001I remember. Director M. Rahi, can you come join us up here real fast? So, this is President Topp. The board recessed out of executive session at 4:40 p.m. The special meeting of the board is now reconvened at 4:45 p.m. There being no further business to come before the board, the special meeting of the board is now adjourned at 4:45 p.m. And uh the board will reconvene for a special meeting here in two minutes. One minute. Perfect. We have looks like we have Director Briggs and Director Clark on line. >> Good evening. This is President Topp and I'm now calling the board special meeting to order at 4:45 PM. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. Like to we would like to acknowledge that we are on ancestral lands and the traditional territories of the
002Puet Sound Coast Salish people. For the record, I will call the role. Vice President Briggs. She is online. I see her. So, let's give her one moment here. >> Hi. Sorry I couldn't unmute. Um here. >> Thank you, Vice President Briggs. Director Clark also I believe online. >> Yes, I'm present. >> Uh, director Hershey will be unable to be with us this evening. Director Miss Rahi >> here. >> Director Ranken >> here. >> Director Sarju >> present. >> And this is President Top. Good evening everyone. Um, on our special board meeting this evening we have uh sort of three main buckets of things. uh sort of the some uh last minute things for the upcoming school year, an update on our superintendent search and a strategic plan update. We're going to begin the evening with
003um an update from HYA and our superintendent search. They are our search firm on our superintendent search. Um, as directors remember, we extended the community engagement timeline which will impact the timeline for the leadership profile and the search. Mr. Ali should be online with us and will walk us through the new proposed timeline and the status of our engagement and next steps. Um, after our discussion with HYA, we will move to public testimony. Um and then an opportunity to move into a number of action item and we'll conclude with a strategic plan update. I have just a few housekeeping items on things that are coming up before we get started. Uh the online survey for the superintendent search will remain open till August 4th. Um thank you to everyone who filled out the survey or
004attended one of the sessions. Uh your participation in this process is invaluable. I appreciate so much the interest in our community in participating in this process. Um, and I and how much folks really care about public education here in our city. So, board directors, again, August 4th is when the uh survey closes. So, please continue to push out the survey to your network um to your communities. Um, and then the next announcement is Director Rankin and I will be holding our B monthly board engagement session tomorrow, 7:31 at James Baldwin Elementary at 6 PM. I'm told that there will be snacks. Um, so come and have some snacks and talk with Director Ranken and myself. Um, sort of on the list of topics we have are uh superintendent search, strategic plan, goals, and guardrails. Um,
005and I'm sure folks will also bring other topics they want to to discuss with us. Um, the I want to announce that the ad hoc budget committee um has been chartered and will be chaired by director Clark. The first meeting will be on August 7th. Uh, this committee, as we sort of talked about in our retreat, um, has four goals to really collaborate with staff on developing a budget timeline and process that works for directors. um get suff sufficient information to provide strategic oversight for us on the budget in an ample in ample time and to inform budget decisions. So essentially who needs to know what by when it will develop recommendations for the board on improving budget process and decision-making transparency hopefully to allow for more public engagement on the budget. Um it will
006develop recommendations for the board on a need and scope of analysis on district finances. Um and and then it will develop and recommend board level priorities to guide future budget development process including board training and development. Um so those are my housekeeping announcements and I'm going to pass it over to Mr. Ali now from HYA um to kind of walk us through uh an update on our superintendent search process. Mr. Ali, are you online? >> Yes, I'm online and accounted for. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. Go ahead. >> Oh, beautiful. Thank you, Madame President, and to the distinguished members of the governing board. Good afternoon. In addition, good afternoon to the Seattle community as well as the exceptional staff that you have there in your district who've been very instrumental in
007this process. So without any further ado, I'll just jump right into the presentation if we can tee it up. So, we don't see a presentation. Is this is this something our staff has, Mr. Ali, or is this something? >> Yes. Uh, I sent it over to Julie War and Company. So, they they're in possession of it. They should be able to >> upload it. >> All right. Just one. We are going to This will take about a minute to upload and something up. Sorry. >> For the All right. >> Okay. It looks like we are up with a presentation. Board directors. All right. Next slide. >> Can see it online as well. >> Okay. So, what's before you, Madam President, and members of the board? It's the signature process. You've been privy to this document
008before as well as your community's also seen this document. And so where we are today, we're in the engage and the recruitment phase. What does that mean? We're still doing ongoing engagement and we're actively recruiting for a ride a wide range of of talented candidates who will in fact exceed the expectations of the community. And so that's where we are today. We'll discuss the timeline in subsequent slides. Of course, the selection phase and then begin the transition. But again, we're in the engagement as well as the recruitment phase of the process. Next slide. Engagement sessions. I know this is a little small, but what you see before you, we we kicked off the engagement sessions May 29th, 2025 with our students, and we will end it'll probably be the week of April 11th. It'll be
009the 11th or the 12th. We're going to extend the engagement sessions to include the native community as well as the black community. We were on the ground this weekend past with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from the Vietnamese as well as the Latino community. We did have some engagement efforts with some of uh the black community members, but again, we want to capture additional voice of the indigenous community as well as the black community. So those focus groups, which will be virtual, will conclude the week of the 11th. I put the 12th in there because that's the day that we're shooting for. But we're going to work very collaboratively with the community-based organizations, which was the case over this weekend past. Again, big ups. Big shout out to your staff as well as your community-
010based organizations who co-f facilitated the on the ground engagement sessions. So, shout out to all of those individuals who were intimately involved in that. That's that's represented on this document before you. Next slide. >> Um, President Ali, I need I need you for the record to change from April to August. You said April. So, for the record, can you restate the dates? >> Okay, let let's back up one more time. I'm sorry. back up on that slide, Miss Worth. Okay, so we started in May and we we're ending in August. I do apologize if I said April. So, August 12th are the dates that that we're looking to conclude with the native community as well as the black community. >> It is recorded if you want to go back and listen to yourself. >> No,
011I understand. >> I'm joking. I'm joking. You >> I'm not gonna debate you. Okay. All right, leadership profile. So, let's talk about the leadership profile report. This is been a document that we've discussed throughout the engagement uh the engagement phase. We've talked about various elements, but let's kind of unpack what that represents. And so, the overall objective is to define the purpose. We talk about what goes into a leadership profile report. Well, it develops not just what the community desires to see in the superintendent aspirant, but it serves as that fulcrum. serves as the living and breathing document for which a superintendent would not just use as a part of their interview process but it helps to set the groundwork for a strategic plan and or strategic implementation for various initiatives of superintendent desires. So
012of course we look at desired characteristics the focus groups are very essential to the development of the profile the participation the summarization and then of course their survey results. Now there's been several questions asked by folks within the community if I would be able to provide examples of desired characteristics. Now looking at in other systems and other searches it changes. So I'll just give you some mere examples. Not that that's the case here, but these are examples that align with what communities around the country have sought with respect to a transformational leader. Definitely wanted somebody who's bold and audacious and innovative. Communities are interested in folks who are exper who have tremendous amount of experience working with diverse cultures, diverse populations, the uniqueness of communities. I'm very very sure we all would agree we want
013somebody who's student centered, student focused, able to prioritize equitable resource allocation and support underserved communities, historically marginalized communities, multilingual special education, children who are struggling economically speaking. In some communities, folks are desirous of people who are connectors and communicators and able to utilize a measure of authenticity to forge relationships with families and staff and general community partners. individuals who are interested in utilizing decision-making strategies that are not just totalitarian in nature are dictatorial but inclusive and demonstrates a measure of transparency. So those are attributes and those are characteristics that communities often desire within leaders. And I'm very confident once we analyze the data, there'll be very similar characteristics sought in a leader within the Seattle public school system. This document will include not just the online survey data that we have been collecting, but in
014addition any other comments as annotated during the on the ground engagement sessions. A lot of that will find its way into the document and the board will be very pleasantly surprised. Of course, the board will have an opportunity to be presented the document. The community will also have their hands on the document. In addition, the document will be made available to superintendent aspirants. Next slide. So this is the engagement timeline. This is a draft document because of course is living as well as breathing. And so where are we where are we today? Today we're providing the board update. August 4th is the closure date of the online survey. August 4th again is the closure date of the online survey and that will be Monday. Monday gives individuals an opportunity over the weekend to be able
015to capture any last tidbits of information. We did it allow for an additional extension because we wanted to be very respectful of several community events involving the black community as well as your native/indigenous community and they asked, "Hey, we need a little bit more time." And so why not grant the community an additional week or so in order to collect that engagement is fair, it's equitable, and it's also inclusive. August 26, we'll preview the leadership profile report and we'll discuss community engagement themes with the board in person. September 1st through the 15th, of course, to be determined. We'll then share the leadership profile report with the community as well as propagating that information throughout the city utilizing your community list of partners. the application closes, all aspirants will have all of their application documentation uploaded
016into our system. September 15th, September 17th, HYA will provide the board an update. We will present the slate, the state of candidates, the state of Asperence. September 26th, October 9th through the 10th, interview of final candidates. October 13th, board discusses interviews and the process they're in. Special board meeting August 15th or 22nd to vote as well as make the public announcement of a superintendent. And then of course the we move into the transition phase. And so that's the draft timeline before us. Certainly we want to respect the community and make sure that everyone is aware of this. We're going to work with your communications team to ensure that we're able to get this out to the community so everyone has their eyes on the timeline. Any thoughts or questions on this before we move to
017the next slide. Okay, next next slide. >> Director Serge, praise the Lord. This is a good timeline. >> So there you go. Uh, no. I think uh I I know that this has taken a little bit of time to build out and I I appreciate this timeline. I think this is this is reasonable and um I know that directors hopefully have the calendar invites or will in their inbox or will be coming shortly. So, we're saving those these times um because it is a significant chunk of time. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ali. >> All right, next slide. Next steps, analyze the data. We'll analyze the data as presented based upon all the surveys that we've collected. Draft the leadership profile report. Present the finalized leadership profile report to the board. We'll present it
018as a draft. If the board would like to augment, make corrections, additions, we're more than open. Again, the objective here is to work very collegiately and collaboratively. One of the most important slides or excuse me, the most important points I'd like to underscore is to share the leadership profile report with the community. It's extremely important that we give them an opportunity to review the document and uh to make certain that they understand that their voices were heard and it'll be encapsulated therein. And then of course it's very important to make sure that the aspirants are availing it someone may say Seattle is a phenomenal city but I might not be the right fit and we respect that. But then others may read the document and say this is ideal for me. This community, this system,
019the challenges, the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys. This is something I want to do. I want to get in here and roll up my sleeves and deliver change on behalf of the families of this community. And so that concludes my update for this afternoon. I look forward to any questions if if there are any. Next slide. >> Thank you, Mr. Ali. looking to board directors and just we're four minutes past public test five minutes past tough public testimony so I want to kind of move along but do we have questions >> just very briefly I assume you would let us know if you need anything else from the board at this time >> oh absolutely >> so having having not heard that I feel I but I just wanted to confirm we're we're
020sort of waiting for the next date where we will be reviewing things >> let me just say this director I want to thank you guys for your patience and also want to thank you for trusting us with this process. But I really want to tip my hat to the president. I've spent a tremendous amount of time with her on the phone as well as working with the staff and there's nothing I need. I mean, you guys have been very responsive. I I couldn't have asked for a much better group to work with and and again, >> hats off to your staff. I mean, we've been moving mountains and really working diligently within your within your community. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Ali. Appreciate it. Um, all right, then we're going to move into public
021testimony. We're going to move right along. Um, so, uh, just a quick announcement on public testimony. Uh, since I've heard that some folks have had some difficulty signing up for public testimony. Last board meeting, we updated our public testimony policies, which means that all of our links on all of our websites have been updated. >> Oh, for Mr. Ali? >> No. >> Oh, on public testimony. Okay, hang on. Just what? >> No, not on public. Yes, public test. >> Okay, hang on just one second. Um, so, uh, so we've updated our public testimony policies. Um, and that includes all of our links. So, if you had a link from that you'd saved or, uh, you go back to that same link, it will no longer work. We have a new form to submit public testimony
022on. In addition, uh, the, uh, the link for the public testimony signup has slightly moved. It used to be at the bottom of the page. Now, it's at the top of the page just so folks could hopefully find it more, but I know that has been confusing for folks since that is not what they were normally expecting. You can also on the board meeting page find it on the sidebar. So, just so folks are aware, Director Serge, you had a quick question. >> Yeah. Um, first of all, it's summer. It's not like our, you know, the the online attendance is packed with hundreds of people. So, my request is um like we do for a lot of different things is to have an email go out to our families stating that we have a new
023process to sign up and it should be anybody regardless of their language should be able to understand what the process is. We can't expect people to figure it out. I can't figure it out and I've got multiple degrees. It shouldn't take that. So my request and I'm looking at our chief is to just send out an email so that every family in the district doesn't have to play the game, how do I do this and end up failing, which is why we only have one person. So you get to speak for like 20 minutes because that's about how many people would have signed up. So, uh, so we've now reached the public testimony portion. Uh, uh, board policy. I still have to read all this paragraph, so it's going to take me just a second.
024Uh, 1400 board meetings provides our rules for testimony. The board expects 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 will interrupt any speaker 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 going to pass it off to staff to summarize a few more points and read off the testimony list. >> You president top. The board will take testimony from apologies. Uh the board will take testimonies from those on the testimony list and we'll go to the waiting list if we are missing speakers. Please wait until
025call 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 speaker at the podium will indicate the timer at the podium will indicate the time remaining for speakers here in person. When the light is red and a beep sounds, it means that your time has been exhausted and the next speaker will be called. For those joining by phone, the beep will be the indication that time has been exhausted. Moving into our list now. For those joining by phone, please press
026star six to unmute on the conference line. And for everyone else, please do reintroduce yourself when called as I will miss some pronunciations as we move through today's list. The first speaker on today's list is Matt Bertnes. >> Did you understand all that, Matt? >> Thankfully, I've been born with the privilege of a white man who speaks English, so I can confidently say that yes, I did. Thank you very much for asking me if I understood. It's really greatly appreciated because I think um I wrote uh uh that's really the crux of this issue. And I say this issue because I came here to speak um about support for immigrant students and that is what I've come here to speak about. But the crux of our issue in SPS and it doesn't matter if we're
027talking about the issues right here in this room right now in this moment that I'm talking about. It doesn't matter if we're talking about the schoolboard search. It doesn't matter if we're talking about whether Mr. Fred Podesta is our interim superintendent or not. It doesn't matter who's our school board president is. It doesn't matter who's elected to school board because what I have come to understand through the joy of what is summer vacation is that um it's about coalition building and the people the leaders don't matter because they will and they have and they will continue to fail us. Um, so I'm going to just s take a step back for a second. Thank you again, Director Sarju, for the question of asking and understanding and checking for understanding because that is at the core
028of my mission as an educator to check for understanding. My name is Matt Bertnes. I am a lifelong Oh man, sorry. Um, I'm a lifelong public educator and defender of public education and defender of children. And that's what this comes down to. and this is what I have tried for better or for worse to advocate for in my time with this district. Um, I want to again thank you, Director Sarju, and want to speak directly to you for being direct with me and telling me that I have more time than has been given because I'm the only person on the list. I came with a lot of thoughts and ideas and things I wanted to say, but I'm not going to say a lot of them because this is the crux of the issue is
029that you changed the format of public testimony. You changed it. I'm not making a criticism of that. I'm making an acknowledgement of that. And I appreciate you, Director Sarju, for being willing to acknowledge that not you personally, not the school board, the district made a mistake and not informing our families of a change. And that's where so much sorry um that's where so much of this anger in the community has come from. And words have meaning and words have power and words can be weapons. So before you even so graciously offered me more time, I was going to use the words that I know as weapons, but instead of just using and here's where I kind want to get into making connections and making texttoelf connections with my students because there's a lot of confusing
030information in the world, especially as it relates to our modern world because facts are fiction and fiction are facts and you can make anything real if you make enough people believe it. And we are seeing that in very exceedingly real time in this school board race. And I'm not here to name names. I'm not here to shame anyone. I'm not here to call anyone out because that's not the purpose of this bully pulpit. And this is how some members in our community have weaponized this space, the schoolboard meeting space, as bullies. So, I want to thank you again, Director Sarju, for allowing me time because what I was going to do in my experience as a union member was say, uh, members of the prestigious Seattle public school board, um, I would like to make
031a personal point of privilege, if I may. I >> think you've got about one minute. >> Cool. Awesome. So, so sorry. Thank you. Thank you for the call out and for stopping me. Um, I want to say sorry because I have also been guilty of that bullying and I want to apologize directly to Director Rankin. I'm sorry because I have been misled and I have been led astray by well-meaning, well-intentioned people who have good intentions. I want to acknowledge that. But impact matters more than intentions. And I'm sorry that I have weaponized my words against you and spoken out against you because if there's one thing that has stood out to me more, it's how how prospective schoolboard candidates have answered the question from the rainy day recess podcast, who are you most looking forward
032to working with? And so many of them have said Director Rankin. And so many of them have been so many of them have had negative words weaponized against them simply for saying they wish to work with someone who has been misrepresented in the community who at her core her values. I know that I agree with because I have seen you stand up and not just dual wield two weapons, two swords, and hit hit. But I've seen you hold up a shield as well. And that's what we need in this school board is we need a sword. Yes. But we don't just need ruthlessness because we need shields, too. So, thank you, Director Rankin, for being a shield. And I'm so sorry. Sorry. And I'm sorry for raising my voice. I want to acknowledge again that
033words have meaning and words have power. I'm sorry, Director Ranken. >> I want to just say I I want >> I'm going to ask you to wrap up your >> Absolutely. I have a lot more to say and I'd be happy to elaborate more later, but at the crux of the issue, please people, as you are making and casting your elections in the schoolboard race, please do your research. Please read to please do not believe what is being pushed, >> okay, >> as an agenda. Thank you. Thank you for the consideration. Thank you. Oh, so I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I got so mixed up in my own words that I forgot to also mention and advocate for the inter agency in the issue of inter agency in
034southwest and southeast Seattle where staff members are being >> okay. We we are >> investigated. Staff members are being attacked privately because they are trying to stand up for their students. And I forgot that and I promised I promised staff that I would mention it and I didn't. And I'm sorry. I know I'm breaking policy. I'm sorry. But I cannot leave this pulpit without saying that I stand with the inter agency staff and students. Please listen. Please meet with the inter agency staff and students who do not make any changes without listening to their community. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you. >> Thank you. We're going to move to the next person on the testimony list. Um go to staff here. Yes. So, how come they're not on the >> They they are
035online and we we we have the next person on our testimony list. >> Our next speaker is Chris Jkins. My name is Chris Jkins. Box 84063, Seattle 98124. There's also always a sign up list at the meeting. Also on the action items on the agenda, all items except one appear to be proposed for both introduction and action at the same meeting. This tends to limit due diligence on these items. on proposed instructional site relocations from the Rock Hill annex. If the site is being closed for instructional purposes, state law requires a school closure process with formal public hearings before the vote board votes on the contract for an interim superintendent. Two points. Number one, Mr. Podesta is very talented and should be fairly compensated. Number two, but the board may need to consider ways that
036a single person can do as much as multiple employees. I have one example. If you can get a closeup of a can of spinach with Popeye on it. Thank you, Mr. Podesta. on written testimony to the school board. Is the district failing to provide written public testimony to board directors who remotely attend a meeting on the August 5th primary for school board elections? Three points. Number one, I believe that voters should favor candidates who oppose school closures, but this requires some effort by voters to figure out candidates actual positions. Number two, opposing school closures has become the in thing, but all current board members voted to start a school closure process. Number three, when the process blew up, reactions ranged from willing writing a strong op-ed against closures to embracing a smaller number of closures
037to those who still believe that schools need to be closed. Thank you very much. All right, that concludes public testimony for the evening. Uh, thank you so much for coming out here. We are going to now move into board action. So, we have uh six board action items and then we will move to a staff presentation at the tables on um on the strategic plan. So, the first item, approval of the uh 2526 collective bargaining agreement. Can I have a motion? >> Yes, I am the substitute motion maker for ease of uh in person versus remote. Um, okay. Action item one. I move that the board of directors approve the 2025 2026 collective bargaining agreement between Seattle Public Schools and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 and authorize the superintendent on behalf of the
038board of directors to execute the agreement in the form attached to the schoolboard action report with any minor additions, deletions, and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the terms of this agreement. immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> Second. >> Okay. And we have uh I believe uh Tina me um at the dis to uh give us a brief explanation here. >> Good evening or good afternoon Tina me director of labor relations for Seattle public schools. um the contract that collected the successor CBA that um we're asking you to vote for and to approve um is a one-year agreement which essentially is a rollover um of the previous CBA um with no substantive language changes except for the wage rate um a one-year
039wage rate which is the implicit price deflator of 2.5%. Um the implic implicit price deflator is essentially the state's cost of living uh increase. Now um granted it sounds as though it's a cost of living increase. Unfortunately the prototypical state model doesn't fully fund that. And so there um as the board action reports indicated there is still some uh impact to the um budget uh and an increase to the structural deficit unfortunately but it does give a cost of living increase uh to the employees the work groups there. >> Looking to board directors for questions. Director Ranken. Uh this might actually be a question for uh Kurt Bleman's office, but this um you know, we knew this contract was coming. So is this a change to our projected budget or was this assumed already in
040the budget that we approved? >> So I don't see Dr. Bleman, but I think uh acting superintendent Podesta can answer. Oh, >> and I can answer that and Dr. can answer. Yes, it was >> everybody answer it. >> Yes. Um, the IPD is what is calculated into the budget. >> Okay, >> great. Thank you. >> Other questions? >> All right. Thank you so much. And I'm going to ask staff uh for the vote. >> Vice President Briggs. >> I. >> Director Clark. >> I Director Ms. Rahi >> I. >> Director Ranken >> I. >> Director Sarju >> I. >> President Top >> I. >> This motion is passed unanimously. >> Okay. Moving on to item number two. Can I have a motion? >> Uh I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute
041a contract with Vera. Vera, Vera, thank you. Vera Mobility and the two interlocal agreements with King County as attached to the schoolboard action report with any minor additions, deletions, and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent to implement these agreements. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> And I think we have Stephen Richard at the >> podium to present shortly and then we can move to discussion. >> Are you presenting first? >> Yes. Hang on just a second. Do we have a microphone on or is it not working? >> No, hang on just a second. We may need to do a quick replacement or see if it's >> Check check check. >> There we go. >> Thank you. The Washington state legislature has authorized school districts to use stop paddle cameras on
042school buses to detect vehicles illegally passing while students are boarding or disembarking from 2017 until 2022. Our contract with Vera Mobility Seattle Public Schools to obtain a percentage of the tickets that were verified. We would now like to continue and expand that project. While we cannot be sure of the exact dollar amount this program will bring in, we can report that neighboring districts such as Isiqua and Belleview have had great success bringing in hundreds of thousands. More importantly, Vera Mobility has data to support that this is an effective deterrent for future offenses. 99% of drivers who were issued and paid a violation did not receive a second. Because there are no upfront costs associated with implementing this program, I hope you will approve this motion so that we can have cameras installed and active for
043the 2526 school year. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Okay. Questions from board directors? Director Sarju. >> So, we don't have paddle cameras on the buses at the moment. >> Currently, no. >> Okay. So, this is about contracting with this company. Mhm. >> to put paddle cameras on all of our buses. >> Correct. >> Every single one. Right. >> Yes. There was a smaller amount previously in a in years past and it generated a certain amount of income, but we found that districts who go with 100% coverage have much have much better success. >> I just want to make sure it's not just for certain neighborhoods. No ma'am. >> So, I want to know that it's all buses everywhere. First student in Zoom. >> You are correct. >> Got it. Okay.
044And I just want to add if I may. >> Go ahead. Yes. >> That um generating income is really not the primary uh goal of this. The primary goal actually is to prevent motorists from violating that stop sign. It's very very important. Our students uh people, you know, when they're pull around a bus, the visibility is not great. Our children are often running across the street. Um, so really the intention is to support just with as with school zone cameras and in some cases stop light cameras to really reinforce um those very important uh traffic safety measures. Um if we broke even or even lost a little money on this, it would be worth it because we would be ultimately protecting the lives of our students. Um but any the state law requires that any
045income that we do receive um is to be reinvested in student safety. In the past we have used it to um to pay uh for crossing guards uh which are another important part of our safety infrastructure and ecosystem. But again, the primary purpose is to prevent people. And in a in a um in a trial run back in 2017, uh they found that over the course of 117 days on just 10 buses, I think is the figure, there were about 800 instances of people pulling around those stop paddle cameras. So, we know that it's something that if there's not, you know, if there's not a sense that there's going to be an outcome, um people will violate that law. Thank you. >> Thank you, Director Campbell. questions from other board directors. Director Ranken, >> thank
046you. Um I see I was going to So the the money you said a portion goes to SPS. Um it looks like the rest of it goes to King County District Court and Sheriff >> as well as the contractor. Yes. >> And the contractor. Yes. Okay. Um, that leads me to a question that I'm happy to hold if it's not appropriate to answer this right now, but that we also have in terms of student safety and and accessing, you know, getting safely to and from school, we have in the past had a contract through King County to issue tickets for speed zone uh, school zone speeding violations. And my understanding is that we haven't actually collected that in a long time because there's nobody at the county staffed to look back through for violators. >>
047The county look back through for violators and issue the ticket. That seems also like I mean I know um >> of a couple kind of hotspots where there have been collisions with students and it has almost always involve speeding. Um, can we get that back or could some of this go to bringing that back up or is that just a whole other thing that I should just not ask about right now? >> I think that's outside of my wheelhouse and I'm happy to look into it. >> Okay. Just the the connection between if this is also in some kind of relationship with the county and we had this other pre-existing relationship. Yes, >> they had provided the staffing to look through the tapes to flag people for tickets. My understanding is they no longer do
048that just because of a personnel issue. So that might be an opportunity also again not to generate revenue but to help incur to help keep our students safe. >> Pass it over here to acting superintendent Podesta for a moment. >> I believe that's a municipal function but either way we'll get the current data on it and and follow up. >> Yes, it is. >> Um unless uh uh council Narver who worked on it from the city side cares to elaborate. Uh good afternoon, Greg Narver, general counsel. The these are separate programs uh se authorized by separate statutes. So the uh school zone cameras are operated by the city. >> Oh, they are operated by city. Those are >> Okay. Okay. Okay. >> That's a city function. And I'm going back to my duties at the
049city attorney's office. >> Okay. Then the city doesn't check them anymore because they don't have the personnel to do it. I don't know the status of the city's efforts there, but that's a city installed program. And again, there's a requirement that the revenues from that go into the safe routes to schools program. Okay. This is a separate authorization to school districts to have the paddle cameras on the stop signs on school buses. And our contract with King County is because we of course don't have our own court system or prosecutors. We need an enforcement mechanism. So there's one interlocal agreement interlocal agreement with the county for sheriff services >> uh to catch the uh violators and then a separate ILA with the prosecutor's office and the district court to pay for the costs of processing
050the infractions once they for pe motorists who contest them. >> So the money generated goes to maintain facilitating identifying violators >> as Mr. Rashard said some of the money goes to the vendor, the contractor who operates the cameras. >> Some goes to the county for the sheriff and the district court and prosecution services. Some comes to the district. And under statute, the money coming back from the district needs to be devoted to student safety and uh getting to school safely. Correct. >> Okay. And is that by statute? the the the are there are there restrictions by statute on the money that comes back to the school district or is that how we've determined? >> No, that that's that's a state law requirement. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> And sorry. Yes, it was you're you're
051right, Michelle. >> And if I could add one more thing and we have some folks here from varobility, but what they do is they take a screenshot. they verify to make sure that it's a valid violation, uh that they have all the necessary information, which would mean license plate information before they send it on uh to the King County Sheriff. So, uh the goal is that everything that goes to the King County Sheriff needs to then be validated so that it can be issued as a citation. And as um as Greg Narver said, then if someone wants to contest that violation, then they will um work with the King County Prosecutor's Office. But Vera Mobility makes sure that those those um events, those instances are valid before they send them along the way. And we
052also um will watch that data to make sure that um we're seeing um you know that those those events are uh being vetted and um following through on with the King County Sheriff's Office. Questions from other board directors? Okay. And look for staff for uh call on staff for the vote, please. Hang on just a second. Get a working microphone. Our microphones are not cooperating this evening. >> Oh, director Clark. >> I >> Director Ms. Rahi. >> I >> director Ranken. >> Hi. >> Director Sarju. >> Yes. Vice President Briggs >> I. >> President Top >> I. >> This motion is passed unanimously. >> Okay. Um item three on the uh agenda. Director Ranken. I move that the school board approve the relocation of the inter agency academy southwest campus currently located at the Roxill
053annex to an acceptable southwest location and approve the establishment of a new inter agency academy site at Allen Tugyama High School. I further move that the school board approve the relocation of a bridges program site from the Roxhell annex to Chief Self International High School. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. second. Okay. >> And we have uh uh Dr. Campbell at the podium. Thank you. And good evening uh board directors, community members, we also have Principal Willingham online. Um if if uh Principal Willingham, if you can come off uh mute and come on camera. So I want to acknowledge and recognize the great leader uh leadership of Principal Willingham with inter agency. And is Devin Gurley also here? >> Okay. So, um, uh, Dr. Torres Morales is out of town, so
054I, um, told him that I would bring this forward and respond to any questions. I have been part of some of the planning around this. Um, so, essentially, we know that the old Roxell annex, um, and and good evening. I can see Principal Willingham. Um, there have been some issues with the facility. Um, not feeling like a a a place um, that feels like it has all of the supports and services that our students and staff need. Um, so this is something that we've been working on to find um new spaces for our wonderful students and staff who are at those locations. Um, we did um look at the possibility of of re of moving our Southwest inter agency students to a location that was not in the southwest and that was clearly something that
055was going to be challenging. We looked at several options um and uh Southwest Youth and Family Services is currently the place that we are looking at. We are working with them right now on what um how that contract um would be established and making sure that we have the right learning spaces for our students. Um uh we did tour um Southwest Houston and Family Services last week um with uh staff members from inter agency as well as staff members from our capital team. Um they were very excited about that location and the possibility. um inter agency as you know um is often aligned with um agencies uh throughout the city in in order to give students access um to additional services and supports. So it's it's a it's a good alignment location. Um our bridges
056students um those are our students who are working on independent living skills and um gainful employment skills. our 18 to 22 year old students um ideally are in spaces where they are um independent of the K12 environment. Um we have uh located a place on campus at Chief South High School that enables them to have an independent space but also has access to public transportation, work sites, things that our students are utilizing regularly. Um and they also have access to things like hot lunch and and other services that are available on that comprehensive school campus. Uh so those moves all of these moves we believe are going to be in the best interest of our students and staff and we've worked u met with staff members um actually um inter agency staff and bridges staff
057have met with and talked to students and families as well about these upcoming moves and um we've uh done some phenomenal work and and principal Willingham and her team uh in the last few weeks have really reached out um to staff members to make sure that they're um fully informed of these moves. Thank you so much, Dr. Campbell, and thank you for joining us. Princ Principal Willingham, looking at board directors for questions. Director Ranken, >> can you please confirm because it's been the source of a lot of back and forth and questions about the presence of accessible bathrooms at the chief south location. >> Yes. So, there are >> and not just the presence near them, but like for them. >> Correct. So, uh, there are several solutions. Right now, the intent is to provide
058a bathroom specifically for students. Um, but that is going to take a little bit of transition time, but that is in the plan with the capital team. Uh, but we do have an accessible bathroom to support our students that is available very close to where they will be located with the intention of actually building out that facility and space for the students. So when they first get there at the beginning of the school year, they'll need to go from the portables into the high school building to use a bathroom. >> Correct. >> And one then eventually will be provided for them in the portable so they don't have to do that. >> Correct. >> How long do we think that period of time is? >> Um I I don't know the exact time frame, but
059we can certainly find that out. I think the idea is to expedite it as quickly as possible. >> My understanding is the portables are already plumbed. I'm not a plumber, but I also know it doesn't take a ton of time to install a toilet and a and a stall. So, I would hope that that could happen as quickly as possible, especially because the plumbing is already there. Um, and then I the second request I know um uh students in Bridg's program deserve their own place to be. They're not high schoolers. They finished high school. They're transitioning now from school to independent adulthood. And so, um, I really want to, this kind of goes to the bigger issue of what we're being presented with right now >> is a logistical problem. And it is following the
060policy based on use of space. And there's nothing in here that actually has to do with meeting the needs of our students. And so the the the bigger issue that's not just for this bar and I I will be approving this because I don't I have been to the Roxell Annex building. I don't quite understand why these programs were moved to that building to begin with after it was deemed um unsuitable for elementary students. Um and so I I don't know I don't know how that happened. But um so I I am supporting this because I think this is a better solution. It's still not the solution and we need to have um very clear conversations about not where programs move to but what they are and who they serve and make sure that we're
061>> building sustainability around them for bridges for inter agency um I mean it's not just that inter agency has a history of working with other organizations that's literally why it exists is inter agency with another agency and and they actually used to be at Southwest Family Services and then they got moved to Youngstown Cultural Center and and then they got moved to Roxell and I don't know why. >> Um and so that's great that they're moving back to Southwest Family Services. I also would be would really like to know more information about why that partnership what caused the move in the first place and if whatever caused the move is going to become a problem again. like I don't know maybe there was a change in organizational leadership and um and and now this is
062another possibility but >> I would like to understand again I will vote to approve this but I still would like to understand and I will keep asking if I don't if we don't get an answer why that what happened with that relationship in the first place that caused that move and make sure that whatever that was is is being fully addressed by our end so that either that becomes the new permanent home because that is a really good location and organization to partner with >> um or that we are thoughtful about where the permanent home may be that we don't just keep I mean I know it won't be the exact same students but >> it's the those those hurt those hurts kind of carry forward. >> Absolutely. >> Um so >> absolutely thank you.
063>> Yeah. Thanks. Thank you for that and and I have noted that question and I will say that we are establishing a a comprehensive planning team with capital with program services and then enrollment to do the very thing that you're talking about which is to create a more mindful process. So for some of these services and programs that are um they're not exactly aligned with a specific school building, but we want to make sure that it doesn't feel like they're always having to row from place to place and find some available corner in a school or in the city. But that also goes for some our preschool programs and some of our special education services so that we actually have a logic that um prioritizes our students um who for whom we want to really
064do some of the most thoughtful care work >> and and even possible fial future option programs that are actually alternative >> educational experiences to a standard neighborhood school. >> Okay. Thank you. Director Sergio. >> Um my comments are an extension of what Director Ranken um some of a couple of the points that she landed on. Um terms like acceptable um vague time periods. My experience with that has been I'll just use the interpreter situation. It took months of me throwing a hissy fit to have interpreters at every meeting. >> And so I'm not comfortable with vague language. When I think about a child or a young adult needing to use the bathroom, somebody who has a physical disability, our track record makes me believe that they're just going to have to hold it because they
065won't be able to get to the bathroom in time. And so I need specificity. When are basic functional toilets going to be accessible to these students? There should be a definitive timeline for that. None of us would would accept an out of bathrooms being out of service here with a vague timeline of when we might be able to have a bathroom that's not a porta potty. And so when I I'm I'm expressing a little bit of frustration because I feel like sometimes vague language is intentionally used to avoid accountability. I'm telling you what my feeling is and my feeling actually matches what has happened in the district. >> So what I would like to know is a definitive timeline. You we should be able to know and really it should be done before school starts.
066>> Yes. Thank you. I let me be clear functional toilets are currently available. Um, in most of our schools that have portables, we don't have uh toilets inside the portables. Students do go inside. Where the portables are located is adjacent directly next to, and I don't have this the footage, but it's a very short walk to adaptive restrooms that are part of a classroom that provides more intensive services. So, those toilets are available to students right now. The ask from the staff which I think is a reasonable ask is could we also provide some additional um restroom space that is specifically for our bridges students. That is what we are currently building. But there are currently restrooms available to our students that are I mean there are a number of restrooms throughout the building but
067that are specifically um adaptive that have some of the um equipment and tools and features that some of our students will require. Those are currently available. I don't think that we would move them without it. Um, an acceptable southwest location. I appreciate you calling that out. Our goal is to have that contract in place. I think that we want to make sure um, you know, that that is ready to go, but we are moving forward with haste on that so that it is ready to go by the start of the school year. So, I appreciate the urgency though. >> Can I go back to the bathroom? >> No. We're going to take just a brief moment here. We've lost the ASL interpreter. So, we're going to wait for a moment and get the ASL interpreter
068back on. >> Looks like Can we >> Can we here? Can you guys see me? >> Yeah. >> Got a blue backdrop. >> All right. And it looks like folks online can see. All right. Director Sergey, you had a follow-up question. So is is it not possible for you to give a date? I think what I'm struggling with here is I don't get the sense that what I'm struggling with is the inability to actually say, you know, by the third week of school this the request will be handled. because when you when you don't give specificity, you can just drag it out. >> And so what I'm, you know, I don't go to school there. I'm not in that building, but I don't have a lot of confidence based on my own personal experience when
069we're not being specific. And so is it why why is there a struggle to say our plan is to have these bathrooms done >> by a certain date? >> I'm sure that there is a date. I just don't know that date. I will find out from our capital team and email to you all. I just was not prepared to identify that date tonight, but I absolutely get that. >> So I I think that's >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. That that that highlights the problem with vague language, >> right? And so when you bring that here and not you personally but you you force us to ask specific questions. So I just want to point that out. >> Great. And thank you. Yep. >> I just want to say I appreciate I know that um
070I'm excited about the possibility of inter agency being at Southwest Youth and Family Services. I appreciate the um movement from staff to respond to both community and the board and saying what can we do better here and um this is this is my community and and I'm excited for that that partnership and that alignment. So thank you. Um but looking at other board directors otherwise I'm going to turn it over and call on staff for the vote. Director Ms. Rahi. >> I. >> Director Ranken. >> I. >> Director Sarju. >> Yes. >> Vice President Briggs. >> I. >> Director Clark. >> I. >> President Top. >> Yes. This motion is passed unanimously. >> All right. Moving on to item number four. Can I have a motion? I have a blank where there's a four. Um,
071okay. It's not it's not goes to five, but I move um I move that the school board approve awarding refuge disposal and mixed waste waste recycling collection services contract to Republic Services for RFP052501. Is there anything else I need to say legally? That's not it's not on my >> immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> Second. >> All right. Thank you. And we have Frank Griffith um at the podium who will present. >> Good evening. Uh Frank Griffin, director of facilities operations. So before you, we have a contract for refuge and recycling for um the three-year cycle. Um we went out with an RFP. Um um Republic Services was the low bid but also provided additional services that we were interested in. Um one of them was the capacity just to
072handle the entire school district, the ability to respond to special pickups, the ability to provide dumpsters when we had special events or um needed them for um construction. Additionally, we were looking for dumpsters that were rear rear loaded um to where custodial staff could load them um from the loading docks reducing OJI injuries. So, there were a lot of things that we um were looking for that um Republic Services provided. I would take questions. >> Questions from board directors. Thank you so much. Um, and I'm going to look to staff for the vote. Director Ranken, >> I. >> Director Sarju, >> yes. >> Vice President Briggs, >> I. >> Director Clark, >> I. >> Director Ms. Rahi. I >> President Top >> I. >> This motion passes unanimously. >> Item number five, Director Ranken. >>
073All right. I move that the school board approve the 2025 2026 compensation bulletin for non-represented staff as attached to the schoolboard action report with any minor additions, deletions, and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and authorize the superintendent to take any necessary actions to implement the document. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> Second. >> We have Dr. Sarah Pritchette at the podium to present. >> Good. Good afternoon. Um, again, Sarah Pritchette, assistant superintendent for human resources. Um, as a reminder, the compensation uh bulletin defines the compensation parameters for non-represented employees. Um, the change this year um to the compensation bulletin includes edits to what we um would say is IPD or cost of living. Um, that edit is or that change is going to reflect the 2.5% as stated u
074as um set by the state. Um this would also continue the um two furlow days for our 260 employees and one furlow day for our 230-day non-represented staff. It also suspends um the ability for non-represented staff to cash out their vacation as well and that continues again for the third year. Questions from directors? Director Ranken, >> sorry. I'm just trying to confirm who all this covers. >> Is it just building leaders? >> Non-represented staff. So, building leaders are represented by PAS. >> Oh. Oh, >> this would be um primarily people who work in the John Stanford Center. >> Thank you. >> And is it Sorry that I'm not remembering. Is it typical one year or are we doing one year now to kind of mirror? Okay. >> We make adjustments every year. >> Thank you.
075Any further questions? All right, I'm going to call on staff for the vote. Director Sarju, >> yes. >> Vice President Briggs. >> I, >> Director Clark. >> I, >> Director Ms. Rahi. >> I, >> Director Ranken. I >> President Top >> I. >> This motion is passed unanimously. Item number six. Um, I move that the school board authorize the board president with the assistance of legal counsel to negotiate an employment contract with Fred Podesta to serve as interim superintendent until the appointment of the next district superintendent or June 30th, 2026, whichever occurs first. The negotiated contract shall be presented to the board for approval. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> Second. >> Great. So I will be introducing uh this bar for action. Uh the this board action will allow
076me as board president to negotiate a contract uh with our acting superintendent to continue on as interim superintendent while we continue our search for a superintendent. How many times can I say superintendent in one sentence? Uh uh acting superintendent Podesta has been uh really great in filling in here as we've needed him and is getting ready for the upcoming school year and I'm grateful for his continued leadership. Um this would allow me to try to negotiate a contract and then we would bring it back to the board for approval at our August meeting and I will take questions from board directors. Director Sarju, >> I don't have a question, but I have a request that it als that the negotiation include the board president and the vice president. I think having another voice at the
077table will ensure that all of us are represented and I'm saying that for a specific reason which I do not need to identify on the record but um my request is that it include two people. >> I am more than happy to have uh Vice President Briggs join in in the conversations and the negotiations. I heard a request not an amendment though. Is that correct? I don't really get this whole Robert's business. So, is it an amendment or is it >> you just do it? >> If you want our vote as a board to be authorizing the board president with the vice president. >> Okay, that's what I want. >> Make an amendment. We don't make an amendment. >> I mean, we're all in public and I believe Gina. >> Okay. Well, so let's do
078let's just follow the formal cuz Greg's getting ready to come up here. He's going to see if we have properly noticed this, I guess, to allow for this to happen. >> Can we make a small amendment? >> Yes, I would reintroduce the motion. Uh uh I think if we withdraw the motion in its current form, reintroduce it with the motion language adding that it will be authorization to the president and vice president with the assistance of legal counsel who I should specify will be outside counsel representing the board. that's not my role and that those people will be empowered. What the the purpose of this vote is to make sure that the full board has authorized a smaller number of people so we don't run into OPMA issues with the negotiation sessions. I think if
079the motion is re uh introduced with that uh extra name that that covers it and if there's a second and then that will be the motion that the board votes on. >> All right. So let's go to director ranking here. >> We don't we don't need to vote to withdraw the other motion, right? We can just Okay. >> So, um I uh an amendment has been presented. Therefore, I move that the school board approve Oh, no, sorry. The school board authorized the board president and vice president together with the assistance of legal counsel to negotiate an employment contract with Fred Podesta to serve as interim superintendent until the appointment of the next district superintendent or June 30th, 2026, whichever occurs first. The negotiated contract shall be presented to the board for approval. immediate action is
080in the best interest of the district. >> So, can I make one? >> Gotta have a second real fast >> and then we can >> second. Wow. >> Um, I apologize to Vice President Briggs. I just volunte Yeah. No, I'm to I It's part of my job. I'm all good. Okay, >> thanks for checking. >> Just so we don't have to do something else because she she might have said you don't get to boss me around. >> No, you totally get to boss me around, Michelle. >> So, we have a motion and a second. Other questions? >> Yes. Um I have well so the the current uh acting appointment is under the contract that was issued to or agreed upon with Dr. Jones that terminates September 3rd based on his notice of resignation. So what
081is our timing for when a contract would come back and is there opportunity between now and then to um or is this the opportunity to discuss anything we might want to see in that contract as the board? >> So I think the goal would be to bring it back per the bar on our at our August 27th meeting. Um, I think that if there are specific things, uh, I I think getting them to Director Briggs and I would be extremely helpful. Um, or if there are items that you would like to talk about that you think would be important. >> Sure. So, I um, just for full transparency, I I was making notes for myself and then I just decided making notes for myself that ended up being five pages. Um, and I did email
082them to the board earlier today and they're printed out for us today and I think are being added to the meeting minutes if anybody wants to have them. But, um, my uh, the thing that I want to make sure we address is that um, uh, our expectations for Mr. for Podesta that this isn't like it's not like things are going super swimmingly and he can just sort of be a caretaker until somebody new steps in like there are some things that we need to make sure happen regardless of interim permanent etc etc and so um in so this this my notes are just stating what I believe we heard from the community and I think are continuing to hear although we'll get an update from HYA about the priorities of our system and then we've
083we have already adopted goals and guardrails that help us evaluate the effectiveness of our system in aligning with what we've said. Um we uh trying to we have no we got we got uh okay so say you're getting your house ready to sell. You want to paint the shutters. You maybe want to replace the porch, get some cute flowers and stuff. But if you don't make sure that your plumbing doesn't leak and your electric's up to code, it's going to be hard. It's going to sit on the market for a long time. So that's my analogy. So, I would like to make sure that for the progress that we were elected to, the leadership we were elected to provide, the progress we need to make as a district and the um the best potential we
084have to set an incoming superintendent up for success is we need to do some plumbing and and wiring checks and maybe looking at the foundation. And those are things that can and should happen now. We we shouldn't say, "Well, we'll just wait for the next superintendent because the we we've we've we've to be quite frank squandered a lot of time over the last couple of years on will they won't they do these things and we haven't gotten very realistic about problems that have to be solved. We're not like a legislature or a city council where we can say, well, maybe let's think about new revenue or maybe like we don't get to do that." Other people authorize how much money we have to spend and we have to figure out how to serve students within
085it. We can keep advocating that that increase, but we have to deal with what we are given. And um we got some I almost swore some serious serious things that we need to do to best serve students and our community and to make sure that a new sup that we are creating conditions and a stable um transparent scenario for a new superintendent to come into so that they can be successful. And so, um, I just want us to be, so in my notes here, I've been doing a whole bunch of reading and research. Real transformational change of a school district takes like six to eight years. Now, some people might say, "Oh, but you voted for this thing in 2021." All we did was vote to think about it. We've done a lot of thinking
086about it. And as proven in the audit that was done by an independent firm in December of 2024, change didn't happen. We talked about change. We didn't enact much change. And yes, I'm referring to student outcomes focused governance, which is, by the way, just a Kleenex to tissue for board governance aligned with best practices. So, we as a board need to make a commitment to doing our job for real, and we need to authorize and allow Mr. Podesta to make some big changes both with budget alignment with staffing with with I mean we don't staff evaluation all kinds of things or we're just going to continue on and our kids can't afford it and I can't stomach it personally. I can't last up here another two years not doing the things we say we're going
087to do which yes as Michelle said is maybe the point exhaust me exhaust us all um so that we don't have to make any changes. So based on the real commitment to change that has to happen, we need to get really serious about some uh we don't want if we don't expect Fred to fix everything, but we as a board should provide direction about here's the priorities and we even though he knows he's in the role temporarily, we need to make sure that we're all in alignment about what kind of moves can and can't happen because we also don't want Fred to take, you know, any leadership to go down some road irrevocably where a new person might come in and be like, "Oh my gosh, that's not how I would have approached that and
088now I can't do that." But we do need to say, "Yeah, our organizational chart does not make any sense, does not align. We need to address that. We, you know, there's tons of outstanding reviews and audits and recommendations that have been made to this district that have not been implemented. Not everything's going to still be relevant, but some of it is a really good starting place on getting us to a place of function. And so, um, uh, there's a lot that could happen. I am an I am expecting that January from the timeline January would be the earliest we'd have a permanent superintendent. I don't I don't know. Starting and they would still need a long period of transition. Um maybe maybe they would come in at the end of legislative session. Maybe they're in
089contract somewhere else and they would come in in June. The timeline doesn't matter as much as the clarity about what we need to see happen and what we as a board are going to commit to doing over the next school year. Um, so I don't know there's there's there's notes here. I don't know how to, you know, I don't think we need like a line by line. You will do this this this, but an agreement about the scope of what it means for Fred to be the interim superintendent. And then the technical question that I have that maybe Greg is for you is we are legally required to evaluate the superintendent annually and to have an adopted evaluation instrument. So what does in a time where we have an outgoing superintendent an interim and then
090we're going to have an incoming hopefully before the next school year. What's our obligation to the evaluation? Um, and and yeah, and how do we work that with an interim? >> That's a really good question, and I'll tell you, it's one we've already >> started batting about in legal. I would encourage the board to take that up with uh the outside council who will be advising the board. Okay. >> I can't tell you there's a crystal clear answer. >> I can also ask WADA. We're not the first district to have this happen, >> right? It's uh we recognize it's an issue. We'll need to sort it out. Uh part of it is just lining up the timeline and but you you're absolutely correct. It's a statutory obligation and uh we can't just pretend it's not
091there but it does make it difficult to implement when there is this transition underway. I do not have an answer for you right now. >> Okay. Um, the last thing I will say is that as we directed as a board in 2023 and then again in 2024 in December, we need a real preliminary budget that does not look like the last three years budgets. We need a real prelim preliminary budget with structural changes to it in January no matter when the superintendent comes on. So that is something that I want to make sure is clear in whatever agreement is that budgeting for 2627 starts now that can't >> and I assume some of that is work that we'll be doing in the ad hoc committee. >> Well, we're talking about No, not really. >> Well,
092we're talking about timing of who need you know when to do >> I think that timeline is >> is related but I will say that it is standard practice and something we have demanded and then not held people accountable for. We've got to have a preliminary with a variety of scenarios January if we're gonna have anything real. And so, yeah, we can't just hold on that till they have somebody else, >> other board directors. >> All right. Call on staff to call the vote. >> Yep. Vice President Briggs. >> Hi. >> Director Clark. >> I >> Director Miss Rahi. >> I >> Director Ranken. >> Um clarifying question. My comments and questions. is the next thing to do is look at the contract as as presented or do we need to do something in between
093now and then? >> I think we're let's let's we're voting and I think it would be that uh director Briggs and I work on the contract language uh to bring before the board. >> Okay, that's I don't want to vote yes without making sure that that was not just me just talking into the ether. It's a real thing. Yes. Director Sarju. >> Yes. >> President Top. >> Yes. >> This motion has passed unanimously. >> All right. We're going to move to the last item on the agenda. We're going to move to the tables, which means we're going to take a quick five minute break. So, we will be back at 6:15. And the last item we will hear from staff about the strategic planning process. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Sarah Heat. Heat.
094Heat. I'm here. All right. Heat. Heat. has passed and that's my involved, but we're join back together and have our update draft strategic plan process. I I am I am excited. I read through the slides. I am I'm ready. I'm prepared or as prepared as I'll ever be. And I'll pass it over to acting superintendent Podesta. >> So, should we if everybody's read the slides, maybe we should go straight to questions. No, I we know we are the last thing between um everyone here and uh and a beautiful summer evening, so we'll be quick, but tell us Yeah, tell us to slow down if we need to. I'm going to um kind of go back over the process a little bit and describe where we are in it, ask Eric Gersie to drill down into
095some specifically uses of the data that we're gathering and um walk through an example of how this will manifest in specific uh strategic actions and then also describe um other dis uh another plan from another district that also employs uh policy governance and has kind of worked that into strategic plan and then we'll ask um Chief Redmond to um talk about the engagement the staff engagement associated with this plan anchored in the um stakeholder advisory group uh task force um uh that you uh I know uh support us uh creating and then how that will be augmented with other um potentially with other types of engagement. So, um, and let's see if, uh, the my jinx on this thing has been resolved. I can actually, for some reason, I always have trouble. Um, so, uh,
096what, uh, we're trying to do is just give you status. We're probably at midpoint, maybe a little bit past in this process. So, we just want to describe what we've done, give you some in we're not going to go too deep into the substance of the information we learned, but um giving you some top level findings and then where we are in the process and what to expect um going forward. Um we it's good to remind ourselves so why are we doing this? Um, you know, it it's good to always have a map if you're trying to get somewhere, you know, have a have a direction and a focus and to remind yourself what the priorities are. Uh, Seattle Public Schools is not an enormous organization, but it's big and complex enough that we're responding
097to things all day, every day, and having uh a northstar that reminds you so what's important, you know, how do how do you make decisions? How do you allocate resources? um what what is going to guide us today? We've highlighted the align resources with priorities. I think um uh some of these uh questions came up on at the dasis in the previous conversation the structure of the strategic planning work that we're talking about really um one of the aspects of the technical work is looking our at our baseline state of how we allocate resources. Now, um we all know we have resource issues and um uh financial realities we need to deal with. So, we just think that um we really need this plan to show how we're going to reallocate resources, how we're going
098to work um with uh a structural deficit and kind of diminish resources because um the what we're all expecting is um better student outcomes with perhaps fewer resources. So the allimp important question is you know what are you doing with what you have and and is is every effort we make the highest and best use for the resources that we have. So that's why put a box on this slide just to remind oursel that that is the punch line. The the other bullets are the why and the punchline is so so what's the answer going to lead you to do? So um we uh again the you know uh typically strategic planning processes start with identifying vision and values and the board has done that work in concert with the community and that's what's led
099to the goals and guard rails that we're using to guide this work. Um what we've been working on in the spring and right now uh through right now is identifying um our current uh use of resources. um uh we're developing what we're calling a fact base about the current state of the district and um that we want to uh understand kind of the potential um rates of return for the way we're allocating resources. Now, we're moving into a step where based on those findings and the goals and guardrails, we're having staff identify priorities um that you know what are the priority areas that we need to focus focus on that will lead to the strategic work that we intend to do. Um I should have noted this in a earlier slide but we're thinking the
100final deliverable as a draft strategic plan understanding that we need to be flexible and agile as new leadership um comes to the district and the board. So we want to make sure that um whatever the timeline is for these transitions that um we give leaders a toolkit um to make the changes that are going to ultimately support students and achieve the uh student outcomes that you all have identified in concert with the community. So in terms of process uh again we started um this spring uh on a diagnostic analysis uh that um identifies resources that are in place um identifies uh looks at our org structure uh the coherence of our strategies um we say we've been doing things and identified priorities over the years. This is really a kind of a truth check that
101are we allocating resource the way we think we do and then why um our partners in ERC are really helpful as they can help us benchmark that data against districts across the country. So um our resources aligned with the goals that we previously stated and are they are there big variances between how we do things and how other districts do things and what learning can be made by that. Um uh staff have begun in uh several sessions looking through um and and walking through those resource allocations and kind of the questions that they all raise and have led to facilitated discussions about so what would our priority areas be um in terms of how we allocate staff, how we allocate resources, how we're organized um to uh to start thinking about so where are the
102priorities I think in that se some this will be a little bit of an iterative discussion because I think we may identify some gaps that well we for for whatever reason staff sees this is a high priority that is not immediately easy to map back into the goals and guard rails. So we may have a discussion. Is this something uh you know how do we adapt? How do we understand how um any of staff priorities support the goals and guardrails or is there something um that we just need to all clarify? We're talking a lot about our finances um that's implicit in this that we need to think about allocating resources. The goals and guardrails don't actually say a lot about finances per se. They they talk about equitable distribution. Um, and so those are
103things where we might identify things that, hey, from a staff level, this is really important, but we'd really want to have a transparent discussion with the board if we see any kind of misalignment. Um, so we can talk through that. Um, and then uh the kind of identifying these priority areas will then uh that'll be enhanced with actual strategic initiatives and work that um that we can lead to real projects. the the what are the actual tasks? What are the actual organizational changes we made need to make? What are the resource realignments we need to make to achieve those goals and explain to the board and the community why we think that will be successful and why they can be measured um in the interim uh goals and guardrail metrics that we're also talking about.
104And so again, we it's just worth reinforcing the hierarchy of this that we're um starting with goals and guardrails that that is the broad vision. The board's been very clear about the direction that they expect staff to follow and what they expect to see with regard to um outcomes for students. Um uh we're using that in uh in concert with this diagnostic tool which is giving us a so what are we working on now? what's working and not working and where are resources aligned and what has been successful or not with other districts. Where are we seeing um correlations or not between our current strategies and kind of overall performance in a um a model that is uh neutral and not built on the way we write budgets but um that really is gives us
105a a clear kind of school-based picture of how we allocate resources. Those priorities will live uh lead to a kind of a menu of strategic initiatives that we'll continue to talk to the board and that's depending on the timing of our um leadership transition. That is a great way to think of it as a menu that you know depending on the timing the uh new administration is on board. They have choices that they can finalize and refine if we need to get further. Um uh the budget doesn't wait for anybody. So, we have decisions that we have to make and we'll try to um you know do what we need to do but retain that flexibility for incoming leadership. So, I think I'll at this point turn it over to Eric kind of walk into
106a little bit more detail unless do uh director Sergey wants to ask a question now. >> Well, how many more slides? >> A handful. Not a not a handful. Is that like five? >> It's 10. That's two handfuls. >> There you So, I just want to point out >> very different >> than a handful. Okay, I I'll just I'll try to keep my question in my mind. >> Eric talks twice as fast as I do. Go take it away. His 10 is my five. >> I I will try to keep up with the uh promise speed. So, thank you uh Mr. Podesta. just to kind of talk through this is an example framework of how the various components that we just went through hang together kind of in a coherent plan and what it looks
107like in another district. We chose Charlotte Meckllinburgg intentionally because this is a district that leverages um a similar governance structure as Seattle public schools and in fact uh director rankin and attending the council of great city schools conference has sent us their work back as an example for us to hold up and consider. Um, and if you were to go on the website and look through Charlotte's plan, you'd notice it's not perfect, but it's an example of a way to structure a plan. And what they actually do is they have uh sequenced initiatives over five years where you can see exactly when in that time span they'll be uh implementing various initiatives and they report out on an annual basis both as a district and at the departmental level how they're aligning across those initiatives.
108So this is just an example of how the framework hangs together based on the preceding components. So what progress have we made towards filling in that chart and developing those components? We've started again with our diagnostic analysis which is going to provide us with again a shared fact base and based on that diagnostic analysis as Mr. Podesta mentioned we've begun to develop priorities and I'm going to kind of walk us through how we've done that in a second here. in alignment with the priorities that are beginning to emerge. We have some strategies that are either underway or that we're considering and contemplating and we're lining those up with the draft strategies and we're beginning to see how that all sort of molds together in the theory of action which is the glue for the plan
109for how we believe that we can achieve the outcomes that the board has charged us with pursuing. And we're not doing that in isolation, but we're doing that in conjunction with uh the community through targeted questions and input opportunities. And Bev's going to go through a little bit of what that's looked like to date. On the next slide, you can see we've referenced the diagnostic analysis a number of times thus far. Well, what exactly are we talking about? We've had three um really deep opportunities to interrogate a set of questions that we think are vital for equitable resource distribution and for the future of Seattle public schools. We've worked, as Fred mentioned, with a third party that works with school districts across the country. And what that's allowed us to do is not only look
110at compare ourselves against the state of Washington and against uh longitudinal trends over time, but also to look at how other districts across the country are uh allocating their resources and where there are similarities and when there where there are differences. And that's not to say that differences are bad, but we'd want to know why those differences exist. There's a series of questions on the screen here that together form again that shared fact base. We will be bringing back to the board in a work session that we are um currently scheduling answers to these questions so we all as a governance team have that shared fact base and we're also going to be creating a publicly public facing document that's we're close to finalizing so that the community can see uh sort of where we
111are with regard to our resource distribution. We're also going to go into an even deeper dive on some of these questions with specific content tailored for the ad hoc budget committee. The board has asked to sort of understand in greater depth um specific components of the budget and we're going to get into some of that. So, as we begin to address the questions on the previous screen about resource distribution across time, people, and money, there are sort of a set of what we'll call emerging findings that are coming to the forefront of our analysis. And these emerging findings are connected to the goals and guard rails and are shaping some of what we're seeing. And all of these emerging findings have very specific resource components and are probably unsurprising to many directors, community members, students,
112staff because these are based on reality. So it shouldn't be surprising. Um but we have um just to kind of briefly walk through the findings. the sort of um human capital and educator distribution across the district has variations based on um years of experience that educators have backgrounds of educators. Um the evaluation levels that educators are receiving across the district and how that's distributed in our schools. The sort of second emerging finding regards student course access and performance. So what courses are students accessing based on uh inschool factors across school factors and individual student level factors. The third third finding um is related to school level coherence and where there are sort of non-negotiables and areas of autonomy in schools. So where are we seeing similarities and not and to the extent that those are
113deliberative or not? Um the fourth emerging finding regards um sort of our structural um the fact that we again have a fiscal deficit and that there are some uh structural revenue and expenditure challenges both now and in the future that we're facing. And finally that we have some challenges with strategy implementation and organizational incoherence. And part of that as um has been mentioned tonight is due to how resources are distributed across the organization. We've sort of done a little bit of a deep dive into professional development is one area where there's sort of resources scattered across the organization that could be leading to some inconsistencies in the student and staff experience. So again, we started with those questions on the slide before this. Those these are some of the emerging findings in response to those
114questions. These findings are beginning to shape a set of priorities that we can kind of see on the bottom left here. The data suggests that there's a variety of priorities that are beginning to emerge. We know that there are priorities that live outside of the data and the data is a good starting point. We want to take it seriously. We want to um be really intentional about how we look at it, but we want to go beyond the data through uh working with our community, conducting other qualitative engagement efforts, looking at previous studies that have been conducted as director Ranken referenced that may um bubble up some priorities and then consolidate those into some draft recommended priorities that again as Mr. Podesta has mentioned, we'll continue to iterate on. Just um to take us back
115one slide, we can see emerging finding two, variation in student course access and performance. I'm just going to kind of talk us through how that finding could lead to a potential priority in alignment with the goals and guard rails as one of those priorities that come from the diagnostic analysis. Again, one of the emerging findings is that there's variation in student course access and performance. We've made some progress on this um in this area over the last several years. And this slide has a lot of words, but the core the core theme is that there's still disparities that exist. And we want to begin to unpack why some of those disparities exist. One way that we've looked at that is um just looking at the math. This is this is one example. It's the math
116pathway across Seattle public schools. if if you're interested in AP calculus and we're not saying all students should take AP calculus, but we're saying all students should have the opportunity to take AP calculus if that's something that they're interested in and it shouldn't be there shouldn't be barriers in place for them to do so. This is one snapshot. There's many different ways to look at the data. that's not longitudinal or cohort-based, but it's a snapshot of a particular year. And we can see significant barriers and disparities across race, ethnicity that emerge and actually widen across the pathway to AP calculus. And that points us to a potential priority which is in sort of that middle box around coherent, rigorous, and differentiated academics. Another potential priority around setting a clear academic vision and implementing it. those
117are slightly different entry points into similar priority areas around teaching and learning and we've worked um to understand what some other best practices are in districts to address some of the disparities that are widening um that we might see and we've sort of begun to unpack key questions. So that's just pulling back the curtain a little bit on the work that we've been doing as a staff to shape some of the priorities and we talk about potential priorities and potential actions because we don't want to do this alone and um we want to be working alongside key stakeholders and I'm going to pass it over to Chief Redmond to share a little bit about how we've been doing that. >> All right, Michelle, I know you have a question. Come on now. I have three
118slides. I promise you some connection >> some connection points. Uh so before you on whether you're looking at your printout or whether you're looking at the screen speaking about the stakeholder advisory task force which the board asked us to put in place we are happy to say that that representative group of students staff families and community members did have its first orientation meeting this past uh July 15th and we've tentatively scheduled some additional meetings for them to meet monthly to advise or give input on uh priority setting and how we engage on this particular plan. We may need to bring them together more often or longer just depending on how long we stay in uh the transition phase to a new leader. So they are poised and ready. uh when we started working with them
119during this orientation session, I want to say that we use the goals and guardrails as has been mentioned and I want to say as our firm north star. This was not a chance or a space for us to reinvent those. Those have already been established. So we wanted to make sure that that was a clear point, a clear base of knowledge for them as they begin to really get into or will begin to get into this work. Uh we certainly appreciate those who did attend and were able to come to this initial meeting. Felt like it was wellreceived. The lived experiences and expertise of our community uh will be critical as we continue to move into the strategic plan. Moving on to our next slide. Other possible ways as we're continuing to calibrate through transition.
120We're not trying to get too far ahead of ourselves. want to make sure that we're being flexible. But some additional ways in addition to the task force could be community surveys, could be community listening and learning meetings as well or understanding sessions as well as utilizing community focused groups to really vet the plan as it comes more to life. And then moving on to our last one and then we'll get into questions and comments. uh as we're looking ahead, uh we want this particular draft to become that roadmap or that guideline for the next person coming in, knowing that we uh want to plow out some ground and be ready for someone to come in and take this and make it his her own. And uh we look forward to uh bringing more information to
121the board as we as we move forward through this particular process. Again, engagement incredibly important. This is our first foray at really putting the task force out there. The connection points were important so that when we come back together, they'll be able to dive more into work rather than still try to do a lot of wayfinding. So, thank you so much for your time and we're opening for questions and comments. And I know Michelle was eager, but I heard microphones popping on >> across. Okay. Because that's the camera right >> there. >> Where's the camera? >> Right in front of us. >> Oh, will it catch me if I stay in my seat so the interpreter can see me talking? Mhm. >> Okay. So, some of you may have seen me like frantically circling stuff.
122Yes. Um, I'm I'm going to do my best to be succinct and connect threats. However, I will admit that I I have a little frustration. It's not I'm not yet currently hotter than fish grease and I don't want to get there. >> Okay. So, um, some first of all, great presentation. It is a validation to me that I'm actually not crazy and that the things we've been saying are actually true because you I'm assuming you didn't put lies and falsehoods in this slide deck. So, I just want to start there. I appreciate the detail, the transparency, and the honesty. I want to go back to a board meeting where, and again, I'm going to preface this by saying my comments are not meant to demean or whatever is proximal to demeaning um a group of
123colleagues. But if we're being honest and transparent, there was a board meeting where a quorum of four board directors believed it was okay to go from failing 66% of black boys to failing 50%. Remember that? The 2% over five years. I was hotter than fish grease then. That is not a standard um that I want for black boys in my community. And I do not believe it's a standard that that my white colleagues would accept for their kids. So that's thing number one when we think about getting to um what Chief of Staff Eric pointed out to students being able to successfully take AP and IB classes. It starts in third grade. It actually starts before then. It does start in preschool, but we're not going there. That's going to be how I that is
124going going to be how I end my career is starting with the youngest citizens once again. But if we and I believe that this board can make amends and say, you know what, we're not going to accept failing 56% of black boys in this district in five years. there. If where there's a will, there's a way. And if there's no will, then that's going to stand. And that will be a statement to the African-American community that we believe it is okay to fail 56% of black boys in this district so when they get to high school, hash our fault, that they can't take and compete in AP and IB classes. That's what we're settling on. We have an opportunity here with this. You all are calling it a strategic plan. I would like for us
125to think about it as a strategic focus. And I'm not just throwing words out there. Strategic plans get made and then they sit on a shelf. Because if in fact this district were deeply leaning into its strategic plan, we wouldn't have a statistic of failing 66% of African-American boys. Would anybody like to challenge me on that? Like if we were really leaning into that and so let's not play games here. Is this strategic quote unquote plan actually going to be something that's implementable and then is there going to be a will and a way to implement it? I don't need an answer for that. But I I would like us to consider given that we are hiring a new superintendent that we think about the work we're doing now as sort of laying the foundation
126and the foundation for that individual to be able to decide whether they want to do a strategic plan or a strategic focus. that this is a thing that's happening because strategic plans often don't they just don't go anywhere. But if you have a focus and people are assigned to certain parts of that focus, work gets done. And so you don't have to change anything really with this. You we just need to sort of conceptualize it differently. I do not want to hand a new superintendent a task that says we're okay with failing 66 to 56% of black boys. I'm going to keep saying that and come when I'm done. I'm going to be at the blonde podium cuz that's going to be my work. I will not settle for a Seattle public school board to
127believe it's okay to fail even 40%. Going from 66 to 56, we've left a whole bunch of kids behind because there's no focus on those kids. We need to figure out both end. And so as we as you all do this work, which again I'm going to state it for the record. I I'm excited about this. I I feel like for the first time in a long time, you all are sitting here presenting us real information. Information that we can digest, information that we can think on, information that we can form our thoughts and ideas for plans around. That's progress. I want to state that for the record. I haven't been excited about this role in a long time. And I feel like for 17 the next 17 weeks, I have something to be excited
128about. I'm going to begin to count Wednesdays starting in August because it will be very many less than 17. But my time is done. Well, my time will be done. But I'm going to go out still advocating for the same things because I I don't want to leave here believing that a quorum of four believes it's okay to fail 56% of black boys in this district. I can't live with that belief. I have to believe that my colleagues will make a shift, a mindset shift that it's not okay because we wouldn't say it was okay for what is currently the dominant culture of kids. We would not say it's okay to fail 56% of white kids in our district. The parents wouldn't settle for that. And so I'm speaking for the voices that often don't
129get heard. That's who I'm speaking on behalf of, not for. Some might say, "Yes, Michelle, you're speaking for, but I'd like to think I'm speaking on behalf of." So, congratulations. I think we are making progress. Maybe it was the vote tonight to uh install interim superintendent. Can we just drop the interim superintendent Podesta? That's what he's doing. the interim doesn't matter because we expect him to do his job and do it well. But I'm excited for what you're going to bring to the table this point forward. >> Director Anen, >> thank you. Um I am wondering having been through various iterations of various community task forces mostly as a community member because they sort of disappeared co and after um so this is exciting but my question is I I had put in an email
130and if I got a response I missed it so apologies for that but um I would like to know what the methodology was for selection and if uh a little bit more about demographics of the composition in terms not just race and identity, um, but, uh, if they're elementary representing parents of elementary kids. I mean, they're not all going to be parents, I assume, but just what what experience are we capturing here. Um, and uh, yeah, how this lecture was done. And then uh I do not believe that board members should be voting or participating members of the task force, but I do believe it is valuable to have a board member there periodically just to I think in in in past times when there is a task force, sometimes there will be one or
131two board members actually assigned to the task force. I don't think at this point that's that's I'm not asking for that, but just if there's a time where it seems like, hey, we're going to have this conversation and, you know, reach out to President Topp and say, is there somebody who's available or would you like to come? I think that would be great just to add to that, you know, our kind of check-in and and oversight of what's what's happening would be nice. Um, and then uh the most uh damaging thing when when these um task forces happen is when you're on a task force and you leave it and you feel like it didn't matter. And usually in my experience that comes from a lack of clarity around the scope that people are participating
132in a task force with a different idea than what it's actually being used for. Sometimes that's not the case. Sometimes it was just a check the box thing and people say on your way. So um I am interested in what we I mean I see the the purpose and the role here and I think that's great but I would like clarity on if there's a a scope in any deliverables or if they're just a sounding board like what's kind of what are we expecting from this task force? Um, so you don't have to answer that now unless you have the answer. But I would like to know kind of methodology for choosing the the composition of the task force and then what their what their charge what the expectation actually is. >> We have all
133of that in a document that's coming your way. We could send it right after this meeting, but we were hoping I think Monday in the forecast to the board to get that out if >> Fantastic. Thank you so much. Yeah. No, no rush. Um, and then just to add on to what Michelle was saying, we've got four seats up for the board. The power of a board and the importance of a board is that individuals may come and go, but the direction of the board is what is supposed to be >> sustaining and consistent. Doesn't mean that direction can't change, but what I I am also like Michelle very excited about this. This feels tangible. This feels like real progress. This feels like, you know, those of us who have kids in the system and
134have been advocates for a long time, the emerging issues, they're not emerging. That's what we know. Those are things we know and experience all the time. But it is really validating and um important for us to see that from an outside perspective that it's not just anecdotes. It's not just people with chips on their shoulders. It's not our imagination. an outside entity is coming in looking at the landscape and they have identified these things and um they've also been identified before by other search firms or task forces or whatever. So, my I am excited and my um I'm not going to say biggest fear because that's kind of dramatic, but I hope desperately that we can look back on this moment as the real turning point for Seattle public schools and not just another time
135where, yep, they did that 12 years ago. They did this task force. did this thing and then a new board got elected and it got trashed and nothing changed cuz that has happened so many times. Yeah. So, what I was going to add to that was Michelle talking about strategic plans sit on the shelf. They do that if there's no accountability and that is our job as a board. And so for everyone on the board, anyone hoping to be on the board, if you're not excited by this and if you're not willing to hold people accountable to it, step aside. >> Yeah. >> Don't run. because this is the work. This is what we need to do to turn this around for the students of Seattle public schools and we have the people who have
136the heart and the willingness and the commitment to doing this and please let's not just throw it away. I I would want to note um you know leadership stability has been an issue that has been raised but um I think I'm the longest serving member of the cabinet. The board has completely turned over a lot in my time at Seattle Public Schools. The underlying goals that you've all articulated in um working with the community have not changed that much. Um, so I I think this is about disciplined discussions about how we do things, not what we're doing. And so, and that's a huge step. You know, I think we have clarity of purpose. Organizational change is very difficult. It takes an enormous amount of of discipline. That's what we need to do. We need to
137stay focused, >> do what we say, >> and we need to honor commitments to each other um and keep our eye on the ball um and not get distracted. um that that seems to me is the key to what we and I think we can certainly have change in leadership. We can have a lot of changes but I I the underlying foundation the message is the same one that was also developed with a public process in 2018. So we're um and it can be done you know it's not impossible. Um so uh it's just it's now now it's go time. Yeah. All right, other questions. All right, I appreciate uh the update. I think we'll continue to have updates at our our meetings so we we can know that even though we are in a
138leadership transition, we are continuing to do the work and that uh developing the strategic plan and the budget and all of those things are important. Uh, I will just say I I've heard from some folks who attended the first stakeholder advisory task force and they really appreciated it. They thought it was a very productive conversation. So, thank you. I appreciate us getting that that um off the ground. Um, but with that, I think that concludes our second board meeting of the month. Uh, I think we had kind of three goals this evening. Get ready for the upcoming school year. We did that with some intro and action items. Have an update on our superintendent search, specifically the timeline piece. I think that's that's important and then the update on the strategic plan. But there being
139no further business on the agenda, the meeting stands adjourned at 6:55. Thanks everyone.