001[Music] testing. [Music] Over here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] get started here. All right. Thank you everyone. The June 4th, 2025 regular board meeting is called to order at 4:20 p.m. We would like to acknowledge that we are on ancestral lands and the traditional territories of the Puges Sound Coast Salish people. Miss Wilson Jones, the roll call, please. Vice President Briggs, here. Director Clark present. Director Hersy here. Director Ms. Rahi present. Director Ranken here. Do we have director Sarju? Um, President Top here. Student member Bragg here. Student member Ilas present. Student member Yun present. All right. So, before we begin tonight, I want to take a moment and recognize and thank Miss Wilson Jones. This will likely be her last time calling the role for the Seattle School Board, marking the end of nearly seven years
002in the board office. Tonight's meeting will be her 345th board meeting. She has served 17 directors and six presidents. Um on June 9th, Miss Wilson Jones will be transitioning to a new role. She's not going far. She'll be the senior assistant general counsel at in on SPS's legal team, and we're incredibly excited for her next chapter, but it goes without saying we will be we will miss her a lot. Fortunately, she won't be too far, so if we have questions, we can always come and ask. Um, so yes, thank you. So, Miss Wilson Jones, thank you for your years of service, for your wisdom, your grace, and your unshakable presence. We are better for it, and we wish you nothing but success in your next role. Um, so with that, um, I'm going to now
003turn it over to Chief Operating Officer Fred Podesta for comments for on behalf of the superintendent. Thank you, President Top. Again, Fred Podesta, chief operations officer. I'm um covering for Dr. Jones, who's on medical leave, and we're all thinking about him, wishing him well. Uh as we get into our last two weeks of the 242 school year, we've had a lot of uh reasons to celebrate uh lately. uh uh most recent of which this week I want to thank everyone on staff and others who turned out to raise the pride flag that we raised in front of the John Stanford Center and a shout out uh to Director Rankin. It was great to see you there and it's a beautiful shirt and thank you for bringing beautiful weather on that afternoon. It was a great
004event. Um last Friday uh the King Makers had their crowning ceremony and that was a wonderful event as well. I would recommend everyone go. That is um um one of the most joyful things that happens in Seattle public schools. It's an annual event that um uh recognizes the hard work and the achievements of uh students of African-American students who uh participate um in our uh mentoring and our our programs uh uh sponsored by the AMA. Uh yesterday in this room, we were joined by many of our uh uh partners, our community partners that help with with college and career readiness. More than 30 organizations came um with sponsorship from our partners at the city's department of education and early learning. Um there was a student panel that described how all the supports that we get
005um in this area are helping them and helping uh the district and students directly with our graduation and life ready goals. And um we're right on uh the cusp of graduations, the most joyous time at Seattle public schools this particular year for those uh commencement ceremonies that take place Memorial Stadium. That'll be the last round in the current facility, which is an item on your agenda tonight. Um we'll be working to redevelop the stadium starting this summer. Um and then um uh thank you for everyone that's joining us here tonight. Thank you for the students who have joined us tonight to make their voices heard. We are going to um have a discussion about student safety and some of the policy recommendations that we're bringing to the board later tonight. Um and uh we all
006have many opinions about this. This is a complex subject and really uh can only be successful. We hear from everybody. So I appreciate people making their voices heard. and I'll turn it back to you, President Todd. Thank you. We are move now to student board members. I think we'll start with Director Yun. Oh, thank you, President Top. Um, first, thank you to everyone for all your work this school year on behalf of our students. We know this year was incredibly challenging for many, and we're especially grateful to those who listened when it wasn't easy and made space for our students. Before we close out the 2024 2025 school year, I want to take a moment to reflect on the journey we've had as student board members. This year, we've accomplished a lot to better support
007engage with students. We've been on act we've been active on social media, posting over 20 plus posts with board meeting summaries, our Friday Factday series, and promoting event outreach. We also conducted school visits to hold group discussions with students, attended the WASDA conference, collaborated with members of the superintended student advisory board, and most recently helped lead the student engagement session for the superintendent search. But one of our main goals this year was to restructure the student board member policy, also known as policy 1250, and make it more organized for future cohorts. Since this is only the third third year of the program, it's understandable that some responsibilities were unclear. So, we saw this as an opportunity, a chance to rebuild the structure, lay a strong foundation, and establish a clear system that outlines expectations, responsibilities,
008and a sense of collective purpose. A key step in achieving this was revising um the student board member policy 1250. I'm just going to highlight that aspect. As I afer mentioned, uh, Director Rankin and I have been meeting consistently for over a month now, almost every sat Sunday morning to revise the policy. And we'll be sharing it as anformational item for everyone to review the edits we've made. Um, I won't go into detail about what edits we specifically made as that would take a lot of time, but I just want to emphasize that this work didn't begin just a month ago. It's been a priority for us since the very beginning of our term in September. Early on in our term, we met with Deputy Chief of Staff Eric Chief, who helped us build a
009yearly calendar with monthly goals. And while we haven't hit every milestone exactly as planned, this policy revision is something we've made consistent progress on throughout the year. After attending the WASDA conference last November, we joined the WAZA student network and have stayed in contact with student board members from other districts to learn how their programs operate and how their policies support student board members. In fact, we use the WASDA model to format uh reformat our policy. This work matters not just to us but to all SPS students because our roles and responsibilities directly impact how effectively we represent our peers. I feel that we can't use this position to its full potential unless we have a clear structure in place. And I'm not saying this one policy will solve every challenge we face this year,
010but it's a meaningful step toward shifting a culture that too often leave students leader student leadership roles undefined and performative. We want to build a system that holds us accountable as well because accountability brings transparency and transparency shows students that we truly care about what they think. I don't want to do things or we don't want to do things just for the sake of doing them. It's not about checking boxes or completing a list to say we did our job. I want this work to have purpose and to lead to something. I want it to lead to change. And next time I really want to say we're doing this and this because it moves moves us closer to this goal and this policy would help create the structure to make that kind of intentional purpose-driven
011work. Thank you. Thank Thank you, Director Yun. [Applause] Uh, director, good evening. Um, since this is our last regular board meeting this year, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on the progress we've made as student board members. I mean, director Yun has done a great job covering that, so I guess I'll just skip that. Um, when I first joined, there was no clear guide handbook, just the understanding that students observe a seat at the table and that I really wanted to make a change. Over the past year, through consistent collaboration with director Rankin and others, we've helped shape the position into something more defined, more supported, and more reflective of what student voice can actually look like in practice. With the draft revisions of policy 1250 now shared, well, not yet, but I'm
012hopeful that future student members will have a stronger foundation to build from as you continue making important decisions around budgets, safety policies, and governance. I hope student voice remains central to that work, not just as a comment, but as a core part of shaping the outcomes. It's truly been an honor serving as a board student board member and thank you for this opportunity to serve. Thank you, director Director Brag. All right, so the first thing I'm just going to say as a student uh and as the queer student sitting here, happy Pride Month. It's awesome and amazing to be here. Uh celebrate your proudness, celebrate being gay, celebrate being trans. It's a tough time. So, always remember that. Do also have a couple things to say as Julie was advised to tell me to share
013some opinions now as I will not be staying for the whole meeting tonight. The first thing I want to say is to share my opinion especially throughout what I've been hearing from the community and what we can hear from the community tonight is that when it comes to police officers in school, when it comes to talking about that, let's remember the fact that fear and security can lead to a want for things. But putting on a band-aid, as was said by a Garfield student today to me, putting on a band-aid filled with razor blades is not the option. The sometimes putting law enforcement in schools can create a hostile a fearful and hostile environment and that goes against many of the core values SPS claims to hold. That was very serious. I'm going to just
014say some very nice things now. Um, this opportunity has been one of the most amazing things in my life. It has shown me how to speak and I want to share that with all of you and share that especially with students and directors staring staring at me right now. Um talking to legislators talking being able to talk to going to conferences and has helped me find my voice and helped me find the fact that it is absolutely terrifying to speak up and it is also uh hard for a lot of adults in the world to tell students to speak up. So I implore thee, I beg of thee, um if you are an adult sitting here, if you are a teacher, an educator or a staff member, please please bring up student voices. Please, please
015make them unafraid to speak. And if you are a student, be unafraid and say it or be terrified and say it anyways because it needs to be said. to the people. Thank you to the people who made me unafraid such as director sitting here today, director uh president top, director Ranken, and even more to many of the people who have helped me along my journey, Miss Scott, Miss Pentacos, and Miss Myers. Thank you for being the reason I'm here and the reason I'm able to say this. Thank you to so many board directors and staff for making this all possible, for making the students be able to have that change and to have a change that we now see possible to be able to see that this is not a position made for performative action.
016This is so we listen to it and thank you to the community for hearing our voices and please continue to do so. So, what I will leave you with is I cannot wait to see who sits in these seats next, who shares their opinions next. But never forget why this position exists. Listen to students. Ask them how they are. And most of all, remember this is all for them. Thank you. Thank you. Um, we had a small small celebration for our student board directors uh before our meeting today and I I shared these notes so they're going to have to hear it again. Um, but uh when our student board members speak in this room, in this space, you can feel a shift in the room. People pause, they they listen. And if they're multitasking,
017they stop. Their your voices command respect because of the wisdom you and experience you bring in your comments and your willingness to speak up and bring your opinions. And I was thinking today through some of the ways in which we have seen this uh throughout the year and rec recognizing where our students have had some real impact. And one of those moments I saw firsthand was how you shaped our board goals, particularly our college and career readiness goal. And I think the feedback that you gave I I remember that meeting so specifically in those moments and the feedback you gave to staff h reshaped h how we are monitoring, tracking and doing and and trying to achieve that goal. And I think that is real progress and uh a testament to the importance of the
018role as student board members. Um I think it's also a phenomenal step that we've had. We have more applicants this year but also applicants from all our high schools except for two. Um and that is a huge feat um and a testament to how you present yourselves to the students and what a uh important role this is seen as to our students. So thank you for that. You have made space for students voices to feel heard in this role. Um so thank you all for making a difference and bringing your invaluable experience to this work. Um, I can't wait to see what you do next. And some of you may be on the dis again. Um, we'll see. Well, um, but but thank you. Um, so I'm going to, uh, we're going to, we're moving
019into board comments here. Uh, turning to our agenda for this evening. We are going to reschedule progress monitoring on guard rail 4 to our July 1st meeting. So, we'll have guardrail 3 and four in July. Just a little bit of concern on timing. Um, I'm also going to briefly walk through the plan for reviewing the 2526 budget proposal tonight. So, later in the agenda, uh, staff will introduce the board action report for the proposed budget for the year. Um, that item is scheduled for a vote on July 1st. We will then work through our remaining introduction items on this agenda and then move into a special meeting to hold our public hearing on the budget that will convene at 8:00 p.m. regardless of where we are on this agenda. Uh so I attend intend to
020move us at efficiently through tonight um to make sure that we get as much or as possible through the agenda as we can. Um, please note that the budget public hearing does have a separate agenda and sign up process and that's for the folks in this room. If you are interested in providing testimony during the hearing and you're remote, please go to the hearing agenda and follow the link for remote testimony signups. that will close at the start of the hearing, so at 8:00 PM. For those in person, there will be a separate signup sheet at the back of the room um a as we move into that hearing and you will need to physically sign in on that that sheet. So, that will happen at 8:00 p.m. for our budget budget hearing. Um back
021to our regular meeting tonight. In addition to the budget, we will receive policy recommendations from the ad hoc policy manual review committee. Um, and we will hear recommendations for for our safety policies. Um, I know there are a number of people here to speak about all of these things tonight. So, thank you for joining us. Uh, few housekeeping things. Uh, we it is graduation season which is super exciting. board directors are assigned to different graduations. They essentially certify the graduation. We are looking for one more board director on June 13th for uh for a graduation if at all possible. So just plug putting a plug in there for that. Um and then be uh I want to note that we have our school board retreat this Saturday. Um it will start at 10:00 a.m. It
022will be in this room here. Um and uh uh so please join or board members just a reminder that that is happening. Um and then finally uh before we go on to additional uh uh committee and liaison updates, we have HYA here, our superintendent search firm, and I'm going to briefly hand it off to Micah Ali to give us a quick update on our search process, but he will be back again on Saturday for us to go into a more indepth conversation. So this is a a a quick update and then we will have another update and and more time for discussion on Saturday during our retreat. So hoping technology works and Mr. Ali, you have the floor. Good afternoon everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you. I do apologize for my inability to
023appear via camera, but we're ready to rock and roll. So, why don't we why don't we launch the presentation, Mr. Ali? I'm not sure staff has a presentation sent sent from you. Oh, okay. Uh, Miss Vincent, can you share the screen with Miss Vincent? Any chance? She is she not in the meeting? There we go. We We Thank you. Oh, much appreciated. So again, we're very pleased to present before you with respect to the superintendent search and the update. Next slide, please. So this is where we are. Very much uh very much thankful for the opportunity to lead the search on behalf of the school board as well as your community. This is the search process for which we discussed several weeks past. So right now we're the we're in the engagement phase. The engagement
024phase will go from May to June and that consists of an investment with respect to engaging your community. We've already done engagement with your students and some of your personnel. And so the next phase which is ongoing is a recruitment phase. And of course we move August. We move to August with this selection phase as well as transition. So why don't you do me a favor, Miss Vincent, why don't you just drop down to the next the next slide. No, drop down to the Okay, here we go. So this is the engagement schedule. What we wanted the board to do, we wanted to start with the students for obvious reasons because many of them have graduated and they and of course they're enjoying their summer recess and moving on to collegic enrichment programs or sports
025programs etc. So we wanted the board to look at the engagement schedule and then bless this make certain that we've captured the sentiment of the board as well as the community. We want to thank your staff. We've worked very closely with your staff, but we want to make certain that we uplift the voice of members of the board and ensure that we're hitting the mark. So maybe we can take a look at this. Madame President, we can take a look at this for a second and then of course members of the governing authority can bless this. If not, we can always make amendments accordingly. It's whatever the board decides to do. Yes. So I think what we will do is we will uh I for our retreat we will have the be able to have
026this document and be able to provide any additional feedback we may have on this. So yeah yes and we will have more time definitely to talk about that. Okay. Thank you. So Miss Vincent, go back up to this slide. Go back up. Okay. Here we go. So I didn't want to slide the board to death. Okay. So here we go. Job posting is up live and rolling. Advertisement, social media, networking, etc. active. We're moving full steam ahead. The survey was launched. We're seeing great responses. We're going to continue to propagate that. Perhaps we can talk about this Saturday, leveraging members of the governing board in order to affffectuate your networks to push that survey. The survey really truly encapsulates the voice of the community and it allows individuals to complete it at their leisure. They
027feel no pressure. They can do it 24 hours a day. We want to capture the voice of the community. And then of course we're continuing on with our community engagement. Right now we're working virtually. Soon we'll be on the ground working very closely with individuals as well as members of the board. And so that's where we are with respect to an update relative to the search. Are there any questions? I think we will cut you off there. I appreciate it, Mr. Ali. And I think one of the main goals for us on Saturday will be to review the engagement schedule and provide feedback. So have an opportunity to really review that slide and information. Um, so going to board director comments. The audit committee met yesterday and I'm going to go to Vice President Briggs
028for an update on completed internal audit posted for tonight's agenda. Okay. Um, board procedure 6550B internal audit requires an announcement of completed internal audits. As the audit committee chair, I am announcing that at the June 3rd quarterly audit meeting, the office of internal audit presented an internal audit report for Ballard High School. All audit reports are discussed at a public audit meeting and the completed reports are posted for public viewing on today's agenda and on the office of internal audit department website. Thank Thank you, Director Briggs. Uh so now we will move on to committee chairs and liaison reports. Director Ranken, thank you. Um yeah, I have a few things. First, I wanted I'm going to start with a couple positive things because um I used to be a very hopeful person and being on
029this board for this is my second term now, the optimism has been sort of crushed out of me. So, I'm anticipating rather negative comments throughout the rest of the board. So, I'm going to start with something positive, which is that um Beacon Hill International has had an annual Young Author's Day where students read their work to guest listeners. It's a tradition that they used to have before CO. This year, today was the first time they've had it since CO. And um I wanted to shout out and say thank you to educator Nisha Daniel for inviting me. I think Michelle was also there although I didn't we didn't see each other but um it was really really um a joy and our students are so amazing um and yeah it was just a great time and
030so if the opportunity comes again to us next year I encourage everyone to take it um to go be a guest listener. Um, I also was invited to the Native American Education Programs moving up ceremony, which is unfortunately in about half an hour from now. And so I wasn't able to go, but I wanted to give a big congratulations and thank you to um the students, families, and staff of students in the Native Ed program. Um, the first Friday in June is National Gun Violence Awareness Day, which is this Friday, June 6th, in two days. Um the board has recognized this in the past with a resolution and the district has annually done a declaration. Um I am disappointed that I don't see that this year and I'm not sure why uh um when it's
031been repeatedly talked about how to make it an annual recognition not necessarily from the dis but as a community um and especially that we have a uh topic tonight uh regarding student safety and gun violent pre gun violence prevention and it is the anniversary of the death by gun violence of one of our students. Um, so it may not have been publicly or officially announced, but um, I'm recognizing it. I recognize it kind of every day. Um, and I I hope that all of you will take an opportunity this Friday or over the weekend to there various community events. You can there are different organizations that give away gun storage lockers or safes. So, if you do have a firearm in your home, safely securing it saves lives. um and just go out and be
032a positive force in in your community um this weekend and always. Um so attached to the information items is my legislative liaison update. It's just a recap um of the 2025 legislative session. Um, since I wrote that, the Department of Education released a summary of the impact of the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget um, at the federal level that has passed the House by I can't remember two or four votes. And, um, it's pretty devastating for children and families. Um, and uh, in the proposed budget, what the Department of Ed released that's not in my memo is that the uh, overall funding at the federal level for education is reduced by 12 billion from fiscal year 2025. Um and uh the budget also proposes consolidating 18 existing K12 grants and funding programs into a single
033allocation formula for states which if you've been following along or if you've seen some of my previous updates um is referred to as uh converting to block grants. So there are specific dollars designated to meet specific needs given to states to meet the needs of students. Um the current budget proposal is um proposing that rather than be allocated based on to based to meet the student need as they were intended to collapse those all into basically just a check to states which on the one hand well no it's not the same amount of money. So, not only is the money reduced, but it also means that the whole reason for those federal dollars was to close gaps and support states in identifying and serving students with um uh different needs. And so, the concern now
034is if that remains, that money will go to states. States can just fold it into general education funds and those gaps might reopen. Um there's also no guarantee that it has to even go to education. So, those could just come to states and that money could vanish from the K12 system, which when you're talking about the level of cuts being proposed to Medicare and Medicaid. Um, I know that our priority in Washington state will likely be to save lives, as it should be. Um, but if this passes, um, it's a it's a it's going to have really long lasting negative impacts. So, um, the attention's now on the Senate. Uh, apparently they're hoping to vote either on or by Fourth of July, which is ironic. Um, and I know that uh in Washington state, our
035senators Catwell and Murray are actively working to um reach their colleagues in the Senate and and hopefully keep it from passing. Um, but it's uh not going to tell anybody how to advocate, but if you have family members, friends in other states who want to reach out to their senators and provide their opinions on um voting for this bill, this is a really good time to do that as this vote will happen in the next month and have significant impacts for children and families across the country. Um the memo also has uh at the end of it a recommendation on increasing our uh legislative program collaboration in general and increasing our capacity for advocacy as a system. So that's in the memo. Um, and then I have two uh requests to make. And I'm going
036to uh acknowledge my discomfort at making this publicly, but my discomfort in our failure to make progress is stronger. Um, so uh I and and I've also struggled as I've mentioned before to there's a lack of clarity around how we're setting our agendas. So my requests that I would appreciate support on is for um a special meeting to be called for the board to consider two things. The possibility of a forensic accounting audit. Um it's become clear that we can't get the information that we need to ensure our oversight of the budget. There are no recommended changes from last year's budget to this year's. The opacity of the budget's not new, but we've been promised since at least 2023 and probably before that the different concerns will be addressed that there will be more opportunities
037for engagement and alignment of the budget with board goals. And we I have not I do not see progress in that direction. And so my conclusion is that either there's too much weighing down our system to get clear evaluation or it's beyond capacity or people just don't want to do it. I don't know which it is. It doesn't really matter. The point is we need an outside evaluation with more detail. Regular state audits check for legal compliance. I want to be really clear. I am not making any assumptions or accusations of misdoing, but we don't have the level of information that we need and we've been asking these questions for too long without seeing progress. So, I would like for the board to consider hiring um directing the superintendent or their design to um hire
038a forensic accounting auditor that would report directly to the board. Um the second thing is I have concerns about staff behavior and relationships. The number of um HIP complaints between staff in buildings and central office is higher than I've ever seen it. And the fear of retaliation is such that students are feeling it. Students are afraid to speak up when something is wrong. I have staff who emails me and says, "I could get in really big trouble for reaching out to you." And um it's just unacceptable. Policy expressly prohibits this behavior. Policy and law protects whistleblowers and protects those participating in and reporting in investigation of complaints. It's our responsibility to ensure the superintendent maintains conditions that are lawful, respectful, and safe for all employees. So, as soon as possible, I would like for the
039board to have the opportunity to discuss the potential need for an independent investigation into guardrail and policy violations related to staff treatment specifically in central office. Um, the culture of an organization, and I wrote this down, the culture of an organization is defined by the worst behavior that its leadership is willing to tolerate. And um, poor behavior that impacts the ability of our students to be successful, has been tolerated for too long in the hopes that somebody will address it. I can't tolerate it anymore. Um and the I feel the board needs to act now to uphold the values of our community and protect protect the integrity of the system and take serious steps to address what we can as we prepare for a transition and leadership. Um so to recap two items requests for
040agenda is um board action to direct the superintendent to hire to report to us a forensic accounting auditor and um an in independent investigation into staff behavior and treatment and violation of policy again with the investigator reporting directly to the board. Um there's a lot of Wednesdays between now and July 1st. There are also other days. So I am requesting on record that we have a special meeting called to consider those two items for introduction so that we can take action on July 1st. All right. Other committee or liaison reports? I have a comment, director Sarju. [Music] Um, I didn't know that my colleague Liza was going to make those statements and I had fully prepared to make similar statements of my own. Um, for the audience, I'm going to admit that I was just
041in an accident and so I am a little shook up and I have settled myself to come in here because working on behalf. I'm not injured. I think it's um I think it's should be apparent at least I don't feel injured at the moment. Um but my job here is to work on behalf of kids and so um I am being transparent that um I feel settled enough um and I'm I'm putting my colleagues on notice that I I don't want three-way text messages around uh concerning me about me being out of control or um unstable or whatever things they say in those text messages about me. Um because at the end of the day in December 2021, I signed up to work on behalf of kids. And whatever date today it is today, June
0424th, 2025, I'm still working on behalf of kids. when we have disregulation in our system like what my colleague um and I'm I'm not doing the director BS tonight. I just need to be real with you all. Um when we have these kinds of things in our midst, it completely inhibits our ability to work on behalf of children. That's what we're elected to do. We're not elected to prepare our names for future office. We're not elected to try to boost our own uh whatever you call that. What's that thing you call um what is it? Resume credentials. But personal gender all those things. That's not the word, but it'll come to me long after I've gone to bed. Um, but we have a serious financial situation that I'm I'm not sure what's happening. Um, it
043seems more and more things come to light and it feels like I'm being blindsided and apparently some board directors know about these things and others don't and that really inhibits our ability to work as a body of seven. And so, um, I'm not here to call anybody out. I'm not going to call any names. Y'all are wondering who it is, and you're not going to hear it from me. But I have put my my colleagues on notice. I want the nonsense to stop. We have a serious situation on behalf of children. So, all these text message, why are we talking about SOFG and what is, you know, why does Michelle show up this and that, I want my name out of your text messages. I have said that to a couple people. The other issue
044is that we have a brewing scandal of unprofessional conduct that I fear is likely to hit the Seattle Times and I want it to be on record that um it is known by a lot of people. And so that will inhibit our ability to work on behalf of children. And so I'm stating publicly we need a special meeting to discuss some of these things. We need to get serious about the business of children. We have a lot of pressing issues, right? We did we didn't close schools because that was the that was the plan all along. And so now we're in it's not a direct line. It's not we didn't close schools but and now we're in really serious financial trouble. But what we didn't do was align our resources to best serve kids, which
045may have included closing schools. But there needed to be a plan. And if you remember, I asked several times in a board meeting, is there a plan? Before I got an answer, no, there's not. So I said, I'm not voting to close schools. And I recognized in that moment what that meant was likely damage down the road, but we need a plan for our kids. And if we can't come up with a plan, then we need adults who can. And so, um, what you're seeing up here is that we're we're adults. We have disagreements. We don't have to agree on everything, but one thing we have to agree on that this work is about children. And if it's not about children for all of us, resign, get off the board. Because at the end of
046the day, this is not for us to build our own names so we can go out and run for other offices. We are here for four years. That's what we signed up for to work on behalf of children. And I'm I'm saying to the parents, you need to hold us accountable to doing that. You may not understand how we should be working as a board, but you can hold the adults, the board, and the staff accountable for doing right by children. That's what we signed up for, and that's what we need to be doing. All right. Other board and committee liaison reports looking online too at our board directors online. See if any hands. All right, then we are perfectly pretty much at five for public. Sorry, I have one. No, no, it's fine breaks.
047Yeah, no problem. Um, I just wanted to officially um also advocate for a uh executive session publicly as the third board member to request that. Thank you. All right, we are moving into public testimony. Uh, it is 5:00. Uh, board procedure 14:30 BP 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 I will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standard of civility required by our procedure. A speaker who refuses or fails to comply with these guidelines or who otherwise substantially disrupts the orderly operation of the meeting may be asked to leave. Uh uh I'm going to pass it on to staff now to summarize a few additional points
048and then read off the uh speaker list. Thank you. Thank you, President Topp. Um apologies, don't have the right document. Um the board will take testimony today from those on the testimony list and we'll go to the waiting list. If we are missing speakers, please wait until called to approach the podium to um or to unmute. Um 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 about. Speakers may see their time to another person, but this must be done when the listed speaker is called. If you're online right now, if you could go ahead and mute on your device, um we're able to hear you in the room. The timer uh time isn't restarted and
049total time remains 2 minutes. The timer at the podium will indicate the remaining time for speakers here in person. When the light is red and a beep sounds, that means your time has already been exhausted and the next speaker will be called. For those joining by phone, the beep uh will be an indication that the time has been exhausted. Moving into our list now. For those joining by phone, please do press star six to unmute on the conference line. And for everyone, 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 Christy Dwang. And just a second as we get mics turned on. I think you should be good to go. Okay. Good afternoon, schoolboard directors. My name is Christy
050Jung. I'm a student and a member of the Washington NAACP Youth Council. I'm here today speaking in opposition to the introdu introduction item amending policy 4311 that will be voted on in July in 2020 when the school board the board passed the moratorum on SRO. We were promised sustainable investments in community- based police alternatives to violence intervention. We were also promised preventions measures like restorative justice, mental health services, and student empowerment opportunities. Instead, we have had to fight over and over again for these vital services to be funded year after year. Since 2020, there has not been an honest open dialogue with the students and families that are disappro disproportionately impactedly impacted by police violence, punishment, and criminalization. As a student and a member of NYC, one of our demands that has been there for
051years is to incorporate restorative justice practices in police free schools instead of problematic, outdated discipline practices. Discipline practices that negatively impact students of color have plagued public education for decades now, funneling black and brown students in the school to prison pipeline. We have seen from time to time throughout history and in Seattle, police brutalize black and brown communities, LGBTQ plus and other marginalized identities. A 2023 report shows that in that in 2080 incidents of police violence against students, nearly 60% of them involved black youth. The impact of police on school premises affects students comfort in schools and in their communities. These are all issues that will not disappear overnight and are tied in the broader movement to hold law enforcement accountable. There are other things that we can fund that can benefit students and cops
052are not one of them. It's important to have community- based solutions rather than policing. There are so many better options than bring back bringing back cops such as expanded mental health care. Community-based solutions that promote restorative justice. Restorative justice practices have been proven to be more effective in addressing discipline issues. It teaches us skills to deescalate and communicate instead of using violence in its preventative versus police that criminalize our students. Instead of focus on discipline, the district needs to connect students in need with support such as mental health services. These solutions considers youth psychological well-being, development, and healing. It's time for you to keep your promise and fully fund these alternatives. Thank you. The next speaker is James Warren. James Warren. You'll need to press star six to unmute on the conference line. Yeah. Hi,
053my name is Jimmy Warren and I am in third grade. I got I go I go to Pathfinder School and I wanted to tell you how important and cool and cool assistant principal Miss Everman is. Especially for kids like me and my friends who have disabilities. Our assistant principal helps and make school a place where everyone feels safe, happy, and understood. When I get overwhelmed or need a quiet space, they help me calm down and feel better so I can go back to class. They listen when something's wrong and try to fix it. That means a lot because some sometimes kids like me need a little extra help and they make sure we get it. They also help our teachers so they can support us. They help. They make sure they make sure there are
054plans for kids who learn differently. It's like having somebody who really cares about all of us, especially when things get hard. Without Miss Everman, it would be harder for kids like me to feel included. They help make Pathfinder better for everyone, and they make me feel like I belong. Thank you for listening to me. I hope you remember how important our assistant principal is, not just for the rules, but for making our school feel like home for all of us. Thank you. The next speaker is Finn White. Finn White. Good afternoon, school board directors. My name is Finn. I'm a senior at West Seattle High School. Instead of splurging on expensive police pay to try and make schools safer, we should focus on the root causes of violence in schools. These include poverty, lack of
055mental health resources, and impersonal education. It's hard for students to care about school when it seems that because of immense class sizes, lack of access to financial aid and mental health support, and overloads of busy work, school doesn't care about them. Police at school won't fix any problems. They will only contribute to them by drawing resources away from potential proven re solutions like increased mental health support, financial assistance to students in need, and community-based violence interruption programs. These violence interruption programs include community passageways, choose 180, urban family from the regional peacekeepers collective, and others who are doing preventative work on shoestring budgets fighting for scraps of one-time funding. It's time for you to keep your promise and fully fund alternatives to policing before declaring that they don't work and putting cops back in our halls.
056Thank you. The next speaker is Uli Adams. Uli Adams. Hello board members. My name is Uli Adams. I'm a student. I'm a senior at Garfield High School. Um, today I wanted to discuss about bringing police back on campus. I think this is not a great idea due to the fact of having having police on campus. Sorry, let me go ahead. Okay. Can I restart? Yes. Thank you. Um, okay. Is it going to restart or No, you just Oh, okay. Um, as I was saying, having a police presence on campus, I come from Garfield High School where we have a lot of gun violence and issues within the community, but a lot of that stems from outside or it's never been about the students having a I've we've I've seen the impacts of having police on
057campus before. Um, we fought really hard in 2020 to get rid of them and having them come back would just take away all of that efforts, especially since the SBD has been known for their for um for their racial profiling and many other things in which Garfield is a predominantly black school with many students of color. bringing in a presence of police like could have them targeted which I've seen in many cases where students will where it'll be a bunch of students of white peers playing around and this black student will get assumed that it is their that is them causing the problem when it hasn't. Having them on campus could re lead to racial profiling as well as the school to prison pipeline which was mentioned before um due to school to prison pipeline
058before because due to the budget cuts which I'm not going to talk about that but the budget cuts of um having not as much education with the presence of police that together is just for a disa that's just a disaster waiting to happen. Um, but I wanted to bring up um some issues regarding the community of Garfield. Um, we need to talk about programs on how you all need to like talk to each other. The school board needs to meet with other programs. For example, housing programs outside of Garfield behind a block down, not even a block down, the street down from behind the school. There's a housing encampment. There's a tiny house encampment. that is fine to have, but like housing a campus like that right near schools that brings issues with drugs and
059violence and that's not helping our community. I think police should be looking at the bigger area rather than just the school itself. Um um so I was just saying I wanted to um bring notice to that where how these like programs you're not in touch with one each other so that you can um work together to help with these problems cuz example of the house that those tiny homes I know for example there's drug dealers posted up right there that is easy access for students to get a hold of drugs and other types of things that brings violence to the school and the surrounding area which I think that the school needs to be aware of and get in contact and communication with. Um I just wanted to add that the police I am not
060fully against the police being around the campus but I don't think they should be on campus for the fact that they are there for discipline matters. Having them there um having them there specifically on school campus can be helpful, but if it's in a community type of way where they get along with the students and well known, but having a police officer there, we all know high schoolers are not the brightest. They will do they can do ter they can do dumb things in which we're students. We're kids. We're still learning to navigate the world. So you could do things like imagine they're doing something bad like they're smoking on campus and that's that's not okay to do and a police officer sees this. They could be charged for doing something under the influence and
061now that's on their record. I don't think if police are on campus, I don't think they should be um I don't think they should be able to step in in that type of way. That should be left for the staff to figure out and their parents to navigate together so that they can learn instead of being charged in that criminal record and ruining their future. Um, so if there are police on campus, I don't think they should be it should be more of a like an eyes on witness type of thing. It shouldn't be like, "Oh, I have this gun on me and like I should cuz most students are going to feel fear, especially black and brown students. They're going to feel fear around the police if they see a police walking around their
062campus with a gun on their belt. They should feel like another person they can trust and talk to. So I really think if we do bring them, they need some type of training and like strict strict rules where if they break them, they would get some type of um they would get some type of rep recommendation. So that is my thoughts on that. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. The next speaker is Ryland Springer. Ryland Springer. I'm sorry. I'm Ryland. I'm a senior at Garfield High School and I personally did know the three different students we lost in the past year, which is a massive failure on Garfield, the school board, and the city. Um, sorry. Um, every single death was started with a fight. And um, there's a big problem with how
063we handle intervention with those fights. I've seen Garfield and the school board and Seattle handle conflict by silencing it rather than teaching students how to handle them and solving the issue which leads to um extreme measures. And I've also noticed that like if we're going to have a cop um they can't be there for the sake of punishing the students. they need to be there for the sake of making sure that people adults coming to the school isn't happening because that's what's killing our kids. Um, and I think that I spoke to, sorry, I spoke to a bunch of teachers from my school and they mentioned that they mentioned that the cop they had there was always there for the students to help them and that um They weren't there to punish the students. They
064maybe redirected them to their classes if they were stuck in the halls or encouraged them not to make a bad choice, but they were not being punished for their behavior. And um the students at Garfield don't trust the police. The police have consistently failed us. We shouldn't have this many shootings. We shouldn't have this violence. And until that can be stopped, we can't trust them. They've consistently shown that they're going to hurt our students, specifically our um people of color in our school. And I think that um until they they need to earn our trust, not expect it. And to do that, they should spend like a year just being there and meeting the community rather than expecting that we let them in willingly and trust them all of a sudden. And um I think
065we need intervention specialists. If we're going to bring cops, we need um the workers to help students as well, not just punish them. Um and I'd also like to like do a really quick moment to um appreciate and um recognize the death of Omar Murphy Payne, um Salvador Jr. Grenal, and Solomon. Um thank you. The next speaker is Chris [Applause] Jkins. My name is Chris Jkins. Box 84063, Seattle 98124 on Memorial Stadium. Three points. Number one, the proposal would violate board policy 4237, which states, quote, "It is the policy of the school board to ensure that school sites remain focused on education rather than as promoters of commercial activity." Number two, Memorial Stadium would be run by a private group with alcohol, commercial advertising, and the sale of naming rights. school graduations at Al's Used
066Cars Memorial Stadium. Number three, this is icky. Board members and those running for the board should instead stick to the original basic stadium replacement project on written testimony to the school board. Two points. Number one, I wrote to the state auditor about the district failing to distribute written public testimony to the board. Number two, the state auditor confirmed that the district has been violating state law, stating that quote, "We determined the district was not in compliance with RCW 4230 to40," unquote on changes proposed by the policy manual review committee. Some changes appear to wrongly loosen rules, such as changing the strong legal word shall, to the weaker word should. Please vote no on these changes. Also, there is a schoolboard candidates forum at 2 pm Sunday, June 15th at the Mont Lake Community Center. Thank
067you very much. The next speaker is Brian Massie. After Brian will be Rebecca Bins and then Ben Kums. Hi, my name is Brian Massie. I'm a parent and volunteer at John Rogers Elementary and I'm here to urge the district to improve enrollment projections and to share how recent fluctuations have deeply affected our Title One school. At the end of the 2022 23 school year, it was clear that J Rogers would lose many students due to our move to a temporary site during construction. We started 2023 24 having lost nearly 70 students, 30% of our school population. This decline was expected, so we were quite surprised to learn we would lose up to three classroom teachers that October. According to the district's own data, Northeast elementary schools lost an average of 8 to nine students per
068school. John Rogers loss was eight times that number and more than doubled that of any other north end school. How was this not anticipated, especially when nearby choice schools saw major gains and open enrollment closes in winter? By February of 2024, last year, our enrollment had rebounded to over 200 and continued to rise, leading to overcrowded classrooms in a fifth grade class with nearly 40 students. However, for this school year, the district projected us at 185, ignoring spring enrollment trends in real time school data. In October this year, we had 248 students, we had endured two two months of over 30 students in every class, including kindergarten. John Rogers is a Title One school serving a diverse community, 61% students of color, 42% multil- language learners, 18% special ed, 23% experiencing homelessness, and 56% on
069free reduced lunch. This year, my daughter had 36 children in her fourth grade class, about a quarter of which are multil- language learners. Today, I have submitted a letter to the board signed by nearly a hundred families, staff, and community members from Title One schools, which detail our requests. Upcoming speakers will add more detail, but in short, please revise your timeline for staffing assignments to prevent the October shuffle upheaval. Adopt a need-based allocation for support staff based on demographic and educational needs at specific schools. Be proactive and not reactive. Thank you very much. The next speaker is Rebecca Bins. Hello, I'm Rebecca Bins, Graham Hill parent, former SPS teacher, and I'm here to share information about the disproportionate impact that current staffing policies have on majority bipok and high poverty schools. Nearly half of all
070elementary and K8 students in Southeast attend schools understaffed by a minimum of one teacher. I have distributed reports so that you can dig into the details as nearly 9 thou as the nearly 9,000 high-poverty students in Seattle, half of whom live in Southeast, deserve more than 2 minutes of your time. I am here to inform you before the budget is finalized so that these policies can be changed because the harm they cause is falling largely on our poorest, most vulnerable children. Using the October count to calculate the following year's staffing and enrollments hurts high poverty schools who often have fluctuating student populations. When children enroll after the October count, they are not factored into staffing at that school for two school years. The district goes 23 months acting as if these children are invisible and
071do not need teachers. Half of all schools that gain 10 or more students since the October count are located in Southeast. Another policy that targets high poverty schools is the 2FT rule. This rule says that a school won't receive an October staffing adjustment unless the school has enrolled enough students by the October count to fill two classrooms. 55% of all schools that enrolled 19 or more students over projections were high poverty schools and 55% of those are in Southeast. Finally, the district uses historical data and the October count to project enrollment, but the district erroneously projected declining enrollment at 93% of the elementaryaries and K8s in Southeast Seattle. The result is they grant our schools fewer teachers then they don't offer teachers when our students show up for two years. This must stop. I'll follow
072up with an email. The next speaker is Ben Kums. Ben, you'll need to press star six to unmute. I am uh seeding my time. Bill dem you say that name one more time. Hi, please. Hi. Yeah, thanks. Um, Ben, I'm I'm a John Rogers Elementary School parent and volunteer and I'm also speaking today to urge reforms to enrollment planning policies and resource allocation models that have adversely affected our school. John Rogers is one of many Title One schools harmed by these policies. In fact, this year 70% of SPS Title One schools began fall with more students than projected by SPS formulas. On average, these tier one schools were overenrolled by 26 students, which would warrant an additional full-time teacher. Meanwhile, only 43% of non-title one schools were overenrolled, making this a systemwide inequity. The October
073count and resulting staffing reassignments compound these inequities. Kids in overcrowded classes lose months of learning before reassessment happens, while kids in schools that lose or gain teachers are disrupted by quickly cobbled together reassignments, mergers, and even split grade classes. This all happens just before Thanksgiving and winter break, effectively delaying any real stability until the new year. We believe that the overly flexible enrollment calendar is a major cause of the instability since staffing assignments are made long before option school weight lists close in August. Equitable staffing and planning cannot feasibly accommodate these late summer enrollment shifts. The district's 2FT policy further withholds critical support for overenrolled schools. Since tier one schools are disproportionately overenrolled, tier one schools are disproportionately harmed by 2ft FTE policy. This year, just three of 23 overenrolled Title One schools received a
074staffing readjustment. We call on SPS to align staffing with accurate enrollment projections and a more feasible weight list decision deadline. eliminate the two FTE policy budget and plan so that the fall adjustments and are minor and they accommodate are accommodated by buffered enrollment projections especially for tier one schools serving more students for from uh educational justice. The next speaker is Ashley Johnson. Ashley Johnson. Ashley, you need to press star six to unmute. I'm Ashley Johnson. Um, I am a parent and volunteer at John Rogers Elementary and I wanted to share to you with you today how this current enrollment system does directly contribute to the learning loss of our students. Um, John Rogers was significantly impacted as you've heard both this year and last year. In October 2023, we lost multiple teachers which forced mid-year
075class reshuffling that created chaos for families, but more importantly, it disrupted the instruction during the most critical months of the school year. This past fall, our enrollment was predict underpredicted by about 70 students. As a result, every classroom had over 30 students with too few teachers. My own child was placed in an overcrowded split class. The teacher was clearly overwhelmed by the range of needs and for the weeks for weeks there was no extra support. Students began falling behind quickly. In October, well into the school year, the district finally approved more staffing, but it took even longer to finally assign the teachers to our school. My child was moved to a new classroom with a new teacher pulled straight from another school. Unfortunately, that teacher wasn't a good fit and many students became anxious about
076the school and going to school. Within weeks, the teacher went on protected leave and a long-term sub took over. That sub did their best, but the this class included students with IEPs, multilingual learners, advanced students, none of whom have their academic needs fully met. These disruptions cause real measurable learning loss that these students may never recover from. If staffing had been addressed before the school started, our principal could have had a say in hiring the teachers who fit our school. Instead, we were left reacting and two schools suffered for it. Our student students deserve better. They deserve stability, timely staffing, and a system that puts learning first. Thank you. Next is Alexis TR. Alexis [Applause] [Music] Tran. Uh, good afternoon school board directors. My name is Alexis Tran. I'm a current junior in high school
077as well as a member of the NAACP Youth Council and I'm here speaking in opposition to the introduction item amending policy 4311. We've seen what happens when schools rely on policing. Rather than building trust or responding to the underlying conditions students face, it creates a climate of fear and exclusion. Studies show that having an officer in school leads up to a 400% increase in the number of students charged for disorderly conduct. This fuels the school to prison pipeline, pushing students, especially students out of the of color, out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system. SEOs reinforce zero intolerance policies that punish instead of support that criminalize trauma rather than address it. What students truly need is support. They need more school counselors, more psychologists, and restorative justice practices that foster accountability, healing, and
078community. These are the tools that strengthen relationships, uplift student voices, and help resolve conflict in meaningful, lasting ways. If we're serious about safety, we have to be honest about what it takes. Safety comes from meeting students' needs before harm occurs, not reacting after the fact with punishment. Mental health struggles and trauma don't go away with the presence of a uniform. They require care, trust, and a long-term commitment from adults trained to support students, not police them. And students know this. A recent survey conducted by the keep your promise coalition asked students how they felt about SEOs after being given a clear overview of what they are and what they do. The results were over overwhelming with over over 80% of the sample size of 47 saying that they would not feel safer with them in
079schools. This is a clear call from young people about what they need and particularly what they don't. The NAACP Youth Council has been grateful for the board's ongoing partnership both over the years and in recent conversations. And now at this crucial moment, we hope you hear us when we say counselors, not cops. Invest in what helps our students grow, not push us out. Thank you. The next speaker is Melanie Martin. Melanie Martin. Hi, I'm Melanie Martin, a parent and classroom volunteer at John Rogers Elementary. The SPS enrollment formulas have failed to account for shifting demographics in our Lake City neighborhood, which include refugee and immigrant families, families experiencing homelessness and new low and mixed income housing construction. Between winter and spring of 2024, John Rogers enrollment began to increase substantially from the fall, resulting in
080overcrowded classes in spaces too small to accommodate them, but no additional teacher support due to the two FTE policies. Perplexingly, these enrollment issues were not addressed at the start of fall of 2024 and in fact got worse. I began volunteering to help out in my second graders class after other parent volunteers asked for help, describing the class as operating in quote triage mode. Now, my son is from a well- educated and affluent family, and he will ultimately be fine. But there are many other kids in his class, the ones that I most often work with, who may not be fine. These include an incredibly bright Spanish-sp speakaking student who spends most of her day effectively cut off from instruction because we do not have adequate multilanguage learning support staff for a school that is over
08140% multil- language learners. It includes the kids whose reading and math are well below grade level, but who do start to get it with a little extra explanation and individualized encouragement. Yet, they're not getting that attention consistently in a chaotic classroom that is a direct result of SPS involvement and allocation inequities. To be perfectly clear, I love John Rogers. My kids love John Rogers. I am proud to be part of our diverse community and I am so grateful for the effort our principal, staff, and teachers dedicate to creating an inclusive space that all of our students benefit from. In many ways, John Rogers exemplifies the promise of Seattle public schools. But that promise is ultimately empty if we cannot allocate resources to adequately support all of our students, especially our most vulnerable students at title
082one schools. Thank you. The next speaker is Caitlyn Murdoch. Caitlyn Murdoch. [Music] Good evening. Directors, my name is Caitlyn Murdoch and I'm here to urge you not to pass the budget until Fred Podesta and Dr. Kirk Bleman restore full-time assistant principal support. Pathfinder K to8 and the other five option schools facing reductions in assistant principal support next fall. For years now, we have routinely faced an annual overspend in the tens of millions of dollars. Tens of millions of dollars that could be used on frontline educators and administrators. This year alone, there's an expected $20 million rolling over. Yet, option schools such as Pathfinder are being unfairly penalized due to inaccurate and artificially low enrollment projections. Last spring, SCS froze Pathfinder's weight lists before the choice process concluded, stranding over 70 students and leaving more than
08350 budgeted seats empty. These enrollment pre-biz directly triggered staffing cuts, including the removal of half our assistant principal. A move that destabilizes our school and punishes students for a district decision they had no part in. This isn't just a Pathfinder issue. Across the district, option schools are bearing the brunt of staffing losses. Eight of 15 option schools are projected to lose counselors, nurses, or administrators next year, while neighborhood schools gain over 140 staff, which they need. This inequity undermines STS's commitment to student centered budgeting. At Pathfinder, 28% of students receive special education services, far above the district average of 17%. These students need a full-time assistant principal to coordinate services, support teachers, and ensure safety. This isn't a luxury. It's basic support for student access and equity. The SPS budget is not yet finalized. You
084still have time to do what's right. Fund the front line and restore the full-time assistant principal at Pathfinder and the other option schools facing cuts. Show families, teachers, and students that they matter more than spreadsheets. Thank you. The next speaker, especially to the Go ahead. Sorry. The next speaker is Oliver MSA. [Applause] Good afternoon, school board directors. Thank you for your volunteer service. I just want to recognize that uh and the good faith effort you're making to engage in this complex issue. Uh I first want to thank also the students uh that came here to rally and testify today and also recognize that there's so many youth that couldn't join us that have been pushed out of neighborhoods like the central district that are now in Kent and Reton and Taquila. Um, I have the
085honor of both being a substitute teacher in Seattle public schools and helping organize students across the city. And uh, the demands haven't changed. They haven't changed for over a decade. And it's counselors, not cops. Invest in restorative justice practices and invest in community- based violence interruption programs. But none of these programs have been a eitherly funded adequately or sustainably uh, or implemented citywide. So when the board passed the moratorum on uh SRO's in 2020, there were calls for clear measures of accountability and I know a lot of you have worked and made those calls yourselves. Uh but as we can see even even SPOG in the in the union, it they were kicked out of MLK labor in 2020 for explicit racism and lack of accountability, but nothing's been changed to address that lack of
086accountability. If we reinstate SRO and SEOs into our schools, the district and board will have no oversight or accountability of these police officers because the Seattle Police Officers Guild have one of the strongest contracts in the country. Since 2022, we've seen bad faith efforts by SPD to manipulate public perception of the law, claiming they are not allowed in our schools or must be invited in like they're some sort of vampire. That's just not the case. So allowing officers into our schools right now is breaking the promise that we made to our students. Uh all as a compromise, a short-sighted compromise during an election year. We need the state law changes if we want this accountability to be had. Uh and we need a city council that will actually take action to address this lack of
087accountability in the contract. Uh neither of these hap hap have happened yet. So neither should you pass this. Thank you. The next speaker is Samantha Fog. Samantha Fog. Samantha Fog, you'll need to press star six to unmute. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you PTSA. And I want to start out by wishing everyone a pride and also reminding all that pride is about more than saying that we love each other. It is about taking action to protect our trans youth, our LGBTQIA plus youth. It is about making sure that Seattle public schools policy 321 is followed. that right now I am aware of multiple instances through this district where 3211 is not being uphill where even the first step of the superintendent procedure has not been followed if we're going to take safety
088seriously. We need to listen to our students. We need to listen to our families. We need to have an engagement process that is not simply people coming to a schoolboard meeting and speaking for two minutes. We exist in the service of our students. We are here to educate, to support, and to help be prepared for the world. Our student board members have worked really hard all year in service of other students and on working to improve the efficacy of the work and the the actions of the school board through improving the student schoolboard policy. And yet I was disappointed that I heard about their work and comments and not agenda item at this school board meeting. We must center our students. We must do better by our scared to tell their administrators about being dead
089in class because they anticipate retaliation and they just don't want to risk their college. I don't think that it is appropriate to have students scared to ask for our policies to be followed. We need to do better. We need to protect our kids, support them, help them grow. But we also need to let particularly our high school students need to give them space to lead. We need to give them the honor of listening to them when they speak. And when our school board directors, when our student school board members work on a policy, we need it on the agenda. Thank you. The next speaker is Janice White. I'm Janice White and I'm the mom of three SPS graduates. Two of my kids attended Garfield until 2023. I've seen firsthand the public safety challenges that shape
090the sense of urgency in addressing them. But I've also experienced the harm that can be caused by having armed police at schools. My autistic son's elementary school called the police on him, causing trauma. That same year, another parent of a child at the same school arrived to find him face down on the floor, hands cuffed behind his back, drenched in sweat and urine, and with several police officers standing over him. Studies have consistently shown that armed officers in schools perpetuate inequities for students of color with disabilities and other marginalized groups with little evidence that they actually reduce or prevent violence. I believe we must expand the proven strategies that are already working in our schools, investing in community-based organizations that build strong relationships with our students and through serving their needs interrupt and prevent violence.
091In addition, we should partner with SBD to increase patrols near schools, especially at key times when students are arriving and leaving and at lunch. Before we even consider bringing armed police back to any of our schools, we need to be sure that we have done deep community engagement. We need to ask whether there is training available that is effective to ensure that police officers will not cause harm to marginalized students. And we need accountability when families and students are concerned about potential misconduct. Thank you. The next speaker is Bvina Cortez. Belvina Cortez. Hello, my name is Belvina Cortez. I came before you back in 2020 speaking on behalf of the Garter Latinx community when the movement was to remove police officers. I am here today to repeat my statement. if the correct thing to do
092is to remove law enforcement on campus that we need to have an alternative in place to ensure student safety. Back in 2020, the Latinx community expressed they wanted to focus on improving relationships with law enforcement by creating community outreach programs, having police officers trained to deal with the community that they served that included the neurodeivergent community. I hear some young people tonight saying essentially the same. To protect and to serve, not to punish student behavior. In order to ensure student safety, even from those hired to keep them safe, policies, procedures must be created with the focus of providing resources and guidance, not criminalizing student actions. We must also keep in mind that with such a diverse student population, one size does not fit all. Whatever works for Garfield might not work for West Seattle High.
093What works for primary schools will not work for high schools. It will be beneficial if the district could provide spaces at each school to hear from its communities being mindful of language barriers because if we're not at the discussion table, decisions are made for us and not with us. And to all the young people tonight, thank you for speaking your heart. The future is yours. Great job. Thank you. The ne the next speaker is Alicia Spanswick. Good evening. My name is Alicia Spanswick and I am the co-president of the Garfield PTSA, but I speak today only as a parent and community member. I want to address the issue of police in schools and the upcoming discussion about bringing a school engagement officer back to Garfield. These last couple of years at Garfield have been extremely
094traumatic for students and adults alike. We are in crisis. There have been five shootings on or near Garfield campus during the school day in the last two years. One ended a life and another caused serious life-changing injury. That is a crisis. I don't pre pretend to have all the answers to this complex issue. But one thing I do know, more trusted adults on campus is critical to ending that crisis. More adults include the amazing work of CBOS like community passageways and wise scholars, teachers, mental health professionals, and school staff. And I believe under very specific constraints that police could be part of this network of adults. I continue to hear that the SEO will not be part of discipline and that is the bare minimum. I want this to be codified into theouou. Specifically, the
095example that I've been using is to say the SEO sees a fight and works to deescalate that fight. That's great. Are they allowed to defer the discipline of that the students involved in that fight to the school and act only as a witness? Or will they be obligated to conduct an arrest? Could they call in a separate unit if an arrest or charges needed to be filed? I don't know. All of that should be written into anouou under officer's discretion. And if it cannot be, if SPD will not allow that, then I think we need to find other ways to ensure that they are officially not part of discipline or they cannot be invited back to campus. The next speaker is Sarah Brome. After Sarah will be Aaron Combmes and then Castalia. Hi, I'm seating
096my time to another Garfield student, Noah Funk. Good evening. My name is Noah Funk and I go to Garfield High School. I love my school and I trust the people inside of it. I feel safe inside of my school. However, every single day I walk up the stairs where Amara Murphy Payne was murdered last year. The problem isn't inside our school. It is outside. We need SEOs outside to help the problem. I want a safe environment for my students and my staff. This is our school. This is our community. This is our safety that we are talking about. We're the ones that show up every single day. I strongly support the imp placement of SEOs outside of Garfield High School. Thank you. The next speaker is Aaron [Music] Combmes. Erin, it looked like you were
097unmute. If you could press star six again. Aaron Combmes. We're not able to hear you, Erin. I'm going to go to the next speaker and I'll come back around to you. The next speaker will be Castalia. Hi, my name is Castalia Simone. I am Cleveland High School PTSA president for this school year. First, I want to thank President Topp and Director Hersy and Director Clark for attending our Zoom meeting last week. Um, I want to thank you for taking the time out to speak with Cleveland High School's community and hearing our voices and our concerns and asking our um, I'm sorry, and answering our questions. Um, first of all, um, I also want to thank the, um, Seattle School District for, um, not limiting the cap at our school, and hopefully it's not being limited
098at other toy schools. However, we still have a problem, um, with funding. Um, funding should be equal to all schools. There shouldn't be a cap and with any school, regardless of a choice school or not. Schools should not be pinned against each other. Um, that's another form of oppression. Um, and also, I'm sorry, but reading what Rebecca wrote in this right here, this flyer, um, the it basically says the October count is pretty much a form of racism. And, um, I felt that way. My my I have an older son who graduated from Garfield and now I have a senior who's graduating in a few days from Cleveland. And I'm like, it's a form of oppression. I'm like, okay, are you guys trying to oppress us? Um um that's not okay. You know, it should
099be equal. I know as just speaking from experience um when things change in the middle of the school year or even within the school year, me and my friends, we did not do well in school. And so if we're not having funding in the beginning of the school year, that's another form of oppression. And and it limits success for our students, not just our students, and also within our staff and teachers. It's unfair. It's cruel. And it's another form of oppression. This should not be allowed um at all. It's not It's not okay. The next speaker is Katherine Ichinosi. Hello, my name is Katherine Ichinos and I am an organizer for Seattle Student Union. I work directly with SPS students from Franklin, Roosevelt, Nathan Hail, uh, Lincoln and more. Um, many of whom could not
100be here today. Um, and I am testifying to urge to uphold the moratorum on SEOs as many other students um, and impacted communities have um, testified today. Uh, when the school board passed the moratorum in 2020, it was an appropriate and essential response to a national reckoning on the police and the threats that they pose to a healthy and safe community. And since then, as a city, we have not addressed the dangers that the police pose to our black and brown communities or to our queer communities who were recently brutalized by SPD. Since 2020, we have invested in alternatives to policing, um, who are more trusted by students, who are more effective in practice in schools, and who are more cost-effective than stationing police officers at schools. Um they are more effective at preventing violence
101and at disrupting violence. Um including uh organizations like community passageways who operate as violence interrupterss in schools and are trusted and respected by students who feel that they can go to them in a crisis before it happens rather than responding with aggression to one that is already underway. Um, putting armed uh, engagement officers um, in schools creates a climate of fear that stands in the way of this violence prevention work that um, organizations like Community Passageways does um, and makes them less effective at preventing violence from happening. uh in 2020 we promised to invest in that work like community passageways and that work is not yet finished and will not be finished if this board goes back on that promise. Thank you. The next speaker is David Jacobson. David Jacobson. After David will be Elena
102McCollum and then Joanna Taylor. I'm David Jacobson. My daughter attends Garfield High School, which CBS reports is the site of more school shootings in the last 20 years than any other school in the United States. According to the K12 school sh school shooting database, there have been 17 shootings incidents in Seattle since 1966, of which seven took place at Garfield. All except one of those happened after 2020 when the school board's moratorum went into effect. Last year, there were six shootings incidents at Garfield. In my daughter's class alone, one student was killed and another was severely wounded. In contrast to what you've heard today, students do support police presence at the school. According to a survey conducted by Garfield last fall, 61% of the 481 students who responded, about a third of the student body
103feel comfortable with the idea of an officer inside the school. Only 13% express discomfort. 46% say an officer inside the school would enhance their sense of safety. and the same number feel very positive about deploying police officers outside the school. Moreover, the PTSA's safe schools action plan urges waving the moratorium on ISRO. We must maintain community and mental health-based approaches to prevent gun violence and to stem schoolto prison pipeline. But we need a well-trained, strictly defined, respectful police presence, too. Not none at all. like officer Benny Radford who used to patrol Garfield until 2020. Hearing about Amomar Murphy Payne's murder last year, he told the Seattle Times, "I never should have left. Those are my kids. That was my school. The most basic responsibility of a school board is to keep the our children safe.
104You are not doing that." Thank you. Next is Elena McCullum. [Applause] Elaine is a teacher that couldn't make it but wanted to seed her time to a student. We do need to have the person here in order for them to seed time. I'm going to go to the next speaker um on the list which is Joanna Arza Taylor. [Applause] Good evening members of the board. I stand before you today as a proud member of the K8 community where we continue to go through transitions and hopeful about the future of our schools. This year, due to an outdated formula and and policies, our school, like many other KAs, are having their AP resource moved to part-time. Our APS are simply essential to our schools, and this is a decision that simply hurts our students and staff
105members, and it needs to be rectified. I urge you to take a simple step of just reading their job descriptions and think about how important their work can be to accomplish by being in a school building part-time. It's just not possible. And the ones who will suffer are their students who are supported by them. I use Pathfinder as an example because it is my lived experience. Our school has over 400 students and almost 28% of them have disabilities according to the office of the superintendent for public instruction. By the job description, the AP is directedly supporting those students, something they would not be able to do while being in the building only half the time and having other responsibilities on top of that. Again, this is just affecting our kids. I'm asking you to ask
106questions, push for a change, look into the decisions being made across K28 schools and their assistance principal positions and how it affects the population in them and not just follow a blind formula which does not serve those who we are meant to protect. The kids who are our future are the ones in danger and we got to do something about this. Thank you. I'm going to go back now to Aaron Combmes. Aaron, if you're on the line, pre please press star six. This is Aaron. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Awesome. Um, I saved my time to Alice Appleton, who's also on the phone. Hi, my name is Alice Appleton and I'm a volunteer with All Together for Seattle Schools. To date, there has been zero meaningful opportunity for public input on the budget.
107In the absence of transparency, parents have taken it upon themselves to do a budget deep dive which has revealed major concerns. This was emailed to the board today. For instance, nearly 380 million is allocated to district office staffing with no public breakdown of how that money is spent. Central office staff has grown from 27% to 36% of total staff since 2013 at the same time that studentf facing staff and programming was cut. Also, financial contradictions. Every year since 2009, SPS has predicted a far worse deficit than reality, often ending with a surplus of 20 to$40 million. So, do we have a def deficit or a surplus without a financial oversight committee? How does the board know? Here are my urgent requests. One, bring back the finance oversight committee. Two, make central office cuts before anything
108student facing. Critically evaluate central office expenditures. Three, process weight lists now and adjust staffing before October. Mismanagement of the choice process has cost FPS up to 12 million in lost revenue last year alone. This works all students in our district. Four, rebuild public trust by conducting an independent financial audit and hiring a superintendent from outside the district with a fresh perspective and the courage to break the ship. Finally, on transparency, I want to call out proposed changes to public testimony buried on slide 121 of the ad hoc policy manual committee. These changes would eliminate the ability to seed or share time during board meetings. This is a deliberate move that would further silence working families and underserved communities furthest from educational justice. During the horrific closures debate, you all saw parents do the ADM click
109race in order to seed time to others with less bandwidth and less flexibility whose voices deserve to be heard. We can all agree the testimony process is flawed, but if the board really means and cares about equity, the solution is not to restrict participation. It's to remove barriers and expand access. Thank you. The next speaker is June. No Ivers. If June is here, this will be the 25th and final speaker. Hi, I'm um seating my time to Fawe Grammal and uh Leo Phipe Balyande. What's up y'all? Good afternoon. I am Leo Falamonte. I'm a student at Nathan Hell High School. I'm speaking in opposition to the introduction item amending policy 4311. There's been a survey mentioned by people here, but in that survey, there were no mentions to the alternatives to policing. So, what we
110need is um actual data on what those alternatives are. And in the survey we launched, we mentioned what those are. And we showed much more students actually showing that they are in opposition to police when they know what community passageways are and what violence interrupterss are. Yeah. Great. I'll pass my Hello, my name is Fatali Gariam. I go to Franklin High School. I want to speak about um funding counselors instead of cops. Cops have systematically been racially profiling bipok communities and especially black and brown communities. Um most times the students are acting out. it's due to the environment they're in. These environments include home life, friends, gangs, drugs. Um instead of finding ways to help the students in improving their environment, the school systems ignore or punish these students which cause more issues um in
111futures in future in the future and breaks the students trust within the schools. Students have asked for counselors not cops which was supposed to be funded for $20 million but was reduced to 14 million. um cop funding cops would be double the amount we need for counselors. Instead of paying double to the cops who systematically have failed us, I urge you to put the funding into counselors and mental health resources in schools. Thank you, President Topp. That was the 25th speaker. Want to thank everyone for taking their time out this evening to provide public testimony. We are going to go into uh recess till 6:10. So that's 7 minutes. However, board directors, student board members want a photo with all of us. So they they just requested it. Uh so they just so um if
112if we they're all here. Yeah. Uh so if we want to maybe congregate before our break right beneath the screen and maybe staff uh uh would be able to come and help take that photo that would be wonderful. Otherwise we will be back at [Music] 610. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Hey, hey, [Music] hey. Heat. Hey, [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] All right, I'm going to call board directors back to the dis. We're going to get started here. [Music] So, I have my two board directors
113who are online, but I'm missing director Miseri, Director Sarju, Director Ranken, Director Briggs, and the student board directors will be coming back to order. Um, if you'd like to continue your conversations, if you could please step into the lobby. [Music] All right, here we go. Director Ranken, Director Briggs, Director Sarju. Technically, I guess we do have a quorum. Folks, appreciate everyone being here tonight, but we are going to continue our agenda. So, if you would like to continue your conversation in the foyer, that would be wonderful. All right, one more time, we are going to continue our business. If you would like to continue your conversations, please head to the foyer. All right, we have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda. We have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda. May I
114have a motion for the consent agenda? I move approval of the consent agenda. Second. The approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Director Briggs and seconded by Director Msarhi. Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda? Director Sarju, I'd like to remove item number five. All right. All right. Uh, hang on just a second. Any others? Okay. May I have a revised motion for the consent agenda as amended? I move approval of the consent agenda as amended. Second. Okay. Approval of the consent agenda as amended has been moved by dire vice president Briggs and seconded by director Mr. Rahhei. Um, all those in favor of the consent agenda as amended signify by saying I. I I I I I I Great. Uh, the consent agenda has passed
115unanimously. Um, we will now move to items removed from the consent agenda. Um, the item removed was item five. Um, do we have a motion for the item removed? Oh, sorry. Okay. So, what are we doing? Um, so we'll make a motion. We'll see if there's a second and then we'll move to school. School board approved resolution 2024 2518 certifying that the proposed Aki Karrosi Middle School modernization and addition project will not create or exacerbate racial imbalance as defined by That's not number five. Uh it's it is it is Yeah, that's that's number five. I the number five. Oh, okay. I'd like to retract that. So, let's continue. So, let's continue through this process. We'll just we'll go when we go through we'll do a vote and go through discussion. No, no worries. Got it.
116My bad. Uh, director Director Briggs, Vice President Briggs, I'm sorry. That is okay. I am just fine with that. Um, will not create or exacerbate racial imbalance as defined by Washington Administrative Code 392 342025. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. So then we will move to a roll call vote. Uh Director Sarju would like to speak for just a moment just so people aren't confused. Um I got my pages out of order and I don't have any problems with the consent agenda item number five. Just for the record, I know Fred you sitting over there like why is Sarge doing that? It was a mistake. I made I made a mistake. Thank you. All right. Um, so that concludes discussion. Miss Wilson Jones, I
117call for the vote, please. Director Miss Rahi, I. Director Ranken, I. Director Sarju, I. Vice President Briggs, I. Director Clark, I. Director Hersy, I. President Topp. This motion is passed unanimously. All right, thank you everyone. That concludes the consent portion of the agenda and we're going to move on to the action items for tonight. Uh the uh we will uh start or may so the action item on today's agenda, the selection of school board student members for 2526. Uh can I get a motion for this item? Um, is this I'm reading this? I Okay. I move that the board select Josephine Manglesen, Isabelle, Massudi, and Sabi Yun as the three school board members um schoolboard student members for the 202526 school year. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. Second. Right. So,
118we have a motion and seconded. Uh we are joined this evening by a one student from the student member sele selection committee. Uh this student committee reviews and recommends candidates for student board members to the board. Uh this year we received over 90 applicants for our three positions representing 17 of the 19 high schools. So the most uh uh number of high schools we've received applications from before. My goal next year is 19 out of 19. I'm gonna personally work on those last two schools. Um, I want to thank the committee for their work and I'm going to pass it over to one of the committee members, uh, Miles von Layman, who will, uh, introduce the or talk about this item for us. Yes. Thank you, President Top. Um, I and the rest of the
119student board's member selection committee uh worked together reviewing written applications, evaluating them based off their demonstration of leadership, commitment to community and equality and collaboration skills aligned with policy 1250. We chose seven candidates to interview and after reviewing interviews and letters of recommendation, we had the hard job of choosing three finalists. But after much debate, we selected Sabi Yun from Ballad High School for their dedication to representing SPS students and determination to make a positive impact on the education of students. Isabel Massudi from Roosevelt High School because of how she demonstrated efforts to make her own school more welcoming environment and her leadership abilities and her ambitions for the district. And finally, Josephine Manglesson from the Skills Center and West Seattle High School for her demonstration of communication skills and her ability to speak not
120only for Lincoln high or for high school students of all of SPS, but also for elementary school students and educators. These three students we are recommending represent a diversity of viewpoints, experiences, and strengths. We are excited to see the work that these students will do on behalf of SPS. Thank you so much uh Miles for that uh wonderful introduction. Uh as he's up here, do board directors have questions for him? All right. Thank you so much. Uh we uh I will just say two quick things. We are very excited to have Director Yun continue on the board and continue uh the work on policy 1250 um and hopefully take it to completion here. Um and also look forward to uh well if if this passes swearing in the three new or two new uh but
121three board directors at the end of August. Um, so, uh, seeing no other question or I I just want to say thank you. Thanks for doing that. Yes. It's a really important part of our process and thanks for being here today. And of course, all the other selection committee members who couldn't make it here today, Miss Wilson Jones, can we have the vote, please? Director Hersy, I. Director Ms. Rahi, I director Ranken. I director Sarju I. Vice President Briggs I. Director Clark I. President Top I. This motion has passed unanimously. Amazing. Uh we are going to move to the tables for the introduced items because there is a PowerPoint and it's difficult to see on this screen as well as uh multiple folks to speak for the different items. So we'll take a minute to
122transition but not not we're not recessing just heading over to the tables. All [Music] right. First, we are going to move to the first item for introduction. um approval of resolution 2024 2519 fixing and adopting the 202526 uh budget. I'm going to pass it over to assistant superintendent of finance uh Dr. Bleman. Thank you and thank you for joining us this evening. Um want to start out following or director Rankin's um introduction with some good news. First and very importantly, we have a clicker at the table tonight for the first time. So, I'll be advancing my own slides. So, that is really exciting stuff for me. Um, applause from Chris. Um, secondly, just want to rest on this title slide quickly or for a moment and recognize the students and the good work that's going
123on in schools around the art programs. Um, they'll just read off from left to right the artists of these pieces. Rio Galass the ninth grade is the the piece on the left of your of the PowerPoint there. Sylvia Peters in eighth grader is the second piece. Bertakan Werikall, I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing the names, is an eighth grader in the middle piece. Emily Alar is an eighth grader with the fourth piece and Scarlett Shamada, a senior is the the fifth piece there. So trying to feature the student works um in our publication of the budget bill. There's a brief agenda for tonight. You can all read that and see this is a general outline of how the presentation will go. Um the budget hearing which follows will be a public comment responsive to this presentation
124and to the budget book. The objectives of this presentation are to summarize um the budget book, the 191page document that's been online for the last couple weeks and some of you have hard copies with you. Um the ALS another objective of this presentation is the introduction of the two related board action reports that follow on your agenda. So this is the fixing and adopting of the budget and the extension of the interfund loan. And the third objective of tonight is to receive any remaining questions the board may have or unanswered questions you may have um so we can clear those up tonight and or if they're more complex questions or need more complex answers be responsive to those between now and the the vote on the budget on July 1st. Just to review at the
125board, these were the budget development goals and principles that have guided this process um since we started last August. um reviewing the process and engaging in the budget development for the 2526 school year. The timeline, we're on the third row of the shoots and ladders game as director Harris liked to refer to this. Um so we're June 4th where we're introducing uh the formal budget for approval or consideration on July 1st. So, we're a couple steps from the final part of this process and then in August will be time for assessment of this year's process and um any changes that should result um for future processes. This is a repeat, but I thought it was good um context for the details that will follow in the rest of this presentation. We talked about this two
126weeks ago. Some highlights of what this budget contemplates. Um, first of all, the budget is $1.35 billion in the general fund for next year. Um, it eliminates the projected $104 million deficit with some not ongoing solutions. Some of those solutions are ongoing like the legislative and the levy increase, but some other one-time solutions to to make it a balanced budget for the 2526 school year. over 70% of the general fund is being allocated for teaching and teaching support activities. I'm trying to connect this to the guard rails that are being discussed um at this table in other meetings. One of the guardrails is around this topic and trying to keep that teaching and teaching sport activities an appropriate percentage. Just to reiterate, um the all schools would remain open for the 2526 school year with
127this budget and there aren't any reductions to that are made intentionally around um teachers or class size increases to class sizes um program reductions, assistant principles, librarians, or school discretionary funding. However, as we heard from many community members tonight, there are some changes that are happening or contemplated to happen in schools as a result of staffing and enrollment changes um going on in the community. This budget does include an additional $2.3 million investment in safety and security going forward. And it was developed through seven of these uh public study sessions, a board engagement, and other engagements throughout the year. quick summary of the the highlights of how the $104 million deficit would be closed for next year. Again, the bar that's um on your agenda for tonight for introduction is to extend a portion of
128the interfund loan the district took last year and repay up to $17.6 million of that in this coming budget year, leaving around $11 million as a balance. utilizing some rest unrestricted fund balances from 23 24 the year that closed a couple years ago um to as a one-time solution to the the the gap that's happening for next year deferring repaying the rainy day reserve account. Um the district has a policy where you would establish a establish and maintain a rainy day fund. Um, a few years ago, one of the solutions was to utilize that to help balance that year's budget. This would defer um a repayment to that rainy day fund. There was a fairly successful in the grand scheme of things legislative session with some um further investments in special education and maintenance or
129material supplies and operating costs and a raising of the cap for local levy revenue collection. So, this contemplates using those funds. And then there were some reductions in central office budgets that we talked about in some detail at the last um meeting at this table. Sort of the top level how this would potentially impact um the fund balance of the four funds that the district manages. The four funds are the general fund which is the majority of the conversation that I'm facilitating with you over the course of the the last year. the associated student body fund, um the capital fund, and the debt service fund. And so you can see there the projections that um we have for what the fund balances would be at the beginning of the the fiscal year in September 1st
130of this coming year and what if the entire um budget was spent the entire $1.3 billion were spent next year. um as the budget contemplates what that would leave in terms of a fund balance going forward in each of the different funds. So um that's the information on that slide enrollment. So the next two slides are uh sort of joint slides. This is headcount of enrollment which is what sort of is the common way of referring to enrollment. And you'll see the district's enrollment the last couple years has been flatish and is projected to be flatish for the coming school year in terms of headc count. The way the budget looks at enrollment is through a FTE which is different from headcount and because of the machinations of OSBI and the state these data in
131ex in exclude running start and open doors program. So there is a difference in those numbers. It's around how students are counted differently. And the the graph that you're looking at there, the blue bars are what was budgeted. So if you take the 2425 school year, you'll see the blue bar is shorter than the red bar. So at that year, at this point in time, anticipated lower enrollment than what actually happened in that school year. and the budget was adjusted accordingly throughout the year to take into account that there were more students that came than were anticipated at this time in the year. You see the projection there for next year. We will line up what actually happens that October count in the AFT and we'll make adjustments accordingly to the budget if more or
132less students um come to Seattle public schools in the fall. Are there questions around that? I see either. Okay. So, it's the way the state counts students um not butts in seats as they say, but rather what the services are that those students are getting. So, if you're a half-time student in Running Start and a half-time student in your school, in this instance, you would count as a half of an a half of an FTE um for the purposes of the budget. Um, some kids don't count as whole people in the Oh, I I understand that. What is AA? Fe. What does that stand for? Annual average. Is it on there? And I can't see it. Enrollment. I I probably just can't see it. Yeah. Average annual full-time equivalent. Sorry. So the so the difference
133between budget and actual last year how does that like what we learned from it were there things we learned from that that then are baked into the projection the budget projection for this coming year like did we find out why we were off and did we bake that into the new projections I guess the so the enrollment forecast which is different than the budget the biggest outlier was um we typically have a little bit of enrollment trough at in sixth grade in middle school and we saw less of that in this past fall than we than we typically forecast for. So it's hard to know. So is that a new trend? Is is that a new thing? Um and but but that was the bulk of it. And um just while we're on this point
134and so that was a happy surprise and we got 4 million in 4 point some million in revenue because of that higher um student count as we did those adjustments. We know people uh nobody like nobody likes those fall adjustments, but my recollection is um we ended up spending every penny of that on staff. So, as we keep having this enrollment discussion about if we lose students, what that does to the revenue. Yes, it the revenue goes up and the expenditures go up and the revenue goes down and the expenditures go down. Mo mostly if we're lucky we kind of break even it we want the students we absolutely want the students and we would um we want to be a provider of choice but this we need to do this better and we need
135to allocate these resources better but it's it's just not that simple that well if we hadn't gotten those 400 students and hadn't gotten the four million in revenue that that would be some sort of loss. And you know it it it's the net that matters not not just the revenue. So we'll dive into the general fund in a little bit more detail. Um this slide talks about the sources or the resources that are feeding that 1.3 billion dollars for next year. You'll see about twothirds of that is from the state. Um the levy proportion is going up slightly due to that um levy cap being raised by $500 per student for all school districts. Um that's changing from about 15 or 16% to 17% going forward. And then you'll see a dip in federal funding.
136Um that's primarily the way the state is or the state and the feds are they jointly fund the special education safety net funding. And over the last couple years, the state has increased their proportion of th that spending and the federal government has decreased the way that that that sort of goes together. The other reduction there in the federal funding is there was an uh blip in the previous year because the district got some additional funding for title students um late in the game because the poverty levels came in higher than anticipated. So the schools didn't have time to spend that in the year it was received. it carried forward into the next year and caused that um increase and it's going back to the normal levels for next year in 2526. I just want
137to be clear that none of those decreases on the federal government um currently on the screen have anything to do with um changes from the administration in Washington DC at this point in time. Part of the ongoing struggle to understand this information is the school district's report their financial situation three different ways activity program and object. Um so this is the first of those three which is by activity and see there's five sort of highle activities teaching activities teaching support principal support other support and central administration um as I said earlier teaching and teaching teaching activities and teaching support combined continue to be over 70.8% 8% you'll see a slight decrease in teaching activities. That's partially a function of projected enrollment and it's also a function of moving some coding to a more appropriate place.
138So substitutes on contract had been in the teaching activities activity previously. Um as we continue to refine the budget information those were moved into the central administration or the human resources line. So you see a slight increase in their spending if you ran if you looked at the detail in the budget book. Um the primary decrease in teaching activities as related substitutes on contract just moving from one activity to another. And the other thing that may pop out to you is the increase in other support activities and that's primarily driven by increases in transportation expenses. Um there was a change a Gazsby change in how subscriptionbased technology contracts are accounted for. So they show up as a large amount in one time and it's counted for in other sport activities. And then the interfund loan
139repayment is also in that other sport activities. So the main driver of the real things that are going on increase and other sport activities is increases in transportation costs um for Seattle public schools. Um you'll see central administration is also up slightly. Uh largest drivers of that is the switch from the teaching activities that substitutes on contracts and then legal expenses for the school district continue to go up uh fairly significantly over time. And just we've talked about this before that central administration activity. If you compare the Seattle public schools across similar districts in the state of Washington, this is typically about the middle of those range in terms of the percentage of the total budget. The next slide is just a graphic of that. Um trying to outline that the majority of the spending
140is in teaching activities. Um more than half of it We do get questions and as we if we double down on the guardrail metric being around teaching and teaching sport want to continue to make sure people have a clean understanding of what that entails. So have just provided a slide with those definitions. So teaching is not just the teachers and their salaries. Uh it is their salaries. So the direct instruction, but it also includes instructional materials, basic instructional and student supplies, but it does not include um textbooks or software and teaching support is services related to teaching and student well-being such as counseling, pupil safety, health related services, instructional professional development, textbooks, and instructional software. So, I just want to make sure that there's growing understanding of what those are, especially if they become a
141part of the the ongoing metrics of how to measure um the guardrail adherence. The second way of looking at the expenditures um that the state requires is by program. Um you'll see again there continues to be grow or not again, I haven't talked about this yet, but there's growth there. you see in special education spending. So from 272 million and 298 million um needs of students continue to increase in that category. Um so you see that's the main significant amount of increase in spending along with the support services. Again that's where the transportation contracts and things like of that nature um are embedded in the program look at this information. And then finally by state object, you'll see a couple of things moving around there. The one that caught my eye and probably catches others
142eyes the most is the purchase services. Again, this is related to transportation. Our our contract with our bus providers is a contract and a purchase service. Um, also some of the special education contracts with outside providers fall into that line. Utilities fall into that line. insurance is going up dramatically for Santa Seattle public schools and other um school districts and then legal costs and that so outside council that's hired by the district are the primary drivers of those purchase services increases and that was the most sort of significant change in terms of percentage on this slide. So I wanted to provide a little more detail on that. Much of that is in the budget book as well for folks who want to look at that later. And then finally the material supplies and operating costs.
143So um the state um has a antiquated formula for how this is reported and it's constantly evolving. Um director Rankin was probably in some of those conversations in Olympia this year. Um so this slide represents the way the sale public schools have typically provided this information to its board um by these categories along the left side. technology, utilities, insurance, etc. The state for this year is combining that all into one number, the bottom line there, the total. But we decided just to keep consistency and consistent information. We would for one more year provide this information this way. The takeaway from this slide is that Seattle public schools um is slightly underfunded for ma material supplies and operating costs and also um does a lot of capital transfers to supplement the operating costs of Seattle public
144schools. So you'll see in the middle column there the deficits the state gives the district 75.8 8 million. The expenditures as defined and none of this is people. This is just materials, supplies and operating costs is 76.3 million. So a slight small deficit there. This does not show what is charged directly to capital. The next column shows what's transferred of those costs to capital. So the district by using its capital funds is freeing up $22.7 million in additional resources to resource schools. Um, so because of the the capital fund and the investments of it, the $22.7 million is used for things that are underfunded such as the special ed duplication program, the transportation program, substitute costs, the security staffing, underfunding of stock staff cost of living adjustments and things of that nature. So I wanted
145to provide that information. And then finally, the associated student body funds. Um, new staff member in the accounting team, Chris Johnson, did a great job this year collecting all this information from the schools. And this is a compilation of that information. You'll see the schools are planning to bring in about $7.2 million in revenue and spend about $6.6 million of it for the coming year. um approving this the associated student body uh budget is part of the board's um requirements for this year. So presenting that and then debt service. I think this is the second to last year that the the capital fund will be paying off the debt service for the John Stanford Center um building. And so this shows how that will be and what the debt service payments will be on that
146for the coming year. And then finally, the capital fund. The most important number to see on this page is the $471 million in the rightmost column about in the middle. That's the anticipated spending on building projects for the 2526 year. And finally, the four-year forecast. Um the budgeted projected enrollment is that 49940. You'll see there the the resources anticipated in the general fund are the 1.2 billion expenditures anticipated are 1.3 billion and then if everything happened as it's written in this book all of the revenue came in as anticipated and all of the expenditures happened that would result in a $89 million reduction in the district's fund balance. Um the district's fund balance does continue to erode over time. um they won't likely erode at this amount for the coming year. Um but this is
147a way of looking at it the way the state requires us to say what are your resources, what are your expenditures and what would that impact on fund balance be if the budget played out exactly as it's written in the in the documents you submit to the state. I think that's it. Okay, we're going to go into questions. I have three quick things just to provide some information. One, uh I think we heard strongly at our last budget work session that the timeline wasn't working for us and regarding budget and resource allocation. This is something we are going to chat more about and have a deep dive into at our board retreat. Uh I believe staff will be coming with a proposal. So just so folks are aware about that. Um, also, Director Ranken raised
148some federal concerns. Um, not a large portion of our retreat, but we will have just a a preview of the essentially the answers that she got and an opportunity to have a little bit of discussion on on some concerns there. And third, um, after the hearing today uh, on the budget, if we do have more questions, we will have an opportunity at our retreat to ask them on the budget. So those are the three sort of housekeeping things but want to open it now up for discussion. Director Sergio, I just want to ask the same exact question that I asked last time because I'm not sure I see it's possible that I missed it. I'm I stated earlier I am a little bit foggy. I actually don't feel very good right now. Um, do we
149have a plan or a solution or whatever terminology um for the upcoming years on how to to eliminate the deficit? And I mean, I know uh Dr. Dr. Bman, you and I had an exchange, but I I don't want my my question answered with a question like that's the $100 million question because that is the question that I'm asking. Is there did you represent tonight? I know that there's some new stuff that we haven't seen or or I think you you presented more extensive. I I don't know if new is the accurate term. Um, but I'm still not clear on how we're going to close this deficit because basically if we don't, we're mortgaging our kids' future. I'm going to just keep saying that because this is about kids. It's not about the adults. So,
150what is the answer to that? And if the answer is we don't have a plan yet, that's fine. But we need to state that because I I keep coming to these budget meetings and granted I am not a finance person. You know, I'm a social worker. I'm a public health. I'm a midwife. I do those things all really well, but this is not in my wheelhouse of sophisticated understanding. So, this budget does not outline a long-term plan for sustainability of Seattle public schools. This is to get us through 2526 using the new revenue from the state and the levy and some one-time resources. Hopefully, as a result of the strategic planning process, there'll be some opportunity to develop that longer term plan in in conjunction with the task force that's being assembled at the direction
151of the board. And I guess the only points I would add to that are some of the op that we have talked about are some of the things we entertained as options for this year that didn't do. We talked about um school budgets. We talked about changes to transportation. We talked about additional um fees. those things are up and we were able not um to get started on that this year because we wanted to see what the other revenue sources would be, but those will be at least options and building blocks for how we get to a sustainable budget. All right, we're going to go to Director Clark, but I'm just going to remind folks I'm going to keep us on a tight two minutes again just because we have a lot to cover before
1528. Uh, Director Clark. Okay. Thanks for that reminder, President Top. I have one, two, three, four, five. I have about eight questions. Um, so maybe I'll just ask one or two now and then bring them with me to the the rest of them with me to the retreat. Um, I think that sounds on Saturday. Yes. Okay. So my first let's see um my first question has to do I think it was with on slide three there was a bullet point about how we're not making any staffing changes but then we are making staffing changes due to enrollment or reduction um it's bullet number five could could you please explain to me um like what enrollment scenario would lead to dropping an assistant principal from full-time to halftime. So the weighted staffing standards model has um
153a matrix of sorts where if a school falls under the certain number of teachers as driven by the model that causes an assistant principal funding or takes away an assistant principal funding. So it's a function of the teachers um and the teachers are a function of the students and I can get a lot more detail on that. Um the detail of that is in the the purple book and we can talk more about that whenever we whenever you want to. Happy to talk more about that. Okay. And then just as a followup to that, if the if the enrollment numbers increase um after the start of the school year and the number of teachers increase, would that assistant principal go from being halftime back to full-time? the way the district has done that in the
154past which doesn't mean that's the way it will always be the in adjustments of that nature were simply around the teachers and not of the other support staff in the school that's how the the model was currently written but that's um that's what's happened in the past yes okay um and then I think we can get into the three goals for the budget on Saturday. So, I guess I'll just ask um about the legal cost. I'm just curious, how do we project what our legal costs are going to be for an upcoming school year? I think a lot of it's based on history and uh lead council Narver's office anticipating um what what outside counsel will be needed to supplement the internal staff and what lawsuits are sort of what stages they're at. I'm not
155the person projecting that. And I'm sure we can get a more complete answer from lead council marbor. Okay, that would be great. Thank you. And I'll save the rest of my questions for Saturday. If you do want to send them to me in advance, happy to try and answer them fully and be ready for that on Saturday. Okay. I'm happy to send them to you. Thank you. Okay. I'm stepping in for President Top. Um, Director Ms. Rahi, you like Director Clark, I have a lot of questions that I'll save for the retreat, but um I'm just I'm going back and forth between slide page 11 and 25 and just trying to understand the 20. Okay. So, on the four-year forecast, it looks like we're forecasting on page 25 $89 million in contributions from the fund
156balance, but then it looks like on page 11 the 2526 resources that the fund balance is less than that amount. So, I'm just trying to understand the difference. So are we getting what happens if that fund balance is negative or am I just reading this wrong? I'm trying to follow the question. Sorry. So on page 11 when I look at fund balance and go over to 2526 it shows 7 78.9 million in fund balance in the general fund. I see that. Is that right? Yes. That's what's being used to balance the 256 budget. That's what's being used. So, we have more than that in our fund. Yeah. There's approximately last year in I think it was 111. Some of that's restricted for different things, but the total fund balance I believe was 111 million. So,
157this contemplates using some of that that's unrestricted. Got it. Um, the $42 million from the 2324 year that was a function of the the end of the ESRE funds and the some legislative funding that happened um sort of mid year in that year and a couple of other items that I don't recall off the top of my head. So, so why how why is that number different than on page 25? So 25 is trying to represent if all of the resources come in as anticipated the 1.263 263 million and all of the spending is happens the 1.35 million the the gap in that would be 89 million I think and I'll have to double check this I think the difference there is the loan would be outstanding and it doesn't run through the fund balance
158and that's that $1 million difference that's $1 million difference but I'm going to double check that we talk about it on Saturday okay thank you is that it for Director Miss Rahi. Okay, Director Ranken. Thanks. Um, I actually don't have any new questions because I don't see any new information. Um, and um, I also I'll just flat out say it. I don't think it's the best use of board retreat time to do work that should have already happened. Um, but that's where we are. uh what I want to see from a budget. I trust and believe staff to provide a budget that is balanced, but a balanced budget doesn't mean it's a budget that we need to serve students. Um I know I've said this to Dr. bottomland before. So hopefully it doesn't come as
159a total surprise. But in the current form, I can't vote yes on this budget because it doesn't I do not see an alignment towards meeting the needs of our students and I don't see any changes in staffing allocation or resource allocation from two years ago to now and the commit commitment that had been made to us since the um direction to align the budget to student needs in 2023. three uh hasn't hasn't been met and so I don't expect some perfect turnaround but I do expect some steps towards progress and what it actually looks like to align resources with student need and I just I just don't um also in terms of the object the the three different ways that the state um describes the funding um that seems kind of mysterious. Uh Wazda has
160a really really good set of like six different bud budget trainings. You can do them in person um in conferences or you can just go online and look at them. I've taken I think four of them maybe one of them twice and it's really helpful in just understanding what these numbers mean because actually you shouldn't you don't need an accounting degree to be on the school board and I actually believe that a bud a balanced budget will be produced to us. We have state audits to confirm that we're meeting with state laws. But what our job is is to make sure that we're spending our resources in the best way we can to meet student needs. And so many things have come up over the past 2 years that are not there's no reflected changes.
161Um so I I don't I I just don't really I kind of feel like I'm slamming my head against a wall. Um but uh until I see progress on changing the way we allocate our resources, not just you know moving line items up and down. Um I mean the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. And that's what our budget feels like. So director Yun. Yes. Thank you. Um for the ASB funding, what does the process look like in terms of like checking how funding is being allocated to different school programs and extracurriculars? And is there any communication happening with ASB leaders directly like in this process? I know there's communication with ASB leaders. I don't know the process myself. I haven't been involved in
162that, but we can get someone who has to provide a better answer to that. Um, sorry, but I was asking like how do you check how the funding is being like allocated? Is that part of your like responsibility or is No. Okay. It's actually technically in state law a schoolboard responsibility and it's been nested into the full budget approval instead of us approving it independently. And I believe that's something we can work on since you're staying. We should look at the ASB policy. I think it would be a really great opportunity both for transparency but also for students to have a that conversation with each other for the ASB to actually present their budget annually to the board and have a meeting together about how that works. But we're like really far away from that.
163But in state law, it's the board's job to annually approve the ASB budget. And I don't know when, but sometime in the past, somebody decided that the way to be compliant with the law was just to nest it in to the full budget, and it doesn't ever get talked about. So, I'm glad that you zeroed in on that, Director. Miss Rod. Okay. All right. I think you're up for the next introduced item as well. Well, approval of the board resolution 202425 uh 20 authorizing an amendment to the schedule for repayment of the inner fund loan. So I tried to get away with using the presentation for that but I can do a quick introduction of this. So this is um request to authorize um extension of the repayment schedule for the interfund loan. Um, one
164of the short-term solutions in the budget presentation we just had was to extend that loan and repay up to $17.6 million. Um, the legislature provided some extra time for districts who took advantage of this uh to have balanced budgets um from two to four years. And so this resolution would authorize the the district to continue that loan, a portion of that loan into the 2526 school year. Further questions from directors. Okay, those were the two budget items. Again, post hearing this evening, we will have an opportunity at the retreat once more to have a discussion and hopefully also have a discussion on on timeline. Um but we'll move into our next item which is uh next introduced item which is amendment to board procedure 300 3520 BP student fees fines or charges and I think
165we are doing a little staff tradeoff the we will be the person the staff person introducing us will be the director of culinary services Aaron Smith. Thank you. Aaron Smith, director of culinary services. The purpose of this bar is to increase paid meal prices in accordance with board policy 3520. This price adjustment is required to comply with federal lunch pricing guidelines which mandate that the average price charge for paid meals must not be lower than the federal reimbursement rate to meet these requirements. The proposed increase is 55 cents per meal. This charge will bring the district into compliance with state auditor. It is important to note that this price increase applies only to full pay student lunches. Students who qualify for free and reduced meals as well as those attending community eligibility schools, house bill
166sites will continue to receive their first meal at no cost. For further context, we have also included a comparison of lunch rates from neighboring districts. The last time the district made adjustments to meal prices was school year 2122. Questions? Looking for director's questions. Director Ranken. Thanks. I I'm for my own understanding, I want to um ask you a question and and just have you tell me if I'm understanding it correctly. The increase is because the federal government only reimburses at a c certain rate and to get the reimbursement, we have to charge up to a certain level. So, we're kind of filling that gap. Uh correct. Our average meal prices cannot be lower than the federal reimbursement rate. So the formula is um the amount of students that pay you know K elementary prices and
167uh secondary prices that average meal price needs to be higher than the federal reimbursement rate. Okay. I'm I'm just because we just had a budget conversation. I want to clarify that we're not like oh here's a great way to fill some budget. We'll charge kids more for food. So just to clarify that it's it's to align with what the reimbursement rate is. I mean costs have changed for everybody on everything. So and the federal reimbursement rate has gone up but our prices have not gone up. So what that means and it the language in in this says this prevents paid student lunches from being subsidized by federal funds. So in other words, we maintain the federal funding to pay for they want to make sure they're that we're not correct getting from students and from
168federal government for the same right and paid student. Yes. So that's a good question but um yeah thank you director Mr. Rahi. There we go. If we didn't raise the prices, would we lose the federal funding or it would just be capped at the amount that we charge? Um, if we didn't raise the prices, then the district would have to subsidize for that cost for that difference. The difference between So, we'd still get federal money. We just would have we'd have to subsidize the difference between the federal reimbursement and the amount under that we're charging. Correct. Got it. Okay. Understood. All right, questions. All right, thank you. Thank Thank you. Thank you, Erin. It's great to see you. All right, so this next one, I have to read the whole title, and I'm so sorry
169for this. uh review of board governance policies in the thousand series and approval of revisions. Amendment to board policy number 10,00 legal status and operation 105 responsibilities and authority of the board 1,12 board member orientation 1,14 board member resignation renamed board member resignation and vacancy 1,210 annual organizational meeting/election of officers renamed election of officers 1,200 20 board officers and duties of board members 1,240 committees 1310 policy adoption and sub suspension creation of manuals and superintendent procedures renamed board policies manuals and superintendent procedures 1,400 meeting conduct order of business and quorum renamed board meetings 1450 absence of board members mber 1,731 board member compensation and expenses renamed board member compensation expenses and insurance 1,810 annual goals and objectives renamed board governance goal setting and self- evvaluation and 1,822 training and professional development for board directors/participation in
170school directors association renamed board professional development and participation in school directors Association. Repeal of board policy number 115. Vacancies 1,410. Executive or closed sessions, 1420. Proposed agendas and consent agendas, 1430 audience participation, 1440 minutes, 1,732. Board member insurance, 1820. Evaluation of the board and board procedure, 1430. board procedure audience participation. Okay, now that that's taken up all the time and we've had nice staff turnover, uh lots of work done by the ad hoc policy manual review committee. Also a nice 148 page document that goes along with it. Um I want to talk through a little bit about procedure and then we've got the uh ad hoc policy review committee here who's going to talk to this first. uh the chair of it, director Ranken, Vice President Briggs, and director Clark. Um but tonight we are
171just going to do introduction and on for timing purposes, our goal is to have questions and workshopping at the June 11th ad hoc policy committee meeting where all members I plan to be there because I have questions and want to chat through things at uh June 11th at noon. we can talk for discussions, edits or say whether there are amendments that we want to bring all of those things. So, workshopping it then and having most of the discussion then um uh before action on this item. So, with that kind of laying out the process here, I'm going to turn it over to Director Ranken. Thank you, President Top. Yeah. So this um lengthy package is uh is is not a sudden sudden appearance. Um it's reflective of um the recommendations current recommendations from the ad
172hoc policy manual review committee for updates to our 1000 series policies which are policies that apply to the board of directors. Um and uh we've been uh reviewing these over the course of six public meetings this year. um and conducted a thorough review of these policies identifying areas where revisions should be proposed to the full board. We um in some cases made very minor minor updates. Um in most cases it was to uh try to provide more clarification for ourselves, future board members, and the public about why we do what we do and and where it where it's documented. Um and so a lot of the policies that are for recommended for repeal are because we've collapsed them into other policies. So instead of having the um agenda meeting and the audience in the minutes
173whatever we have a meetings policy where the content is um I think been trimmed also for efficiency but uh it is contained now in one new policy on meetings. Um, so, uh, we, um, and and Ellie has I am has, as a person with ADHD, just in awe of Ellie's executive function skills to track all of these changes and all the different input from the board members, but if anybody wants to really dig in and didn't attend our meetings, you can look through past meeting materials and see this whole matrix of where we were in the process, what kind of changes we were looking at, and um so on and so forth and it's colorcoded and it's um you can kind of follow the follow the path that way if you weren't along with us
174for the ride um in our meeting. There's some minor updates, some pretty significant rewrites or consolidation, and then there were some that we reviewed and didn't make immediate revisions to because we felt that um it needed a larger conversation that was more than our committee was charged with that there were there are some that are flagged for. We've reviewed these for now and recommend that the full board um dive deeper into these together uh and provide recommendations before we before we update it. Um so throughout this process, we also identified some potential gaps where we might want to add to our policy manual. Um uh and yes, and then those that might require more extensive revisions. So, and of course policy is always flexible and movable and so nothing gets etched in stone. This is
175where we are now, where we're recommending now and any policies could be taken up again immediately or in two years or whatever. And so all of this is hoping that we are creating a more solid foundation in direction and governance. And also our next phase then is establishing a regular cadence of reviewing these so we don't arrive at a time where oh gosh these haven't really been updated in 15 years and now we have to look at all of them but where it's just a regular practice of the board to keep our own policies updated and also to um reflect on our own practice of whether or not we're we're following them. So, as President Topp said, we have uh already scheduled a committee meeting on June 11th. Um, and we will be meeting as
176a committee to address uh any questions that may come in between now and then. Uh, or for directors who want to join us at that meeting and provide questions. um so that we don't get into OPMA issues, could you anyone who um directors who have any questions between now and then, please send them directly to Ellie um so that she can compile and then we can all look at them together in a public meeting. Um and and also Ellie has also offered that staff is available if directors have any technical questions or or want to um get into a deeper one-on-one conversation about some changes. she has offered that staff are available to do that. So, please um reach out to Ellie and let her know and thank you for making yourself available for that.
177Right. And if my committee members have nothing else to add or Ellie, that that is the introduction of this package. And I'm going to say no if there are no burning questions, we'll move continue on. And I will say thank you, Director Rankin, and to your committee for for do meeting as a committee and taking care of these and producing this package. I appreciate it. And I did take Ellie, Miss Wilson Jones, up on her offer to walk me through. She has a great matrix. It is extremely helpful. And even though she is leaving the board office, she is still willing and able to help uh help with that work. So, please take her up on that. She's still ours for a little bit longer, five more days. Um so thank you. Um I am
178looking at board directors. Do you we are moving into our uh final item of introduction. Do we want a fivem minute break? Okay, we are going to take a five minute break. Then we will be back at 7:25 and we're going to be up here because we have pres we have multiple presenters. So 5 minute break 7:25 for the last item on our uh agenda before our budget hearing. Going to lose everyone before I'm done talking. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh [Music] yeah. [Music] Congratulations. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] All right, I'm asking board directors to please return to the tables. We are a minute past our deadline. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hello. There we go. All
179right, we're going to join back together and Sarah and Brandon are online. All right, we are moving into our last item for introduction. I'm going to first read it into the record. This is not as long as item number four. Amendment to board policy number 3432, emergencies. 4,210, weapons prohibited for adults and visitors. Renamed firearms and other dangerous weapons prohibited. 410, relations with law enforcement, child protective services, and the county health department. Renamed district relationships with law enforcement and other government agencies. and 4311 school safety and security service programs and repeal of board policy number 3248 firearms and dangerous weapons prohibited for students and 4315 release of information concerning sexual and kidnapping offenders. Um we have three presenters here. Um I want to just say uh this is uh not a meeting for a final
180decision. This is a start to a conversation, not an end. And tonight we is hopefully about listening, learning, and asking questions that we are hearing from community and hopefully being able to continue the conversation. I think that there we've heard a variety of concerns, families asking um for more visible safety supports, raising deep valid concerns about um harm that certain approaches have caused, particularly black and brown youth. And I think overall the overarching concern is everyone agrees more needs to be done on student safety. Um we've also heard clearly that we we've also I think as a board have clearly stated if there are things that uh staff needs from the board to make this happen they should bring it before us and I think that's why we are here tonight. So tonight we will
181hear directly from staff and school leaders. going to surface the difficult and necessary questions on behalf of our communities center what matters most the safety dignity and well-being of every student. Um so with that I'm going to pass it over uh to chief operating officer Podesta to start the conversation. Here's my ask. We're going to get through the entire presentation before we start asking qu before we start asking questions and getting into dialogue. Okay. So, we are going to I'm going to pass it over um that way we have to end at 8 no matter what to go into our our budget hearing. We will be able to come back and ask more questions later, but let's get through the presentation first. So, uh Chief Operating Podesta, you have the floor. Uh thank you very
182much, President Topp, and thanks to all the board and and everyone who turned out um to talk about these subjects tonight. Um, as we talked in a recent um, meeting about um, interim guard rails and the concept of safety, we um, we're committed to the safety is going to land there. There are many things we can do, but it needs to land on do people feel safe or not. And that's in all kinds of the all u sides of that equation. Um, do they feel safe um, because of the things that we're doing? they not feel safe because of the things that the the actions that we propose. And so we want to take a holistic view of this and we need everybody uh no none of these measures that um these policies would allow
183will work over anybody over people's objections over a school community's objections. So um that's critically important to hear from everybody. Um so we have two major topics of discussion. one is a package of uh student safety policies and procedures. I go over those very quickly because clearly there's one aspect of this that is of um the biggest interest to everyone. So we'll go over that in a little bit more detail and then um I'll ask my colleagues chief accountability officer Ted Howard and uh Garfield's principal Dr. Terren Hart to talk about some of the practical implications and their experiences just um policy many of the topics we aside just to hear um what folks with the most experience with these programs what they have to share and um you can ask them questions as well.
184So um the first group of policy updates in this package addresses firearms and other dangerous weapons. Again, this is somewhat of uh housekeeping and kind of modernization of our policy to conform with state law and WASDA models. Um we the language we reviewed was spread across a couple different policies. So, we're proposing um a consolidation to much better uh align with state guidance. The second uh group uh the second changes really revolve around emergency planning and preparedness. We talked about that that also in our discussion about safety and interim guard rails and we um would suggest realigning this and pairing it with this uh superintendent procedure aligned with current state requirements um for emergency planning and drills. Um the next uh relate to our relationship with law enforcement um and um and we're this is
185u really to be aligned better with current statewide guidance um and repeal of an outdated policy that can be better addressed to p uh procedure with procedure. That policy that to be revealed um describes district responsibilities to be share to share information about um sexual and kidnapping offenders with students and parents and our requirements to do that which seems more of a procedural issue than a policy issue. And then the one that um has garnered the most uh uh feedback tonight and uh one that I think we really want to spend attention on is policy 4311 which um describes our overall um safety and security program and reintroduces language about the role of school resource officers. um uh which is the term of art used in in state legislation is kind of recognized. Um we
186prefer uh in the past the district has used the term school emphasis officer. Um we propose a and we'll talk about this pilot later prefer the term school engagement officer to really describe what we think the role is about. Um, emphasis often gets used in policing about emphasis patrols and policing and um, so you think that term is archaic and resource is a a fairly general vague term. So it's hard to you we're just trying to be a little bit more descriptive on what the goals for such position are. So, um the and what we'd like to do is reintroduce that language and align it with state law, which has changed since, um there were school uh resource officers on our campuses. Um to make sure that any agreements we enter into um define and
187limit the role of a school engagement officer to some of the things that we heard about. um in public testimony tonight that um this role is not about policing. It's not about school discipline. Our overall policy does and has always emphasized that um disciplinary issues and safety issues are primarily dealt with with district staff. Um the fact of the matter is there are times when we need to engage with law enforcement and we do and the interest in this is really to make that process more effective not to supplant um the work of uh adults employed uh adults and partners and others um uh who need to be the first line and working with students and and stay the first line. Uh this change in state law and our policy alignment with it also does
188align with some of the goals that the board outlined in 2020 when um our the existing program was suspended. Um that um that uh again that we want detailed agreements. The board recognized that there were kind of gaps in how our relationships were documented. um those documents were old and not specific to how we wanted to operate the program and what the roles of the officers really were. Um that these agreements need to be reviewed with students, parents and community. Um the policy and state law would require that such agreements are renewed and reviewed are reviewed annually and renewed or not annually and only with a power after um there's input from again students, parents and the community about um what the role is um how it's overseen. There are requirements for training. There's there
189are requirements of how staff are selected um to serve this role. I think we all agree that uh this is not um the same um kind of function that a regular patrol officer places. So we have to have a detailed agreement um with the with the city with any law enforcement agency we work with on what this role is meant to do, what the goal of the role is. So, um I think it would also be good to think about this in the context of um safety recommendations that Dr. Hart really led and worked with us on um since uh last summer and really had um five major strategies that he had identified, increased SPS staffing with regard to safety and security. Um a partnership with community organizations. He was interested in community passageways in
190particular. Um he wanted to find roles for student coaches in case management and employ um restorative practices and a regular presence by the Seattle Police Department. Uh we've made progress on all these fronts in one way or the another. We doubled the security staffing at uh many comprehensive high schools including Garfield. uh there is a community passageways partnership agreement and through that vehicle we're providing um some of the aspects of student coaching and case management that Dr. Hart was looking for. Um there was a a coordinator during the school uh current school year that is helping with a restorative practices program. Um we need to keep working and that has been funded by the city. We will need to keep working with um the city or others to see if if that's something that can
191be more than a one-year practice. And then um regular SPD presence, we um did have a pilot of a of a police officer at the start of school um for 60 days just to and we wanted um to start there to give Dr. Hart time to work with his community to see how if it was effective, how the community reacted to it. Um the fact of the matter is um there are a lot of uh um safety check you've heard from folks tonight that there have been many victims of gun violence in the surrounding area uh over the last couple of years and shots fired. So we're working a lot with the police at Garfield one way or the other um because things happen uh surrounding the campus that need to involve the police. Um
192the reason there's an interest in a school engagement officer is to make that relationship better um and to uh make sure that we're working with officers as in sort of a liazison role that understand our school and the needs of our students not to be the primary police force and not to be the primary security in the building. That is the responsibility of SPS staff. So, um, again, we've been, uh, working with the community, uh, uh, for the better part of a year. We've heard from some of the Garfield PTSA leadership, uh, tonight and certainly heard from them last spring and summer. Um we worked with the city who provided some data analysis and um some focus group support for multiple campuses, not just Garfield, but mult um to uh understand uh kind of the
193patterns of security incidents, the patterns of 911 calls and and our security incidents to try to see um what what priorities, what where the greatest needs were. Um our staff have participated with other city departments including um SPD in the central district public safety accountability meetings that h are are hosted by Garfield happen monthly to hear from multiple community members about their concern in the central district in including Garfield. I mentioned that we did have a 60-day pilot um and then that allowed Dr. Dr. Hart to engage in communications and out and uh dialogue with his community. He also formalized that um through the use of some surveys that I'll ask him to um give you an overview about. We have been talking to the police department to see do we are we on the
194same page about if we had such an agreement that would be compliant with state law and the policy we're proposing tonight. You know, are we even starting in the right place? I do not um this is this is these have just been discussions. Again, our policy requires community feedback um and review of any agreement that we would make. And our intent um if this policy were supported would certainly be to have these agreements um be campus specific. And then by our policy and state law, um they would need to be reviewed and and renewed again or not annually um depending on how they're working. We would like to work to a timeline to um uh see if we can pilot this program in the coming school year. Again, there's intervening um outreach that needs to
195happen. And I don't um want to convey that the surveys, the the great work that Dr. Hart has done so far is meant to replace that outreach. What what that was about to see to determine um if this is a conversation worth having. And that's why we're introducing a proposed policy change today. The actual deeper engagement has to be around the specific re agreement. I think we have heard enough support for it from the Garfield community to say this is this is worth entertaining. But then we need really if we're going to get in deeper, we're going to have those serious negotiations with the police department. I we had to get to this step to convey that this is something we're willing to consider. Um uh the role and again the role um that the
196principles we're talking about kind of the terms that would be in such an agreement are that the role of a school engagement officer is to make the school safer to support education. It is not to conduct policing um uh per se. It is um to keep the focus on students and diverting students from the criminal justice not uh system, not entering them into the criminal justice system to be a visible presence to monitor the environment with us and really to provide information, incoming information because um there are things the police know about risks in the community and threats to our schools that we don't know. And we work with them every day and we get good support. It's not the same as having a sustained relationship with someone. Um, and it's not someone who specialize.
197When we're um talking to the police and working with the police now, they don't necessarily specialize in schools. I I don't want to minimize the great support we do get. We work with them every single day, but it's it's not um it's with generalists instead of uh folks who are particularly attuned to the needs of students and our schools. Um so I would like to turn it over to my two colleagues. Um uh Mr. Howard has a deep history with this how this program had been administered in the past. Garfield High School was the uh only school who ever that um had a school emphasis officer deployed. And I would like Dr. Hart um to share kind of the current circumstances he's facing and uh voices u his opinions about um what we're proposing here.
198um directly um because you've heard more than enough from me. So, thank you, Mr. Howard. Thank you, Fred. Uh President Top, board directors, if you would join me in just taking uh a moment of silence as we uh want to acknowledge uh lives that have been lost in Seattle public schools that are students. Thank you. While I was taking a moment of silence, what I looked at was my family in my picture here on my phone. And I can only imagine what that feels like when a parent sends their kids off to school and then we don't have all the resources that are available to us and we lose a child. Uh I'm here to talk to you a little bit about the history but also a little bit about what it takes to rebuild
199community. It's not about um a police officer. A police officer is part of our community just like a firefighter is part of our community. Parents, the grocery store, all these things are part of our community. And as we prepare our students to go out in the real world, part of our job is to make sure they have the skills to walk out and advocate for themselves, uh, be accountable for themselves, but also help change the world. As a black man, I have just the ultimate respect for the challenges that our young people are faced. But I also would be remiss if I didn't say that sometimes it's scary. It's scary for me as a black man in 2025 to still be talking about the things that I felt should have been resolved 50 years ago.
200But that's what we're faced with. And that's the legacy we're leaving to you, next generation, to help resolve. And the moment we take that out of your hands, we're not allowing you to figure out how to do that. Our job is to make sure you have those skills to do that. And so rebuilding community is a part of that. We also have in our system sightbased leadership and that's what Dr. Hart you guys are at the closest to the ground. You know what's happening boots on the ground they would call it and we need to allow you to figure out what that looks like with student voice with parent voice with staff voice and for you guys to figure out what that looks like for your community your culture and your community. Every community is
201different and as we do that, it's up to you to figure out what that looks like and to build in adjustments. I want to commend our board for actually putting a moratorum in place because at the time there was no no checks and balances, no accountability. Now the state has put these matters in effect and is holding us accountable for it for us to put those things in in place. But what's missing is rebuilding community. That means we have to give you the skills that are needed. So to talk about what was there before at Garfield, um Colin, you talked about it a little bit by saying about student voice. Do we listen to our students? I want to just reiterate there's no students in Seattle public school at this time that had or been
202impacted by a police officer in their buildings. They've all graduated. So there's testimonies that have talked about it. The second piece of this information that I want to make sure that as we talk about equity on a regular basis about speaking for marginalized communities, we pull a chair up for the marginalized communities for them to talk to bring the focus groups of them here and not to talk for them. So when we talk about racism, we talk about equity, that is racism when we talk for somebody else. No one can talk for me as a black man of what it feels like to drive down the street or get pulled over or get harassed. That's for me to tell that story. And if I don't feel empowered enough, like you said, Colin, to speak your
203truth, then something else is going on. Our job is to do that. Garfield has a long history of speaking the truth from taking a knee long time ago. It seems like a long time ago, but it was just a short uh vehicle a minute ago of taking a knee and standing up for students rights. And as they saw that students spoke their truth. Our young ladies spoke their truth. Our young men spoke their truth. Different racial groups spoke their truth. And that's very important. So Garfa has a long history of speaking the truth and being leaders about what they need to do. And so with that we want to talk about some of the programs that allowed them to speak their truth. So we focused on respect, safety, and character building. At the 9th grade
204it was a foundation of awareness. awareness of who you are around respect, around consent, around empathy, and creating healthy boundaries. Very important at ninth grade to develop those things. And then at 10th grade, it was about responsibility and action, bystander skills, conflict resolution, and accountability. Because we're all accountable for making decisions, and we make those decisions a lot of times as young people, we don't want to deal with the consequences, but we have to learn how to do that. At 11th grade, we talked about advocacy and influence. We talked about peer mentoring, policy advocacy, and youth leadership. And then the last piece was legacy and reflection. If you walk into Garfield, you see two things are up on the wall. Legacy and promise. The legacy is what you guys leave as students. The promise is
205to continue to keep building on the actual education of everyone. And so that is capstones. That's community leadership and cultural change. Everything that happens in Garfield, I should be unrecognizable for the next group of students in four years. The change should be happening in act quickly. So if we're still talking about things that didn't happen, that means as our education system didn't do its job to empower you to make those changes and have lasting change. And so that's what we're trying to build today. The flexibility for that to happen, for your voice to be heard, for you guys to stand up as you are board members sitting here as student youth to make change happen. and it needs to happen in a not in a reactive way but in a proactive way. So those are
206some of the things that we have built into Garfield to make that happen. And so rebuilding that community, having that sightbased leadership, and then having our teachers, our principles, our parent, our community leaders and police officers and firefighters who are part of making sure we're safe to be a part of that conversation. That's ongoing conversations that need to happen. So at the school district level, we need to be doing that to help support all our high schools and that needs to be done at the high school level with leadership and that means monthly conversations to bring these focus groups together and bringing in expertise that's needed in different areas so make that make sure those things happen. I will say the last piece in closing. This is about raising young people into leaders. Not just
207students who graduate, but citizens. Citizens who stand up, speak out, and create safety in their communities. That's what we're building. And so, if we're doing it correctly, you will walk out having those skills to be able to go and make a better America, a bigger and better America that impacts the world, not just our community. So, I'll turn it over to Dr. Hart. All right. Good after good evening actually. Um I'm Terrence Hart, the proud principal of Garfield High School. This is my fourth year um serving as principal of Garfield. And I I just want to sort of paint a picture about what it's what what the experience has been for um our students postco. Um you know, the freshman that that arrived at Garfield postco are now seniors and and are about to graduate.
208and I've been through um the the the four years with them, learning from them, experiencing trauma with them. And and the reality is that uh you know, within the first semester of my time at Garfield, there was a shooting on campus right in front of the the the the front doors. And that was just the beginning of this. We had multiple shootings in the area um around campus. And in uh on May the 1823, we had a 19-year-old that was shot at the Teen Life Center, which is um um on the adjacent to the Garfield campus. On March the 24th, we had a Garfield student who was shot uh at a bus stop, technically not on campus, but adjacent to campus. And on June the 6th, 2024, we had a murder on our campus. we
209had the death of our student Mar Murphy Payne and and these events and and and and everything that has followed those events from the the constant lockdowns because of of uh threats in the area to the um students letting um outsiders in our building and we're having to chase them out of the building because we believe that they're targeting students. This is the reality of our of of running Garfield High School. Yeah. It's not just about instructional leadership, though that's what we want to focus on. The reality is we have these major safety concerns that continue to be a part of of of how we are expected to operate and and and and run Garfield. Um, and there's significant impact. I mean, we have hear hear students talking about the just the anxiety, staff members
210talking about their anxiety and their burnout. Uh staff members telling us that anytime they hear the ding from the um um the intercom system, um when we given an announcement, they freak out because they are so afraid that they're going to hear shelter in place lockdown because that's been that's been such a big part of our experience at Garfield over the past four years. And that's our reality. And yes, I I I was fortunate enough to go to uh come come to the leadership and and I asked for some things um to to fortify our safety on campus. I asked for increased uh security specialists. I got additional two security specialists. I asked for a community passageways or some CBO organization. I got a partnership inou with community passageways and we're proud to to engage
211with the work with them. Um, we asked for student coaches, case management from community passageways. We were able to get the get get that support. We asked for restorative practice practices and we were able to fund at least for this current year uh restorative practice coordinator who has really come in and and did done work to shift the culture at Garfield and to really center uh student voice and center um uh the development of circles and and RJ practices. But the reality is we are faced with safety concerns each and every day at Garfield. This is our reality and and and as I as principal I'm expect it it it falls on me at the end of the day. It's my responsibility to keep our students and staff safe and we do everything in our
212power. We we fortified the the the the building and the and the doors. We're doing everything in our power and and I don't think that a school resource officer or school emphasis officer is the only answer. But in combination with these other supports that we have, the increased uh security specialists, community passageways, case management, restorative practices, uh we also want regular SPD presence on campus and I think this pilot is a perfect opportunity to reintroduce that. The the The thing I want to emphasize is that this is not a new program to Garfield. For years prior to uh co Garfield had a school resource officer and when I talk to alum, when I talk to staff members, um I hear nothing but good things about the relationship building that that individual had on our campus.
213That students believed in him, students trusted him, he engaged with them, he was part of the Garfield community. And all of a sudden those resources are taken away and nothing is replaced. Nothing is given in to replace that resource that was uh the su the the the SRO that was at Garfield for many years and by all accounts what ran a successful SRO program. Now we're coming from COVID violence has increased and nothing has been replaced. It's just take this support and figure it out. And I I I am full support of a pilot and I and I and I love hearing our students advocate for themselves. But I want to make clear that what I don't want from any SEO or SRO is policing on my campus. That is absolutely I don't need anybody
214to support discipline. That's what our atbin team is for. That's what our support staff is for. Uh what I need is someone to come in and build relationships with students. Someone who can respond in a crisis situation because we've had many crisis situations over the years. That's this year alone. uh we've gone into shelter in place lockdown because of threats near our campus and and I feel better having uh a a consistent member of uh SPD who has been trained who has been trained in culturally responsive uh pedagogy uh our culturally responsive uh uh practices who have been trained in trauma informed practices and that's what this program that's what I hope I'm hoping to get out of this pilot are uh an SEO who is trained and who we we can learn from them
215and they can learn from our students. I think in building whatever this SEO program will look like if if if we have the opportunity to to to implement it next school year is student voice. I want to hear from students. Let students be a part of the table talking about um what are your needs? Uh what are the limitations? What are the parameters? What don't you want to see? And there is no way that I as a as as a man, as a black man, will allow a a SEO on our campus running a muck and being disrespectful and doing harm to our students. Absolutely. That not what I want. And that's why I think it's important to emphasize that this is a pilot. We're learning from this. This is an opportunity for students to
216talk about what they need, staff to talk about what they need, engage families. Um, but I think this is worth us piloting and learning from it and making adjustments. And if we see that this is not having the impact that we want, I I'm perfectly uh willing to say this is not working. Let let's abandon this. But I think we we we we owe it to our students, especially after everything that we've been through. and and uh and it's not just over because you know fortunately this year we've we we've it's been a quieter year and I'm afraid to say that with so many days left in school but it's been a quiet quieter year. Um but the support is still needed. the support is still needed and and I and I just want to
217take this this opportunity to really uh advocate for us piloting the program and really centering in students um in making this program what we think it should be right on 8:00 on the dot. Um so we have an obliga obligation to move to our budget hearing but I want to thank you all uh specifically Dr. Hart for coming down to central office for the presentation. This is just the start of the conversation. I think all board directors have a lot of questions. I have a whole page here. I know that students board directors also had testimony they wanted to provide if they are not going to be here at our next meeting where we can we'll continue the conversation. I want you to provide the testimony to staff so we can make sure that it
218is included um uh in the in in the record for things. Um and we're going to move very quickly because we're going have to start at 8 to the budget hearing and we'll head back to the dis. Um but there being no further business to come before the board, the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 8:00 p.m. We will call the budget hearing to order momentarily. If you are here to testify for the budget, there is a will be a signup sheet in the back of the room. You have to sign up in order to provide testimony.