001Happy. Oh yeah. la. Are we waiting for the end of the stop? Good afternoon. We will call the meeting uh to order momentarily and SPS TV will begin broadcasting. >> All right. Good evening. The November 19th, 2025 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 Puget Sound Coast Salish people. I'll ask staff to plea the role to please call the role. >> Vice President Briggs here. Director Clark, >> Director Hersy, >> he will be right back. >> Okay. >> Director Ms. Rahi >> present. >> Director Ranken >> here. >> Director Sarju >> may not like me. Present. >> President Topp >> here. >> Director Manglesen >> here. Director Masudi >> here >> and director Yun >>
002here. >> Great. Thank you. So, we're going to just uh switch up the agenda a little bit tonight. We are going to start the evening with uh some excitement. We have three outgoing directors. Um, and I'm going to spend a little bit of time recognizing those directors um, who have committed so much time to Seattle public schools. Um, I will say though, just because this is your last meeting does not mean you are not still school board directors until the new directors are sworn in on December 3rd. So, anything could happen between now and then. You are still directors till then. But um we do want to definitely since this will be is your last official meeting uh recognize you um as your time is coming to an end uh director Clark, director and director
003Sarju uh I would just say serving on the board is not easy work. It takes time, patience, a willingness to stay at the table when conversations are tough. You have to make decisions that have real impact on our classrooms, on our families, on the future of our city. You know, Sarah, you came to the board with a deep background in policy and helped bring focus and structure to our work. Uh Brandon's roots uh uh in education have always shown through as a teacher. He's carried that perspective on of those working directly with students. Uh Michelle's focus, I really appreciate on early learning has pushed us to think about how we support students long before they even enter school. Each of you has given time and energy to the district and that matters. Access to education
004matters and the mission is now more critical than ever, especially as we see public education under attack across the country. And just because you're stepping off the board doesn't mean you get to stop showing up. The expectation is that we will still see you in our schools, in our neighborhoods, um at the podium supporting our uh Seattle students. So once you're part of this work, you're never off the hook. Sorry. But thank you all for your service and for for being part of this work. There is a small token or gift of gratitude at at your desk. But I also want to open up to fellow board directors as well as uh the directors themselves for remarks. See if who wants to go first. I'm just I'm just wondering if we should >> wait for
005Brandon since he's one of the um celebrants or celebrantes, whatever the word is. >> Yes, he is. >> Does he need help? >> Uh no. I think there's two of them on it. So should should work out. Yeah. Yeah. Does it make sense to do like superintendent comments, student member comments, committee liaison reports while we wait? >> We could do superintendent comments. We'll go to director Podestto. >> Does it ever make sense to do superintendent comments? But but um that's another question. Uh uh so uh I had the distinct uh joy and pleasure of attending uh Blacks College Expo at Reineer Beach High School on Saturday which was an amazing event. Uh there were over 2,000 attendees. Um over 700 college acceptances were um issued during that event and more than $5 million in scholarships
006were awarded. It was there were um you could tell there were uh students from all over our state and region and there were uh colleges from all over the country. It was a great event and again another uh it's always great to celebrate things at at Reneer Beach High School and I was privileged to be able to attend and make a few remarks. Um I will echo or in advance I'll also thank um the directors who are uh enjoying their last regular meeting tonight. Um I uh have spent nearly my whole career working in the public sector and much of that time the majority of that time working around elected officials and poundfor-pound school board directors work harder than anybody I've ever worked with and the the demand the demands placed on you um as
007uh volunteers and the direct contact you have with your community and the um influence you have over the future of this community is just hard to overstate and I'm so appreciative of a chance to have worked with you and thank you for all the support um that um you've given to me and and to the district and to our students. Um I would congratulate the whole board on making an excellent selection on Ben Shelner to join us soon. And I'm going to be upstaged by somebody that uh needs to be attended to immediately. So I will cut my remarks short at this point. >> All right. We're gonna really struggle to to pay attention here this evening. Um so uh so thank you superintendent Podesta. We just did superintendent comments. Director Hersy, we started to
008do some board director celebratory comments um but then we we stopped for a minute um hoping that you would join with your new little one. And I don't know if you want to introduce who you have with you here up at the >> dis. Thank you. Appcate it. >> This is my son Avery and sorry that's true. >> This is my son Avery and he was born a month ago on Monday. >> Yay. Um, so we we've moved up the agenda. We're doing a the celebration of outgoing board directors, Director Clark, Director Hersy, and Director Sarju. I will just say again, uh, similar to what Superintendent Podesta said, this is a very difficult job, and I'd say one of the most important, if not the most important job here in the city as we're working
009to educate, uh, an entire next generation um, of of students. So, thank you all for your dedication. Um, Brandon, what I said about you is I really your roots in education have always shown through and I've really appreciated that as a teacher. You've carried that perspective through all of our conversations. So, thank you. Um, but I do want to open it up to other board directors who may want to say a few words andor the outgoing directors themselves. Director Ranken, you want to go? >> Uh, oh, >> I'm sorry. I I I have logistical anxiety right now because it's 4:40 and are we going to get cut off in the middle of this >> at 5? Yes. Public testimony begins at at 5, >> right? Okay. So, >> that's why this was at the end
010of the meeting, but we we needed to make some accommodations for >> Totally. So, um Okay. All right. Well, does everybody understand that that >> Yeah, we should let the people that need to leave comments. Yeah, that's I guess that's what I'm trying to say. Thanks. Like, yeah, we only have 20 minutes, so I'm just trying to make sure that the people who have something to say have have time to say it. >> No, we don't. We We only have nine folks or 11 folks, I believe, on our testimony list. So, let's just >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Let's Well, I didn't write anything down. Um, but despite that, I'm going to try try not to ramble, especially with the logistical concern. Um, I um am well I'm so grateful for each of you. I honestly
011I haven't I will be having the experience for the first time of serving on this board without Brandon, which is weird. And um and I'm going to miss you, but I genuinely am going to miss serving with all three of you. Um, despite what some people like to say or try to do out there in the community, we actually are quite aligned and enjoy each other. I think I mean maybe some of you are like, I don't enjoy you, Liz. I don't know why you're saying that but um uh we from my perspective um I appreciate everybody up here on this DAS and and I can't think of times where I have not been glad that each of them are are here. Um, you know, in the recent elections, I stayed out of I mean,
012partly being a sitting board director, you don't want to pick who you'll serve with or pick somebody who then you have to explain why you didn't pick the person you served with. So, I didn't endorse. I stayed out of conversations around that. Um, also because I partly because of what I just said about, you know, continuing to serve, but also because, um, this job is really hard and anybody who's willing to do it deserves support. And so, um, so Sarah, I appreciate you coming in at a very uncertain time and, um, your curiosity about policy and willingness to, um, dig below maybe what was just on a piece of paper and ask good questions and your support on the policy committee. Um, I've just I've really appreciated that. Um, and uh, and I hope that
013you feel good about your contributions there because they will they will continue to to be felt. Um, Michelle and Brandon, I'm I'm going to have to not I mean, I've just known you for longer. >> I've known you for longer. Um, our district is better for the time that you have given us. Um, I'm better for the time that you have given me. Um, and I'm going to miss you guys and I just thank you. And I also want you to call me to the carpet anytime we're losing focus or if I you know we we I mean we all we make commitments to each other. We make commitments to our students. And so if there's ever a time where you feel like that's not being honored, um I want nothing more than you to
014tell me. Um, and I just thank you for for everything that you've done for me personally and for the board. And folks may may or may not know this, but I used to foster dogs. And I had a litter of seven puppies, seven Pyrenees lab mix puppies, which are very large. Um, right before the pandemic hit because it's, you know, what's the first thing you do after you get elected to school board? You have a litter of seven puppies in your house. Um, and Brandon adopted one of them. And so one of my puppies is in his house. And so whether he wants it or not, we we will always be connected in that way. >> My first son. >> Yes, his first son. So anyway, not to belver it, I could go on with
015your accomplishments and different things, but I just will end by saying thank you so much and and I love you and we'll miss you, but not too much because we'll see you still. Yeah, I'll be very quick in the interest of time, but obviously just want to thank you all so much for your time and both as a um board director, but maybe more importantly as a parent in the district. Just having good, smart, dedicated um people leading the board for so long has been um something that has been a pleasure to witness as a new board member. Uh and I I think I've learned something from each of you and also from the three of you that will be continuing to serve on the board and uh just very grateful for that. and um
016really wish you all the best and also know that I'll see you all plenty in the future. And um one thing to add is just being that this is my last meeting as a as the newest board member, uh I think it's um it is really helpful to experience things in community and uh I don't know how I would have done it without you Sarah just being a new board member with me. So very strong appreciation for you and it's nice that we got to come on together. It's nice that there's two new board members coming on at the same time together. So, they'll be uh have each other hopefully. Uh but I think that was really important. Three new Yeah, that's right. Uh and so it's it's nice to have that community. So, and
017thank you all for welcoming me as well. So, >> no go direct uh go. Yeah, I I went at the start. Yeah. >> Okay. I I'll also try to be pretty brief. Um Brandon, I think when I the first time I met you was at my house and I was hosting a house party for you when you were running for school board and I remember telling everybody like we have to support this guy. Who would do this job? Like who would do this for free? It's crazy. Um and here I am. So, um, I wouldn't be here without you and, um, Michelle, you have been such a huge inspiration and an amazing advocate. >> I know. I know. >> Um, huge respect. Okay. Um, and Sarah, huge respect to you as well, um, for showing
018up to do this job. Um I I have huge respect for anybody honestly who um even throws their hat in the ring to do this. Um that is more than more than most people are willing to do. Um so I my deepest respect and gratitude to all three of you guys. Director Hersy, Sarju Clark, anything you want to >> You don't have to. >> You Yeah, you don't have to. >> Director Hersy, >> you got a lot of time. So, I get 13 minutes, right? >> Well, you're not making comments right now. >> Is that not No, I think this is it. >> No, this is it. >> Oh, I take 13 minutes. >> All right, cool. So, I got 13. That's cool. >> Yeah, I'm not going to talk for 13 minutes. Um, first
019off, just thank y'all for the very sweet words. You want to choose now to turn up, my dude? >> All right. Maybe he just didn't want it very close. Can y'all still hear me through the microphone? You want to hold him? I said I would let Michelle hold them. >> You want me to hold the mic for you? >> Uh, let's try that. That might help. >> Oh, okay. Wait, >> Hi. Okay, this might work. Um, you going to relax or no? >> I'm making a motion. That's okay. >> Let's see. I'm going to give you to auntie Michelle. >> Takes a village. Um, I honestly am pretty delirious at the moment as you can imagine. I thought that our last meeting was in December and was super sad because I thought that the dis,
020if you don't know, the December meeting is on my birthday. That's how it happens every year. Um, and so I thought I had more time. Uh, but when I realized that Michelle and I and Sarah's last meeting was today, um, I don't know, I just had a wealth of emotion run over me because this has been a long experience. Um, it's given me some of the lowest lows that I've experienced as what still feels like a young adult. But those pale in comparison to the achievements, the highs, the the feeling that you give a the feeling that you get when you get to give a student their diploma when they graduate. The feeling that you get when you realize that in Seattle public schools it's no longer okay to restrain and isolate children. Um the
021feeling that you get when you look up and uh you were able to survive a world pandemic. Um man, it's rare but I feel genuinely at a loss for words. Um I just remember y'all know me. I've sat in the vice president's chair. I've sat in the president's chair. Six years has felt like six minutes when I reflect on it. Um, and I'm still a young guy, right? I'm I'm 34. I'm I'm not even 34 yet. I turned 34 on December 3rd. And when I often times when I sit up here and I do these things, I I channel my mom and my dad. Um, for those of you who don't know, I'm sure most of you do, my mom was a teacher. She was an educator for many years before she passed away. Um,
022and my dad repaired copiers for a living in Hattisburg, Mississippi. And I just have such fond memories of running around and reading these old dusty uh history books in my mom's uh AP US history classroom and thinking like, wow, like how cool is it to be a a public servant, right? Like I was that kid. Like I really my my biggest dream was to like work for the government. At the time it was because I thought I got to wear a suit and a tie every day. But now it is still a dream and and very few people get to realize a dream like this um so so so early in their life. And I feel like I have lived a many lifetimes and seen many things in this place. And it is a place
023that I will miss deeply, but am so excited to take some time away from or at least to be able to move into a different capacity. I've told many of you that I do not think that these seats are designed for people to live in. Um I believe that we are put here to be stewards. And the moment that it feels as though your attention is being drawn into another direction, especially for someone like me, I am excited. Oh, this isn't mine. Hey, you're wearing navy, too. Wow. Thought you had the baby again. Well, in many ways, you are also mine. Yes, absolutely. I've got a friend for you outside. I can't wait for you to meet him. Um, I'm excited for a different is I'm excited for a different chapter in my life. Um,
024and I'm also really sad because there is so much work left to do and we are on the precipice of really great things. I'm very excited about the board that is going to um transition in in just a few weeks. I'm very excited about our new super potentially our new superintendent. Um, but most importantly, I'm excited for the kids of Seattle public schools and all of the all of the benefits that they are going to reap from just the amazing leadership that I know that y'all are going to provide. I man, I am just so honored. I I this truly has been the greatest experience of my life and it would not have been possible especially as a kid from Hattisburg, Mississippi, now living in Seattle. When I heard that a school board seat was
025opening up in my district from, you know, former prolific director, uh, Betty Patu, I I had a feeling that, you know, this is something that I think that I would be good at. Um, this is something that I have a unique set of experiences with and that I think that I could offer a lot. And I like to think that, you know, along with the help of many, many people along the way that I did a pretty good job. Um and there is no amount of training, expertise, education that will prepare you for what this job is and most importantly what it isn't. If this job, if you are not 100% laser focused on children >> and specifically in this moment in time, >> black children, >> yeah, >> I hope you take time to
026reflect on why you're lending your time to the district. >> Amen. And I have confidence that that is true for everyone who has put their name uh in the ring for this type of thing. Five minutes. Um I say that to say because particularly now it has become even more personal for me than it was before. Praise God. >> I thought that I really understood how parents felt when they when they lent their time to come here and give us their opinions. when they when they took a moment out of their day to send an email or have a phone call or show up to a PTA meeting. I now know that over the past month that that I had no understanding of how real this is for our families. >> Yeah. >> And I
027say that with all the humility that I possibly can. I had no understanding of how hard that every person that shows up, not only and more importantly all the people that don't, how much they care for their children, how much they want for them, what they deserve for them. And I'm I'm both happy and sad that I I am experiencing it now. And everything that I have given to the district over the past six years, I felt I feel if I had another six, it would have been times 10. I would have dug even deeper. And that's what I really want folks to take away. These children are not widgets. They are not numbers in a spreadsheet. They are not opportunities to be utilized for political gain. They are not what insert whatever you want
028there. What these children are are are precious, beautiful little minds who deserve far more than what we have to give to them. Yet somehow we need to dig even deeper and figure out how can we at least somewhat meet their needs. So I I really want to leave you with this. There is a baby boom happening right now. I don't know how many of y'all know it, but I got a lot of friends that are like under the age of like let's say 40. Everybody is pregnant. You laugh, but it's true. Everybody and their brother is pregnant. There is going to be an influx of children that are coming into our system in a very short time. I know that we are talking about enrollment and all that stuff. now. But there is about to
029be my son is born in the first year of generation beta. Let that sink in for a second. Generation alpha isn't even all in school yet, and we're already on beta. There is a wild opportunity here for us to build a system that truly is prepared for every student that is a not that hasn't even been born yet. preach. >> If we can just put these petty differences aside and just focus in on what is actually going to help them, what they actually know and are able to do. Because I'm going to be damned if I'll let y'all screw up my child. >> Preach. >> I'm I need y'all. I need And I know some of y'all have won out in the audience, too. >> I'm very I'm a very kind person. Very rarely have
030any of you seen me upset. You will not do what you have done to so many students to my child and not hear from me about it. We have a golden opportunity to serve every child in this district. The the the the ground is ripe. We have the team. We have the resources. All of that. And I'm not going anywhere. I live I live in Rainer Beach. I own land. I'm here. This is not temporary. Hopefully, if it's open, my kids going to Rainer View. Please keep Rainer View open. But I just want y'all to know that like this is both the hardest and the most rewarding job. And I thank every single one of y'all for lending your time away from your families to this, especially those with children. I now know what what
031type of sacrifice y'all have been making. So, thank you deeply in a way that I have not been able to thank you before. And I'm going to miss you. And I'm also not going to miss you because I'm going to be here tracking, making sure that for Kai and Avery and every single other child that is yet to enter our system, that this is a warm and welcoming place that is going to push them in positive ways, that is going to help them grow in positive ways, that is going to hold them accountable in positive ways because they deserve the worldclass education that we sit up here and talk about day after day in a big way. So, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I guess I I guess I did take 13 minutes.
032I actually took 14. Um, >> but I appreciate it. Thank you very much. >> This is what we're doing here tonight. >> Thank you, Director Hersy. It is 5:00 and I want do want to give time for both Director Clark and Director Sarju to talk, but we are going to keep with our our set time of five going into public testimony. We have a shorter list of for public testimony than we normally would, but it's a little bit jarring, I know, but we're going to move uh to public testimony and then we will uh come back to sort of the celebration of directors and then we will uh move through the rest of our agenda. We do have lots of uh we do have lots of content on our agenda this evening as well. Um
033so we just be slightly mindful of that. So, we're going now on to public testimony. Board policy 1400 provides our rules for testimony. The board accepts the same standard of civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects of itself. As 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 guidelines or who otherwise substantially disrupts the orderly operation of this meeting may be asked to leave the meeting. I'm now pass it off to staff to summarize a few additional points and read off the testimony u read off this testimony speakers. >> Thank you, President Top. The board will take testimony from those on the testimony list and
034will go to the wait 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 indicate the time remaining for speakers here in person. When the light is red and a beep sounds, it means that your time has been exhausted and the next speaker will be called. For those joining by phone, the beep will be the indication that time has been exhausted. Moving into our list now,
035for 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 on the list is Thomas Coffee. Good evening. Five years ago, technology companies leveraged the COVID crisis to insert themselves between educators and students. Now, they claim that the emergency devices they introduced during the crisis have ongoing benefits for learning and communication that should be somehow weighed against their evident harms. But instead of questioning these claims, many school district officials are repeating them, as they will in a presentation you'll see later tonight. Almost as if tobacco companies said that nicotine was good for learning and the district agreed to buy every student a pipe. In contrast, independent research
036indicates that these devices are terribly bad for children's learning and communicating with impacts comparable to using illegal drugs. The best measures suggest that these corporate controlled devices have erased a generation of educational gains in just a few short years. These corporate devices prioritize addiction over education, or as the industry calls it, engagement. Their digital curricula routinely wrap mistakes and nonsense in a slick package with decisions remotely controlled by distant corporate managers cutting educators out of the loop. Meanwhile, they harvest students attention, mine their personal data, watch their movements, show them inappropriate material, and subject them to authoritarian censorship and control. All with no public accountability. It doesn't have to be this way. In the state of Kerala in India, 50 times the size of Seattle, every program on every school device is free and open
037source software developed and maintained by educators and the community. And even students can contribute. The education ministry trains and empowers teachers to control their own technology in designated labs and pledges to reject programs controlled by outside corporations. This frees traditional education, transforms technology education, and saves them $300 million a year. In Europe, governments are now moving in this direction in order to free themselves from the grip of American tech companies. If anywhere can do something like this, I think Seattle can. Thank you. The next speaker is Michelle Campbell. Okay, we're going to move. Michelle, if you are online, you may have to press star six to unmute. Okay, we're going to move on, but we will come back to you. The next speaker is Manuela Sly. Good afternoon. A child experiencing trauma cannot learn. A
038child experiencing trauma inside a school at the hands of teachers and administrators cannot learn and will have lifelong impact in the way they trust others and how they view education. My name is Manuela Sly. I'm a parent and a student safety committee chair for Seattle Council PTSA. Seattle public schools have a series of policies to ensure student safety. Those policies have superintendent procedures to implement. Furthermore, Seattle public schools guard rail number two reads, "Superintend allow the existence of any learning environments that do not promote physical and emotional safety. But the experience of many students and families contradicts what is in policy and guard rails. There is a disconnect. There is an accountability piece missing. Let's start with policy 3240, student behavior and disciplinary responses. Resolution 201415-35 eliminates out of school suspensions for students in kindergarten
039through fifth grade for disruptive conduct, rulebreaking, and disobedience. Yet last month, a kindergartener student was suspended for 15 days. Or policy 3246, restrain and isolation. students continue to be restrained and isolated across the district. But the question remains, who is in charge to ensure all school buildings follow policy? And what are the accountability measures if they don't? on on behalf of those students that have been bullied, abused, mistreated, intimidated inside the schools, I stand in front of you to demand change, a review of the policies that are there to support and protect students, and a deep dive in how those policies are being implemented or not. Thank you. The next speaker is Megan Call. Megan call. If you're online, you're going to have to press star six to unmute. >> Can you hear me? >>
040Hello. Can you hear me? >> Megan. >> Hello. >> Yes, we can hear you. >> She just went back on mute. Megan, hit star six to unmute. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay, great. This is Megan Paul. Um, starting with a quote. I used to think that technology could help education. I've probably spearheaded giving away more computer equipment to schools than anybody else on this planet, but I've had to come to the inevitable conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve. What's wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent. Steve's job. >> As a volunteer with mothers against media addiction, I have been studying technology in schools closely for about a year. I've tried to answer the question of
041why so much technology has been adopted by >> I'm going to ask you just to stop for just a sec. We're going to restart your time. We're going to turn up the volume here in the in the room. I'm so sorry about this, but if you wouldn't if you wouldn't mind starting from the beginning and you've got your full full time back. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> This is a quote. Um, this is a quote. I used to think that technology could help education. I've probably spearheaded giving away more computer equipment to schools than anybody else on the planet. But I've come to the inevitable conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve. What's wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a
042dent. Steve Jobs. As a volunteer myself with Mothers Against Media Addiction, I've been studying technology in schools closely for about a year. I've tried to answer the question of why so much technology has been adopted by schools without any independent research or successful pilot programs to back this up. In fact, we have examples of screenheavy schools from before the pandemic which completely failed, shut down, and which parents pulled their kids from with huge complaints. My conclusion is that big tech has put fear in parents and schools that if we don't use their products at young ages during school, kids won't get jobs. It's simply marketing 101. Create insecurity and offer security through a purchase. Technology companies are not in the business, however, of making kids prepared for the future. They are just pretending to be.
043They don't care if our kids get good jobs. They care if our kids become their customers. We must remember this instead of taking their advice on how to educate kids and run a great school. Google knows nothing whatsoever about these subjects. We, on the other hand, have decades of quality research on how to get kids reading, writing, and doing well at math. We would be foolish to throw away this knowledge in favor of fancy products that haven't even proven themselves. In the media, Microsoft frames their three-year AI product donation to Washington State School as altruistic and helping to quote bridge gaps. It is not their place to use phrasing about bridging gaps when they have no concern whatsoever for disadvantaged kids. Lacking access to AI at school does not qualify as an access gap. This
044is a madeup problem. Giving high schoolers AI is akin to giving a first grader a calculator for math class. You've removed their ability to learn foundational skills. It's reckless to allow students to use AI and even heavy use of laptops as is now happening when there's no independent research or pilot programs that show improvements in educational outcomes of these products. Ban AI in school and discontinued student laptop program in elementary school. The next speaker is Sabrina Burr. Good evening. I'm Sabrina Burr, as you all know. I want to start off by thanking Director Sarju and Director Hersy. Um, Director Hersy, I remember when you were trying to get Betty Patu's seat and get that appointment. Um and I really want to thank you um for what you've done especially the work you've done with our
045students to make sure that we now have students on the dis um so I'm going to miss you but you know I'm going to be seeing you on my walks. So um Michelle I wore this shirt for you dear sister breathe and after tonight I hope you will be able to breathe well. I want to thank you for keeping the focus on black and brown children and you don't have to be black on the dis to talk about black and brown children and I hope we will keep our focus because we're failing far too many as I often say many of these students out here or former students with guns on the street are out there because our educational system put out there and we have the tools to make sure that they don't I
046do want to talk about board governance because the board governance that we have, we worked very hard to get, but we need to be honest. Seattle public schools has not done the work. We have not corrected. We have not collected the data. And there are some people who I believe it's racist reasons who want it gone because when you look at the data and you put the money where the data is, some people have a zero- sum game and they think their students are going to lose. We cannot do that. Going to the Council of Great City Schools has shown me what great districts have done and it's amazing and we need to be partnering and working with them. What we're doing around safety and policing our schools. We need to be talking to Chicago
047public schools because a part of their safety is staff well-being. taking care of staff, making sure our staff is trained on trauma and all the things that need to happen. Until we get there, until we make sure our staff are okay, how can we expect them to make sure our children okay? So, I really want to say we need to take advantage of what we have available. And lastly, I really want to say thank you to Director Rankin for being a part of WASDA for making sure not only Seattle public schools, but our region is heard and I'm glad you put together the resolution for our school board members to go to WADA. I hope all seven of you guys go together. This is a hard job and you need to understand at the state
048level what you're doing. It's not about your personal opinion. It's not about what the people around you say. It's really about the governance holding the superintendent and the leadership accountable. Accountable is not punitive. Sometimes people don't have the tools and the resources for what you're asking for. And that's also what accountability looks like. I want to make sure that we take care of our kids because like I said in 2012 at Governor Gregoire's education press conference, our kids are dying and they're asking you for help. They're asking you to be safe and they're not. We need to listen to them and we need to make sure we stop undereducating kids and we make sure they come home at the end of the day. The next speaker is Chris Jkins. >> Can I use your pass?
049>> My name is Chris Jenkins, Box 84063, Seattle 98124. On exiting schoolboard directors, I wish to thank Brandon Hersy, Miss Michelle Sarju, and Sarah Clark for their service to the district. And thanks to Director Clark for her oped last year against school closures on the proposed new superintendent. The board did not allow public review. Five points. Number one, the proposed superintendent started a successful high school. over the last 10 years. Statistics show a precipitous drop in graduation rates at that school. In the proposed superintendent's current district, 12 out of 24 schools, 50% had a status whose performance is in the lowest 5% of all schools in the state of Michigan. Number two, the proposed superintendent suggests giving more budget control at individual schools and that it is relatively easy to eliminate silos and redundancy. None
050of this stuff seems new. Number three, did the board ask the proposed superintendent if he would close schools? Is that part of the deal? Number four, what about including the Dwamish tribe and resources for the deaf and heart of hearing community? Reopening African-American Academy and Indian Heritage School, taking a fresh look at math instruction, school construction cost overruns, and deemphasizing screen time. Number five, does the proposed superintendent know that the entire board recently approved a contract despite being told that it was the wrong contract? Thank you very much. >> The next speaker is Emily Cherkin. My name is Emily Churkin. I'm an SPS parent on faculty at the University of Washington and an activist fighting big tech and education. Tomorrow I'm flying to London where I'll testify to members of Parliament about edtech and data
051privacy. I need to ask when did this district decide it was okay to give children access to unproven products created by big tech companies who put profits before people. Let's be clear. on their school districtisssued devices. SPS students can access inappropriate and harmful content. That is when they aren't gaming or using C-Pilot to do their homework. What the district says is happening is very different from what is really happening. And no, filters and blocking software don't work. The kids find the workarounds. Nationally, experts agree that increasing access to technology for students does not improve learning outcomes. One study found that investing in air conditioning yields a 30% improvement in learning outcomes over giving children Chromebooks. Additionally, there have been a numerous data breaches of Powers School, SPS's learning management system, and the $6 billion company
052is currently the subject of a class action lawsuit. In tonight's work session, I hope staff will address how they intend to obtain parental consent for children's use of these harmful products because parent and consent appear nowhere in the online materials. As I have cautioned this body before, per a recent FTC amicus brief, relying on the school official exemption to consent is no longer going to cut it. Directors, I hope you will ask staff the following questions. One, when did the district decide to provide generative AI products to children that are proven to be harmful and dangerous? Two, is the district okay with children using these tools to do their homework because they are? And number three, how did the district how does the district intend to actually acquire informed parental consent for each individual edtech
053product they use? I'll end with this. Before adopting any technology, schools must ask three questions. Is the product effective? Is the product safe? And is it legal? SPS is not asking these questions. These technologies deserve scrutiny, not deference. And directors, we need you to demand the district do more to protect our children. Thank you. The next speaker is June No Ivers. Good evening board members. My name is Jun No Ivers and I'm the co-reasurer of Seattle Council PTSA. And when I first joined the council, I heard a phrase that challenged me. Safety looks like different things for different folks. For a queer student, safety means like showing up for their authentic self without fear. For some, it's knowing microaggressions will be addressed and not ignored. For a student who faces housing insecurity, safety, and stability,
054not wondering where they're sleep tonight. It's the frustration of a child struggling to read or write without support and yet being failed up and out of the system. In America, gun violence costs casts a shadow as we kiss our babies every morning. Families attending immigration hearings for fear of losing their loved ones. Elementary school kids are being suspended and then funneled into the school prison pipeline. Middle schoolers ask for help every week because they are scared of their teacher. And for a student with a disability, safety means timely access to an IEP in a 504 because delays mean loss of learning and loss of trust. These are not abstract issues. They are lived realities of Seattle public students. And yet we are stretched thin, reacting to one fire after another instead of doing the deep
055work of centering safe and welcoming schools and not just performative language. Our investment in students is not optional. It is a moral obligation to protect their civil rights. We cannot reduce their futures to a costbenefit analysis. Our obligation is moral, not transactional. These students are human beings whose safety and education must come first. Let's move from scarcity and fear to equity and courage. Our communities are rich with culture and diversity. Let's build a future informed by these lessons and harm. we've seen and face these challenges head on. We empower you to be brave and to guide our community to a sustainable world where we can all live and thrive. To echo Dr. Director Hersy, we are on the precipice of great things. Thank you. The next speaker is Samantha Fog. Samantha, you need to press
056star six to unmute. We're going to move on to our next speaker, but we will come back to you. The next speaker is Janice White. Yesterday, the Seattle Times reported that Seattle public schools filed a motion for a new trial in the case in which a former student was awarded $8 million by a jury following a month-long trial. The former student had been punched in the face by a teacher at Meanie Middle School. I've heard from community members who were able to attend the trial or watch it remotely that listening to the testimony and seeing the evidence was deeply disturbing. But today, I want to address what the role of the school board is or should be. It's not the school board's job to manage day-to-day decisions about handling a lawsuit. But it is the
057school board's job to make sure you are fully informed about important lawsuits and ensure that the positions taken by the district in lawsuits are consistent with board policy and the guard rails you have established for our schools. I believe that if necessary, you also have the responsibility to make decisions on significant litigation strategy decisions like the decision to ask the court to order a new trial in this case. Have you been briefed about this lawsuit? Have you reviewed the evidence and testimony presented at trial? Were you consulted about the strategy of asking for a new trial? Have you asked staff or your legal counsel how, given the evidence admitted by the court, the decision to seek a new trial is consistent with your guard rails and policies? A lot of people in the community are
058horrified by what they heard and saw at this trial. Many of us know that while this was a particularly egregious situation, it was not in fact all that unusual. If the guard rails you passed about physical and emotional safety and anti-racism mean anything, you will not sit by passively while adults continue to harm this former student and his family and all the students and families who have suffered similar harm in our schools. You will ask the hard questions and direct that the district stop paying lip service to student safety. It is way past time for Seattle public schools to take responsibility for harm caused by staff and to be accountable to the community. Thank you. The next speaker is Aaron Gray. Hello, my name is Aaron Gray and I serve as co-reasurer for Seattle Council
059PTSA. I also work as a special educator in a distinct classroom at Louisa Boren STEM preK8 where I have served as a CPI certified member of the school's crisis response team and helped to facilitate their free food bag program as liazison for the West Seattle food bank. I appreciate that the work and decisions which come before the selected leaders of this board are rarely simple. With that understanding in mind, I also implore this team to consider what provisions, plans, and practices have been put in place to help ensure that the current SPS policies are reasonably being enacted in every school. For instance, most educators are expected to complete an annual safe schools training, which requires prior to completing the training, an acknowledgement that we've been provided with information pertaining to SPS policy 3246 SP regarding
060restraint, isolation, and other uses of physical crisis intervention. Section E subsection two of that policy outlines clear expectation for there to be five staff members at each building trained to serve as a team who propose I'm sorry whose purpose is to utilize trauma-informed and culturally responsive deescalation techniques to respond to emergency situations at our schools. Given that specific ed uh language of 3246 SP, I would implore the current and future leaders of this board and in our district to consider what systems in place are in place to identify whether schools have consistently established a team of trained staff who know how to appropriately respond when emergencies may arise. Safety looks different to different people. Though food security does not fall under that same aformentioned SPS policy, I believe it is fair to consider it another
061basic need for students and their families that can and should be prioritized by all SPS staff. Uh, I would like to thank, uh, sorry, I'm scrolling down since I'm running out of time. Uh, I would like to thank Megan Hess, our, uh, an operational equity project manager for the district, and many other staff and community members who helped partner with the food banks and the city of Seattle to ensure that thousands of food boxes were delivered to schools and families this month. Our communities are still grappling with the fear that arose from the unconscionable uncertainty regarding the distribution of SNAP benefits. I would ask this board to consider whether there are any policies that could be put into place to help clarify how weekly food bags are provided by food banks to students are managed
062by staff members. I believe that together we can continue to center the meeting the most basic needs for all children served at our schools. Thank you for your time and for considering how to tangibly support those who have offered thoughtful feedback before me tonight. We're going to go back and call names of people we missed the first time. Um, Michelle Campbell, please press star six to unmute. >> Oh, we can hear you. >> Hello. Great. Thank you. Um, my name is Michelle. I'm a co- secretary on Seattle Council PTSA and I'm the mom of a fourth grader at Fanpoint Elementary. Two years ago, I transferred my kid from an option school in northeast Seattle because of an incredibly unhealthy school culture. Environments like this are not created by one person alone. This is a group
063effort, a system. Many folks were aware of this culture, parents, educators, admin, top central office directors. Yet it has persisted and caused harm to students and the community for years. This is a common thing across the district. There have been lawsuits, investigations, complaints. This environment creates a revolving door for administrators, educators, parent leaders, and families. This is dup. This is disruptive. It's not student centered. I personally witnessed so much harm in the five years that my family was at the school from illegal restraints of black disabled students that went undocumented in statewide databases and sometimes unreported to parents to the outright discrimination of my Somali neighbors and their non-verbal autistic daughter to adults threatening to take away recess and special projects from students clearly struggling to communicate their needs. I could go on for a
064while, but I don't have the time here. What is clear is that these actions, this culture does not align with our foundational beliefs, our mission, vision, values, goals are guard rails. None of it. These are not isolated incidents. This is not one disgruntled parent. This is not one principal or educator that slipped through the cracks. This is not an extended pattern of harm at just one school. We have heard so many of these stories across the district. This is a longstanding systemic culture. Reading, math, and graduation are outcomes will not improve, cannot improve in this culture. Our goals rely on the conditions and the context in which our children need to grow and develop. The conditions rely on the behavior of adults, the collective behavior of adults. We need to be able to unpack our
065personal stuff to be accountable for our actions, to be responsible for our actions. As a community, we often point fingers. We always think the problem lies with someone else. That's false. We are in this together. We need collective accountability and responsibility. and I offer um support to the district. I'm offering a hand and I am here to support and I know other parents are here to support. Please, let's do this together. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Samantha Fog. Samantha, press star six to unmute. >> We're changing some settings in Teams. Samantha, are you able to unmute? >> Okay, I think we're going to have to move on here. That was our final speaker. So, we know Sam Fog is trying to unmute. So, maybe staff could be able to connect with Sam and
066and get her uh online and we will continue and we can come back to that. Is that possible? Sam, would you would you mind leaving and then coming back and we will try this one more time? Any luck? >> We see you online. Can you unmute? >> Yes. >> Oh, can you hear me now? >> Yep. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um, for the record, I am Sam Fog, parent of three Seattle public school students. In 2018, a middle school student was in math class when he was punched in the face by his teacher and then suspended. He sued and prevailed, though he's now filed a motion for a new trial. When the victim's mother was on the stand, the questions from our district's lawyers were focused on the things that the student's mother did wrong,
067implying that she is a bad mom. Spontaneously, mothers who were watching this trial in person and online started reaching out to ask if they could donate for a gift certificate for this mom to let her know that they too have children who have been hurt by Seattle public schools. And when they asked Seattle public schools for help, they were told that they were bad moms, but that they know that she is a good mom. There was no outreach, no ask, no social media campaign, but within a couple of days, $540 had been raised. raised from mothers whose children had been harmed, physically harmed by this district and then told that they were bad mothers. Later in the trial, an expert witness for the plaintiff was on the stand and he spoke about Seattle public schools
068having a pattern of institutionalized victim blaming and a practice of rewarding problematic behavior by teachers and staff. Children in Seattle public schools are not safe in part because of systems and procedures that prioritize adult reputation at the expense of student lives. The case of the student at Mini is unusual in that there is so much documentation, video, audio, so much. But for many of the students who are harmed, there is no video. There is no audio recording of the teacher saying that he punched a child in the face. We all have a role to play in keeping children safe. What is your role in keeping children in our schools safe? And how is your understanding of the systems that are impacting our family? The harm that is done in the name of our district. Brandon,
069I hope your child is safe in this school. Mine haven't been. And I will work with anybody to partner to keep kids safe in this district. On the topic of the facilities plan, I want to thank you for the acknowledgement that we need a plan for our students and transition services. Their treatment this year has been shocking and I've been really deeply appalled by the lack of urgency our district brings to inadequate bathroom access issues and disability accommodation. I want to say to our outgoing directors, thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for volunteering. Thank you for doing work that is hard and often comes with attacks from the public and often comes with heavy and traumatic things. And the mothers on our school board are also often not exempt from the weaponization
070and the blame that women face. And I want to say to all of you, I appreciate you. and director Saru, you've talked about you've talked about advocating from the podium the HIM future and I look forward to that partnership and Brandon, your baby is beautiful and I am so appreciative of your partnership over the years and of the meeting that we've been in together. Thank you so much to all of you. I apologize everyone for my technical difficulties. Our kids deserve to be safe, but they particularly deserve to be pa safe from the people that we pay to educate them. And I just want to say that it is never okay and no teacher who punches a child in the face is a good teacher, no matter what is said on the witness stand. Thank
071you everyone. I appreciate you. That was our final speaker. >> Thank you everyone to who came out to speak tonight and provide public testimony. We appreciate your time and and the time that it takes away from your family and your evening activities. We're going to move back now again. This is very jarring and I'm very sorry about that, but back to the celebration of outgoing directors. Um, I want to give uh Director Clark and Director Sarju an an opportunity to speak and also for director Sarju to introduce who she has with her today up here at at the DITH. Real fast. Maybe if if we want to hand her a microphone. >> What's your name? >> Say Kai Marcel. Su >> Kai Marcel is Cook Saru. That's who's up here with me or I guess
072that's who I'm down here with. >> Thank Thank you, Director Sarju. So, I'm going to go to Director Clark here and then Director Sarju. Um, Director Clark, you have the floor. >> Thank you, President Top. Um, similar to Director Hersy, I was didn't real realize until I got here that um, this was the last meeting and so I've been sitting up here trying to write something to say because I was not prepared. Um, but you know, I think you all know that um, I'm an SPS grad and um, you know, didn't have the best history with this district. Um and um when I uh think about my life um up until now, the fact that I'm up here, have been up here at this dis um wanting and trying to serve kids currently in the
073system is a bit of a miracle given that I was brutally attacked in our high my high school um 20 years ago. Um, and so it's been a personal victory for me as a human being with PTSD to come back here. Um, and I hope that me saying this just underscores how big my commitment is and has been and will be um to all of our kids getting access to the safe, welcoming schools that um they deserve where they are all educated and treated um like the amazing human beings that they are. Um, you know, we've made progress in the last 18 months and updating policy, digging into finances, um, passing new goals and guard rails, and hiring our next superintendent. And so I think I'll just keep it short and say that you know
074as director to or president Topp said the mission um for our continuing and incoming directors is more critical than ever. Um and as I leave I I'm truly hopeful that all of you will make progress together for our kids. So thank you. Thank you, Director Clark. Director Sergio. >> So, first of all, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. I can sing a little bit. Happy birthday, my son-in-law, Evan. It's his birthday today. Can you say happy birthday, Dada? >> Say it. Happy birthday. >> Yeah. All right. Well, you all missed the dance party. I'll just start with that. I I played uh celebration and then they not like us. We had a little party up in here. But I'll just get to my comments. Here we go. For a moment, I'm
075going to take us back. It was the end of May 2020. Those of us paying attention witnessed an abomination. Those of us paying attention were not surprised. And yet we still could not believe our eyes. Yep. Those of us paying attention understood exactly what we witnessed. A modern-day public lynching of a black man. Say his name, George Floyd. And there would be more. For many of us, that was a catalytic moment. A moment amid utter despair that propelled some of us to do something. My despair led me to join in protests. I led an over eight minute down on your knees silent protest on Capitol Hill. It was eerily quiet. No one said a word. In those eight minutes, I imagined George as a little boy. I heard mama, mama, mama over and over again
076in my head. I heard I can't breathe. I thought about my own children. That moment in time changed me forever. Let me also remind us we were in a once ina-lifetime global pandemic. Remember the daily news updates of how many people died on any given day? I do. I was deployed to work at the nation's first isolation and quarantine quarantine site. This was yet another catalytic moment for me. In a matter of days at working at the site, I would meet a little girl and her mom. They were fleeing domestic violence. The little girl was enrolled in a Seattle public school. We went to work for her. I picked up her computer so she could be online in her hotel room with all the other online kids in her class. I coordinated a social worker
077to stand outside their room and provide emotional support because they could not leave. We bought her toys, but most of all, we just loved on her and her mom. I also began to follow what local area schools were doing to support our kids. These two moments, along with the imprinted deposits from my longgone ancestors, propelled me to run for school board. Oh, wait a minute. There's Marina. Another story for another day. I will say this about her. I have no doubt one of my ancestors visited you in your dreams because there's no way possible you could have known what I was contemplating. I hadn't even told my family yet. And thank you for my lifetime paid subscription of Procco. Now we fast forward the tape. I decide to run for office. Thank you, Brandon. I
078followed the script and got consultants. Thank you for my pictures. I set up a Zoom meeting with all my family members around the country to let them know my plan and get their blessings. One quick detour. One of my cousins joined the meeting. What I did not know was that would be the last time I would see him because a couple weeks later he transitioned to join our grandfather, two uncles, and another cousin who also died in the previous months before him. This cousin was on the cheer team in high school. I believe he was up there leading my family in chance of go Michelle. Back to the run. I met with my consultants to develop my priorities. I was serious about accomplishing everything I stated. My priorities were about kids, the most marginalized kids.
079To name a just a few, safely reintegrating students from pandemic homeschool to back to the classrooms. Securing more funds for mental health support for students and teachers. Increased focus on K to third grade support. The most foundational educational period of a child's life. That was the easy part. The rest of it, what can I say? I didn't exactly follow the playbook for running a campaign. I'm sure that's no surprise to some of you. Here's where the first set of thank yous start. Upper Left stuck with me, even though I kept saying, "Well, I'm not doing that." Thank you to Olivia for letting me be me. Thank you to Adam, my at the time 18-year-old campaign manager, for doing the things I refuse to do. I won my race on a platform of racial equity and
080a laser focus on what is best for the kids being left out of the equation. The kids being left behind. The kids who want to succeed in a system that was designed to fail them. upper left. Y'all allowed me to be honest and authentic, a hallmark of our campaign, and I am grateful. Nothing can prepare a person for the job of school board director. I quickly discovered that not all adults are truly focused on what's best for children, particularly the most marginalized children. I learned that the status quo is the desired path and the game plan is just to repeat words like the kids furthest from educational justice to sound like adults are doing something while doing nothing or the same things or doing the same things as always and pretending there'll be different results.
081It became crystal clear that a systems dup disruptor like me was not welcome. I was labeled a bully. a bully for demanding honesty and transparency. Delusions that I was part of a voting block emerged. Attempts to control me with performative Robert's rules of order failed. There is not a ruling Robert anywhere that can tell me what to do, what I'm about, whether or not I'm an ally, or anything else. When this black woman casts a vote, I'm voting based on what I believe is best for marginalized students. I'm not your negro. I'm not intimidated by the loudest voices or toddler adjacent feckless adults who are hellbent on maintaining the status quo because the system works just fine for their kids. Bulletin board bulletin board posts written by self-promoting vultures wallowing in the gutter ranting about
082nonsense are neither compelling nor relevant. At best, it proves that some people have no capacity or sense for being objective or neutral. What is relevant is that these seven chairs vote on what's best for all kids. Not a few, not some, all kids. I'm getting there. Now, I'm going to talk about what we accomplished. And I mean we I mean the student board directors. I particularly mean you, Miss Sabi Yun, on your second tour of duty here. There's a long-standing basketball adage. There is no I in team. A basketball team cannot win with just one single player. Right, Nasha. She knows it takes five people on the court working together toward a common book bowl. Yeah, I'm almost done. Sweetness school board is similar. Directors need to agree in a quorum model with a majority
083voting the same. Directors must understand their role. A lack of understanding results in confusion, distractions, and dysfunction. Ultimately, progress is stymied at best, and a system failing certain children continues. Far too often, directors are focused on the most privileged, loudest voices intent on maintaining the status quo at the expense of silenced others. When board directors are legoced on their roles, great work can happen on behalf of all children. You get that, Liza? Sometimes this means abandoning the popular for the proper all the time. It means student focused, not adult focused. We proved we could get our kids back in school as safely as possible. Yes, sweetness. Just a minute. We proved that when we focus, we can p perform effective progress monitoring. These seven chairs proves that we can stay laser focused on students. That
084when we stay laser focused on students, remarkable things can happen. Yeah. Can you give me a minute? One minute. Okay. Go see Liza. Just for a moment, I will h highlight a few things I'm most proud of. I must admit that staying on the course of a systems disruptor is not easy. Maintaining my focus on students, staying in my integrity, and not settling for anything less than the best for marginalized students came with a price. A price I was willing to pay to the deaf and heart of hearing hearing community. We did it and we didn't have to sue. I agree with you that it should not have been that difficult. The late and great John Lewis said, "Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our
085society." I'm confident that we have sent a strong and lasting message that will live long after we join our ancestors. I'm honored that you trusted me to work on your behalf. Thank you. The crown jewel board directors, we did it. I'm confident that last year none of us thought we would be in yet another superintendent search. For the first time, for the first time in four years, I felt like we were all laser focused on the same goal, hiring the best superintendent possible to sit in the eighth chair. Thank you, my friend, Superintendent Podesta. and break this revolving cycle, revolving door cycle that is SPS. To my surprise, it was easier than I could have imagined. Yeah, come on up here. We stayed focused on the goal, drowning out the noise of hidden agendas and
086ulterior motives. We presented the ro results of our hard work with a 60 unanimous vote. We prove that when we stay focused, we can deliver greatness on behalf of Seattle public school students. My hope is that focus represents the new way of doing business for the board that will be on December 3rd to the future occupants of these se the future occupants of these seven chairs will be instrumental in creating conditions where all students can thrive. These chairs should not serve as an audition for a future elected positions as has been in the past. These seven chairs need to adopt a mindset, focus, and commitment oriented towards those students this SPS school system is failing. Hi, where's Liza? These seven chairs must create the conditions that will set up Superintendent Shelner for ultimate success. He
087has a proven track record as a teacher, principal, schoolboard director, professor, superintendent. Thank you to us. And has demonstrated deep commitment to highquality public school education for all students. The formula for success. Board directors, do your jobs and let the superintendent do his. Future state, here it comes. For the first time in decades, this board is going to be uh almost exclusively white. >> For those who are currently on the DEIS, who are returning as board directors, you will have an opportunity to model what it looks like to be all together in support of the kids SPS is failing. You are at a crossroads and the decision you make now will signal what to expect in the future. It is time to stop speaking about kids furthest from educational justice and let your votes speak.
088If you all do that, you will begin to dismantle a 60 plus year history of accepted failure. Now, to thank a few people. Don't worry, I ain't taking another 15 minutes. I recognize that I can't thank everyone, but I must thank the security staff. Jerome, Maryanne, Pam, Leonetta. Maryannne, my girl, by the way, Michael, Viet, Hakee, and Quadrilene. If I missed anybody, you can blame Eric because he gave me these names. What a team y'all are. You perform your jobs with a visible commitment to excellence. I'm sorry you'll no longer have anyone to help you heard the cats out of here after a long meeting. other SPS staff, >> Ellie, Carrie, Julia, and Eric, you know why I'm recognizing y'all. And if you don't see me later, to my commander in the audience, online, and
089at the celebration that's about to happen, you also know who you are. You showed up when it mattered most. Now, we must turn our attention to supporting this superintendent as he comes here to share his superpowers to transform this district to the best in the nation. as he said to my family both living and ancestors, my dad who's online who gave me FBI communications and public affairs pro tips. Yeah, I did a lot of talking. I'm doing a lot of talking now and you can't say anything cuz you're on mute. Haha. I did a lot of talking and I mostly took your advice to my aunt Betty, my quintessential role model. She took me to college with her in the 80s. She spent her entire public service career focused on the most marginalized children. I've
090tried hard to follow in your footsteps. Thank you for those hour-long conversations when you worked for Head Start. Those conversations molded and shaped my tra career trajectory. To my grandmother, wherever you are, your early deposits in my life paid off. It was your voice that led me to run this race. I hope you're looking down and feeling proud right now. To my children, I could not think of precise words to describe what you all mean to me without breaking into an ugly cry. Your words of encouragement to run and during these last four years booied me. I'm the luckiest person in the world that God chose me to be your mom. The best gift of my lifetime. Well, maybe the best. The next comes the grand beans. Kaimar and the grand bean on the way.
091I will fight like hell for both of you. Thank you, Brandon, for saying all that needed to be said about what to expect if you try to mess with that. Who knows, maybe I'll take you to meetings like my grandmother did during the Brown V Times. I think that's the only way another Sarju may grace this stage. As I exit the premises, I exit knowing I did what I said I came to do. I leave knowing that I ran this course standing in integrity, fighting for equity and justice, never letting the haters distract me, standing up for what is right, even when it means losing something else. Yeah, I lost some things. And getting into good trouble. Good damn trouble. What a time it has been. And I don't regret it. For over 10 years,
092the following quote has been on my personal email. The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child. It's whether we can afford not to. Marian Wright Edelman. I still believe that. Do you security staff, I have some gifts for you. And Ellie and Eric and Carrie and Julia, I have some gifts for you. And maybe I have some gifts for some other people, but I don't know. We'll see what I have left. Thank you very much. Oh, I have I have gifts for board directors. I'll give you those. Okay. Bye-bye. >> Again, I just want to say thank you to Director Sarju, Director Hersy, and Director Clark. Do we just get a collective round of applause for all? Thank you. And also, I might make it mandatory that we have kids
093up here at every meeting because it just makes it so much better and so much more fun. We are going to take a your 16-year-old as well. Uh, all right. So, the middle schoolers apparently and the high schoolers have no interest in being here, but the little ones, they're fun. Um uh so we're going to take a very quick five minute break. So think 607 we're going to return. We're going to come back for board director comments and student comments. But because we are short on time uh director Ranken because we're short on time when we come back think board director comments and student comments one to two minutes. So rethink your remarks if you need to during break. Um, also we have if we make it to self self-evaluation at the end, folks have
094their assigned roles. If you haven't done your homework previously, please look at your assigned role or see Carrie for your assigned role and get that out of the way. Okay. 607 608 Heat. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Hey, I really was serious. F really just a fiveinut break and that was five minutes. See, we're missing a coral, though. Okay, I really am going to call a quorum back and we're going to start with student board director comments. So I All right, we'll now go to our student members. Thank you for joining us this evening. Uh again, we we're going to condense a little bit. So try to think one to two minutes for for remarks, but looking to students. Director Yun. >> Thank you, President Topp. So, just update to everyone, we
095are continuing to revise policy 1250, which is a student board member policy. We received student feedback from the superintendent advisory board during our second student board member training and we are working on scheduling a meeting with NAACP youth council and also the original students who drafted the policy. This will be our second meeting with them because we actually have previously met in July to introduce these revisions and also gather their input and clarify the intent behind these revisions and to ensure that we are remaining aligned with the original student driven v uh vision. We also plan to meet with the rest of the board and brief them on these revisions and also provide updates on our progress. In complement to the policy, we are also creating a student representative handbook which will outline expectations, responsibilities,
096onboarding procedures, and resources to support future student board members. We also plan to introduce the handbook to the board and NAACP youth council and the original student um policy writers. Our plan is for the new policy to be implemented for the next cohort of student board members. The other thing I wanted to talk about is um just our main goal this year as student board members is to engage with as many students as possible. Um, our role requires ongoing discussions from different students who have different like diverse backgrounds because when we are coming up to the board and giving student voice, student input on decisions, we need to make sure we have a broad perspective of all students in this district. And it's really hard to do that when we only attend one high school
097and are not part of all student communities. Um we have as part of this commitment we have launched the ASB executive council and have also included the superintendent advisory board on many of our initiatives including the training as I mentioned before. But we also recognize that these student groups do not represent the full diversity of the entire SPS student body. So therefore we are in the process of planning ongoing engagement sessions throughout the year. Our intention to hold these sessions um it's not just a one-time thing. We want it to be multiple times because we think that student authentic student engagement requires a consistent for it to be a consistent effort and not just kind of like a single touch point or like a reactive response after a decision has already been made. This approach
098also supports our broader objective of um just ongoing visibility of our role and also having building trust with students in this district given that a lot of students actually don't even know what a student rep does and that we represent them. Um so that is all for my updates and I'll pass it on to the other student board directors. Adding on to our meetings with student groups, we recently met with the ASB student council during which we had the opportunity to discuss with Carlos Ava who is a superintendent for technology and optimization on student perspectives on current cell phone policy and its impact on learning and school culture. We discussed SPS life readiness expectations with Dr. Perkins raising questions of do students feel prepared upon graduation. Some students brought up concerns surrounding how schools lack
099of some schools lack a variety of course options which may affect students ability to meet life readiness goals, explore interests and future careers. In addition, I was able to attend the farm-to-school celebration at Vuland's elementary school. All student representatives visited one school each Garfield High School, Madison Middle School, and Vulins Elementary School. This was hosted by the city of Seattle of sust city of Seattle sustainability office sustainability and environment and the school meals and food education working group. I got to talk and interact with students during their lunch period and students got to discuss goals they wanted in school meals through taking an interactive poll. >> Thank you Director Mlenson. >> Thank you. Yeah, I also wanted to touch on the farm to school celebration. Um, I had the pleasure of um, participating in it.
100Um, with the many people who contributed to the effort at Madison Middle School. Um, in addition to providing like these fresh, diverse lunch options, we got to interact with students and received a lot of helpful feedback on ways students want to discuss their lunches with the district in their on their own terms. I'm really grateful to be a part of this as this is the first and not the last time student board members have been able to engage with the younger students of the district. In this role, we are responsible for representing all students and this was a great step in that direction. I think it's also important to um touch on the student advisory board and student board member trainings that we just completed um with Mary Facus. Um, I want to thank President
101Topp and director Rankin for attending the last two meetings as well as the SCPsa for providing stacks and pizza for us. Um, I felt the trainings were incredibly valuable as I step into this role, learning about policy, power dynamics, and a new language as Mary Facus described it. We're really grateful that Mary plans on continuing to work with us and the um, student advisory board. One last thing, um, to starting tomorrow and Friday and Saturday, we're going to be at the WASDA conference and I'm incredibly excited to get to interact with a bunch of different students and directors from across um, the state and um, I think it'll be a really valuable experience. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you to our student board directors. I'll just start there. uh directors, student uh members and
102staff will be attending the Washington State School Directors Association annual conference this week and we're excited for those learning opportunities. Uh we have boot camp tomorrow from 9 to 2 and ended ending in a a social hour. Um and in December we'll have time at our board meeting to share a little bit of what we have learned. So take some good notes uh board directors and we will also I believe be joined by board directors uh elect um I also just want to acknowledge real fast on our agenda this evening we will be voting on approval of the super superintendent contract with Ben Schner. We were uh thrilled to have Superintendent Schner join us a few weeks ago here in Seattle and are grateful for the warm welcome from our community. I know Superintendent Schulner
103is eager to get to work and the board is excited for this next chapter for Seattle public schools. Finally, I will just say December 20 December 23rd, December 3rd is when we will swear in new incoming board directors. Um, and we will uh both have we'll do the swearing in. We'll have speeches and a full board photo. So, please come prepared that day for the photo. I know some interesting housekeeping. Other other uh best. >> Yes. Uh do other board committee chairs or liaison have any reports? Director Ranken. >> Thank you. Um we have one more meeting of the policy committee before we bring a set of recommendations to the full board. um we won't be asking the board to vote on them, but we'll just we've we we will have then met the deliverables
104of the charge authorized um by the board. Uh and um so folks will have a chance to interact with those, ask questions, and then we'll kind of pick back up on recommendations in in the new year. Um and also set a course for, you know, what new charges we may want to give the committee, what new composition there may be, etc. So, one more meeting and I can't remember off the top of my head when it is, but you know, look on the board website if you're interested in tuning in. Um, most of the update that I have will is about state legislative priorities. And since we have that item on um on the agenda, I won't talk about those, but I have a two things to share. A federal update and another statewide issue.
105Um, the federal government is opening back up after the 43day shutdown, the longest in our country's history. And there was an agreement signed to fund the federal government through January 30th. So, we'll all get to revisit the uncertainty and who knows what at the federal level again in January. Um, but some staff is coming back, some things are moving again. Um, for education though, specifically, the education secretary claimed that the shutdown proved that her department would not be missed and that she and the president will continue to try and shut down the US Department of Education. Um, her claims were that students kept going to class, teachers kept getting paid, and there were no disruptions to sports activities or bus routes. Um, as if the Department of Education has anything to do with those. Um
106so uh that's you know speechless at best. Um dismantling the department would be devastating um for students. There would be no more civil rights investigations. So in the at the state level if you have a civil rights complaint and it's not resolved at your state or it's a bigger issue that needs to be taken up the federal department of education is the backdrop for protecting student civil rights. If the department is gone, that is gone. Um, and so there would also be no grant making or technical assistance offered from the Department of Education. Um, that means the backs stop and enforcement of federal statutes and protections would be gone even if the grant funding is diverted to states through another mechanism. The argument is that they're just a pass through for money. So, they don't
107need to exist. The money can be passed other ways. Um but the money without the federal enforcement puts um our most historically marginalized students at risk because the dollars without the direction and the enforcement um don't mean what they were intended to mean. Um and the argument that they're returning education to the states is also misleading. States already have the responsibility and authority to provide public education to those within their borders. Should these um the efforts to dismantle continue, the reduction of federal oversight will mean that we as districts and as states need to up our own monitoring and prioritization of supports for historically underserved students or they're gone. Um, federal grant funds account for about 6% of our operating costs in SPS, which doesn't sound like very much, but it's about hund00 million, which
108is what we are challenged, we've been challenged with already. Um, and again, it's not as much the dollars as it is the calling out to protect certain groups of students. if it's just the dollars without that multilingual students, students with disabilities, um training for teachers that serve those students, um those dollars become they could just be swallowed up by general funds depending on the state. So, we will be continuing to monitor that and participate in advocacy as possible. Um the state issue is uh we've talked a little bit about before. There are two ballot initiatives right now that have signature campaign circulating across the state um to bring initiatives to the legislature in the 2026 session that if passed would um sorry I'm trying to avoid a a legal problem. They would they would uh
109reverse some portions of the parental lights rights law that safeguard student privacy, access to supports and some student rights that were codified just earlier this year in the previous session. Um they would also um place some restrictions on transgender athletes um which so uh there's a number of legal limitations and restrictions around boards taking positions officially on ballot initiatives. Um but the information I will share is uh that we will continue I will continue we all will continue to monitor the progression of these initiatives if they gather enough signatures to come before the legislature and we will keep assessing what impacts there may be to our district and our student staff policies and budget. Continue to communicate with our state level partners, legislators, education stakeholders and community about the implications of these measures. And we
110as a board have stated an explicit focus on advancing educational equity and ensuring that all students including LGBTQIA plus students are fully supported and thriving. Our our existing policies and positions are aligned with state law and our community values and are strong in their support and affirmation of LGBTQIA plus students and their right to exist be seen as whole and valued and participate in activities as any other student can and that is not going to change anytime soon. So, um, yeah, between now and December, I will work with the board president and our legal team to see if there's any further statement we can make. Um, but our our policies very clearly support our students right to access education, right to privacy, right to be safe, right to be right to identify as they want
111to and be recognized as such and to participate in all the activities that we provide. Other board directors, committee reports or liaison reports. >> All right, then we have reached the consent portion of the agenda. May I have a motion for the consent agenda? >> Can I make the last motion of my President top. >> It's my last time saying that. >> Are you sure you don't want to wait till we get to Ben Shelner's contract? >> Oh, Director Sergeant, do you want to second this one? You can second this one if you want. >> You can do all of them. Do all of them? No, I don't. Okay, Vice President Breaks, it's back to you then. >> I move approval of the consent agenda. >> I second the motion. >> All right. So, approval
112of the consent agenda has been moved by Vice President Briggs and seconded by Director Sarju. Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed. The consent agenda has passed unanimously. >> Okay, >> we are now moving along. We'll move to the action items on today's agenda. The first one, not yet though. Just wait a sec. Okay. The first one is the approval of the 2026 state legislative agenda. May I have a motion for this item? >> I move approval of the 2026 state legislative agenda. >> Second. >> Okay. This item has been moved and seconded. Director Ranken, will you be introducing this item? >> Uh yes. and um in
113collaboration with uh our key staff member on legislative issues, Julia Worth. Um I don't think I have talking points, but uh you can read, you can see in the bar, a legislative agenda is something that we adopt annually, and it provides um explicit direction and authorization from the board to the district to advocate in certain um veins. We we can always support anything that's aligned with our policies, but there's tons of bills, there's tons of policies, and it is a short session. So, we try to focus um focus our attention on uh what we think is likely to come forward, what can be advanced, and what's of highest priority. So, um as I mentioned at a previous meeting, I think Washington State School Director Association also adopts a platform that has been published on their
114website. many things in common. Um the sort of you know we talked a lot about the big three last session in advocating for funding and this session is really about um protecting that funding protecting those investments. The state has in a new budget a new budget forecast for the state came out I think today or yesterday and it's not very it's not it's not good. Um, the state is going to be looking for a lot of way, legislators are going to be looking for a lot of ways to make up their own gap between what they budgeted and the resources that they have. Our main ask is to protect the funding that's already been allocated to us. Don't use K12 to fill your budget gap. Um, and so we've outlined a couple of, you know,
115those those big threes are outlined. Again, we added an additional um kind of call out that the state's budget was under a certain assumption of student enrollment. our ask or as I'm proposing is our ask and as some other uh partner groups are also asking is that if the actual state enrollment is lower than they budgeted for rather than see that difference as savings for the state to recommit those funds to K12 um if that makes sense. So, uh, even even to to find another way to commit those funds because obviously if the students don't exist, they're not going to give us the per pupil funding. But our ask is if you budgeted for X amount of students and only Y amount of students show up in the system, that's still money that you already
116said you were going to spend on K12. And so, please continue, please find a way to continue to spend that on K12. Um, and then there's some other I I don't think anything's particularly surprising. Um, one issue that I've brought up before is the sales tax that um, the bill number is escaping me, but it's in the agenda there that I brought up before that was passed last session. They said it wasn't going to impact school districts. It was intended to raise revenue for school districts and 5814. Thank you, Director Clark. Um and it it is impacting school districts. Um the impact to SPS would be about $2 million we're estimating. Um which sounds small, but we're trying to, you know, we're trying to spend every dollar we have in in our classrooms. And so
117that's, you know, that's a lot of support for students right there that wasn't planned on being given to the state from the dollars they give to us to provide education. And then um you know some districts like Northshore is a much smaller district but they're estimating about a million dollars. So it's really variable. It's having a negative impact. We have some Seattle legislators who have committed to bringing forward a bill that we are working with. Um and so that's that's the one very specific ask that we'll have. Um and then the other things should be yes just please protect funding center students and um maintain the commitments that they've already made. And it's a 60-day session, so things will happen very fast. We will have, I think Julia, correct me if I'm wrong, like Julia
118and Cliff will come and give a briefing or a mini training. If you remember, last year we did a training for the board about the legal restrictions on us in terms of lobbying and and activities. We will have a like a mini training before uh the session starts for us. And I think that is it. Was there anything else that we talked about that I was supposed to mention that I didn't? Okay. Okay. Perfect. >> Did board directors have questions? >> All right. Seeing none, Miss Worth, please call the vote. >> Director Clark. >> Just yell it. Just yell it. Oh, >> no. Nope. Just >> legislative agenda. >> Thank you, Director Clark. >> Director Clark. I uh Director Miss Rahi. >> Hi. >> Director Ranken. >> I director Sarju. I >> vice president Briggs
119>> I. >> President Topp >> I. >> This motion is passed unanimously. >> We'll now move on to approval of the superintendent's employment agreement. May I have a motion for this item? I move that the school board approve the proposed superintendence employment agreement as attached to this board action report and authorize the board president to sign the agreement with any minor additions, deletions, and modifications deemed necessary by the board president. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> Second. >> Okay. This motion has been moved by Director Sarju and seconded by Director Misari. I will be introducing this item. Um, following the board's vote on November 5th, Vice President Briggs and I were authorized to begin contract negotiations with Superintendent Schner, we worked closely with our outside council and negotiated the employment
120agreement that is before you this evening. Reaching this agreement uh was a collaborative and reflects our commitment to the partnership and our genuine excitement to welcome Superintendent Schner to Seattle public schools. Uh Superintendent Schner will officially begin on February 1st, 2026 and his contract runs through June 2028. Um, as many in our community know, he brings a strong record of improving graduation rates, attendance, enrollment rates, and has led both with innovation and stability in Lancing. His experience as superintendent, principal, school board member, professor, educator gives him a deep understanding of what it takes to move the district forward. Uh the contract provides a base salary of 365,000 with retirement contributions, standard benefits including healthcare leave, car allowance, and transition support such as moving expenses. There is also a retention bonus tied to continuity of leadership
121over time. We are excited to have such a successful result from this process. And again, I want to express our appreciation to our community and to Superintendent Shelner for the work ahead. Our students drive this work and this agreement marks the beginning of the next chapter for Seattle public schools. So, I'm going to take questions from directors, but if they're real technical, I'll call Miss Wilson Jones up to help me. Director Ranken, >> thank you. And thank you to uh you and Director Briggs for spending that time um doing the contract negotiations. Uh the contract you said runs from February 2nd to June or sorry February 1st to June 2028, right? So that's two and a half years. Yes. >> Okay. So >> legally we can't go past that the June date. >> Oh, >>
122that's a state law requirement. >> Okay. Okay. I knew it was you couldn't go more than three years, but it's is it over three school years? Okay. So that's that's helpful and that's actually that's convenient in terms of thinking about evaluation cycles and stuff. So basically, should we all make it to 2028, if parties agree, and that's what we want, a full three-year contract could be offered or whatever. Like that that would be it's two and a half years, but really it's like a three-year contract. Is that sort of >> correct? It's the It's the long longest period of time that we were able to offer under state law. Yeah. >> And Miss Wilson, Judge, you can correct me if I'm wrong. Nope. Okay, >> great. >> Others. >> Thank you. >> All right. Call
123I will now call on staff for the vote. >> Director Ms. Rahi. >> Hi. >> Director Anken. >> I director Sarju. Hippity Skibbidity Hobity. I >> vice president Briggs. >> I >> President Top >> I. >> This motion has passed unanimously. >> Okay, we're going to move now since that was our last uh piece of business to the tables for our uh for our work sessions. Um before we move to the tables, do folks need another break? It hasn't been Okay, there is a five minute break. So, we'll be back at 6:41. And again, I will I will put a plug in for if you haven't done your evaluation homework, do it now. If you haven't done your evaluation homework, do it now. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Why are you La. Heat. Heat. Okay,
124we have nowhere near quorum here. I'll be back. All right. Welcome back, folks. We are going to move into work sessions on tonight's agenda. Uh, I just really want to We'll wait just a second here. All right, we have two presentations this evening, both uh on the use of technology. We will begin with a student cell phone presentation and then we will go to an artificial intelligence and data privacy presentation. I want to thank Vice President Briggs for suggesting this as a work session topic and for really leaning into this work. Um obviously I think we have all been hearing concerns about both cell phones and uh AI from parents, our community members and educators. And I know that Fred and I went to Cleveland High School uh to talk and one of the discussion
125points was their cell phone policy and it was fascinating to hear hear the students responses and and what they thought of their new cell phone policy. So I'm excited to hear uh what staff has to present this evening. I'm going to hand it over to Superintendent Podesta. >> Yes. And I'll be brief. I don't think um it's a shock to anybody. We all know living in the world of smartphones and other digital devices that you know they're a blessing and a curse. Um and the challenges they uh present to adults are the same challenges they present present to students. The challenges they present in benefits they present in lots of environments are the same as schools. And so um there's been a lot of national dialogue about this. Um we've been looking at it um
126uh within the district to try to look to standardize our policies, try to gauge um students and staff reactions. We still have a bit more work to do to understand parents and families feelings about this. Um since this is really an educational environment issue, I'm going to turn it over uh to Dr. Torres Morales and um uh Mr. Delva will work with him to give you this briefing. >> Thank you, Superintendent Podesta. I'm going to start us off talking about the cell phone student cell phone policy and personal technology. Then I'm going to turn it over to our chief technology officer, Carlos Delva. Are you all okay? >> Okay. So, why cell phone limits matter? So, what we know or what we've what we've noticed is that fostering a healthier, more engaged school community is
127important. This aligns with guardrail 2 which is the superintendent will not allow the existence of any learning environments that do not promote physical and emotional safety. So if uh one of the things we can look at is limiting cell phone use during the school day to promote improve student focus and peer relationships. The limiting of cell phones helps to limit distractions, encourages more face-to-face social interaction, fewer online conflicts, and decrease incidents of cyber bullying and social media related stress. Some of our existing policies currently is board policy 2022 and 2023. It promotes positive digital lead uh citizenship, responsible, appropriate, and healthy technology use for students and staff. And there's also the accompanying superintendent procedure which guides the use of district electronic resources and internet access. This does need an update from our perspective. Clarity uh
128needs to be given for the expectations for personal device use and learning environments and align with current best practices and state requirements for digital learning and student well-being. So, in the presentation, what you'll note, I'm not going to read this to everybody, but on the bottom is the quote of what is in our current superintendent procedure that we're saying is going to need to be updated from our assessment. So, the current district cell phone procedure is what procedures about uh cell phones in schools, how the implementation approaches this is left to the schools, but it is slightly different. There is some there are some schools that are using pouches. Some schools that are using wall sleeves particularly in a lot of our high schools are using wall sleeves. Uh in the high school specifically is
129at teacher discretion because some of the teachers do allow the use of cell phones for educational purposes in the classroom and that is done with the students and also around personal responsibility. So the revised procedure will focus on what standards we hope to set not necessarily the how. One of the things that we heard when we engaged with ASB leadership across the city from all of our high schools was the idea of they support what we're talking about with cell phones. However, they do not want us to be overly overly prescriptive and do want to leave some autonomy for the at the teacher level and at the school level for for the how to do it. But that the overall there should be some standard as to what is it. So to not prescribe the
130specific tools to enforce those rules. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Delvier. >> Hello. Uh, good evening. Um, let me talk a little bit about the engagements uh that we Can you guys hear me? >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> The engagements that we um we've been um having over the past year. Um we engaged with five schools um Hamilton Middle School, Robert Eagle Staff, Koi Ballor, and Reineer. And um we started a study la uh last year to try to understand you know the the good things the bad things uh how they're doing the work as far as the the sale policy uh within those schools and we have learned a lot uh we came out with a briefing paper uh a preliminary briefing paper last February um and
131we learned a lot from from uh those schools um also um we had a uh a couple sessions with students as well um and they it was very interesting to to see uh their responses. And let me let me read real quick here some of the responses where the uh current practices uh vary um widely from schools to schools. Some have this red, yellow, green day thing on their on their um classrooms. Lincoln enforces mandatory f uh phone zones where they can have them or not. Uh and Nathan Hill permits phones for instructional as well. Um they they also mentioned that there were some enforcement challenges. Um the students observed that the rules are applied differently across teachers creating a lot of inconsist inconsistency not just within the schools but across all schools. Um also
132the the phones as an academic tool academic tools they were mentioned that many students stress that phones are essential for learning because district laptops are restricted. We do filter the laptops. We do block a lot of sites. Uh some of them, you know, later on we're going to get into AI, but uh we block a lot. GPT is blocked. Uh Gemini's block. There's a lot of things that we don't believe uh that should be open for the kids. Um safety and cyber bully. This was an interesting one. Uh the students reported there minimum uh cyber bullying. uh but they acknowledge that that that might be vary between the environments different schools. Um and then uh bigger concerns uh beyond the phones uh they express their frustration with block websites you know again you know the
133the AI and they feel that they should have access to to do their own research. Okay. >> No, no, no. Just a second. Now, from the school leaders, uh we did we did a survey um uh uh last year as well, and we have a 76 responses. Um and they they they mentioned that there was some improve uh instructional time. Um they said they better claim up to 10 to 30 hours per week. That's a lot. Um increase the uh the student focus. Many schools noted improvements in student attention. uh peer interactions in social behavior. Uh reduced behavioral inc incidents they reported that the the decline a lot of cyber bullying and social uh relief. Um the consistency across schools um is a recurring theme u the districtwide and that we need to standardize the
134policies that they were very adamant about that that we need to be clear in what those policies are. Um and also the uh the uh partnering with parents. Uh we recognize that the parents and the guardians are the primary decision makers regarding their children's access to cell phones. Um so our role is to collaborate with the families to to to seek the best uh routes for uh these standards. I Yeah. Go ahead. So three themes came out uh and and this basically our our hypothesis and that we would like to move forward uh both between the students and the uh um principles educators. Um we came out with three different areas. For elementary schools not to allow uh cell phones, for middle school to have away for the day, and then for the high school
135away during class unless the teacher gives permission to utilize it within uh classrooms. So how are we uh uh bridging this uh procedure in practice? Um we intended to guide uh uh give direction clarify the direction that that is presently on the SP and then be more um uh intentional about what needs to be happening across the district. U it also aligns you know that that's going to align the procedure across all schools. Um we will see we're all seeking to close the gaps. um the excess between those schools and then also once we put the implementation um we are targeting uh next year the beginning of next year uh help the the uh the principles and the students and uh with with tools training or whatever resources they might they might uh that need
136to be procured uh to execute this effectively. So where we are right now is with uh we have some additional engagement we have to do with families. Uh first of all we want to validate where we found uh during the five school study during the surveys the student surveys validate and see where it falls you know uh with the families uh what the families intent is for this policy. um and then refine it a little bit uh better, a little more uh towards the uh middle of December where we're going to be giving a um recommendations to the superintendent for centure for the changes on the and the revision and then implementing um on um the beginning of school next year. >> Yeah. Okay, that's the end of the presentation. So, we're open for questions.
137I think one of the things that um if you go back here, I can go back here >> to the difference in the high school guidance versus middle school. That was one of the things that we clearly heard from some of the high schoolers in terms of their life ready status. They're talking a lot of them, especially the juniors and seniors, they're getting ready to go to college. So the idea of almost overp policing their cell phone use they didn't feel was appropriate as they get ready to go into college. They said they're going to have to be their own responsible digital citizens. Why they were feeling that this felt most appropriate and that it's not at this point from the students we talked to being abused but open for questions. And circling back to
138President Topp's point that we had a long conversation with students at Cleveland and they were going by the slogan um uh no sell bell to bell if I remember and that they were pretty enthusiastic about it and saw the um the benefits of it. >> Director Vice President Briggs. >> Okay. I've got a few questions. Uh should can I just say them all at once? Okay. So um uh okay I'm trying to think if there's an order that makes sense. I guess on the topic of you know consulting with students obviously we got to talk to to students and figure out include students in the process for sure. That said, as the parent of two teenagers, um they're definitely going to tell me that they want to have more access to to their phone, like,
139you know, I mean, um it's it's a fight that we constantly have. So I think my concern here is that so so with this uh high school away during the day I I feel like this does nothing to address the inconsistencies across um with even within school buildings. I mean because some teachers feel more empowered to enforce this in their classroom than others. So even from class to class even in the same high school you might have various levels of enforcement. So it essentially amounts to a a non-policy. It's just it's impossible to implement that consistently. Um so I I I don't I have concerns about that strategy. Um uh I also I also think that the kids already know how to use their phones. They know how to be digital citizens. They've learned that
140since they were babies. um they don't need to have them at school in order to be ready for college. Like I come on. Um I mean I'm like I'm thinking like I can totally picture my own kids trying to make that argument and it just doesn't fly. Um so I guess my my overarching question is um I hear that you've engaged with school leaders and teachers. I mean, uh, yeah, teachers and and students, but what research has gone into this? Like, where are the best practice, um, guidelines? What other districts have you looked at that have policies? Like, I I'm not seeing a lot of, um, evidence-based in in any of this. So, I'm just wondering where these guidelines came from and if you've looked into uh, how much research has gone into to developing
141these Let me answer that uh with as part of the uh the briefing paper that we posted as part of your package that the study is in there or where we reach also on the appendix of this document um has a comparison to neighboring schools as well and the breakdown of what it looks like across our district uh as far as methods. Um a lot of a lot of that work was done um when we engaged with the uh study with the five uh schools which it was not only just the principles and the students there were also families uh parents that they appointed to this uh study. Director Briggs, just to make sure I'm understanding your concern is at the high school level. Um, is it the teacher um uh allowing permission during class
142time or are you advocating for a similar policy to the middle school that um cell phones would be away for the entire school day at high schools? >> Yeah, I I I think that is what I'm advocating for. I mean, my kids uh who are in high school have in theory they're supposed to have their phones away during class time and I know for a fact that that doesn't happen. Um so it's not being enforced and and I do think it puts an unfair I've I've spoken to a number of teachers who are like we do not want to police these kids and they shouldn't have to. Um, so I I don't think that it works to have have kids either police themselves or ask teachers to police them. Um, that I like at that
143point, you might as well just not bother having a policy is is what I've observed in my own kids and their experience in high school. So before can I just ask do we know exactly what I you Fred or Superintendent Podest you and I went to Cleveland High School. I was very impressed with both the students excitement for putting away their phones during class and like a pouch system type thing. Can someone explain to me what exactly Cleveland's policy is? Do we know? I think it varies from class the mechanism on classroom but mostly you're using the wall pouches not not the locking pouches but um something that looks kind of like shoe rack where um the uh phones go into a set of canvas pouches. >> Sorry. Thank you, Director Misrai. >> Okay, three
144questions. Uh so first mostly focus on this the difference between the middle school and the high school policy. Um, you mentioned the teacher discretion and like educational value. Other than circumventing protections that we have like not using AI, what what are the other reasons why a teacher might want a student using their cell phone in the class? Uh, one of the things that we find out is that the instructional flexibility that they have in the classrooms for those teachers that that they're allowed to use them. Uh, they use the the the phones for research polling and um digital tool lessons, you know, within, you know, that curriculum. Also, this um the high school students um are expected like Dr. uh Taurus says to to to learn regulation skills uh for when they they hit the
145um the real world also the uh the equity and practical practicality of it um you know full bands are harder to enforce. So we're pretty much setting the stage for the uh principles uh with the guidance to to follow the methods that that we will provide in the uh uh superintendent procedure. Yeah, I appreciate you bringing that up because that was actually my second question is what is is on the enforcement piece because so my kids go to Hamilton and uh with my eighth grader, I got to see the two different policies where when she was in sixth grade, it was really more like the high school policy. It was away, but some teachers had discretion. It was not this like zero tolerance policy. And then now for seventh and eighth grade, they have the
146pouches and they have what really is a zero tolerance policy, which I can speak to because I've had to go pick up the cell phone in the office out of the safe before uh as a parent. So I know that they they strictly enforce it. And one of the things that we heard from the teachers was that it was actually much easier to enforce the zero tolerance policy where uh they felt like uh in in the sixth grade year um for the whole school, not just for the sixth graders, but in that year uh they were doing much more phone policing because it was like different teachers had different rules. Sometimes it was allowed, sometimes it wasn't. Where in this zero tolerance environment, it didn't matter what teacher you had, didn't matter where you were,
147didn't matter if you were between classes or in a class that allowed it. there was no class that allowed it. It was just had to be away. So, in your conversations, I'm mostly curious with building leaders and teachers, did you get feedback about um what would be easier to enforce? I guess >> so. So I've met with some of the leaders to discuss this and we have heard that and basically what you're saying that it is fairly easy and falls into line if and when there is this the uh buildingwide ban during the day. So some of our middle schools even if you think about Mercer Middle School, you think about Exine, they don't use pouches at all and they have an away for the day and it still works. But it's because it's an
148it's a policy they're enforcing similar to what you're saying. So I think if I'm hearing you the question becomes why the difference between the middle school and the high school and I think part of part of the work session is to receive some of the feedback. So I think that's some of the consideration we would take back for in developing the superintendent procedure around should we also in the high school do something similar knowing that in our middle schools we've seen the benefits and that it's in general what I'm hearing from the leaders is that it's been working fine with or without the pouches. >> Got it. Yeah. I mean so actually you guys are doing a great job helping me segue to my next question. Third question is on pouches. So a as you
149roll this out to more schools, I'm curious if you were conceiving doing pouches or something else. I would say very anecdotal, but uh I think the pouches are not actually used as much as they were intended. Like I don't think my kids have ever put their phone in the pouch, but but the like presence of the pouches I think is a it like helps enforce that zero policy rule. So even though in their backpack they have an empty pouch and a cell phone sitting next to it, but it has to be in the backpack because otherwise a teacher can say why the heck isn't in the pouch, right? So it's been an easy enforcement mechanism even though the pouch may not be used. So do you have any plans to roll out something to help
150enforce a policy like a pouch or something else? At this point, we do not have plans to enforce a pouch all over the district. >> And we do have evidence of some of the schools that are not using it and getting the same result from the stay away policy basically and it ends up being similar what you're saying like in the backpack etc. um and meeting with the principles, they said they've had minimal issues, but it partly is the consistency and the family engagement leading up to it around like what happens. And to your point, the family meeting happens and then the phone pickup happens and what they see is that it starts to diminish quickly because all the kids, they're middle schoolers. They talk and they're like, "Oh yeah, my parents had to come
151get my >> We do not rush to pick it up." That is true. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, We'll go we'll go around the table and we'll come we'll come back again. Director Sarju >> um I quickly wanted to respond to the self-regulate comment. Um first of all, the brain science does not support teenagers being able to self-regulate. There's just zero evidence. We have adults that can't even regulate with the cell phones. And so that can't be um that can't be something we accept. It's factually false. We can't we can't be sort of one one teacher believes that, you know, they can help students self-regulate and and another teacher locks up the cell phones. There has to be, in my opinion, a zero tolerance policy. Teenagers cannot self learn. They're not going to learn to self-regulate.
152The brain science says maybe by the time they're 27, they've reached full brain development. I mean, don't take my word for it. Look it up yourself. I And I'm not the one who's done, you know, decades upon decades of brain science research. And so my belief is zero tolerance policy. We have come to accept that we've just we've just abdicated what we know is best for kids in the name of um what do we call that? I need to leave this meeting and go get something to eat. Um >> autonomy. Autonomy. There are some things where we don't we where we we just say this is not the place or the time for autonomy. So, I'm I'm gonna be real adamant. I don't want to come back to the podium and be talking about self-regulation
153uh because it's just it's not true. It is not going to happen. It is unrealistic to think that that's an acceptable answer to why some students will get to have the cell phones and others won't. Staff Director Anken. Staff Director Anken. >> All right. Thank you. I have four things. Well, I've got four questions and then we have another thing. Um, so, uh, about data, I'm actually wondering less about I mean, I I I think, you know, it's clear that phones have an impact and that they interfere with the educational environment. I don't think we necessarily need a whole lot of more data to tell us that that's true. Um, but what I'm wondering that I don't see is what and I what what kind of incidents or behavior are happening now that we attribute
154to cell phone use that we should expect to see a decline in with the cell phones gone. I would be and I don't maybe that's not something that's really reasonable unless we have a bunch of psychology students at the University of Washington that want to do a thesis or something like that. But is can is there a way we can somehow capture things that are happening now that we want to minimize to see if they are in fact minimized as as a way of seeing is this effective because otherwise we're kind of throwing around problems and solutions and like what is the thing we're trying to accomplish and how do we know if we did or not. >> Can I reframe the question and see? Please. >> Is it some somewhere in the vein of
155around um >> incidents resulting from cyber bullying or cyber incidents that resulted in >> No, not maybe, but no, more just like >> academic achievement. >> Academ well or interrupted instructional time like if a teacher is spending a lot of time managing cell phones that could instead be spent delivering instruction and working with students. again. >> Okay, >> like I said, unless there are psychology students that want to do some kind of quantitative study where they're doing major classroom observations and, you know, tallying that's the, you know, looking for these kinds of things. I don't know if that's possible, but that's a wonder that I have in terms of I don't need more data to convince me that cell phones are disruptive to the environment. I know that they are. Mhm. >> Is there another
156way we can measure the effectiveness of a policy once implemented based on these things used to happen at this level, now they're happening at this level. >> Okay. >> That's a wonder. >> Yeah. >> Um and and because then in two years or something when or when you know when nobody uses cell phones anymore and we all have like a chip in our right eye, you know, I don't know. but just like how how can we actually evaluate our own impact? Um, so there's there's that's that's one thing and that's just again that's sort of a big wonder I know. Um, maybe somebody from the University of Washington does want to do that study. If so, we should we should partner with them and have them come in. Um, the other thing has to do
157with what Director Briggs was talking about. you know, if we don't have the consistency, it's not really happening. And I think that's part of why we're being asked to look at this is because there's an acknowledgement that there's not a consistent expectation and it is very variable. Um, what I wonder about is I mean, and again, we do not need more convincing or proof that cell phones are interrupting the educational environment. Um, but in terms of what to do about it, I think a consistent policy would really be really helpful, but the procedure really matters. And I know that's not what we would approve, but any policy that's going to rely on individual teacher judgment and capacity and tolerance for different things is not is going to totally fall flat. We need to support our
158buildings by principles being able to say this is the district's policy and teachers being able to say if this happens I do this. If this happens I do this. Let's take some of that guesswork out of like do you confiscate the phone? Do you send it to the office? Do you and maybe that's something that should happen at the principal level. That's not my place to say but I think the consistent policy is important but also the what happens if pol because teachers are holding so many different things in their minds at any given time and also expecting them to make consistent and fair and safe decisions about kids cell phones is like let's just if there's a flowchart if there's a you know I don't know um that also just leads to more easy
159and consistent enforcement. And so within a building and across the district, let's take the guesswork out of it. Um the one question I have is about accommodations. I think some some students may use there's not an interpreter, so there's a Google Translate something on their phones. We can't take that away from from kids who are using it to access education. And it's okay. It's it's kids actually do understand if if you know if they say, "Well, how come they get to use their phone and and I don't?" Well, they're using it to access education. They're using it to translate. Kids generally will be like, "Oh, fine." Um, let's not put that burden on children to have to explain why they're an exception. would just say, "Yep, in general, you don't get to use it. This
160is an act, you know, this is a tool that's being used at this time." So, how how do we make sure that we don't >> eliminate access? >> I do believe the the language towards teacher exceptions were >> for that when it was a planned part of >> something needed in the classroom was my >> understanding. And I guess a question I would just I want to get on the table for the team is we've done a significant amount of outreach to students. Has there been any advocacy at the high school level for a full ban? We we make many statements here about student voice. >> Um and I just want to get that on the table if if that's the direction that we're getting. >> But even if it's away for the day, >>
161that's away for the day. that that's that's not what we've heard from students so far. It's my understanding, but I want the team to correct that. >> Well, I but I think also to do with that with the teacher exception, it should not be up to an individual teacher whether or not a student has access to an accommodation. Yeah. >> So >> I think >> I just you know just that clarity about >> No, I hear I think the accommodation piece noted especially when you think about >> and I don't know how many students use it for that but >> no but we we also do have some students with disabilities that have things as accommodations and mult soed noted for procedure. I think what I would say is no, we have not heard that
162from the high school students, but that doesn't mean similar to what director Saru is saying and director Briggs that that we don't take a stand on it as the adults. But I think that just want to recognize that we have not heard that from the high school. I just want to be clear if if you know that and I would like to hear from the student directors as well poss if you know if that um I anyway we we've made other decisions um in the past recently that uh were counter to some student expectations and we had conversations about this and >> I if we're going down that path I just would like to hear about it. This is also not not intended to to accuse anybody of anything, but I would assume that students
163who require a phone for access to education are probably not going to engage with you about the policy. So, um you are unless you have sought out students with disabilities who use their phones as access to provide that feedback to you, they they are unlikely to have participated in student engagement. >> No, but I'm just talking about it. access to phones during passing periods and launches and which >> was a significant amount of the feedback we heard and so just if >> I don't think talking about um >> am I misunderstanding what we're >> I think Fred's if I'm I think there's a miscommunication you're talking about access special access and I think Fred's just talking about general feedback from from high schoolers not not specifically about ones who would still have access to a
164phone despite a ban. I mean, yeah. Like, you're you're not talking about the same thing, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. >> Well, then I'm not then I'm confused and I don't know. Am I being understood? >> Yes. >> Okay. Yes. Yes. >> Yes, you are being understood. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um, yeah, I guess I'm I'm not making a statement on whether I think away for the day or whatever. Just sort of >> Great. um a separate carve out that no matter what it is, it shouldn't be at teacher discretion if a student needs an accommodation and away for the day should we should all be understanding of the fact that an exception is not but what if my mom needs to call me but is I can't participate in the
165learning environment without this tool. Um, and then lastly, I'm wondering about what our expectation is or if we have one around staff use of cell phones and if they have access to a landline in their classrooms or if the expectation is that if they need a phone, they're using their own phone. And then I would also include board directors in do we want to consider adopting a set of standards for ourselves about our own device use during board meetings? just putting it out there like if we're expecting, you know, if we're saying it's a distraction, it's interfering with the collaborative environment, that that would apply to us, too. >> And I'm not asking us to answer that now. Just putting it out there, >> but I am curious about this. >> Suggesting that board behavior
166could be encoded by a superintendent procedure that >> No, but our own set of expectations for ourselves. We're going to go to director Yun. >> Well, but but I do want to actually hear about what's do we have an expectation about staff cell phone use and do staff have because we don't want to be do as I say not as I do. Right. >> We are studying that issue. >> Do they have access? Have we removed all landlines from schools or are they still there? >> We did hear again in our student outreach that they expect the same behavior from adults as as children. >> I mean I know I have I have a 13-year-old and 16-year-old. If I'm like, "Well, you're not allowed to be on your phone at dinner." And then I sit
167down and I'm on my phone, I'm definitely going to hear about it. And fairly so. >> We're still at the concept stage. I think there'll be labor considerations and other things to think about, but that's that point. >> Again, I'm not I'm not recommending or stating a preference. I'm I'm just these are questions that I think are need to be considered with this. Thank you, >> Director Yun. Thank you. I had two questions. So I think I'm misunderstanding something. I just need clarification on what away for the day means. Does that mean for high schoolers? So would that mean like phones are completely away the entire school day including lunch and passing period or is that just classroom time? >> No. In the middle schools when it's away for the day it means the entire
168day including lunch and passing times >> for middle school. >> Yeah. And I think but your question is if we say away for the day for the high school, do we mean lunch and passing times? That is what a away for the day would mean. Yes. >> Is that something you all are considering currently? >> Go ahead. >> That's not that isn't our emerging procedure that we're here to get feedback. That's why there's a distinction between middle and high school that um um what we were studying was access to phones at high schools during passing periods and at lunch. >> Thank you. And my >> day got um my other question was on one of the slides that says like why cell phone limits matter. So, in one of the bullet points, it says like
169more face-toface social interaction does kind of my I guess my overall question is like is it to for the plan to limit cell phones like what is the end goal for this? Is it to improve like student relationships? I'm just kind of confused cuz if you could just clarify that. >> I believe this aligns a little bit with what um director Ranken was asking earlier around so what what are the metrics that we're looking at like what's the why behind it? Some of this has to do with um some of the information that Mr. Delva put into the briefing paper around there is a national trend in conversation around the why and and what we're seeing is that most school districts across the country are moving to some sort of policy and procedure even some
170are going really deep into just full-on bands and so it is something that we're going to have to consider as well and so what was in the presentation and I'm trying to get us back to the slide I don't know if we can go back to it but um was that this is some of what are the benefits that are that have been noted in some of the research and conversations and different things that we're seeing nationwide. But Duly noted on if we're going to go here, like what's what's the why and what's the metric? Like what are we thinking we're going to get out of it? >> Like there is no why. Does that mean there is no like specific targeted goal for limiting cell phones? Because let's let you answer first. >> No,
171I I would say there this there is the why. The why is around the limiting distractions, the more face-toface interactions, the instru increased instructional time. The way that I'm interpreting what um director Ranken's comment was earlier was around codifying that as an actual metric and something that we're going to look at, but the goal would be that cell phones are no longer going to impact instruction in our schools and some of the social issues that have happened in the past. Yeah, I I can agree with the instructional time, but as a student, I there is a little issue with face-toface social interaction because just cuz you put cell phones away like and students um are face to face, that doesn't mean they're going to like talk with each other. A lot of times it's just
172awkward silence. So that's why I was kind of confused on what the goal was and how it plays along with each other. I mean, my teacher just calls us out when like he makes us put our phones away and we're waiting five minutes um for him to like give us instruction. We're just sitting there in silence. He's like, "Talk to each other." You know? So, >> I I think that might be part of it is that there's a whole um I I don't want to date myself, but there's a generation of us where we didn't we knew what to do with those five minutes without having to be prompted. And so I think that's part of why we're having this conversation and discussion as well. >> We know you grew up without >> just follow
173up on this point. >> Yeah. So director Misrai wants to follow up on that point and then we'll go to Vice President Briggs. I just want to follow up on one thing that director Yun was so >> so if if there were a stricter high school policy than what's here there could also be something that isn't quite as robust as as a way for the day in middle school like a during lunches and passing period but but but zero in the classroom like there could be zero tolerance in the classroom but allowable during especially think about open campuses you're not going to like be chasing kids around Wallingford right but like um but But so that cell phones during lunch, maybe during passing period, but but a zero tolerance during any classroom time, no matter
174what any individual teacher might might want. >> Yeah. It could easily be modified to away during class and just get rid of unless teacher gives permission. >> Yeah. >> Vice present breaks. >> Okay. So the problem with that is that then we're back to the onuses on the teacher and like the kids are still showing up to the classroom with their phone. So what I have read about international best practices around cell phone use is away for the day is just for everybody for all K through 12. And away for the day means it's not in their backpack. It's not in their pocket. It's not in their locker. They do not have access to the phone during the day. That's what that means. And that is what it best practices are as far as I
175understand them. I have no doubt that high schoolers will not like that. Um I know that my kids would would not like that. Um but I do think it is what is best for them and it is my job as their parent to enforce that rule because I think otherwise it is causing them harm. So when when kids have their phones in their pockets and they're not supposed to have them in class, it it creates that same it doesn't solve that that problem where um where like the only way to make it a non-issue is really to just have them not accessible during the day. And I don't even know where I heard this, but I recently heard and I actually think it's a really good idea. um kids get to school and they take
176their phone to their last period class and and then they pick it up at the end of their last period class and so it's like it's there but they don't have it until the very end of the day. So I mean I I think I think the other thing that I wanted to say too is that certainly yes engagement and gathering feedback is important but so is education and there needs to be a lot more education um for all parents, all all staff, teachers, principles, everybody needs to be on the same page about what the research shows and what best practices are because when we all are working with the same information, I think that it will become very clear to us what the right thing to do is. But when we are working with
177very different understandings of what the research shows and what best practices are, then it it will be harder for us to reach consensus on this. But I think that there's a lot of clear-cut evidence and best practices that that we don't need we don't need to invent the wheel here. In fact, like we need to catch up to the wheel that's rolling. So yeah, I I'll be done with that. >> Director Ms. Rahi. >> Part of the goal of this was to get feedback. I I would say I think we should have a stricter policy for the high school. I like the away during class scratch out the unless teacher gives permission. I think lunch with open campuses. I think lunch is probably you should be allowed to have a cell phone. Um passing periods
178it's sort of I understand the point that if you're walking in with your classroom the teacher's got to like do a lot of work there. So uh I would defer to the experts on the passing period issue but that's my feedback. >> I think I would be aligned with director miseri direct uh director Sarju. Um, I just want to put on the table that we're assuming that every student >> h can afford a cell phone. We we just leave cla we just assume we walk in here with our, you know, thousand what however much this thing costs and think, well, everybody can do that while we have students silently not able to express that they don't have a cell phone because they actually can't afford it. And so once again, we're showing our class. We're
179showing our privilege. We're showing our bias. And if we follow the science, if we follow best practices, then we don't put certain students in a position to be embarrassed or ashamed or um whatever whatever the the isms are. But we have to remember that. Yeah, I think I've said enough about that. >> Director Ranken. >> Um, seems like there's consensus around elementary school. Um, I would ask though that there should be some some kind of guidance or procedure. >> It says elementary not allowed. And I think I'm not hearing anything that >> is saying well not allowed is what it says. So, but what what is like we can't just say, "Well, they're not allowed in elementary, so we're not going to think about it." Some elementary kids will still have a phone. I didn't
180let my kids have a cell phone till they turned 13, but they were like the last of their friends to get cell phones. Um and so some guidance about is the ex like because we can't we really can't I don't think expect that if we just say to parents well they're not allowed to have them they're not going to give their kid some some people that's that's that's going to happen. Um, so is you know not allowed to use them again to prevent the principal and the teacher from being the cell phone police. Is the expectation just it stays in your backpack in your locker? What happens if it becomes a problem? It just some kind of guidance um or expectation and I think I mean this is maybe back when you know more kids
181had cell phones. I know I had a friend who was a teacher who was like, "I don't want to confiscate something that would cost me $800 if I lost it >> or like it, can I even confiscate this without getting in trouble? Is the school district responsible for it or am I?" So, the more we can take those things off the table for people, the the you know, just the clearer we can be, I think, the better. So, it sounds like there's no I don't think there's any contention around elementary school, middle school away for the day. I would love to hear more directly from um Robert Eagle staff. I know that they have had really positive experiences. Have they do they have any data about prephones, postphones, about student behavior, about student interaction? I
182do think middle school is a developmentally very very very important time that we neglect between early learning and high school and that it is probably I would guess aligned with research. It's probably better that they are able to interact and navigate conflict and just learn to be people without phones. Um and then high school I I don't like the unless teacher gives permission. I know we've already we've already talked about that. We need to be really clear about if there are times when a cell phone is allowed, when is it allowed, and why, not it's up to some adult um based on we're not sure what. And maybe that's what was intended, but I think we have to be really clear about that. I think um to Joe's point with open campuses at lunch, that's
183going to be a big issue if students are not allowed to access their phones during lunch. That seems like that's not going to work. Um so you know we shouldn't be doing any of this based on the opinion of seven people. Uh but that is my opinion. What I would like to see is that kind of combining some things that we've talked about is the why. What do we actually like if we're just looking at this as like well it's to decrease cell phone use. Okay. Why? And then why again? And then why again? And then also how do we know that it did the things we wanted it to do? And how do we all, you know, I mean, essentially it we're talking about creating safe and supportive learning environments. But if we implement
184a cell phone rule and it turns out that's not helping, what what do we do instead? Or what do we do as well? >> We may be able to rely on climate surveys and some other issues. Yeah. >> I I don't think we have baseline data that records each instant of a cell phone distraction. No. So I >> And again, unless somebody wants to do a study, it's going to be difficult. Yeah. It's that's going to be difficult to do. But I think we also have some faith in um school leaders and teachers observations >> um on how they think this uh you know affects the learning environment. So I I do think those are the right um elements of the goals and the why. It's difficult but it's not impossible certainly to you know
185attach numbers to those. Um but we we don't have a starting point. >> Yeah. And I think I mean health and well-being like adolescent I mean you know I have a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old so have been through middle school once with sixth grade being the remote year. And the engagement that kids do and learn to do online, even if it's the same people, is really, really different than in person. And often times it's not the same people. And we want kids to learn how to navigate conflict, make friends, find common interests, and also I worry about their eyesight. But I don't that maybe that's that's me being like an old lady. >> Uh, Director Manglesen. >> Hi. Um, I just kind of have two mini questions regarding um, elementary school actually. Um, not that
186I disagree um, on the no cell phones allowed, but first is just um, and I can kind of combine these, but first is just when you say not allowed, do you mean stay at home or do you mean in backpack and cubby? I know that I mean when I was in elementary school, cell phones weren't a thing that we had, but when my my younger sister was in elementary school, she did have a phone and and it was kind of just kept in her backpack and I didn't >> hear about any issues with that. >> I believe that was the intent. Otherwise, there would be no that would be away for the day if it was if the devices were allowed on campus but had to be kept away. And you know, that's a subtle
187distinction. Um I think the intent is again um folks don't have access the supervisory support and things at elementary schools are a little bit different. So I think that's part of this is it's easier to administer. They're just not allowed. But I'll um leave it to my colleagues also. >> Of course. >> Wellis that's true of every I mean we confiscate lots of things and unfortunately at elementary school that is going to be the principal. It is going to be teachers because that's who's there. Um and and there really aren't other people to do that. Uh there you know. So >> I don't know if you guys want to expand on >> need to I think something we need to take into consideration because as we were working through this that is one of the
188things we started to talk about. This is where the recommendation is at this moment. But one of the things to also recognize exactly what you said, it's we're in a different time where there are students all the way down into elementary school who do have devices. That is a parent's choice whether they want to give their child a device or not. And we've heard different reasons about why. Some of it has to do with safeties and safety and commute to schools, different things like that. So, it is something that we should probably take into consideration as we're working the the procedure. For sure. >> Um, yeah, one of the reasons I brought that up was actually I mean I know my sister and I I had friends who did this. They walked home alone starting
189in like as young as like third grade. Um my sister walked like 40 minutes just cuz she wanted to and it was really important to my parents um that she had a way to communicate with them. I know that's kind of a smaller issue but that might be something to take into consideration. Um especially for students who's you know their parents might not be able to pick them up parents who or students who take the bus you know. Um but one and also um adding on to what director Ranken said about um students who need specific accommodations. I have friends who have had type 1 diabetes since they were as young as seven. I have a mom with type 1 diabetes. I have friends with heart monitors. Um so I think that's especially important to
190consider when you get it move into not having it allowed at all in the building. Um my last thing is maybe a different conversation. Um but I had a conversation with a teacher who mentored me at um John Mir Elementary when I interned in a uh kindergarten classroom who um when talking about um cell phone restrictions, she brought up um an issue that was probably I think it was about three years ago where a student would not stop calling her mom on her smartwatch. >> Um and I think she was maybe maybe a first grader Yeah, >> we've had to respond. >> Um, so I'm just kind of curious. I mean, I know that that was a really big issue, so they had to like send out emails and um figure stuff out for that.
191Um, but I was wondering if smartwatches or other devices are included in the procedures you're talking about. It it is part of the conversation we've been having as well for the exact point because if if you don't have the device on you but you have it on your watch is it really away and so it has been part of the conversation that we've been engaging in over when we come to like finally saying this is going to be the procedure what are we doing about smart watches and other technology as well >> director Yun >> um >> I have a lot of questions but um so I also agree with what director rank and said we need to be clear on what we mean by unless a teacher says so cuz that could mean instructional
192time like oh you need your phone for like to scan a QR code take a survey but it could also mean um I don't have any more like you guys finish your work you could just go on your phone for free time or something then that could that directly goes against what you all are trying to promote which is the face toface social interaction my other question is for the timeline or next step slide so it says like additional engagement what other um engagement are you doing with students directly other than talking with ASBs um that are established groups and reaching out to students that may not know that this is even happening. Um and also adding on to what director Manglesen said about just technologies in general. What is the current policy and also
193are we going to incorporate policies around personal laptops because I know that has also been a concern and people can get distracted with personal laptops. non SPS district issued like Apple, HP, like whatever. Yeah. Um >> I I think it would apply to all um personal devices, laptops, tablets or another source that act pretty much like a cell phone. Um so that's the intent. And with regard to the I think I introduced um this confusion about unless a teacher gives permission in my um clumsy interaction with director Rankin. I the I believe the intent of that was gives permission for a specific educational purpose. Not saying oh uh you know if you guys want to use your cell phone that's fine. If it was part of a lesson uh you're right an accommodation shouldn't be
194in that category. But that was the point I meant to raise is if that's as a result of a teacher instruction I think was intended because as part of this lesson we want people to look at a QR code or we want you know uh access to a device that also uh implicates director Sarju's point well what if people don't have them but um anyway that that I believe was the intent there it wasn't just a one teacher chooses to have a different policy it's they have a reason and We believe we heard from educators that there are sometimes they use um devices in as part of a lesson. >> Can we be sure that you made a note of uh director Josephine's comment? My daughter who was here tonight has type 1 diabetes. >>
195She does not get have a choice about whether she walks around with her phone. It's connected to the thing in her arm. My oldest does too. It's wild. I have two kids with type one. But those are the kinds of things that I believe adults can figure out. And if the adults can't figure it out, we have a real problem. Um, but thank you for bringing that up. >> And then I think um, director Yun had a question about the further um, engagement we have planned. >> It's planning process. My understanding is also we do need to talk um a bit more to parents. Uh because I at this point I believe we have more anecdotes than structured engagement that um just like uh you raised the point of an elementary school student might the
196parent might want them to have a device for their trip home. We've heard some from parents that well no we need our student to have access to their phone. it with some set of parameters and I don't think we have that I that's not a group I think we've engaged with yet is you know how do parents feel about their students not having or do they have any parameters for us >> okay one more quick thing Director Ranken >> thank you um >> oh hang on just a second real fast I just want to make a quick note that we do have Director Miseri online so we continue to have a quorum >> great oh Yeah. Um, uh, with the engagement question, I think if we say, "What do you think about cell phones?" You're
197going to get a whole bunch of stuff that's going to be all over the map and may or may not be actionable. But if it is, this is the recommendation that OSPI has made. How should we implement this in SPS? I think you will get more tangible, valuable feedback because we're not really asking whether or not we should have a policy. We're going to have a policy. What we're asking is what's the best way to implement it in SPS. And so just kind of >> great start from we're looking at this. Here are these recommendations. Here's what we know based on, you know, these middle schools or whatever. Here are the things we're considering. what are your feedback on these things? Not what's your idea about cell phones in society in general. And that may
198address to the the OSPI is the recommendation from Superintendent Reagdoll is to develop policies restricting cell phone use during instructional time. Lunch can be instructional time. Before and after school is not instructional time. So that we do have to think about a little bit if students can't bring them to school at all that you're limiting access to that before and after time. But in terms of you know what do adults what do parents think about it? I think if we stay more focused on instructional time, um I think we can probably get a little more clear rather than just like what's your position on >> children and cell phones in the world, which is anyway, >> can I just tag on really quick to that which is just that like I want to underscore what
199you said earlier, Liza, about this should not be about our opinions. None of us are experts in this. Um, same goes for the larger community. People might have opinions about it, but that's not the same as informed knowledge. And so I think we do need to think about engagement being more of here. This is what we are. This is our plan for SPS based on this evidence and this research and this is what we're doing and why. And and people do need to understand why. But I totally agree that it's like it's a it's a total Sorry, I was trying trying to censor myself using Yeah. not using a bad word. Um, not a great idea to to solicit all kinds of opinions. There's no nothing good that can come of that, especially because there
200is there are actual like best practices around this and we just need to rely on those and find a way to implement them. >> I appreciate this conversation. And I appreciate you coming with to us with where we are headed and sort of the next steps with the additional engagement the procedure revision here in the winter of 26 and then and then the sort of roll out and and support of schools in 2627. So thank you for listening to our opinions as our as community representatives of what we uh are hearing and seeing. And with that, we'll move to our next work session, which is on artificial intelligence and data privacy. >> And I'm going to send it back to you, Superintendent Podesta. >> Thank you. We're going to be joined uh by assistant superintendent
201of academics u Mike Stroski, Dr. Mikei, who has um been working along with Mr. Dova and a team uh interdisciplinary team within the district who I really want to thank doing research on um uh the implications that artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies have both on instruction have um on and uh Mr. has been working on those impacts of some of those technologies and other um technology advancements on business systems and other things that we do. Um so I'll turn it over to the team to describe their work and um what we've learned so far. This is um I thought the cell phone policy would be the easy discussion. So this is you know a much more um uh fastm moving um field right now and um there there are many many implications and like
202many institutions we are on a treadmill trying to keep up. >> Uh good evening u uh board directors uh Mike Stroski assistant superintendent of academics. I'm representing um multiple people in academics and digital learning and technology um who have uh over time tried to come up with a thoughtful um uh policy uh response uh some handbooks some guidance for uh a very uh fastm moving uh uh issue and that is artificial intelligence. And so, as director Briggs uh had said about cell phones, the the the the wheels or the the not reinventing the wheel, but it's already spinning. We acknowledge that uh policy and um uh lags behind what is actually happening out there for our students and for our teachers. So this presentation is to talk about what our current state is, what we've
203been doing uh in response to AI in service first and foremost of student learning um and how it has um the opportunity to do some really positive things for students and also it has some real limitations in its use. And also we want our students and our educators to do so when they're engaging in AI in thoughtful proactive uh ways knowing its limitations and then also for us to be able to uh be responsive to how things are changing. Um, and so what you'll see uh on the next slide is um I just like to kind of center what we're talking about and we're centering our students. And so if you think of a a a student that I met recently um in high school and she's a sophomore and she is um at one
204of our area high schools and she's bright, she's curious and like so many of our students, she's got competing issues for her time. One is uh she has her after school activities in addition to her coursework. She takes care of her younger brother uh after school. And one night she's uh stuck uh on something that she can't quite figure out about her chemistry homework. And so it's confusing her. She doesn't have access to her teacher uh and and they're not available at this time of night. And so she opens up her district one-on-one computer that we provide in Seattle public schools and she uh interacts with an uh AI technology. And she asks a question and she says, "I don't know uh uh about coalent bonds. Explain it to me as a 15year-old." And she
205gets something and she reads it. She thinks about it and she asks another question and she gets another answer. And as she's doing so, she's questioning the accuracy. She's questioning uh does she understand it? What else is she curious about? All in an effort to deepen her understanding. And then when she comes to class the next day, she participates with confidence ideally. But in order to do so, that's the story ideally want to be able to tell about how AI could be helping our students their independence, being critical thinkers, uh consumers of technology, um but also do in a way that we can help guide and control as best as we can as a system. So we know that ideally it's not dependence on AI. It's shouldn't be about shortcuts. Uh but it should be
206about empowerment, equity, and doing so in a safe and meaningful way for our students. So do you have the Thank you. Um so we have a theory of action that's guiding us and it's based on and when I say us I'm specifically speaking to our um technology steering committee and our technology steering committee uh is made up of 19 members uh eight uh SPS employees, eight community members and three students. And what they were using is this uh ideally a theory of action that's based on OSPI guidance um that if Seattle public schools provides AI literacy training to and lessons for uh our educators to empower them and to teach students about artificial intelligence, its capabilities, its limitations, its ethical implications and safe use. And if all staff and students are given access to safe,
207instructionally valuable AI tools with supportive, well ststructured learning environments, then what's going to happen for our educators? Then educators will be able to integrate AI meaningfully into instruction and students students will develop the skills and understanding needed to use AI responsively uh creatively and critically to support their learning and their future success. It's a tool. It's not the end all be all. Therefore, Seattle public schools will foster a community where where AI enhances teaching and learning and promotes equity, access to emergency emerging technologies and ensures students experience safe, purposeful, and future ready digital learning. So, for us, when we're thinking about what we're saying about AI, next slide, please. I'll just kick you. All right. Um so uh not to conflate uh uh what we're talking about but when I'm saying uh artificial intelligence one
208way to think about it is realizing it it's it's not magic. It's a pattern and recognition. It's similar to sim uh systems that uh Amazon or Netflix use to make a prediction about what you might like or make a recommended recommendation of a show. What you see there is on the the left side um it supports uh personal recommendations, detecting patterns, but there's also generative AI and generative AI is what I'm talking about tonight um uh specifically for our students. So it creates new content uh text, images, uh code from learned patterns. It's it's it's getting all this large data and it's making trying to make some sense or make some predictions uh about learn patterns. So it goes beyond prediction and it supports creativity and personalization possibly possibly. So examples for us would be
209chat GBT co-pilot and Gemini. So for us moving forward, what we wanted, we knew that we had to um come up with some guard rails u and not to use the guardrails that the board is thinking about and uses, but give some parameters for our educators first and foremost about how they should be or could be using this with our our students. Because what we do know is that if our teachers are not comfortable or aware of a tool, uh it's going to impact what they give access to their students. and how they use it with their students. So, we always want to center humans in this policy and our procedures and um how we think about AI. It humans are at the center of it and our humans that we're specifically talking about this
210evening are our students and by proxy are our teachers. So, we start with student learning uh student uh or excuse me, uh human- centered. And what you see up there is just a cycle of improvement that the steering committee is using to inform itself about how they assess information that's coming in because with AI specifically, it's changing on a weekly basis, if not daily basis, or hourly basis. And so, our team needs to be nimble and responsive to how things are changing. And so that's assessing um that's investing uh in time in people uh about how we're providing professional development to our educators in service of our students. And then also we need to refine and respond to things that are changing. And I'll give an example uh of that uh a little bit later
211here. Gotcha. So, um, if you're out in the public, uh, and you're listening, uh, we would like to direct you to where you can find, uh, a number of our tools that our steering committee has, uh, created. Uh, specifically, they're based on super uh, intended procedure uh, 2022 uh, which empowers educators to guide classroom AI use. Um we also as a result uh have created this uh website that uh is specifically designed for AI uh artificial intelligence our commitment in education and it gives all the resources that we're uh providing to our students uh their families and to the public and then also we have specific uh tools that we're providing to our educators. So through policy 2022 uh specifically we added an AI section in the last year uh because we didn't have one
212when it was written. Um and also um our data privacy which Carlos will be talking about a little bit later. Our steering committee comm community knew that guidelines need to be grounded in uh schoolboard documentation which included these uh changes. uh they include a link to our h our handbook which is there in the the green um to be able to give schools practical guidance uh with the steering committee could easily update um and it's also uh what you'll see next slide please is that some of the tools that we have landed on in in training is starting with our teachers is making sure that they are number one that we're raising their awareness about how it's being used, how your students are are many ways are already interacting it with it. Um, so we
213have an intro to AI uh synchronous and asynchronous course for our educators. We're also uh le leveraging generative AI for our educators by listening to them about how they're currently using it uh with a a pilot that we uh launched last year and also you can see our our website that has these materials um embedded in there. So our piloted tools that we use in Seattle public schools um are co-pilot for our educators and then magic school for our educators is the AI tool and also magic student is uh for our students which um I will talk about uh in some detail here in just a minute. So what we know is that for AI specifically it has to be developmentally appropriate and for us um in the steering committee's recommendation was that AI tools
214if they are going to be opted into and are approved happen at the teacher level and are teacher approved but they have to and are directed to use uh co-pilot uh as educators and magic school and then magic student is for students and which are essenti rooms that a teacher uh uh creates and opens up for their students and is not just open up uh like chat GPT that's just open um for everyone to get in there. It's specifically uh disciplined in what we're providing to our our students access to. So last year as a result of the emerging uh policy in the handbook, what we wanted to do and knew that we needed to do was to get some feedback from schools, from our educators, from our principles, assistant principles, our teachers, and most
215importantly our students. And so last year there was a cohort of seven schools uh across SPS that accounted for 36% of all of our students uh grades 6 through 12 uh who engaged both teachers and administrators about AI exploration. Um and so we used uh pilot guidelines, AI literacy lessons and classroom practices. Uh they provided us feedback to shape our district-wide resources. And the schools that were uh engaged were Ballard High School, Cleveland High School, Franklin High School, Madison Middle School, Seattle World School, West Seattle High School, and Whitman Middle School. So, as a result of listening to the people that were uh interacting with these tools, um there was some recommended um tools that helped us land on Magic School uh for our educators and magic student for our students, which Carlos will be
216able to talk to specifically about issues around student privacy. our AI tools are approved um for our students, but also for elementary students, we don't uh allow uh magic school uh student or magic student um access. And so for us as a district, there's a number of things that we use where we set classroom expectations that should be happening at the school level or the classroom level, but we want to be able to give our educators guidance about uh what they have access to. So, uh, we have a a group of students from West Seattle High School that I would like, uh, you to hear from, uh, this evening that were a part of the pilot. And they have various, um, uh, ways that they interact with AI. And, uh, let's listen to what our
217students uh, have to say and then um, uh, we'll move on from here. So, these are our students who are in our pilot from West Seattle High School. Santa recently sat down with a group of high school students and asked them to tell us about their experiences with artificial intelligence, how they use it for their daily scholastic life. >> I've actually had assignments that we needed to use AI for our >> unfortunately not. public school recently sat down with a group of high school students and ask them to tell us about their experiences with artificial intelligence, how they use it in their daily scope. >> Go ahead, Carlos. No, >> I think this is important and I uh well it is in the materials and people can uh check it out but I will >>
218it's a hardware problem. >> All right, moving on. >> Technology. This has nothing to do with AI though. Okay. Um but here let me uh let me uh summarize what our students said. So um when you go back and watch the video, and I really encourage everyone to please go and watch the video because it centers our students voices. You'll have Sophie who talks about that she uses it for factchecking um and um she knows that using it um for a AI you okay? >> No. Yes. >> Okay. Um I was getting distracted. >> No, that that's okay. Um that she used it for factchecking. Uh Anhal who uses it for inspiration. Um Reese who uses AI as a study partner. Um and Ree talks specifically about um maxing out uh their ability to uh
219do things with others and using it as a as a study partner. uh but basically asking different questions to to improve their thinking and their knowledge. Jack is using it um and what Jack says about it specifically is he's concerned about the environmental impacts of AI um which we all understand and are are beginning to understand but also it's a very real uh thing that he brings up that many of the students uh had agreed with and some who hadn't thought about the environmental impacts that AI could be having. But even Jack who says uh he's concerned about the uh environmental impacts describes how he does interact with it, how he comes into that intersection of using AI as a high school student. Another student talks about needing more resources uh than her classroom can
220offer uh offer them. Uh and these these stories reveal a hard truth is that um there can be a digital divide that uh we could be uh uh creating or maintaining and and one that we want to do just the opposite. We don't want the digital divide to become even bigger. And we know for our students right now it's AI is the topic but we know that having access being a critical thinker knowing about the cognitive load uh that we want our our students to be able to have again what you haven't heard me say up until this moment is about it being used for uh cheating or fast uh fast fasttracking because the issues that our students were talking about were uh very quickly went past that to about how they're interacting and how
221they're utilizing it to benefit themselves um about what they're learning, about what they're curious about. and then also to expand their thinking. But we want them to be able to do so in a uh safe way as much as we can possibly provide as a system, but also knowing that our educators are going to need some uh tools that help them navigate this alongside with their students. So, please watch the video if you can. Uh so what this resulted in or what this is resulting in is the steering committee uh by listening to our educators and our students realizing that there was a need to create some lessons for students K12 um about um uh literacy uh AI literacy specifically. And so last March we had an AI literacy day and that we provided uh
222lessons for students and educators K12 and specifically uh you can see uh what you're looking up there is the the topics that were bigger buckets number one starting with what is AI how is AI trained what are AI chat bots um AI bias algorithms facial recognition in AI in ethics, AI in society, AI in plagiarism. I mean like huge topics. But the one that uh was not leading was the AI and plagiarism because what we want our our students to be able to think about is what are the opportunities, what are the benefits, what are the the risks um but also what is the again I'm talking about the cognitive load about the thinking that it takes uh when interacting with these tools and when they're appropriate and then also the ethics behind these. So,
223um, for us, we know that, uh, we're going to continue and there's was a request for us to post these lessons, uh, online and our my team's commitment is to make sure that we get those posted up onto our website. So, uh, people can see the the subject matter uh, for our students and our educators. So um how to look at this slide is uh specifically is just talk finally about the tools students have only access to tools that teachers intentionally open up for them. Um and those are the things that uh teachers formally do. We know that things that students have access to and you were talking about cell phones for a good long while. Um, but just uh technology in general, students have a lot of access to things. Uh, but during the
224school day, during our school time, during our district adopted tools, which are include our computers, um, that we want to make sure that our teachers have access to tools uh, starting and that's why you see the the magic school AI. And so you'll see that what's the generative AI tool, who's the audience, and then what's the purpose? And so for our teachers, it's magic school AI uh is the AI tool. And then also they have access to Microsoft C-Pilot. And so you can see some of the ideas that uh teachers could possibly be doing with drafting content, lesson plans, ideas, uh streamlining tasks, what it's not doing and what we don't require. um and and are not interested in is that uh our educators are using AI tools to grade students uh say for their
225their writing for example. Uh what we should be doing is uh showing our educators um how they can use rubrics generated to standards to the lesson um and being able to show those to our students about how they can check their own writing uh against those those tools. Um so uh for our students uh in 6th through 12th grade they have magic student AI and so those are the again those uh custom classrooms that are guiding our students um in a structured way. Um and then also that our educators our teachers have access to what's happening in those class those uh those rooms. Uh so that in supports students learning and uh for their writing assistance, study aids, personalized feedback um to build skills and confidence. Also within those tools uh in magic student AI
226they have Adobe Express which is for teachers and students that creates uh uh engaging graphics and um uh and presentations such as something like this but not this wasn't generated by AI. Um, next slide please. So, um, finally, uh, what I think is important for our our public to know and for our board members to know is that, you know, AI is embedded in in a lot of spaces and places in our structures. Uh, you can see it again uh, in schooly, Seesaw, Canva, Clever. uh clever is uh the way that our students access the magic student AI. Uh but there's no uh chat bots that we're allowing the there's some access uh to that um for um uh schooly but those are turned off. We don't allow those that access. Um, but also for
227us moving forward, I just kind of want to sum it up in a very uh clear way is we know we don't have it all figured out. We know we need to listen to our educators and our students to get this uh better and our public better and do it in a in a a careful skilled way. But also, we know we had to put something out that we think we gives us uh some clear guidance that's uh uh rooted in superintendent procedure um and also OSPI guidance. And also when I think about um the student that I was talking about at the the very beginning here, um she didn't become a better learner uh because of the machine um or because of AI. she became a better learner because she had a knowledgeable teacher
228ideally who knows how to help our students navigate AI. uh that they have a safe tool, that they have clear guidance, um and that they're using these skills in a reasonable way, and that AI is not replacing her thinking. That AI is hopefully as a a potential tool, not the tool, a potential tool to unlock her thinking. Um, so it's it's it's not hype, it's it's not fear, but it it should be about human- centered empowerment. And our responsibility first and foremost is to our students. And our work around this um is to be listening. And so we're here to listen. We're here to improve. Um but also knowing that um AI is here. It's been here. we're late to the the party of how we're responding to it. We know that there's many issues
229that impact our students first and foremost and our educators and that we want to build our students skills, their literacy uh in technology and then also make sure that our students have equitable access and that we're not creating bigger gaps as a result of this. So, um, right now we'll we'll move into, um, the student privacy, uh, uh, piece and then we'll, uh, uh, take questions or comments. >> Do we do we >> can? Yes, we thought for uh, time, but also make sure that Carlos, I think, will probably answer some of the questions that you might have. Um, but we will definitely ask be around for questions. Good evening again. Um let me talk a little bit about the uh data privacy in protecting the students uh digital resources. Um first of all let
230me uh thank Dots because they are the ones behind the work that keeps our students daily uh ensuring that our environments are safe for the kids. So we have our foundations uh the district policies and the same district 20 20 uh 2022 and uh 601 uh 6501 um and the superintendent procedures the just to make sure just an understanding technology like Mike mentioned earlier it changes daily by hour literally uh so these are the documents they're living documents that that we seek to update as as new technology becomes available and new challenges basically. Um we do have federal and state um compliance protection laws fair copa um and that's that drives us where we have to go um as far as what controls we put for uh safety. As far as the um the student
231device safety and cyber hygiene um we have worked very hard uh to do annual cyber security audits. Um we have an environment with the uh student email is uh welded uh garden uh for privacy. They cannot email uh folks outside the district only teachers. Um and also the uh the well filtering um the blocks uh on safe sites. I mentioned earlier we have block chat GPT and JNI because we don't believe that that's uh appropriate for the kids to be accessing and there's thousands and thousands of more sites that we um secure uh through their firewalls. Now again it's a it's a wackamo game because every day there's a new uh uh vulnerability that comes out. um to live uh against our networks. So we have to keep up with that. Uh we have a
232cyber security awareness uh training for staff and educators and then also an incident in response plans which I'll talk to here a little bit longer. Uh we have developed over the years what are the priorities for the districts uh and how do we reconstitute in case of any incidents. Um also cyber hygiene uh this happens you know we we just did this this year we increase to the 12 character password for students um and then we do also regular account reviews and web monitoring in real time for credentials uh to ensure that that nobody um that doesn't have the the access to our network uh you know will access it. Uh also the uh the laptop uh drive encryption and malware protection. uh all of our data through the uh uh and the laptops uh
233and our data centers uh they all encrypted um for communications and then also the restricted applications installs uh they cannot install any software and our devices unless it's requested uh through our software uh intake process which we review if there's ADA concerns or cyber concerns Um we have state requirements or federal requirements that has to be analyzed on that and whatever that piece of software uh the the one to be installed. Um and the uh software um management process is the one that cuts and understands which software we can put in the network and which one not. As far as the uh vendor risk management and data classification uh when we seek for a software uh we do a um request for a proposal from vendors uh and also it goes through a the software
234intake process which I just mentioned uh which analyzes the security controls of whatever that software is being uh put in the network. um data sharing agreements uh prohibit unauthorized use uh um and the specified destruction timelines. We we make sure that we run uh uh agreements, DSAs, um and all of those goes through legal review of the contractual obligations uh that we have uh with whatever company we go with u that we select through the RFP process. Now, as far as the data uh classification and retention, uh we do have a set of rules. It tells us how how long to keep the data on the uh data center. Um and also we categorize it by by uh sensitivity meaning that there's a roles uh of authority of who can access the data and at
235what time. Um the retration schedules Har mentioned is is how do we just delete the data that is no longer needed. uh and there's some rules also on the state uh on how long we we can retain it. Har mentioned earlier we have a incident response and uh continuous monitoring. Uh the incident response uh we've been working for the past three years on putting together a document plan that allows all the roles the actions and priorities uh for the efficient recovery in case the the knocking wood nefarious acts come in. uh but uh we have a pretty good architecture I'll say uh against uh nefarious acts. So uh we do this just in the case of um someone coming in uh we we'll we'll pull the plan and we're ready to execute the plan. uh
236we've already defined the roles and actions and how the priorities um on what systems to bring whether they're business systems or academic systems. Uh there's a priority list that we have worked uh with the team um to ensure that that we continue operations. Uh as far as continuous monitoring, uh we do monthly vulnerability scans and annual penetration uh tests. Uh we had a couple of of these uh uh uh scans and penetration tests last year and we being we actually we were very happy of the results because um there were only like four recommendations. They they were actually uh very happy to see all the controls that we have in place as far as cyber security. Um we do the on uh ongoing monitoring for security compliance and and unusual activity. How I say data
237is our number one priority for safety. Um and you have to have the authority to access whatever data you are um uh entitled to to see. Uh and then early detection uh and containment of threats. The way we have the network parse out and this is just computer talk logically. Um we have it parse out the network in such a way that if someone's trying to hack does uh it gets contained right away and then we can clean that area instead of spreading throughout the whole network. And then uh business continuity how say we we do um we have the plan but also daily we have uh backups of the data the data is recoverable within 24 hours. Uh we have offsite uh uh hosting of these data uh that we have and and and
238we take the tapes and we move them uh and offsite just in case. Um regular uh recovery of testing and critical systems. We do that. Um and then we have three regional data centers uh for distributed available services, digital services across one goes down, the rest of the the two other data centers pick up. Uh they're all replicating at the same time. Um good news, we are in the final stages of uh uh bringing to operations. The third one uh which is Reineer Beach uh which the building just got finished but we have a little bit of more work for the data center and then uh the compliance you know we have this security controls that that we have to adhere from FERPA hip uh uh NITS which is cyber security stuff uh Koopa SPA
239you you name it that we we have a lot of controls that we have to uh ensure they're in place when we are selecting software or just running the software um and then services um secure behind the firewalls uh with a monthly patching uh that's just regular maintenance that we have. We have pretty good relationships with the uh major systems uh engineers that that that we uh provide for the for the uh for the district. These engineers are constantly sending if uh there's a vulnerability that comes out tonight uh by tomorrow morning we have already the uh either the patch or uh or or some steps of what to to do. Um and also the uh regular internal audits how I mentioned earlier it keep us uh uh adhering to controls and ensures that that
240everything is working the way it's supposed to. And that's that for privacy. >> Director Mangles. >> Um, okay. So, I kind of have one larger question and then one question slash comment. Um, my first, it's kind of a big question. Um, but it says at the beginning of the AI presentation, um, that it the generative AI supports creativity. And I'm curious how creativity is defined in this situation because how is I feel like a lot of the time like the principle of most of the assignments that students are I'm talking specifically in the case of students using generative AI um the principle of the assignment is to be creative. It is to create your own ideas. it's to learn how to create your own ideas and thoughts and I mean especially in the case of
241um writing an essay or art specifically. Um so that's kind of my big question is just in what ways specifically are you seeing this generative AI support creativity? So I I think that was used as as a general term uh not meaning that um we're taking out human creativity but it's uh for people to be able to be curious about anything. So how people read a book uh listen to music get inspired by something. Uh creativity happens in all kinds of ways. It could happen through AI could happen through uh digital tools. It could happen through a conversation. Um, but creativity uh has a lot of uh opportunities for inspiration. This is just a a potential uh way you could use AI is for creativity as a tool. >> Um, one more comment on that
242part of my question. Um, I know that for myself and in my own classes, um, especially in my art class, um, we are not allowed to use AI in any, um, sort of way, which I I think is a good thing in this situation. Um, as specifically for art and for English in what I said, you know, it's like that is the point is to be creative. I think that in these cases, AI takes a lot of that away. It takes away the creative thinking aspect of um just what you're working on creating, I guess. Um but I do have another question. Um, so in regards to the the video that wasn't able to be played, um, having I I go to West Seattle High School. Um, and so I'm I'm I would like to
243watch the video at some point, see who's talking about this. Um, I know you you mentioned how um mo the students kind of pushed past the part of discussing um cheating and using it nefariously. But I I mean as a student at West Seattle IO High School who likely knows some of these students who are talking about that and disregarding that aspect, I know for a fact that the main use of AI at my school so far has been cheating and using it for uh creating essays or um cheating on tests. We had a a really interesting incident last year in my um AP world history class where um a student emailed my teacher telling him about the sheer amount of students who were pulling out their phones during our tests to scan their questions
244and get answers to it. Um, and so I think in this I mean I I obviously I would hope you understand that I think that student voice is incredibly important in every way, but I think this is probably a situation where we need to prioritize the voices of teachers who are seeing the use this use of AI that's very very prevalent and very visible from my perspective. Yeah. Um, >> so, um, I think this brings up a number of issues. One is I'm not trying to minimize that, uh, cheating doesn't occur, uh, and it's not a reality of how some students use it. What I was making reference to was that this your classmates at West Seattle High School said, "Yes, that's an issue, but here's the issue that I'm concerned about. Here's the issue
245that's important to me." um uh and they did u mention that they didn't fly over uh that at all. So if I gave that impression that's not what I intended. Um the other thing I think is uh important of of what you're mentioning is that your teacher uh or your teachers um have the ability uh to be able to restrict your your um your access or your use of it and and not give you permission to use it uh intentionally. And so uh a teacher can recommend that you can use it. Um they can permit it to be used or they can say uh no it cannot be used. Um but also I think for us is trying to create the dialogue between educators and students about how it can be used. One more thing,
246um, kind of adding on to what you just said about, you know, teachers being able to, um, make decisions regarding, um, how AI is used in their classroom. Um, I feel like this is another situation where more responsibility is placed on teachers, kind of similar to how cell phones are regulated. And I don't think it's fair to expect teachers to bear the responsibility of decide regulating and deciding how this tool is used on a daily basis in during their thing. I don't think that's necessarily the most important issue. I just think that's maybe a smaller a smaller thing to consider. >> Director Yun We're just going to go around the table. >> My first comment is I just went to search up what creativity is to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. It's to produce
247an original idea and AI is utilizing patterns from the internet like books, I mean Wikipedia. I don't really know how that would be an original idea. So that's just my comment. My question is this kind of goes with what uh director Manglesen said of misusage of AI. Are there going to be policies around the misusage of AI including you know having the um chachi for example generating your essay? Um because from this presentation it seems that a we're trying to promote the integration of AI into education. And I mean, in some ways there's probably pros of it, but there I think we really need to lean on to the cons cuz as director Manglesson said, this this is really a topic we need to speak with teachers cuz we all know that AI is replacing
248a lot of jobs in the workforce. And I also think in the front page where it says um we need to have AI literacy training and lessons, we should definitely add about how it's affecting the workforce cuz this could go against um some of the programs we have that are um promoting I don't know non-traditional pathways or traditional pathways that AI um is replacing and students need to be aware of that because they might have their jobs taken away. And my other question is what so you said we don't need to reinvent the wheel. What kind of research have you all done to base off a model I guess? Cuz I'm assuming when you say you're not reinventing the wheel, you're basing it off some kind of model from another district or um state. So
249um specifically about teaching um I just think um for us we're not looking to supplant uh teachers at all. Teachers need to be the center of the human interaction between a teacher and a student. We're not interested in that at all. What we're interested in is making sure that teachers have access to tools. Now if a teacher is used to uh teaching a um particular unit in a a very traditional way for the last 15 years uh AI is going to change that impacted in some way for the very reasons that you're talking about pulling out your phone and being able to uh find ways uh to uh cheat or or take a a shortcut. you know, just being clear also that, you know, cheating didn't all of a sudden just happen when uh a
250chat or AI came about. It's uh it's some human nature. Uh and there's reasons for it and um but specifically about how it can enhance teaching. We need we are listening to the educators. We know we uh need to uh hear more from them about what it is that they're you uh how they're using it, what they're concerned about. um for some of the issues that you raised. >> Let me Hello. Let me add to the data privacy of that. We're not utilizing LMS from Manor School or something outside the uh the network. Uh this the tools that we have selected keeps the data within our uh uh management. Uh so LMS's we're utilizing the the base LM within the system um locally. >> Just a follow-up question. Does that mean there is like no
251research on seeing what other districts are doing about AI or so is it just like within our district tools kind of issue? >> Yeah. So the steering committee um has and it's on our our website. We have some of our researched uh based materials are on the AI website. Um but also it's so new we're sharing with other districts about what we're doing and we're trying to learn from what they're doing like the Peninsula School District um about what they're using um uh for their guidance in AI. Uh so we're uh definitely listening to what other districts are doing and also we're listening to um our community members who are on that steering committee about some of the things that they're seeing in the professional sector that we should be aware of or concerned about
252or learning from. Director Ranken, >> I probably have two hours worth of things to say, but I'm not going to >> because we have 17 minutes and something else on the agenda. >> Uh uh oh my gosh. Okay. >> I think that all together what I feel like is missing here is the why. Um, there's a whole bunch of what, but I I don't see I think I'm seeing a need for and not seeing reflected here a difference between AI as a tool for adults to streamline to maybe cut out some busy work to use in ways that like I use AI. I tend to be really wordy in my writing. I know you're all very surprised to hear that. and um and I have some learning disabilities and it saves me a lot of
253time to be able to like word dump and be like can you restate this at a eighth grade level or can you eliminate eliminate the redundancies or help help me make this help me say the same thing in half the words and then you know I read it again myself and make more edits but like that's an example I feel like of like I'm using that as as like an efficiency tool so I can think have a lot of different ways that educators might benefit from using AI to create some efficiencies. That's a totally totally totally different thing than using it in the classroom for instruction. It's also a totally different thing than students using it to express themselves. And so in the theory of action, I don't I don't I don't see those those
254separations. And so this like I mean it's a lot of information for any time of the day, but especially at the last time like this was just like oh my god there's so many there's so many different things here but the the thing that's missing is what are we doing this for? And well it's out there and it's here is not a very compelling reason to me. Um, and so when I think about our goals and guardrails, how is using AI helping us make progress on our goals? How how will a policy on AI help us make our progress on our goals? How will a policy and procedures on AI honor our guard rails? like I want to know that from the big picture and then I think we're putting I mean then so that
255AI is new is fun and exciting and interesting for adults and for students and maybe there's a space for like let's just see what this can do this is kind of cool but what I don't see are the boundaries between like supporting educators and here's a tool that you can use to streamline here's a tool that you can use to improve education. And then here's also education actually about this tool there. There's all kind of these different uses and and I'm having a hard time seeing where they where all the pieces are, which I think is going to make any kind of implementation confusing. Um, I feel like because it's new, adults don't know enough about how to use it to be able to be the the go-to source for students for how to best
256use it. So, how can we support educators in again the different buckets using it for their own professional practice versus using it in the classroom? um as an artist are we teaching about um copyright and intellectual property law how much of something is proprietary and how much I there are certain percentages of change that you can make to an image where it's no where it's it can be >> a reference to the image as opposed to you know where you can call it your own work but there's there's very clear legal thresholds about how much change has to be made so like are be talking about that with students about the difference also between plagiarism, inspiration, reference. I mean, I had when I taught set design, I had to do a lot with students first
257teaching them to think about how to do v visual research when they're used to doing like writing papers where you're going to you're going to look in books at images that belong to other people for a way to build a vocabulary to say to the director, this is sort of what I'm seeing. as you start to also do your own sketches because you don't want to get to the you don't want to fully design a show and then have the be the director say well that's not what I was thinking so you do do a lot of pulling from other things and I had to teach the students about the difference they were like well isn't that plagiarism so well you're not going to take that image and pass it off as your own but
258we reference old work and each other's work and thoughts all the time that's not that's not a problem that's we live in that's kind of a cool thing about being a Um but so h where is that teaching coming in in terms of intellectual property and copyright. Um and then uh I'm really alarmed that somebody's using it for factchecking because at some point AI is just repeating what AI has been provided that may or may not be true. So that's also again with media literacy >> about like that's like whoa don't do that. Um the environmental impact is big. I don't know if students real and I don't know why the AI has come to the forefront. Streaming on Tik Tok uses a ton of water as well. Anything that goes through these big um
259data centers is going to use a ton of energy which I think is something we should talk about and be aware of. Um so that's I mean like I said I could keep going and then on the way the other spectrum I think it would be pretty cool and this is just a this is a Liza thinks this is cool. This is not a policy recommendation. We should have an option in the high school called high school of the future and let kids like who opt into it. They could be on the cutting edge of like what's next with responsible constraints and with adults who are also in that industry excited to do it. That could be something that is very cool for people who want to do that. for everybody else. I just think
260the boundaries around when it's a tool when it's in like are you are you using this thing to learn? Are you learning about this thing itself? And also when we know that just because AI is there, it's okay not to use it. Like I remember when this is speaking of you know Rocky aging himself. I mean, I remember when Google first came out, it was just like a you just wanted to like look up everything like just because you could, you know, just because it was like what what will come up if I look up this. So, some of that will fade away. Some of that will re, you know, people will realize what's useful and what's noise. I'm really concerned that we don't kind of do that experiment in real time with our students
261in schools without >> being really clear about Yeah. the why. >> So, um, a lot there. I'm not just just one second real fast before I want to give you a chance to respond. I also want to give Evan and Joe a chance, but I'm wrapping this meeting up at 8:55. So, in 9 minutes, I have to wrap this up. We will not get to self-ealuations. Please fill out your packets and get them to staff. With that, I'll let you go >> very quickly. Um the one of the inspirations about why we're have been moving the way we have is because of an RCW state law that requires us to do so. We have to do something. Um and so we're trying to be mindful of that. And then also for this presentation knowing there's
262a million ways we could have gone down this one. And one it definitely will be in the future is being able to specifically talk about the teacher perspective uh and implications. But we know and recognize there's a lot of great discussion and more information to talk about on a number of the issues that you mentioned here specifically around teachers. >> Thank you. I am excited. >> Vice President Briggs. >> Um >> I'll try to keep this really uh short and high level. Woo. Um yeah, I guess I just there's a lot of red flags here for me. Um, a lot of this sounds like um big tech like talking points and uh people who have who have a business interest in this pitching it as why it's good and and I'm I I don't believe
263that that's true and and I I don't you know getting guidance from OSPI like they even have on their website that their guidance was written by AI I um so I you know I I know so so like it it takes so much intentionality to seek out information that is not influenced by the tech industry itself. Um and and I'm concerned that we're not getting that information because it this plan doesn't seem to be informed by that information. and it seems to be informed by what the tech companies who have a profit to make want us to believe is true. Um, so that's a bit that's a major concern of mine. Um, I you know I I I I think obviously community engagement and listening is very important, but this is another one where it's
264like we can't go out into the community and listen to what people people don't know or understand how this works. like the very few people understand the implications of this technology. Um, so it isn't really a let's let's get everybody in the general public's opinion about AI. Most people do not have informed knowledge about this technology. So, we need to go to those people in order to figure out what best practices are. Um, and then just as as Liza mentioned it, learning about the technology is not the same thing as incorporating it into the classroom. And it is very important for for students to to learn from it. Um, but you know, all of these all of these programs that that we're buying, I mean, I feel like to quote McLemore, we're being tricked by
265business, you know, like I mean, it it just the uh co-pilot, for example, um I'm trying to find the page where we talk about that >> and Evan, they're all trying to figure so much money has been invested in AI. Yeah. >> And they're all trying to figure out how to make it profitable, >> how to monetize. I know 100%. Um so I mean that's like tale as old as time like that is how the that's the the the engine on which this entire enterprise runs. Um but where are we co-pilot? Um but students do not have access to this AI. I mean I know for a fact that that's actually not true that they find workarounds for it. um they use the the voice memo or whatever voice recognition um aspect of the software
266and and the thing spits back essays for them. So, kids are always finding workarounds. Um, as as I think um, Director Yun pointed out or maybe it was Director Manglesson, I can't remember. Um, but you both made excellent points and asked really great questions. Um, that it's it's a lot to put on teachers too to have to monitor what kids are doing um, and with this technology that is so accessible. like literally on their phones which is why this like cell phone policy is also you can't separate these things out like it's all interwoven. Um yeah. Yeah. So I I think this is like obviously a much much larger conversation that we cannot have in depth tonight. But I I guess my highlevel feedback here is that I really want to have information that is
267not coming from any tech platform itself. I want to know that the guidance we're receiving is from other entities that do not have a financial interest in promoting the use of these products. >> Director Miseri. >> Yeah, thank you. >> So, we might have a tech issue here. Hang on, director Misrai. Not the best time. >> See, it wasn't the video. >> Director Misarah, we can put it No, we can't hear you. Director Miss Rahi. >> Director Ms. Rahi, we are having technical difficulties with the sound. If you have a specific question, if you want to put it in the chat or if you want to call me and I can put you on my microphone, I think that could also work. All right. >> So, we are going to work on the tech issue
268before our next board meeting. Um, no wor no worries. Uh I do think that you know this is a a large topic I and we are having to cut the conversation somewhat short this evening um because we need to be adjourned by 9:00 p.m. That's when we lose our uh inter ASL interpretation. Um, so I think with that we'll just sort of wrap up at this moment and and director Misrai, I think that both getting your question to staff um and and the board office can send around your question or your statement so we can all all have an understanding and and see it. Um, I appreciate the presentation. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Um, just one last sort of housekeeping item. Again, we we're not going to get to the evaluations
269tonight. So, please put in your score um in the sheets in the packets and get that to the board office. I appreciate this was a long meeting. I was not anticipating it to go this long, but I um I can't imagine if we had a full public testimony list, but I appreciate folks staying here um to this hour and there being no further business to come before the board. The regular board meeting is now adjourned at 8:54 p.m. Thank you all.