeah. >> And and I will say just personally, I am a little jealous. The last time I took a math class was in 11th grade because I took BC calc and my high school didn't have anything for me and I did not take uh calc in or math in in uh college. I mean, I took physics, but uh it's really nice to see that. I mean, I was at a couple of high schools this last couple of weeks and, you know, 11th graders in BC Cal, that's incredible. And I'm like, well, what happens next year? And they're like, oh, AP stats or multivariable or I can do Running Start or I could

198do whatever. Those are great things I which I did not have the option for. So, I'm very jealous. So, >> director Ranken, >> thank you. Um, so I feel like we have been we I some of us have been pounding against like a brick wall for a decade and this is like some light coming through finally after being like why are we limiting children's access to things? Why is it this or this and no in between? What can we do? you know, at some point I asked um you know, why can't we offer something in the summer or something supplemental for or no, we weren't giving we weren't allowing outside district credit for kids taking stuff during the summer. >> And the response that I got was, well, everybody doesn't have access to that. I

199said, well, then why don't we provide it? I like I don't understand why we would stop children from learning. So, this is really great. I also know of course that not everybody has the time or the time to do it during the summer. So I uh my question hope is that this is a a step in this direction and that this isn't the solution for branching into different ways but also that once we get hopefully some school year opportunities that that we we retain this because um it's great. We should and es especially because um we do have families. So my my kid came from uh my younger son who Paula knows was a student at her school um uh came from a neighborhood school as a highly capable student. Took math six and it

200just was miserable. Took math 78 and then I can't last summer I think he he brought this to us. He said, 'I really want to take um geometry over the summer or no uh algebra 1 over the summer so I can take geometry as an eighth grader. And that that is the the the H if he was in an HC cohort, that's what he would be doing in eighth grade. And he took it at a school that doesn't happen to be uh recognized by SPS for um uh getting credit, which and I know I'm not the only one that has experienced this. And so that's actually another question that I have is if there's a program, this is the Robin Center, Robinson Center at University of Washington. It's not like somebody out of the back

201of their car being like, "Hey, I got geometry." Like, this is pretty legit. And for some reason, the response that I and other parents have gotten is it doesn't meet our it's not aligned to our curriculum or it doesn't meet standards. I would be willing to bet if somebody from SPS were to call over there and say, "Hey, we we have families who take your classes during the summer. we would like to give them credit for it. Here's the place that doesn't align. Are you willing to adapt your program? Or maybe we could have somebody re-evaluate whether or not like I mean I think it kind of does align. It actually prepared my child really really well to reenter SPS to take the next in sequence. So this is all just you know connected to

202how do we continue? this is so great >> and also in some ways seems so simple that you know I'm not going to bel labor why hasn't it happened sooner um I think we honestly didn't have the people willing to do it and now we do um and that's really exciting and so just whatever we the board can do to continue to support these opportunities I think that you know when I go on to like um the Belleview school district website for example you can see a flowchart really easily of what their math offerings are. We still I think will be dealing with in SPS for some time is kind of de demystifying like where where is that? How do I get to that? I didn't get the email about the summer thing. Um I'm

203sorry I'm totally rambling. It's after 7:30. Um but basically just this is such a great concrete step towards showing that like we can provide more opportunities for more students. Um, and I would just encourage us to keep keep doing that. Keep going. And and also look at those kind of streamlined district-wide things. Any middle school you'll go to, you'll be able to access X. It might not necessarily mean that the smallest middle school has a geometry class, but you will be able to access geometry in this other way or whatever it might look like. I think that we have said no to people because of where they live or where their kid goes to school is is really not okay. And I'm really excited to see um this taking taking shape and moving forward and

204um yeah, however the board can help um make that more more present, more whatever whatever it is you need. Thank you. >> I I I appreciate that. I also appreciate the recognition that, you know, this is a step um it's an improvement over last year and thinking about just how do we build a system? How do we build coherence? How do we build something that's predictable and sustainable? Um, so this is one step. Um, we there's a whole lot that you said I won't respond to it already. That was way that was really >> Yeah, there there's a lot there, but I think that there's been some really nice collaboration between multiple departments, you know, highly capable CI even uh we had our assessment team weigh in on this project. we had our technology team

205and I think that that's what it takes for us to build systems to move forward regardless of what school kids go to. >> One technical question is when kids finish the program, I could imagine a scenario where some kids do really well and are passing whatever online thing they have to enter really well. Some kids maybe are not doing well. who is then the determining factor in maybe it would be best for the student to to essentially retake the course when they when they come back to school in the fall. Who's deciding that or talking with families of like yes your child took this course but they really struggled and we think they would benefit from you know taking math seven and seventh grade. Do we have a >> that would be me? >> Okay.

206>> And and we had those conversations last summer too. I think the nice thing about this is we have data throughout just like we want our teachers to have formative assessment data throughout the year. We have we have data we are checking every single week and our department is reaching out to families when there's concerns. And so last summer we did have you know a few families who said whoa this isn't for our kids. Okay that's great. Sixth grade math is a fine course. We had we have a few kids who are taking sixth grade math right now doing beautifully in it. they took the course but just weren't as confident um in moving forward and that's fine. We want our we want our kids to feel good about this at the end of the

207summer. >> So essentially it's through you not through the school that's >> correct. Correct. Yeah. And I mean there's partnerships with the building leaders but so much of this um building leaders have expressed appreciation that there's just some clarity and there's some parameters um because otherwise um there's not clarity about who gets into this seventh and eight class as a sixth grader and who doesn't >> and that it's not a different thing depending on a different principle. >> Yeah. Not a different answer. Thank you. Yeah. >> Director Lavali. Uh my first question was going to be about the potential for in-person options. However, you did cover that a little bit in one of your previous answers. I so I'd like to focus more on um I'd love to and this is not something you can

208answer right now, but you were saying that you were collecting a bunch of feedback from these. I'd love to know kind of the topics of feedback that you've been getting from people. I think it'd be really interesting just to be informed about as well as um kind of a little bit piggybacking on the last question. I'd love to know a little bit about the completion rates during summer online. I as a parent getting my child to do um a online course in the middle of summer I feel like would be pulling teeth and I as a parent would probably give up. I am not that strong. Um, I don't have the resolve. So, I'd love to know a little bit about the completion rates and I'm sure it sounds like you've done the research into

209why and if it was the kid is actually doing all right at it, but we couldn't get them on the computer because an ice cream truck was outside. I don't know. >> Whatever it is, which is important. So, I I'd love to know a little bit about how and again I don't expect an answer to that right now because those are numbers that you need to pull up later and I hope I hope you don't have those memorized. >> I don't, but tomorrow I will give them. >> Sure. I believe you have them quickly, but I'm glad you don't have them memorized and that you have other things top of mind. >> Yeah. Yeah. And you know, we're trying to really emphasize sixth grade math is a fine course. It's an appropriate course for sixth

210graders. And so last summer, the majority of students who took this course wanted to take it. And that's what we're really trying to emphasize. If a family is having to drag their student to do this, this isn't this isn't the right course. But we have so many students who are just asking to do something more. You know, they might be students who stayed at their neighborhood school and didn't go to Cascadia because of a family choice. And the kids just want more. And many of our fifth graders are that driven and that motivated. Um, so I'll share that data with you. I'll send it to you tomorrow. >> So, it's just my family that has no interest in doing math in the summer, >> but there's so many other things to during the do do

211to do during the summer and eating ice cream is a big part of that as a fifth grader. >> Representative, >> they had a clarifying question. So um on one of the slides talks about like who is elig um students are eligible for the math program and I just wanted to clarify is this like optional let's say a student scores very high on a math test usually HC would allow them to skip a grade and go to a higher level right is it that now this program is required for you to do in order to be in a higher math class or is Is it kind of optional if they want if they think they still need to have more um I guess content learning on it even though they scored high on a math

212test for example? >> Okay, that's that's a great question and probably when you were in middle school there was an option to actually skip math and as dire Yeah, as director Rankin said things have changed. So we are actually we do have an option for students who have scored exceptionally high. They are going to get a letter that says they could actually go directly into math 78. We are also offering them the summer program if they so desire. But we have we have some students, it's about 50 district-wide who are so so high that I would even say you you don't need to take this math six course over the summer. And people who know me, I'm all about don't skip, don't skip, but these are really really high highscoring kids in all of our

213neighborhood schools. So, these are not the students who've had the two-year acceleration. Um, so we're bringing that option back. >> Just to clarify, this is an option technically. >> Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I hope we can help, you know, families to be okay with this is one option, but there's many other options and there's many other ways to spend your summer. But there are students who really want to do this during the summer and we don't want to hold them back. And we also don't want students to feel pressure that this is how I need to spend my summer because there's there's a lot of other things to do during the summer. People have different interests and knowing, you know, thinking about what director Briggs brought up. We are set up really beautifully. Students do

214not have to take a summer course to get to calculus their senior year in high school. You can take that math 78 course. That's going to be fine. So, it's about having some multiple avenues for our students throughout our city. >> Director Smith. Hi. Um, so first just to reiterate this is this is great. This is a good first step. Um, and also can we have more? Um, my background in elementary school, we moved around to several different districts in Maine and Nebraska and Tacoma and I sometimes had accelerated math and sometimes ended up repeating a lot of math courses. Um so that you know based on that memory of my schooling and of course things have changed since then and I was able to get calculus as a junior. Um, my hope for my

215child or any child is that whether or not we qualify for HC or my child and even if if he does, whether or not we choose to go there and then again in sixth grade when in the summer before sixth grade, whether or not he qualifies, whether or not we choose that because as a family, even if if a kid is interested, that is a big >> ask to take a summer >> um instead of having that time for families. Um, and it sounds like you have been answering this that in that case, if we say we're not doing the HC option, we're not doing the summer school option, there is still a path to calculus by the senior year >> and potentially even an option to get seventh grade math in sixth grade without

216taking the summer course. And would that potentially then lead to calculus in their junior year with like no extra actions on the family's part? >> At at this point in time, yes. Um for the students who are those really high achievers right now in fifth grade. Um so we will we are making that that offer to those families. >> Okay. Well, thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. >> All right. We're going to move on to our next presentation. >> Thank you, Dr. Montgomery. >> Thank you so much, Dr. from Montgomery have an enrollment update. >> Wonderful. Uh so hello everybody. Uh now we are uh greeted by uh Dr. uh Marne Campbell. We're very thrilled of course I'm like the only person without a doctorate but hey that is what it is. Um

217but uh my mother's still very disappointed in me but it is it's it's how it goes. Um but I want to make sure that uh we we start this conversation off uh again with the board has been really thoughtful about its asks of me and of the district. you know the idea of having the HC conversation the idea of having accelerated conversation all these things and one of the things we've also talked about is what's our enrollment what are we doing how are we moving what how do we think about these things and then also uh you know talking to so many community members they've asked me over and over again hey Ben what are you what are you doing to increase enrollment what are we doing to like you I think in the positive,

218how do we do that? And I think that's exactly what we should be thinking about. And I think what I'm looking forward to with this presentation is we want to be always honest and transparent about where we currently are, what we're dealing with, where some of those concerns are, and where we can start to focus our uh resources and our time on so that we can get to uh an increased enrollment. And again, I'm happy to teach all of the children that want to come to Seattle and it's not about well, you know, if we add 20,000 kids or whatever, but I think what we have here heard from our families is they want a reason to believe to come back. And so we're going to try to I mean, I think the presentation you

219just saw was a great reason. Um, but really I think what you'll see in this presentation is where we currently are, what we're trying to do, and then uh some thoughtful ways to try to increase enrollment. So, take it away. Uh, morning. >> Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for uh for being here and for all that you do on behalf of our communities. So, yeah, there's a little bit of an arc to this presentation. We're starting with the present day. This is actually as of uh the 15th, so as of last week. Um, our numbers are changing daily. Um so just because of the way things go uh both current and future enrollment uh but as of last week um our uh our March enrollment current enrollment was 48,859 students just for comparison

220the year before and the year before that it's a little bit odd. They're identical but if you go there's a link to the OSPI. I know I was I double checked. I had everybody look at it. I'm like that seems a little odd but there it is. So you can go to the headcount and this is headcount numbers. I want to make that really clear. So when you go to the OSPI website you can find FTE and you can find head headcount. We're going with headcount because that represents actual human beings, human students. Um but you can see that over you know that we are declining. So that is the current story. Now of course we would like that to change. We would like to change that trend. So we have to simultaneously live in

221that place of how do we think about in in the future uh regaining enrollment but also planning in the present for what we know is an is an ongoing decline. >> And sorry one thing I just want to highlight that Dr. Campbell talked about is so much of the conversation around enrollment is mired in well what do you mean is it headcount is it this and like and I feel for our schools because they have to be budgeted on you know what we think is going to happen and the you know there's a lot of um thoughtful very hard work around uh who we're uh who we think are going to be at schools. What I've always want to do as much as as possible is if we're going to give you a number, we'll

222give you a link to where that number is and so that you have actual like state numbers that are audited. And so this is what's called the 1251H headcount report. You click on that link, right? We want to make sure that, you know, as as as long as I'm superintendent, we're always going to have to stand by our numbers and we have to prove it's like show your work. Uh and so we're trying very hard as we get into that process of really trying to make sure that not just the board can see it, but anybody uh at home can start to kind of doublech checkck our work. So I appreciate uh Marne doing that. Thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. So then a little bit of a pivot. That's current enrollment. When we talk about

223next year, we talk about assigned students. They're not yet enrolled. They're not enrolled until they show up next fall. So we're always operating that our best prediction. Now many of these students are current students with us. We anticipate they'll be here with us next year but we still consider them assigned students as of now and that becomes meaningful in a couple of different ways but so uh and again these are headcount numbers so we're kind of keeping the apples to apples comparison. So you can see um as of the 15th, so you can see beginning in March of 2026, we had 48,346 total and then over the course of that month and then to the 15th, we went up to 48,837. That just reflects the fact that we're continually enrolling or and students are enrolling

224in Seattle public schools and they're being assigned. Um so you can kind of see the pace at which those things are are happening. Um, our projection is 48,849. So, you can see how we're approaching that projection number. Um, that is changing. Again, we anticipate we are on pace, but we, you know, it ain't over till it's over. So, we're continually watching that number and seeing how that is progressing. So, we kind of started in the currently enrolled. We're looking now at future. Now, the other thing we want to reflect on and hopefully celebrate is uh school choice. So this time last year, we were talking about um families who had expressed a desire to attend a school other than their assigned school, other than their neighborhood school. Um and we were really wrestling with how

225we do that. How do we make sure that we uh essentially honor what a family and what a student might say is, I think, you know, what is a better fit for me? So, uh, we've worked to make sure that we can better match what we think our families and students are telling us they they need and deserve. So, um, we received, uh, during a specific period of time, we'll kind of get the denominator really specific and clear, 4,290, uh, school choice applications. Um, we made 3,460 choice assignments. Now again be aware that this is ongoing but um as of last week that means 81% of our families received a preferred assignment um which for comparison uh uh last year it was 64% and the year before it was 53% and for quite a bit

226of time it was around 50%. Um so this number will change. We're continuing to look at weight lists. We're continuing to move uh it's active and ongoing every single day. So, just wanted to celebrate that for a moment. Really thank our assignment team, our enrollment team, uh, pushing their thinking, our senior leadership team for having that vision. And, uh, we're continuing to really push on what we what we think of as choice. And last year at this time, we were talking about what is the function of choice in our district. I think we understand really clearly now that choice is something that matters. that when you when you feel like you know what your student needs and deserves, when you as a student feel like you know what you need and deserve, you want to

227be able to say that. We want to be able to match you with that with that preferred option. >> Yeah. And I just really want to thank Marne and the team. I mean, that's a real I mean, I'm not I don't use significant because that has a real meaning in uh statistics, but like 64 to 81, that's a lot of kids now get choice. That's a big deal. And I hope again this is a signal to our families that if we're going to say we have choice, we mean choice. And so we're going to get up to a level where we might not be able to do it because I also want to be really clear about some buildings actually have limits. And so, um, one of the great things I was, uh, gifted, uh,

228cuz I asked for it, uh, last week is a binder about this thick of every blueprint of every school. So that we can actually have a real answer of how many classrooms and what is the actual capacity of each school because when you ask that question to five different people, you get about 12 different answers. And so we got to be really clear about that. But I say that because with choice we want to give everybody choice but we also want to be thoughtful about like what is actually the physical space requirements of schools. Um but what this shows you is in one year we increased by you know from 64 to to 81. That's that's hundreds of kids that get now the school that they wanted to go to and the parents I assume

229where their kid wanted to go as well. So I really want to highlight this and and thanks to work uh that once we make a decision that we believe in choice, we then say we're going to actually do it. >> Thank you. Another distinction I want to draw is the prior uh pages or the prior slides uh were K12. This we intentionally reflected preK through 12 because we also do have some preK programs where choice is uh factored in. So we intentionally included prek in this particular um this set of information. So now uh the next phase of this of the sort of data story we're telling tonight is just sort of strengthening our future. So right now if you were to look at our our current 12th grade cohort which we think of as

230an exiting cohort. We not we know that not all of these students are going to leave us. But if we just use that as a sort of point in time that's 3951 students. Our projected incoming kindergarten cohort is 3658 students. So given that that incoming K cohort really does shape the trajectory of future enrollment, that tells us, okay, so we know we have more 12th graders leaving than we have kindergarteners coming in. So that's again something for us to orient ourselves to. How do we address that? How do we think about that? Again, we both have to plan in real time and we also have to be really aspirational and saying how can we potentially interrupt uh this trend? And again, you can see the link there to that report at OSPI. So, just uh

231just to end on some sort of planning and more looking toward the future, a few things to think about strengthening that birth to kindergarten enrollment. So, these numbers reflect um because our incoming cohort shapes our future enrollment. Um it's not the end of the story, but it's a really critical entry point. Um so, we talk about our birth tok ratio. That means five years ago in King County, we know how many babies were born and we try to look at then five years later how many students enrolled in our kindergarten programs. We don't necessarily know all that has gone in between that time, but we keep track of the trend because that tells us something significant. So you can see that in 2526 we captured 54.9% of babies born 5 years prior this year. The

232year before it was 53.8 8 53.3 and just for comparison in 1516 that was 66.2%. So we have seen a decrease in that birth what we call a kindergarten capture rate. Um uh again many things could be influencing that but it is important data for us to think about. It's a data point that we look at to ask ourselves what can we do then to strengthen that entry point for our families. um some of that in an immediate um really actionable is to look at our kids that we know are with us in our prek programs. We know who they are. We can make that enrollment easy and automatic. So that's actually something that we're looking at. So if you're in a a prek in one of our schools, you don't even have to reenroll.

233We we'll get you right enrolled in kindergarten. So that's an easy actionable step that we're looking at. But there are other things that are going to go on between that birth decay um experience that we want to make sure that that along the way when you're a someone who has a baby that comes to your family in whatever way that they come to you that you know that Seattle public schools is a place where you would like to go. So that's that's one piece of data. The other one is retaining students between fifth and sixth grade. So, another piece of data that if you look at our data, I know all of you have, we tend to lose some of our fifth graders between fifth and sixth. So, you can just see those rates um

234for 25 26 and then the three years prior. Um so, what I'm t doing with my enrollment team right now with these numbers is saying, okay, we know these numbers. Where is this happening? Let's look region by region. Let's look school by school. let's look where maybe we have some middle schools where we are um retaining more fifth graders. What's going on there? So, we're going to get much more granular about that. So, again, we don't want to just leave it as a hopeful thing. It means that we do need to look at our middle schools. And I think we know anecdotally why middle school feels like a challenge. If you have your your your student is in a nice little cozy neighborhood, elementary school, going to a a big middle school is going to

235feel a little bit daunting in many cases. But we want to look at where we are maybe seeing some changes in that trend and also get very pragmatic. Again, that's not necessarily the enrollment department's work alone. That really is us with us working with curriculum instruction, working with our schools and our school leaders to say how are we um setting uh middle school up to feel like um a place that where there's an a a connection and an on-ramp between fifth and sixth grade. And then the last one is to continue to increase access to learning opportunities in partnership with students and families. So we know and we've heard tonight um being able to provide more opportunities for a cohort-based model and highly capable is something that is very much been expressed by our families

236when we see that happening. Doing more of that, listening to our students, listening to our families, providing those opportunities, we believe is something that can also help us um make Seattle public schools feel like um an option that is desirable. um for all of our families. So, that kind of gives you the here's our current state just for comparison. We know we're trending downward. Um looking at next year's uh assigned students um and then looking at some really specific areas where we can start targeting some of our work again, not just in the enrollment department, but across the board so that we're really teeing ourselves up to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our students and families and really of our city. >> Yeah. No, thank you so much. And again, this is

237the kind of promise I've made to this board really since we've been in the interview process is we're going to tell the data, we're going to show the story, and then we're going to show the plan to move forward. And this is the kind of modeling that we're going to try to do with a lot of these presentations. So, the takeaway, we're losing kids and we see there's specific pockets where we're losing kids. That's why you look at the data 30,000 foot and then you start to get more granular. We know that there are a lot of kids born in Seattle and they're not coming to us. We do know that uh I'm glad Marty put that uh 2015 2016 number is at 66. 10 years before that it was in the 70s. So we

238have seen this real kind of steep decline to those students. Now the nice thing is it's starting to plateau. Now, that means we've got an we got a an opportunity to really start to work with not just our own prek, but all of the Head Start programs, all of the pre school programs around the city, making sure they have easy access to applying to us. They know the schools. We make it so much easier. Just, you know, and I promised I would stop saying in Lancing like at the end of the third month, so I've got a couple days to go. Uh but you know in Lancing when we created universal prek um one of the major impetuses was to make sure to get more kids into prek and then make it seamlessly e you

239know to get to Kay that helped us stop 30 years of enrollment decline and actually helped move uh forward the the number. Now you do see the number of seniors is 300 almost 300 than the number of incoming kindergarteners. So you know that this is happening right and so then the question is what are we going to do and how do we increase the kindergarten and then the second one which we all know and uh you know when I presented to the board in my application you know I talked about the 10% you know I was looking at the 23 24 numbers it's a little bit better now it's a little bit you know less than 8% but still the fact that we have a bunch of kids in our fifth grade class and then

2408% of them don't come back we know they're going to private school, we know they're going to other schools because it's possible that, you know, that number could be over 100%. Right? We could go from fifth to sixth and my god, all these families want to send their kids to our middle schools. So, those are the kinds of things that we're going to be focusing on is those transition pockets and then we'll see where we can move forward. So, again, the real data, you can check our work and then the plan on how to move forward. So, thank you. I appreciate seeing the strengthening our future uh data and the pockets and kind of the next iteration or update there the sort of path forward. My question is on this 19% that didn't get their

241choice assignments. Can I get sort of you know is it a high school is it a middle school or how many are still in weight list in high school, middle school and elementary school that breakdown? >> Yeah, I can get you that direct information. Um, I would say the big headline is we have a few key schools where that that is the case. Um, where they're much longer wait lists. Um, so and some of those have to do with really physical building plant constraints where we simply can't put more kids in that building, but I will get that information to the full board. >> Thank you. >> And would you like it just by level or would you also like to know which schools have significant? >> That would be great. >> Okay. >> We're

242going to go around the table like this. Director Song, >> thank you. Um, uh, I'm really excited to see that you highlighted so clearly for us this kind of, um, transition that we're facing. Um, that 300 students times, let's say, $20,000 per student, that's $6 million in revenue. And that's why this is an important conversation to have. >> Um, so I felt, I wasn't on the board at the time, I felt that we had a missed opportunity. Um, state senator Jamie Peterson gave us $100,000 to do an enrollment study. Um, we have known that we've that birth tok capture ratio is low. That money should have examined that tried to answer that question. Why is that happening? And so I hope that we do go ahead and proceed to find out why that progression ratio

243has declined over time. Um, anecdotally, I know that a lot of parents um say that the elementary school that I'm zoned for doesn't have after school care. So, I think it could be helpful for us as um a district to do a child care inventory like what is available in terms of afterchool care for our um families. I think this district does support working families in the sense that we are providing bus transportation um to some of these afterchool studies. I know my school um kids are being bus to boys to boys and girls club for example. Um and so I would love for us to support the needs of working families but also answer this question. Um so my actual question after all this comments is um this this slide the the the assigned

244students um is this kind of like rolling number typical um and do we know are are pockets of where there's a lot of addition is it driven by new housing like what is kind of driving these trends >> you mean between March 3rd and April 15th? Yeah, just like week to week like is this kind of >> rolling admission typical? Is we historically have seen these like chunks of students being added week by week? >> Yes, very much so. So, this is very very typical this time of year. Families are moving in. They're discovering Seattle public schools. They're just there are lots of reasons why families didn't enroll um you know in in January. Um but no, this is this is pretty typical these numbers. Okay. >> Thank you. >> And then thank you. Thank

245you for mentioning the enrollment study. Were you able to see or I I'm happy to share enrollment study that we did do. We actually got quite a bit of really strong detailed qualitative data um from families. We did uh we really focused on doing both surveys and interviews. We did interviews in multiple languages. So we actually got a lot of really powerful information about what is drawing families to Seattle and not to Seattle. Um one thing I will say is that you know a number of families are opting for a private school and homeschooling. um for a variety of reasons. Some of which is simply that they they've not ever considered public schools and never would consider public schools. Fine. But we also know that there are some families that are like, "Well, we're just

246not sure and we don't know enough." And we also know and that has actually shaped a lot of our strategy to say how can we then get in there for because some of our families, they've had a trust fund, you know, from the grandparents. They know they want to go to private school. That's simply their plan in their family. But we also know that there are a lot of families for whom they just aren't aware of what's possible in our public schools. So, we actually um had worked with a wonderful organization that did a really great enrollment study and we're using a lot of that input to help shape some of these strategies. But I'm happy to share that with you. Yeah, >> Director Ranken. >> Um thank you. I appreciate the presentation and I

247appreciate that it wasn't lots of look over here, look over here, look over here. that we're just talking about what's actually happening. Um it seems like that should be the norm, but it it hasn't been. Um I have a question about the uh exiting 12th grade cohort and projected kindergarten cohort which is just over time I would be interested in knowing just general trends on do we tend does that tend to always be true that that we that we have people who come to us in kindergarten and then are not still students when they're when they're when they're in 12th grade. So, I'm wondering if this reflects, you know, obviously there's declining population, there's a whole bunch of factors, but also like are there trends, how I guess how many students do we lose over

248the course of their time with >> SPS? And maybe you don't know that right now, and that's fine. >> What I can tell you is that we typically um uh attrit or we lose, you know, it stays pretty steady. We tend to dip down in in middle and then we tend to get like 109% of kids back in high school. we actually tend to get them back. So these numbers are >> it's has been a little bit more >> it has been a pipeline. What's different is this incoming kindergarten class is smaller. We have not seen and this again is >> again it's not that it's um we have to just accept it but this is very much what Flo and other organizations have predicted for us. Yes. >> Um so um it >> for

249like 12 years. Let's just be really clear. This is not surprise information. I just Yeah. >> Right. But um certainly I can get more specific trend data. Yeah, >> that was just a curiosity. But actually I mean you just already sort of answered it that typically >> students coming in, students going out, lots of things happens in between, but it ends up being about even and it is no longer even. >> No, no, I want to be clear that no, we lose a bunch of kids in fifth grade. We get some back in 9th grade, but it does not make up for the fact that we've been lowering enrollment every year for the last 1015 years. So there has been there are some things that are happening but but when you look at our enrollment

250over the last 20 years it is slowly degrading. Um but it's you know it's a little bit here and there and what you're really seeing here on that slide is we have almost 4,000 kids that are current seniors who came most of them came to us 12 years 13 years ago. Now today we're only getting 3650. So we're just not replenishing like we've done. But but but yes there is a little bit of an increase in nth grade but not enough to overcome this continual decline over the 20 10 20 years. Really? >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, and then that was actually one of my next questions about the uh students between fifth and sixth is how many students come back in ninth. And I I anecdotally I know of families who, you know, they

251finish elementary school, they're >> for whatever reason don't go to middle school and they do come back in high school. Partly because a lot of private schools don't have band and track and absolutely all the different things that you want as or also just depending on the kid middle school. I mean, I have a I have an 11th grader and an eighth grader. Middle school is very fresh in my mind. It's an interesting time. >> It sure is. It is. I've been middle and high school principal, so I've seen them both. >> Yeah. Lots of things go on in middle school. And I think um just generally uh not just to retain students, but I think middle school students deserve a lot more of our attention honestly as a system in um >> uh yeah,

252just in general. So, in terms of the, you know, attracting attracting families, retaining families, I think every elementary school should have preK and after school care. >> That that just to me seems like part of a basic >> we need a better word, well-resourced school. Like that to me is part of a complete school. >> And um uh other districts have more centrally kind of managed even after school programs. Even if the district is not providing it, there is a there is a mechanism by which um the district is sort of vetting partners and appro and you know making sure that it's something that's available to everybody. We are still living like it's the '8s when my mom founded Laurelhurst with a bunch of other working moms who needed a place for their kids to

253go where it's up to the PTA at some schools to figure out getting bringing in a partner in for after school care and we just need something that's more sustainable and and really that's not a oh if you happen to have a school that has these things that's great but I I think we need a little stronger floor of expectation that >> your kid will have access to after school because as we know the school day and the workday do not align. >> Um and sorry I this is where I would say then this is the partnerships with other departments is so critical. So I do meet regularly with um Susan Hall who leads um our prek and prek and childcare partners. Um we do even have some child care however where they have weight

254lists. So we're even looking at that. So, we actually have quite a few schools that have child care, >> but for whatever reason, they don't have the capacity to take every student who needs it. >> And we sort of feel like that I think the rule of thumb is they're supposed to be able to take 70 or 75% of the students who need it. And that >> we know we have space in our buildings. So, >> in some of our buildings, yes, absolutely. >> The other thing is prek. >> We have again, we're so behind as a district. Head Start, ECAP, developmental preschool, Seattle police preschool program, Seattle Preschool Plus. we can braid all that funding together and just make preschool accessible to anybody whether or not their child has a disability and we can

255do it at more locations. And um that for me is a kind of access inclusion and civil rights issue in terms of students with disabilities. But it also if we get a family who is at preschool at their neighborhood school, that's a big choice to choose something different when you're already, you know, part of a community. And we actually increase the chances of that when we don't offer preschool everywhere. When we when a student is at a preschool because they were placed there because of a disability or for whatever reason and then we tell them, well, this isn't your assigned school. So this community that you and your child have been part of for two years, you actually can't come here for kindergarten. Um, that makes it much easier for them to say, well, actually

256then I don't want I'm going to I'm going to look at all of my options and choose something else. think we should really prioritize inclusive braided funding preschool at as many schools as we can possibly offer it. >> Thank you. I I absolutely agree. And I would add not my lane per se, but also um more of a range of uh IEP support services at more elementary schools so that again if I'm in this school um where I have it maybe moderate to severe yes support needs, can I continue on? Every child should be able to attend their neighborhood school. >> It's a service note of place. >> We're going to continue on if that's okay. Director Miseri. >> Yeah. Uh thank you. I I'd like to go back to the um capture rate slide.

257Uh so at 54.8 I guess my first question is um it was helpful for me uh when we were looking at some of the other data to have benchmarks of what would be reasonable to expect as a goal or like as a I'm not asking you to set a goal but as like a framework for what other districts see. Um, obviously we'd love that number to be 90% 100% but like what is a number that is, you know, uh, if you were to look at what like a healthy district of our size in an urban environment is that like what we could expect or want to be at that would not be an outlandish number. >> That's a great question. Um, I would say we have operated on what our prior capture rate was as

258as sort of our standard which was 72%. Um but we definitely can look at what are you know similar districts similar to ours um what are they seeing. So thank you for that and we will work on that. >> Yeah Joe I mean just to speak kind of nationwide it it really depends on access uh you know so right now the number of private school kids I think has jumped from about 12,000 to almost 19,000 uh over the last couple of years. I don't have the exact numbers, but you know, if we're talking about uh you know, increasing that and you're talk about 20 thou, let's just use the numbers 20,000, we're at 50,000. So, you know, you're already talking about 40%. Um, so, you know, that gets you to maybe capping out at 60.

259So, you know, I think what we've got to figure out is how many kids are living in in Seattle and then going to other districts, which we think is around a,000 to 2,000. Then you look at the 19,000 or let's call it 15,000 spe uh private school kids. There's also some homeschool kids which those numbers are always a little bit funky. And then you've got charter school kids. And there's four to 5,000 charter schools in the state uh students in the state. I think about a thousand or two are here in um in Seattle. So, you know, what's a fair number? I mean, I I think it would be nice to to take a thousand uh you know, basically 20% from each, you know, but I think, you know, we should probably shooting for around

26060 in the next couple of years. And if we could get to 65, uh, you know, we're talking we're talking, you know, a lot of kids. Um, so I I mean, I'll give you I'll give the board an email with some real hard numbers, but just back of the envelope, that's kind of where where I think we should be. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think that's helpful. And I'm glad you brought up the kids going to other districts, too, because I was looking at the number that was in the Seattle Times a few weeks ago. I think they were their estimate was around 1,700. And that that to me is really interesting because, you know, to your point, Dr. Campbell, this question of like we we know that there are families that are going to go

261to private school for whatever reason. Maybe they want a religious education or whatever. There's all sorts of reasons why people make those choices. But really curious about the families that are still within the the public school system but choosing to send their kid, you know, across a bridge or or or on a ferry to Ashon >> and what those choices are based on. You mentioned the enrollment study and I'm wondering if there either needs to be some other round of that to to to dig into what what is driving those choices or if there are specific things in last year's enrollment study that you're looking at to say okay these are sort of the changes that we can make or these are the things that people are choosing these other districts for. Is it programmatic?

262Is it class sizes? I mean like like I don't know what the factors are but but I'm hoping that we can get to that either from the study or from some other or through or through some other method. >> Great. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, >> Director Lavali. >> Yeah. Um, I appreciate that. That kind of leads between um, Director Songs and that question. It very much leads into mine. Director Song was asking kind of where are we losing and what are the factors within that. Um, I'd like to also kind of ask what different regions are seeing and if there's I know you covered a little bit of your your team is looking into different losses on kind of a school by school level figuring out what's going on and we don't necessarily need

263that level of data, but I would love to know if there's certain areas that seem more at those various points in time as well and the reasons for those different areas um too, but then also where can we easily gain um if if we see a certain trend in that area and all we need is to put a program that was existing or meet IEP needs better or X Y or Z like what what are the easy gains that we could do to stop that bleed from a certain area, region, community, whatever it is. >> Um you know th those some of them might I mean some of them are going to be long-term things that you know take a significant amount of work to get to. Some of them might be some hopefully some

264easier fixes. >> Yeah. >> So, what what can we look at within there of like, oh, we could have some easy gains here with X, Y, or Z? >> Yeah. No, thank you. >> It's a good point. Thank you, >> Director Smith. >> Hi. Um, so for that capture rate of birth to kindergarten, um, I know Joe's asking for a lot more information. I think that's great. Um, I also what jumped out to me is that it's King County birth rates, Seattle school district enrollments. You've mentioned there are a lot of factors that go into the capture rate, but >> u we're not the only district here in King County, so that seems like a pretty big one to consider. Um, >> that the 59.9 54.9% capture rate, that's not the capture rate of all

265of all students in King County, birth to kindergarten that are attending public school. it's within King County, the ones that are in Seattle and attending school. So, >> yeah, >> just I'm sure you can take that into consideration. >> Um, and then also with the pre-K enrollment, um, that's great. I love the idea of having, um, schools with preks having their students automatically enrolled in kindergarten. Um, as Director Rankin was saying about so many different preK programs, um, having like connecting that pipeline so that um, my my kindergartenner was at preschool in Seattle public preschool at the community center next door. >> Um, it certainly created a pipeline for us to want to be enrolled in that neighborhood school. Luckily, we were able to get in, but it it wasn't given. It was kind of

266like, you know, the stress of like, okay, we need to get him enrolled and how will that go? Um, and then also there are there are schools in our neighborhood where we had heard there there's a prek at this school and at the time looking into it we thought, oh well I guess that was a rumor. We we didn't find evidence searching online of there being a prek that we could look into at one of the we there are quite a few schools near us. We're very fortunate that way. Um, but making prek programs at our schools accessible to the public >> without like being able to just ask access the information that yes is it exists and yes, there's an application to apply. Um, I've since learned I mean being on the board I

267have a lot more information that for my second child it's like well maybe we will go back and try to enroll in that prek program at the school because there is one that exists. Um, so that is something that I think would be a great benefit. >> Um and then for the school choice shifting topics um thank you director top president top for um requesting the information on of the about 800 people remaining on the wait list. You what are the reasons that that they're on the wait list still? Um, and also what impact on neighborhood schools are we seeing from having been able being able to give people their choice assignments? I know this came up when it was discussed some months ago that there are anticipated impacts on neighborhood schools that will be

268losing enrollment. And so as we're tracking that, how is it going? Yeah, I mean, you know, sadly or just the way it goes, if you have choice and people are choosing one, that means, you know, they're not choosing another. So, you know, we are definitely seeing, you know, some impacts uh in some places more than others. Um, and that's why some of the budgets uh that you've heard about uh have changed in some of the schools. Uh some you rarely hear from the people that are getting more teachers. Uh but, you know, that is definitely it. And I also really want to, you know, thank you to to the point about um prek and, you know, the what's public and what is sort of public. Um, you know, I'm really thankful to the communications team.

269One of the things we're going to have to really really think about is completely redoing our website. Um, making our website is actually accessible uh to to folks. You know, it's it is interesting to me uh that it's so hard to find the kind of information that you would want, right? And so, how easy could it be to just say, "Hey, here's all our preks. Here's where it is. Here you go." So, we're definitely working on that. So, thank you. So, I know you time. >> No, this is perfect. Thank you. That I think that ends our enrollment update for this evening. But you mentioned website. So I'm going to take the moment to say on our board website there is a new section news and updates it has it just provides a very quick

270blurb so you don't have to watch our long five hour 4 hour whatever meeting um you don't have to read our minutes or whatever it's just a very short blurb about what what has happened at our board meetings which is something we've been talking about for a long time and it's uh in existence and on our web page and there's two months of content on there so that's exciting. Um but with that, our next meeting will is on the 29th, so it's coming up in a week. It is much more of a work session. We will go um into proposed goals and guardrails update from Superintendent Schner. We will also, thank you to everyone who came for talk about cell phones or technology this evening or director Rankin for her WASDA position updates. Um have

271a cell phone policy update um on the 29th. So, there being no further business to come before the board, the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 8:39 p.m. Thank you everyone.